Wheel Truing

 

This tune seems to be pretty popular with Japanese artists. It's just a good thing her English is good, I can't speak a word of Japanese.

Fuzzy photo of the completed 1st stage of the wheel truing device.

It works as designed. The cones are good for bearings 15 to 25 mm. The individual pieces all have setscrews so I can adjust the center rod up and down depending on the wheel width. I'll thread a nut down on the top cone to snug it up good. The next step is to make a piece to attach the dial indicator to test runout on the drum. The nice thing about this set-up is if you are going to re-lace a wheel with a new rim, before you take the old one apart, you can take a measurement from the plate to the rim to get the offset and then make a block of the correct distance and slide it under the rim while truing the wheel. 

I did a similar thing when I relaced the wheels on the Sprint road racer years ago. As long as you're patient, it's not too tough to lace a wheel. A bonus with this set-up, it won't take up much room like a traditional wheel truing stand would.

Quick-Change

 

I was on the phone yesterday morning for about an hour, between the credit card company and Speedway Motors, but the Winters quick-change rear has been purchased and should be here next week. I already purchased the drum brake kit for it last year. Need to knock out a couple of bike projects so I can move the jitney to center stage and make it a roller. 

Other than cutting it to length, I finished the first piece of the wheel truing device and started on the second piece. It's supposed to be warm again today like yesterday - temps in the fifties - so I might tackle a couple of outdoor chores as well as working in the shop again. Now that the extreme cold should be over, I want to get out in the shop at least a couple of hours every day. 

I also need to work on my cardio. I was at the gym last night and tried skipping rope and ran out of wind rather quickly. There won't be much Be-Boppin' around here if I don't improve my cardio. 

A Little Bit of Shop Time

 

It was still cold yesterday - not frigid like it has been, but still below freezing. I went over to the storage space to measure the diameter of the BSA fork tubes. Neither my nor Surly's clip-ons will work. Also, the top couple of inches are tapered. Not insurmountable but Surly says he's not boring a taper for clip-ons. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. If we need clip-ons, I'll take care of them.

I finished fitting the angles on the platen and then I put in a little "think time" on what I'm planning to make for the wheel truing and drum checking gizmo. I've got it pretty well mapped out. Since the BSA and the Sportster both need the drums checked, I want to make it pretty much universal. I'm going to give a it little more thought and then make a sketch or two. If it looks good on paper, I'll start machining some parts.

Surly's hoping to be free next weekend, so we can start making some definite plans. In the meantime, I'll keep myself busy with the trials bike and odds and ends. 

And So it Begins

 

Don't believe I've ever put any James Brown on here before but I'm ready to get on the good foot and start building "motorsickles". 

Parts for the BSA came yesterday, so that's the start. If Surly jumps in with both feet, that'll be the kick in the ass I need to see regular progress. When I was at the high school he used to come once a week for my open shop night and we got quite a bit of stuff done. Now, between the two of us, we've got the equipment and the know-how to build most anything. And, I'm going back to work, so I'll have a steady stream of money coming in to pay for whatever we need, at least for 8 weeks. That should be plenty unless we opt for new aluminum rims and stainless spokes. If so, not a problem - in for a penny, in for a pound and all that. 

The clip-on bar in the photo got bent at Daytona. If it's the right size for the BSA I can weld on a new tube and get them plated. Surly says he has a pair also - just have to see what the final design calls for and if they'll fit.

Even though it was still cold yesterday, I went out to the shop and drilled a couple of holes in the platen for the new hold-down clamp. I also drilled and tapped a hole for the piece I'm going to make to lace up a wheel and check the run-out on the brake drum. 

Anyway, my chest is feeling good and I'm tired of spending a lot of time in the house due to the cold weather. Time to build things.

BSA Thoughts

 

This is one Brother Johnny had posted on his blog. At this point in time, he was looking for ideas for the BSA like Surly and I are now. We might be a little ahead of that curve, since the side covers and air cleaners will be here in a couple of days. I'm diggin' this one like Johnny was. Checks all the cafe racer boxes - flat bar, rearsets and upswept pipes.

And what's not to like about high pipes? This a little more than a cafe bike. Looks more like a real vintage road racer. Not liking the looks of the muffler, though. Must of had a sound restriction at the track.

This would have been the one I would have bought my senior year of high school except I wanted a Sportster. I couldn't afford one, though, so I settled on a Sprint. A couple years later after my Sprint got stolen, BSA was about done for and I had my eyes on a Triumph Daytona. My dad wouldn't sign for a loan and he was tired of me driving his vehicles, so I bought a car. But the BSA has always been a sentimental favorite, and Johnny's as well. And speaking of my dad, the old boy would have been 105 today if he was still kickin'. You can't choose your parents, but I drew a pretty good hand.

Stay tuned, this is going to be the year for motorcycle progress. 

Some Disco to Warm You Up

 

Surly decided, and I'm in complete agreement by the way, that it's time boogie, oogie, oogie on the BSA. I ordered some side covers and air cleaners for the project. We need to discuss some other details yet, but I'm going to defer to Surly on the design. Eventually the bike will be his, might as well make it like he wants. He'll come up with something that's a classic design that will honor my brother's memory.

Surly sent me this photo with the side covers and air cleaners I ordered installed on an Oil in Frame bike like ours. Not sure what the rest of the bike will end up looking like at this time, but the handlebars will definitely be lower - probably something in the neighborhood of a 2" rise. 

I'm thinking something like this would be pretty cool. Again, whatever Surly says is what we're going to do.

The goal for the year now is completion of the BSA, Sportster and the vintage trials bike. Reasonable goal, especially since my chest has stopped hurting. I'm feeling more like my old self, which actually means, more like my younger self. I doubt if I'll ever be a human dynamo, but no reason Surly and I can't get some projects taken care of this year. 

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Colder than a well digger's ass in the Klondike once again. It was 10 degrees when I went to the gym last evening, only 7 on the way home, and down to 0 or a little below during the early morning hours. It's going to be cold the next couple of days as well. I'm staying indoors, other than chores, until it warms up a bit.

I started on the taxes yesterday. That usually causes me much anguish but this year at least some of the waste has been revealed. Now it's been confirmed what I've suspected all along - the feds take our hard earned money and piss it away, not just in the gold ole USA, but all over the world. I suppose after looking at what I make and what they take, I should be even angrier this year than what I usually am at tax time, but I'm hoping that things will improve in the future. It probably won't make much of a difference in my lifetime, after all the country is still 36 trillion in the red. 

Anyway, it's still cold out and I've got more tax work to do. Now that I completed my upgrade on the ham license, I've got a couple of books I want to read. I've got a good start on one already. My book count has been rather weak the last couple of years. Need to work on that.

Platen

 

I shoveled some more snow yesterday and swapped out the propane tank for the shop heater. The tank is a 100 pounder and it's not easy to roll it around on a bed of oak leaves covered with snow. Fortunately, no damage done to the chest with the snow shoveling or tank swapping.

The job for the day was the cast iron platen. I pulled the stud out of the one end, removed a broken bolt out of one of the threaded holes and then chased all the threads. I sanded and oiled up the platen and drilled the angle iron to bolt it down. The angle on the right side needs some attention, but it'll get cleaned up and then bolted down using the holes I threaded where the studs used to be. Probably get that done today before it gets cold again. 

I need to split a couple of more pieces of the oak log I cut up a while ago. I split a couple the other day by hand - not worth the aggravation of moving the splitter or the wood through the snow and taking a chance on screwing up the chest pulling on the starter rope on the splitter. Plus, it's a good way to start getting my strength back. A little workout with a sledge and wedges will shape up the upper body. The grandson was supposed to come down and help me for a day or two with the lumberjacking and a couple of other chores, but he's been ill. We'll schedule a day when he and the weather are better. 

Stay warm!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all you lovers out there. My mother and father were married on Valentine's Day by Reverend Valentine close to 80 years ago. My anniversary's coming up in about a month, just a few days before I go back to work again. It'll be 54 years this time around. 

I shoveled snow yesterday for about an hour in the morning. My chest was sore later in the day but I think some of that was brought about by the back muscles tightening up and sitting bent over reading or farting around on the laptop. The bottom fell out on the temperatures later in the day. It was about 8 degrees at about 8:00, and it continued to fall. I lit the fireplace and kept it fed until I went to bed and stoked it up again first thing this morning. I'm planning on another day of hibernation today - going to catch up on some reading and do a little work down in the basement. I haven't worked on my winter project at all this year. Good time to get a little progress made.

I was planning on going to Indy tomorrow for the motorcycle show but they're forecasting snow once again. I-65 is risky enough in good weather, don't need to chance it when it's slick. If it's not too cold, I'll crank up the heat in the shop and putter around out there for a bit.

For some reason I get an error message every time I try to respond to a comment or post one on a blog somewhere else. I'm not ignoring you Marshall, it just isn't working. 

 

Pickin' Up The Pieces

 

I made a quick run to the hardware store yesterday before the snow started coming down and stopped at the grocery store while I was out. This one played over the intercom while I was in the corn bread aisle and I almost got a case of boogie feet.

And if one's good, two's got to be better. I would have liked to have seen this group back in the day. I never went to a lot of shows, but no ones fault but my own.

The snow kept falling all day and into the night - I'm not sure what the final tally was, but probably 4" anyway. I went out again in the afternoon to check on the birds, etc. and once again eyeballed the trailer wheel that's in the barn.

It's like this one - won't fit anything I've got but it's brand new, in the since it's never been on anything in the last 30 years. Not that I need another project, but I've been trying to think of a use for it. I'd gladly give it away if I knew anyone who wanted it. If I'm going to get the place cleaned up, gotta get rid of stuff.

Cold weather's on us again for a few days. Don't know if I'll be spending anytime in the shop, but I've got plenty to do in the shack to keep me busy.

Happy Days Are Here Again

Happy Days Are Here Again - indeed! I passed my ham radio upgrade test last night. Not by much but a win is a win. I read two prep books and must have taken at least 50 practice exams but there were at least five questions on the test I had never seen before. That, and I missed a couple others. But I've got my General license. Now I need to get an antenna hooked up so I can get on the air.

Going along with the happy days theme, my chest is still doing okay, so I started in on a fitness program. I'm starting slow and easy with no pushups or bench presses. I gained about 8 pounds with the latest chest injury and the eye surgery, which isn't as bad as I thought. I need to lose a few, get the stomach tightened back up and get the cardio back where it should be. I found a couple of bike rides I'm going to train for. If I can ride a 50 miler or a metric century at my age I'll be real happy. 

Clamps

 

I ordered some clamps from Fireball Tools that showed up yesterday. Fortunately, I saw the Fed Ex truck when it pulled up outside. Once again, rather than dropping the box off on the porch, he set it in front of the garage door where I could back over it like I did with the box of Christmas presents. And since it was precipitating some combination of rain and sleet, the box wasn't going to stay dry very long. Anyway, in this case no harm was done because I went out and brought the box in right away.

The box contained a set of Vise Grip style clamps and a hold-down clamp. The set of clamps was a very reasonably priced $54.00 for two 8" clamps and two 11" clamps. While I've got lots of clamps of all different sizes and descriptions, these have one of the jaws that come out almost straight allowing you to stick that jaw inside a piece of tubing and still be able to clamp something to the tube, for example. The grandson has a birthday coming up in about a week, so he'll get one of each of the sizes and I'll keep the other two.

The hold-down clamp is going to be used with the cast iron platen it's laying on in the photo. It's made to be used with a welding table that has 3/4" holes on a grid pattern to hold things in place for tack welding, etc. I'm going to drill a few holes with the mag drill in the platen to facilitate clamping parts down. I could have used it when I was making the gym sled recently, along with who knows how many other jobs over the years. 

The platen has a stud that appears to be pressed in you can see in the lower right hand of the photo. I'm going to pull that out of there, thread that hole and the one on the top right-hand corner. I'll get a piece of angle and drill a couple of holes in it that I can bolt down to the platen to facilitate clamping things. The platen has holes that are drilled and tapped along the long edges, maybe get another piece of angle drilled for those holes as well. The two angles bolted down will give me a right angle that I can clamp parts to if I need weld up a square corner. I should have done something like this years ago, but that's how I normally roll - always limping along instead of stopping and taking the time to make things go easier in the future. But now, I'll probably have everything just like I want it about the time I die. I imagine I'll still have a backlog of projects just the same, though. 

I've been diligently studying for my ham radio license upgrade. The test is tomorrow and I've been a little concerned with my progress judging by my results on the practice exams I've been taking. However, things have started to click and I think I stand a decent chance of passing it now. I'm going to spend a couple of hours both today and tomorrow studying. I'd like to know more about the material the test covers rather than just memorizing a bunch of the correct answers. The one study guide I read explains the material well, but just reading the book much of the information didn't sink in for me. I should look for some type of on-line class in the future and see if I can't learn a little more about what makes the radios and antennas actually work like they do. If I fail the test, that might just be the very next thing I do. 

The Band

 

The Last Waltz was on the television the other evening - quite the hootenanny.  A lot of great musicians who appeared to be having the time of their lives. The band The Band goes right along with my studying for the ham test - I've been seeing lots of band questions on the practice exams.

Ice storm Wednesday night - even had a couple of big claps of thunder. I went out yesterday morning and salted the walk and the garage aprons, but every step was an adventure. Even the gravel and the grass were treacherous. Not only was there a thin coating of ice on everything, there were ice pellets all over the ground as well. 

TVI came by and picked up his parts and we discussed some more of his action plan on his HD. I'm going to have to give him some welding lessons, it seems. He can do some stick welding but he's not much on thin gauge with a MIG.

After he left, I welded in the Dutchman for my prototype I'm working on. I machined up a piece to slip inside the tubes to ensure the parts were in alignment when tack welding them. While running the lathe I pretty much convinced myself it's time to retire the old South Bend and get something new. 

I'm going into the college today to administer a make-up exam for the last class I taught. I'm taking my ham radio prep book with me to study while the student is welding. My results on the practice exams are not going as well as I figured they would by this time. I've still have a few days to study but I'm not feeling real confident. I can always bail out and take the test next month, however. 

I still have a couple of little things to do on the vintage trials bike. I think that's going to be the high priority out in the shop next - or it will be until something or someone else comes along. I'll get back on that after I take the ham radio test. Or before, if I decide to bail.

HD Parts Fab, Etc.

 

I went to see TVI yesterday. We had a nice bull session before we got down to motorcycle business. The two blocks in the photo are for mounting the coil on the HD frame. The bike is a collection of parts, not all of them from the same year or model. These get welded onto the seat tube. I machined up the relief to the same radius as the tube. I still need to drill and tap them - I'll get to that later today or tomorrow. 

He also needs a little piece made for the steering damper. His frame never had one and he's planning on running a sidecar, so a steering damper is a good idea.

In addition, he's looking for a custom oil tank. He's putting an electric starter on the bike that mounts above the tranny. Because of that, there's no longer enough clearance for the stock tank. He showed me a cardboard mockup of what he's looking for and he gave me the chance to bail out if I didn't have the time to make it, but it's a pretty straightforward job. He's going to collect up the bungs and the sheet metal and then I'll take over.

The weather was beautiful yesterday until about 3:30. I had the big doors open out in the shop and it was about 58 degrees with the sun shining. Then in a matter of about 15 minutes the wind started blowing and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. It's cold again today with a high right around the freezing mark.

I went to the gym in the evening and worked with a few guys holding mitts and throwing punches for about 45 minutes - I got a good workout but no chest soreness this morning. Since things seem to be working well, I'm going to start a workout routine, no pushups though. I was in a photo of the group of us at the fights the other night and my stomach seemed to be pushing the front of my sweater outward. I haven't gotten on the scale recently, but pictures don't lie. I want to find a couple of medium distance cycle rides to train for - something on the order of 50 to 62 miles. 62 miles is a metric century and are fairly common.

Been taking practice exams for the ham radio test and I finally got a decent result this morning - 30 out of 36, and I need 26 correct to pass. I'll keep studying until I can get a passing score every time and start working on my taxes in between my study sessions. It'll be really nice if the Prez can convince Congress not to tax my Social Security, since that's where a big chunk of my tax obligation comes from. Be nice to have my own money returned to me without having to watch it go all over the world for war or just plain craziness.

  

A Dutchman

 

Surly came down Saturday morning to return my truck and to get a little help removing the bearings from a dirt bike wheel. We were going to put a little heat on the hub, so I fired up the air acetylene torch that I finally was able to open the valve on. The only problem was there was no air, just acetylene with the yellow flame and black soot. I don't know what's going on with it. The torch is about as simple as they come - just one knob to turn it on and off. One more thing to work on, I guess.

Later in the day I finished up the bracket for the combination square. I rolled up a ring to fit the little container with the thumb screws and plates. I painted it up and then installed it yesterday.

After I finished the installation of the combination square, I machined a "Dutchman" for a prototype of a gizmo I'm working on. A tube needs to be stretched by about an inch. Since I've already done some machining and welding on it, I took the easy way out. I'll cut the tube and then slip this in there and weld it in place. Instead of making this out of a piece of solid or a heavy wall pipe, I made it out of two pieces of tube I had in the scrap bin. Now I'll plug weld the inner tube to the outer and then insert it into the other tube to stretch it. If everything else works as designed, when I get all done I might go into production.

Going to see TVI this morning. He's working on his Harley and needs a consult on something. Don't know what he needs. Regardless, I haven't talked to him in a while so it'll be good to catch up a bit. 

Breaking Wind

 

Music to Fart By

Quite a few years back when I was at the high school, I took a day off. The nice lady who usually got the call to sub when one of us in the tech hallway called off, wrote in her report when I came back the next day that she would never sub in my class again. Seems the boys decided to have a fart fest while she was in charge. I got a chuckle out of it, but she was a great sub - always followed the lesson plan and nothing was torn up when I got back. Hated to see her go.

I went to Coach Jen's place Wednesday and worked with a young guy and then did some bag work. While doing the bag work I felt a click in my chest. I figured I was in big trouble once again but I woke up the next morning feeling fine. In fact, like the chest was completely normal. I don't know what the deal was but it sure felt good. Now a few days later there seems to be some residual discomfort but nothing serious, just enough to remind me not to do anything dumb. You would think if something clicked back into place it would have been seen on one of the several tests I had. Regardless, I'll take it.

A bunch of us went to the fights last night. All the winners were out of the red corner and the fighters out of the blue corner, for the most part, were tomato cans as they used to say. Worst fight card I've ever seen. The only redeeming thing about the night was I was able to spend time with some of my favorite people and talk boxing.

I finished the second prep book for the ham radio license upgrade and took a couple of practice quizzes. Time to get serious now on the quizzes. I'm planning on a couple of hours every day - a little in the morning, and again in the afternoon. It wouldn't be all that bad if I didn't pass, other than the embarrassment factor. If you've taught high school for 36 years and you've been an adjunct faculty at the community college for 8, you should know how to study and pass an exam. We'll see.