About 1 year ago, I purchased a 3 axis CNC to help with increased shop production. Since then, every part made by me has been getting converted for CNC machining. The latest part to be converted is the PES Ram Intake. The would take about 1 hr per manifold to machine on my Bridgeport manual mill. Took the time and made a nice jig to hold the intakes and made the needed programs to run on CNC. Now it takes less than 10 minutes to machine and they are perfect when done. Really glad to have this accomplished. Been making the intakes since 2010.

How are the timing covers coming?

Nice addition to your shop. Have fun w/ it.

The timing covers are taking a bit longer because I have not devoted enough time to them. It will be soon. There are plenty of people waiting. The foundry just cast up a full run for me.

That looks good Tom. I hope you can find a home for all you can produce. Put me on the timing cover list.

Pretty cool Tom. Are you going to start making intake manifolds? You had mentioned something about that to me awhile ago.

Tom, there are lots of options for suitable machines if your focus is primarily aluminum. The Practical Machinist forum is a great resource to learn more. Adding a 4th axis and building fixtures to hold more parts and even pairing with a small robot can really crank up production . . .

Designing high production manufacturing cells is what I do for my day job and glad to see someone in the inliner group making good use of a bit of automation here instead of sending the work to China.