| Author | Message | ||
| Dave L (Davel)
Junior Member Username: Davel Post Number: 223 Registered: 7-2001 |
Probably the coolest operation any Fchat memeber has going. Another chat member making hard to find parts for his friends and customers!  You completely and totally rock!! I thank the Gods Im a car guy when I see cool stuff like this. | ||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 489 Registered: 5-2001 |
UNOBTANIUM SUPPLY'S LEVER BEZEL FRONT VIEW:  LEVER BEZEL REAR VIEW:  These are photos of parts that are from the production mold, and are production in every way except for the chrome plating. In these photos, the 'chrome' is a product called Bare-Metal Foil. Simon & I decided that it wasn't an acceptable finish, so I located a company that chromes classic car parts. UNOBTANIUM SUPPLY'S LEVER BEZEL IMPROVEMENTS: 1) STRENGTHENED LEVER PIVOT TAB: I've temporarily shelved the 'L' shaped metal reinforcement. I became convinced it was massive over-kill. After a long discussion with Alumilite's tech support engineer about einforcement, I took his recommendation & molded several loops of steel wire inside the tab. The wire loops several times around the lever mounting holes, and then to internally strengthen the tab, there's a loop around the tab's perimeter. You can sometimes see the the wires through the plastic where they come near to the surface on each side of the tab. I've made a bending jig to pre-bend the wire, so it'll be consistent from unit to unit. 2) SHARP JOINTS REMOVED FROM TWO HIGH STRESS AREAS: The right angle between each boss and the bottom of the bezel has been filled in and radiused. This will do a better job of transferring the stress between the boss and the bottom of the bezel. This joint is what failed in the parts Simon you me. Also, the acute angles between the lever pivot tab and the two cylindrical bosses has been filled in and radiused. Again, the result is a part with better stress distribution 3) The bottom of the bezel is about 1 mm thicker. This provides about 30% more cross-sectional area to tranfer mounting forces. Of course this strengthens the part. 4) The implementation of the attachment for the lever bracket has changed to molded-in studs instead of holes for sheet metal style screws. The studs are actually philips head 5mm screws with the top positioned barely below the top surface of the bezel. Using a screw strengthens the part, and converts the bezel mounting forces from a tension load on the bottom of the mounting cylinders into compression loads on the top of the cylinders. Plastic is at least an order of magnitude stronger under compression than under tension. As a secondary benefit, since I'm supplying nylon lock nuts, they won't have to be torqued down as heavily as the sheet metal screws had to be to prevent it from vibrating loose. Just tighten the nut until the bezel doesn't slip around under finger pressure & it'll stay. No need to give it a hard twist. (Sorry, the nylon in the nuts is plain white & not Ferrari yellow. If you want yellow you'll have to change them.) MOLDING PROCESS: The mold is a 3-piece mold. One piece forms the bezel's top, & then 2 pieces form the sides of the tab & mounting bosses. The wire reinforcements & studs are inserted into 1/2 of the mold,the mold sections are clamped together. The plastic components are mixed together & injected into the mold in such a way that the incoming plastic expells the trapped air, minimizing the possibility of any air bubbles. As soon as the plastic is injected into the mold, it's inserted into a pressure chamber and the plastic is cured under air 40psi to eliminiate any remaining tiny bubbles. The injection & pressure curing was the key to eliminating the tiny bubbles that were making the Alumilite brittle. Now that I've got the molding process worked out this plastic is strong! I tried to break the pivot tab on an earlier non-reinforced part and couldn't break it with my fingers! With the steel wire reinforceing it, it should last forever. Oh, yes, urethanes are chemicaly more stable than most other plastics. Again this will contribute to the part's longevity. | ||
| Edward G. Salla (350hpmondial)
Member Username: 350hpmondial Post Number: 365 Registered: 2-2002 |
Verell, You da man..... ! I would love to do the same thing your doing. It exhumes passion for Ferrari's & Engineering. But, I'm stuck in Philly w/o my Ferrari or my garage. .. . . Go Eagles! | ||
| john beaucher (Spider348)
New member Username: Spider348 Post Number: 20 Registered: 11-2002 |
Verell, Congratulations! I have seen Verell's operation in it's early stages. Very impressive then. Verell exhibits amazing energy and ingenuity. Nice 308 as well. Good luck. John | ||
| J. Grande (Jay)
Member Username: Jay Post Number: 942 Registered: 10-2001 |
Is unobtainium available for purchase as a futures commodity? I'm not sure what you mean by lever bezel, do you have any pics? | ||
| Verell Boaen (Verell)
Member Username: Verell Post Number: 488 Registered: 5-2001 |
Hello, I promised you occasional updates on my progress towards supplying Unobtainium (ie: no longer available Ferrari parts). Here's what's been happening: LEVER BEZEL PRODUCTION STATUS: ------------------------------ I have production tooling for the lever bezels, and have an initial production run out being chrome plated.(No, you can't get one from me yet as these units are already spoken for! BUT, If you contact the right F*Chat sponsor early enough, you can buy one of them from from him. If the sponsor you contact doesn't know what you're talking about, he isn't yet one of my customers. You can suggest he contact me & order some so he'll have them in the future.) Also, I've delivered a pair of production 308GT4 black lever bezels, and can make more as needed. UNOBTAINIUM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT STATUS -------------------------------------- 308/400 DISC LEVER KNOB DEVELOPMENT ----------------------------------- I've got a mold that makes 1 knob at a time. With a single cavity mold like this,the cost/knob is prohibitive because: 1)It takes about 45 minuites to cycle a mold, so the production rate is very low. 2)A knob takes 1.27cc of casting material. It's very hard to measure out 0.635cc quantities of the casting material accurately enough to get the necessary 50-50 mix. A couple of drops off one way or the other & the material won't cure right. It'll be too soft or too brittle. If I mix a manageably large quantity, I have to either discard the excess, or else have some other mold ready to use it in. The mixed casting material sets up in 3 minuites! I expect to have a multi-cavity mold that will make 4 knob discs at a time by mid-late FEB. I can accurately measure & mix the ~5cc required for 4 knobs. COLUMN SWITCH STALK DEVELOPMENT ------------------------------- WIPER STALK STATUS: The mold for the switch end of the wiper stalk is curing as I write this. Since I'm starting with a used switch, I'm having to rework/restore each part before I can use it to make a mold. Last weekend I spent 5 hours sanding & polishing ~20 years worth of handling scratches out of the wiper stalk's knob. Remaining work is to make a mold from the stalk's knob, and make a jig so I can consistently cut the stalk rod to length & bend it to the correct angle. I expect to complete this production tooling and make the 1st production wiper stalk this weekend. I'll figure out wiper stalk pricing after I've made a few. Since this is also 1 at a time tooling, the cost/wiper stalk will be fairly high. However, I believe people will be willing to pay quite a bit more for a wiper stalk than for a disc lever knob. TURN SIGNAL STALK & HEADLIGHT SWITCH STALK PLANS: I expect to have turn signal stalk tooling by mid February, and headlight switch stalk tooling by mid to late March. 308 FRONT TURN SIGNAL LENS DEVELOPMENT -------------------------------------- After a couple of attempts at acquiring what turned out to be varying quality reproduction lenses, I have managed to find a pair of absolutely mint turn signal assemblies still in the original yellow boxes!! They cost me an arm & a leg, but may have been the last ones floating around the US. Before I commit the $$ to tooling that can make up to 50-100 lens pairs, I'd like to have received enough informal orders so I can be reasonably sure of selling at least 10 lens pairs(HINT HINT). I figure if I can get that level of committment up front, then I should be able to move enough lens pairs this year to make tooling up worthwhile. DISTRIBUTOR/ROTOR DEVELOPMENT ----------------------------- Development of these parts is on hold until I complete developing the above parts and have some income from them coming in to fund the R&D necessary for these parts. Additionally, I need to develop enough skill as a die maker so that I can make the requisite metal parts at an affordable price. I also have to do sufficient research/testing to be certain that I have a plastic that will be dimensionally stable in the engine compartment environment. BUSINESS STATUS --------------- UNOBTAINIUM SUPPLY COMPANY is now an official MA based business. Furthermore, I've purchased the UnobtainiumSupply.com domain name!!! You can now send email to: [email protected] Don't bother looking at: www.UnobtainiumSupply.com as I haven't had time to pull a web page together. Regards, Verell the Unobtainium Supplier |