Velocars and other interesting vehicles.

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

Windows 8.1 is being snotty and refuses to recognise my Nokia cellphone which is a pity 'coz I've got lots of photos on it I took of the new trike build

My daughter had a look at my project with me and wot we've got planned out is to use the Stirling engine to run an alternator to charge batteries and the trike will actually be moved along by a 24volt electric motor. So it will be a Stirling hybrid trike and if kerosene becomes too expensive or unavailable it will be a simple matter to retrofit a firebox and run the Stirling engine on wood heat.

Actually building a fan like that Victorian one would be a fairly simple project for a couple of talented gentlemen such as yourselves. There was one at the
technology museum in Auckland that I used to see quite often and they had it set up to run off a 100watt lightbulb.

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

Finally - pictures!

This is the starting point, my old Villiers lowrider project. The Villiers engine is going to be removed for duty elsewhere.


This is the trike axle I will be using. These are not the best trike axle on the market, but with additional bracing they can be made to work Ok.


The trike assembled for mockup purposes.




Gratuitous shot of my faithful old Hercules trike.

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

Moar pictures

Drive sprocket mounted on rear wheel. I think the sprocket is for a Chinese scooter, - I'm not sure as I picked it up at a clearance sale.


24volt motor mocked up in position.


Basic quick mockup to show where Stirling engine will be positioned.

 

[silverbear]

That's a good looking bike to start with and will be doubly so with the stirling/electric hybrid setup.
SB

 

[Semaj]

No more Coal burning to charge those batteries, just kerosene or wood...That is awesome!

 

[moto-klasika]

Windows 8.1 is being snotty and refuses to recognise my Nokia cellphone which is a pity 'coz I've got lots of photos on it I took of the new trike build

My daughter had a look at my project with me and wot we've got planned out is to use the Stirling engine to run an alternator to charge batteries and the trike will actually be moved along by a 24volt electric motor. So it will be a Stirling hybrid trike and if kerosene becomes too expensive or unavailable it will be a simple matter to retrofit a firebox and run the Stirling engine on wood heat.

Actually building a fan like that Victorian one would be a fairly simple project for a couple of talented gentlemen such as yourselves. There was one at the technology museum in Auckland that I used to see quite often and they had it set up to run off a 100watt lightbulb.

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[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Annie,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]For us big kids, it is good to have reasonable kids to put us on straight path (just about our hobbies)?
Your daughter must be right: it would be the best if you quickly/simply/cheaply make operational one of your vehicles that would be the best for practical use (e-powered three-wheeler?) - and then jump on any (or all) of your hobbies!
--- ---
I saw your new photos, but many other from time to time - you have so many vehicles and components that you could make a few 3-wheel or 4-wheel vehicles in many variants! That bicycle I didn't see before – quite unusual construction!
--- ---
As I mentioned before, I am interested in hybrids too, but simpler: off-the-shelf generator and electric-motor (with or without batteries) - just to pleased domestic authorities...
As I calculated from many ways, on the wheel I would get some 35-40% of in-put power (from gasoline engine)... I know that assisted bicycles in Europe could have electric-motors up to 250 Watts (in Swiss up to 400 Watts) - which isn't too much, but such vehicles are light and have active pedals too!
Three-wheeler with all that energy-stuff should be much heavier? I suppose that for rides between 15 and 20 MPH, we should need at least 1.0-1.4 HP on the wheel... Could Stirling engine give us 1.5-2.0 HP? I think that pedaling on such vehicle shouldn't be useful?

Just some thoughts - we shall see and until then we shall have great fun following your work!
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[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]
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[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Zoran[/FONT]

 

[silverbear]

Zoran,
With a gearbox that doesn't look like a gearbox even a small motor can work for you. Using a multi speed hub as a jackshaft is unusual and I suspect that few would realize the hub jackshaft had internal gears. Being a little sneaky is okay, I think, when restrictions are unreasonable in the first place and especially when you are not abusing the situation by speeding, ignoring rules of the road and being in general an inconsiderate ignoramus. Rather, you are an older gentleman putting along in a vintage looking contraption in the company of your wife, smiling as you go. Who is to guess there is any subterfuge?
SB

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

Yes Zoran I have lots of junk and treasure hoarded away to aid me in my projects The only problem is that being a hoarder equals mess and not having a tidy house, workshop or yard. As my daughter says our house looks like we do stuff and don't lead boring lives.

My faithful old Hercules trike will be getting a good overhaul soon as well as a 350 watt electric motor. It's this trike that my daughter wants me to put my energies into first before making any real start on the Stirling engined hybrid. And I completely agree with her as now that we've sold our car we're going to need a good functioning tricycle truck for all those pickup type jobs around town.

Apart from getting a great lump off our driveway selling the car has given us the funds to buy the tools we need to seriously start to investigate building small electric vehicles. And finally I have the money to afford to buy a good quality MAPP brazing torch

Having used tricycles for general light haulage around town for some years now I've found them to be an excellent transport solution. Speed isn't so much an issue with a tricycle, being able to haul much more than one could physically carry is, - so 10-12mph is fine. Pedals will be present and will be necessary for occasional light pedal assistance which is exactly wot me and my doctor want as I need to maintain a level of physical activity with this illness I have.

Stirling engines like to run at a constant speed so using one to drive an alternator is the perfect job for a Stirling engine. My daughter knows of a method to gut out the Lucas alternator we will be using to give a steady 28 volts which will be fine for what we need. Direct drive Stirling powered vehicles have been built, but only with much more complication and technology than I want to get involved in. The idea behind all our experimenting is to build something that anybody with handyman skills and a pile of old junk/treasure could successfully put together for themselves.

Yes Semaj that is very much the aim behind building this tricycle, - to have a vehicle which is independent of the energy grid and eventually the oil companies too. The bonus being that the trike is perfectly useful for battery charging or running emergency lighting when it's standing still as well.

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

That's a good looking bike to start with and will be doubly so with the stirling/electric hybrid setup.
SB

Thanks Silverbear I've just ordered the MAPP torch which will be very much needed in order to build the engine carry frame and parts of the engine itself. And of course as a bonus I can now work on modifying unsuspecting SA 3 speed hubs to function as countershaft gearboxes

While I do have a basic MIG and a very good German made arcwelder for certain kinds of work I've always preferred brazing as a means of joining pieces of metal together. It has always seemed far more precise to me especially with smaller parts. Calling down the lightnings with an arcwelder is great for chunky pieces of steel that need to be seriously and strongly joined together. but terrible for destroying anything of a thinner section.

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

I had to go into the township to pick up some meds for my daughter from the chemist so while I was there I looked in at the local milking machine engineers. Normally I'm a little nervous about going there because the staff are huge hairy men named 'Bruce wearing overalls and big boots. There's nothing like telling a huge engineer named 'Bruce' that you're building a Stirling engine when you happen to be an older gentlewoman who rides a 70 year old bicycle and you've just parked said bicycle at their front door. It's fortunate since a change to my own medication that I don't suffer from random muscular twitching anymore or else they might've started to think they had a right live one on the premises.

But as it happened I discovered they had the necessary 'Tee' piece to form the basis of a 'Constance' wood gasifier and I was also informed that they had short off cuts of stainless steel pipe left over from jobs that they would be willing to sell me cheaply. Life is just so good living in the country

Constance gasifier tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20RhuGSYN5Y

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

A nice 1950s NZ numberplate has been obtained for the Stirling trike.



All my bikes and trikes have numberplates/licence plates it's just that they may not be for the correct country or era

I did manage to buy the flywheel I wanted after beating off hordes of tendy airheads who wanted to put such valuable pieces of machinery in their gardens to rust away. Grrr snarl.....
The flywheel I will be using is the one on the left. It's just over a foot in diameter. The other pieces will be put away in my workshop for research purposes.


Most of the work being done at the moment is to do with gathering parts and materials, but things will happening with cutting and shaping metal very soon. My new MAPP brazing torch will be arriving on Monday. Tee hee I'm so excited I can hardly wait

 

[silverbear]

Anne,
If you would please... keep in mind there are those of us in cyberspace who are new to brazing and keen to understand the processes and materials involved. I will never have a stick welder, have no desire to go to the land of TIG or to own other big boy stuff like oxy acetylene which are all beyond my means or needs. I do have access to a mig welder, but always have trouble seeing what I'm doing and have a tendency to burn right through the thinner metals on a bike... or to end up with poor penetration and thus a weak weld. I do have a good bit of experience with soldering, having worked for some years as a glass monger. As I understand it, brazing and soldering are not all that different from each other, so I think it might be something I could pick up without a forbidding learning curve or deep pockets.

So, if you would... please inform as you go, sharing whatever tips you have or new things you experience as you braze. Thank you.
SB

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

Yes I will most certainly will do that Silverbear. No doubt I will have to spend a little time getting my hand in as it were because it has been a while since I last did any brazing. Essentially though soldering and brazing are similar, it's just that brazing requires more heat. Otherwise things like cleaning surfaces and making sure parts fit nicely together are exactly the same.

The MIG welder I have is only a basic one I purchased new around 7 years ago, but I've never really liked using the thing and once I'm set up for brazing its days might be numbered.

 

[moto-klasika]

Zoran,
With a gearbox that doesn't look like a gearbox even a small motor can work for you. Using a multi speed hub as a jackshaft is unusual and I suspect that few would realize the hub jackshaft had internal gears.
Being a little sneaky is okay, I think, when restrictions are unreasonable in the first place and especially when you are not abusing the situation by speeding, ignoring rules of the road and being in general an inconsiderate ignoramus. Rather, you are an older gentleman putting along in a vintage looking contraption in the company of your wife, smiling as you go. Who is to guess there is any subterfuge?
SB

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[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Hello Silver,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Now I am too old to be criminal of any kind and size... but, a little of cheating could acceptable (and useful) for us seniors? Entire life I was "trained" to be honest and loyal citizen, part by family and social raising and eduction, part by my profession... However, living in chaotic country (changed a few states, political and social systems - without leaving my Belgrade at all, until 5 years ago), we all was forced to be "flexible & tolerant" toward each other but to ourselves, too... Then, we all were used to "find possible solutions" and to "accommodate" to unusual and unnatural circumstances and conditions...

Therefore, some searching trough "gray zone" of regulations - should be honest way to do some things? Of course, if we do not act as lunatics or idiots - nobody should consider old couple as such persons? Using generator to work all the time during rides, with switching-off when see police - should be OK! Or to use power of gasoline engine in generator-complete to power quadricycle directly (on hills or at traffic-light starts) - should be OK! Just to find the way for that...
--- ---
Your idea about jack-shaft with internal gear-box: simple, elegant and practical solution! Except here in Swiss: there isn't shops with bicycle's parts, everything should be ordered, but that is expensive way. Probably that such hub should cost 1/2 price of entire bicycle... There is no shops with second-hand parts - I couldn't find where all old bicycles were gone.

I can think about using bicycle's derailleur system (not so expensive if ti is Chinese made) for speed changing. Somewhere people said that such system could accept constant pressure of 2 HP, and for short time up to 3.5 HP. Chains should be changed sooner than if use just pedals... That wouldn't be problem here to have such speed-change (no need to hide it)...[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Unicode MS, sans-serif]Ciao,
Zoran [/FONT]

 

[Ludwig II]

Milking machine engineers - positive displacement vacuum pumps? Vane or Roots type - what about adding a blower to the stove to increase rate of burn and heat production?

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

Milking machine engineers - positive displacement vacuum pumps? Vane or Roots type - what about adding a blower to the stove to increase rate of burn and heat production?

I had thought about that Ludwig, but will most probably use a squirrel cage blower as they can be found cheaply in scrapyards. Finding a live squirrel in this country though might be more of a challenge

To my delight my new brazing torch arrived this morning



It is what is called a turbo torch and it cost me $NZ98.90. Now this is very important, - do not buy the basic type of cheap handyman propane torch intended for heating and soldering because it will not make enough heat for brazing.
I thought I would mention this because I'd hate to see anyone waste their money on buying the wrong torch.

I had been a little worried about the gas cylinders being disposable as I'm green at heart, but with their nice shape with domed ends they look like they could be useful for making all manner of things. And yes I do know that empty gas cylinders need to be treated with respect and precautions taken before doing anything with them.

Unfortunately my favourite local ironmongers was out of stock with MAPP cylinders. However they do normally have them and hope to get some new stock in soon. Sooooo I purchased an ordinary propane cylinder because I thought it would be a good idea to see what can be done with propane. I would imagine that the brazing of small parts would be possible, but we shall see.
As it was a nice day I did ride over to the other side of town to visit the big box hardware store, but they are dead useless for an inventive tinkerer like myself. Like so many such places they mostly sell shiny things in boxes and didn't really have much of anything that caught my interest,

 

[msrfan]

I was cleaning off some shelves yesterday and started looking through my old Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines and thought I would post some of the interesting vehicles people were making back in the 30's. Great stories and engineering. When I go to swap meets, I look for these magazines and usually pay 25c/50c each.

 

[Intrepid Wheelwoman]

I like old magazines too msrfan, thanks for posting these pictures

 

[msrfan]

My pleasure. I also like all the ads for Cushman, Whizzer, King Midget, bicycles and just about everything else. The old artwork is great.

 

[Ludwig II]