Thanks Jake :cheers:

RE modern solvers; the owner and its backend software engineers claims that this is what puts on the Mars Rover (Curiosity) where it is today and also what makes most of today’s jet planes takeoff and land safely. I’d love to challenge these statements but dare lolll

The jig’s base is indeed ‘fixed’ with 9806.65mm/sec2 gravity acting on it – not floating bud. The shaft/bushings also needs mu-static, dynamic and stiction velocity/deformation (aka friction) properly defined and enabled otherwise nothing works…. the shaft will bounce passed the 500rpm. Real-life no, I agree, but certainly real-world multiphysics (well, this world anyway).

RE Center caps, they are ‘visually’ symmetric yes but as you saw in the vid, the center (p badge) is not 100% aligned with the center of mass (taking gravity into account here). That is due to the non-symetric feature/pocket for the badge. Anyhow, it is very unlikely that a perfectly symmetric center cap (center of rot) are going to throw your wheel out of wack however best practices force me to ensure that the design is meeting ‘base line’ quality. I am sure that potential buyer will appreciate this.

OT; a year ago I’ve designed a special tool holder that had to mount into a 40,000RPM spindle. The tool was designed and meant at machining a part within 2micron tolerance using a carbide endmill of 0.2mm diameter – read very (very) small. It was for a medical device/part, something that brother in law here specialize into. Multiphysics balancing in this case greatly help i.e. less material had to be removed once the tool was dynamically balanced (real-life) afterward. We’ve seen ‘dust’ amount of material removal to get it balanced in the 4DOF. That said it does serve a purpose, in some more extreme cases, but perhaps not so much for center caps that only spin <3k rpm lollll

All good fun bud!

Material sourcing and CAM
 

Soon off to the manufacturing finally. I've already ordered the material so I should be getting this hopefully latest tomorrow afternoon. Once I have the size of the stock material I'll trow all of this in the CAM processing.

That should be a bit more interesting, and much less geaky I promisse. Personally, that is my favorite part... shaping hard metal, making chips fly everywhere, noises, bad burning smells, etc lollll

Big like on this.....................

Man that is sweet. Don't think they would look right on these wheels :(

Glad to hear buddy :cheers:

wow that is an amazing racing wheel, ultralight I've heard. Tempted to change the ones I got for those

the original style looks perfect on the oz wheels....i think the new one's will look even better

Always room for improvements, for any wheels. Cheap Plastic is dead man lolll

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Pre-prototype on the way
 

Right... so this is what we're going to do.

I've just received the material that I've ordered y'day an hour ago (yey!). So we got a few pucks of Acetal, plenty of AL6061 (I think loll) and also found the few badges I had left in stock.

I'll run this quick and dirty in the R&D machines first, get a sample part anodized and assembled in-hands, and if all goes well (i.e. looks good, feel good, and fit/clamp well) I'll do the cam online with you guys for the shop floor's production machines (you'll see my little shopl). No point launching full-scale into making custom fixtures, softjaws, and all the other 'expansive' stuff required to get a small production run going. Besides the CAM work for those prod machines needs proven simulation before even starting-up and cutting anything. You'll get to see this as well but before - let's see this super duper center cap first.

Some grabs below of the 'quick & dirty' CAM work I've done yesterday evening. All I need left to do is adjusting the stock size in each part models and off we go - let's do a quick one (or two, we'll see how it goes). Estimate 1.5 ~ 2 days work.


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Toolpaths and toolpaths only toolpaths. Finally we can cut something.
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How do you hold the part on your milling machine then you turn it over to mill the back?

• Toolpath Pic 1: Turning/boring the inside (ID) of the cap + threading a M52*1mm
• Toolpath Pic 2: Turning/profiling the outside (OD). Made a quick fixture with a OD thread that fit the M52*1
• Toolpath Pic 3: Milling/drilling using a 8mm flat endmill then fininshing the floor using a bullnose 8MMR1 cutter
• Toolpath Pic 4: Milling/4axis, Multiaxis toolpath going around the clips.

Just needed to machine one fixture; the one you see (quick&dirty) holding onto the cap thread and clamped between the vice jaws in Pic 3.

Missing are pics of the Acetal turning operations for the adapter. Using the exact same procedures as Pic 1,2,3.

Just need to see this cap first ;) We'll do this correctly onto the prod machines later (coming week let's hope).

For you buddy ;) Apologies for the half-useless explanation above lolll

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Porsche wheel hub adapter - SUCCESS!
 

Some pretty good progress to share with you guys!

Besides the amazingly sunny and warm weather of today, I am very (very) happy about the result of this part. This goes to show how important proof of concept and part validation work are. Without CAE it wouldn’t have been half-possible to make this part successfully at first attempt. I would have had to blindly machine 5~10 different parts with different thickness, hoping it doesn’t fail, and worst… hoping for it to be clamping properly. Think about the time it would have taken without CAE lolll e.g. Model mods X10, CAM mods X10 and machining a prototype part X10 (ouch).

CAE add-ons are not cheap but do save a considerable amount of time/pain and most importantly; “add peace of mind”. We are now 100% certain this part will not fail when repeatedly inserted into the wheel hub, it will hold well and tight, and perform in temperatures ranging between -50 up to +50 Celsius.

Ladies and gent, I present you The Great, official and most advanced Center Cap wheel adapter In-The-World
^ (LOLL jeezzz… side effects of smoking CNC machine coolant fumes)



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^ Some may find it interesting to see what was once a raw stock of Acetal, converted into a fully functional car part!


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^ Here goes the final product (involves 2 turning operations + 1 multiaxis milling operation). Also showing in this pic is the precision thread required to mate with the main cap (I'll explain later how this 'permanently' thread locks)


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^ Same part, upside down, showing the 5 clips.


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^ View from inside a Porsche wheel (sorry for the messy pic!). The clamping is phenomenally accurate and amazingly strong. It does snap nasty in there and its goes in with a loud and clear “SNAP” noise. Absolutely love Acetal. Nothing better (dare to challenge me here). The bad news: the wheel will need to be removed off the car if you plan on removing your center cap. It just won't come out without a good push from behind the hub. Call it "Anti-Thief System" :cool:


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^ Quickly snapped in my old Twisties wheel hub. Again, flawless. Sits flat and pressed onto the edge of the hub by-pressure as intended and not moving in any direction. Unlike the CGT style cap, this Acetal adapter concept will ensure that when you install your center cap, you'll be dead sure it is concentric to the hub and not offset. Something that was hard to acheive, but not impossible, with the previous CGT style design.


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^ Here goes the two fixtures I ended up having to machine to hold the workpiece for the various CAM operations involved. The first fixture (nearest) will in use later this evening to machine the main aluminum cap.


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^ Same fixtures. This one showing how I mount the hub adapter so I can machine/turn the OD profile and also this is how it mounts into the 4th axis rotary to mill the clip using the multiaxis toolpaths you’ve seen in the toolpath pic4 (previous post).


Enjoy!

Off to machining the Main Center Cap and Center's center (aluminum)
 

The last fixture I'll have to do later this evening (finally). Shows how I'll clamp the disk shape center between my vice jaws (they are in fact softjaws, made out of aluminum). You can see the CAM toolpath work on those for the milling operations.

If all goes well I'll be able to start anodizing this tomorrow late afternoon (shoulder hurt like crap though :/). We'll see, might have a fully functional prototype to play with this weekend!


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This is absolutely brilliant! I need a price and colour options immediately!

haha thanks bud :cheers:

RE colors, have a quick look at post#1. Expect the same line... gun metal, blue, red, black(my fav!), etc. Not sure I'll do the orange ever again as this never really turns out good anyway.

RE price, well you guessed: US$16,499 (each). Seriously, and until we've finished machining all of this, we won't know. We'll calculate the time it takes (in CNC minutes), calc the material cost for a kit, and figure out a end price for the kit based on this (add 5% for the machine electricity). Sincerely hope to get them cheaper than what a 'cheap plastic' OEM Porsche cap kits goes for ;) wish me luck man

LOVE YOUR SKILLS !!!! Keep up the good work . As soon as you can come up with your color offerings get them on here so people can start thinking about what to order .
I have some aftermarket wheels and I " think " the center cap hole is different than Porsche OEM . Will you be able to alter the diameter of the locking portion and maintain all the other dimensions ?

Thanks Rick! Tell you how I managed to get the standard Porsche wheel center/hub accuracy to 0.01mm tolerance (keep secret loll)

1. Fill/compress the wheel center with clay (or anything that doesn't shrink when drying)
2. Let dry overnight in a dry and warm room
3. Hammer it out from the back/rotor side of the wheel, so to keep the chamfer relief
4. Measure with a precision/metric vernier (caliper?)

If you can do this then I think I can help you out with custom. If not then based on luck bud

Happy Chinese New Year!!!
 

And that is how one is spending his Chinese New Year eve! Making some cool car parts and drinking Champagne (Chinese version of it, of course :o )

In fear to destroy this masterpiece's reputation, I'll wait for tomorrow's day light to take much better pictures. No idea how to set a DSLR camera for a dark evening dinner table shot and photoshop just can't fix a drama like that. Oh, I've anodized a blue one also. Both look absolutely majestic.... wait and see!

Total happiness. Look & feel is surprisingly everything I was aiming for; low profile, perfect fit, humble but looking very expansive ;)

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Do you have any other color options for the center cap crest?

I have a black/silver crest and am currently running black/silver wheel crests, and I am thinking the gunmetal center caps with a black/silver crest would be a good match for me. Although the colored Porsche crest is classic and goes with everything...

Here is what I am talking about.

My hood crest:
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My current wheel crests (made by stripping an old set of metal colored crests, then painting silver, then a very light covering of black that I then sanded off to reveal the silver underneath.

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Something like that maybe?

I'll ask the manufacturer is he's willing to run a 'small' batch of silver for you. Not sure what you'll do with the remaining 496 crests though. Can I take a few off you?! ;)

But seriously, that silver a good idea Steve (speaking of a humble look). I'll see what I can do to convince him to run this low'er for us and let you and other know. Got to wait until CNY is passed though... out of a billion+ ppl nobody other than myself works during that time of the year. Stay tuned buddy

(ps. thx for the idea btw :cool: )

I could put them on all my other cars :)

This looks AMAZING! you have out done yourself once again :cheers:

Too kind man, thanks!!!

Beautiful, Fred. Like the champagne flutes in the background; love the new product.

Glad Chinese New Year's firework finally stopped. War zone stuff. Had time this afternoon to take those prototypes out for a ride in the front garden for their first photo-shoot. Guess it's official now "I really sux at taking pics" lollll

I do have medium-to-great skills in Photoshop however e.g that first pic is the bleu cap in grayscale (faked). Tried to mimic what it would look like in Gun Metal but it did canceled the shine that gun metal naturally comes with. Regardless, gives a good idea!

Using my old twities here as this is probably the most popular wheel in use these days. Gives a good idea of how those protrude out of the wheel and how the fit looks like. I promise I'll rig some rendering of the same wheel, and others (e.g. Carrera Sport 18s) both in silver and in black wheel colors for you guys to see.

Do we need laser markings on those? They look like they could do with some ;)

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They look great; love the profile. I agree that the laser markings would be a plus, if similar to those on the higher profile caps. Great work, Fred. Amazing.

hmm I agree too. I think I'll just use the previous laser script so we can retain consistency between both style, and future ones(who knows)

Thx Kevin

新年快乐!

Ahhhhh the old balance feature hidden under the crest trick.....my brain is too dull these days to have figured this out was wondering about this on the CGT models.

Have a great celebration!

Fred Now you got me thinking of how to protect these works of art. I can't imagine that many tire shops would remove the caps with the care that they deserve so, I'm thinking about a tool, wouldn't take much, round tapered fitting with a handle and stops, that could be inserted from the backside of the wheel that would compress the locking clips only enough to remove the caps for wheel/tire service. Might provide for ease of removal and not stress the clips. Yeah I think these caps are that nice.

Good call and observation. Point taken

Clip's stress is accounted for "if they don't bend passed their contact path" (contact path: see CAE video). So it will be okay to apply a flat object on a clip and gently knock the clips out as you do with any other CC. Works actually quite well. What you CAN'T do is e.g. use a flat screw driver and pry them off. But I'm convinced that most shops wouldn't do that and knows the 'knock on cap' technique. Could be wrong, you just never know (good luck to you guys lollll)

Could add a Owner's Manual with the kit ;) Maybe a small sticker inside the cap would be better

So to remove these caps you remove the wheel/tire assy from the car and take something like a hammer handle and hit it to pop them out correct ? I see nothing wrong with that . Really can't think of a circumstance where the cap has to be removed while the wheel/tire are still on the car ?
Oh and silver color is what I would want also .

I'm going to need a set in red Fred! I should just send you my visa number for any of your future creations lol

Thanks Martin, will be in touch soon (loll visa#)

Correct. Align a flat surface onto one or two clips and knock it out of its place basically. I've re-used the common clip concept so everything will 'feel' deja-vu when you do it for the first time, no worries on that. Just need to be careful when you do, hold the cap with the other hand because they kinda 'pop' out at much higher velocity than the porsche caps lollll

Again, Acetal; nasty strong. They clamp with 8702psi of pressure (60megapascal) so don't think anyone will be able to pull them from the outside manually. Sadly you'll need to remove the wheel if you need to remove your cap (for whatever reason you'd had other than wheel balancing).

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Options
 

Fred, again, your work is simply outstanding and I will want a set of these regardless of
the final design. I also realize that you cannot accommodate everyone but, by chance, will there be any availability for options? I am a one for simple tastes. I think the "Porsche" wording at 180 degree on the cap works well but the added laser markings detract from the overall beauty and simplicity of the design. Either way they are a winner.

hmmm. You are not the first who tells me this. Got the vector file open now but will wait until I have a few drafts before uploading samples. Hope you can stick around and let me know what you think when this comes out mate (in few days I guess).

thx btw

I really like the look of these, you come up with best ideas. I would like to put in my vote for a black and orange version as it's the best color combination on a boxster, or at least it is on the one I drive.

Alex

These really look fantastic, I will definitely be interested in acquiring a set.

Jim

Alex, thanks! Agree on the color combo, not bad looking at all however I don't plan on getting them in that combo. Not that I don;t want, its because I can;t mate. Just won't match to that orange tone you are talking about (gt3 rs?)

My advice is as soon as they available ask me to clear anodized them. I'll seal them as they come out of the distilled cold water rinse and bag/seal them right after the dry. That way when you receive them they are essentially degreased and ready for spraying. No primer is required as anodizing open pores in the aluminum (if not sealed after) and that's what makes paint hold so well. Anyway, that's one option for you bud

Jim - thanks and looking forward! Keeping a set for you in case you are still interested when they come out :cheers:

I am looking forward to these! Only things I'll need to decide is whether to buy red or silver and if there is an alternative option to the center crest. How do people think the red would look with red brake calipers and either 18 inch Lt. Carrera or 17 inch Boxster II wheels in their stock silver car on a seal gray car? I already have Fred's projector beams in gunmetal, so maybe gunmetal would be the way to go?