!914 Twin HD Cannon ball request

[Chuck#1848]

Ya Gotta Love It!!

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

Joe,
Something about listening to the machine run seeing the metal chips fly and listening to your voice describe things ,brings me even closer to this project, even with the bloopers it makes it all that much more real to me.

Thanks Joe
And thank you to Cory!

[Slojo]

Chuck
I guess I should have shot video of the Monarch engine lathe running today instead of still photos. The chips were really flying as I rough down a new part for replacing the main bearing race in the cutch drum. More to follow shortly on tonight’s progress.
Joe

[Slojo]

Freewheel

Moving right along with the near completion of the frame, Tony stopped by and silver brazed the four joints holding the frame rear section to the front section. He ran out of time and will return tomorrow to finish other silver brazing tasks.
This event put me into the mindset that wheels are becoming more important every day. The time has come for a look into the rear hub supplied by Competition Distributing. Lonnie and the guys put a lot of work into these hubs and it really shows the fit and finish is good. Disassembly of the hub required a special tool to remove a ring nut with two 1/8 drive holes, this wrench consumed about an hour to make and will be shown in following photos. After much deliberation a decision was made to update the internals to modern wheel and clutch bearings. These two units are of one assembly.
Typically when designing any mechanical device the first thing I look into is bearings. The rest of the design must revolve around available bearings, get it? This time it will be a little more difficult as the design and build is complete and modification is now the issue. A call to Motion Industries on Saturday afternoon to their 24 hour hot line yielded some decent results. Dale, a knowledgeable tech was helpful in assisting me with bearing selection and availability.
The new wheel bearings are standard 60/28 2RS metric bearings. 60 is the bearing series with a 52 mm OD, 12 mm width and 28mm bore 2RS denotes two rubber seals. The clutch main bearing is tight and a special fine line bearing by Kaydon will fit with little modification. This bearing is 2 1/2X3X1/4, can you believe it an inch system based bearing. These bearing are made right here in Michigan or at least Kaydon is based here. I will wait for them to arrive to see if they are made here or elsewhere.
While waiting for bearings to be ordered and delivered next week now is a good time to focus on the clutch. Years past I manufactured the throw out bearing assembly and the Freewheel clutch drums for belt and chain drive 1912 and latter Harleys. Recently Lonnie and I conducted some business where he ended up with the remaining inventory of this run of parts. I did retain a couple units for my personal usage.
Many years past at Wauseon Ohio most of the chain drive drums were liberated by someone who apparently needed them more that I did. This really let the steam out of my newly founded business. Further marketing of these Freewheel parts was conducted by word of mouth only. Probing through my parts yielded two chain drive clutch drums, one complete and the other just enough parts to build a second without a bearing race, perfect. The parts unit was assembled and riveted together (see attached photos) and a new bearing retainer is in process, it will hold the Kaydon bearings.
During the search for clutch parts a rusty new old stock Freewheel outer clutch cover plate turned up. Perhaps now is the perfect opportunity to use this item. This assembly is coming together already with a little paper work everything can be machined and put into place.
Joe 1-30-2010

[c.o.]

I was asleep at the switch tonight........here's some pics folks!!

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

(the dark days)

In the past when the barn was under construction a make shift roof was all I had. After a while the roof gave way and enormous amounts of water entered the building for a couple years. Finally I was able to get things under control but the damage was done. As you may see in many of the posted photos rust took over and damaged or destroyed much of what was in the building. Take note of the above clutch drum being riveted together it already has patina.
Joe

[Slojo]

It just gets better by the day

Competition Distributing sells frames for about $3K after all the time and trouble spent on this frame it still is not finished. That $3k looks like a great deal now.
Tony came by again and we silver soldered handle bars and more of the frame together. The frame is closing in on completion and is looking good.
After welding I turned to the Freewheel clutch project again. A couple years ago the chain wheels were EDM cut (Electrical discharge machine, where an electrically charged wire about .007” burns away metal accurately Like a hot knife through butter ) for the ID fit onto the drum, they still required to be cut down from 5/16 to 1/4 thickness. Once cut each sprocket required de-burring, talk about a lot of edges to clean up.
With the passing of each day progress accumulates. This week wheels will become priority if the brake parts can be located. Meanwhile the frame will stay on the front burner. Next on the frame is to weld the fuel tank top strip and motor mount pads. The tank strip and motor mount pads will be machined to properly locate each item without stress involved in mounting to prevent failures going down the road.
Joe 1-31-2010

[c.o.]

Lookin' Good!

[Slojo]

Sidetracked

Several readers of this forum article have asked if there would be any more of the frame rails manufactured and if they would be made available. With the cost of parts for this project and trade deals in the works it became time to look into producing frame rails to satisfy the requests.
This evening was spent in preparation for making some of these lower rear frame rails. Tomorrow new carbide ball-nose end-mills will be purchased to perform the milling process. The end mill used on the first set of rails manufactured was a little dull when I started making the parts and in need of re-sharpening or replacement.
This will be a small limited run of parts for now to see if there is interest. If interest is there then some material will be purchased down the road and another run of parts may be made.
In the past several people requested I make Freewheel clutch assembly. It took me some time to produce these elaborate assemblies, once complete many of those who requested the parts never purchased the parts upon availability. Furthermore several who did show up kept putting off the purchase. This left me “holding the bag” for years. Finally the big hammer dropped when at Wauseon Ohio about 10 years ago someone walked off with most of the chain drive drums leaving me only belt drive units to sell.
I would like to thank all the true bike builders who did purchase my parts and helped me out. Not a single complaint was made of my parts as the quality was to my standards, if I would not gladly put the parts on my bike than I should not expect others to put them on their bikes either.
The chain drive drum on this 1914 Gray Ghost will be from my production even though I have an original chain drive clutch drum available. The original unit would need the bearing race replaced, since a planed modified race will be used for this assembly. Most of the left side throw out bearing parts of my manufacture will be used also.
Joe 2-01-2010

[Slojo]

The Plumber always has a leaky faucet (sidetracked again)

In my attempt to make a few sets of frame legs for those who have requested them a new carbide end-mill was installed for a better finish. This machining operation is a proven operation, set up, feeds and speeds, tooling, so making parts is a given no problem right? The first cut about three inches in the cutter ran over the plug welded area as previously done without trouble. This time the tool shattered while in the welded area during an aggressive chatter condition.
I went out and picked up another cutter and put an old used cutter in a second live tool holder to be used as a rough milling cutter and the new cutter will be used for finishing only. This worked well until the second part was in operation. Several times the machine went into an alarm condition (so much for Okuma reliability) during the finishing operation. It appears that it does not like the frequency given off during the cutting operation.
The alarm condition is unrelated to the actual machining operation. It is an alarm that refers to the ZB axis not sending a signal to the computer (this is a six axis machine). The ZB axis is not in use during the entire part process yet it must report back to the computer continuously. After a few minutes troubleshooting and testing the problem re-occurred. So,,, yes the machine repair dudes machine is down. Currently, it appears to be a bad electrical connection to the position detect device known as an absolute position encoder. After other responsibilities (customers machines) are taken care of tomorrow my machine problem will become priority.
Joe 2-3-2010

[Slojo]

Back again

Well we left off last week with a problematic machine. With my schedule this past week it has been difficult to keep up with priorities…bike building. It appears that my machine has a bad encoder yet closer inspection turns up a possible cable problem. The solder joint caused a brittle condition at the junction of a wire and pin connector. This wire was found broke off its pin/solder joint and may have been already broken or failed upon disassembly. At this point the cable must be repaired prior to further troubleshooting, if necessary.
Side tracked again. Along with the broken machine I have worked on an 1885 vintage ordinary bicycle, you know, with the big front wheel and the little wheel on the back, like Mr. Peabody’s.
Also in the works is of all things a four cylinder bike motor in my shop,,, arg. I am building a set of Henderson KJ engine cases for a good friend and would like to finish them in the next week. These cases are known for two things 1) blowing up and 2) getting the trans sawed off in order to make airplane engines that also,,,,, blow up. Go figure. This has been a long term project that has come to a boil. A while back after locating and purchasing these sliced up engines I grafted the sawed off upper engine case to a sawed off upper trans case section and now the machine work must be completed.
Now for the priority the Gray Ghost frame is nearing its final stages. Currently the frame’s motor mounts are out of alignment. Bending the ears back would not correct the problem so welding up the surface and machining it to where it should be will guarantee proper motor mounting and help prevent a broken motor mount on the frame and motor. Following Cory might post photos for me again, Cory you out there?
Joe 2-7-2010

[c.o.]

Hey Joe....... I haven't been sittin' at the computer chair much lately but my son just hollered and said there's pics for ya to post! So here they are...........

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

Details

Snow snow snow. Man we are getting hit, tomorrow will be a mess on the streets. Forget that for now. The previous and subsequent photos demonstrate the meaning of “live by the sword die by the sword”. This vertical machining center when built was not made with the intentions of getting anywhere near the table. It was built to be used with the 4th 5th axis tilting rotary table that consumes about 14 to 16 inches of Z axis travel. So the luxury of having all the room in the world to stand the frame on its nose and machine the back end is now causing trouble fixturing low profile setups. I had to set up the Henderson case twice to raise it up high enough to machine the welds from the gasket surface. On the frame the motor-mounts required to be cut down and an extra long (ugly) tool holder had to be devised to reach the frame.
Next on the agenda a minor repair on the 1914 engine cases. A slight crack on the motor mount was welded during the last trip to Chris's and machined tonight. This repair came out perfect, what a nice set of cases to build this bike with.
A new lead surfaced on 14 cylinders today, I will remain quite until (if) they arrive.
The bearing shop loves me for purchasing about seven hundred dollars worth of bearings (six bearings) for the motor and rear hub/clutch assembly so far. The spring shop folded up some exhaust cut out spring clips for me the other day, tomorrow they will go out for heat treat. I was not happy with the clip I made due to the metallurgy issue. In the past I have made several of these clips out of old hack saw blades without failures. This trip there will be no unnecessary chances taken even on the minute issues.
The success of Harley Davidson was built on many excellent decisions. It was no mistake Harley survived Henrys contraption (one of the modern world’s greatest developments) while most others failed. It is my opinion that one of Harley’s greatest successes was their advanced metallurgy. Look to the cannon ball roster for proof of their metallurgical durability and superiority.
Joe 2-9-2010

[c.o.]