Drilling A Hole Through a Camshaft?
 

I had a neat idea to build a lamp using an L98 camshaft as the post. Threading the socket into one end will be relatively easy, but any tips on how to drill a hole straight through it so I can run the wire? If you think I should just take it to a machine shop, anyone have a place in mind that can do it?

Thanks in advance guys!

Make sure you clear coat it, or it will rust. As for drilling a hole, that's a tough one.

Could a machine shop do it?

A house on my way home from my old job had a crankshaft for a mail box post, and what appeared to be a Ford auto trans casing for a mail box.

Billy, you have to post pics of the brake drum man in your back yard.

LOL yeah, I've got a pic somewhere. That dude is playing the saxophone, I'm going to add a guitar man this winter. It will probably end up being a 3 piece blues band...

Machine shop is your best bet as they should have the long bits and slow enough machine to not destroy it. You can try calling F&A machine in Middlesex.....Frank may help you out.

i had thought about that before too. never followed through on it though. i talked to a few machine shops and they seemed interested in the idea adn said it wouldn't be expensive to gun drill a cam.

x2.
sounds like an awesome idea
pics when its done are a must

when i saw the title for this i was like "why would u ever wanna do that??"

Less rotating mass ;)

- Justin

hahahaha

Very cool idea!

:shifty: :shifty: :shifty:

Thanks for the advice guys. One member here is gonna try to mount a cam in his lathe. If it'll work, I'll cruise out there and do it on the weekend. Otherwise, I'll try some of the other recommended places.

My last custom lamp project turned out really well. Since I'm a music teacher, I figured a lamp made out of an instrument would look cool. We had a broken flute in the storage closet, so I straightened that out, polished it up, and mounted it on a nice piece of round pine that one of the woodshop kids cut for me. Total cost invested, $14 for the socket and lamp shade. :cool:

Good luck with it. I went to Race Rock down in Orlando when I was on Power Tour and they had all kinds of cool stuff made of car parts. One of my favorites was the bar stools made of crankshafts. Gonna try that one someday. I'm also going to build a table out of an engine once I move out.

If that doesnt work out Steve, send a PM / email to Calhoon (Anthony). His shop may be able to do it, but not sure.