Indian Hiawatha

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silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
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northeastern Minnesota
We made some good progress today in the Tinsmith's Shop. I mounted the newly painted shift lever and was going to finish up the brake and clutch cables until I realized I had forgotten to bring the cable stops along.

So we worked on the gas line. The engine had a short section of copper line in a metric size a little smaller than 1/4" and I had 1/4" line coming from the fuel filter bowl. I had been figuring on using a compression fitting to join the two lines, hoping the fitting would seal up okay, but uneasy about it.

Dan noticed that the old line coming from the engine had a tiny crack in it near the fitting to the carb. We were going to repair it with solder and then realized the old fitting was steel and was soldered to the gas line. Then Dan got an idea better than just repairing it.

He heated up the old fitting and removed the steel part from the metric copper tube. The micrometer showed a difference of 1/10,000 of an inch between the two sections of tubing so he sanded down the end of the new 1/4" line at a taper so that it would fit into the steel piece, then soldered it up. Nice. This way it is one piece of 1/4" copper running from the fuel filter bowl to the carburetor. Nice and clean.

We made a loop in the gas line using a spring to help make the bend without kinking the tubing. Now all that's left is for me to bring my propane flaring tool along next time to flare the copper line going into the fuel filter fitting. Then it should be ready for fuel.

I made up new fringed elk hide hand grips and got those mounted. They have foam inside are are comfy to my old hands. I'll finish up the cables next week, install the pedal chain and a few other things. Getting closer to liftoff. Pretty soon.
SB
 

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harry76

harry76

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Apr 16, 2011
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That motor looks sooooooooo nice in that frame Silverbear. And should go really good too.

The new copper line should be an improvement in the looks department.

And the Elk handgrips is definite unique. Maybe I could make some kangaroo grips :)
 
T

Tinsmith

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May 15, 2009
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The difference in the two copper lines was .010. About the thickness of two hairs so it was easy to do. NO HAIR JOKES!!
Dan
 
harry76

harry76

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Apr 16, 2011
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I'm with Charlie, there is more suspense on this end then an Alfred Hitchcock movie.... But I know you guys are doing it right, and you can't rush a good thing! We will just have to wait
 
silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
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northeastern Minnesota
Yes, the lunch prepared by Dan's wife, Jackie, was every bit as good as seeing the copper gas line come together. Excellent!

I've had a couple people ask me where i got the center kick stand. There's a bit of a story here, but I'll keep it brief. A couple of years ago I was getting ready to migrate back to Minnesota in the spring time from Maryland. My truck was packed and I was to leave first thing in the morning.

I gassed up, parked the truck and fifteen minutes later it was on fire and quickly burned to the ground. In the bed of the high walled truck were several vintage motor bikes I had built over the course of the winter. Everything was lost. In sifting through things I salvaged some wrenches, sockets and that sort of thing. I noticed in the debris an aluminum center kick stand with one leg mostly melted off, the other one still good. Spring was shot. I put it in a box of questionables and pretty much forgot about it.

Last summer I needed a stand for the Hiawatha build, didn't have one and also didn't have the money to order one. Then I remembered the center stand from the fire, dug it out and figured I could make some kind of peg leg for it out of something, anything just so long s it worked. I picked up a spring for it at the hardware store.

I had some scraps of copper water pipe and found a size that was just right for slipping over the missing leg, drilled a brass bolt hole and decided I kind of liked the copper. (I'm a fool for copper.) I figured it would look better with matching legs, so I cut off the bottom of the good leg, made a second sleeve and made up "feet" from copper fittings.

I wasn't really figuring on using it for this build, but as time went by I became fond of it. And once I had decided to use the Hiawatha fenders with those sweeping fender supports I decided that a rear drop stand would interfere with the curved lines at the back end. So that clinched it. Most of the time this bike won't need a stand anyway, at least while it is in either tri-car or sidecar mode.

I'm sure it is no stronger than the aluminum legs were, but it seems strong enough to do the job. No problems with the legs bending, but I don't sit on the bike with the stand up or anything like that.

Once the copper tank was made and soon with the addition of copper jewel lights, I think the stand fits right in. Looks kind of vintage even.

I've been asked to show what it looks like with the stand in the up position, so I'll try to remember to take a picture next week. I'm glad I saved it from the fire and also glad somebody else likes my peg-leg center stand.
SB
 

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Allen_Wrench

Allen_Wrench

Resident Mad Scientist
Feb 6, 2010
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silverbear said:
...We made a loop in the gas line using a spring to help make the bend without kinking the tubing. Now all that's left is for me to bring my propane flaring tool along next time to flare the copper line going into the fuel filter fitting. Then it should be ready for fuel.

SB
Click to expand...
I love the spring idea. I have to see if it works better than the small pulley I've been using. And I've been using a metal cone-shaped wine bottle stopper for a flaring tool. It works okay on copper. But I've been trying to check on getting a real one, but I don't know what I'm looking for.
 
silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
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northeastern Minnesota
Charlie,
Sometimes things just kind of fall into place and those copper legs are an example. There's a word for that, I believe... 'serendipity'. Glad you like it.

Allen,
Back many years ago when I owned a mom & pop fishing resort in northeastern Minnesota, I had to do a fair amount of propane maintenance work on the cabins, with gas space heaters, gas kitchen ranges, gas hot water heaters and gas lines all over the place. Things that are invisible and tend to explode always get my attention and respect, so having the proper tools was important. A propane flaring tool is designed to flare the end on a number of different sized copper tubing (soft copper tubing, not copper water pipe) and my tool came with a matching set of springs in each of the sizes to fit over the copper pipe while making bends in order to minimize kinking the walls of the pipe. So some smart people figured this out a long time ago and we just followed suit.

I imagine there are used ones on ebay and I picked up one at a yard sale once. If you don't have frequent need for one I would imagine that a hardware store would do the flare for you for next to nothing. That or a propane supplier or even a refrigeration outfit.
SB
 
F

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Silverbear,
The bike is coming together wonderfully. Just something about the soft glow of copper polished or left the way it is.

Summer's coming.

Dan,
No hair jokes but lots of fond memories when there was some left.

Steve.
 
silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
670
113
northeastern Minnesota
I guess just about everything has already been thought of. That's a sweet cedar strip canoe. At least that half of the equation would float. I wonder if it was easily removable so that once you got to the lake you could take it off and paddle around.
SB
 

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silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
670
113
northeastern Minnesota
Not a whole lot of progress on the Hiawatha today as half the morning was spent tweaking my daily rider, a 1950 Panther which just had a heart transplant. I removed the 49cc H.S. engine and replaced it with a 99cc Predator a few days ago.. We took it for a cruise this morning and it is running well.

The little accomplished on the Hiawatha was mounting the V8 tool box on the rear rack and fussing with throttle, brake and clutch cables. The photos are to show the copper legged center stand in the up position, as requested.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to pick up the Hiawatha and bring it home so that I can spend more time working on it in between other things over the next week or two. I should be ale to get more done that way as I'm anxious to get it running. Spring is in the air and the open road calls...
SB
 

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