I'm wondering how many people who have expressed opinions on pricing are actually able to do a line bore? First, all the bearing caps have to be milled or ground .005" undersize to give the machine fresh metal to cut. Then the boring mandrel has to be set up precisely on center of the bearing saddles in the block, and moved EXACTLY .002" toward the top of the block. The actual cuting operation takes .003" out of the caps, and .002" from the block. Even with an engine that does not require four different diameter cuts, the setup time is about 2 to 3 hours. Resetting the cutter four times- - - - - -add an hour or more to the average machining time. On a gear-driven cam like a stovebolt, moving the crankshaft centerline .002" toward the top of the block, which is the normal amount of change after line-boring, does not usually make the timing gears bottom out. If I were going to use $10,000.00 worth of specialized equipment to machine main bearing bores, I certainly wouldn't discount the price because some cheapskate didn't think it was low enough.
Jerry
X2
Jerry, If you get into the business of reconditioning valves, pumps, gearboxes, compressors, etc. you could play on a line boring machine everyday but would have to get used to calling it a horizontal boring mill. Would you attempt to size all 4 bores at once in this application?
