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> More troubling is the idea that frankly we've had the technology to build sports cars in our homes for decades and decades now. It's called buying a lathe, an

> More troubling is the idea that frankly we've had the technology to build sports cars in our homes for decades and decades now. It's called buying a lathe, an arc welder, a mill, a forge. Despite the availability--cheap! Now I'm curious. How much would it cost to set up a reasonable home garage with all this machinery?

aaronblohowiak 15y ago
about 4 - 8 grand depending on the quality of your tools. much less if you want to go cheap / used
ChuckMcM 15y ago
Depends on your budget of course. Machine tools don't 'depreciate' past their accuracy. Which is to say that a mill that can hold one thousandth of an inch repeatably costs $X used and on that can do one ten-thousandth (tenth) repeatably is $10X. The challenge of building a sports car is generally building your own engine (which people don't do often unless they are steam based). You need to get the engine block cast and that requires a steel foundry. Building a blast furnace in your garage is quite difficult if it needs to have the volume capacity to make even a fairly small engine block. Once you have the castings however the various other bits can fit in your garage easily and do cost between $8K and $150K depending on newness, accuracy, control methodology etc. I'm also assuming that you would use fiberglass layup for the body panels since a sheet metal press that can make a 'hood' sized piece, or fender sized piece, is also quite large (and tall).
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- mindcrime 15y ago
  The challenge of building a sports car is generally building your own engine (which people don't do often unless they are steam based). You need to get the engine block cast and that requires a steel foundry. Unless you just insist on starting with a home-made block, you can acquire "naked" engine blocks fairly easily. Or at least you could a few years ago, I've been away from that scene for a while, so my knowledge isn't completely up to date. And even if you can't get a naked block you can certainly get partially built engines (usually the block, crankshaft, pistons and connecting rods) or "crate engines" (usually everything except intake manifold and carburetor / fuel injector) straight from the manufacturers. For example, see: http://store.gmperformanceparts.com/store/SelectProd.do?prodId=7704&redir=true&manufacturer=GM&category=Engines&name=LS327/327%20&model=%3C!--19165628--%3E http://store.gmperformanceparts.com/store/SelectProd.do?prod... 'course, starting with a pre-forged block and partially built engine isn't quite like doing it from scratch, but then again, I'm assuming anybody building their own car is buying pre-rolled tubing and sheet stock, etc., not literally building everything up from iron ore, aluminum ore, etc.
  - ChuckMcM 15y ago
    Yes, any sane person would start there :-) I was just responding to 'build from scratch' which can be interpreted quite literally. A friend of mine builds race cars which are basically some 'regular' car, except all the structural bits get replaced. I joked with him that it would be simpler if he just took the engine out and built a frame around the engine, but he claims the previous frame are his version of a story stick[1]. [1] http://www.woodcraft.com/Articles/Articles.aspx?ArticleId=289&page=1 http://www.woodcraft.com/Articles/Articles.aspx?ArticleId=28...
    - mindcrime 15y ago
      A friend of mine builds race cars which are basically some 'regular' car, except all the structural bits get replaced. I joked with him that it would be simpler if he just took the engine out and built a frame around the engine. Cool. My dad builds and races late model stock cars and has been involved in racing as long as I can remember... so yeah, I can relate to exactly what you mean there. The race cars have almost nothing left of the original car except the exterior sheet metal.
HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago
Welder capable of welding tube frame for racecar, about $300 - $500 Cheap lathe (Chinese import 12x36 or old American) about $1500 Cheap mill big enough for automotive work (Chinese import or used American) about $1200 Cheap cutoff saw for most purposes: $100 Don't need a forge, just head over to www.onlinemetals.com to get any metal you're likely to need. I agree with the poster: tools and knowledge on how to do this stuff is readily available (I downloaded a pdf of plans for a 22-caliber single shot pistol I will build someday), but very few people actually bother. Just like we have tons of cheap computers, but only a vanishingly small percentage of people bother to learn programming them...
nl 15y ago
Assuming you are prepared to buy things like an engine you possibly don't need a lathe, probably don't need a mill, and definitely don't need forge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost will get you started.

aaronblohowiak 15y ago

about 4 - 8 grand depending on the quality of your tools. much less if you want to go cheap / used

ChuckMcM 15y ago

Depends on your budget of course. Machine tools don't 'depreciate' past their accuracy. Which is to say that a mill that can hold one thousandth of an inch repeatably costs $X used and on that can do one ten-thousandth (tenth) repeatably is $10X. The challenge of building a sports car is generally building your own engine (which people don't do often unless they are steam based). You need to get the engine block cast and that requires a steel foundry. Building a blast furnace in your garage is quite difficult if it needs to have the volume capacity to make even a fairly small engine block. Once you have the castings however the various other bits can fit in your garage easily and do cost between $8K and $150K depending on newness, accuracy, control methodology etc. I'm also assuming that you would use fiberglass layup for the body panels since a sheet metal press that can make a 'hood' sized piece, or fender sized piece, is also quite large (and tall).

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
mindcrime 15y ago
The challenge of building a sports car is generally building your own engine (which people don't do often unless they are steam based). You need to get the engine block cast and that requires a steel foundry. Unless you just insist on starting with a home-made block, you can acquire "naked" engine blocks fairly easily. Or at least you could a few years ago, I've been away from that scene for a while, so my knowledge isn't completely up to date. And even if you can't get a naked block you can certainly get partially built engines (usually the block, crankshaft, pistons and connecting rods) or "crate engines" (usually everything except intake manifold and carburetor / fuel injector) straight from the manufacturers. For example, see: http://store.gmperformanceparts.com/store/SelectProd.do?prodId=7704&redir=true&manufacturer=GM&category=Engines&name=LS327/327%20&model=%3C!--19165628--%3E http://store.gmperformanceparts.com/store/SelectProd.do?prod... 'course, starting with a pre-forged block and partially built engine isn't quite like doing it from scratch, but then again, I'm assuming anybody building their own car is buying pre-rolled tubing and sheet stock, etc., not literally building everything up from iron ore, aluminum ore, etc.
- ChuckMcM 15y ago
  Yes, any sane person would start there :-) I was just responding to 'build from scratch' which can be interpreted quite literally. A friend of mine builds race cars which are basically some 'regular' car, except all the structural bits get replaced. I joked with him that it would be simpler if he just took the engine out and built a frame around the engine, but he claims the previous frame are his version of a story stick[1]. [1] http://www.woodcraft.com/Articles/Articles.aspx?ArticleId=289&page=1 http://www.woodcraft.com/Articles/Articles.aspx?ArticleId=28...
  - mindcrime 15y ago
    A friend of mine builds race cars which are basically some 'regular' car, except all the structural bits get replaced. I joked with him that it would be simpler if he just took the engine out and built a frame around the engine. Cool. My dad builds and races late model stock cars and has been involved in racing as long as I can remember... so yeah, I can relate to exactly what you mean there. The race cars have almost nothing left of the original car except the exterior sheet metal.

HeyLaughingBoy 15y ago

Welder capable of welding tube frame for racecar, about $300 - $500 Cheap lathe (Chinese import 12x36 or old American) about $1500 Cheap mill big enough for automotive work (Chinese import or used American) about $1200 Cheap cutoff saw for most purposes: $100 Don't need a forge, just head over to www.onlinemetals.com to get any metal you're likely to need. I agree with the poster: tools and knowledge on how to do this stuff is readily available (I downloaded a pdf of plans for a 22-caliber single shot pistol I will build someday), but very few people actually bother. Just like we have tons of cheap computers, but only a vanishingly small percentage of people bother to learn programming them...

nl 15y ago

Assuming you are prepared to buy things like an engine you possibly don't need a lathe, probably don't need a mill, and definitely don't need forge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locost will get you started.