Quote:
Originally Posted by hauss
Not yet, basically it will be a exact replacement with a clip holding the finger to the rail. { Just like the new tkx} Instead of the roll pin. The new design will allow more material to remain in the rail; hence making it stronger. I am open to suggestions trying to keep it simple and low cost.Just want to make it worth my friends time and seeing what type of interest.Maybe even sell to silver sport or hanlon or some of the other premiere Tremec dealers . I do not know if this will fix the problem honestly but it seems a step in the right direction. Unlike the left direction everyone seems to be going  |
Hauss,
A good machine shop or machinist should understand better than me what I'm about to say.
You have to do more than just grab a piece of steel and make it the same size and shape of the original piece. It can be done and engineers reverse design parts, for equipment that is no longer made, every day. I'm not trying to discourage you, rather trying to save you from having to do this 3 or four times to get it right.
There are many grades or types of steel. Any steel can be hardened by heat treating or ion nitride hardening. Harder is usually stronger, but more brittle. Hard steel is difficult and costly to machine, so a milder steel is preferred to machine and then harden it for strength and wear resistance. Heat treating causes shape changes, especially if not properly stress relieved. Nitride only heats the metal to 900 deg so dimensions are more stable. Heat treating can harden deeper than Nitride hardening.
When tooling is used to cut steel it leaves sharp micro cracks on the surface. Normally not a problem for soft mild steel that will not be hardened and not repeatedly cycled in heavy load conditions. These micro cracks are crack propagation points - kind of like a stone ship in a windshield. Machined areas should have the finish ground to remove the micro cracks. Polishing is needed for harder steels. Also there should never be a sharp corner - perfect 90 deg change in direction. These should be radiused. The corner should have a minimum of 1/16" radius for most stuff. Some applications 3/16" or more.
Start by doing a hardness test of an existing broken shaft. Also try to identify what the steel is.