Re: Alphington Steam launch
Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:42 am
Hi Wesley,
Thank you for your kind comments, they make the effort that much more enjoyable.
I decided to make the 6A entirely by manual machining even though I do have CNC capability here in my factory, it is a bit like fly fishing, good for the soul. My staff think I am a little crazy pumping out parts on a rotary table and dividing head that my father bought back in 1948 when I have a 9 axis CNC machining center standing 20 feet away, I tell them it is all about the journey, they smile politely and walk away shaking their heads.
I have local suppliers of castings here in Vietnam and realistically they fall into two categories, the local market suppliers and the export quality suppliers. The local guys are good at making cheap low quality, low volume stuff that is accepted in the local market, and the export quality guys make great stuff under great quality control,but only in high volume. Example. My iron casting guy makes 8 million brake calipers for the European marker per year. You can imagine the look I get when I ask him for a one off cylinder casting, he's jut not interested.
We will be setting up our own in house lost wax casting later next year, but initially we will only be casting in bronze. Our plan is to use 3D printed wax patterns for prototyping and injection molded wax patterns for production quantities. At that point we will be offering a low volume casting service.
Early next year I will be releasing the first of my own product line, a small candle powered table top stationary steam engine. I will post some pictures when the time is right, we are presently testing prototypes and building the tooling here in house. My longer term goal is to build the steam engine side of my business up to the point where we will be supplying casting kits, pre-machined assembly kits, and fully completed engines in a wide range of sizes. An ambitious plan, but we are well down the road to making this a reality.
Thank you for your kind comments, they make the effort that much more enjoyable.
I decided to make the 6A entirely by manual machining even though I do have CNC capability here in my factory, it is a bit like fly fishing, good for the soul. My staff think I am a little crazy pumping out parts on a rotary table and dividing head that my father bought back in 1948 when I have a 9 axis CNC machining center standing 20 feet away, I tell them it is all about the journey, they smile politely and walk away shaking their heads.
I have local suppliers of castings here in Vietnam and realistically they fall into two categories, the local market suppliers and the export quality suppliers. The local guys are good at making cheap low quality, low volume stuff that is accepted in the local market, and the export quality guys make great stuff under great quality control,but only in high volume. Example. My iron casting guy makes 8 million brake calipers for the European marker per year. You can imagine the look I get when I ask him for a one off cylinder casting, he's jut not interested.
We will be setting up our own in house lost wax casting later next year, but initially we will only be casting in bronze. Our plan is to use 3D printed wax patterns for prototyping and injection molded wax patterns for production quantities. At that point we will be offering a low volume casting service.
Early next year I will be releasing the first of my own product line, a small candle powered table top stationary steam engine. I will post some pictures when the time is right, we are presently testing prototypes and building the tooling here in house. My longer term goal is to build the steam engine side of my business up to the point where we will be supplying casting kits, pre-machined assembly kits, and fully completed engines in a wide range of sizes. An ambitious plan, but we are well down the road to making this a reality.