Bugatti Roller Bearing Crankshaft Stand

The Bugatti roller bearing crankshaft is very special:

It's also very heavy and needs something special in order to display it properly. We decided to engineer a stunning cradle designed with our Siemens NX Software Cad/Cam Programme

We dowloaded the programme on to our 4-axis Dugard Vertical Machining Centre:

Here is the piece of aluminium plate being worked on by the machine during the early stages

After a few hours it was certainly starting to take shape:

The centre of the stand was definitely the most intricate part of the design and therefore the cutting programme

It wasn't long before the Ettore Bugatti logo and emblem became clearly visible:

Our engineers have really high standards and their attention to detail is second-to-none. Here is the machine working on the lettering during the refining stages

And here it is during the final moments of machining

Now all it needed was a bit of a wipe round and some drying off

Here is the base plate just before the final assembly

Now you can see the fine level of detail. It would have been much easier to leave it with a plain, smooth surface - but we're not like that at Gentry Restorations

Prior to making the base plate, the engineers had already manufactured the rather elaborate vertical supports:

They were a precision fit and beautifully detailed too - as you can see here at the assembly stage

Our engineering skills might be excellent - but we admit we're not the greatest photographers:

Here is the completed stand following assembly and still in the workshop

The hardest part was lifting the crankshaft on to the stand - it's much heavier than it looks:

Eventually the crankshaft and stand were put in place in our reception area. The two items have been admired immensely by our many visitors

The Chairman of the Bugatti Owners' Club asked if we could loan it for display on the Bugatti stand at the Classic Car Show at the NEC Birmingham 2017

Naturally we did so and everybody was delighted by the response - the visitors found it to be a very interesting part of the display