Even though he had no previous experience with CNC equipment or CAD/CAM, Richard Reyman, owner of West Coast Cylinder Heads (Reseda, CA) decided he was going to take his business up a notch by translating all of his hard won skills and knowledge into CNC machining programs. That was in 2001.
To bridge some of the gaps in his knowledge, Reyman enrolled in an university extension course in basic CAD/CAM programming using Mastercam. Then at the recommendation of his instructor he hooked up with Mastercam Reseller Tom Shelar of CAD/CAM Consulting Services. “Tom knew exactly what I needed to know and what I could safely ignore so I could start making money with my new equipment and software,” Reyman said.
In the beginning, Reyman used an interactive machining process in conjunction with his newly acquired, used Fadal 5-axis mill. He would hand grind a shape he wanted in his cylinder head casting, then put it on the Fadal to probe for data that would be used to reverse engineer the CAD model. He would then create the toolpaths necessary to clean up this shape on the CNC machine.
Over time, he has become adept at using Mastercam X2 Mill 5-axis to create freehand models of the air passage shapes and their dimensions without having to rely so much on probing to reverse engineer them. These toolpaths are both complicated and delicate. “We use a ball nose lollypop style mill,” he said. “You have to snake this tool six or seven inches down inside the head in such a way that we keep the tool from shanking out, crashing and breaking into something.”
The cutter is almost always working dangerously close to some edge but that is required if Reyman is going to get all of the shape he is looking for. He said a little miscalculation could wipe out an entire tool holder— a very costly mistake. Setting arbitrary soft limits could prevent the possibility of a crash, but that would also “handcuff the post”. Instead, he relies on Mastercam’s backplot feature to electronically verify that none of the toolpath moves result in a crash.
In addition to intricate toolpaths, a versatile fixturing, also designed with Mastercam, is another critical aspect of West Coast Cylinder Head’s CNC success. He said, “Being very familiar with the problem of having to get the tool into very tight places helped us to design a fixture that gives us access to the air pathways from almost any angle.” This allows Reyman to achieve his goal of setting the workpiece up and just walking away from it for four or more hours to do more creative work, usually in Mastercam.
Over the next seven years, Reyman perfected his manufacturing processes and introduced many popular custom cylinder head designs that can be seen on his web site. West Coast Cylinder Head sales continue to be strong. Reyman would like to grow his business, but not by sacrificing the personal touch that keeps him close to his customers. |