The fire is almost gone...
Hey again.
Update for the project -
- The bar used to join both ends of the pivot section was welded on tuesday. It had to be lathed down from it's original 12.5mm to aroun 7.75mm to fit with room within the bearing chamber.
- The new engine mount just consisted of some strengthened bolts (M3) and a joining piece of bar between the circular clamp and the tab on the u-frame. easy.
I am currently in the process of welding and lathing to a circle a piece of flat plate attached on to a cylindrical section of around 30mm dia. this will function as my brake disc and be attached directly (via a pin) to the output shaft in the space between the clutch bell cover and the sprocket. after this it's a matter of fixing into place and connecting the brake levers and cable salvaged from a brothers old bike.
It also seems the testing on fri arvo and sat morning has worn down about 15% of the clutch's friction material. I'll need to machine a bushing to fit inside the plastic clutch bell cover to stop it travelling excessively, as i tried to fire the motor up a few times but each time the clutch didnt want to fucking centre itself and drive so the chain fell off. nevertheless, the last week of school looks to be a busy one. Two weeks of exams after that and im done for the year and off to schoolies. Thank fuck.
read sam's blog, he's been updating more often recently and it's quality, much better n my writing will be.
Head turner
Howdeh.
news - finally finished the (prototype) motorised skateboard. it works, but has had a few hiccups leaving me with a pretty clear idea about what i need to fix/modify.
first of all. testing the thing the afternoon i got home, i found to my discomfort that the pivoting section is not exactly the strongest thing around, and when you leant sideways to turn the board, you ended up turning in a VERY tight circle due to the shithouse length of 6mm bar giving up to my bulk and bending. next on the list is a better engine mount to suit the chain given the enormous amount of slack it has, and a tendency to fall off it's runnings. a more important problem could be the lack of power - it accelerates very slowly, although kept up any pace i got from the little brother pushing me along. engine just cant hit the powerband/has a shitful lack of torque hence you dont go anywhere quick.
Saturday (today) i got up and thought fuck why not give it a go. on the whole it was better n yesterday, having packed the pivot joint out with washers. still bent though, and you had to straighten it every second go or so. might have the solution in a rod stolen from maccas which normally holds up a teflon sheet. see how it goes. the biggest slight on an otherwise good test session occured when starting at the top of a very gradual slope (to get it in the power band, etc). in any case, i staged at the top of this thing and started rolling down after starting the engine. enter the speedbump - front wheel went over fine, back got unbalanced, i bail backwards whilst still holding the throttle in full bore, so the engine is revving its little fucking guts out. at this point the chain slips off and the engine slips it up a notch, free of any load. my foot happens to cross the path of this whirring sprocket of death, and it sliced clean through the side of my old runners and sock, not managing to touch my foot. thank fuck!
so mods needed are
- chain guard
- strengthened pivot section
- foot straps
- braking
- new engine mount section after grinding the old one off
pictures may come, depending on the availability of a digital camera etc.
in other news, skeen is having a party tonight. theme is black and white (as she's black and we're all white, bit of a pun there :)
shall tell how it goes.
Sell out/anticipation
fuck it, i thought. why not put them ad things at the top of my blog, so i sold out and did it. interesting to see if i actually get anything from it.
in other news, ive nearly finished my motorised skateboard. i hope (given i work in the lunch hours and in the two spares) i will get it done this week. that would fucking rock.
mind you, it prolly wont have any brakes or anything which might suck (imagine having a 25k/hr head start on a steep hill, standing up and without any protective clothing other than jeans), but i plan to fabricate them after its up and running.
im pretty fucking stoked about how much ive done to this point, so itll rock to finish it.
s all the news i got atm.
later
