New CNC Milling Centre HURCO

[Bugat5speed]

Hi together,

wanted to inform you today, that we just actuated our new milling centre. The last years we had our products made by CNC-suppliers. That was on one hand good, but on the other hand it was so that we always had to wait for the parts and that we could no longer do prototypes, as our suppliers´ capacities have been over their limits for a long period now. As we wanted to stay flexible and come forward with engineering and producing of new parts we now invested in a new American milling centre type HURCO. We started working on it yesterday and I can already say now, that the control of this mill is very easy to handle even for a Non-Professional like me. The first test-parts are made and we will start with the first products next week. Now we can much easier bring forward the new project with our 4-valve DOHC-cylinderhead also.

Martin Bott

[wrenchnride247]

Congrats... that's a serious investment.

[Jim]

Well Done Martin!!

Keep up the good work for all veedubers!!!

Are you going to machine new suby parts??

Regards,
Jimmy

[Bugat5speed]

Want to mill all parts of my current assortment and the ones which are planned for the nearer future, f.e. the 4-valve cylinderhead, manifolds, camcases, ...
Besides I will do some work for other companies also.

Have had a bad time in the last 2 years, due to my CNC-suppliers who had so much work. I´m always only producing smaller batches and the suppliers would always like to do batches of 200, 500, 1000 pcs.

When I started working with them there was always time to rent the machine and the worker for half a day or a day to mill prototypes. In the last year this was not possible at all. They mainly work in 3 shifts and one worker is responsible for 2 mills. There is no time for such things anymore. Besides qulity decreased a little also. That means complaints from my side and in the worst case from my customer´s side. This I want to avoid totally.

Martin

[flat]

Very Nice. I'm jealous.

I know what you mean about sneaking time into CNC shops. The first question these guys ask when I issue a drawing is "how many thousand?". It's hard getting small quantities made.

I wish you success. Keep the chips flying!

Lanner

[tomac]

Hope with this new machine the parts get more precise. Had to take out the 915 twice and chop out lots of material to get the reverse gear working.

[Bugat5speed]

Hi Tomac,

Danke für die nette Art! Solche Kunden mag ich doch besonders. Am besten zukünftig die Teile selbst machen und nicht durch Dritte verbauen lassen. Für Kritik bin ich immer offen, aber sie sollte von jemandem kommen der wenigstens selbst schraubt und nicht schrauben läßt.

So hab ich das aber schon eingeschätzt!

[Turbo Haraune2]

OK!
This was interesting!
Are there quality problems with Martin's parts?
With the new milling machine I expect nothing less than aircraft precision on the parts.

Martin can you explain for others what issues there has been on parts that you make for us? and how you deal with warranty claims?
But since this is custom parts there is no warranty? right?

You are one of the most serious fabricators i now with very nice parts and quality. "Is this a scratch in your paint?"



Hope with this new machine the parts get more precise. Had to take out the 915 twice and chop out lots of material to get the reverse gear working.

[Bugat5speed]

Hi,

that´s exactly that what Tomac wanted. I don´t want to justify for anything. I know and lots of customers allover the world know that my quality is at least good (most say superb).

If the goods were bad, why are they still in his car? Look on the picture in the thread about 915-trannies. There you can see, that my rear traverse is still in his car. He complained about that this part was bent by the weight of a type 4 engine. I asked him to send me pics of this and told him that this part already withstood some much heavier Subaru Turbos with 300 PS and that it is nearly impossible. No pictures and no part sent back. He used a 915 gearbox where the inside shiftrod for the reverse gear is not the standard. Did not know that such a shiftrod is existing at all. That was my mistake. So he could not move in the reverse gear. That´s something that you test before you install a gearbox into a car (the gearbox was not from me, otherwise I would have remarked and corrected it before installing into the car). Then he (or the one that does the jobs for him) milled out a section to make it work. He did not measure correctly and had to do this twice then. I feel sorry (in general) that he had the problem with this special shiftrod, but it was not my fault that his mechanic then made wrong measurements and had to mill twice.
I´m not leaning back saying "I´m the only one who offers such parts" and am always interested in receiving feedback on my parts, but it is a very evil and bad way to write in such a forum that my parts have problem with precision.

I keep it open to anybody to do the conversion on his own and not to buy my parts.
It´s always ok to be critical, but this complaint is only based on the wish to give me and my company a bad name.

That´s my opinion and that´s all I will say about this.

The thread was originally started to give you an info about my new milling centre.

Martin

[Turbo Haraune2]

@Martin: Good answer! There are always customers that just HAS to make your day bad... even if the parts are ok.

Good luck with your milling machine.
Can you make smaller batches of parts? If i bring the drawings?
What format of drawings do you yse.
I yse Inventor 10,1

[Bugat5speed]

@TurboHaraune2:

yes Inventor fits perfectly, but can also work with Unigraphics (friend) and Catia V5 (brother). Bought my own CAD/CAM from OneCNC, and so I can work with all usual data-formats (iges, step, sat, dxf,.....). From a 3D-model to a milled product it is no long distance with such a CAD/CAM. Reason is my 4-valve-DOHC-project also.

But please send me an email if there are more details, or call me.

Martin

[tomac]

I'm still waiting for a reply to my email I have send. If the manufaturer of these parts does not anwser this is the only way to make customers aware that they have to be carefull when installing these parts. They don't just fit. It does not matter if a thirth party did the initial installation. Period. The parts are still good and make life a lot easier.:D

[Bugat5speed]

@tomac:

here´s the answer I mailed you on the same day you sent your complaint:

Hallo Herr Jenter,

ich vermute dass Ihr Auto als einziges mit Typ4 solche Probleme bereitet. Keiner meiner Typ4-Kunden hatte bisher solche Probleme, Ebenso laufen unsere Subaru-Turbo-Umbauten alle super mit der Traverse, obwohl der Subaru-Motor ca. 25-30 % schwerer ist als ein Typ 4. Von Leistung und Drehmoment ganz zu schweigen. Konstruktiv bedingt kann sich die Traverse eigentlich nur sehr schwer verbiegen. Bitte schicken Sie mir Bilder davon.

Zum Thema Rückwärtsgang kann ich nur sagen, dass es eine bestimmte Innenschaltstange bei dem 915 gibt, bei der es zu diesem Problem kommt. Wenn schon nachgefräst wurde - was grundsätzlich in diesem Fall eine gute Sache war - hätte das genaue Maß vorher ermittelt werden müssen. Dann hätte es nachher gepasst. Soviel zur Nacharbeit (-:.

Soll "soviel zur Passgenauigkeit" etwas bestimmtes sagen, oder ist das hier nur so eine Floskel?


That´s the way how I care for customer complaints. If you did not open the mail or anything else, then it´s not my fault. I can prove that this mail was sent on the 11th of September, 6.14 pm.

So, please don´t say I didn´t care. I never received any pics from you to prove the problem with the rear mount. I feel sorry for the problem with the nosecone in general, but I´m not to blame for installing a gearbox without checking if all gears can be moved in. If this was done a second or a third time, after milling out the nosecone (what was my problem) you or your mechanic are to blame for doing a mistake a second or a third time.

Martin Bott

[Jim]

A few (personal)words..

I leave in Greece and I'm newbie in suby conversions to vw.

After many thoughts and searching I decided to purchage a new oil sump from Martin's shop.
To be honest I have never seen this guy neither I have bought any part from his shop.
From the fist moment we've share emails regarding what are the benefits of his sump instructions on installation such as direction on how to order from his shop.
I also have heard that he has a good reputation in machine parts for beetles and find solutions with our suby's!
So, I'd like to say that I'm very pleased from the quality of the part as also from his direct response to me.

My personal opinion.

Rgrds,
Jim

[Hoghead]

I have Martins 915 parts and the quality is good and he always answers my emails. In fact he went out of his way to get these to me in Thailand with minimum fuss and cost.

[tomac]

Here some comments from professionals about the parts!!!


http://www.bug-box.de/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=160&Itemid=

At least I'm not alone!!

Nachdem wir alle bisher gelieferten Bug@5-speed Teile wegen "Nichtpassens" & Überteuerung zurück geschickt hatten, mussten wir uns nun mit dem ,angeblich so guten Schalthebel abärgern! Der Shifter soll für die 915ér Getriebe passen, der Knopf hat jedoch einen Durchmesser von 24mm statt 19mm! Ausserdem ist die Schaltstange und der Knuaf viel zu schwer und wir befürchten Getriebeschäden!!! Der Originale Knopf des Typ3 wurde passend gemacht und SChaltstange nebst Kauf durch leichtere Teile ersetzt!

After sending back various items bought at bug@5-speed due to "non fitting" and being too expensiv for what it is we finally had to use the shifter from them! This very expensive part does not fit because the ball is too big!!!! Description says it fits 915 gearboxes but the 915 shifter has a 19mm ball not a 24mm one! The shifter rod and knob is much too heavy and could lead into transmission problems! We used the stock typ3 ball which we modified amd will make our own lightweight shifter rod and knob!

[Bugat5speed]

@ tomac,

dass Sie auf diesen fahrenden Zug mit Müll über andere aufspringen würden war ja eigentlich klar. Ich habe die Aussagen der Kollegen der Bug-Box nun gelesen und könnte, wenn es nicht so mies wäre eigentlich nur darüber lachen.
Hier wurde auf eine überaus platte Art und Weise versucht meine Teile und mein Unternehmen zu misskreditieren. Der Eigentümer des Typ 3 hatte die Teile bei mir gekauft und sie dem Unternehmen Bug-Box zur Verfügung gestellt.
Bug-Box hat lieber den vorhandenen 915- Deckel in mehrstündiger Arbeit (ich weiß wie lange das dauert - habe ich vor 20 Jahren auch so gemacht) so umgebaut, dass er eingebaut werden konnte. Nun sieht der Deckel meinem recht ähnlich, allerdings eben unprofessionell. Ich weiß nicht und will es auch nicht wissen, was Bug-Box dem Kunden für diese Dienstleistung berechnet, allerdings wird es sicher mehr sein, als was mein Deckel kostet (zumal man für einen 915er Deckel auch immer 80 - 100 Euro bekommt wenn man ihn verkauft).
Das die vordere Traverse nicht passt konnte ich nicht wissen. Ein Firmenkunde von mir aus NL hatte mit einer solchen Traverse bereits einen Umbau in einem Typ 3 gemacht. Der Eigentümer des Typ 3 wollte diese seinerzeit gerne haben, da sie seiner Meinung nach "sehr solide aussieht".
Die Aussage mit dem schweren Schaltknauf, der das Getriebe belastet ist Schwachsinn hoch 10. Die Federkraft der Arretierung der Schaltstangen im Getriebe ist um einiges größer als die Kraft die duch den Knauf entsteht. Zum Thema Schaltkugel kann ich sagen, dass Bug-Box vor dem Porsche-Style Schalthebel (der wie der Name schon sagt für Porsche-Modelle konzipiert wurde) den Käfer-Schalthebel bei sich hatte, da der Kunde diesen stylischen Hebel von der Optik her bevorzugt hatte. Dieser Käfer-Hebel ist mit einer 22er Kugel ausgestattet, der Porsche-Hebel natürlich mit einer 24er Kugel, die genau in die Schaltpfeife beim Porsche passt. Bug-Box hätte mich nur kurz anrufen müssen und hätte am nächsten Tag eine 22er Kugel auf dem Tisch gehabt. Stattdessen auch hier wieder customizing und vermutlich Berechnung an den Kunden (die paar Stunden machen bei so einem Projekt ja auch nichts mehr aus, oder?). Und dann aber lieber wieder einen negativen Kommentar über meine Teile auf der Homepage.

Wenn Unternehmen wie die Firma Porsche-Kremer in Köln, die schon seit Jahrzehnten Fahrzeuge der Marke Porsche für den Motorsport aufbauen meinen Schalthebel in Kundenfahrzeuge einbauen und diesen als technischen Leckerbissen anpreisen kann ich (ohne überheblich sein zu wollen) über solche Aussagen auf der Seite der Bug-Box nur lachen.

Aber es ist immer wieder schön zu sehen, wie bestimmte Leute immer wieder auf Möglichkeiten warten andere schlecht aussehen zu lassen. "Was erstmal geschrieben steht vermittelt dann immer erst mal einen bleibenden Eindruck!"

An dieser Stelle meinen besonderen Dank an tomac. Ich werde das Ganze natürlich im Auge behalten und nötigenfalls sicher reagieren

Martin Bott
Bug @ 5-Speed

to all English speakers:

sorry for not translating this into English. It´s on one hand a problem with some people here in Germany and on the other hand I really do not have the time to translate it now. I will instead use the time engineering and producing good parts for you.
I do really apologize for this!

Martin