Flobalop Little Wheel

[cliffrod]

Looks good, Richard. Thanks for the in-progress pics.

[Peter Tommasini]

Richard
The E wheel turned out OK, Well done ! Let us know how it preform
Peter T.

PS The only thing that I would personally change would be to cut the lower shaft and put the turning wheel right up as far as you can,without interfering with the rest of the frame, that will allow you to be able to turn the adjusting wheel by hand ( you get a better feel of the pressure applied that way) also if possible fill the frame with sand , and take those wheels off , the last thing you need is for the machine to move or walk about while working .... BUT !.... as I said..... that is only my personal preference . Also try to use a coarse square tread for the ram

[skintkarter]

Continued

New shaft one-piece and threadcut this time


New keyway thingie

[skintkarter]

Getting closer, but made some scrap along the way...

I couldn't easily source some fine thread metric screwed rod during lockdown here in NZ, so settled for a chunk of 1" UNF. Idea was that I could weld this to a hunk of 25mm shaft to extend down to the the kick adjuster and lower support bearing (Y type self aligning flange bearing) left over from our Cadet Karting days with the boys. Unfortunately I ended up with some runout from the weld which I had difficulty in chasing out in the press. The end result was that the top of the adjuster wobbled around slightly drunkenly.

I'd decided to overly complicate the adjuster with a small deep groove ball race in the end of the post to create some radial support and a thrust bearing on top of the adjuster for the axial load. The resulting slight wobble played havoc with the smooth raising and lowering and by the time the keyway was introduced, the whole deal was pretty horrible. So I threw the shaft away and machined a new full length from 25mm, thread cutting the 1" (25.4) x 12 tpi UNF thread in the lathe. The threaded rod was 20.20mm diameter, so I finished up with probably a 90% thread depth. Turned out nice and snug. Touched up the keyway which I'd unwittingly machined with a chipped end mill and then redesigned the keyway thingie.

Smoother than a smooth thing now.

[skintkarter]

Bit more progress. Work has been busy so only bits and pieces in the workshop.

Clamping up the lower cradle for tacking


Slitting the post clamp


Mocking up the heights


Completed post clamp


Completed anvil cradle

[skintkarter]

Cheers Chris, but you wouldn't want to be billing the hours

[skintkarter]

Thanks Charlie. Years of being a pedantic old git.

[Chris_Hamilton]

Great job. Very nice fabrication work.

[Chazza]

Looks really nice cobber!

Everything you make, looks really nice!

Cheers Charlie

[skintkarter]

Progress


Got the spindle installed. Protected it from gashes with a bit of PVC tube.



The last bits of the frame boxed and profiled



The plinth chopped out and welded, castor mounting plates added and the upper structure plonked on top



Back and front seams welded and dressed. Think I'll do the side seams with the tig - but tomorrow when I'm fresh.

[skintkarter]

More Progress

Got the axle machined up and threadcut (err 3 times - so a jolly good job that I bought a full length of 35mm 1045...) Mounting plates are a 0.02mm press fit up against the shoulders



Couldn't resist installing the bearings and checking the runout. Pretty chuffed that it dialed up at 0.005mm



Didn't have any way of forming the inner filler strip, so sent the whole lot out to local shop Auram Engineering - run by a proper old Boilermaker, Richard Rua. They do all sorts of forming on rounds, tubes angles, flats etc... Perfect job.



My name is Jed... Jed Clampett. Walked the strip into place and got all tacked in. Ends have pulled very slightly, but not too much at this point. Will try to weld in sections doing the same process on either side to hopefully minimise any further pull.

[skintkarter]

Thanks Charlie. Made the main axle 3 times now. Doh! Had to send the inner filler strip out to get rolled, but hoping to progress this weekend.

[Chazza]

Nice work Richard!

Cheers Charlie

[skintkarter]

Outer filler strip tacked in

[skintkarter]

Photos Continued

Old school boilermaking memories

Side dressed up with a grinder

Packers tacked up

Top side tacked to bottom

So far so good