# Resurfaced my outboard's head



## 71 Fish (Dec 21, 2005)

Not sure it will work but have nothing to loose and had fun doing it. I had damaged the head on my 70hp Johnson and that turned out to be the last straw after 20 years of keeping these old 3 cylinder OMC's going (bought a bigger boat). Rather than scrapping or even trying to part it out, with some 2cooler advise (thanks TEAMFIRSTCAST and MMMMGOOD) decided to try and fix it myself. Made a fly cutter from an old garage door spindle and some bar stock and a cutting insert from Bass tool. Set up an auto feed with a 24 VDC geared window operator from a job I did once. It ran about 6 rpm on 12 volts which gave me a table speed of a little over 1" per minute. Set the cutter speed to about 1000 rpm and removed about .008" in one pass (I made a shield with a piece of plywood and stood back in case of disaster). It came out smooth enough that I was able to sand the swirl marks out of it with 600 grit sandpaper on a flat surface. I have an old lathe from my uncle and a cheesy knee mill in my shop that I make things I need with on occasion but nothing this precise, hope it works.


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## ottert (Apr 25, 2005)

Any more pics of the fly cutter?


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## devil1824 (Sep 4, 2010)

If you indicated it in to make sure it was flat it will probably work. Doesn't sound like there was any chatter if it sanded easy. Good job! I can relate, I've been machining since 97.


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## 71 Fish (Dec 21, 2005)

ottert said:


> Any more pics of the fly cutter?


Kind of scary I know but it was somewhat experimental. I turned the spindle to fit in a 1 1/4" tool holder, then surfaced the tool side. On a piece of solid bar I welded flat metal to form pockets for the inserts, one on each end for different types of inserts (experimented with the different inserts and found the rounded one to work best). Did some crude balancing and drilled the center for a bolt and for two more close to the cutters. There is an easier to make design on You-Tube if you have a big enough diameter chunk of aluminum about 2" thick. I used what I found laying around the house.


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## jtrux (Oct 28, 2010)

Well how did it turn out?


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## teamfirstcast (Aug 23, 2006)

71Fish... Looks like it worked for you! I really like the auto feed. BTW not really necessary to get those tool marks out, unless its really rough (if so your tooling needs touched up). There will be a gasket to seal those surfaces anyway, and it keeps the sealant from all getting pressed out under pressure. Good job.


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