Bike builders that have machine tools/shops

The garage has indeed hit the maximum fill line despite my best efforts. Health isn't a lot better even with the exercises I've been doing. Added to the mix has been a cold and wet spring so far. It has reached into the mid 50's but the cold wind off the ocean cut's through you like a knife.

Confined to in house activities, the main one being rebuilding the Harbour Freight style sandblast cabinet so it gravity feeds the gun instead of siphon feed and a dust collection improvement. Almost done.

Have a Wonderful and Joyous Easter everyone.

Tom, don't worry about showing photos of your work area. The rest of us are living in the same glass house so there won't be any stone throwing.

Steve.
 
Thanks for the benediction Steve, all the same my sloth has done me no favors.
I don't live in a glass house.
Cinder block house with steel siding, built into a hillside. Same goes for the over size car and a half garage/machine shop toy box. You guys are in for a thrill.

Steve stay warm and dry, and Happy Easter to you.

Tom
 
Woke up this morning and everything was the same as last I looked in my "shop" must have dreamed it was 10 times as big and perfectly organized and outfitted. Instead of spring cleaning and working on my personal disaster of a workplace. I did the next best thing & ordered some more stuff to stuff in there.

Mill is on the way, as is a mill vise, various R8 taper spindles, end mills of 2 & 4 cutter varieties, thin parallels, clamping set etc. etc. I'm well on the way to doubling the basic mill price which is just getting the basics required to do simple machine functions. I'm holding off on things I want and will actually use till I get the milling machine setup and use it for a few hours. Horse before cart approach.

I dug up some projects that I started turning on my lathe, but set them aside till I bought a mill. Not much left to do on a couple of these but the mill work.

Rick C.
 
You guys are definitely having an extended winter Tom. We actually feel some of it here, this morning low 39 degrees, but will bounce to mid 60's for high today. Overall wind is our climate factor this month 25 mph or more most days, today no exception. I missed an early morning window to take a ride with under 10 mph winds, but I opted out for some work instead.

We too are in a drought here Tom, total precipitation well under 2" this Winter and Fall. Weeds are growing well though, winds have kept the yard guy from spraying to this point.

I will post a couple of photos of simple lathe and mill projects I've either started or completed a couple of the few required. Some are bottom bracket parts for reduction drives. I have 4 of these to complete, but stalled for lack of a mill.

Rick C.
 
Tom the photo shows the major parts of a cruiser bracket 3/4" axle with J.A.P. pedal lever taper, axle 3/16" key slot for pedal side sprocket & the keyed sprocket adapter. The axle shown I overshot the dimension on the opposite end. Rookie error made on the lathe by setting .001 on the scale, when I needed only half. So overshot by.001. Good news is I can still use this mistake by shortening it to a usable length and machining a new taper for use on one of my bikes.

Though these are availible in a couple of lengths from vendors I require shorter versions for each of these. Three axle pedals and three different lengths. I use the taper style rather than cutter because there are so many more pedal levers to select from. I don't typically need wide pedal levers for clearance, but pedal length is important. I find steel levers and cut them to length and reels, really short on low slung board track bikes, but I chain them up. Almost impossible to pedal very far, just for looks and legality.

The 3/4" bearings are press fit into the aluminum bearing holder (painted black) I turn down 2.25" rod to make these bearing housings.

Then I make the sprocket adapter from 2" aluminum rod. I can use my lathe and a 4 jaw chiuck to turn and drill these, not that hard, but easier with both lathe and mill.

I keep the 4 jaw mounted most of the time, but also use the three jaw some. Quick change out of chuck's with these little machines.

I've made several steel reduction style drives & both my Harley and Simplex use these. I use real Oil Lite brand, oil bronze bushings in these rather than roller bearings. They the steel housings are pretty heavy and I feature using aluminum will cut the weight in half. Oil brass bushing have been used in cycle and auto engines for decades multipled and those in my bikes have served well. I soak these bearings in light oil for a couple of days before installing and each assembly has a capped oil filler for an occassional few squirts. My Simplex bushing show no signs of wear after a few thousand miles of riding. I add oil before long rides, but normal riding around town maybe 3 times a year. Using these bushings allows me to use 2 25" aluminum or steel rod to mount the two sprockets. As each of my bikes has a different primary & secondary chain offset each housing uses a different offset to accomidate various motors or engines or perhaps with or without a Sprag clutch. I have a special sauce for these differing dimensions as well. Show you when I
complete one. No secrets among friends!

Rick C.

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20220420_081505.jpg
 
J.A.P. or JIS?
The Campi crankset on my Paramount is ISO.
As long as you are using a taper crank mount you are not bootlegging SF reduction designs. Having actually pedaled my SF I can see the good of longer pedal crank arms.

Your the first person besides me that has uttered the words Sprag Clutch Rick.

(" I have a special sauce for these differing dimensions as well. Show you when I
complete one. No secrets among friends!")

If you didn't patent the sauce Rick, I am itching to learn somethin new.
The first ten years as a Toolmaker. First as an apprentice and then Journeyman, the masters who taught me. Were themselves taught by masters of the early twentieth century that had Blacksmithing skills beyond what today now fades into mystery.

Tom
 
J.A.P is a fine old engine, but made lousy tapers.
J.I.S. is a better standard for pedal levers Tom. I used cottered on my Harley and they are wide pedals but really short and that's what I needed. Cottered pedals varieties are quite hard to find in either wide or straight, in steel. Actually look to be easier to machine than the tapered axle. If I can find a cottered lever of a usable size I may
machine an axle for grins.

Sprag just rolls off the tounge in one direction.

I've only seen photos of Pat's reduction bracket and the same with the bottom bracket pedal assembly, but I know they are quality. The deal on the SF reduction offset gear is it's made to drive his motor selections and use on his frames and that makes perfect sense he sells complete motorcycles and motor bikes. I try not to build anything more than once and the drive line measurements always vary enough to screw things up trying to use the same distance between the two sprockets. So yeah special sauce.

I grew up in a real blacksmith/machine shop. All machinery ran on overhead belts powered by a single motor/engine. Was powered for most of my Dad's life by steam, then gas...finally electric.
Same equipment, of course a mill was added after ww2. The place fascinated me as a kid.

Rick C.
 
Of the 5 apprentices that my master Ray Nystrom started with. I am sure I am the only one that got the good what Ray was telling about how to work an overhead line shaft. I can still see the pole with a nail in it to shift the belt. This was D.R. Sperry in North Aurora IL..
Only foundry i ever worked in. There were virtical boring mills that dated to the Civil War. All the line shafts were still in place, but by then run by separate electric motors.
Talk about Industrial Revolution Tech, the line shafts had been run by water turbine until the mid 60's. The melting furnaces were coke fired. I will never regret my foundry experience there, but never thought to do it again until 2006 when I took a mold Maker position at Signicast Corp. which is an investment casting foundry, all induction heated flasks.

Tom
 
When our family had a saw mill and planing mill my Dad often talked about the millwright who worked for them. Couldn't read nor write his own name and used an X to sign what he needed too and some one signed their name under the X to verify that it was indeed him.

However when they needed to add a pulley to the overhead line shaft, he'd pick up a piece of wood off the floor and figure out the diameter needed to get the rpm the wanted in less than a minute.

He kept a lot of old equipment that couldn't be replaced during WW2, operating.
 
The tale of the blacksmith, located on "Two baby" creek at the confluence with the Washita river, involved water power initially. As a youngster I investigated the area and saw no remaining sign of a water wheel support foudation. Until the early sixties the Washita was a free flowing and really wild river, prone to flash flooding. I recall one flood where the water flowed a mile wide at points. The same point that the blacksmith/machine shop was located. A large dam now controls the water flow, but prior to it's dedication the yearly floods could certainly have washed away all evidence of a water wheel foundation I suppose.

Thanks guys for adding your anecdotes to this thread.

Mill parts started arriving yesterday. 3" vise, thin parallels and R8 mill cutter shanks. Many more on order, with another 20 items being sourced and priced, but not yet ordered. The expense is quite a bit more than I expected, but layout, fixturing/setup pieces added up. Of course some will be used for the lathe as well. Most of the instruments which I purchased for the lathe will be used with the mill, but still the mill is more expensive to setup with tools than the lathe. My problem is that I know how functional each item is for obtaining decent parts finishing in both lathe and mill. So I keep spending. A newbie certainly wouldn't require many of these to begin with while learning basics, but could add accessories and tooling later as required.

Generalities can get a guy in a lot of trouble with experienced machinists, but I'm trying to address this to those having no experience with these small machines, regardless of having experience with full size machines tools. Functions are the same, but in actual use they are a world apart, everything scaled down on small machines or lacking entirely. Cuts, feeds and speeds comically reduced and total operation time dramatically increased. Great patience is required, but is worth it. If any doubt the accuracy of a small mill and lathe in the hands of a master, check out the functioning gas engines for radial aircraft remote control or functional replica V8 engines. All doubt was removed in my mind! Equally impressive are replica Thompson machine guns, fully functional, in miniature scales along with other famous firearms. These actually fire tiny hand loaded bullets! YouTube is full of videos of both engines and firearms replicas in miniature.

I'll add that jeweler's lathe and micro mill are also used for these projects

For me .001 is typical for what I actually need for and obtain with my small lathe, but at times I reach for 10ths of thousandths (.0005) or so. With inexpensive everything used with hobby lathes this is pretty decent, but takes more time in setup and execution.

Rick C.
 
Rick, I got a full set of plans for a .22cal. Gatling Gun from a guy who wasted a life and a wife over the dam thing.
An old timer gun nut, Cyril Sherman, was a neighbor of mine. Must have been to a gun show back in the day.
All I ever scene for real was the twin Ruger crank job.
But once I put together my first home machine shop, it became an obsession with him that i should make him one. But he never created a budget and funds to get going.
The cam that cocks and releases the hammer firing pin assy. is where I choked. Not impossible for a non perfectionist. There was a guy CNC'ing cams. Dunno if he still does. Profile and timing is the PITA.
There are several Forums that discussed the aspect of a build. This is home, enjoy the read.
Gatling Guns by RG-G, Inc.

Tom
 
Sketchy even for a prototype and they have kits for sale?

I don't advocate full auto for even adults, but the photo provided in your link of that youngster next to the Gattling prompted my comment. Military style selector switch is of course best for those who are eligible for owning automatic weapons under Federal guidelines and of course I think these individuals have a right to own, collect and fire these weapons. Just think full auto a waste of ammo even in time of war. Single shot, double or triple burst on auto is the way to fight, until you start talking a squad weapon, like the SAW (being replaced) or heavy, mounted chain guns. Like the M1-A1 (Ma deuce) .50 calibre.

I have a spot to setup the mill and in the process of fortifying the bench for it. These light machines don't require heavy bases, but heavy enough to maintain level planes and resist harmonics.

Since my Ol' Crow electric V twin is still inside my house getting a motor, controller change and a complete bottom bracket changeover with new reduction drive and primary drive line rework to allow larger chain size. I will prioritize my machining projects to get it back ok in service. I have some motor case housing alterations to machine also and a few visual details to add to the case too.

I've decided to use 48 v for daily riding, 4hp output and pretty decent range with 20 amp hr battery. Runs cool, battery fits tank perfectly and batteries themselves are really inexpensive compared to 72v 20 amp hr. 72v really runs like a banshee though! Been testing for over a year now and see where it can be improved for reliability and practicality once these changes are made the rest is just complete the cosmetics.

Rick C.
 
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