!914 Twin HD Cannon ball request

[c.o.]

Now that's some pretty impressive work!

[Slojo]

Hey Dennis if the question entered your mind the answered is yes, the sawzall did come into play on the handlebar cable holder project,,,beats the heck out of a hack saw.
Joe

[fabercycle]

The moral of that excersize is....nobody should ever complain about the cost of my handlebars!

Nice job Joe.

[Slojo]

Thank you Tom.
Yes there is a lot of work (and money) that goes into the parts we reproduce for our bikes and those who do not have the ability to make their own parts are at a great disadvantage in both building their bikes and understanding why the parts they buy cost so much to make. By the way Tom I learned today that the Chadwells make the cable holder I just fabricated for my handlebars.
Joe

[Slojo]

Sunday, the day of rest,,,not for me

Lazy start today cut into my productivity. Perhaps I am putting in to many consecutive hours to be fresh every day. With show time right around the corner missing just one day could make the difference of making the event and missing it all together.
Lonnie gave us a one year window to be prepared for this ride, I thought a year would be plenty of time and it should be.
Little parts are priority right now control rods, pins, linkages, levers, nuts and bolts,etc. I will have a photo of the three items made today. There was additional work completed today just not substantial enough to photo and display.
Joe

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

Back to Sparks

With all the excitement of the meet (Denton), photos and conversation my article tonight will be less than anticlimactic.
Today was another day of running around, you judge it good from bad. I spent over a grand for tooling, steel, heat treat, welding, more high dollar slim line bearings and stuff in general for the Ghost. All totaled, about nine separate stops.
The final stop before returning home was at Mark the Sparks where we set up the aftermarket pedal crank arm In his beautiful work of art whirly jig mounted on a sine plate required for angularity (we determined the angle to be five degrees for the tapered triangular pedal crank arm mount). In Sparks surface grinder we resurfaced the as cast tapered round end of the crank arm, then surface ground the three flats at 120 degrees apart from each other. Minimal stock (about .005" maximum) was removed to obtain about 95% clean up on all surfaces.
Next is to make the pedal crank fit the shaft. I had the welder pour the pedal crank triangulated hole full of steel so it can be reworked to fit properly instead of the as cast fit provided.
Tomorrow a piece of graphite will be purchased and an electrode will be made in the exact image, size, shape and tolerance of the shaft we just ground. This electrode will be made using the same tooling and set up as we just used to grind the shaft. Afterwards the electrode will be inserted into a Sinker (not wire) E.D.M. (electrical discharge machine) and plunged into the steel, burning away everything that looks like the inverse of the electrode and no more. When the photos are posted take a close look at the tooling for this application, these are tools of a real gauge maker. The sine plate on the bottom of the setup has a gauge block set under a roll that is placed exactly five inches away from the hinge roll. By using a little math you can set just the right build up of gauge blocks under one roll and achive the exact angle by the sine of the angle required for the job. Next, the whirly jig...class seven aircraft bearings all precision ground a one off tool (ARARAR)... that only three were ever built this one specifically has a feature that allows sine plate like setups for rotation positioning. This is art just as our motorcycles are art. Pay attention Guggenheim.
Joe

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

Moving ahead

A good day in bike building. I was able to make the shifter rod and rear brake rod out of the new material purchased yesterday, it machined well. Some hard turning again on the transmission/sprocket carrier race as seen in the fiery photos to follow. The original H.D. race was trued up in preparation for a sleeve to be pressed onto it. This will bring the O.D. of the race up to the I.D. of the new slim line modern bearings being installed.
A panic call came in from a customer so on the road I went to put out his fire. Their S.D.U. (spindle drive unit) failed. After a little electronic magic he was up and running again. This temporary side track led me to Motion Industries to discuses the improper sprockets that came in yesterday. This may become a problem more on this tomorrow possibly.
Three bike shop stops later to find some spoke nipples and I came up empty handed, a trip to the salvage yard to purchase another front wheel is in order for tomorrow.
Back to the shifter rod. after cutting the threads on the shifter rod a couple bends are required to align the attaching components. This preheat treated 4140 resists bending so a new approach to bending the rod came to mind. Since I have no bending equipment I must always come up with creative bending techniques. An aluminum radius block used for hydraulic press work on round tubes served as a backer while a round piece of aluminum stock became the pusher. Properly aligned in a vise this bending technique made life easy, looks like it is time to make a special backing block just for the type of work.
The two brake rods each have a left hand thread on one end. This thread can be machined in almost the same fashion as a right hand thread other than the tool must be a left hand tool inverted and run with the spindle in reverse. There is also a hex in the middle of each brake rod. The short rod was made from hex stock. On the long rod I silver soldered a 1/2" round stock in the appropriate location and then milled the 7/16 hex flats.
Joe

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

First things first

A run to Mason Michigan for spoke nipples, they actually had exactly what I required, slightly used excellent condition. Thanks to the guys at Slick's cycle salvage.
Once return I opened the package that came in today. Fox Grips shipped twist grips, floor board mats, pedals and the diamond pattern pedal blocks, good looking stuff. George was a good guy and made some quality products. After George's passing his wife Eva has maintained their business best she can. Thank you Eva.
Brake linkage is the direction I bounced tonight. Some times I fell like a misdirected missel jumping from one project to the next,,,,ORGANIZATION SKILLS 101 Humm. After neglecting the next process on the main sprocket/transmission bearing race I jumped into the offset left hand brake clevis. The one two punch, Monarch Lathe / Okuma Mill, stir in a little elbow grease and out pops a strange looking part (see following photos) just as the original item on the loaner fourteen twin.
The left hand thread shaft was single point cut on the Monarch the other night without the LH tap in stock (no matting part to test the fit between the two parts). Since 24 TPI (threads per inch) pitch is typical experience paid off in big dividends, the two items could not have fit together any better.
To finish of the evening I began a set up and program on the metal muncher Okuma to make the standard brake rod clevis in both LH and RH threads. The set up is complete and the program is near finished with a little effort tomorrow, a push of the button parts will be falling off. The 1/2" square stock is held into the machine with a 5C collet adapter that is for 1/2" square stock, how convenient but not efficient to open and close.
A side note, 1914 pedal cranks have an 1/8" hole drilled into the left side center of the pedal shaft two inches in depth. There must be a cross hole drilled to the shaft's outer surface. On the crank arm 1/2' from the center is a hand stamped notice stating, "OIL".
Joe

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

XYZC Could'nt do without them

Left off last night with a partial set up and program for the brake rod end shackles. I had a bright idea that since there are two required I should make them on the Okuma LU300MY. With the ability to do all the turning work and milling work in one operation and more than one part required why not? I will tell you why, a day later I finally have the machine running like a top with six pieces off the Okuma. This was to much time consumed but the finish parts are beautiful.
A LH and RH tap will be screwed into alternate parts from the round end and then finish de-burring prior to plating. The machining process takes about 6 1/2 minutes with ten minutes total operation time as each part has to be indicated in the C axis prior to operation. The C axis is the rotation position of the main spindle. In this case relative to the shape of the material, square. Once again this is a temporary work holding device and is not representative of how the part should be run if a large quantity is to be made. A You Tube video can be viewed at, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR90s8BKvCc
Joe

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

WOW
Just closed an order on line with Mc Master Carr. I have known of these guys forever just never did business with them. They have most everything for whatever you are building.
This on line ordering ability will help streamline my build. I have known all along that to much time and gas money is wasted running around trying to purchase all the supplies needed to complete this build, just did not know how to correct the problem until now.
At the touch of a button everything you need is ready to ship the next day. Now I know how the people 120 years ago felt about the Sears and Roebucks catalog. Take a look for your self, just type in their search box your request.
http://www.mcmaster.com/
Joe