homemade tork converter?

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jr dragster T

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I would have a couple blocks of solid aluminum and a 180 thousand dollar CNC machine and a 170 thousand dollar+ lathe. Lol I dont think anyone here on thos forum has built there on converter.
 

modelengineer

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I don't think you'd need CNC machines just to make a torque convertor. I think I could make one in my workshop on manual machines, but I've never seen the internal mechanism of one, and I can't see the point because I find that manually shifting the gears is MUCH more fun.

How would you go about it?
You'd need a lathe ($3,000), a milling toolpost ($500) or milling machine ($4,000) + tooling ($$$$) and THEN you could think about machining one. It's not just a backyard project for the afternoon, it's a serious undertaking to build one of those.
Of course, if you did build a successful one you could make many and sell them.
 

Kenny_McCormic

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There are a lot of angles and such that must be very smooth, almost all of it would be lathe work, very little milling. All but the VERY VERY best of these things are stamped sheet metal for a reason.
 
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are school has a huge cnc machine and like half a million in lathes and tools, im not woried about that, it would be fun to make it manual and not automatic
 

jr dragster T

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Are Kenny and modelengineer Joking me? Do you know how many part's would need to be milled? Plus I dont think a manuel machine would be good enough. When something spins 6-7 k RPM Parts have to be machined to VERY tight tolerences. There's more stress on a clutch than a flywheel. So if your worried about a flywheel exploding on you then dont event think of trying to make your own clutch on manuel machines.
 

Jerryburger

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Probably the best Poor-Man's torque coverter would be carefully picking and choosing old sno-mo parts on ebay. A LOT of it is adaptable for our use, without expensive machinery. Those little arctic cat "kitty cats" are good to rob.....
 

modelengineer

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Tyler,

My manual lathe will turn to within 0.0001" concentricity and size, and that's easily good enough for even the best flywheels.
CNC isn't the be all and end all of machining. Manual machines can make VERY accurate parts.
When I find time I will point you to the thread on another forum that I visit where someone made a steam/air turbine on manual machines. 30,000 RPM and it doesn't vibrate at all! He reckons it will go to 100,000 RPM if he can get some special ceramic bearings.
 

modelengineer

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As someone who builds miniature internal combustion engines from scratch (well... almost done with my first 1!), there is comparatively little milling inside a torque convertor.
 

jr dragster T

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Ok you guy's can think what you want. Maybe you guy's arent trying to build the same style that's on my Junior Dragster. But if you are I KNOW the ammount of milling required to build one because I worked at that machine shop for a little while.
 
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