Fabricator uses compact waterjet to make custom motorcycle parts

Figure 1
The ProtoMAX abrasive waterjet has a compact footprint that makes it suitable for small shops, prototyping labs, and classrooms.

Many people have a dream to own their own manufacturing business, but the requirement for a hefty capital equipment investment can be daunting.

Dan Dunphy had a similar dream, and he made it happen. He found a way to combine his love of motorcycles and manufacturing into a thriving business with the help of some right-sized equipment.

New Company, New Technology

He started Dunphy’s Cycles Machining in Mukilteo, Wash., in February, bringing his passion and expertise for creating motorcycle parts to a larger market. Back in 2016, he was working for a local machine shop when he started to stay late and use the OMAX 2626® abrasive waterjet to make parts for his own 2016 Harley-Davidson® Street Glide® Special and for his friends’ motorcycles.

As these parts grew in popularity in the local community and on the internet, Dunphy knew he had a possible business opportunity on his hands. Like him, people weren’t satisfied with their stock motorcycles; they wanted a custom look to put their own mark on the mass-produced bikes.

Buoyed by the interest in his products, Dunphy bought an OMAX ProtoMAX® abrasive waterjet (see Figure 1) and opened his own shop. Six months later, Dunphy purchased a CNC 3-axis mill, and he has plans to purchase another lathe to keep up with orders.

“The waterjet is my workhorse though,” he said. “We do everything from shift linkages to custom badging for motorcycles. We even do customized parts for cars and trucks.”

Why the Waterjet?

As he was working on medical and aerospace machining jobs at his previous employer, Dunphy found the waterjet easy to program. It’s one of the reasons he started his company with a waterjet. Dunphy said he originally wanted to get a bigger machine but didn’t want to borrow the $150,000 required to purchase it. The smaller waterjet proved to be the perfect size to manage the amount of orders the company receives (see Figure 2).

“We can sell for cheaper and be competitive with everybody else [who makes these customized parts]. The waterjet has been a definite game changer for us,” he said. “I love that machine so much. I can program a part on the fly, and I can turn that into money.”

Dunphy said the waterjet’s user-friendliness made it easy for him to train his other employees to use the machine, even if they didn’t have any machining experience. (The programming of part files and the cutting operation are controlled by a version of OMAX’s Intelli-MAX® software designed for the machine.) Currently Dunphy’s Cycles has four employees: Dunphy’s parents, his sister, and an old friend. This support from his family has been invaluable.

“My family is what really helped and guided me,” Dunphy said. “Everybody wanted to contribute to my business, but actually what it came down to is having them believe in me.”

Figure 2
The compact abrasive waterjet provides Dunphy’s Cycles with 30,000 PSI of cutting power. The waterjet has a 5-HP direct-drive pump.

His parents and sister handle the financial business side of the company, while his father, who is retired, helps Dunphy with manufacturing the parts.

“I really wanted to give him something to do that we could do together and then bring in my mother and sister. We’re basically a mom-and-pop business,” Dunphy said.

Dunphy’s Cycles uses the waterjet to cut mainly 6061 T6 aluminum, from 0.016 to 1 inch. Dunphy said he also uses the waterjet to cut plastic before starting new jobs so he can check for programming errors using a material that is less expensive than aluminum. Additionally, the company uses the waterjet to create fixtures for the CNC mill.

Because of the amount of cutting and part orders, Dunphy said he hopes to upgrade and expand into a larger shop to accommodate more business and make production of parts more efficient. Currently the shop is 1,800 square feet. Even with expansion in mind, Dunphy said he doesn’t see a need for a bigger waterjet in the immediate future.

“The current waterjet has been more than capable in doing everything we need it to do,” he said.

About the only manufacturing challenge Dunphy’s Cycles has with waterjet cutting is its ability to take on large parts. The machine has a cutting area of only 12 by 12 in. That might be the only thing that forces Duphy to think about getting a larger waterjet in the future, he said.

What’s Next?

Right now the main challenges for Dunphy’s Cycles reside on the business side. In particular, Dunphy said marketing was a distinct challenge because he was unfamiliar with building a website or the basics of marketing his products to a large audience. He found guidance through other business people, who helped him learn the ins and outs of marketing using social media.

“Facebook is really what helped us, bringing quite a bit of attention,” he said.

If social media has helped to expand the business, customer service will help to maintain the growing business.

“My biggest thing is making sure that every customer is 100 percent satisfied with their product,” Dunphy said. “I’ve had customers where, if they’re not happy with it, they can send it back, and I’ll remake it for them free of charge. I feel that if a customer is very happy with our product, they will say good things about us and help promote us even more.”

Figure 3
These parts are examples of the customized work Dunphy’s Cycles is producing for people looking to make a personal statement on their mass-produced trucks and motorcycles.

Dunphy said the company is growing rapidly. It’s now even starting to ship to international locations such as Australia and Germany.

“Next year, I believe that it’s going to be our year, and some of the bigger motorcycle companies better be watching out for us because we’re making a statement of personalization,” Dunphy said (see Figure 3). “That’s very big right now because people are tired of having what everybody else has on their motorcycles.”

Contributing Writer Kate Youdell worked as a summer intern for The FABRICATOR.

Dunphy’s Cycles Machining LLC, https://dunphyscycles.com/

OMAX Corp., www.omax.com