OK I should have guessed that this would not be as straight forward as I thought it would, basically on Thursday I spent 4 hours demonstrating to Steve that I have no idea how to use a CNC machine properly, failed to get it homing to the start point of the work piece, and then in my efforts to solve this managed to break the software so that the machine was erroring through the Mach 3 software GUI, Never mind we decided to try the Bridgeport the following day.
Friday did not go any better either spent an hour searching Steve’s workshop for the correct chuck and drill bits to do the job failed here as well, decided after a couple of hours that it was best to cut my losses and get the bars drilled professionally, the real problem is tolerance, according to Steve the holes have to be a very tight fit so that the plugs and sockets will press fit and not fall out when the bars are heated for soldering.
Spent the next 2 weeks looking for someone who could do the job ASAP eventually found a company called Mach4 in the Newhaven industrial estate that was able to do it, however that day they said they were doing the job they called to explain much to their embarrassment that the machine that they were using had broken and was being repaired the following day the owner of the business Tim was not happy and explained that tit was costing them £300 per day while the machine was down and the maintenance company were aware of this, luckily Mach4 are a pro outfit and said that if it was not fixed by Tuesday (2 days after they said it would be done they would use another machine that had just finished a run of parts.
By the following Tuesday they called me around lunchtime to say the job was done and I took the afternoon off work as holiday so that I could pick up the bars and get them to Steve also I had to do the brake pads on my ICE car that were squealing.
So it is now Thursday 29th of August the BMMF is on the 7th (a week tomorrow) and I have booked Friday afternoon off work to wire the batteries and car up with Steve.
I just hope there is enough time left before the show to finish the car or at least get it roiling.
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