Watching This Miniature Flat Plane Crankshaft Being Machined From A Piece Of Bar Stock Is Gearhead Zen


Watching This Miniature Flat Plane Crankshaft Being Machined From A Piece Of Bar Stock Is Gearhead Zen

It may seem bizarre to say this out loud but some of the most honest and hardcore hot rodding in the world today happens in miniature engines. The guys who build these from scratch do not have a catalog of piston and cylinder head makers to order from nor do they have the latest and most advanced machining equipment. What they do have is skill, creativity, and near unyielding patience to make the parts that actually all fit together and work. Take this video below for example. The film shows the process that one guy used to machine the flat plane V8 crank he needed for his ONE ci engine from a piece of bar stock and it rules all.

Each step is unique and cool in its own right but the second to last step we see with the counter weights being worked on it our favorite. The nice shaping and contouring that is used just blew us away. Of course, being a flat plane job most of that goodness got milled off in the next machining process, but we think you will dig it too.

It is one thing to marvel at how small the piece is and you can tell by the coil placed next to it for scale at one point but there’s another angle to this that you need to consider and that is the precision end. One small mistake and this piece goes back into the scrap pile. The pain of that happening while cutting the first journal would be one thing but imagine it happening at the very end and having to scrap it? Since this is powering some sort of awesome model airplane, chances are the concern level for engine performance is pretty flipping high.

BangShifters will dig this look into the world of tiny engines and the detail work that goes into creating those little buzzing wonders.


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