De Ranged

Grease or anti-seize If you paint a mating surface when you torque up your wheel nuts it will need to force the paint out of the contact area of your rim.... if it doesn't your rim will come loose as the paint gives due to use

I resisted the urge to get the floor mounted one just because of the lost floor space lol Its what I used to shrink the end of this A little tip since you have the deep mouth one you can shrink deeper into the panel.... shrinking deeper in doesn't show up as much(because it is resisted all the way to the outside edge of the panel, this doesn't mean you haven't shrunk the metal ) A good trick I find, if you want to shape with the shrinker is work it around in a sort of layer patern (in my case less further in more on the edge), this will cause the edge to tip about the depth of the shrinking die..... when you get it to this where the edge is pulling in I use a soft mallet and shape it over panel dies. The bonus of this is you beat the shape in how you want and you remove the stress deeper in the panel from the deep reach shrinking

Thanks for the thoughts, unfortunatly there is too ready a market for this sort of stuff people who wont ask why its cheap because they don't want to know and we have some serious gangs that are way better organised and efficent than our police lol when I was logging I couldn't leave any tools, gear or fuel in the machines Sadly we have "Man trap" legal issues here in NZ, so legally we can't engineer something to hurt a burgler in the process of brakeing in or we get in trouble.... go figure Legally I am allowed to engineer something to stop seagulls and pigeons from getting ov... I mean roosting. 120mm and 60mm long, stagered profile, 3 different rows with the front row angled out to help catch the birds as they go over A bit of an update on the scooter the rear "pod" cover for the tank is mainly done The shinny steel kinda hides the curve in.... I did a heap of deep shrinking on the shrinker, 150mm deep from the edge and sort of tappered increasingly to the edge to curve the back in... then formed it using a soft mallet to shrink it into a even curve... then the end is 5 patch pieces formed in on a sandbag with a mallet and welded in between the shrunk edge and a ring I made around the lense Was looking at it when I was packing up and I think it needs the hole at the bottom leading edge filled Oh and done a deal with a local top panel shop forman he is going to paint it for me as a trade for some welding 😁 all the steel work is going to just get a wax n grease remover and then shot with a special metal etching clears the rest is going to a very obvious silver paint or satin black

Lol that explains why I got the last pair cheap..... I just went looking for a listing for my good gloves... no listing in the Mechanix site must have been a run out of a discountinued lol bugger I did notice they had a leather and carbon fabric "Carbon X1" that has heat resistant carbon fiber fabric it might be worth a go https://www.mechanix.com/us-en/heat-resistant-gloves/CXG-L1.html?dwvar_CXG-L1_color=black&cgid=heat-resistant-gloves

I have several pairs, for short welds or light amps I use a pair of all leather "Mechanix" brand mechanic's gloves they have a real snug fit and surprisingly the leather hasn't hardened and shrunk from the heat.... if I'm over 100 amps i use a pair of Tig gloves I got through BOC

When I first got my mill drill I learned this the hard way, cutting a bigger slot in the lathe tool mount.... I now only have two surfaces I can trust lol First thing I learned.... end mills will pull the MT out but not stop spinning, and a drill chuck isn't a collet chuck... it doesn't matter how tight you do them there will still be run out and the end mill will pull its self out 😔

Impressive to dive into the deep end starting with TIG. If you want to do a bit of stick I'd recomend the WIA 16tc, the nicest rod I've found yet (sadly I haven't been able to get them here in NZ) Keen to see more I know what you mean, when you get that rythm, running hot and fast, Still not close to a Mig lol ...... while I'm welding for me I'm too focused on the pace/rythem and my pool. It doesn't matter what system I'm welding. The thing with Tig is the feedback... good and bad lol that rythem is so obvious

Look into the larger Plasma cutting places, I have one here who sells cut steel at the same price I pay for the plate at the local steel wholesales..... When I was in Qweensland, there were a couple of them in Brisbane that priced qoutes for us very well The only down side is the time on the computer (generally alot less than time spent cutting lol) and the lead time Just curious why Tig, nice to see but not exactly fast and sitting over that in summer heat welding lol you'd be melting

Morning all Been a bit slow on stuff that is worth showing...... those that have found me on FB might of noticed my workshop got broken into and I lost a MX bike and riding gear along with a couple of odd things, to have known the bike was there and where certian things.... it is somebody who has been in my shop. Unfortunatly I didn't have any joy from the 10k reward I posted, NZ police are that useless they only opened the case 3 days after.... by that time I had tracked the bike to gang hands (they offered me a couple of 17yr old lads who weren't the ones who broke in) and I'd told them without the person responsable I'm not giving them anything... so the bike is gone So the last couple of weeks have been spent trying to engineer security that will beat battery tools.... a 5" grinder and recipro saw, I now have a bar on my door that you wont get through with either and I decided to sort a seagull roosting issue we have had on our gate it now has over 200 lathe sharpened spikes ontop of it..... I'm not finished with the security, my land lord has been good enough he is offering to cut my rent for a couple of months if I improve the security of the complex but I'm at a point where I can get back to some of the shed stuff I've managed to finish the scooter floor.... a bit of a challange lol this really is a cheap chinese made scooter, the parts that are fitted to it arn't even or lined up, the frame isn't even even.... so if you have the floor sitting off the bike it doesn't sit right you can see its not even, you can see slope and angles that arn't the same one side to the other, the hole patern is the way it is so it doesn't show up the fact the mounting holes are different one side to the other.... but when its on there it sort of works I think I've managed to get it looking right I need it running soon as I've kinda signed up to ride this in a charity ride from Napier to Wellington (about 8hrs non stop lol)..... I know the motor runs, the catch is I don't know what the trans is like.... I don't even know if it will make the speed limit of 50kms lol this is gona be a laugh

I love that sort of stuff, that was my job in Australia.... its amazing what you can achieve with a gas axe a grinder and welder.... I made entire pieces of plant out of the scrap piles at wind farms

Slowly been working on the scooter the floor bars are in the seat frame was cut up and changed a bit to line up with the floor bars ..... my OCD now lines up Beating on the Scooter floor to shape it and needed a reverse shape to fit around the frame upright at the front..... just so happened a very similar dia to the beadroll dies I had made up for another job.... catch is I hadn't gotten around to broaching the keyways..... time to try out my $40 china special broach lol. Suprisingly after cutting both rollers it is still sharp and no chips, there was a catch I discovered there is a little too much rake on the teeth and it allows the broach to bite in and pull into the work. I found that in my 3 ton arb press when it started to get hard going was when it was pulling away from the guide, so stop push the broach back and then flip over the work and broach from the other side, then flip it and do a run back the other way before I put the shim in to push it over Got there in the end Used the bead rollers to help smooth out the reverse form after I had beaten it in with a hammer and sandbag Other than the center reverse form its all has been formed just with hammers and mallets on a sandbag, then planished by hand. A few holes and some dimpling in the arb press and the front of the floor is done.... this is where I left off My OCD is happy the frames line up but I just don't know......

Slowly getting there with the scooter I'm undecided on the tank cover at the rear, if I go like its done now and run it straight so it lines up through the seat to the fake tank or if I run it down to the frame tube and bring it up on an angle..... I figered I need to see more lines before I make my mind up so I'm working on the frame to hold the floor board working out the lines on this I've decided I'm going to change the seat frame a bit so it will line up with the pipe frame for the scooter base.... Got the new belt sander into it Damm this thing is great and a piece of carp lol.... the job it does is amazing, fast and tidy, in 1 hr I cleaned up 3m of old galv pipe, peeled off up too 3 layers of paint and galv and blended out old welds I'd ground down..... its that aggressive if I push hard on it I can bog down a 1300W grinder, I wouldn't bother to run it on less of a grinder Catch is its carp lol the stepped rollers kill the edges of the belt, the rubber drive roller isn't crown'd so it doesn't provide any alignment and the worst bit the clamp ring to the grinder doesn't provide any form of alignment or decent clamping (got it as tight as I can manage using the screw thats there) as you push on the grinder it moves in the clamp and screws up the tracking on the belt The belt was orginally full width lol most of the wear is from miss alignment So I need to make up some new rollers to replace the two outer plastic rollers..... I'm thinking alloy with a steel disk either side, the belt rubs hard into the edges as you move side to side, so I'm thinking a sheet metal disk either side that if it gets worn down is an easy replace.... I don't know if I need a crown on these rollers if I have a crown on the rubber drive roller, That brings me to the drive roller, I don't know how deep the rubber is yet if it has enough meat I'll see if dry ice is enough to machine it into a crown..... if not I'll have to make something lol That leaves the clamp..... on the hitachi grinder I just don't see a way I can work with whats there.... the dust shield clamp ring just isn't big enough to provide the support it needs. I'm thinking I need to put a flange that that can tab to the bolts on the grinder head. lol yet another project to add to the list

More of the fake tank..... I like sheet metal, its not about fancy tools.... its about finding a way that achieves an ends. Heres how I did the inside corner lol all this for a 8mm triangle Folding a lip was a dig in the offcuts a few min's and another die to bend things on lol This is where I got too.... All this so the steering fits lol hopefully finish off the front end tomorrow night

I tried to save the patina, but given how much I'm cutting and welding on this its just not possible so.... not really the look I was going for but lol I still like it I think I'll still get the cafe racer look but the rat look is out the window The lead is proving a bit of a challange.... oddly the camera shows it up real well in the bad lighting in my shop you can't really see it Welded this section with out knowing and found puddles of melted lead on the table afterwoods Started filling the section which is cut out for the top triple clamp and the fake fork tubes.... the inside corner was a bit of a challange that little curve is a seperate panel about 8mm sqaure that i had to weld in, some of the metal is rather thin from the stretching when they formed the tank so it melts through real quick Got the day off, but I'll be heading into work to use there bandsaw to cut up parts for the smalls storage, I've already done 3hrs on the bandsaw cutting angle for this and I'm not even half way! Each miter cut requires two cuts and I have to flip the angle over to do it Cheers Reece

Got a bit of shed time, so started gluing the tank skin I haven't finished this side yet. Still a bit more polishing to blend in some of the welds..... discovered alot of bog and past work on this tank incluing some lead dint repairs (the ugly bit above the delivery sticker) it has left me with some ugly transitions from the lines I'm forming into the panel where the paint is When I've finished the other side if its more of the same I think I'll just strip it and panel work out and smooth off all the previous repairs I love the paint, but if the repairs make my work look bad they go

Gidday all a wee bit of an update.... A bit more on the scooter, needed the seat so I could work out where to cut the tank skin to fit my knee's So keeping with the cheap theme It is the top off a heavier gauge drum so 1.1mm To give it a bit of strength I bead rolled a lip, my new bead roller is a bit industrial and the die's are 75mm dia which ment I couldn't do through the bend so I hammered in a bit of bead there..... didn't get fancy with it due to the fact i'm covering it A couple of bits of offcut closed cell foam glued on, along with some carpet underlay scrap the left over gell padding from doing the Suzuki DR650 seat To give the closed cell foam some softness I turn it into swiss cheese with the drill, Waiting on some leather offcuts from a sadlery to finish it off With that done, I was able to work out where to cut the relief in the fake tank so I can get my knees in.... this is still a scooter so I still want to ride it scooter style I really don't know how this is gona look lol normally I see things pretty well as how it will all come together and look this..... lol Hopefully get this fake tank finished and mounted this week

I've got a cheap copy of the "Drill Doctor" I find it does a servicable job on 1/2" or less, there isn't enough rake back so I find they go blunt quickly, I have a vertical grinder that I have used for yrs to freehand sharpen Now even with good glasses I can still mess up a sharpen, you can spot this because the swarf will be different one flut to the other when used in a fixed drill ( press or the lathe), so what I tend to do now is to use the Drill Doctor to even out the drill and set the cutting edge, then I grind the back off similar to a split point grind..... and continue to freehand till I get that bad swarf

Sounds like you've covered all the obvious ones, normally I find death wobble is due to not enough caster, bigger the wheel sidewall the more caster you need... (on a soft sidewall tire), In your case your axle was designed to run a HD truck sidewall so going to a 4wd tyre should mean you want a couple of degrees more Now since yours has run alright caster is most likely not the issue, but it doesn't rule it out, you can bandaid close to bad caster with tight balljoints, steering, track rod etc.... I've had to deal with a few 4wd's that have been on the road or in the bush for yrs without issue and this was the cause You state the track rod bj are flogged given the leverage from the portals that would be my first thing to look at now you've done king pins, if your track rod is able, try pulling more caster into the front axle try it you might find it improves the tracking One other couple of things that could be adding to the slop allowing this are loose wheel bearings and worn leaf spring bushes, but if you caster isn't enough it could be a combination of serveral of those allready mentioned and possibly these two I'd discount the Drive Shaft UJ's, normally they are a droning noise that turns into a teeth rattling vibration.... I've never had one feedback into the steering like death wobble For those that don't understand caster and why I'm putting this forward First you need to understand why your wheels return to center (straight ahead), this is because it is the low point, when you turn your wheels you wheel tilts down slightly lifting the front of the vehicle the biggest cause of this is King Pin Inclination angle (This is the angle off vertical that kingpins tip in) unfortunatly as builders and modifiers we can't change this on a solid axle it is fixed by the manufacturer. The next one that effects the return to center is caster, (the tilt back along the length of the vehicle from vertical) what this does is applies more lift from the inside (if cornering) steering wheel and we can adjust this.... my go to is generally 2-3 degrees more caster than factory Now to explain my comment about softer sidewalls and why we need to compensate with more caster.... due to the king pin inclination as you turn you are tilting your tyre slightly similar to adding camber so you load up the inside sidewall this sidewall gives you the lift that causes the self centering.... with our bigger tyres and softer sidewalls the lift just gets soaked up

lol I was sort of working towards a cafe racer style scooter.... but I have no idea how this is going to look once I start building up the deck and front panel.... I'm about to head in and sort a seat and mounting tabs, I'll do some leather on it later Just finished this design.... I've managed to well and truely pimp a flood light stand lol 3D printed tension knobs, hammer form brackets I'm looking forward to building them .... decided if I'm doing these I'll do another with floro's, really helpfull for panel work to see curves and hollows, almost got that done aswell, just stuck on the gimble I need to be able to change angle and rotate so it puts the light accross a panel at the right angle so it shows up body lines. The catch is I need clearance to the frame and yet still need it near a balance point (to stop the weight of the lights tipping them on the gimble) Anyway here is the LED version the legs are full of swarf from the lathe, mill and bandsaw, I've given it a range of height adjustment from around 1m to a bit over 2m (this will work with some 3 core pigtail leads I have) the LED's up top are 100watt aliexpress specials Next project I need to finish designing is my smalls storage, I'm loosing track of stuff lol..... and Super Cheap Auto just had a sale that I scored around 100 brand new parts bins for just over $100 These parts bins So I'll finish the design and order the steel

The next bit for the scooter a frame to hold the seat and tank skin I'm keeping with the rat rod theme so this is supports from an old shelf lol, the wiggle up near the head tube is so the speedo cable can be connected to the dash This is the mockup, so I could get the height and position for the tank skin.... I haven't gotten that mounted yet its just sitting on magnets under there. I'll mount the front then narrow out the back so I can get my knees in there lol it'll make more sense soon The young lass is going well with the rear gaurd, she should have it finished forming next week

Thank you for the comment... I might be steping it up again, I've stepped back from my second job, so once I've finished sorting the summer garden and the winter growth I'll have have alot more time in the shed Back to the fun stuff teaching the young lass to use an Arb press and sandbag to form, so she is building a rear guard While she has been working on the guard I've kept going on the tank Got the clearance for the fork tubes in, and cut out the releif for the top triple clamp next job for me will be to panel the cutout Oh got a new toy for the shed (ex china) it was too cheap I had to give it a go..... it is brilant at cleaning up tube and pipe before you weld, 60 grit is spot on, I've got a packet of 3m style fibre bands coming as well Do have one concern tho and that is the two idle rollers are stepped to let you run narrow belts it will be interesting to see if this causes the sides of the belts to fray If it does cause issues it won't be much trouble to machine up a couple of alloy rollers to replace them

Kind of funny how life doesn't work to plan lol Covid ment I ended up working full time, another round of lockdowns for us and the guys with kids don't have access to child care so I ended up filling the gap so they could stay home.... and it got worse from there lol I now effectivily have two jobs..... and too projects in my shed that aren't mine that I'm building 🤨 Had enough of the fatiqued worn down auto pilot.... so I took a day off lol and didn't let the project guys know I was going down, this was about me I couldn't do anything on the solar panels .... because I don't have the room lol, it was actually really hard to work out what to do and find some motovation.... I've got so many part finished things but because I hadn't been thinking about them In the end I settled on the rat scooter.... I've got an ex girlfriends daughter who is keen to learn a bit of engineering so decided this would be a good project to teach her on, shaping and forming sheetmetal doesn't need to involve lots of fancy tools... so after working out a game plan I decided to fit the dash into the tank skin There is one thing that has been annoying me for a while.... my lathe is in a dark corner of my shop (to keep it as far from where I grind) during the day particually on bright days I have a skylight over it so wonderfull but at night or bad weather days.... but with my eyesight getting closer and closer to needing coke bottles for glasses I need some light, so.... So a mag base from my first DTI base... cheap and nasty unit that the clamps broke on, but the mag base was too good to throw out An old reading lamp stem... the plastic light fitting got so old and baked it fell apart (been sitting here waiting on me to fit a new one lol had a good layer of dust) And a 15 Watt LED floodlight from Aliexpress (got a packet of 4 of them for $8 each delivered lol got them with some 100w ones for when I build a shed) Looks just like a bought one, and the light its putting out is really impressive.... you can't look near it becasue its blinding lol, I was toying with building some floodlight stands for the current shed using a couple of the 100w ones I bought On the lathe its night and day I do need to fit a on off switch.... at the moment its "pull the plug" setup hopefully I can get my life back (from work) and I can get back onto all the shop projects, I have piles of stuff I've bought to finish off things (the chassis table , corner/build scales, wheel scales, enclosure for a new 3D printer, another 3D printer, foundery etc) Hopefully more to come

A few yrs back I picked up about 10ton of stripped long run industrial roofing for about $1800 got it from an industrial roofing company, picked up straight from site.... over half I took straight to the scrappy's, was bent or rusty.... I got $1200 back for that, the rest I cut short lengths.... enough to cover a 12 x 12m shed and I cashed in the offcuts from cutting the good bits for another $300 Might be an option for you, if you can invest the time to do this Oh back then $3NZD = 1 Pound lol

Just a little Q why mount the radius arms this way (under the axle)? If you put them over the axle your pivot piont is still through (guesstimating) the center of the axle tube and you would gain 3/4 to an Inch more ground clearance from the look of it, not that your going to be short on ground clearance lol I can't see any dynamic (handling characteristic) that is going to change with either the one link or radius arms..... am I missing something ?

Personally for the amount of use you've suggested and the cost of even the skin alone.... I'd be considering other things like a better welding mask or other specialist tools to spend the money on.... that said I still do site mechanics with hand ratchets I only use battery rattle guns if they are supplied, simple deal my hand tools have never let me down lol and they get what the rattle gun can't But if you are going to get one, then the high torque 1, you can dial it back when doing stuff up but its there when you need it... you get a crank bolt that the mid one wont crack your left doing a dodgy that could bend valves, damage starter gear teeth or damage the crank pulley lol or throwing heat at something your don't want to heat