!914 Twin HD Cannon ball request

[c.o.]

[c.o.]

[chas]

brazing

Joe, way back when I was told by a mfg engineer that HD was quick to adapt a stand where, as you say, pins, or dowels were employed along with fixed brazing heads aligned for proper heating all at once. Here is were it gets fuzzy, if I recall they were movable and were put in a metal box when being brazed, I guess to hold the heat, being more efficient. But exactly when they did it I don't remember.

[c.o.]

I'm a little late with the second round but here they are.............

[c.o.]

[gary.h]

you know joe after this build is done and the finished sickle pic is posted i know im gonna get that euphoric feeling like one gets when his first born enters the world..im sure others will too..looking good,all the best to ya joe.

[Slojo]

Gary
Vicarious living, to bad I can’t post in holographics.
The trip to See Chris my favorite welder has left me with metal finishing and machining work. While cleaning up the welds I continued to metal finish the newly manufactured frame rails. Experts will be unable to determine these are not original sections as they flow with the rest of the frame like art work.
Important issue on the agenda is silver brazing again. Doug my silver braze welder is out of commission with knee surgery. Once again this art is within my capability but due to the nature, an expert will be necessary for the confidence factor alone. Twisting the arm of Chris early this morning (Sunday) may yield a house call. Chris is so damn good at his chosen trade, the art and science of welding that he welds seven days a week all hours of the day and evening and still can’t keep up with the demands of his customers. Tomorrow another seventy five dollar coil of silver will be purchased for the inevitable process.
The reason for silver braze is twofold, first silver braze is the original process Harley D used back in the day and is good to follow suit for authenticity. Second, silver is already embedded into the frame joint and TIG welding will not cooperate with the braze alloys.
Joe

[Slojo]

Wheels (through time?)

The last few days have been full of customer work, metal finishing of the welding completed last week and searching for wheels for the Gray Ghost. Original wheels and clincher tires are not part of this build program. Wheels can be changed in the future to stock items. For this ride it appears 23 inch aluminum rims and dual purpose tires are all that come close to fitting my prerequisites. This wheel, tire and brake decision is based on safety issues.
After extensive research I have been unsuccessful to locate a street tire with three inches or less width in a 28 inch overall diameter. The twenty one inch rim, tire combination will not fill the wheel well properly. With a 23 inch rim the only non clincher tire available is a dual purpose tire, it will have to do.
Currently my choice for the front hub/brake assembly appears to be a 1981 1982 Honda XR500R dual leading shoe unit. The dual leading shoe will give me acceptable braking performance when flying at speed out of the mountains.
Already purchased and rejected is a Husky unit with a dual leading shoe. Also purchased today the Honda brake/hub assembly, unfortunately it is missing the backing plate with all the important components attached to it. Here in Michigan we have a few bike scrap yards where one can go “picking”, today was Slicks in Mason Michigan. The other two likely choices are each two plus hours away, with a little luck they will be within my reach this week.
Joe 1-26-2010

[HarleyCreation]

The last few days have been full of customer work, metal finishing of the welding completed last week and searching for wheels for the Gray Ghost. Original wheels and clincher tires are not part of this build program. Wheels can be changed in the future to stock items. For this ride it appears 23 inch aluminum rims and dual purpose tires are all that come close to fitting my prerequisites. This wheel, tire and brake decision is based on safety issues.
After extensive research I have been unsuccessful to locate a street tire with three inches or less width in a 28 inch overall diameter. The twenty one inch rim, tire combination will not fill the wheel well properly. With a 23 inch rim the only non clincher tire available is a dual purpose tire, it will have to do.
Currently my choice for the front hub/brake assembly appears to be a 1981 1982 Honda XR500R dual leading shoe unit. The dual leading shoe will give me acceptable braking performance when flying at speed out of the mountains.
Already purchased and rejected is a Husky unit with a dual leading shoe. Also purchased today the Honda brake/hub assembly, unfortunately it is missing the backing plate with all the important components attached to it. Here in Michigan we have a few bike scrap yards where one can go “picking”, today was Slicks in Mason Michigan. The other two likely choices are each two plus hours away, with a little luck they will be within my reach this week.
Joe 1-26-2010

Those wheel, hub, & brake choices will make the machine very roadworthy for this long grind. A shoe front unit will probably look better than a disc as well. Nice!

[Slojo]

"Come Together"

Things have been busy this past week. Currently priority is to locate the brake assembly to match the wheels of choice. As previously disclosed the front wheel and brake are from a Honda XR500R. It appears the week point with this design is the cable housing holder on the brake baking plate. This has caused a run on these parts in the past and now all that is available are wheels, plenty of them. After many calls an AHRMA member Craig and an out of state bike salvage yard appears to have the required parts, phone calls are due soon for confirmation.
The threads in the axle plates for the rear stand were week at best so welding them shut and re-machining them was a must for trouble free operation. The same goes for the axle adjuster on the right side. These threads are from another time, prior to standardizations, USS (course thread, United States Standard) and SAE (fine thread, Society of Automotive Engineers). These standards apply to many other subjects including close and loose fit washers. The stand stud threads are 1/2X18 and the axle adjuster thread 1/4X26. Try finding these taps in your tool box or the local hardware store.
After accurately aligning the axle plate in the machine the holes were drilled and taped. The tap operation on this machine is a real pleasure to watch. Tapping today involves holding the tap solidly as if it were an end milling cutter. No spring loaded extensions or compression devices. Once the machine is programmed to tap the hole with proper instructions it drives the tap into the hole, stops, reverses and retracts the tap out of the hole without braking or damaging the thread or the tap. This is called synchronized tapping and out classes both sliced bread and three speed transmissions.
After completion of the taped holes the new loops for the luggage rack required finishing to the proper length. A simple program defined information for an end-mill to circular interpolate around the face of the loop removing the extra stock and counter-boring the area near the frame rail to produce the same appearance as original.
Tomorrow Tony my first professional welder (Tony first welded a 1966 Electraglider engine case for me in 1982) I ever used will be coming over to silver braze the tail section back on the frame. This is exciting for all this effort is finally closing in on completion of the frame. After Tony welds the frame per my instructions the motor mounts will be machined for alignment and the rail for the top motor mount will be reinstalled completing a three month frame restoration. Never would I have anticipated the frame to take this long.
While the frame has been the center of attention many other items have come together along with it. The fork and booster springs, fenders, fuel tanks, tool box/oil tank, foot boards and pedals, handle bars, luggage rack, rear stand, muffler with cutout hardware and other miscellaneous items. Take into consideration the entire searching deal making and purchasing, this project is coming along well. Now if I could just find cylinders.
Joe 1-29-2010

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

Hot Bike just published the 2009 results of all the bikes displayed at Sturgis South Dakota World Championship of Custom Bike Building event. This special issue magazine is dedicated to the Sturgis event and has published photos of all competing bikes in the event including my silver1948 twin carb PPPPANhead (ppppun intended) (to conservative? no awards).
Joe 1-28-2010

[Slojo]

Following is a video of a synchronize tapping operation. This is a process that enables the machine to tap a hole while the tap is mounted rigid to the spindle. In the past machines required spring loaded devices used to accommodate for alignment problems with the spindle rotation and the Z axis slide stopping reverse restarting and extracting the tap out of the hole. Synchronization between the spindle and the slide is critical otherwise a broken tap results. Here I have taken a short cut and used a keyless drill chuck instead of a collet chuck. Over the years I have gotten away with this short cut,,,,, most of the time, problem is keyless drill chucks have a tendency of loosening up when in reverse as this one did. Fortunately for me this generally does not result in a broken tap or other damage.

Does everybody dislike they way they sound when hearing a voice recording of themselves?

If you like this video thank Cory, as it was his idea to bring bloopers into the mix.

Joe


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cR1AMFFMR0

[HarleyCreation]

re: "Pins"

Joe, way back when I was told by a mfg engineer that HD was quick to adapt a stand where, as you say, pins, or dowels were employed along with fixed brazing heads aligned for proper heating all at once. Here is were it gets fuzzy, if I recall they were movable and were put in a metal box when being brazed, I guess to hold the heat, being more efficient. But exactly when they did it I don't remember.

I was told by an old H-D employee that the "pins" or "dowels" they used were common nails put thru drilled holes to hold frame parts together. Then, after brazing was done, they chopped the nails off.

Does that fit?

[Slojo]

Herb that is exactly as I thought.
Joe