Nedwreck
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- September 2, 2008
- Messages
- 411
- Reaction score
- 4
- City, State
- Kentucky, Y'all!
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '93 xlt, '92 4x4
I'm just saying it looks like it could be mass produced pretty cheaply. Long ago I worked for a trailer manufacturer. Massive presses would stamp and and cut metal into mounts, brackets and things at a rate of about 10 a minute. It took that long because we had to place the steel in there and retrieve the stamped part. Had a friend loose 3 fingers from those damn machines.
your right, One off'ing this thing would take a long time. But if you built a die, you could press out several dozen an hour, significantly reducing production costs. Look... its got a few bends and 3 "U" bolts. I can get a armored diff cover for under $100. I'm just not impressed for that money is all.
I do industrial machine maintenance at a factory that stamps Ford body panels (Yes, we used to do 91-94 explorer bodysides, hatches, hoods, roofs.. etc.. but we have nothing for them now).
You could prob'ly do that in one or two hits at 16spm (strokes per minute) in the right press, robot loaded and auto-ejected, but would it be cost effective? lol
8.8's are pretty common tho...
However, a motivated fab shop with a BiG metal brake should be able to do the first one of these in an hour (or two TOPS), and any more after that get faster... (measurements, angles, weld-ons, all that stuff pre-engineered).
anyway... back to topic (and sorry for the ramble)...