A bit of sad news to report with the passing of Fred White. Fred was Bob’s ‘partner in crime’ and the master of the Southbend lathe. He worked with Bob professionally and in retirement, taking a major part in the creation of many home built engines. The article from Classic Bike Magazine gives a much better idea of their record than I can, so I’ll leave the details up to them. I only met Fred once but we got on right away and I was really pleased to have him on board for project Hercules. I guess he’ll just have to watch on from above now.

RIP Chap.

It’s been a while since I updated the blog, with the Christmas and New Year slow down. I also too a break while watching my friends Chip and Ken ride from Virginia to the southern tip of Chile on their excellent blog. I wanted to join them but couldn’t get the time away from work and home, but I digress. Back to business!

I had a quote to 3D print a pattern in plastic at £240 + VAT. Quite reasonable I thought, except that if the pattern was wrong it would need to be altered and re-printed. Right first time would save around £180 on the quote for making a traditional pattern in wood. Right second time would cost and extra £60, and after that it gets expensive. Trouble is I’m not a pattern maker so a lot of it is study from the Internet and, er, guesswork!

But wait, weren’t we going to 3D print the cases in stainless steel? Well yes, until I have a quote at over £5000! Sod that! I won’t name the company as they were very helpful to be fair, and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad price, it’s just not the right process for an object of this size – or my budget for that matter. So it’s back to pattern making and casting in LM25 Aluminium Alloy, with the dilemma of printing vs paying a traditional pattern maker. I mentioned this to Nick, who promptly said…

"Oh, I can make one in wood. Just not in metal". Really? Oh ok, well that makes perfect sense. I’ll ask my drawing office (Gary at work) to do me a favour and modify the drawing to what I think the pattern should look like. A cup of tea with Bob and quick chat later, I had a set of marked up printouts ready to forget to take to work for a few weeks. I safely delivered them today and wait patiently for the amended CAD files.

Onward and Upward! Oh and Happy New Year!!

P.S. In case you were wondering, Chip and Ken they made it safely back home. You can read more about it here -> http://rtwnorthsouth.blogspot.co.uk/

With work on the conrod finished for now, attention turns to the flywheels. The slices of big bar fit into the 4 jaw chuck on Bob’s lathe, which is handling the job nicely so far. Getting the tough outer ‘crust’ off the steel is hard going, light cuts are needed and plenty of cutting oil.

It might not be too healthy, but it smells great!

There’s a fair weight to each wheel so it’ll be a weighty engine, maybe a 2 man lift. Then again so is a GPZ900 so I’m not too concerned.

We can’t swing the conrod though, even on the big lathe. It’s 14 Inches and the lathe will spin 12, so some thinking is required to finish the eyes.

Anyway, small progress is still progress:-)

Now that’s a conrod! Bob took the other side off and voila, the mighty conrod is out! I held it in my hand to give some sense of scale in the photo, I do hope it’s big enough 😉

It’s quite fitting that the conrod emerges today as it’s my birthday. I set a deadline of hearing the engine running by my 50th birthday, so we’ve 3 years to get the whole shebang sorted. Actually I’d like to be riding the bike for my 50th, but I’ll settle for a running engine.

I’m very pleased with the progress so far, and have high hopes for the 3d printed cases – provided that the price is right. Time will tell.

One of the sides is off the conrod, now it’s really starting to take shape. The other side might come off today, if I get out of bed and leave the blog updates for a moment.

Right….

Can you see them? The steel has arrived and £ for lb it’s not bad value. Good job we’re not making it in Gold!!

It doesn’t take much imagination to see the flywheels, though a lot of work needs to happen before we get the finished articles. Fred might be coming up this week and joining the production team.

Also on the team, Gary has been busy on CAD and we have the side cover in a 3d drawing. I’m getting quotes to 3d print one as a full size model in plastic, but also a price for 316 stainless.

Stainless engine cases, that’d be a first!

The radii around each end is complete now, after a week or so off to cover work and funerals. The big end is also complete now and one side is removed. Now that’s real progress!

The other side might be off today so we’ll have a complete rod bar finishing work. It’s a great effort from Bob but at the same time an eye opener to how much spare time I don’t have.

I need to retire myself 🙂

A great weekend with new and old friends round, getting the full shed tour. Nick seems keen to take on the diesel 2-stroke 500cc and I’m right with him. Maybe that should be the testbed for his infinitely variable transmission idea? Further discussion is required!

The conrod is starting to take shape now, you can definitely work out which is the big end! I have a shopping list for EN25T steel bar to make the flywheels and crankshafts from, which I’ll sort when I’m back from London. Graham should be moving the Hercules at the Airfield to a hangar in the next week or so, where it’ll be easier to work on.

Progress all round!!

Bob has been slowly plugging away at the conrod. Next steps are milling the radii around each end as they taper into the rod. Easier to draw than explain I’m afraid.

Bob’s mate Fred came up yesterday and is onboard with the project. Fred is a talented machinist and has offered to start working on the crackshaft. It’s like living next door to engine pixies!

With that happening I gave the drawing office guys at work a nudge about CAD again. They’ve agreed to help me transfer the drawing into CAD so I can build a 3D model. That should move things on a ways.

Slow progress is still progress!

So here’s the last post about the Paddy Dakar – until next year 😊

I’ve had a little time to reflect since then and I really did enjoy riding the bike off road. As much as it pains me to admit it, and I find this difficult to come to terms with, smaller bikes are easier to ride off-road. A 250 or 400 would have been better for this event, although I wouldn’t have fancied riding across for the event on a 250!!

The mighty KLR has been unstoppable, and with more talent it would be a great tool for this, but still a struggle in places as it’s a tall bike and quite heavy. I’m still impressed at how strong the bike is after all the abuse it’s had, although it has been serviced with regular oil changes I suppose.

Since the event I’ve had a day with it misfiring, so I changed the plug and checked all the wiring around the ignition. That solved the problem, which had started on day 2 of the event. The following day the bike stopped charging the battery! Tank off again (why is it always full when it needs to come off??) and one of the wires to the regulator/rectifier has turned to green dust.

Maybe it’s due some proper TLC, or a new tank and seat to make it look a little cuter? I’m sure I could make it look KiLleR, but I still like it as it is. Hmm… decisions decisions.

Last look back at the start line, crossing it at the start on Day 2 with Brian. Next year I won’t destroy myself with Jameson before the start!!