At both Bikes, Blues and BBQ and the Born Free rally, I had a lot of people ask if I could make custom timing covers to go with my custom derby covers. Been noodling on that, and I think I might have it worked out.
The nice thing about custom timing covers is they are relatively small, and unlike custom derby covers, they do not have a gasket sealing surface on them. That means I can do away with the need to CNC machine the casting to make sure it is dead flat (like I do with derby covers). All I have to do is cast them.
Worked up a few test molds, and this popped out:
I still have some process issues to sort out, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be offering custom timing covers in the very near future! Stay tuned!
Update as of Dec 10, 2022: After being laid low with the flu for a couple of days, finally had the chance to test fit it to one of my bikes:
Very pleased to see that all my dimensional calculations worked out exactly as planned. Bronze shrinks as it solidifies from liquid, so I have to make the master pattern (the wax part) larger than the final size, then hope it shrinks exactly to size from there.
With that success established, I’m working out the gates and sprues necessary to cast these in an organized way. Looks like I’ll be able to make 12 at a time, which will be nice.
