Working the Projects

 

The seals for the fork tubes on the trials bike arrived yesterday. The layout on the plate underneath them is for the quick-change axle mount on the jitney project. Behind the plate are two pipes I need to drill a hole for a 3/4" bolt to go into. These are for the lab tech at work. He's making a welding positioner for his welding bench at home. Since he does all kinds of work for me cutting material, I told him I'd help him with his project. The weld shop doesn't have a drill press. The machine shop does but I don't know what the situation is like there now. I used to be the lab tech there and was an instructor in the weld shop at the same time, so I was always doing something in one shop or the other.

The shifter boot came Friday - came with a polished stainless ring and hardware to bolt it down. I made a pattern for the riser mount but I might need to modify things a bit. The bottom is 6" square and the top is 5" in diameter and about 6" high. I might just roll up a 5" dia. cylinder and see how that would look. I'll make the floor pattern before deciding on what to do on the boot.

The book in the photo is the 1947 revised edition - the first edition came out in 1941. The author was a professor at Purdue. It's an excellent book that I refer to occasionally. In this case I couldn't remember how to revolve things to get my true length lines for my layout. I took an engineering graphics course at Purdue a long time ago and I've still got that textbook and several other books for helping do layouts and solving the odd-ball problems I come across in my project work. If you don't have a similar book in your library, you should keep your eyes peeled at estate sales or yard sales for one. If you can find one, it'll probably be cheap enough to take home and keep on the shelf. You never know when you might need to make a truncated cone or a square to round transition piece like the one above.

I got the trials bike frame ready for paint. Depending on the weather today, I'm hoping to get it painted. The primer can be recoated after about an hour. If not, you need to wait 48 hours. I'd rather not do that, so I'm planning on firing up the heater and getting the shop good and warm and low in humidity. If I can accomplish that, I'll get some paint on it. While the shop's warming up, see to the other parts above and get those taken care of. Maybe get a little walk in as well.