One of the really interesting things about buying my crankshaft grinder was where I got it- - - -King's crankshafts in Denver North Carolina. King's is a 2-generation family business, one that's been whittling billet crankshafts out of chunks of solid steel for close to 50 years. They start with a round chunk of steel over a foot in diameter, program a CNC mill to the right specifications, and end up with a custom crankshaft for a NASCAR engine, a tractor puller, or even an experimental airplane engine! Of course, years ago, all this stuff was done with a lathe and a hand-cranked milling machine, and then a manual crankshaft grinder! I bought one of their "retired" machines.
I brought up the subject of drilling oil holes in a spray-oiler crankshaft, and the owner of the business says it's something he could do, as they drill oil passages in the billet shafts they make. The first one would be a little expensive, as he would have to do all the CNC programming to make the holes come out in the right places, but others would cost considerably less once the machine knows what to do. If a few people wanted to chip in and split the costs, it might be worth considering, assuming there's enough interest to make it worth the gentleman's time to do the programming. He's definitely one of the good guys in the custom crankshaft business.
Jerry
