Biography of Harvey J. Crane, Jr.
Biography of Harvey
J. Crane, Jr.
Born August 17, 1931 in Hallandale, Florida. The first son of a highly skilled
self employed machinist and fabricator.
Employed as a racing engine and chassis builder in 1948.
See the new story below about my first camshaft!
Formed his own Camshaft Manufacturing company in 1953.
Elected a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers 1958.
Incorporated the company as Crane Engineering Company, Inc. 1963.
Issued patent number 3,108,580 on a Roller Tappet design 1963.
Published the first ".050 duration" (cam lift) numbers in 1965. (Ref: Crane Engineering Company, Inc. catalog No. 2 spring edition - cost .50 cents)
Designed his first "Computer Cam Design" on a Time Share Computer, using a Teletype terminal, thru the phone lines, with the computer located at
ComShare Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1967.
Purchased a numerically controlled grinder with "ten millionths" of an inch of resolution for manufacturing master cams 1968.
Conceived of and assisted in the design of the Berco (Italy) camshaft grinder in 1972, and purchased the first production Berco cam grinder machine.
Purchased Universal Camshaft Company of Muskegon, Michigan 1974, the only manufacturer of SAE 8620 steel billet roller cams.
Elected a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers 1988.
Formed Crane CamDesign, Inc., on January 25, 1990. This new company offers Harvey's personal consulting services, along with precision measurement of camshafts on our own design camshaft measurement machine. This new measuring device achieves a very accurate
resolution of .0000008 inches (0.02 Microns) along with an angular resolution of 1.67 arc seconds. We also offer complete cam profile analysis and license software used in the cam analysis and cam design field.
The CRANE CamDesign inc name has been changed to harvey CRANE, Inc. Several registered letters from the lawyers of CTG, Incorporated threatened a lawsuit. CTG, Inc is Crane Technology Group, Inc. and is the owner of Crane Cams. The official change to harvey CRANE, Inc. was made late in 1999.
In 2001 the words HARVEY CRANE became a registered trademark! These 2 words may only be used with written permission of harvey CRANE, Inc.
Until August 2005, my ex firm has refused to admit that I have not been with Crane Cams since January 25th of 1989! The HISTORY PAGE at the Crane Cams web site FINALLY REPORTS that Harvey Crane left the company in 1989 to pursue other interests. BS, I was FIRED! I now offer my services to their competitors.
I ground my first camshaft
for Mr. Bud Swanson of Ojus Florida in the summer of 1946. I was 15 years old!
This camshaft was for a Henderson motorcycle. This engine was a four cylinder
"in line" air cooled engine. Bud wanted a "racing cam" for the engine to be used
in his midget race car to replace his "heavy" Ford V8 60 HP engine he was using
at that time.
Since I was the oldest son of a highly skilled self employed machinist, I asked
my father to allow me to use his Brown & Sharp universal cylindrical grinder to
attempt to grind this camshaft. He said OK.
I then fabricated a degree wheel from a pair of 180 degree protractors and
attached it to the front end of the camshaft.
This would allow me to adjust the "duration" of the lobes while I "ground the
basecircle smaller so I could raise the cam lift".
I then ground the "flanks" by holding the camshaft in my hands while I allowed
the flanks of each lobe to touch the grinding wheel in order to get the duration
correct.
This process was later found to be called a "belly grind" camshaft. The belly
grind process was used by several racing engine builders at that time.
I found out many years later the same process was used by several Briggs &
Stratton engine builders.
I never assembled a racing engine until 1948, when I was 17 years old!
I ground my second Camshaft in August of 1953 on a "factory" type camshaft
re-grinding machine that I purchased NEW!