MTFCA Forum

On face book there is a gentleman that does metal spinning, I ask a question to him wondering if he could spin some replacement Bowls for the early Holley Carbs, hir reply was get me the dimensions. These would not be exactly like the originals and I know in the past someone was cutting the "top" off originals and silver soldering a new top (ring). Read my Facebook reply, I will check with you later. "I am looking for a couple early Holly carburetor bowls, 2 and 3 screw, & Holly G, I have messaged Northwest Metal Spinning, and ask him about doing some replacement bowls, he ask for dimensions and I thought if he was sent some samples he would look into it. I have these in New York, but I am in Florida for the remainder on the winter." George Hand

George, I have limited experience with metal spinning however I have watched it firsthand and contemplated tooling up for it, but my observations have always been that this method of metal forming is more suited for larger objects such as headlamp pieces or large hubcaps. In the case of the brass carburetor bowls, wouldn't it be more cost effective to just press/stamp those? The ability to fabricate stamping dies using either PC or PLA filament in a 3D printer would be the most economical I would think for small runs (50 units or less). Thoughts??

Did you look over at their website ? They spin out fancy cups from copper & brass !

You are correct, I had forgot that, I also have not ask what thickness material was workable, they would need to be substantial enough not to create fuel leaks after being tightened several times (warp). Thanks for you input. George

The problem would be that the only bowl that could be made by only spinning is the Holley S bowl. The H1 and G bowls after spinning would still require a portion to be pressed, a hole drilled and the female 1/8” pipe thread insert soldered in for the petcock. It would probably be easier just to press them from the start. I suppose you could spin them and just drill a hole and add your own drain but it wouldn’t look right. I know it’s not that visible but it would bug me.
The initial setup would be expensive and material (brass) is more expensive than steel but somebody presses the NH center drain bowls. Then it’s supply and demand because more people favor the NH for whatever reason when the G is hands down better. It’d be a nice endeavor but not one that makes a lot of any money at all.

In this hobby, production quality tooling is almost always cost prohibitive. Even if you did invest in the tooling, minimum production quantities often produce more parts than you can hope to distribute. However, there are a number of modern prototyping technologies that can produce small production runs without permanent tooling investments. Sure, price per part is high, but no different than distributing high value tooling costs over a single production run.

Might consider hydro-forming. Here is a pic of my setup designed around carb floats. It’s home made and takes a little elbow grease to operate, but delivers top quality parts. The single die can have all shapes and features of the part, even undercuts. It’s not quick, but it’s paid for, and delivers small quantities with no hassles.

The fellow who spins the muffler ends for the mufflers i make does one-offs and small runs all the time. The only extra expense is the former he uses in his turning lathe. The former is welded to an off-the-shelf nut that screws directly onto the lathe headstock spindle. The former I was given to continue making mufflers is made of two concentric discs of steel plate. I do not know if they were machined to spec before or after the nut was welded on. Either way, making a similar die would be relatively easy. He loves working with brass. He loathes making two foot diameter stainless steel wine vat lids.
I'll have to ask him about carby bowls next time I have some muffler ends spun.

Allan from down under.

Kevin,
You never cease to amaze...

And George,
I might be intersted in a couple of the brass float bowls.

Dodge

How about brass plating some steel bowls?