Intercooler flange

[pro70z28]

Lately I've been getting the fiberglass dash in the "Z" fit around the intercooler.
Looking at it, it occurred to me that if those hose clamps were to loosen up the outlet tube could become a in-car projectile.

[pro70z28]

So, I had some time this weekend & I decided I'd get the hose & clamp set-up replaced. I pulled out the old slab of aluminum and started whittlin' away.



Flipped one over & cut an o-ring groove


cleaned them up on the lathe & cut the mating surfaces for a nice air tight fit.


Finished and ready to install.

[pro70z28]

My aluminum welding skills aren't the best, but I got 'em melted together.


Intercooler side with o-ring


all bolted together and back in the caah.


dash cover back in. No more hose & clamps. I feel safer with this set-up by my shin. I've seen some ugly footage of those clamps letting go.

That's what I did this weekend.

[waho6o9]

Awesome work. U da man.

[turboglenn]

that's really nice work... What did you use to make the perfect circle from whatever you were whitlin at them with?? Because outside of CNC i can only think rotary table as far as what i have the capabilities to do ( i'm thinking mill, pantograph or drill press) Those are like V-band quality, you could have probably even just got a V-band clamp and put round them even!

Also, what is the spec on that bit you cut your parts from plate with and where can i get one! We have no machine supply companies worth speaking of so i have to make most of my tooling of keep brazing new inserts on tools i already have and just have to work with the basics which is not ideal by any means when it comes to producing parts by the hour for customers, it sometimes cheaper to order one than to pay me to make an aluminum V-band clamp set and they are 85 bucks for one at the cheapest places

Anyway being a person that offers and does some machining in my fab work I can apreciate what into making those, I imagine at least 4 hours if you were working fast, 6 on a good day.


Anyway, back at my first question.... I usually have to use a rotary table to get a perfect cirlce like that milled on my set-up, but it seems as iff you had some arm off to the left of the head in the first pic that lead me to think a pantagraph... So if you would be so kind as to maybe help a brother out and gimme some hints on cutting nice perfect circles from plate a little faster than what i can at the moment, it would be much apreciated! I've only got a 3''rotary table to make mine from unless i cut them by bolting the plate to my lathe face-plate and then working at parting them off. but that's slow as *****

[gda]

nice work looks clean

[pro70z28]

Thanks gda.

that's really nice work... What did you use to make the perfect circle from whatever you were whitlin at them with?? *****

It's a CNC. It's main use is cutting wood in my sign business, but occasionally it makes car parts on the weekends. It's not very fast, but it does allow me to make in house parts. I like fabricating so I have many home built parts on the car. Sometimes it would be easier to just buy the parts, and I do break down and buy parts sometimes. Other times the parts are purpose built to this particular project & just can't be found over the counter.
As for the bits, I just use hardware store bits. I cut most of it with a 1/4'' carbide spiral bit. I cut the hex holes for the nylocks with an 1/8" bit. I don't usually use anything smaller than 3/16'' because they break so easy. But, I needed the 1/8" bit to clean out the corners enough for the nylock to drop in the hole. Just had to cut super slow with a sharp bit.
I should be using bit designed for aluminum, but I haven't found an outlet. Maybe somebody has a source? The only aluminum bits I've found are for die grinders.