RD350 seat

[cliffrod]

I made a tool holder yesterday and a few quick wooden tools today for my arbor press. Then I made a black urethane anvil for it, approx 4" diameter, 1" bore and 2" tall.





I'm trying to work without causing as much damage that needs address later. There's certain trade secret methods I use with stone work that enables me to exclusively do special and very dramatic work in granite without leaving any tool marks. With this tooling, I'm trying to do the same type of work in metal.

Using this equipment plus a little with a UHMW Tuck Puck when I needed a harder anvil to smooth some spots, I did the majority of the shaping of the central/top piece of the seat's rear hump. All of this shape was done with the arbor press, nothing else. I spent a little over an hour, working slow and checking the fit. No scars, dings from the edge of the hammer, witness marks from the anvil. Just a few minor walnuts this time.



The protective film was left on the aluminum during shaping. The only damage to it occurred when I tried to press the tooling against the film to lower some high spots I accidentally raised.



It doesn't fit the buck 100% as is, but it's really close for a first try-



It needs a little more aggressive work to pull it down for a better fit and some wheeling or planishing to smooth it up. Sure is nice to work clean, completely quiet and nothing hurts afterwards. The bigger purpose of this experiment is this rear hump is essentially a trial run for the pieces I need to make for my Guzzi tank. All works as I hoped it would. Very cool. It was a good day in the shop.

Edit- next will be to make a few larger tools to limit the walnuts even more.

[Chazza]

Well done Cliffy!

Nice to see a plan that has become a reality, with all of the advantages,

Cheers Charlie

[cliffrod]

Thanks, Charlie.

I made more progress today. Wheeled the top piece and did a little more to get it fit into submission. Then I worked on one side piece. It was a more challenging piece to shape, but I still did most of it with the arbor press. Wheeled & planished it some after the initial work, but it still needs more. I'll finish this part and the mirror image part for the other side simultaneously for the best match.

Both rear hump pieces fit the buck pretty well now, except for the overlapping edges that still need trimming & final adjustment. If I had a third hand, fit to buck would look better in these pics. Holding it together with this heavy dolly was the quick & convenient solution before it was time to cook dinner. Nothing is trimmed, but this is one side looked with everything hung together.







Going to try to do the other side tomorrow.

[Kiwi john]

Starting to look really good Cliffy. I have missed seeing your progress . I really enjoy your deliberate analytical approach Cheers Johnny AWOL

[cliffrod]

Thanks, Johnny. Wondered how you were. It's always great to hear from you.

[cliffrod]

Now that I understood where and how to push with the arbor press, the second side went quickly. Not sure if it even required 25% of the time to make a better quality part. Then I started trimming to fit the first (ugliest) side to fit the top. In the process, I trimmed away a lot of the overlapping deep return along the top that proved most challenging to make & smooth. Good lesson. Got a great fit between the two pieces but had some migration in relation of the part to the buck, so may make another side piece if it's not easily resolved. Since it only actually needs a minor amount of shaping, I wouldn't be surprised if the part could be finished in 15 minutes.

Along the way, I needed to tip the flange for the front of the center piece. It was easy to mark it with a pen underneath against the buck along the inside of the flange. My bead roller is still not in service, so tipping it that way wasn't an option. Doing it on the wheel didnt seem any better because of the marked line vs the direction of the bend and wanted to have a radius on the transition that matched the long sides which wasn't as sharp as my upper wheel. This radiused edge detail is very important (to me) in terms of the seat design. Because the seat will be painted, I want this detail to be plain & consistent enough to disappear when viewed. that's another reason I'm not welding along the transition corners.

So I made a quick pair of wooded square & rounded chisel tools with the approx desired interior radius for the arbor press. Tipped a perfectly accurately corner from the blind backside- fast, super easy and completely controllable. The more I do with the arbor press, the more I REALLY like it. It's hard to believe what it will do and easily it does it. It's a great low-buck way to accomplish a lot of tasks, with tooling that you could make completely with cheap hand tools if needed.

More pics soon.

[cliffrod]

Soon^^^^ - a four letter word related to ambition but not necessarily reality.....,

Finally had time and circumstances to start welding up this seat. I decided to transition towards oxy-hydrogen welding, primarily for the benefits of using little to no flux when welding. After more time and money, this seat hump is the first real part that I've produced with oxy/hydrogen welding-












After some filing and planishing, I'll finish attaching the rest of the seat parts.

My friend is still fairly casual about how the seat will be attached to the frame or how the upholstery will be attached to the seat, so I expect there will be issues to resolve later. He needs to bring the already painted (against my advice..) frame here so we can plan the needed brackets.

[cliffrod]

The hump looks even better after a few strokes with a file. There's a little to bump up on the first weld, but the second one needs a lot less.

[cliffrod]

All the pieces on hand are now welded up. Need to trim interior and do the interior pan portion, but would like to have some decisions about mounting upholstery to seat and seat to bike first. I also need to do a false wire edge along the bottom and across the front once all is trimmed to fit the bike properly. The front hump will lose nearly half of the length to fit the tank. I'll do some work on this while I'm waiting.

[cliffrod]

Basic assembly welds were cleaned up, center trimmed, insert fitted and the insert was apparently hot-glued into place before clean up began. Thought I was using my oxy/hyd torch, but still learning. The heat sink issues are pronounced with this cooler flame, so will continue to be part of the educational process.

The majority of the welds are sound enough to tolerate the abuse so far. Some areas will be redone.