Would any of you quickchange guys or interested people know if there are any machine drawings available for the machining of a 201 housing out there? An old friend has an unmachined housing he’s had for 30 plus years that he hopes to get machined and built. Any help will be much appreciated. The housing is a beautiful casting and the rear cover is something he got cast off an original cover he modified.
That is a beautiful casting.... I deal with aluminum prototype castings every day at work... That QC rear end looks like it was bead blasted yesterday...
Unless he has the CNC machines himself, I will say hiring the machine work will cost way more than buying an already machined center. Setting up all of the operations will take many hours, even after you provide the machinist the correct dimensions. And even the biggest mill will require hours to do the work, and the time it's whirring will cost money too. Personally I'd just place that center on a trophy shelf. Sure he can probably get his hand made cover done for a reasonable cost, but he is gonna have a heart attack when he gets the estimate for machining the center. I have a little experience in this subject because a friend of mine, who owns a three axis CNC is helping my brothers and I machine our own constructed quickchanges. Luckily my buddy works for peanuts.
Cool piece! This retired machinist agrees, that is going to eat up a pile of dead presidents for sure. On the other hand, if I was one to have a "man cave" that would be front and center just the way it sits.
I am the one that suggested posting it here. The dimensions are pretty straight forward. I think it could be done on a Bridgeport with a rotary table, but I don't know how to locate the centerline of axles and the centerline of the pinion. Those are the two datum points in different planes.
The centerline of the axles (up and down) is the same as the centerline of the pinion. And those are 3" off the centerline of the main shaft. To do it easiest, he should borrow a machined Halibrand and just chuck it up in the mill and locate all the dimensions off of it. As you know, some of those dimensions are really-really critical. Can't be measured with a steel rule.
A decent CNC will have a probe that will locate the datum points, so even that need not be plotted. I even have a probe on my manual mill. The DRO does the work. It is not that hard to do, if you have access to someone with the skills and the equipment. That can get expensive.
Unless that's Ted Halibrand's High School project and the car it's intended for is bound for the AMBR or greater, I couldn't imagine it'd be worth the effort. Just look up a new or really nicely used Halibrand quickie and divide by your local machine shop's hourly rate to see if it's worth your while. Wouldn't be worth mine, for sure. Would be a fun project though! I would think of a good artsy shop project (lamp, clock, etc.) and find a better donor for your project that's more turn-key.
I just spoke to my old machinist mate(old school ,did his time in a railways workshop yeeaars ago) and he rolled his eyes at the mention of the need of a CNC to do the job, he would like to see some drawings though and it shouldn’t be a problem. I personally take my hat off to my old mate that owns the centre,he to is old school,built many a car over the years and could easily afford an off the shelf quickchange but it seems the art of hotrodding is lost in some people, certainly not him. Thanks for all the input though, hopefully we can source some drawings and get it done. Building clocks or lamps, ****** me, we may as well give up cars and join a lawn bowls club.
If you aren't doing it with a CNC, it will require fixtures from many directions to hold it firm. Some of the same problems we were running into to manufacture our quickchange project. So far we have a couple hundred dollars in just the steel to make the fixtures, and a little machine time to true them up. I'm really interested in the outcome of this project. Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, and I do hope your friend has success with it. But also have him please keep a record of his costs and time. And photos of the fixtures and process would absolutely be appreciated.
I have a shot of the file in Mastercam but I don't think that will help Sent from my SM-J337V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
This might not even get off the ground but it’s worth looking into. As has been said, the cost could be outa hand but we’ll see, nothing will happen without drawings.
just thinking out loud i believe there is a place that knows how to machine it...it's called Winters Performance...maybe they can be of ***istance ? after all , they sell a housing only fully machined on their website for $550 the distance between Australia and Iowa , USA may cause problems worth an email
There are no new Halibrand centers (maybe NOS). Good used ones are also hard to find and expensive. The closest copy is Rodsville. I'm not a machinist but my Dad was. If he were still here, I would probably have that center on my mill, right now. That being said, I have a Halibrand 201 here and brand new V8 Midget. So, I can reverse engineer to get the dimensions. I just haven't devised a way to rotate the case from one axis to the other and maintain the center line relationship. I see exactly why the owner wants to finish it and not make a wall hanger. If I owned it, I would find a way to use it. Hot rod parts were meant to be used. If I boke it, that's time enough to hang it up for display. @Belle53, I would be interested in a response from Winters. I have been a dealer for them for 30+ years. They are in the business of selling their own QCs. I have never heard of them working on another brand. Since Winters is in Pennsylvania, you may be thinking of HRW. Nick there, might be able to help. Rodsville may be a possibility, his stuff is very similar to Halibrand and he does short batch runs.
My friends a machinist and he had an unmachined Halibrand 101 and borrowed mine to get all the demensions for his. He said if he charged a customer for this it would of been about 3,500 to 4,00 to machine.
Maybe Rodsville will be able to do it since their centers are exact copies of Halibrand centers. They might even enjoy doing final machine work on an original Halibrand. Worth an ask.
On our big CNC, I think that I could zero-fixture machine the main housing, repositioning it just once. On a manual mill, that would take fixtures. Totally doable, but time costs money, and the CNC machine does not make mistakes with irreplaceable parts (unless you program it wrong, and don't run a simulation).
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