I spoke with Allen Pinel last night. He has been working independently to
try and have a pair of axles made for his racer. Several of our potential
suppliers have already been contacted by him with no success. Moser and
Williams Engineering both refused to quote. I'm not clear why Moser
declined but Williams indicated that the tapered section was their reason.
With the possible exception of Strange, I think we may run into the same
problem. If so we may have to contact several shops would be willing to
preform specific operations. In that case the production sequence would be:
1. Turn the profile, cut the keyway and thread the outtermost portion. The
seal surfaces and the bearing journal would be left slightly proud at this
point. Any CNC equipped shop could handle this easily.
2. Send the turnings to a shop that can roll the appropriate splines. I'm
having problems here and ask for your help. I can't distinguish the spline
type. Like gears there is an involute spline specification. But the axle
doesn't seem to conform to the "nominal" 1" diameter spec. There are also a
"parallel cut" spline spec and a couple of others. Do any of you have a
referencethat may help determine the type?
3. Once the splines are rolled the unit can be sent for induction
hardening. Thanks to Jack Drews for sourcing a shop and some very helpful
advise here.
4. The next stop would be a machine shop fo precision grinding of the seal
and journal areas.
5. And finally, polishing.
I'm going to send a drawing to Strange today and will report back.
Regards All,
Chip
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