Posted by Jerry on March 19th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Motorcycling
Well I got a bit distracted by St Paddy’s day preparations and fitting the topcase to my own bike, but Eve’s bike fired up today and settled quickly into a steady purr.
What else needed to be done? When I assembled it I aligned the top-dead-centre mark on the crankshaft with the cams leaving the valve tappets just loose enough to move, tightened down all the bolts to the right torque and tried the engine movement without a spark plug and noticed a tight spot and a metallic ticking sound. hmm. Could the valve timing be out? Yup – it could. You see, when I assembled it it was getting dark and what I thought was the dot on the cam sprocket turned out to be a speck of oil.
Today I came at it with a fresh eye and it is the work of only about half an hour to undo the two bolts retaining the cam sprocket and identifying the real dot (actually an engraved small circle) and with the sprocket loose, I was able to flip the cam chain over a few links until the dot was in exactly the right place – aligned with the V mark on the head. It was a quick matter then to replace the relevant covers, give the engine a kick over to hear nothing but smoothly interacting machinery, then change the oil, replace the spark plug, and with two kicks the engine purred into life with a nice quiet smooth new-engine sound. Success!
A few revs and it was apparent that the cam chain was making a little bit of noise, so I adjusted the tension bolt and the engine became even quieter.
First test ride was down to the local service station for fresh fuel and tyre pressure check, and despite the welcome rain the bike performed very well.
And the beauty of it is that it no longer blows smoke, and it has real pulling power. Not bad for my first ever piston change – and it cost only the new piston, rings, gaskets and cylinder machining – you certainly can save a lot by doing it yourself!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on February 12th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Woodwork
At Historic Home Repairs dot com you can see a series of videos and images with text on restoration techniques for historic homes. These include the ‘reports from the field’ videos – rough and ready but that clearly show how to do the job. This one is about the restoration of some 1920s wooden beams that had badly deteriorated. The video shows how the damaged part was removed and the rest mated to new timber, and the checks and cracks filled, then the new timber shaped to simulate the adze marks on the original timber.
Thanks to The Wood-Whisperer for the link 🙂
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on February 10th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Motorcycling, Steam, Technology
There have been a number of projects over the years to convert internal combustion engines (petrol engines) to work on steam, either for vehicles or, more widely, for small generators.
Some use a bash valve, welded onto the piston of a small two-stroke motor, such as this steam conversion of a Motobecane moped.
But Lynx Steam Engines discuss in detail how to convert a small four-stroke motor to work on steam or compressed air, to run electricity generators, mowers ec – perhaps even small karts. Their approach is a good one, keeping it simple, and making minimal modifications. This one requires modification to the cam by smoothing the cams to round, and adding a valve lift lobe to the correct timing (90 degrees between inlet and exhaust) by adding round-headed screws 90 degrees apart on the cam. And there is some discussion on the site on making a steam generator that complies with various laws on pressure vessels (best to get it made by a certified boilermaker) to produce a near silent engine that won’t disturb the neighbours. These would not be self-starting motors, but seem like a good beginners project using off-the-shelf components.
The 90 degree valve timing is consistent with the model steam engines I have previous tried making, and seems to be a good standard – with teh main variation being in the cut-off or ‘dwell’ of the valves – ie how long they stay open once opened. The beauty of this design is it uses low temparature, low pressure saturated steam, making it no more dangerous than a kettle, and able to operate without having to worry about separating the oil from the steam when you re-use it.
I also like the way Lynx engines have put their concept into practices as an apporpriate technology project to power a coffee producing firm in Nigeria, using waste biomass as fuel, rather than expensive petrol.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on February 8th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Technology
There’s a great simple design for a laptop bag on the Instructables site – looks easy to make with no sewing skill required and an elegant way for it to go together! I like the integrated mouse pad too.
Better yet – imagine this with a crazyquilted exterior 🙂
Go check it out!
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by Jerry on January 18th, 2007 — Posted in DIY, Journal, Woodwork
Well everything is together now – all that remains is to fit the adjutable shelves, and that will be done when we move the books in so we can gauge the spacing correctly 🙂
Here is a view of the tall end
And here is the low end
Note – the apparent dip is an artefact of the camera!
So how did I get it to this stage? I had completed the cutting of the rosettes. I needed one long plank to cover the low bookcases – and this proved to be a bit of a challenge. I went to my local hardware store and they said they’re not doing 4 metre lengths of 190mm pine anymore! Apprently something to do with standardising all their lengths. The second one told me the same story, but did steer me to an old-fashioned timber supplier in Fyshwick called the Fyshwick timber co-op – next door to Office Express stationers on Canberra Avenue – for the locals. I drove up a laneway into a timber yard big enough for a semi-trailer (big truck) to do a U-turn in.
I wandered into a covered area which seemed to have dressed pine in, and presently, a bloke inquired if I needed any assistance. This was a local family-run business with real service. I told the guy what I was after and he scuttled away up a ladder and called out I think I’ve got some up here – this do?
He had selected an excellent grade dressed pine board 4.2 metres (16 1/2 feet)long. Mindful of my 3 metre van I asked if he could make one cut … er around 3810mm (just over 3.8 metres) that was the length I needed for the shelf. Sure enough he dragged out a couple of saw-horses and and tape measure. marked it off twice and scribed a line with his hand saw. then cut it perfectly square and to the size I needed.
With the back of the van tied down, but open I drove home to varnish and fit the board.
The carcasses were in place, so the next job was to bolt the whole lot together using four bolts for each of the low shelves and eight for the tall ones. The bolt heads were countersunk by first starting the hole with a flat bit large enough to fit the bolt head, then drilled through for the bolt shaft. I used 40mm bolts.
With all the units bolted together I then screwed the tall units to the wall through the architrave using 75mm screws. Now the whole thing was a rigid structure.
I then screwed the now varnished long board to the low units from below using 35mm screws – the right-angle drill attachment was very useful for the narrow units!
Next came the long horizontal beading nailed in place with small bullet-head nails and nail-punched. This was followed by the rosette at the first join and then a short upright beading to the floor. Here is what the joins look like up close
When it came to the tall units I cut the wide trim to size and shaped it for the architraves and with some tricky mitering managed to get it round the top.
The rosettes followed and then the beaded trim. The holes for the adjustable shelves are already drilled – you would have seen that in the earlier construction phase.
And that is about it 🙂 Built-in bookcases in a week.
Cheers
Jerry
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