Messing with the lathe

Hi All,
Have been messing about with my lathe, to try and remember from my school days the rudiments of turning! I bought some aluminium stock off  Ebay, which was the cheapest I could find, there is nothing local.

I bought some carbide lathe tools along with the lathe and these are really good, they really cut well, and don't seem to blunt off quickly. I made some candle holders for Libby, just to get the hang of things. Turning is really easy, the lathe does pretty high speeds 1200 rpm, I used around 1000 rpm for turning the aluminium.

Turning was easy, however I wanted to put 19mm holes in the candle holders, which was a bit of a strain, especially as getting the tail stock centered was a pain, I still haven't really sussed out which screws do what, and the Chinese manual is useless. Fortunately there is a wealth of info on the web.

I turned up 10 candle holders, none of which were exactly the same dimensions - I will have to practise my repeatability!

This weekend, I started making a ride height adjuster for the RG, it turned out OK, although tapping the aluminium bar in the lathe was physical, and as you can see from the pictures the central part slipped a bit in the chuck!

Anyway, apart from that I rebuilt the back end of my Triumph, apparently some models have been seizing the rear wheel bearings due to lack of greasing at the factory, so I rebuilt the hub, and I will attack the suspension linkages which apparently may have the same issue. In order to get the hub side nut off I soaked it in "degrippant" over night, and then used a long bar on the end of my rachet, to tighten it the torque setting is 146Nm - I don't think I have ever tightened something up that much on a bike!

No racing this year!

So it is with a sad heart (and a heavywallet) that I just cancelled all my racing for this year! I saw the specialist this morning, and he told me I would have to take anti-coagulants for at least a year  and maybe two. Anticoagulants are specifically mentioned in the Federation rules as NOT compatible with racing, however the good news is I can still continue to do track days and road biking, at my own risk of course!

I now have to decide whether or not I keep the bikes, whether I put them back on the road, whether I sell the van etc. etc... etc....

Not good news, but I was kinda expecting it, so the new garage will now be repurposed to messing with my road bikes, gotta find a project!

A bientot,

Dave

Got to be a project...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQoY7ECyoN8

Will miss start of season

In between my bad back, I managed to work most of last weekend in the garage. I finished off my exhausts and they are ready to refit. I also refitted my right hand valve covers with some gasket silicon, as they still seem to be leaking!
In the photo you can see the mechanical ignition advancer fitted fully advanced. This will enable me to programme more real advance, which I couldn't do with the standard static advance.

The bad news is that on Monday I was diagnosed with a double pulmonary embollism - blood clots on the lungs, so I am probably going to be on anticoagulants for most of the season! At least I am still alive, and I can relax in my hospital bed, and not worry about progress on the bikes.

I will update in a couple of weeks.

Be there or be square!!

Can't understand why they missed my name out, but hey.....

Bought a lathe and milling machine...

Well, I have been layed up with a bad back for the last 2 weeks now, and some retail therapy was necessary, so I bought a lathe and milling machine. I have been umming and arrrring for the last couple of months (since the RaceHQ was finished). Everyone telling me to buy a second hand machine from a school or auction, but I really have come to the conclusion that the second hand market for suitable machines, doesn't really exist, or they are really expensive for what you get. So I have been looking around on the web, to see what was in my price range, and could do the job. Everybody also seemed to think that buying a combination machine was a bad idea, so here, I did take the advice and went for 2 seperate units.

I bought these machines :
Lathe
and this milling machine

As Libby said, if they are crap, then I can resell them easily on the web somewhere, as they don't seem to exist second hand.

From the bike perspective, I have finished changing the oil in the RG500 forks, although I didn't get around to re-installing them yet. Bad news is that one of the valve covers is STILL leaking!!!!!
Gonna have to try some gasket gunk or change my gasket supplier, the ones behind the inner covers were Marinello Engineering ones, but to be fair they seem good quality, and it is leaking past the rubber O'ring, so will add some gasket silicon. Next job is to get the heads off the RG, and change the rings and install the new adjustable ignition pickup which will fully enable me to blow the think up if I desire :-)

Hopefully I will be fully operational, as I have shelves, and a tool board to setup, plus making room for the new machines!

Speak again soon.

Fork oil RG500

Despite my back still hurting like $#*@, I had to get out and get something done, plus I needed to finish off cleaning the last exhaust, so I managed to fill the last pipe with caustic soda (it's looking a bit rank now...). Looking at the other pipes as they have dried, I think I'll have to get something to rattle around in the pipes to loosen the dried crap in the pipes, I have an old bicycle chain that might do the job.

Loosening off the forks went OK, and I removed them and drained about 400ml of oil from each one. The book says 416ml (SAE 10W) so I will leave them upside down over night to get rid of all the old stuff. Surprisingly clear colour, with little aluminium suspended in the oil, unlike the 350 which is always filthy. I also fitted a new Regina Chain purchased in the UK from Trialsbits.co.uk - cheap and cheerful with no o'rings (reduced friction).