Possible new route to 5 stud front suspension

[Dlb26]

What cutters are you using on the Miller? Solid HSS and carbide or cutter bodies with inserts.

[Turbo-Brown]

Was given a bunch of solid carbide cutters so it's a combination of those and HSS.

[martauto]

Absolutely not teaching me to suck eggs, Mart!
I have a go with a ball for the datum, funny enough I used steel balls to find the centre of the holes in the E30 struts, used the clock to find their centre in X and Y then clocked to the top to find Z.

Your on top of it thinking wise already mate !!
Google "tooling balls" and you will see what I mean , once in position, you can use it for any orientation AND go back to it for future changes knowing that you will only change what you want to and not be guessing.
Let me know if you want to borrow mine (they are not cheap) . Keep it as long as you wish to or even make your own if you are handy on the lathe.

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Just by chance I made one to measure the E30 strut, the ball is just hot glued on, and not very neatly!

Thanks for the offer of loaning yours Mart! Will machine a recess in the back of the one I made and bung a couple of neodymium magnets in there to hold the ball in place.

We had some great big carbon moulds machined last year 4.5m long and over 2m wide the moulds were.

The machinists bonded some Icky Balls either end and scanned our mould so they could calculate their tool paths and reference the tool paths to the part on the machine.

First time I'd seen such things, all starts to make sense now!

[martauto]

We used to use them quite often in tool rooms I have worked in, especially using 3D shaped moulds. Once the square bits have gone, you need a reference point and what better than the centre of a sphere ?
Anyway, if I can help you let me know but you seem to know what direction you are taking.
Great project with shed loads of potential for other stuff as well

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Will have a go this weekend glueing a ball bearing to a bit of scrap angle and make a janky prototype so we can fit to the car and see how wrong all measurements are

[Turbo-Brown]

One of the guys at work has very kindly offered to 3D print my adapter so will just machine the E90 strut this weekend and get ready for a trial fit up!

[Turbo-Brown]

Worked up a sweat hacksawing the unwanted bulk off the bottom of the E90 today, it's remarkably light this casting when nothing else is attached!

Popped it on the machine and cut away the bottom of the casting to clear the adapter, need to run one more program and this is hopefully done!

Time permitting I'll make a couple of temporary long bolts for my mockup and strip the suspension from the car ready for the 3D printed adapter.

[Turbo-Brown]

Even turned the car around to make this job easier!

Fastest it's moved in over five years!

[Turbo-Brown]

Machining finished.... hopefully!

Old strut removed, despite looking like the whole front suspension has been in the sea, everything came off dead easy!

Took some very vague measurements of the old strut and zeroed my camber gauge to compare to the new setup.

Hoping I can swap the top mounts over as the studs don't line up.

Couldn't resist offering up the new strut too.

3D print is coming along okay apparently so hopefully tomorrow we'll know if this all goes together!

[Turbo-Brown]

3D printing is done! Printer wasn't big enough for the whole part so we chopped off one of the mounting holes which shouldn't be a problem for the prototype....big day Wednesday!

[Turbo-Brown]

It fits! It actually fits!
Few little tweaks to make and the ARB is a bit close to the knuckle, but it's pretty encouraging!

[JungleGus]

Pretty impressive prototype turnaround! Interested to see the results here - guessing the main benefits are easy 5 stud and bigger brakes in the front?

Guessing the rear's are a problem for another day =)

[Turbo-Brown]

The rears are the easy bit, it's a couple of hundred quid from the dealers to get M3 hubs and bearings.

Benefits are bigger brakes, beefier and presumably stiffer hubs and uprights and it saves quite a bit of unsprung mass too!

Started this sub project as there seems to be either enormous expense or some compromised geometry going down the other usual routes.

Having said that, I'm able to do this relatively cheaply as I've got a CNC mill so this isn't necessarily an attractive route for everyone!

[martauto]

I am all smiles
I "knew" you were on to something right from the start, out side of the box thinking is my "bag" too and this rang a bell right from the start.
I look forward to the finished adaptor that you make ,it may not be as pretty but you can do this mate

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Been on the hunt for bendiness in the mill.
Cutting steel with it has always been a noisy business that eats tools.

Popped a clock on the bed and indicated off the head, without much force you can deflect the head back and forth by about +/-0.25mm!

Started bracing the column over the weekend, got one brace tacked on yesterday which had reduced the deflection to around +/-0.1mm so hopefully once finished, making these big steel adapters will be a bit less of a slog!

[martauto]

Thats not a lot of movement for such a reach in Z for a mill that size but I see where your coming from.
We have found that taking much smaller cuts but with more speed and feed helped no end , and with a small radius or chamfer on the rougher it gave it more life.
I`m just loving this !!!!

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Guess more rigidity can only help, if I didn't have these little sub projects like improving the mill, there'd be a risk of finishing the car!

[martauto]

Guess more rigidity can only help, if I didn't have these little sub projects like improving the mill, there'd be a risk of finishing the car!

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Found a source of the steel angle who are willing to cut me off two 180mm lengths so that's ordered now.

Each piece will start at 13kg and end up around 1300g!

Lots of that will be offcuts rather than chips though

[Turbo-Brown]

Good news, can only bend the mill about +/-0.025 now.

Also, E30 top mounts fit the E90 giving a bonus 12mm drop! However, now I've got another 2degrees of negative camber! Not sure I believe that though, will have to double check!

[Turbo-Brown]

We have material!

Absolute beast of an angle this!

Need some vee blocks to mount on for machining, then toolpaths and we're making chips!

Oh and some design tweaks to clear the ABS sensors and couple of other things!

[Turbo-Brown]

Did some clash detection with the prototype part, pitiful failure!

Needs a bit of a redesign, so I've hacked it about a bit.

Chopped off one leg of the angle today and did a trial cut on the machine.

Gone is the vibration and instantly blunt cutter! Think the bracing has had a positive effect!

Tidied up the workshop too, can actually get to the workbenches now!

[martauto]

Tidied up the workshop too, can actually get to the workbenches now!

Did it really need doing ??, lol
Let me know if you need angle iron like this again as I may just be able to help, we (where I work) rent a unit from a big fabrication shop and we have to use their loo`s 150 yards away.
But we do know the guy`s and the stuff they have there on the floor etc is "interesting"

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Cheers Mart! When I muck up these angles I'll be in touch!

Got new toys to help with the job yesterday!

Need to do a bit more prototyping though as there are some clashes with the current design!

[martauto]

They look nice
How much were they and where from please ?
I am trying to input a little quality where I work and even cheap ones would be special
We are a general engineering shop with big ties to fabrication so small limits are not around but I would like to be able to do decent work.
Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

They were about 55quid delivered from RDG. Thought about making a set but life's too short!

Going to remake the prototype this weekend and check the clashes are resolved.

Also redesigned the load paths to be more direct this time! Cutout on top is to clear the ABS sensor.

[Turbo-Brown]

Made a wooden prototype of the lower part of the adapter, think there's one more minor clash to resolve.

The clash almost certainly wouldn't be possible in the wild as you'd have to be on full lock with the suspension fully decompressed in the wrong direction, worth resolving nevertheless!

Machining now much faster with the more rigid frame!

[martauto]

I believe it`s always good practice to do a "dry" run so to speak.
I have been programming on a new system to me , Cincinnati `s own which is similar to fanuc but not as "messy" to use but I have run it above the job each time to see if it`s OK lol.
Great move with the bracing

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Spent quite a bit of time tweaking the adapter design to get the stress out of it.

Loaded it up to simulate over 1g cornering and looked at braking loads too.

It's become substantially more chose!
It's also nearly 2kg now

Needs to be strong enough though!!

[Turbo-Brown]

Finally started machining!

Those vee blocks are not fantastic! If you clock to the angled faces, you can get them nicely aligned, but if you then clock the vertical face, they're all over the show!

Progress is slow, my machine really isn't rigid enough to machine steel effectively!

[Turbo-Brown]

Hooray, finally managed to remove some material!

Was trying to take a 1mm depth of cut which I thought was modest! Turns out that 0.2mm is more like it for my machine!

The payoff is that with 1mm depth, I could only run at 10% feed whereas 0.2mm depth lets it run at almost 170% feeds, so it's quicker overall!

[Turbo-Brown]

Got new tools, made new tool paths.....then the new tools went blunt!

Made a little progress though!

[martauto]

Are you using tipped cutters Alex ?

I have a very small cheeky one ............ I can send you with inserts as well. @ 10 or 8 mm I cant remember but let me know please ?

Mart.

[Turbo-Brown]

Thank you so much for the offer, Mart!

Think I've cracked it though!

Hooray! Climb milling was the key! At 0.2mm depth it's happy racing along at 850mm/min can relax and make some progress now!