Friday, November 19, 2010

Final Casting Stretch

First off, apologies for the extended delay between posts.  This is a project that requires a lot of time which is not always available when trying to run a one man business in a recession!  In addition to client work that takes me away from time that could be better spent on this project I did manage to squeeze in a vacation riding dirt bikes in Moab, UT.  It was an absolute blast and a needed recharge away from the city.

As with everything these days some of the guys in on the trip did a blog site on it at ADV rider forums, appropriately titled 'Manhattan to Moab or City Blocks to Slickrocks'.  We got to ride some amazing terrain that is the antithesis of what I normally ride.  Grip levels on the rock were insane and the Slick Rock trail was like the biggest skateboard park in history.  The pics tell the story well.

Now on to more asphalt-based endeavors........

I received the final revision on the castings from Harmony.  This 1 lower and 2 uppers should be able to be used as parts for the first engine build.  The castings sown in the previous posts were casting samples that needed inspection windows and other machining features to allow verification of the internal features that precluded their use in a running engine assembly.  Now that the molds have been proven out and revised as necessary these parts should be the cases of engine serial number 000001 and the top of 00002.





The overall finish on the parts look excellent and soon more aluminum chips will fly.  Then its on to more crankshaft and primary drive gear machining then more parts then some more......

That's it for now.  Hopefully have another update soon,