Makin' shit #1

Ok, looks like I can upload photos directly so for the time being Photobucket, Picassa et al can pound sand.

Making billet aluminum triple clamps

Get yourself some material, in this case some nice 7/8" 6061-t6 aluminum plate. The blue is dykem markout dye.

 

Make some holes.
There are a few missing steps here because I was too busy making a mess to take pictures. These are for a CB450 with the steering deraked to 25*, to keep the trail within tolerable range the offset was decreases approximately 5mm, though I'm pulling that out of my back pocket because again...I was too busy making them to pay attention once the initial calculations were done. Both plates are bolted together and all bores are started with an end mill plunge to allow for boring head clearance.

Clean out yer hole!
At this point the bores are cut to spec with one of two boring bars. These are going to house some custom built 37mm Showa cartridge forks and a Honda spec heavy wall stem. Note, the bottom clamp has some extra cutting to accommodate the larger diameter of the stem at the bottom.

(bottom stem rebore)

Here I've roughed in one cut on a ragged old bandsaw, then back to the mill to cut it to spec and a final pass with a flycutter.

 After the boundary areas are cut to shape I bore, counterbore then tap for the clamp screws.

 Using a slitting saw in the mill allows the clamp relief to be cut neatly so that when the bolt is brought to torque the fork leg will be clamped firmly in place.
 

Knocking off the corner. I'd intended to use the rotary table to make nice round ends but found that it needed some love so these are a little geometric.....

Adding some lightness (plus it looks neat too!) Not shown are a series of 5/8"d pegs tapped into the table slots at predetermined locations that allowed me to clamp the work piece down, then reposition for additional cuts and have them come out right.

And finally the finished pieces, and a lightly modified stock piece for visual reference. Note that these pieces clamp the stem in place top and bottom, not shown is the 1/8" lip and pin at the bottom of the stem to help index it to the bottom clamp. I'll try to get better at taking pictures as I go along......

Just for my Brutha Fruma Nutha Mutha Troy, here's a little Seasick Steve: Doghouse Boogie