!914 Twin HD Cannon ball request

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

The old grind

In the above machine photo is a Blanchard machine grinding my sprockets to width prior to cutting the spline into them. A You Tube video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JcLMJ6AKyg
Joe

[Chris Haynes]

You must have one hell of a shop.

[Slojo]

You must have one hell of a shop.

Chris
You may have missed the previous post. I had mentioned that the Blanchard grinder is at Alloy Ind. actually a customer of mine.
Joe

[Slojo]

Every little part counts

Without brake clevis pins we would have no brakes Hmm. I decided to resolve this issue by digging into my parts bins from where I stored the purchased 1/4 clevis pins from years ago. These pins were random lengths so they had to be cut into two specific lengths and drilled, simple work. Once eight pins were completed (a few spares) it was time for the road again, customers are calling more often lately.
The sprocket carrier now with the modern bearing conversion required truing up on the OD where the sprockets are to be mounted after the inner splines are wire EDM cut. Because of the nature of the updated bearings It is crucial that this entire assembly is round when completed. The original design was more forgiving. This part was fixtured in the Parker Majestic OD grinder and re-cut on the major diameter . A while ago I machined this race by hard turning and found it was very hard, the guys at Precision Spindle whom ground the ID agreed, today I reaffirmed what ever Harley made this bearing/sprocket carrier out of was hardened to perhaps 65 + Rc, probably 52100 steel as it has been a main stay for bearing races to my knowledge for about one hundred years or so.
With the race trued up on the OD it was back to the Okuma Lathe for foot board studs. I have an original set of these studs that are a little beyond usable condition for this bike. With a duplicate brake shackle program modified the floor board stud program is nearly complete. The tooling is set up already so I hope to get the studs off the machine in quick fashion tomorrow.
Joe

[Slojo]

Full moon tonight

Lets see, I put two out three of the children (Ducatis) on intravenous feed (battery tenders) just in case an opportunity presents itself this Memorial Day weekend (And I am sure it will). The 48 Pan is fat and happy, ready to go no electromorphine required.
I sparked out the OD of the sprocket carrier race the other night but neglected to post a photo so maybe it will be posted tonight.
Mcguire spring called this morning," the pedal crank springs are ready come get them" "Buy us lunch". Ok, what a deal. Shortly after, the Guys at Lunar Industries finished the EDM work for the pedal crank. This was a problem for the operator running the part. It would appear that if a casting is welded and maybe not perfectly free of surface impurities the EDM wire will break because it cannot cut through the impurities. This was the case on my crank arm so we improvised. I will go into details later when an attempt to finish this project "comes around on the guitar one more time" (A little Arlo G. lingo) How much do I owe? How about a favor down the road. Ok.
After the pickups were finished a trip to Dave Leitners was just around the corner. Dave came up with some intake valve rocker towers for the Ghost project Thanks Dave. These towers are for the 14 and earlier style motors. I was hoping to find the later version rocker towers to gain some rocker arm ratio in my favor for more valve lift.
Back home all tolled about six precious hours were consumed ouch.
Tonight I finished the program for the footboard mounting studs and ran a few off. They ran pretty good problem is there are so many different lengths I am unsure which length to make so I will make about four styles. With several variable statements strategically placed in the program the part length can be altered with just one defining variable command.
Joe

[c.o.]

[Slojo]

Following is a You Tube video demonstrating the process of making a floor board stud for the 1914 HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fm7vmU21d8

Joe

[Slojo]

I put in an eighteen hour day yesterday. Twelve of those hours on a new performance enhancement part for the Ghost's engine, details at 11:00
It is a complicated program and process developing this part. A real challenge without the support of a CAD CAM system.
The chassis is still in need of a few pieces of hardware, I just thought it would be good for a change up here.
Joe

[Slojo]

More than one way to skin a valve tower.

20 Work hours latter, after the idea sparked in my some times fertile mind out comes the first prototype extended ratio valve spring tower for high ratio rocker arms. These were used in the 1914 race motors. What Harley did was take a 2 3/8 overall length rocker arm from push rod center to valve stem center and change the pivot from the valve side of 1" to valve side of 1 3/8" just the opposite happened to the push rod side. In other words the pivot moved over 3/8 inches changing the ratio from .727 too one to 1.375 too one. This ratio became the normal in all latter bikes. These early motors all had a small spring tower and do not interchange with the later style towers.
It doesn't need to be said how much work went into the this set up and program other than it was complicated . I am unsure how the finish work will be handled yet. Since I have run out of live holders for my machine I can't add additional live tooling parallel to the X axis. Further more the finish shape is a complex shape and does not conform to a continuous tool path for a cutter to follow.
The bar stock used was just the right diameter and long enough to make the part and not run into any interference with the chuck jaws and live tooling holders. To properly hold onto the material the raw bar end had to be machined square. Note in the photos to follow the glowing chips from this bar end, it was hard. The rest of the material machined nice.
Once the process is dialed in the time to run a part should be 20 minutes or more, depending on what additional machining will be done in the Okuma. The bench work (by hand tools) was about an additional 20 minutes. The factory contours on top of the valve tower are necessary to be reproduce as they are clearance for sliding the lock nut over the entire body and screw it down to the intake valve pocket. In the following photos you will see the progression of the tower, a close look will show a few minor errors. Still a good usable backup part.
Joe

[c.o.]

I can't believe this.....man that's some pretty impressive work!!

[Ohio-Rider]

Not to Shabby

Joe, I tip my hat to you sir. You didn’t program that part by hand did you?

[Slojo]

Joe, I tip my hat to you sir. You didn’t program that part by hand did you?

Steve
I do not have any other way to program other than manually (by hand and calculator). The cost of a system to do my programing is more than I can afford right now. I have had some freebies systems offered but unethical is the best way of describing those offers. Tooling materials and Cannonball parts are expensive enough as it is.
Aditional live tooling holders would help for finish machining the part. With some heavy modifications one of the live holders that I have will fit the requirements of the machine. The next "inlet housing" will be free from errors this part has (first off). The end mill holder was off center when milling the outer profile, I noticed it half way through the profile cut of the part. You can see the steped error on the beam sides of the profile.
Joe

[Barry Brown]

Hey Joe and others , Have you checked out the Victor thread at the Cannonball Forum? A 67 year old is doing his own Cannonball right now on a stock 14 with no back up and is 3/4's across the continent !

[Slojo]

Thanks Barry
I went to the site and read its entirely, fantastic, good for this man, Victor and his builder. I could not log in on the cannonball site something wrong with my password I guess so I am posting here for all else to find his article easily.
http://www.motorcyclecannonball.com/...ad.php?tid=220
Joe