Freewheel Jack/Crank-Shaft Adapter for Amberwolf's CrazyBike

[Thud]

Katou,
That lathe is a Grizzly model 4003. (12 x 36") I picked it up 2nd hand from a gunsmith. The machine has an interesting story I'll save for another occasion. (that explains why I don't have the gears for metric thread cutting).If i need a big one I drop by the local tech center.(they say size doen't matter ) Its nice to have connections.
I am having a busy week & am really feeling the presure of getting my ducks in a row before the race on the 5th of june.

If you saw a picture of my garage you would know Amberwolf & I are kindered spirits.

 

[katou]

Ah, 12x 36 is indeed a healthy "all-rounder" sort of size. I don't know why, but it looked smaller in the picture.

Used you say, I smell a bargain! I will get one eventually, but I think I will have to rebuild my shop before I can fit it in there. I'm approaching saturation in the current setup. Soon, I'll have to strategize to fit an extra screwdriver in there. As it is, I'm dangerously close to having to take stuff out to put on the lawn while I'm working, just to have some space.

Go Amberwolf, go amberwolf, go go go amberwolf.

Katou

 

[amberwolf]

Made me think of the 40-year old Speed Racer / Mach Go-go-go series theme song.

I often do have to take stuff outside to work, either moving it out of the way or actually doing the work out there, depending on what it is, since the shop *is* the house, mostly. Carport doesn't make a good one. I'd enclose it if I could.

I'm working out some different things for CB2, so that once I have the jackshaft and freewheels I can just put them on and go, I hope. Have to cut some sprocket adapter plates to bolt my motor and pedal receiver chainrings to the freewheels, once I figure out what gearing I am going to use with it for the 48V it is currently at, or decide to leave it geared for 36V and just use the 48V as extra range.

If possible I'm going to put a hubmotor on there as an emergency get-home motor should the thru-chain motor and/or pedals have a problem. I just have to get a suitably cheap one first, that is still powerful enough to do the job and not melt pulling that weight at at least 13-15MPH. I'd use the Fusin but I think I should keep DGA road-ready with a motor just in case of emergencies when CB2 is down. My knees are not in shape anymore to ride without a motor to help startups.

For lathes, sometimes if you look really hard you can get a restorable one for the cost of hauling it.

From back when I got it:



http://picasaweb.google.com/OpporknockityTunes/TheElectricleBicycleElectricMotorAssistProject#5243056021083594962
http://picasaweb.google.com/OpporknockityTunes/TheElectricleBicycleElectricMotorAssistProject#5243056033331914578
http://picasaweb.google.com/OpporknockityTunes/TheElectricleBicycleElectricMotorAssistProject#5243059435523211314
http://picasaweb.google.com/OpporknockityTunes/TheElectricleBicycleElectricMotorAssistProject#5243059435581672322
http://picasaweb.google.com/OpporknockityTunes/TheElectricleBicycleElectricMotorAssistProject#5243059439447728690
http://picasaweb.google.com/OpporknockityTunes/TheElectricleBicycleElectricMotorAssistProject#5243059442448852466

South Bend Lathes #415-ZC
S/N 105765
9"X3-1/2'
Originally 1/4HP 110V/1PH/60CY 1725RPM, I think the motor actually on there is a 1970s replacement from GE.
Original Ship Date: October 10, 1940

Weighs like 400 pounds or somethng silly like that, not including the metal frame with plywood top it's bolted to. Was 481lbs crated weight according to SBL, originally.

People I got it from had it sitting in a side yard for at least a decade or maybe two, and it had come from some "inventor's estate sale" before that. Don't know who.

Took a lot of oil, basically soaking it in oil for a bit, moving parts, a few good whacks here and there with a rubber mallet and more oil, but it runs. Still need to replace the disintegrating wiring as there are cracks in the insulation. Had to make a belt for it; ended up taking a flat leather pants belt and removing the buckle end, then stapling it as a loop around the pulleys with the little rows of belt staples that fortunately came with it.

Found out most of how to do the above by first finding http://www.practicalmachinist.com/ and reading a lot, even finding the old videos for schools that used this lathe in their shop classes back in the 1950s.

Discovered more about it from Leblondusa.com / southbendlathe.com where they still have records for these old things, and places to get parts from (though I haven't the budget to get any yet).

Missing all the threadcutting gears except whatever is on it, but it could autocut threads if I need them at whatever pitch that turns out to be.

One of the jaws on one of the chucks has a broken-off tip. One of the adjust spin-handles is broken for the toolholder slide, but it still spins and works. Probably not good down to thousandths of an inch anymore, though. :lol:

 

[katou]

Nice lathe! Maybe you should hit up Liquid Wrench or WD-40 for a sponsorship?

Katou

 

[amberwolf]

Yeah. I should also hit up whoever makes really good zipties, U-bolts and hose clamps, to sponsor my bikes, cuz they hold it all together! :lol:

I did seriously think about selling ad space on the bike, but I don't know who'd want to advertise on something that looks like that.

 

[katou]

Scrap dealers?

Mechanics?

"If I can make this run, imagine what I can do for you!"

Katou

 

[amberwolf]

It's an idea...have to check around.

Although I'd probably wind up making a horsetrade of junk for adspace. :lol:

Did you see the stuff in my DGA thread today?

 

[katou]

I haven't been following it, what were you referring to? Anything I can help with? That bit with the washer - I'm out for that one.

Katou

 

[amberwolf]

Oh, no, I just meant all the new lights for it and stuff.

The washer is all fiksed up now, thanks to keeping around other people's old broken ones. :lol: *that* is why I never want to throw anything away--I always eventually need it to fix something else!


I'm putting up a bit more CB2 news, but it is dull stuff.

 

[amberwolf]

Thud's jackshaft arrived today.
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=303760#p303760
No time yet to finish the other bits and test it out.

 

[Solcar]

Alas, opportunity shortage! I do my work outside these days, but the mosquitos are a plague around here. No space left in the shop. I guess that at least you don't have the skeeters!

 

[amberwolf]

Unfortunately, we do. Outside they only bother you at dawn and sunset, or at night if you have work lights on. But inside, it's all the time if it's humid enough, and has been rainy enough for them to find breeding grounds. (or when I can run the swamp cooler, since they must find someplace moist enough to breed in the ground underneath it, I guess).

As for space, well, when it's not intolerably hot I can work out in the yard. I have a shade tree near the house that helps some, if there's wind, but when no wind from the right direction (most of the time) it's difficult to do work in the daytime in summer, and nighttime is too short before I can't make too much noise or disturb the neighborhood.

In the house I can do some work, but welding is right out. So is grinding/cutting a lot of things, though as long as I'm on the tile I can still do stuff that doesn't throw sparks, and just clean up real well afterward.

Most of the time I am busy with other things, though, so can't actually get to working on the bike(s), or get interrupted by the dogs (whcih is ok) or my crazy sister (whcih is not).

 

[Solcar]

I can't have read that you have skeeters inside.

crazy sister

Yours too?

 

[amberwolf]

Yes, we do have them inside, especially when using the swamp cooler.

As for my crazy sister...it's paranoid schizophrenia, with usually nonviolent behaviors, but she is off in one of her worlds much of the time, speaking with versions of people that don't exist in my world. Sometimes those discussions make her really upset, and she starts waving around whatever is in her hands at the time. If she is in the kitchen especially, that could be a pan or a knife or something else equally dangerous, so I try simply to never be in the same room with her for long.

But she carries stuff around to hold over her head (to protect from the spy rays and other listening devices, she says), whcih she may also wave around, and that can be anything at all. I already took away all the breakable dishes and boxed them up where she can't get them (along with lots and lots of other stuff I really wish I could leave out for normal use, including most of the typical kitchenware), so at least most of the time it isn't something dangerous, unless she brought it home from somewhere else.

I've had to take the light bulbs out of most lights in the house and/or unwire them at the socket or switch, because she turns them on and leaves them all on even when she leaves the house. Similarly there are times I have to turn all the undercounter valves off for water sources in the house for days at a time because she gets into spells where she turns on taps and walks away. Had a $180 water bill last month because I don't have a way to do that with the ones outside, and she kept turning them on to "water" things, and flooding the yard instead.

It's...tough, and I wish she had somewhere else to be. But she doesn't, really, since she won't ask for help the state won't (can't) do anything for her, since she is not typically violent and hasnt' actually assaulted anyone, so they wont' just take her in and force her to accept treatment. So she gets worse all the time, no longer even going to counselling for a long time now. She does have moments of normality, but they are usually too short for even a quick conversation, and even then she "remembers" things that never actually happened or were said, at least not in my reality.

Avoiding her and keeping the dogs safe from her takes a minor but significant amount of my time when I'm home (and worries me when I am not), so it is difficult to do anything at all on some days, unless it is something I can do in the bedroom where I can lock the door. She tends to follow real people around and babble, but she is not talking to them, rather to her own version of them, who is apparently speaking back but not in a way that person would really respond, AFAICT from listening to the one side I can hear. This is quite disturbing, because you might hear her ask you a question, begin to answer, then realize she is not listening to *you*, when she interrupts to yell out at the invisible version she did ask. Very stressful.

I could go on for pages and pages about her, but I'd rather not and I'm sure no one really wants to read all that (or even what I did write). But this should give some idea of what I deal with every day. The other parts of my day are working in retail, usually as a cashier these days, so I don't have much of a time that is stress-free anymore. Probably why I spend much more time than I should on ES.

 

[GGoodrum]

Bummer. The sad thing is that there are meds these days that can probably make her "normal", but she'd have to be coherent enough to agree to see someone, which sounds like it would be near impossible. This is a real "catch 22"-type of problem.

-- Gary

 

[amberwolf]

Yes. That's the whole problem--she did actually go see doctors for a while, and even had the meds once. But they made her feel normal, which was to her apparently so scary that she threw them away and has always pretended to be normal whenever she went to see doctors after that. If she was on a bad day, she'd cancel any appointments and then reschedule when she could fake being normal long enough to not "get caught", since she is terrified of being "committed to an asylum" (though they don't do that).

She did discuss with us and with doctors once about temporarily committing herself to setup the right drug therapy, since according to them the only good way to get the right therapy is to be in a place she can be monitored 24/7 for a few weeks, while they adjust meds until her brain chemistry goes back to something like normal. Then she got another paranoid streak going and the whole committing thing got into her head the wrong way, and she's refused to discuss any kind of help ever since.

At this point, even if she got meds she'd need constant therapy to work out what is/has been actually real, and what is/was not, since she has so much of her "life" the last few years just invented in her head, having nothing to do with reality.


How she can still be functional enough to survive, I don't know, but she is still managing so far, though I'm not sure how she'd do if she was totally on her own isntead of staying here. I do know that if she werent' here and paying a little bit into the household budget, I wouldn't still be living here, or have a place for the dogs or to work on stuff, so I'm grateful for that, but it is a daily chore and sometimes nightmare to be around her. That's why most of the time I try not to.


Sometimes she is not around for days, or even weeks and occasionally months (though she still pays the "rent" on time even then), and those times are when I get a fair amount of stuff done, and am not nearly as stressed out. But for the last several months she's been here almost every day, almost all day, with a couple of short exceptions. Of course, when she *is* gone for long periods, I worry about what might have happened to her, but she has been this way for so long that worry is not nearly as strong as it once was.