School Projects

Here's one of the projects we've been making in the Fab class I've been teaching. I tried to come up with a couple of projects that would involve a variety of skills that would end up with something useful to them. They all seem to be pretty happy with this one. All of them weren't happy with their results - after they got it done they wished they would have done a little bit better job. That's a good sign, though. While we were making them, I made another one for myself and then the lab tech collared me and asked about making an extra one for the school shop and maybe one for himself, so with the help of one of my students we knocked out two more. If I get a can of that gold paint I mentioned in the last post, I can try it out on the roll-a-round and see how I like the looks of the color. Even if I don't like the look for the wheels, at least the paint won't go to waste.

Here's another piece for the trophy shelf I put up last week. This is a technical exercise but it looks pretty cool. It's made by making a linear move while making a plunge move while rotating the part. The professor  was waiting for a couple of the students to finish up their parts, so while there was a pause in the action we worked on writing a program for this project. I wasn't much help but I was able to follow along with most of the logic at least. We've only got two more sessions and then that's it for the machining class. I am going to sign up for another class in the fall. Might have to add another shelf for the parts I make in that class. I'm looking into getting my machinist certificate or maybe even the associates degree. My professor is also the big cheese of the program, so I'll make an appointment to see him about all that over the summer. Most all of his classes run just one day per week, so if I decide to take one class per semester, I should have my degree when I'm about eighty.

Pure Gold

Here's what I need for the 900 - genuine Campy mag wheels. Nice little magazine copy here about how they used to make their car wheels. The article states they would anodize the wheels and then paint them. So that answered a question I had about the finish. Next question would be how can I come up with a similar finish? Maybe gold paint with a matte or semi-gloss clear over the top?

They've got this in the pure gold as well as a couple of bronze colors. It's never good to have the colorblind guy pick out the colors, though. Since Surly says the gold is mandatory, maybe I should leave the color choice up to him.

Speaking of which, he responded to my last post with some links about Superbike wheels. The first link shows quite a few Kawasakis in various states of trim - definitely worth a look if you're at all into go-fast bikes from the mid to late 70's. The other links are concerned specifically with the wheels.

When I started on this thing way, way back with the original sidecar, I was doing quite a bit of frame modification on the big Kaws, mostly for dragstrip use but a couple of things for road racers. The frame I have was wrecked, so some of the modifications were a direct result of the hand I was dealt but the rest was what I had learned from my experience working on race  bikes and what ever I came across in the magazines, specifically, the November, 1978 issue of Cycle that had an in-depth look at the Kawasaki powered Vetter bike that was prepared by Pierre Des Roche and ridden by Reggie Pridmore. I'm not trying to build a replica  bike but something that would be like an amateur road racer of the day would campaign on the WERA circuit or maybe a guy who wanted a better performing street bike. Actually that was the whole premise of the Superbike class, at least initially. Run what you brung class for the big street bikes. Loose rule format, leading to lots of experimentation and competitive racing.

Back to the wheels. The Vetter bike ran Morris mags - 19" front with a treaded tire, 18" rear with a slick, both Dunlops. Goodyear came out with a 19" slick that year but the Vetter bike stuck with what they were using, 'cause it worked for them. They had enough trouble with cornering clearance as it was with the 19", no way would they run a 16" like on Harley's Lucifer's Hammer. The BMWs from that era ran on wire wheels, by the way. My bike has a 19" front and an 18" rear. The rear is not the gigantic, for the time period at least, WM7 that they were running. I plan on running the stock mag on the front but widening the rear wheel some time down the road. I've got the Kosman clutch release on the bike so I can run an offset sprocket if necessary to give me the required tire clearance. So there we go. The wheel choices have been made. Color is the only decision and I think I'll have to defer to Surly on the gold. Campy, Morris, Lester - they all had gold wheels for the superbikes. I just need to figure out the proper finish to get mine to look like they did back then.

Hubcap's Done

Surly commented that the wheels on the sidecar rig need to be gold - like the Moriwaki superbike above. I'm not necessarily against that, but I'm wondering what type of paint would give the proper look without looking cheesy. I don't know what the finish was on the ones from back in the seventies - paint, powder coat, anodize. Paint would be the easiest option. I'm considering widening the rear wheel. If I'm going to do that, it would be best to get that done first if I'm going the powder coat route. As it stands, the sidecar is just about done, so while I'm tearing the bike apart I'll give that some thought.

Hubcap is done and looks like it belongs there. I found some stainless screws that fit the bill. I need to take a skin cut off one of the  axle spacers, however. It was a pretty tight fit getting the wheel back in - must of gotten a bit of distortion when I finish welded everything. I also need to pick up a SAE type flat washer to put behind the axle nut and rivet in the Dzus fasteners. I need to decide if I'm going to paint the fender or leave it as it is. It's not really smooth enough to polish, or paint, as far as that goes. If it was a real racing sidecar, the paint would get rubbed off and scratched in short order, so leaving like it is probably is my best option. I can always planish it a bit more at a later date.

Sidecar Hubcap

Inside of the hubcap after I finished facing it off. It's got a 9 degree taper that I computed using a little trig. I left my scientific calculator at work so I did it the old fashioned way - did the math for a tangent function and then looked up the angle in one of my old  books.  The outside has a 5 degree taper on it. Likewise on the math. It's amazing what a guy can do with a bar napkin and an old machinist book.

It fits inside the hub just like it was made for it. I still need to drill some holes to fasten it to the wheel but that'll happen soon - maybe today. I can't clamp the hubcap into the three jaw chuck on my dividing head so I made a quickie mandrel to hold it while I drill and spotface the bolt holes. The holes are going to end up right about where the taper and the flat surface meet, hence the requirement to spotface for the bolt heads.

As soon as I get that finished up and I weld the nut on the one end of the axle, I can install the wheel. I should probably paint the parts of the wheel that are in the as cast condition before assembly. Everything else looks pretty nice - no point in half-assing it now. The main thing is - it's fast nearing completion. As soon as the sidecar is done I'll get started on jerking the motor out of the 900 and get busy on the bike itself.  

Feeling pretty good about all the progress of late. Just need to keep the fire burnin'.

Thinking Hot Rod

As is my usual modus operandi, while working on one project my mind is thinking about several others. I've got a hot rod project that's been on the back burner for years. I've been thinking about making a move in that direction this year, hence this Mooneyes photo above. Back when I was growing up, Moon and Honest Charley were big names in speed equipment. My goal for the year is to finish at least three wheeled projects. The motorbike is done, sidecar rig's progressing nicely and I'm moving forward by fits and starts on a couple other things. It'd be nice to see some progress on the old hot rod as well.

Since Surly mentioned the Rickati project recently, I should drag it out, jerk the motor out of it and send it off to my buddy. When that one comes up in the rotation, the motor will be ready to run at least. Actually, of all of my partially finished projects, that one is probably the closest to being finished. The photo was taken at the high school in 2010. As you can see, there's really not a lot left to be done on it. It could easily be one of the three that gets completed this year. Something to think about.

In the meantime, I've got a little forward motion to report.

I got the sidecar lights all wired up and I'm working on the hubcap.

Made a little shelf out in the woodshop for my "trophies" from the CNC classes I've taken. I figured displaying them was a better option than tossing them in the aluminum scrap pile or taking up space in the house.

I'm working on a little step stool for out there. I've been tripping over the aluminum section for quite awhile but I didn't have the heart to scrap it. Finally getting around to doing something with it. I need to pick up another 2 x4 to finish the job and maybe a couple of hinges. I need to check and see what if anything I've got around here before the trip to the lumber yard.

I got the SV out and went for a little ride since we finally had a nice spring-like day. I rarely go for a ride just because, but it was nice and it hadn't been started all winter. I keep it on the battery tender and covered so it doesn't take much more than putting the key in it and starting it up. One of the nice things about the fuel injection is the fact that the fuel system is sealed so the gas doesn't get funky. I always top off the tank with some Sta-Bil added just in case.

It's should be warm enough now until the fall comes to keep busy on things without having to run the heater in the shop. I'm just grabbing things off the to-do list in no particular order now and working on them. As long as I keep busy, something's going to get done. At this point, I'm not too fussy as to what. It's been a long winter - need to get out in the shop, ride my bikes and enjoy myself tinkering with the projects.

The rhubarb's up and the magnolias are starting to bloom meaning it's just about garden time as well. That's always a chore, but one that I enjoy. I'm going to try and do a little better job with it this year. I've got a lot of plans for the year, so it'll probably suffer from some neglect again but as long as I get some tomatoes and peppers, I'll be happy.

Have a good week. Spring is finally here!

Doggie Post

Our boy Larry. He's where the sun rises and sets around here. That's OK, though. He brings us a lot of joy. He was of tremendous comfort to the Missus when she was going through chemo. Which brings me to this:

I heard this on the way home from work the other night. Cute little diddie. It's short, give it a listen.

And as Surly mentioned in a comment on the last post, tomorrow is Record Store Day. Maybe pick up a copy of the above or something else to your liking. It's going to be a sad day when there are no more record or book stores left. Do your part to keep them alive.

Almost There

Another photo of the sidecar frame - mostly just because I really like how it looks.

I found a piece of stock to make the hub cap. I'm already getting started on that. I spent a little bit of time cleaning up the wheel. As soon as I take the frame down I'll get the lights wired up and I'll have it all set to go real soon.

While I was cleaning and polishing, I deburred and polished up my latest CNC projects. The big piece is just a threading exercise made on the multi-axis machine instead of a lathe. The smaller part is a weight that sits on top of an LP while it's spinning on a turntable. I didn't realize it but vinyl is apparently still a thing with a lot of music connoisseurs. I've got a turntable I bought a few years back to convert my records to digital, so now I've got solution to a problem I didn't even know I had. I'm still contemplating signing up for another machining class this fall. Doesn't look like I'll be teaching but I like hanging out in the lab and doing the machine tool stuff.