Made my own T5 shift stick

horse sence · Feb 23, 2013

Jim, you should look into doing some custome air cleaners as well, thats beautifull.

zookeeper · Feb 23, 2013

Thanks Robert! Glad you like it, yours is one of the ones I get the most compliments on and I use it as a sample pic to show people a neat example of the personalized engraving. Jim

zookeeper · Feb 23, 2013

horse sence said:
Jim, you should look into doing some custome air cleaners as well, thats beautifull.

I wish I owned the machine, I could make neat parts all day long. In fact, that's been a long-standing goal and thanks to you guys here, I may get to make that happen. I'm looking into selling my wife's '69 427 Corvette to finance a smaller, used Haas mill. I just need more ideas since you can't really support a machine on one part. Jim

robert912005 · Feb 23, 2013

Maybe you could try your hand at some custom interior door handles and window cranks or turn signal levers...

horse sence · Feb 23, 2013

zookeeper said:
I wish I owned the machine, I could make neat parts all day long. In fact, that's been a long-standing goal and thanks to you guys here, I may get to make that happen. I'm looking into selling my wife's '69 427 Corvette to finance a smaller, used Haas mill. I just need more ideas since you can't really support a machine on one part. Jim

i liked your shifter boot cover as well, i am into street rods to so you have instrument bezels ,glove box doors and like i said air clearners. get your machine, start advertising for custome parts and start making money. don't just stick with mustang parts though.

robert912005 · Feb 24, 2013

you can also do some engine brackets or engine pullys... I bet you could make a horse and corral...

zookeeper · Feb 25, 2013

Thanks, guys I appreciate the ideas and encouragement a lot. But I'm still very cautious because the whole package is so much money. The Haas Mini-Mill I want is upwards of $25K, the MasterCam software is (I think) over $12K, although when we stepped up to MasterCam X6 from version 9 it was only $5200. Then throw in vises at $400 per, carbide endmills that range from $80 to over $500 and you can see how it can get very expensive very quickly. I know there are good used machines out there for about half of retail, but things like software and cutters are not an option used. The problem isn't what I can make, it's what I can sell and can I sell enough to make it realistically worth it. Maybe I worry too much, but it is a realistic worry at least. One thing I have going for me (or against, depending on how you look at it) is that I have been involved with tons of money-wasting hobbies over my life. Street rods, sand quads, dirt bikes, dropped trucks and raised trucks, other people's race cars, paintball and shot guns and every where I look I wonder what I could produce to keep a CNC machine busy. Once the program is done, my wife could feed it raw material with about 5 minutes of training while I'm at work, so that's no problem. But finding that product that I could make lots and lots of to minimize set-ups and program changes is tough. But I'm still trying and thinking about it every single day and thanks to you guys here I'm at least taking a small step in that direction. Jim

horse sence · Feb 25, 2013

zookeeper said:
Thanks, guys I appreciate the ideas and encouragement a lot. But I'm still very cautious because the whole package is so much money. The Haas Mini-Mill I want is upwards of $25K, the MasterCam software is (I think) over $12K, although when we stepped up to MasterCam X6 from version 9 it was only $5200. Then throw in vises at $400 per, carbide endmills that range from $80 to over $500 and you can see how it can get very expensive very quickly. I know there are good used machines out there for about half of retail, but things like software and cutters are not an option used. The problem isn't what I can make, it's what I can sell and can I sell enough to make it realistically worth it. Maybe I worry too much, but it is a realistic worry at least. One thing I have going for me (or against, depending on how you look at it) is that I have been involved with tons of money-wasting hobbies over my life. Street rods, sand quads, dirt bikes, dropped trucks and raised trucks, other people's race cars, paintball and shot guns and every where I look I wonder what I could produce to keep a CNC machine busy. Once the program is done, my wife could feed it raw material with about 5 minutes of training while I'm at work, so that's no problem. But finding that product that I could make lots and lots of to minimize set-ups and program changes is tough. But I'm still trying and thinking about it every single day and thanks to you guys here I'm at least taking a small step in that direction. Jim

man i understand completely, i have been wanting to invest in a cnc plasma table
but putting out the hard earned cash is hard to do ,not quite what you would have to invest, but still a lot for a good set up

iskwezm · Feb 26, 2013

starting a business is more then cranking out a bunch of parts that might not sell. Sales will come from filling a void in the market.What can you make better? A grill horse/corral will not sell based on the time/expense. Smaller more affordable parts will be easier to move, like a 64-66 E brake handle that are probe to bending/breaking. A better looking battery hold down? They have been done before and are either gaudy or not worth the money.Maybe some emblems???I wouldnt stick Fords only, theres a lot of money in GM's for the non purist that dont want to stick to the OE look like Mustang purist.

zookeeper · Feb 28, 2013

You hit the nail on the head. The problem from my end is that CNC machines are very common these days, and lots of shops are looking to fill time on them any way they can. I interviewed for a programmers job about a year ago with a company that did work in the medical field. Business had slowed to a crawl and they were branching off into ski boat accessories to try to get enough money to stay afloat through the rough economy. I saw their line and they made beautifully crafted parts, and they were on the verge of shutting the doors because they couldn't sell them. Needless to say, I passed on that job. That's a common story these days, the technology is so cheap that everyone has it and now they are all trying to find that one big thing. My dream is to make a set of billet aluminum front suspension arms out of 7075 aluminum. They are very simple, would be extremely light and much stronger than the stockers, plus they would look killer. Due to the cost of aircraft-grade 7075 and the huge amount of spindle time to remove all the extra material, they would not be cheap and I'd likely sell about three sets. Not exactly enough motivation to put my house in hock to go into business making them.

horse sence · Feb 28, 2013

it is amazing what can be made on those cnc machines. we had a foam 3/4 scale
daytona carved out at a cost of $3,000 ,then had a mold made and this one and only body made, it is 8 feet long

zookeeper · Feb 28, 2013

That is too cool! I wish I had more pics of things I have cut. I did a pair of '41 Willys headlight rings years ago. They looked exactly like the real ones except without the little bar in the lower part of the ring that separates the glass lens. One ring alone took 8 hours to cut at $60 per hour. The program had so many lines of code, it took 3 hours to load! These days long programs are "drip-fed" into the machine so you can start cutting right away, but I didn't know that then. The total bill was over $1100 for a pair of headlight rings, and the bad part was I seriously doubt anyone ever noticed the difference over the $100 a pair repo stockers!

horse sence · Feb 28, 2013

it took this guy a week to cut this and would have taken longer if we had wanted more detail in it ,felt kind of bad we tied his machine up for so long he makes movie props in HollyWood

zookeeper · Mar 2, 2013

I would've loved to see something like that being cut. I assume it was done on something like a 5-axis gantry mill due the size. Funny thing about machine time: MasterCam has a feature that gives you the time it "should" take to cut a part for estimating time. It's "kinda-sorta" close, but on bigger parts or 3D work it can get you into trouble if you start using it to give an absolute time the part should be done. I have learned the hard way to never allow yourself to be pinned down time-wise on that first part estimate. Once the first part is done, it's easier, but that first part is a killer. I have one program I run about once a year or so that takes 8 full hours just to load the fixtures and tooling. But by the time I finish the 18th and final part, the average time is less then 40 minutes per part. But that's tough to explain to your boss when you promise him that all the parts will be done in a couple days and you don't even have one complete part by the end of the first day!

horse sence · Mar 2, 2013

i didnt get to see the foam part being made but the guy said it is cool to watch.
he said he could make it a lot more detailed but it would take a whole lot longer.the guy i went in with on it bioched and moaned about the lack of some of the detail but i thought it was fantastic job and i would do it the same way again. this is the foam part.

zookeeper · Mar 2, 2013

That is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time. I'm a huge fan of the Daytona Cobras ( my screen saver is a shot of one) and I would give anything to see that foam core being cut. What was the final product used for? Whatever it was, I'll bet it turned out well. Very cool indeed.

horse sence · Mar 2, 2013

go cart ,high dollar.sold for $40,200. at Barrett Jackson

65ShelbyClone · Mar 8, 2013

This engine was made for a body like that. Well, except for being mid/rear layout.

horse sence · Mar 8, 2013

65ShelbyClone said:
This engine was made for a body like that. Well, except for being mid/rear layout.

ooooh yeah. what do you think zookeeper can you mill me one?

65ShelbyClone · Mar 8, 2013

I don't think zookeeper could do it for under $100.

If I'm wrong, put me down for 10 units right NOW.

Made my own T5 shift stick

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