I'm not sure where this really fits, but I know that a few of you do some of your own porting (mods, if there is a better place then please move this)...

What do you use as a light source while actually porting? Do you port on a table, bolt it to a stand, sitting down/standing up?

I've done a bunch of my own and have never been happy with whatever I ended up with. It seems like no matter what I do there is always something that I'm not happy about.

In general, I like being up above my work, but a bad back results in me taking short cuts when I'm standing so I prefer to be sitting.

I haven't quite found a surface that I like doing it on, generally something like my craftsman version of a workmate is best, but it gets in the way. I like my work held down but still easy to move. I've thought about bolting heads to an engine stand, that aught to give me better access to them, easily rotated... but the cheap stands that I have sitting around I suspect will move around too easily (I can put something on the legs to keep it from rolling around but I can't think of what would put enough drag on the head that I could still easily rotate it but it wouldn't tend to spin around while I work.

I've done a few manifolds where I was mostly coming at them from a few limited angles that I was quite happy with adding a crosspiece to the leg of a heavy sawhorse and then bungee cording it to the leg of the sawhorse, sitting on a stool next to it, but that wouldn't work at all for a set of cylinder heads.

I have a couple of desk lights/reading lights that I'm OK with, but inevitably I flip them over moving them around... typically I'll go through a couple of bulbs just knocking them over doing a set of heads. I have a florescent tube type drop light that I like how it lights up the ports holding it up against them or the chambers, but it's too big a hassle to use while actually doing the work.

What works for you guys?

 

I use a combination of fluorescent tube work lights from both above and behind the work area. At rare times I sometimes use a flexible snake-type LED light inside ports, but of course the light lens takes a beating.

I have been more than happy using cylinder head fixtures that I built out of scrap wood. I've used these for about 11 years so far, and they work far better than I imagined they would. You can at least see partial views of them in this album:
http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/w...s/DSCF3957.jpg

I doubt I have a photo of just the fixture, but I can take one if you're interested.

Most intake manifolds I just mount up in a vice with soft-jaws.

Oh, and I always stand when porting. Yeah it does get painful, but I do it anyway.

 

Yea, take a picture of it, I'd appreciate that...

I've been pretty happy with scrap wood setups for working on maniflods, but haven't really done it with a head.

 

Here you can see both scrapwood holding a manifold (usually I put something in the distributor hole, and then just screw down some scraps around the rest):



and you can see that manifold strapped to the sawhorse leg like I mentioned in my first post, with one of the "desk lights" that I mentioned that I usually smash at least one bulb in:

 

Oh, if you're wondering what that light is actually sitting on, I've cut some "keyholes" in the base, that you can slide over a screw head or nail head, and I just drove one into the chunk of wood that I have the manifold screwed down to and hung it off of it...

 

when i did mine(iron heads and a C/F intake) i wired
a #194 12v bulb up to a transformer,insulated the
connection to the bulb with silicone and stuck the bulb
into the ports that were being worked-gave very good
illumination.When i was doing the heads i had a magnet
nearby to attract away all the iron filings.
For the C/F intake a shop vac was kept handy
Also used a "variac"to keep the speed of my electric
die grinder to a more manageble speed and to reduce
"loading up"of my carbide burrs.
BTW the modification/porting of my C/F intake and
the head porting resulted in a dramatic increase in
power on my otherwize stock "L83"C/F 350

 

http://s702.photobucket.com/albums/w...head%20stands/

I used long screws (from the bottom) & glue /liquid-nails.
They are extremely sturdy and easy to clean off.
The dirtier one I use for porting. The cleaner one I use for assembly.

 

Nice, it looks like a nicer version of the metal ones that everyone sells

Is that a 2x10 or 2x12 (trying to get some sense of scale)? do you shoot for a specific angle or is it just what looks good?

I get the end pieces, what do you use the wedge in the middle for?

 

It was so long ago when I made them, I'll have to go measure.
The middle angle piece is for strength/stability, and to allow access for hands or light from the rear. It's what makes the whole piece so sturdy.

I don't think I used any special angle for cradling the head. It is handy to have it bigger than a 90* though.

 

heh, based on your pictures I worked something out... figuring that you used 2x lumber it was fairly easy to come up with dimensions (except from some angles it looked like used a 2x8 for the base, and others a 2x10, I can only guess lens distortion?), so based on that and cylinder head dimensions (roughly 19-20" long, 7-8" deck surface) and what scrap I had laying around I came up with:
19.5x7" base, the uprights 10" apart, made out of 3/4" plywood (I had some shelves with pretty close to those dimensions that I collected when the library that my wife worked at closed). The V in the supports was cut at 100* (actually set the miter gauge to 40* on the table saw, fed it through once on each side and that's what it gave me).

Works great, I'll try to remember to post pictures later.

305sbc, looking at this pic:


I'm curious, how did you clean up those manifolds in the background? Blast cabinet? What media? Parts washer or some sort of spray degreaser???

 

Nothing fancy going on here for sure. Flourescents, have a flourescent drop light or two and some LEDs to stick in ports. Lighting is super important.

Little backwoods but works

head stands you can get from Northern Auto pts they are up above the bench on the block wall in the first pic they work great from a number of angles. Next to it if you look close is an old set of Moroso pedestal type stands dont use them much. Needs a shelf or two but havent bothered yet

Sometimes Ill C Clamp pieces to the bench, rarely in a vise but comes in handy.

Bench made of scrap wood obviously made it tall so Im not hunched over.

Rubber drop mat is convenient just pull it off and dump the shavings, the rest I empty out of my shoes and pick slivers out.

In a perfect world there would be a grated cut out in the bench with a strong light underneath and a duct going to a vacuum. Maybe.

Bascially a bunch of crap but you asked...LOL

 

The weights and weight bench really suprise me... any real metal work and you have dust and filings everywhere, I can't figure out how you keep them nice unless you only do aluminum...

Bunch of crap... sure, but it works for you and you have me thinking about things to try.

What kind of LED lights are you guys using?