Once you'v e got a boring machine set up to do the job on that center, the design department tends to use what is already there. If that happens to be your only boring machine as I'm sure was the case with some of the smaller outfits, then everything gets designed around that. You may also have a stock of crank forgings of the size needed for that stroke. Got to pay for that tooling.
I read in one of Phil Irving's books that the stroke of the Velocette Roarer came about because the factory had just taken delivery of a Heald Bore-matic machine.
One of the settings was fairly close to what they had wanted so that's what got used.
Bookmarks