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Hey wrightcomputing, I actually did some research into that last night and stainless actually heat soaks more than aliminum which will give you a hotter air inlet tempwhich could be compounded if you are going forced induction. AEM has a great write up about why they dont use stainless for intakes, on the exhaust side it doesn't matter you want whatever is strong enough for your aolication whether it be thick for turbo manifolds or thin for traditional headers.

Another factor is the cost, stainless for the same thickness is on the high side of double the cost of aluminum. Just food for thought, I can do either which ever route you want to go though!!

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So I am just giving an update on one of my current projects that I have going on. No it is not locost related but what I am trying to do with my business does not have to be limited to just one project, just to let all of you guys know.

But here it is, I have created a full floating rear end using a Ford 9 Inch center section and completely designed everything else from the ground up!! This has been a super fun project and I hope the guy that wanted this will enjoy it after I get the thing fabbed up. This bad boy is using Timken wheel bearings and SKF seals all made here in the USA, the steel parts are all going to be heat treated 4340 ChroMo and the aluminum parts will be machined from a billet of 7075.

I can easily adapt these hubs to other housing sizes as well, this is for a jeep so the housing is a HUGE 3.5" diameter tube with 2.5" ID roller bearings for the load that they will see.

On a side note for thos of you who were interested in front uprights, I have been playing around with a Sprint Cup car's front spindle and they do some cool things to allow for adjustable camber and toe pretty much on the fly, I am going to look into trying to incorporate that stuff into the uprights if anyone is interested in the stuff.

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So.. you think you could cut me a flange out of mild steel? What's the best way to get you a template? Construction paper?

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Tucker

What kind of flange are you looking for like intake, exhaust, or that housing center section flange? And if you want to email me at adengineering93@gmail.com we can dicuss how to get templates and drawings made up!

For everyone else the best way to reach me with projects and the like is going to be through my email address adengineering93@gmail.com, that address is for nothing other than fab projects so I can stay in touch with y'all faster!!

Alec

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So here is a quick update on the car, I have devised what I think to be one of the sexiest trans mounts out there. I know I am biased haha. But for real this thing is not only stupid light it is straight up beefy too. For any of you Miata guys I am selling these adapters as a kit with the bushing, adapter plate and hardware; I am not going to include the corss member because I know all of our cars are slightly different. The little cross member I whipped up yesterday in about an hour, so again fairly straight forward. Hope you all enjoy!

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CNC and water jet the extent of your capabilities, or do you also have access to a tube and sheet metal benders?

BTW, I was raised and still own property in Erwin.

Just a small piece of advice, be very very careful using Engineering in your title or business. As you deal with structures and mechanical systems you come into running fowl of state laws in Tennessee that states if you don't have a licensed engineer on staff you can't call yourself or your company anything with Engineer. Just trying to help you dodge a future potential problem.

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Engineer: noun en·gi·neer \ˌen-jə-ˈnir\ - Someone who does precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge. (See also: wizard, magician, sorcerer, witch, miracle worker)

I have access to both vertical and horizontal mills, lathes, laser cutter, water jet, tubing benders and both horizontal and vertical presses, as well as a blanchard grinder.

I will have to look into the engineering in the name thing, I could register the business as enterpries instead, to cover myself. Thank you very much for that little bit of advice!!

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Happy to help.

I was with the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers for 4 years and they actually look at that regularly. It is considered consumer protection as you saying engineering implies you are a licensed engineer. Enterprises is a good compromise.

So not much luck with much on sheet metal front? crap. I have some aluminum sheet metal bending I need quotes on.

I will give you a shot of the non-sheet metal bits.

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Engineer: noun en·gi·neer \ˌen-jə-ˈnir\ - Someone who does precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge. (See also: wizard, magician, sorcerer, witch, miracle worker)

We do sheet metal stuff all the timely the CNC vertical press, what thickness are you doing? I recently did a 28 gallon fuel cell from 5056 aluminum 1/8". We also have big finger breaks and a few radius breaks in house too. And with the press we have die film to protect the aluminum if you need a clean surface finish. But yeah sheet metal stuff is a piece of cake. Just let me know and we will work something out.

And again thanks for that insight.

Alec

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I have some questions I hope you can help with. All the shops I talk to, I wind up with a salesman who just doesn't know.

For waterjet and laser cutting, what kind of kerf widths should we figure for?
What is the plus or minus tolerance?
If we want a part that is 4 inches wide, should we add for kerf and tolerance to get a net 4 inches?
Do you work from cad files? If so, do you nest multiple parts or do we? Do we draw net part or part with kerf and tolerance?
How do we specify the finish quality of the cut surface finish?

Thanks and I hope this helps others as well.

I may have you make some small threaded tube for me. 1-1/2" in length with a 3/8"-16 thread hole down the center.

You can email me at jbriggs1988@yahoo.com I'll need about 20 of them.

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30 years old, not sure what I want to be when I grow up…

I do know water jet will cut to about .030 within tolerance. A simple .dxf file is all that is needed for water jet. Correct me if I'm wrong here.

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30 years old, not sure what I want to be when I grow up…

Hey Bobber, so the way that we run the laser and waterjet is we have a subroutine written into the cutting software that accounts for the kerf depending on the material and thickness. For the waterjet I usually see around 20 thousandths kerf on our machine and only a few on the laser, again depending on material, but once we have that accounted for we usually hold about a one to two thou tolerance. Depending on how critical the dimensions are for your part we can run some test cuts and dial the dimensions in more accuratly.

So when you send me a part file I need the exact dimensions that you are looking for and that is what we can cut it at. Depending on how critical those dimensions need to be it is always more accurate to machine to final size but for sheet metal parts the laser is plenty accurate.

As far as nesting goes I build the nest to maximize parts per sheet, so for that you just need to send me the CAD files of the parts that you need plus how many you need including any extra if you need it and then I build the nest accordingly.

When it comes to surface finish you can just tell me what quality of cut that you need and I will adjust it at the machines. The waterjet gives superb surface finishes, but the trade off is that it runs quite slow to achieve those finishes.

I hope all of that answers your questions and if not I can clarify further. I'm looking forward to hearing back from you!

Alec

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Briggs I just sent you an email.

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