Originally Posted by
mitchilito
Wow Jesse, that is real dedication to make an intake tube! Is that a Saito 150 or 180? As I said somewhere earlier in this post I had a Saito 150 that I plumbed the case discharge DIRECTLY to the intake manifold (in between the carb and head). I expected it to destroy the required manifold vacuum but instead it made absolutely no difference and ran like a top. It was the neatest and coolest mod I ever did. The airplane I put it in stayed clean as a whistle.
I bought my Grizzly machines years ago and just love them. I used to tell people that quality-wise they were best thought of as mostly assembled "kits" because all the final finish work needed doing! The basic cast iron processing was/is fine and dandy. And I converted the mill to variable frequency drive a couple years ago - so cool.
Thanks for chiming in. Its fun to see this old thread continue on!
The engine is an older Saito FA-50. Actually it only takes about 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour to fabricate a stack like that one.
Most of the older home hobby type lathes like the typical "South Bend" had fairly soft, plain iron ways. Add to that, they were rarely treated to proper waylube and it gets hard to find one that is not badly worn. The Clausing at least has very nicely finished, bright, flame hardened ways and holds accuracy well. In the meantime, I got to learn a bit about hand scraping and flaking in order to get decent accuracy with those old Logans and Southbend lathes from decades ago.
The machinery is like a hobby unto itself.It can compliment and enhance other hobbies as well.
One of my other hobbies has been Amateur Radio. I took an interest in microphones as part of that hobby, high end ribbon mics in particular.
A bit fussy to build as a typical ribbon is about 6mm X 20mm but only 2.5 micron thick. It is also corrugated and suspended very closely between two strong, magnetic poles. Between the motor element, the enclosure and the base, there are many opportunities to use machinery.As well as exercise a little creativity along the way. Much as we do with the toy airplanes.
