Worked on the steering wheel adapters this past week. I was doing a test fit Monday night and found the wheel adapter I had in my stash was to small to fit the Astro column. I ordered an adapter kit from Summit. While I was waiting for that I got to work making the upper adapter plate. This is the piece that will go between the steering wheel and the PCS paddle shifter unit. It will use 5 #10-32 x 1 1/2" long SHCS to bolt the PCS unit onto the extension. The extension will bolt to the new adapter when it comes in. (hopefully)...
I dug out a chunk of 1/2" thick aluminum plate and laid out the bolt circles on it. One for the 5 bolts that go thru the PCS unit and one for the three bolts that hold on the steering wheel and horn button asm. After clamping the piece in the mill I drilled a center hole for "zero" for the next operation.
https://images47.fotki.com/v1402/pho...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Using the bolt pattern feature on the DRO made drilling both of the bolt patterns easy. This feature sure does save a lot of time over hand laying out all of these holes. With the piece clamped in and zeroed all I have to do is plug in the both circle diameter, the number of holes, the start and end angles (in this case 0 and 360) and hit enter. The first hole location is a dead straight move in the X out tot he radial position of the first hole. In the pic that would be the one to the right in the picture.
https://images59.fotki.com/v1640/pho...MVC013F-vi.jpg
Every consecutive hole after that is reached by simply pressing the down button to move the next hole and twisting the mill handles until both X and Y are zeroed out. It makes doing this a no brainer...
Here the five outer holes have been drilled and I am starting on the three inners.
https://images14.fotki.com/v384/phot...MVC017F-vi.jpg
Once all of the holes are drilled I re-zero the cutter, which has been changed out for a counter bore tool and re-run the program.
https://images14.fotki.com/v384/phot...MVC016F-vi.jpg
With all of the holes done I could get the three inner holes tapped for 1/4-20's.
Chunking off the excess material so I can get the adapter turned round in the lathe.
https://images59.fotki.com/v1640/pho...MVC010F-vi.jpg
After a few minutes of trimming. Using the hold downs from a clamping kit on the saw makes this kind of off hand cutting a whole lot easier. Sure beats doing it by hand on the vertical. This way I can do other things while the H/V is cutting.
https://images47.fotki.com/v826/phot...MVC017F-vi.jpg
I made this mandrel years ago for another project. The small pilot is sized for the .422 dia. tap drill for a 1/2"-13 thread. I drilled the center hole out to that so I could use the mandrel to chuck the adapter in the lathe.
https://images14.fotki.com/v699/phot...MVC005F-vi.jpg
https://images59.fotki.com/v1640/pho...MVC006F-vi.jpg
https://images14.fotki.com/v384/phot...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Spinning in the lathe. I use real light cuts here and take my time.
https://images46.fotki.com/v1637/pho...MVC017F-vi.jpg
After it was good and round I chamfered the edges and cleaned up the surfaces with some ScotchBrite while it still spinning.
https://images12.fotki.com/v539/phot...MVC018F-vi.jpg
All cleaned up and ready for a test bolting. This will get painted satin black to match the rest of the column.
https://images54.fotki.com/v1642/pho...MVC019F-vi.jpg
With everything bolted together it all fits and looks pretty good. I know it looks tall but this will put it right about where it needs to be for the new seat placement.
https://images51.fotki.com/v1638/pho...MVC005F-vi.jpg
https://images12.fotki.com/v539/phot...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Gotten a lot done so far this week... Thanks for following.
Mark