What are we missing, what should I make on a VMC?

[Richard48Y]

CNC machines have gone from "You have to be kidding, NO ONE lets a CNC get this dirty!" to just filthy, now only dirty.
Almost clean enough for pics.

The list of items to make keeps growing.
My CAD skills are dismaying after only a four year hiatus.
Once I have the phase inverter here and hooked up I will be able to practice operating the machines. Much simpler than CAD-CAM.

None of the items I am intent on making are terribly complex.
If I must I will just pay someone to do the CAD-CAM work.
I will continue fighting the learning curve and hope to do at least some of the flat items on my own.

[BDA]

Good luck and happy exploring, Richard! 

[Richard48Y]

Got a nice surprise today, sample roller rockers for the cross-flow heads came in the mail.
These should be much easier to draw geometry for than the rear uprights I have been struggling with.
Being small aluminum parts my Colt VMC will have no issue at all making them.
I wonder how many sets I should aim for?
I know a few guys have these and I have never heard of any issues with them so it seems the design is sound.
A big thanks to Nick for loaning them to me!

[dakazman]

  Thank you and Nick.
 Good news for sure. Keep me informed.
Dakazman
 

[Richard48Y]

Scared myself.
Had a fleeting thought of making new MC's that FIT without modification.
Yah, in a country that graduates more ambulence chasers annually than the rest of the world combined!

[Richard48Y]

Unhappy with the pace of my CAD/CAM skills.
Giving in and hiring someone, I want these done!

[Richard48Y]

Where is the shock me pale faced emoji?
Got a CAD/CAM quote, $500 each for the rockers.
I can either pay or delay while learning.
Since I have a goal and time frame I will pay.
I have made some progress on this regards the axles and rollers.
I have to decide which bronze to use at the fulcrum.
And of course new shafts become a question too.

I think I will have to reach out to the Euro side to see if I may expand the market.
It will take several sets sold to recover cost before I may see a profit.
Is "Made in USA" still a selling point, for French designed engines? 

[Richard48Y]

Hmm, contracting out the drawings may NOT be faster.
So I've dived in again.
Took pics of the samples, made them B&W, enlarged and printed.
Now I may take and record measurements more easily.
Surprised to find how little change of the pivot ball is required to increase rocker ratio. So anything from 1.5 to 1.65 is easily done.
It seems that stock is 1.5-1 and the samples I have are 1.63-1!
Add that to a performance cam and I expect it gets hairy fast.

The worst of this is not making the rocker bodies.
It is the small steel pieces.
I had hoped to buy some of them, but not going to work if I want to keep cost/prices reasonable.

[314159td]

What software are you working in for CAD and CAM Richard?
I'd probably still consider myself a novice compared to the guys at work, but I do 10-20 parts a year on the machines in Fusion 360 without too much trouble.

[Richard48Y]

I have access to Mastercam.
Apparently it is not primarily intended for CAD.
I thought I had completed one rocker.
But several lines do not meet at the back side and I cannot force them.
This becomes apparent when I try to create surfaces.
As the old saying goes, "Back to the drawing board". 

[314159td]

Yeah, MasterCAM can be a rough ride. I've used it mostly as a CAM plugin for SolidWorks, and even that wasn't a great experience. 
I do all of my CAD work in an educational license copy of SolidWorks nowadays (also still use my student ID card at movie theaters); if you have dimensioned drawings - hand drawn is fine - I can put together solid models in a universal format fairly easily.

One of my old jobs was just taking miscellaneous objects and creating CAD models with a pair of calipers and a surface plate.

[Richard48Y]

I do need to learn this.
Starting over, doing it a little different in hope that my projections will not drift and all the lines meet up this time.

[Richard48Y]

Today I got together with a full time CAD guy.
His software is an entirely different "Parametric" approach.
To say that he despises traditional CAD would be very big understatement.
I have to get this sorted quickly now, I have been asked to return the samples soon.