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5102
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Indianapolis, IN
US
Edited Date/Time
7/19/2022 7:08pm
New bikes are all coming out, and the most over-used term in motorcycles and the associated products has to be 'CNC machined'
I have news for everyone, well maybe not everyone, but EVERY machine part on every bike is CNC machined.
Every triple clamp, no matter if it is billet, forged, or cast. Every hub. Every footpeg, every engine mount, well, you get the picture.
It is not a special feature, so I really don't know why it is in every press release, magazine article and bike test.
Unless you have a works bike, there is no one standing over a manual Bridgeport mill or Cincinnati lathe whittling parts out to bolt on your bike.
Everything is CNC machined!
I have news for everyone, well maybe not everyone, but EVERY machine part on every bike is CNC machined.
Every triple clamp, no matter if it is billet, forged, or cast. Every hub. Every footpeg, every engine mount, well, you get the picture.
It is not a special feature, so I really don't know why it is in every press release, magazine article and bike test.
Unless you have a works bike, there is no one standing over a manual Bridgeport mill or Cincinnati lathe whittling parts out to bolt on your bike.
Everything is CNC machined!
"CNC Machined" is typically (but not always) used in marketing to differentiate that the part is machined from billet rather than initially cast or forged. Of course most all cast/forged parts are finished on the CNC machine to create threads, final bore sizes, etc., but it's a small part of the overall manufacturing of the part.
The biggest reason you see the term all over the place is because that's what many customers want. It's generally thought to be a better process that results in a higher end part.
Just wondering why (unless that is a manufacturing secret!)
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
The stem is then "tab parted"; it's still connected to the carrier, but just barely. We break it off of the carrier by hand, but that leaves a sharp edge. The sharp edge is removed on the manual lathe as it's super simple to do and we can be finishing stems manually while the CNC lathe does the hard work in parallel.
Edit: Billy with the holeshot.
I mean you aren’t arguing that these products are in fact “CNC machined”. So what should they call them instead?
And oh btw some of the parts may not be CNC machined even on productions bikes. They could be manual machines. My company has a rifle product that we produce to the tune of 40k-50k of them annually and one operation is ran on an old Brown & Sharpe mill. We also run millions of pieces annually that get ran through world war era centerless grinder machines. There would would be many centerless ground components in a mx bike.
Relax.
We grind Fir Tree roots on aero blades , and essentially the blades are ground, and the discs are broached, both are methods as old as engineering .
But we also 5 Axis machine blades from bar.. that is proper clever, and has been said , the trick is always to leave yourself as much as you can to hold, and do as much as you can in one operation, it makes it easier.
My speciality is Fan Cases , and OGV assemblies, cases are 4m dia and 1m tall with 4 to 5mm wall thicknesses.. everything has to run true within 0.25mm, and the OGV is the bit in the front of the engine that doesnt turn .
I measure that on a 40 year old machines, cos accuracy never gets old.
Indy-maico, can't see how a cast clamp ot hub has anything to do with CNC machining.
Even a lot of stuff we use in ever day life is cnc machined or made from a mold that was made by a cnc machine.
I'm wondering if anyone on Vital has bought a cnc machine yet for their shop or garage?
Nowadays "CNC Machined" is pretty much code for "small production run" which has its positives and negatives.
Pit Row
Sorry, that's my pet peeve as a machinist of over 20 years experience I've never heard anyone in a tool room use that term. I have heard guys say "I need to get a hunk of iron" even if it was the most exotic alloy in the shop. We made the pumps for the Space Shuttle and the hunk of iron was about $180K and even the titanium salesman didn't call it "billet."
You can actually buy very affordable tabletop mill or plasma from langmuir.
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