PTS Flowbench Forum

My name is Johnny. I am beginning my journey to flow bench work. I have been an avid gear head for most of my life. I began working for my father's business when I was 14 and am currently 29. Most of what I do everyday involves many different aspects of machine work from running a lathe and milling machine to all types of welding and metalwork with an English wheel. I have either been taught by old timers or self taught by engulfing myself in my work, researching, and studying other's techniques. When a challenge is presented, I dive in head first. Living in northeast Nebraska does not produce many opportunities to be near a flow bench and it is my goal to become fluent in their workings and am very excited to begin my bench build. I believe it would be a valuable asset to our business since there is no one near us that performs this type of work. I have already purchased 8 240v 120~ CFM motors and am anxiously awaiting my build plans so I can continue my journey.

I am going to be a sponge and may ask some asinine questions. Glad to be here.

Welcome!

Johnny,
Welcome aboard and you will enjoy this forum. Great guys and lots of help. Sounds like you are living the life I would love to have again.



John

Johnny,

I am going to be a sponge and may ask some asinine questions. Glad to be here.

Welcome; there is allot of information here and on the old Forum "Link at top of home page" read and it will foster questions and feed your interest, it becomes an addiction. Make sure to read FLowbench 101 it may take a couple reads but you need to understand how the bench functions and this will help you with operating the bench and with your understanding of certain aspects of air flow that will help once you begin to use the flowbench on cylinder heads.

BTW There are no asinine questions

Rick

Welcome the best place to be and learn.

Thank you everyone. I have been reading all types of info about benches for about a year, maybe more. After all the looking around and talking to a few people on the Shovelhead forum about benches they suggested I come here. This looks like the best place to be, and as an added benefit, parts are reasonable. With the addition of an "in house" discussion forum it didn't take much convincing to get a set of plans coming.

I have an old Shovelhead that I've done a ton of machine work to and I know the stock heads are a major weak point. I have been able to milk 74hp and 75 ft/lbs out of it, but I know she has more in her. We build quite a few motors and as mentioned earlier, I would like to begin offering the service to benefit our business. Mostly, I just want to learn. I had a guy tell me that I couldn't do this without spending tens of thousands of dollars on expensive equipment. That's encouragement enough.

ShovelJockey wrote:Thank you everyone. I have been reading all types of info about benches for about a year, maybe more. After all the looking around and talking to a few people on the Shovelhead forum about benches they suggested I come here. This looks like the best place to be, and as an added benefit, parts are reasonable. With the addition of an "in house" discussion forum it didn't take much convincing to get a set of plans coming.

I have an old Shovelhead that I've done a ton of machine work to and I know the stock heads are a major weak point. I have been able to milk 74hp and 75 ft/lbs out of it, but I know she has more in her. We build quite a few motors and as mentioned earlier, I would like to begin offering the service to benefit our business. Mostly, I just want to learn. I had a guy tell me that I couldn't do this without spending tens of thousands of dollars on expensive equipment. That's encouragement enough.

The statement I have highlighted in red is a mind set in today's world. It is strictly BS. This flow bench proves it. I will be in my bench about $2500.00 and I know it will be better than the $16,000 store bought units.

Racing has gone this way and taken all the fun out of racing. You are starting to see a lot of small independent race tracks pop up to cater to the grass roots racer. NHRA is having a lot of trouble filling their fields now because they have focused on high dollar racing that most people cannot afford to do.

So have heart as we can help do it on a budget. Lots of helps here, even how to build a do-it-yourself dyno.

John

Hi Johnny, welcome to the friendliest Forum on the internet.

Well over 200 home built flowbenches are now in operation all around the world, and the owners are all extremely pleased with the results.
You certainly do not have to spend a fortune to build your own flow bench that will be as good or in many cases better than a very high dollar commercial flow bench.
Its a very mature and well proven design that has stood the test of time well.

Any questions you may still have, fire away...

Johnny,

To piggy back on what John has said I do some Harley work myself and i thought i would share this link with you if you have not yet found it, http://www.flowbenchtech.com/forum/view ... ?f=8&t=565 it is one of my Builds and as you can see it was not tens of thousands of dollars. If you are going to do this work out of the shop and have paying customers stand over your shoulder as you show them the improvements the last thing you want is a Home Made looking bench.

There are many many well built DIY benches here of the PTS design and a very nice bench can be had for under $2500.

Rick

Rick, that is a beautiful bench! I am a restoration specialist here at our shop so I plan on doing my best to make sure this does not look "homemade". I, too will be giving it a very attractive setting to let people know at first glance this is no amateur operation. As soon as the opportunity arises I plan on getting the material list wittled down and beginning construction.