CNC BIKE TOOL

Getting certified to operate CNC machines in the Cal Poly machine shop requires completing several projects culminating in one that embodies most of the typical operations present in CNC projects.

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A friend of mine is a professional mountain biker and designs compact bike tools in his spare time. To get interest from industry, it is helpful to have a prototype to show potential adopters/production operations. I picked up the project after it had been almost fully designed. However, I verified worst case conditions by running some basic stress calculations as well as FEA.

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The tool in question was a rotor lock ring tool that is needed to remove or tighten the piece that holds on a disk brake/gear cassette. This is a cumbersome piece to hold, so many bicyclists choose not to carry this with them. The classic tool that people use is shown in the first picture of the gallery below. The redesign fits in the cap of the headset; there is no need to carry it in a pocket. Secondly, it doesn't need a socket wrench, but works with a standard Allen wrench set, which most serious bicyclists carry on rides.

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After running some analysis I created the tool paths and operational flow in a Solidworks CAM add-on HSMworks. I also machined soft jaws to fixture the component for machining. The tooling path was proved out and a run of 3 were machined by me in a Haas VF-3.