1975 KZ 900 , ZRX Swingarm, 89 GSXR front end

the bike is going to verey nice. i would be very appreciative if you could tell me what tooling and some info about machining that axle out of ti.

leon

How much for an axle and mabie a swing arm pivot

I am workin on a 636 04 swing arm and wheel conversion and it would be cool to have a titanium front and rear axle :side: :silly: hit me up. on a pm

Ok ...

That was a quick response.

In order to make an axle I would need a sketch of your current axle. That makes it more complicated.

I can duplicate the ZRX axle that I have and be sure if I sell the extra, it will fit.

The 636, now I would be trying to reverse engineer that part, which makes it harder to be sure it will fit properly.

I would prefer to stick with the ZRX stuff.

531blackbanshee wrote:

the bike is going to verey nice. i would be very appreciative if you could tell me what tooling and some info about machining that axle out of ti.

leon

I have not cut on the Ti in some years, we will be using a manual lathe....but it won't happen for a couple weeks at this point.

If the manual is troublesome, I work in (manage) a large machine shop, so the Deco guy has offered help if needed.

We will certainly be using carbide inserts, soon as I get into the actual cutting, I will post the cutter type, and feed and speed.

I prefer to keep my personal projects away from work, my good friend Ed, has a really nice Italian lathe in his garage, we can drink the Scotch...AND operate dangerous equipment.

The complete fallback plan is to schedule the job at the shop and just pay the shop rate to get it done, it would still be less expensive than retail, I could make two axles and two swingarm pivot bolts, then sell the extras.

I just ebay searched for Ti axles...holy smokes.... They are big money items. I just want to come out even on the material.

i hear ya tk.
i am fortunate that i have a big old leblond in my home shop and a little heald horizontal milling machine with a tree vertical head.i can barely spell cnc,:laugh: much less actually program one.that's fine tho cause most of my machine work is one off's for personal or friends projects.although they are coming a long way with those little bench top cnc's.for a few thou i could have one working away like a little elf
building trick parts in my closet while i slept tho .
i was curious as to what tooling and methods you planned to use to build your ti parts.
i have always shied away from ti out of lack of knowledge, and not knowing anyone to go to for help when that oh sh!t moment happens.
i have been recieving some pressure from an un-named member
(porchev914)to do some ti stuff so he wont look so bad when i fail .you know how buddies are right (troy/prowty?):silly: .
you have always seemed pretty willing to share info so i thought i would ask.
as always any info is appreciated,keep us posted.

leon

Damn all that peer pressure :laugh:

tk11b40 wrote:

Ohhhhhhhhhhh oh boy.

So I got the quote for the titanium bar stock, and the purchasing guy says do you want it? so I give out me credit card, and bam....the Ti arrives.......all of it. I was in a hurry and did not specify which length I wanted.

There were two sizes quoted, and I got both, as that was the quote. I just wanted to see price difference.

So now...I may be selling a Titanium axle to anyone interested. I wanted 18" length, got 51" of material.

Ohhhh yeahhhh. Plenty ...plenty titanium now.

It's a good thing your buyer didn't get you a 12 footer. :laugh:
That's what would have happened at my shop, if you didn't specify a length.

Used to cut a lot of Ti in the last shop that I worked in. We cut the stuff on big ole Okuma LB 45's. You know, 24" chuck, 50 h.p. lathe. Needless to say, that you need the most rigid setup possible. Seems like Seco makes some good carbide inserts for Ti. I'll have to see if I still have any of my old notes. Don't forget that the fine shavings from finish cuts are flammable. They burn real hot. White light. Blind for a while.

Ted you are the ultimate weight weenie. I better not find out that you weigh 350 lbs. :dry:

haaaa hha aa ahhhaaa

160 pounds and counting. Bring me another beer!!

Well I got the swingarm and bits back from Advanced Powdercoating, they do fantastic work.

Took a chance on the color, but it seems to be looking good at this point. I just did not want to go with "black".

Soo the powdercoat guy suggested "brass" which is like gold, minus the bling factor.

I like it!! but now I may be doing something with the gold on the emblems, as it now has that bling about it compared to the class of the swingarm.

ok this time with photo....

Advanced Powder Coating:

This is the second batch of work they have done for me, they are the best.

Notice the gloss, the color is subtle, the finish is perfect, just like the frame.

It looks like they did a great job Ted. very niceB)