I know we’re all fans here so no real need to debate the capabilities of our machines but this is sort of a big deal for me and I feel the need to share.
First a bit of backstory: My wife bought an FTR 1200 a few years back and loves pretty much everything about the bike except the factory gas cap. The design of the OE piece requires a LOT of torque to be applied to the key in order to close the cap after fueling. Enough to make it feel like the key will eventually bend or break. No worries, I thought, I’ll just buy her an aftermarket keyless part and swap it out. Turns out, no such part exists for this particular bike and even more, lots of people are complaining about that lack of aftermarket support. No problem, I think to myself, I’m an engineer and a “machinist” so I’ll just design and make a replacement for her. The first functional prototype went on her bike about a year later thanks to lots of other projects getting in the way. Another year later and I had refined the design and process enough, along with building a production ready machining fixture, and these things are flying out my door faster than I can make them.
So far I’ve produced about 100 caps. Each is built from 3 machined parts, a spring, dowel pin, and assembly screws. They’ve been released in batches of 30-45 at a time and every time I announce a new drop, they all but sell out overnight (except for a couple colors that aren’t terribly popular). My little enterprise has seen me shipping parts to most of the US, along with UK, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, and Canada. Not too shabby for somethingt that was only ever intended to solve a personal issue.
More product ideas have since been brewing but this has kept me busy enough outside of my day job that nothing else has yet seen the light of day. Who knows what the future will bring though? In any event, maybe this will inspire someone else to “see a need, fill a need” or maybe it’s just me patting myself on the back. Either way, here’s some pretty pictures of shiny metal parts.
Wow. That is pretty cool. I’m impressed and have a few questions.
Any chance you will show off your fixture? I always like seeing how people fixture things.
Do you have a special process for the decal or is that a regular sticker?
As do I. The other ideas stirring around in the ol’ brain bucket are equally nichey but respond to similar community complaints so with some luck, those will get off the ground in the not too distant future.
Here’s my fixture design (turns out I only have video of the real one in use, no pictures). I’m a big fan of progressive fixturing whenever possible. For my purposes, it’s helpful to get a steady stream of finished parts along with the WIP. This lets me catch issues without a ton of in process inspection and before I end up with piles of scrap. Left side accepts raw material for 2 of each component, right side completes all of those parts. 12 tools involved including a chip fan to blow everything off at the end of the cycle and a total cycle time of about 1 hour, 45 minutes to complete both sides.
The decal is actually an engraving I do on my MOPA laser marker.
I’ve got quite a few videos showing little snippets of the process on my smellydog_machine instagram. Anything machining related has the #madewithtormach tag on it
That’s a great story and awesome work. More than a few empires have been launched by simple little ideas that originated from personal needs. I hope this becomes something really big for you.
Very nice product. It is a nice sense of accomplishment. I too developy a productearly this year. 2 variations of a safety for the M&P Sheild. Just shy of a 1000 units this year. Im affraid to advertise. I dont think i could keep up. It adds 50% to my income from being a Toolmaker during the day. Working on one for a SIG too. 1% of that market will likely make me quit the day job.
I was in the firearms industry for about 15 years. There’s some incredible money to be made there but the volatility of the market is more than I care to continue dealing with. There’s just too much political grandstanding on both sides of the aisle and far too many people (again on both sides) have too little education in the subject. The result is so much screaming and name calling that I just don’t feel it’s worth it to me. I’ve had a few inquiries about making this or that part to fit certain models and I don’t have a problem doing that, I just don’t care to have a product of my own in that space.
That said, sounds like you’re doing really well with yours so congrats! I do hope it continues for you.
