I'm hoping that my limited understanding off how the broaching process works
will help me find an answer. I'm lookin gfor an inexpensive way to create a
gear shift lever. My thoughts are to have a broach (if that's the right
name) made up and then utilize a press at work. People I have talked to
have suggested that using a milling machine would be the better way to go,
but that's not something I have access to. My quantities will be very low,
so the cost of having a broach made up may not be worth it. Now, here's my
application, I want to make motorcycle hand shift levers similar to the one
in the pictures below:

http://tinyurl.com/639ur

This one was made by cutting a stock foot lever and welding on the
additional peice that the extension screws into. Unfortunately this method
proved to be a little too weak, the last picture is the bike on the side of
the road with the broken lever. What I'd like to be able to do is to make
the small peice that attaches to the spline and I thought that the center
part could be made using a broach.

I guess my question, aside from wondering if this is doable, is whether or
not there's a company around that would be able to make such a broach, or am
I totally off base on how the whole process might work? I located in Canada
if that makes a difference as to what companies to recommend.

Thanks,
Tony

Tud wrote:


I guess my question, aside from wondering if this is doable, is whether or
not there's a company around that would be able to make such a broach, or am
I totally off base on how the whole process might work? I located in Canada
if that makes a difference as to what companies to recommend.

Thanks,
Tony



I couldn't see the number and size of the splines in the part in your
photo, but I'd say that broaching is the way to go, particularly if they
are rather shallow cuts. Probably best to leave cutting the clamping
slot until after you do the broaching.

Are you planning on making these for just one make and model of bike?
Are the shifter shafts the same size on other bikes?

Just Googling up "broach" will get you plenty of manufacturers who will
give you a quote for what you need, once you send them a drawing of your
part and tell them what the material is. Be aware that you will probably
suffer sticker shock when you get the price.

Frankly, I'm a bit dubious about your being able to come up with
anything along the lines of what your photos show which will take the
strain of a few unintended hard pulls, pushes or knocks without failing
somehow. I think you putting just too much leverage on a small splined
shaft, but YMMV.

Good luck,

Jeff



--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"

Tud wrote:
I'm hoping that my limited understanding off how the broaching process works
will help me find an answer. I'm lookin gfor an inexpensive way to create a
gear shift lever. My thoughts are to have a broach (if that's the right
name) made up and then utilize a press at work. People I have talked to
have suggested that using a milling machine would be the better way to go,
but that's not something I have access to. My quantities will be very low,
so the cost of having a broach made up may not be worth it. Now, here's my
application, I want to make motorcycle hand shift levers similar to the one
in the pictures below:

http://tinyurl.com/639ur

This one was made by cutting a stock foot lever and welding on the
additional peice that the extension screws into. Unfortunately this method
proved to be a little too weak, the last picture is the bike on the side of
the road with the broken lever. What I'd like to be able to do is to make
the small peice that attaches to the spline and I thought that the center
part could be made using a broach.

I guess my question, aside from wondering if this is doable, is whether or
not there's a company around that would be able to make such a broach, or am
I totally off base on how the whole process might work? I located in Canada
if that makes a difference as to what companies to recommend.

Thanks,
Tony


For a low-volume application, I'd look for a heavier lever on another
make of bike that has the same splines and enough material to cut, drill
and thread for the handle. Then buy new levers to modify. I bet that
would be cheapest.

--
- -
Rex Burkheimer
WM Automotive
Fort Worth TX

Jeff Wisnia wrote...
Tud wrote:


I guess my question, aside from wondering if this is doable, is whether
or not there's a company around that would be able to make such a broach,
or am I totally off base on how the whole process might work? I located
in Canada if that makes a difference as to what companies to recommend.

Thanks,
Tony

I couldn't see the number and size of the splines in the part in your
photo, but I'd say that broaching is the way to go, particularly if they
are rather shallow cuts. Probably best to leave cutting the clamping slot
until after you do the broaching.

I don't have the number on hand, but they're definately not cut very deep.

Are you planning on making these for just one make and model of bike? Are
the shifter shafts the same size on other bikes?

I was planning on making just one size, fortunately it will fit serveral
makes and model years of older Triumphs, and possibly other British bikes.

Just Googling up "broach" will get you plenty of manufacturers who will
give you a quote for what you need, once you send them a drawing of your
part and tell them what the material is. Be aware that you will probably
suffer sticker shock when you get the price.

Yeah, I'm guessing the price may stop me dead in my tracks.

Frankly, I'm a bit dubious about your being able to come up with anything
along the lines of what your photos show which will take the strain of a
few unintended hard pulls, pushes or knocks without failing somehow. I
think you putting just too much leverage on a small splined shaft, but
YMMV.

You're likely right, my plan is to use aluminum to limit the weight on the
spline and make the end around the spline beefier than the one in the
picture.

Good luck,

Thanks, I'll google for some manufacturers.

--
Tud
AH#115 SENS BS#111 LFS#32 FLF MISFIT
http://ah115.com

Rex B wrote...
Tud wrote:
I'm hoping that my limited understanding off how the broaching process
works will help me find an answer. I'm lookin gfor an inexpensive way to
create a gear shift lever.

For a low-volume application, I'd look for a heavier lever on another make
of bike that has the same splines and enough material to cut, drill and
thread for the handle. Then buy new levers to modify. I bet that would be
cheapest.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll do some searching to see if I can find a
compatible shifter as an alternative.

Tony

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 14:02:17 -0400, "Tud" wrote:

I'm hoping that my limited understanding off how the broaching process works
will help me find an answer. I'm lookin gfor an inexpensive way to create a
gear shift lever. My thoughts are to have a broach (if that's the right
name) made up and then utilize a press at work. People I have talked to
have suggested that using a milling machine would be the better way to go,
but that's not something I have access to. My quantities will be very low,
so the cost of having a broach made up may not be worth it. Now, here's my
application, I want to make motorcycle hand shift levers similar to the one
in the pictures below:

http://tinyurl.com/639ur

Perhaps another tack would be to have the pieces cut by the wire EDM
method. A CNC wire EDM machine should be able to crank this part out,
including the clamping slot in short order.

This suggestion came to mind because at the last Meeting of the New
England Model Engineering Society our speaker was Bob Bouley ,an
application engineer at Methodes Machine Tool Co. in Sudbury MA.
They specialize in Wire EDM and have, as I recall him saying, about 80
machines on the shop floor.

A big advantage of this method is that there is no tooling cost for
you. You would just have to provide a drawing and they could take it
from there.

Errol Groff

Instructor, Machine Tool Department

H.H. Ellis Technical High School
643 Upper Maple Street
Dantieson, CT 06239

New England Model Engineering Society
www.neme-s.org Pleasse note our new URL

..

To be blunt, I really didn't see anything in your photographs that
would lend itself to broaching. Perhaps you can explain.

Do you understand what broaching is, and some of the applications where
it is typically employed?

Were I you, I'd stick close to someone with a milling machine.


Harry C.

Errol Groff wrote...
Tud wrote:

I'm hoping that my limited understanding off how the broaching process
works
will help me find an answer. I'm lookin gfor an inexpensive way to create
a
gear shift lever. My thoughts are to have a broach (if that's the right
name) made up and then utilize a press at work. People I have talked to
have suggested that using a milling machine would be the better way to go,
but that's not something I have access to. My quantities will be very
low,
so the cost of having a broach made up may not be worth it. Now, here's
my
application, I want to make motorcycle hand shift levers similar to the
one
in the pictures below:

http://tinyurl.com/639ur

Perhaps another tack would be to have the pieces cut by the wire EDM
method. A CNC wire EDM machine should be able to crank this part out,
including the clamping slot in short order.

I'm no machinist, so I'll admit that this is the first time I've ever heard
of that, so you've given me something new to look into, thanks for the info.

Tony

Harry wrote......
To be blunt, I really didn't see anything in your photographs that
would lend itself to broaching. Perhaps you can explain.

Do you understand what broaching is, and some of the applications where
it is typically employed?

Not entirely, I'm green when it comes to metal work. I was thinking that
broaching would be the process of pushing a tool through the part of the
shifter that would fit over the splines of the shifter spindle in order to
cut the corresponding splines. I could very well be mistaken.

Were I you, I'd stick close to someone with a milling machine.

Thanks, I've been given some areas to research that may be an alternative to
broaching that I'll follow up on.

Tony

Tud wrote:
I'm hoping that my limited understanding off how the broaching process works
will help me find an answer. I'm lookin gfor an inexpensive way to create a
gear shift lever. My thoughts are to have a broach (if that's the right
name) made up and then utilize a press at work. People I have talked to
have suggested that using a milling machine would be the better way to go,
but that's not something I have access to. My quantities will be very low,
so the cost of having a broach made up may not be worth it. Now, here's my
application, I want to make motorcycle hand shift levers similar to the one
in the pictures below:

http://tinyurl.com/639ur

This one was made by cutting a stock foot lever and welding on the
additional peice that the extension screws into. Unfortunately this method
proved to be a little too weak, the last picture is the bike on the side of
the road with the broken lever. What I'd like to be able to do is to make
the small peice that attaches to the spline and I thought that the center
part could be made using a broach.

I guess my question, aside from wondering if this is doable, is whether or
not there's a company around that would be able to make such a broach, or am
I totally off base on how the whole process might work? I located in Canada
if that makes a difference as to what companies to recommend.

Thanks,
Tony


Make part , heat red hot , slip over spline die , squeeze with a mold
using hydraulic jacks for pressure , cool off part and clean it up ?
Forging seems ideal for this . Luck
Ken Cutt

I've done something like this to make some about 12 adapters to fit non
standard knobs to water taps. I made a one pass push broach from silver
steel. The tap spindle had what I think is commonly termed a serration
like what you probably have on the bike spindle, on examination the
angle between the teeth was 90 so I turned up a blank to the OD and set
it in a indexer on a BP. Using a sharp end mill I cut the broach,
checking it dimensions with wires and comparing to the one on the tap, I
left it maybe .002" over initially. I left the set-up on the BP until I
tested the resulting broached result. After hardening and tempering I
placed the broach in a flypress with the adapter being held underneath
in a 3 jaw. Use of appropriate cutting fluid helps quite a bit. The
first result was slightly large so I made another maybe 0.001" smaller
which I was happy with, this was easy as I had left the set-up alone on
the last setting. Making the whole broach probably took about an hour
and this method may work well for the limited numbers you require.

Tud wrote:

I'm hoping that my limited understanding off how the broaching process works
will help me find an answer. I'm lookin gfor an inexpensive way to create a
gear shift lever. My thoughts are to have a broach (if that's the right
name) made up and then utilize a press at work. People I have talked to
have suggested that using a milling machine would be the better way to go,
but that's not something I have access to. My quantities will be very low,
so the cost of having a broach made up may not be worth it. Now, here's my
application, I want to make motorcycle hand shift levers similar to the one
in the pictures below:

http://tinyurl.com/639ur

This one was made by cutting a stock foot lever and welding on the
additional peice that the extension screws into. Unfortunately this method
proved to be a little too weak, the last picture is the bike on the side of
the road with the broken lever. What I'd like to be able to do is to make
the small peice that attaches to the spline and I thought that the center
part could be made using a broach.

I guess my question, aside from wondering if this is doable, is whether or
not there's a company around that would be able to make such a broach, or am
I totally off base on how the whole process might work? I located in Canada
if that makes a difference as to what companies to recommend.

Thanks,
Tony

wrote:

To be blunt, I really didn't see anything in your photographs that
would lend itself to broaching. Perhaps you can explain.

Do you understand what broaching is, and some of the applications where
it is typically employed?

Were I you, I'd stick close to someone with a milling machine.

Harry C.

He's looking to broach the splines in the hole that mounts to the shift
lever. Broaching is appropriate there. Forging over a mandrel would work
too.

Cheers
Trevor Jones