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
) 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...
