Maybe a dumb question, but do you have any recycling centers out there? 5¢ deposits on cans? That kind of thing?
I imagine they have to be able to recycle a good amount of Al with minimal waste to make it worthwhile, so if you find such a center, ask for a tour. Show pix of your setup, explain what you want to do, and just say you want to know how the “pros” do it. Even get free advice.
Even bitch’n’moan about hippies. They smell funny, anyway. Kinda like patchouli.
Some alloys dont have great stress strength …
There are soft weak alloys that can do a lot of stuff , but some alloys need to be strong …
One thing I remember from way back is broken break leavers … ( Weak alloy )
Some things need to be top shelf ( Foot pegs , break levers ) …
Generally the better the casting alloy , the weaker it is …
Which is why a lot of aluminum stuff is machined / not cast … ( where strength is paramount )
Casting is great for stuff that is cheap and easy , and don’t need to be particularly durable … ( Low stress )
all right, i will come out and say it… here i go…
1) every light out there is “aerospace quality aluminum alloy”… which about means nothing to me. ad copy. i mean yes, of course aluminum is endemic to the aerospace industry. whoopee.
2) lies about lumens? “zoomie in” and “zoomie out” make a 5 mode intoa 7 mode? ha2 is really ha1??
now… tell me the light is guaranteed to be made out of 6061 t6 alloy… riiiiiight. couldnt POSSIBLY be a different alloy designation? snicker
3) it is a flashlight. its not a stress point on the space shuttle. its a flashlight… if you machine out a “mere mortal alloy” and its nice and beefy? whats the problem?
4) i figure my machined light i make? will be… “basic” shapes? i am not a master machinist working for boeing…? so, i wanna make up for that basic design? by “going big or going home”. thicker. beefier. bigger pill.
5) i dont know, i wana try to make something you can punt like a football with steel toes, and it just gets scratched, lol…
Not picking on you …
Post was in regard to Motorcycle Parts …
What your doing is fantastic , …. But there are things that just should not be cast out of soft aluminum …
I sat in my driveway one morning letting my engine warm up … ( Motor bike )
I pulled the front break lever hard to test the breaks before going for a ride , I don’t normally pull that hard on the breaks ( But a test is a test )
The break lever snapped like a glass rod … Where it broke it was powdery and course … ( bad casting ) …
If it had happened on the road , it could have cost me my life …
The reason I did that … Broke too many break levers on push bikes …
This is for anyone thinking about casting …
Casting for yourself is a fantastic idea , but keep in mind the application …
so… how would you like a machined brake lever? that would be cool…
Does anybody make aluminum pipe specifically for making flashlights, basically the ID come in various sizes suitable for flashlight battery`s sizes and the ED in various thicknesses to allow different body shapes to be machine out.
I suppose this has already been done to save the time on boring out the rod yourself.
EDIT: Great thread sedstar.
John.
Sure … You can buy Tube …
Lots and lots of tube out there , some is dirt cheap .
Just think of anything that might be close to the size you want , like maybe tent poles …
A lot of aluminum parts are now machined from forget billet ( For motorbikes ) …
Improved CNC machines have made such affordable by minimizing machining time …
It’s been a long time since I been on a bike , hell I even remember breaking a clutch lever ( I think that might have been on my KLX250B2 from way back )
After that I learned to change gears less clutch … ( Not from a standing start - though it could be done with difficulty )
I think they make carbon fiber parts now … ( If you don’t feel like entrusting your life to cast parts ) …
So if I were riding right now , yeah the clutch and break levers would be Carbon / or machined forged billet …
But as with anything , there is that sliding scale from cheap to prohibitively expensive … ( For things that can kill you when they break = What is your life worth )
Story time :
I used to buy retreads for my car … I was young and wanted money for other things !
If there is a lesson anywhere , its Australian roads … They are littered by retreads that have de-laminated …
At this time I did not do much in the way of long trips in warm weather …
This one day I set out before sun up , to go Metal detecting in the Golden Triangle …
Was a two day trip … ( Week end )
The way out was cool … The way back was HOT …
Was about 4pm ish ( The hottest part of the day here ) … Temps around 36c
And suddenly there was a vibration that quickly turned into a spray of something , that turned into a skittish car ….
I got the car pulled over to the side of the road just in time not to destroy the rim …
The tired had been completely destroyed ( de-laminated and then self destructed )
Yeah , my very last re-tread …
Australia gets hot , the roads get hot , and rolling tires get stinking hot , hot enough to de-laminate ( retreads )
Under some conditions re-treads are fine , under harsh ( hot ) conditions they just might kill you .
I dont know why they were ever legal ?
Especially when Australian roads are littered with dead re-treads …
here’s me machining the first “dry run” piece of stock i made…
still in the “roughing” phase, i’ll skim off lightly when done, to make the tailcap and body fit like one piece.
but, notw this is the “first” and therefore “roughest” piece i made… they come out much better now, stock pieces…
this is working out really well…. i mean, 2” or 2.25” round stock? thats 30 dollars a FOOT… and i can just whip it up for practically nothing on fairly short notice.
next up? i’ll show some pics of the process itself…
Yeah, here we call them “gators” when they’re lying on the road like that.
Used to see them all the time years ago, but not any in quite a while that I recall. Either lamination got so much better that they’re not littering the road with gators anymore, or no one’s buying retreads anymore. Hopefully the latter.