Velocity stacks

Rat_ranger

Coast to Coast
Ok, so I posted this over on the XS forum but thought I would post here as well.

I have noticed the vast majority of velocity stacks either don't have a filter, or use a screen which is more restrictive than a good filter. So for my bike I made a set of stacks that will let me mount a Uni pod filter. Using that as a base I modified my program to fit the BS38 carbs on an XS650, now I am curious if there is enough interest in stacks of this style to look into getting a CNC lathe to produce them, or if an occasionally making a set at work would be enough. They are 6061, 2.75" long and take a 3"ID pod. If there is interest a set would be $60 plus shipping.

If enough people want them for other bikes I could program others, but I would need someone local that I could measure the carbs and provide a set at material cost.

My ultimate goal is to have a side business at home with my own equipment making a few parts like the stacks to sell and being able to take some custom work as well.
 

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Oh yeah, I understand that. I'm looking at using the rest of my GI bill to work on a business associates degree so that I understand more on starting and running a small business. I'm reading books about it right now. The advantage to something like the velocity stacks is I can run a bars worth of them on a saturday at my job.
 
Books don't seem to tell you how much time it actually takes. You'll never work as hard, or as many hours for someone else, as you will getting your own business off the ground.

On the lathe. My advice is buy one with disposable income, and have enough put back to service it.

You buy a $10,000 used lathe. You're going to spend nearly 50% of that really tooling it up well. Crash it? It might cost you $10K to fix it. I let a set of back up batteries go dead last year. Power went out at the shop. Lost the parameters. I didn't have the book with them in it. Cost me $2,300 to have a guy come plug them in that did.

The business you want to go in to, there's not many that costs more money to get it going.

That said, best of luck.
 
Oh I know tooling adds up fast. When I made a transmission adapter one of the endmills was $500. The Okuma mill-turn I program right now is worth more than my house. When I was in school 3 of the haas mills had their battery die, and they are permanently soldered to the board, I think that cost the school close to $10k. I have my own manual lathe and mill, but I know that it would be too slow for production. I have a whole lot to learn before I jump off the deep end and start getting equipment.
 
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