Tank lugs

Got the rear tank mounts welded on tonight. I mocked it all up on the frame and added a 0.5mm washer between the seat bracket and the tank lugs to give a bit of space for the bolt to tighten up without clamping the seat and stopping it from moving (hopefully!).

Some of my welding was good, some not so good so I'll give it a clean up and a once over if it looks like it needs it.

Little by little

Got a cheeky hour in the shed tonight, one of those nights where I was a bit frustrated cos I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but a bit further none the less.

I cleaned up my welding on the rear end of the tank in preparation for the lugs being welded on, but flapper work revealed some porosity so I went through a few cycles of re-welding and cleaning it up.

Still not perfect but then my dad turned up and told me to stop trying to get it spot on as I'd end up grinding half the tank away.

I decided that was sound advice so I left it there and will get the lugs welded on next time I'm in the shed.

Seat/tank mount

Good afternoon in the shed. Finished off making the frame mount for the seat and tank.

I then spent ages trying to line the seat up square to make sure the mount would be fixed on straight, before tacking it place.

With that on I could finally go back to mounting the tank. I fabbed up a couple of tabs to fit the back of the tank.

Obviously i started with a cardboard mock up to get the shape right!

They are just resting in place for now, I spent a bit more time touching up the seams on the tank. I need to clean it up before I can weld the tabs on.

Seat mounting

Started on the frame mount for the seat. Roughed out the shape in 10mm plate and drilled a hole to see how it lines up. I'm not going to mount it like that though, I'll weld the other lug I machined onto it so the seat bracket sits nice and neat.

It's just a starting point for now

Seat bracket done.

Cheeky stint in the shed tonight and I finished up the new set bracket. It's probably (definitely) over engineered, but now it's done I much prefer its chunky look.

Obviously I had to bolt it to the seat and do a mini mock up! That's the best bit!

Seat bracket 2

So round 2 with the seat bracket and I beefed things up. Turned some bar down to 18mm and made similar lugs to before, then I cut the seat bracket out of 5mm plate instead of 3mm.

This time I remembered to clean up the steel before welding it, but I still managed to weld the tip to the workpiece!!

Anyways it's a way off finished but I'm much happier with this effort!!

Seat bracket

Worked on the seat mount tonight. The plan is to weld a tube onto the frame that the seat and tank can both mount off. So I welded my little lugs onto the seat bracket, using what will be the frame mount to space them out.

I got the result I wanted, but like a tool I forgot to clean up the metal so the welds are crappy, and now I've done it I don't think it looks substantial enough. The plate is 3mm and the lugs are 15mm dia with 8mm holes. I think I might remake it in 5mm plate with bigger lugs...overall I'm not happy!!

Today's nail.

One nail every day, or some days at least...

Worked on a few bits and bobs to tonight. Turned up some lugs for the seat mounting and started fiddling around with the seat position, stuck the springs on the seat to help with this.

Then decided that I needed to get the mudguard in place before I could sort the seat out, but the mudguard radius is a bit too big, so I used a technique that I had read in Dice mag (I think) which basically involves using three bits of wood to pry the sides of the mudguard open and reduce the overall radius.

It worked! Though I was very concerned that I would end up distorting the shape of it if I pushed it too far so I got as close as I dared. Taped a hose onto the centre of the tyre for spacing and pushed the rear wheel as far forward as possible.

So now I can see where abouts I want the seat, hopefully I can concentrate on getting it mounted!!

This and that..

Been fairly quiet on the bike front these last two weeks - mainly due to the installation of a lathe.

Boom! And its worked out pretty level so Im happy!

Anyways, I put the back end of the bike together and it looks like my stock rear axle/spacers etc will work just fine with the TC bro's hardtail. But just to be sure the alignment was correct I put the engine in and zip-tied the chain in place to check. Im happy with the result.

 

 

 

Also I spent a few hours dabbling with this old BSA-style headlight that TC gave me to try. I was looking for something with a bottom mount but have been struggling to find something that I like the look of and is the right size so I'm going to use this for now, as I think it fits quite well.

 I was trying to stick to the mantra of 'keep it simple' so thought the best thing to do would be to mount it using the stock bits and pieces.

Unfortunately the stock light is huuuge so the mounts wouldnt do. But as the sleeves fit so snug and I could see a better way of doing it, I decided to cut the old supports off the sleeves and weld some more suitable brackets on.

 So in the effort to 'keep it simple' I cut a few quick brackets out of 1.5mm steel to roughly the kind of dimensions that Im after.

Looks pretty horrid, but they have pointed me in the right direction. Going to re-make them out of 3mm with a slightly prettier design...

Not alot to report I know. But a little progress none the less!!

Still tooling up..

Been busy making space for the lathe in the workshop. Had to make a sturdy bench to support the weight and resist vibration, it's also important for the lathe to sit as level as possible - que Dad and his awesome carpentry skills!

We managed to get it mounted on some wood but there was too much wobble so I've ordered up a big steel plate an made some supports with double thick 10mm plate. Also bought a stop/start switch ad I've got a big red emergency stop on order too! P

Tooling up

Finally entered the world of men and got myself a lathe! It's a myford super 7 an its badass!! Better start learning how to use it now...