Morning all.

As part of fitting a Mazda KLDE V6 into my Sprite, I'm bolting some Triumph ITBs on. This requires a 1/2" ally adaptor plate with quite a few holes in it. It started like this:



And mostly ended up like this, although there is still a little to do:



Which I'm quite happy with. However, it took all afternoon to do. It's not helped that I don't have a die grinder, but I do have a pillar drill with a rotating bed, so I can chain drill round the hole at roughly the right angle and finish by hand. Whilst I don't expect the remaining 5 to take so long now that I've done one, is there anything I can do to make it quicker? I don't really want to spend 2 weeks or so making smooth holes if I don't have to.

jigsaw?

Holesaw and a rasp. Put chalkdust on the rasp to stop it from clogging up.

Draw it as a .dxf and send it to andyw7de and get it waterjet cut.

Thanks all.

Jigsaw probably won't cut at the tight radius I need. That hole's only 45mm edge to edge.

Would a hole saw be any quicker than chain drilling? The chain drilling can follow the shape a lot closer, but does take longer for the drilling part. Good tip about the chalk dust though.

Wouldn't know where to start with drawing that on a computer. And since I've already got the plates, I'd rather finish what I've got.

Buy a die grinder and a couple of carbide burr's, you'll be amazed at how handy they are.

Cheers
Davie

Any suggestions for a 240V one as I don't have a compressor?

And what else do you tend to use it for? I'd rather not splash out on a possibly expensive tool only to end up using it for a week or so.

A holesaw will chew through that in a couple of minutes. Drill some holes on the circumference of the holesaw cut to help the swarf escape and use cutting paste or oil. Cut as slow as possible. Finish to shape with rasp or bastard cut file.

Looking at the shape it seems you could form the basic shape by using a smaller diameter holesaw to make three cuts in a triangular pattern. Create a simple jig to ensure you get the relative positions for the pilot drill in the right place each time.

quote:

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Originally posted by owelly
A holesaw will chew through that in a couple of minutes. Drill some holes on the circumference of the holesaw cut to help the swarf escape and use cutting paste or oil. Cut as slow as possible. Finish to shape with rasp or bastard cut file.

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I made the inlet manifold for my car when I converted to injection from 12 mm ally using a woodworking coping saw and plenty of cutting fluid followed by blending to the head using an electric die grinder and carbide burr. The whole lot only took about an hour and a half.
If you use a coping saw don't force it and the blades last well . If I where to do it again I would probably get it done by waterjet

Could a waterjet accurately blend the two different shapes together, or would I still need to finish them by hand? The main issue I'm having is that whilst the two ends of the ports are both roughly the same shape, the head side is both larger and offset to one side, hence the variable slope to the holes.

[Edited on 21/3/12 by DIY Si]

Due to being tight, and not getting paid for a few days yet, I've pressed on with the 1" hole saw I've got to hand. And I'm pleased to say that even despite missing a little with one of the two holes, the last port only took an hour to do. And that's including shaping the throttle body to match the port shape better as well.

So thanks all.

This is what the first plate now looks like. I know it's not the most even of things in the world, with the first port being a bit off, but I'll fix that at a later date. Probably.

Looking really good