BMW V8 dry sump from billet

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AdeV:
kvom - I guess I'm too mean to lose big chunks of ali! The more that's solid, the more things I get to make... :headbang:

bernd - interesting thread, thanks. I don't think I need to go that deep into mine, the fine feed works OK, as does the drill feed (although the return spring is bust, so I need to find a new one of those). I know how to get as far as looking at the bearing that's dodgy, but it's fixed in the bearing carrier; I believe it's a "light press fit", so maybe it gets pressed out from the other side? Not sure... Anyway, I just carried on today, I'll grease the bearing at the weekend.

So - Day 3. More of the same.... I finished the long slot down to depth on Side A, then - with an assistant - flipped the disc to Side B. I placed it on a bit of MDF so the pieces won't fall off as they're cut (that's the theory, anyway). Onwards.... I started with the other side of the same slot I was cutting yesterday. Here, there's 450 thou left to cut:

20 minutes later (the clock proves it...), there's only 50 thou left:

Shortly afterwards, I successfully separated the two parts, leaving me with a giant woodruff key :D :

No other pix tonight, I got the piece lined up for a short slot & cut that to depth; and re-aligned it for the other really long slot - but ran out of time: Silent Witness was on tonight, so I came dashing home to watch it, only to find it was a repeat! :bang:

Tomorrow, therefore, will feature an extra long milling programme.... Oh, and 3 more roughing cutters have turned up, so now I have an insurance policy against broken cutters! Which is good, because at ~5 mins cutting + 5 mins cleaning per 200 thou pass (22" long), it's taking too long. Each slot needs to be some 1300 thou deep, i.e. 6 passes, which is at least an hour. So with my new cutters, I will try to drive them a little harder & deeper, maybe taking 400 thou passes at about the same speed.

For what it's worth: The "woodruff key" offcut weighs about 8kg, according to my highly inaccurate bathroom scale, and the swarf I've collected in the hoover (which doesn't count what's splattered all over the wall, floor, and me) is around 2kg - although there's a fair quantity of oil in that too.
Anyone wanting to find out where I've been recently will have a very easy job: Just follow the trail of aluminium swarf! :lol:

AdeV:
Day 4: Hacked off another 2 pieces (approx 25kgs worth). I can now just about manoever the remaining lump around on my own, although it's still chuffing heavy...

No photos today, I took a video instead :) But it's going to take quite a bit of editing down, I'd like to get it down to about 4-5 mins (from slightly over an hour :bugeye:). Hope to have that done tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, I need to hack one more "woodruff key" off, then cut the piece in half, then I'll finally have my 2x billets, 5 days after starting!

Brass_Machine:
This is a very cool project log. I am very interested in it... there is a project on my back burner that needs a a dry sump. Priced em out... way too expensive. This may give me the courage to do my own.

Eric

AdeV:
Eric - I'm glad your enjoying it, although were' not quite at the real meat of the project yet! If it inspires you to make your own dry sump, that's great. Or, if this works, maybe I could make it for you! (shame we're in different countries though, the postage would be a bitch)...

Anyway, most of today I've been continuing to cut out the pieces. By the end of last night, I had the L-shaped slot (pic below) milled to depth, and when I took this photo I'd got the Z (ish) shaped slot cut to depth on the top side:

Now, as you may recall, I've been drilling right through the piece to give myself markers on the opposite side, so I can line the slots up. It's been working very well, with only a few thou inaccuracy. Unfortunately, the big Z-shaped slot presented some new difficulties.... this is the first cut I've done where the milling head's been actually over the table. Of course, the long cut, with two holes in it, is not lined up over a T-slot; the ali is directly on the table, so I either have to drill the hole shallow, or commit the cardinal sin of drilling into the table itself. As that would never do, I opted for the shallow hole. Using the quill depth stop, I set enough movement to get right through the piece. Then, with the work off to one side, I fitted the drill bit, lowered the quill onto the stop, then raised the table until the point of the drill was almost kissing the table (maybe 0.002" up). Then, up with the quill, position the work, and drill. Those holes completed, I went to drill the 3rd hole - which, as luck would have it, was positioned over a T-slot. Great! Except.... due to the tab sticking out at the back of the piece, I couldn't lower the table enough to fit the drill bit in! I had to cut the slots first, then I could run the drill into position along the slot! Here's a pic; the drill is now in place. You can see the piece up by the column which won't go any lower, as it would hit the Z-axis dovetail:

I used a slightly smaller drill (5.5mm instead of 6mm) to make sure it didn't bind on the sides of the slot as I moved it into position. This was then drilled through, and walked out of the slot the opposite way it went in. Job done! So, turn the piece over:

As the holes weren't quite through, I used a pointy tool (I'm sure it used to be a screwdriver...) underneath, tap with a plastic hammer, and observe the pinhole that appears. Then, from the top side, insert point and give a sharp tap. The results are as above... The black thing is the sump gasket, and is being used to ensure I've left enough meat around the slots to fit the job...

Next up - score lines between each hole (just a reminder), then line up & clamp the work to the mill. Note I'm using extra clamps; after I've finished the cuts here, the lump will be in two pieces. As neither is supported underneath, each pair of clamps is holding one piece to the mill.

Done!

The gasket is sitting on what will be the 1st sump (Dad's). As you can see, plenty of material around the edges of the gasket to get a nice finish.

And now the 2nd sump (MY sump :D) I've not bothered cutting the remaining "woodruff" shape out yet, I'll do that when I come to use this bit of ali. I'm bored of all this slotting work... I'm sure you are too.

So, I suppose I'd better show what I'm making... Here's the steel prototype sump:

The bronze coloured blobs are where a strip of tin has been brazed on. Pinched under the tin is that gauze; under which are some magnets, and a trough which carries the oil away. The pipe, seen in the lower right hand corner of the picture (at the front of the sump) is one of three oil outlets.

Here's the underside:

It's not the best of pictures; but you can make out the trough, which has one visible outlet pointing towards the camera. On the other side of the trough is the second outlet (pipe with 90 degree bend); and almost invisible is the front outlet (that pipe), also with a 90 degree bend.

The aluminium version won't look quite like that; the three outlets will all appear on one face (the front), and will have been deep-bored through the billet. Probably my next job is to start designing the structure; then - if this damn wax ever turns up - I'll get making a prototype...

The video I promised yesterday should - I hope - be along later this evening...

Dean W:
This is quite a project, Ade, and quite interesting. You had to jump through a few hoops to get that huge hunk
of al pared down. Looks like it's going along well! By the time you get done, you're going to be some kind of
"Lord of the Swarf".

BTW, I checked out your clock in the pics of your earlier post. It took 25 minutes, mister! When everyone else
can see the time, you really are on the clock.

: )

Keep up the good work. Thanks for the pictures and write up.

Dean

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