Saturday, October 21, 2006

Designing the Valve Shaper "On the Fly"

This blog comes in real time ...

Bill Rodgers (left) and Sam Thompson discuss the drive mechanism for the shaper head to Sam's "Rube Goldburg" valve shaping tool. This morning they cut the handle off of a ratchet gear wrench. They'll use the wrench to turn the screw that'll advance one of the shaping mechanisms. The discussion around the piece that will advance the wrench head.

About 10:30 this morning I asked Sam how the piece would work. He said he could best show me in the machine shop. As we walked, Sam asked, "You know how a shaper works?" I struggled for words. I have a basic idea, but am always afraid that I'll get it wrong.

"It's the same idea in the machine shop," Sam responded. He explained how how a ram travels back and forth, shaving a thin layer of metal off with each pass. I understood. You can see the wrench head that Sam placed on the nut in the lower right corner of the photo (red arrow). Sam and Bill are now designing the mechanism that will advance the nut and screw to the right.

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