Stainless!

[D9]

First all-stainless lay flat bracket completed tonight... pic doesn't quite do
justice, but it looks good, very different tone than aluminum - slightly cooler
& darker - finer grain, somewhat more reflective.

Decided to run several brackets in 304 stainless this round after getting some experience finishing smaller stainless parts for the ignition relo bracket - it's definitely more time consuming to finish out, material costs more than aluminum, machining is slower... but as an exterior service metal, 304 is hard to beat - corrosion & oxidation resistant, way more scratch resistant than aluminum - hard as hell! - and can also be polished out to a gorgeous near-mirror finish.

Hope to get some pics of it mounted on the bike soon... this will have to do for now...

Cheers,

D9

 

[ThruxTonUp]

Well done as usual!

 

[tattooedcouple]

304 stainless is a bitch to deburr..hard on tooling..looks great when your finished tho..nice work!

 

[D9]

304 stainless is a bitch to deburr..hard on tooling..

Amen to that... recently been looking through McMaster & ICS catalogs pricing
counterbores... wondering if carbide or cobalt would be better for 304...?
A master machinist friend made a case the other day for moving to 303, thought 304 was overkill, PIA to work with and no real benefit over 303 except possibly for corrosion resistance in severe conditions...

Still learning, every day... :chin:

 

[tattooedcouple]

they make carbide tooling just for stainless..brands like valinite,or sanvik make nice cabide insert type tooling..

 

[D9]

Scott...

Checked out the Valenite and and Sandvik websites tonight... both impressive
manufacturers, to say the least - it'd be real easy to get in tool trouble after
browsing thru their respective product lines :worthy: ... what I'm looking for right now - and McMaster has 'em, along with several other vendors... is
just basic interchangeable pilot carbide-tipped counterbores for use in
a 1/2" drill press... from what I've seen tonight, prices among vendors are pretty similar. From what I've read, need to keep the RPM to a minimum and use a good cutting lube... the counterbores I've been using are made by Millersburg, and they work beautifully in aluminum, but they're high speed steel, and I've been warned... hence the shopping for carbide tipped units.

 

[tattooedcouple]

yes 304 will eat up high-speed tool steel. when you get your carbide tools you need to run a steady stream of coolant on them..a mist could cause fractures in the carbide.. slower rpm's is a must. anyway you look at it ,the cost of making a stainless bracket will go up a good bit..it's just harder on everything...

 

[D9]

Scott... appreciate the pointers... think I need to get a piece
of 303 and find out for myself how different it handles and how
different a finished part looks from 304... if difference is hard to discern, maybe take the easy route and switch to 303.

Again discussed virtures of 303 vs 304 today with
a veteran machinist, he described a project they did for Evinrude, switching
from 303 to parts made out of 304, which Evinrude felt necessary due to the expected usage in salt water... huge difference from 303, required building all new tooling... $$$! Doubt anyone's gonna take their bracket swimming with
them though LOL, so maybe the 304 is just overkill...

 

[tattooedcouple]

That's cool...let me know how it goes. your parts look like you take great care in making them look right:c keep it up!​

 

[ssjones]

How about a gorgeous, stainless console for the America/Speedy gas tank? That plastic isn't going to last forever!

 

[D9]

How about a gorgeous, stainless console for the America/Speedy gas tank? That plastic isn't going to last forever!

ss-

Funny thing.... I have an America/Speedy tank console sitting inches away from the keyboard - always thought it was a damn good looking piece, even if it is plastic... what would you see doing with it - pretty much using similar locations of everything
and similar contours, but just in metal? Or - do you see dramatically changing
the shape and / or arrangement? Either way would be ambitious, probably
outta my league, and probably $$$... but fun to think about nonetheless

I imagine there's also a fair number of folks that want to lose the console altogether... that's how I got this one.

 

[ssjones]

Just dreaming. A similarly styled replacement is big bucks that no owner would cough up. Brent at NewSpeedmaster did a mock up a few years back, plan was to carve it out of billet. The final cost that I recall would have been over $500. As you can imagine, no one got behind that.

ss-

Funny thing.... I have an America/Speedy tank console sitting inches away from the keyboard - always thought it was a damn good looking piece, even if it is plastic... what would you see doing with it - pretty much using similar locations of everything
and similar contours, but just in metal? Or - do you see dramatically changing
the shape and / or arrangement? Either way would be ambitious, probably
outta my league, and probably $$$... but fun to think about nonetheless

I imagine there's also a fair number of folks that want to lose the console altogether... that's how I got this one.

 

[D9]

Polished stainless

Polished 304 SS - housing is polished & chrome plated 6061 aluminum:

More pics

http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z276/D9davidnyne/Polished SS/?albumview=slideshow

 

[Nick Morey]

That is beautiful D9! Would you also chrome plate the cups if ordered?

 

[ssjones]

Stunning. Any chance you could recreate the America/Speedmaster tank cover in stainless (or hell, any metal). Us folks with this model would rejoice if we could replace this plastic piece.

 

[D9]

Nick, I'm chroming cups on a regular basis... let me know.

SS, sure can... be an expen$ive project to set up, but doable for sure.
What's underneath that console...? How does the bike look with it removed?
What would you think of 4 LED indicator lamps under the speedo?

 

[Nick Morey]

It's not for me, but a certain recent visitor has expressed an interest in your brackets and I thought he might like this one. Seems it would need chrome cups with the chrome light housing. I'll try to steer him to this thread.

 

[ssjones]

Nick, I'm chroming cups on a regular basis... let me know.

SS, sure can... be an expen$ive project to set up, but doable for sure.
What's underneath that console...? How does the bike look with it removed?
What would you think of 4 LED indicator lamps under the speedo?

Brent at NewBonneville looked into doing one in billet, but it was crazy expensive to cover setup costs. There's an indentation around the tank. Moving the idiot lights would be worth the effort to replicate it in metal. I'm certain I could get a console cover for you to work off, if it's feasible.

Here's a bare tank:

And a bare console:

The round circle is for a tach or clock, most folks have one or the other, so that would be necessary. The two rubber bits are a dummy plug (left) for the security system light and the right is to adjust the clock. Both could be relegated under the tank in the scooped out area.

 

[D9]

SS... I have a console... it's a massive piece, indeed. Looks like if the
indicator lamps were relocated... the whole piece could conceivably be
narrowed considerably... and that might be cool.

 

[ssjones]

SS... I have a console... it's a massive piece, indeed. Looks like if the
indicator lamps were relocated... the whole piece could conceivably be
narrowed considerably... and that might be cool.

It would just have to clear that scooped out section of the tank. That section is almost as wide as the console piece, might be tough.