So I've taken a little time over the last few days to machine up some hand built gas manifolds. I'm making 4 here, one for my beer manifold, one for my soda manifold, one for a friend and one hopefully to sell. I didn't set out to make one to sell, but had enough stock left over too and I figured why the hell not.
So I'm using 1.5" Al roundbar that is cut to 10 inches long. First they are chucked up in the lathe squared and descaled. Then line bored to provide the gas chamber. Then both ends were bored for a 3/8" NPT Tap. They were tapped and called done on the lathe. Next they got decked on the lathe and I took off an 1/8" from three sides. I left one side rounded because I think it gives it a neat look. Something that makes mine clearly not some mass market jobber.
From there they were drawn out for the bore spacing and drilled and tapped. The one for my soda system I'm designing uses 1/8NPT fittings and the beer system uses 1/4 gear.
I broke off a tap in one of them. Turns out I was sold the wrong kind of tap, so after I got the new one it was smooth sailing. 48 holes drilled and tapped.
After they were cut they were washed and given a nice brushed finish. You can see the pic of this operation on my kitchen counter. lol
Now, I have been taking some time to set up some plating and Anodizing lines so I can get these parts finished off proper. I think these manifolds will get a bright orange finish. So far I can anodize and dye with two oranges a yellow, a purple, black, green, grey, red, and one I've forgotten.
I also took some time to set up both a chrome plating line and a nickle plating line. There's a copper line built too, but not 100% ready yet.
You can see in the pics below my 36" deep rod plating tank, in this pic it has a rifle barrel in it, but it will do about anything in that shape. I took and polished and plated the end of a copper pipe just for the hell of it, and damn does it look nice!
More pics soon to come!
So I'm using 1.5" Al roundbar that is cut to 10 inches long. First they are chucked up in the lathe squared and descaled. Then line bored to provide the gas chamber. Then both ends were bored for a 3/8" NPT Tap. They were tapped and called done on the lathe. Next they got decked on the lathe and I took off an 1/8" from three sides. I left one side rounded because I think it gives it a neat look. Something that makes mine clearly not some mass market jobber.
From there they were drawn out for the bore spacing and drilled and tapped. The one for my soda system I'm designing uses 1/8NPT fittings and the beer system uses 1/4 gear.
I broke off a tap in one of them. Turns out I was sold the wrong kind of tap, so after I got the new one it was smooth sailing. 48 holes drilled and tapped.
After they were cut they were washed and given a nice brushed finish. You can see the pic of this operation on my kitchen counter. lol
Now, I have been taking some time to set up some plating and Anodizing lines so I can get these parts finished off proper. I think these manifolds will get a bright orange finish. So far I can anodize and dye with two oranges a yellow, a purple, black, green, grey, red, and one I've forgotten.
I also took some time to set up both a chrome plating line and a nickle plating line. There's a copper line built too, but not 100% ready yet.
You can see in the pics below my 36" deep rod plating tank, in this pic it has a rifle barrel in it, but it will do about anything in that shape. I took and polished and plated the end of a copper pipe just for the hell of it, and damn does it look nice!
More pics soon to come!
lol
