Fred, you've made a work of art there. That center cap looks incredible, I can't wait to get a set in red :dance:

I was wondering, instead of the silver center where the porsche crest is, could you possibly make it all red?

Randy

Randy, the AL for the center cap (6061) and the AL for center/center (6063) is not the same grade. They just won't anodize the same red/tone. I haven't tried on those particularly mind you but pretty sure it wont. Perfectly fine for neutral gray & black but not for red & blue.

Why diff materials you may asked; we need that 6063/'gummy' aluminum so when faced the surface finish becomes mirror like. Hard to get with the 6061, especially for a flat surface. The 6061 is for the cap... you don't want that part 'mirror' looking or it'll look silly lollll

Therefore, the center/center's options are black or natural aluminum color only (i.e clear anodized).

ps: if really (really really) you need this in red I can see if I can find some extra 6061 for you man. Just let me know how bad you need this red lolll

I really really definitely, really really want this in red lolol... ONLY if its not too much to ask for of course.

ALSO, I'd like another set of these caps in black/black with gold crest. Father's Bday is coming up, seems like a great idea.

(crosses fingers Fred finds more 6061.... :))

So, is there an official way of placing an order? If not, what I want is a set of black ones with aluminum center, a regular crest and no laser engraving.

There are no words to describe how awesome this is!

Skickat från min Nexus 7 via Tapatalk

Hi Fred,

Can you let me know if its possible to have the centre/centre in black with colour logo (I think you said it is) and how much to ship to the UK. I am definitely interested.

I applaud not only your engineering skills but your patience in producing the videos and replying to the techy stuff.

Terry

Hi Terry, yes absolutely feasible. Good taste if I may add :cheers: I'll keep a kit for you mate. Actually planned on getting a few more done but somehow this overstock is getting lower by the day. Thanks for letting me know in advance. ps: you haven't seen the techy stuff yet, wait until I post vids of the machine cutting this thing high speed. Automation stuff.....

Haha thanks for the kind words! Painting the good side of things... not always fun aka-easy little porsche caps. Not only doing my own parts but also manufacture very complex parts (bike/motorsports + medical) to pay for that shop and software. Those parts that nobody wants to mfg here, or incapable of doing so possibly loll Hard work man...

No official way atm but Coming Soon! I had the eCommerce security & back-end done a few months ago but never really managed to finish a skin for that little tool. Here goes a quick preview of what it may look like (grid system, mobile compatible). This site is for the Projector kits really so don't expect to have those caps on there for more than two week! or less... I wouldn't be surprised

... pls don't mind the dummy text lolll That'll change, with the exception of the free shipping part ;)

EDIT: wooof did I uploaded a pic of a non-released website?! What was in my morning coffee. Pic removed, for now.
EDIT: I'll pass on Paypal instruction once I got your color & made-to-order preferences (I'll PM, and post here)

I have a Guards Red with black wheels, should look good!

Black for Bad... two bad options for us also! Personally prefer the B-on-B but saying this... I've never seen one with a silver center in person, yet anyway. Both look amazing, it is just making it harder for you to chose... is the only difference ;)


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1488052817.jpg


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1488052827.jpg

This is exactly what I want, except for the text. Thanks for showing me! :)

(Although they will be mounted on silver Boxster S wheels.)

Admit this is a brilliant idea!!!

Script can be made-to-order. However, "do your own" hehe. Here goes the sizing for the template you'd need to use for that to happen. Won;t accept JPG or anything pixelated. Has to be vector based and font included (or outlined at least). I have Illustrator and Corel here installed on the laser workstaion (*.ai, eps, pdf, cdr, etc)

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1488057424.jpg


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02...1488056352.jpg

Black on black please let me know how much and how to pay

Terry

I remain at the ready to place my order!

Put me in for gun metal gray and silver Fred. Thanks for all your work.

Well received, gentlemen! Keeping a kit for you guys :cheers:

That is seriously awesome! Unfortunately I'm in the Italian Alps skiing at the moment. I'm also quite lazy, so just black will be fine. ;)

Feel free to sign me up for a set.

Great, thanks, look forward to hearing from you.

I'm in for a set of gun metal grey.

I *need* a set of these in red/silver.

Any chance you still have the Red Sox graphic from my winshield? I do not have the talent myself to try and get that together in the template here - thinking that may look cool though on the red ones.

Would that be possible?

@Coaster
@thatguychad
@soxfan1966
Seen your note a few days ago... you guys really got in just in time! I've planed a kit for you guys. Soxfan please clarify if you want the redsox logo to replace the P badge. If replacing the script then let me know what you'd need in place e.g. "Official Major League Baseball - Boston Redsox rocks" or something of the like? Just thinking out loud here

Running in the backorder already... and being harassed (literally) from an online shop owner here in SH who wants 50kits just for himself. Calling me twice per day, often he does :/ Looks like I'll have to do another run of those caps eventually (or possibly not, dunno yet). Pisses me off because they are not all that easy to do... lots of set-up and fixtures here & there. Not even yet anodized lollll

I was only thinking of the Sox logo replacing the Porsche logo.

Script as is OK with me. Do you think it would work?

Crybaby. Back in the 70s when I was a child-laborer we had it tough. I'd spend my after school hours working with a 1940s era Bridgeport machine for pennies an hour, breathing toxic fumes and bathing in fluids known to cause 47 different types of cancer. None of this fancy CNC stuff. Quit your whining and set up that second run. :ah:

(:D)

Is it too late bag a set?
Cheers
David

Excellent! Please PM me details when you have them.

Wow, 47 diff types of cancer? What an improvement, we are down to 17 these days. Think I caught 6 already but here's the trick; you have to inhale PMMA smoke cut by a laser and breath Acetal fumes off the lathe - anything living/growing inside you instantly dies :D

Had a dust & mist collector installed in the shop right above the machines. Perfectly fine for Andy who is sitting at the desk and watching his silly illegal movies, but the wiffs you get when opening the CNC machine doors every 2~3min is like nothing I've smoked before. $6k fan.... use-Fn-less lollll

@David - I'll run another batch of those in a few weeks. That run is sold-out... already half way done and can't go backward (only have two machines loll). Wouldn't be fair for those who are waiting for their kits. So next run, I'll shoot you a note and post here no worries

@Soxfan - got ya. As soon as I get back to the render workstation I'll draft something for you bud. Let's see what it looks like first ;)

I'll probably get in the line to purchase when you make the second manufacturing run.

Hey Don - very unlikely I'll be doing another run but will try my very best. Certainly won't happen anytime soon I'm sure of that :/ Perhaps early summer if all goes as plan on my side. We'll see...

Quick update:

I have a new coolant pump, and the accuracy of my cnc turning center have never been better! Seriously, the Acetal dust from previous machining got stuck in a small T pipe in-the-tool-turret... as-in where the coolant comes out :/ Long story short, I have a new pump! and clean turret internals (and wasted 1.5 full day/night of work)

Other than that, got 986 million adapters fully machined. And yes I've "vacuum" the milling center this time. Can't afford another of those pump lolll

Inspection on the adapeter next (once they are cleaned) and we are done with that part! I'll let you know how many failed lollll

In a meantime, I'm doing the center aluminum caps this Wed, Thurs and Fri!

In the Media this week:

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/011488944985.jpg
^ Got a few more than a few of those adapters. Hopefully they will all be within the 0.05 tolerance/spec after inspection. For a 4 (four) operations part, that'd be a miracle lolll


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/01a1488945069.jpg
^ The Great Porsche Center Cap is not all that easy to do. Following pic showing the 3 lathe operations + 1 multi-axis milling... and that is just for the adapter!


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/01b1488945099.jpg
^ Custom precision fixture to machine the third op. This is the most critical as we need parallelism and concentrically down to 0.05mm precision. The four screw do just that... adjust the concentrically (trade secrets online, there you go...)


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/01c1488945274.jpg
^ Done with the Acetal! That machine needed a serious clean-up :/ Acetal is fun to machine but got to be vacuum after... so I've recently learn :/


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/021488945323.jpg
^ Moving to the last operation (multiaxis milling). Following 3 pics are visuals of the another custom precision fixture (jig). These fixtures just take 1.5 days to do sometimes... they are as good as the required precision of the part they accommodate.

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/031488945380.jpg

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/041488945392.jpg


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/051488945408.jpg
^ Favorite tooling for dialing the 4axis and fixture. All have to be withon 0.05mm. Ridiculous for a center caps I know but hey... they are for Porsche cars ;)

Thanks for the update, Fred! Ignore the first part of the PM I just sent you! ;)

No worries, I'll respond as soon as I find out myself. Give me a few days ;)

Some clips I've put together last Sunday (tried, anyway). I'm a VJ lolll

That fixture above, on the picture. Funny how it takes 1+min to setup the blank part in it but it takes 23seconds to machine. Frustrating when this scenario happen. God bless robots

Real-time setup and machining
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WiS1yeakvDw?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


CAM Simulation of the adapter
<iframe width="800" height="435" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jrHQK3GbRtc?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I haven't seen any sort of confirmation, so I really, really, really hope I'm on the list... :confused:

Very cool videos!!!

look at that machine work it!

Amazing job as always Fred :cheers:

You certainly are bud! Keeping those black on silver just for you (no script)

The one who I fear "is out" is myself. Not sure I'll have enough as I've just thrown 2 kits (7x adapters) in the bin a few hours ago. Took a break from the noise and cleaned & inspected them one-by-one. Goes quick after your third coffee :D

Bench top style, as-in manual inspection here. The every sane person's suicidal tendencies test! The repetitive hypnosis....

dangerous job man

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/011489103774.jpg

We average 0.02~0.03mm tolerance on the parallelism. Meaning, if you are driving your posrche car at the speed-of-sound, or above?!, then the kit should (will) prematurely fail. If installed on anything else than a space ship, that kit should (will) be good for life ;)

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/021489103783.jpg

^ That is the kind of part that some may consider 'semi-precision' (in USA, Germany for instance). In China they consider this 'unpractical' lolll

Fascinating stuff, Fred. Kudos!

Yeah... About that... :rolleyes:
Is it too late to email you an idea for laser engraving?
I'm a watch geek as well, and I just thought of something without a text, that slightly resembles the bezel ring on a diver watch...
http://i.imgur.com/HDTYimR.png
I have it in Illustrator format, with the correct measurements too.
(Obviously, the triangle should be aligned straight above the Porsche crest.)

Edit: Never mind mailing, it's here: http://home.fridsten.se/tmp/center-caps.ai
(Having a web server at home is a good thing. ;))

Still watching you Fred, amazing stuff!
Terry

@Terry - thanks bud. Trying to entertain the best I can ;)

@fridsten - Perfectly doable and looking forward. I'll shoot my addy as soon as I'm ready to laser. Keep this vector ready, lookin'goog (1+week)

Quick update:

Firstly, I apologize to all who are waiting for this kit. This seems to be slightly taking longer than initially planed and hoped for :/ I bet you will all appreciate that I also have other things to do in between. Such as walking my two dogs @ midnight every single day (sometimes twice!). That's right, priority #1 are my puppies, sorry fellas loll

Anyway, at least we are going in the right direction. Nothing is rushed so everything is going smooth and as planned(technically, anyway).

We we're hoping for the Best Porsche Center Caps In-The-Wolrd, and from the look of it, we are going to get just that!!!

In the Media this week:

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/011489450589.jpg

^ This is what is turning in Shanghai! 6x half meter long 50mm diameter aluminum rods.... To make the center/center - the part that accomodate the badge!


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/021489450613.jpg

^ Very (very) satisfied with the performance of that little lathe. Getting some pretty yummy parts of it it. A little 2x tons lathe... should, right?!


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/031489450645.jpg

^ That pile of centers (left hand side) are failed right off the machining lolll. Took a while to setup (external) coolant to spray correctly so to not have chips ruining te parts. Some literally flew off the cutter and knocked on solid steel leaving marks about the size of our universe :/ Good throw coins for sure lolll


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/041489450681.jpg

^ More precision fixture machining. Those are soft-jaws (aluminum) and meant at clamping the parts without leaving 'marks' on them. Had to do two sets... one for the centers and one for the main cap itself.


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/04a1489450724.jpg

^ An idea of how the fixture (vise blocks) works out


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/061489450777.jpg

^ Here a shot of the vise with the un-featured softjaws. I'll bore this tomorrow late evening (can;t wait)


http://986forum.com/forums/uploads02/071489450807.jpg

^ The milling center I have here is so well trammed and squared, I am able to square these block within more or less 0.005mm tolerance with this tool alone - A face milling cutter. Watch your fingers (and wrists, I thinkloll)

So yea... all good fun for sure! Thanks for watching guys... I'll update in the end of the week with the latest. This thing should start to take shape by then.


Some Videos:


Real-time setup and machining
<iframe width="800" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5C69exHj2kc?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


CAM Simulation of the adapter
<iframe width="800" height="435" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IrQxDGW4CJo?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I am in no hurry so don't feel pressured! On another issue does that mean the lettering can say anything or is there a lot of work involved in changing the wording?

Don't know if I missed the boat but if possible I would love two sets: a gunmetal set with silver cap and a red set. If you have some still let me know how to pay you.

Regardless of whether I get into this buy or not, your work is absolutely STUNNING!