In a message dated 12/5/2003 5:00:52 PM Eastern Standard Time, Valkhorn writes:
> > I never thought of this before, and I'm sure it's very expensive, but if you > took one of your valves to a decent machining shop I'm sure they could copy it > into any material you wanted. And, if you provided the > material I'm sure they > could do it straight away. If you have access to a modern CAD program, you can draw the valve to scale on your computer. You can then then down load it as a DXF file and use it to program a computer numerical controlled lathe, CNC. Chuck up any material you like, and the machine will pop a valve out, correct to a couple of tenths. You might not have to lap it. Well, it's not quite that easy, but modern machines are getting pretty close. Setting up the machine is still time consuming, so one offs would have to be priced to support the shop time from beginning to end, several hours, certainly. A lot of technology is being developed to make it that simple, perhaps in ten to twenty years. Seriously, if you are careful to match the part being made to a proper machine, parts, like rotors, can be made from a DFX file derived from a simple drawing. It just has to get cheap. _______________________________________________ post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] set your options at http://music.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
