Manufacturer Said This Part is $700, So I Replicated it for MUCH Less 

What he said

spot on its a milkpak valve must must must not have any sharp edges

What I came here to say. I remember these from the mess decks in the Navy. The tight tolerances really aren't necessary. You literally could make this thing with a drill and hand file in less than a half hour.

@@RichSobocinski lol Im watching this and like 6 minutes in im yawning at the whole fusion 360 programming thinking We could have made this in 5 minutes with our hand tools

@@Hammerjockeyrepair Simple drill presss and sander! ...OR, weld the broken part and finish.

That's exactly what I was going to say. We had these in college dorms back in the 70s. Everything needs to come apart for cleaning. And stainless should look spotless like any other piece of food handling equipment.

i could be wrong but i am guessing since he had to weld it the mechanism was not built to be taken apart like he did. i do agree that using a stainless steel bolt would have made things easier to fix in the future and easier to clean if needed but i don't think it would be a big deal especially if it just acts like a guillotine pinching off the hose. i would guess for health reason the hose it pinches has to be cleaned or replaced regularly but doubt the side where you don't touch would be a big issue.

@@crazzywolfie That makes perfect sense, but my recollection (it's been awhile) is that food-related equipment has to really be stripped down to every little piece for sanitation, much farther than one might expect. That's why that "sh*** bolt" he refers to at 17:12 was not permanently installed in the first place. Perhaps it had been threaded and the threads stripped, I don't know. In terms of the milk tube, unless things have changed, each container of milk has its own rubber tube. Back in the day, milk came in special boxes that had a 5 or 6-gallon bag inside, with its own tube. You lifted this heavy box of milk (milk weighs around 8-1/2 lbs/gallon) into the refrigerated dispenser and threaded the tube down into the valve mechanism, and then removed some kind of clip (my memory is hazy) so that the milk was then controlled by the dispenser valve. When it was empty, you pulled out the box and replaced it. I saw an example of a similar machine online; search for Silver King SKMAJ1/C3. Sorry to ramble.

@@crazzywolfie it did not have to be welded, it is built to come apart.

@@crazzywolfie The housing was zinc and I think the threads were chowdered. I'm confused as to why he didn't just drill it all the way through and use a new bolt and lock nut. I mean the hole went all the way through anyway for him to be able to weld it. That would be kind of embarrassing to leave a little weld blob on the side of the end of a bolt holding it in place. You could also probably just use a quick release pin.

I wish i could give this comment 3 thumbs up.

An hour is a stretch. ITs like 20-30 minutes to mesuare small part like that and than cut it. If he did it off cam it would be faster.

Software = free, fancy machinery = DIY-able with pretty decent quality and precision (great for hobbyists, not all that great for extremely precise commercial stuff) for less than 500 bucks if you buy everything new, using none of your own spare stuff, and keep the expensive components (like a spindle motor) to sites like Aliexpress, banggood etc. Mostly though, its a great thing to make for fun, and the reward is a finished product and the ability to make MORE things for fun! Highly recommend giving it a shot if you're a handyman type of guy, for some people a little project like that can lead to amazing things

I would've just bought a thin bit of sheet steel from a DIY store and used a hacksaw and drill. Mind you, I do charge $700 an hour so...

Even cheaper

I was literally screaming that at the screen when he said he was going to weld it.

Yes! That was exactly what I was thinking. That would have been so simple. A pin with a cotter pin costs like 50 cents at the hardware store. Or even just a longer bolt with just the end threaded. There are a bunch of different ways to accomplish that, all of them better than welding it in place.

Thank you for the kind words friend! We go back and forth on whether or not people will find videos like these boring or interesting, glad you found it interesting! Cheers, Tay

This comment meant the world to me, thank you! -Tay

@@LiftArcStudios You are welcome!

As always Jared, you're the man! Thank you! - Tay

@@LiftArcStudios your very welcome.

Does it matter?

@@AlliPrice371 not really 700 dollars for that assembly is still ridiculous. 700 dollars for the little piece he made should be criminal. But if the machine is 700 and they don't piece it out I understand. So I was just curious what actually came with the 700 dollar price.

1.8625… bananas 🙄

@@brucelarcombe4679 I have no idea what that means ???

@@H4rleyBoy Here in Australia ‘banana’ is a metric-elitist term for ‘inches’. So I was having a giggle about decimal inches. Not sure why it wound up as a comment on your post, sorry about that 🙏

@@brucelarcombe4679 Yes I knew about the inches thing from watching CEE channel, but didn't see a connection to my comment :) :)

@@H4rleyBoy yup, I watch CEE too. Just a lack of talent on my part 🤣

Don't dream of it. Get a business license as an LLC or corporation (not a sole proprietor), be in business for at least one year and cashflow, and then you can finance one. Done.

Thank you! Cheers!

I wasnt even with him since the beginning... The effort and time spent just measuring and programming into the computer was so much more complicated than just making the part on the bench with the same files, a grinder and drill! And then once he tried welding that crap instead of fixing the threads I just paused and went to the comments ahaha

@@Hammerjockeyrepair for a one off, i agree with you. However, that would have made a boring video, and now he can produce aftermarket replacement parts, more or less ad libitum, could be a tidy sum all on it's own if he can just reach customers.

@@Hammerjockeyrepair effort? That like 20-30 minutes to measure it and cut on plasma table. With such simple detail it takes no time at all., Welding part of the other hand made me suffer,

Life of luxury! haha

As much as I like tigging, sometimes a nut is all you need.

My method has always been to bolt it... Frames busted? Bolt some C channel or angle iron to it! Presto! Like new again!

HAHAHA right!? It is the little things, however, like this that make me thankful to have this machine in the shop, fast track prototyping! Cheers, Tay

I've been trying to justify it too. I know it would just sit there most of the time. I'd need to find another building for the tractor too.

Depends on the criticality of the weldment and/or part. If the weld needs to be aerospace spec and x-ray, then welding on a plasma cut edge may not be a great idea. For motorcycles you are most likely going to be fine, bring the edge back to shiny metal and it welds great. As far as edge bevel, you are always going to have that with plasma. 3 degrees is normal, but you can get a straighter edge with good settings. Dimensional tolerance on the top side of the cut is easily + - .005”, even less with a proper setup. So yes, you could ream the holes to their appropriate dimension post-cut. If you are making a lot of these parts and your tolerance is tighter than the above ☝️ details, water jet and/or laser cutting is the name of the game

The way I handle this is offseting the toolpath by half the kerf plus the taper- since almost all processes benefit from an edge sanding, I then do a quick second operation on a spindle sander just to take out the taper, working small side up the edge works as a visual guide and it takes very little time. Although I know people here with both laser and waterjet, I can actually get my parts laser cut in Madrid for roughly the cost of the steel here, with a two week lead time. So in most cases I do that and then deburr and second operations like profiling, milling, reaming, chamfers, or flycutting here in my shop. If you normally use 1/8" and 1/4" plate they call it 3mm and 6mm respectively over there, the 6mm 304 I get from there is actually toleranced closer to .250 than the domestic 1/4" I get here. My opinion is that getting a waterjet for metal is daft in today's market, they are so messy and PITA to maintain. For the cost of a waterjet you can get a hybrid laser, not have to deal with a water table or sludge, have a machine that can be left idle with no downside, etc. Plasma is cheapest, but also worst. Just as an example, he could have got that part in two days from Reno for $14 (OK, he would have had to order $29 total to cover shipping) in 304 SS, and that is from SendCutSend, they are TWICE the cost of my supplier. So if you are building motorcyles and not mass producing motorcycle parts, your floor space may be more valuable than a waterjet or plasma, don't forget with either you also need to inventory and store material and scrap. Precut parts arriving 30 at a time in a box may be a better solution. I know it is for me.

You dont. Even plasma manufaturer will tell you that metall 12+mm thick will have angled cut. Its in the nature of using plasma. Unlike pressure watter cutting or laser you electrical arc is dancing around a bit. You REALLY dont want to cut hole with diametres less that 4 time thickness of your metall unless you plan to finish them on the other tool. You will get angled cut on round holes. You might have 50 mm on one side and 49 mm hole on the other side, for example. They try to sell you "fine cut" torches and "true hole" addons but even so they would not promise you good results. You want perfect edges and holes? Use milling machine and drill holes afterwards. Plasma cutting is just a first step in making new part unless you do not require precision.

Ugh. Just got to the bit where you started welding on the casting.. You could have turned up a pin with a clip or cotter without altering the device at all.

Pure genius...I'm definitely trying that next time. Cheers! -Tay

@@LiftArcStudios You don't even need a scanner. Take a picture of it > Import pic into Fusion 360 > Scale the picture to the dimension and then sketch over top of the picture

@@V8Hunter7 This^^^ I have been able to perfectly replicate intricate small parts with various small holes this way. It creates a 1:1 image you use as a stencil you then simply model over.

@@V8Hunter7 you could have parallax issues with a camera photo, way less parallax with a flatbed scanner.

You kinda do it like that for small parts, yes. But you still need to measure it manually to check yourself.

20-30 minutes at worst. You take a part, measure it, draw in 2d in your cad programm (3d is just to self check unless you create an assebly from several parts), throw it into cnc programm (settings he set in that programm and merging of lines is supposed to be automatic in nornam apps), download it to your cnc controller thats it. Change your plasma ampertage and cutting materials if needed, press on button and chill. Depending on part and its configuration it might take much longer. 80% of time is spend on measuring and double checking yourself.

@@robertnomok9750 I could have made that part in ten minutes with a manual Bridgeport. CNC isn't really suited to simple one off parts. Now, if I had to make a thousand of them, yeah.

@@SomeGuyInSandy well yes, whole point to make a lot of them after wasting time on preparing cnc programm. When someone asks me to cut them one rectangle I poin them to the nearest saw,

Pretty sure no patent infringement on that one.. Milk-pack dispensers like that one have been around since the '80s at least, and the design looks like it's from the '50s or maybe even the '40s

You can also import a reference picture for things you can't hold up

Bed scanner

@@sugarbooty Reference pictures are very difficult to get straight, though. When you're working with millimeter parts, even a tiny but of skewing in your picture can really mess up any measurements you take from it after calibration. Unless you have a softbox with an overhead stand for a camera with a lens that does not distort, you're not getting the precision you'd want

@@submarine.7seas Bed scanners work great for flat objects, absolutely. It's a bit different when it's an object like a fancy ergonomic mouse or a TV remote or really any part with a curved underside, because a bed scanner will turn that curve into a gradient that is impossible to decipher. But within the context of this video, a bed scanner would have been a perfect fix and would have saved probably a solid 30-60 seconds

@@daylen577 It might not be perfect but it has helped me out a lot. I usually take pictures with my zoom lens from far away to remove as much perspective as I can. Im pretty sure you could also use dewarping software to give you a better result but I've never bothered. As a hobbyist its perfectly fine for me, I usually use it for following curves and stuff I can't easily measure

Best way to copy stuff

Have you opened up your file in another DXF editor and checked it? Probably a scaling issue. Unlees your parts are oversize and you were applying compensation- because your laser shop should be applying compensation ALSO.

My library got rid of their 3d printers. The local hackerspace sold their cnc machine.

but those are the good ones!

I'm welding a roll cage into in for a customer, being that it's only my second complete cage, i didnt have the confidence to film the whole thing and act like i know what im talking about haha. I will definitely post pictures to social media though! 1.75x.095 DOM tubing, completely TIG welded. Cheers! - Tay

He real problem with welding in that bolt is the cleaning of the parts. They must be removable for FDA inspection so the pieces can be sanitized .

It was broken. So yes, but way harder. Than taking a few measurements. If he wasn’t explaining this to us, making the CAD file takes 2 minutes.

@@M21assult in the time you would measure it and do it in cad, i would have it already done with grinder, drill press and 2 files

Yes, but I would still measure it with caliber manually to double check. Part like that are have high tolerance but if we talk about something more precise you woould rather check twice.