Thursday, November 28, 2013

Tip 5: Welding quality

I think I've mentioned before that welding is not my specialty. Apart from that, good welding equipment is very expensive. My cheap stick welding machine is good to spot weld parts together and then I let a qualified welder do the rest, but be careful! Even if you think the job has been done well, you have to make sure!
I always go for TIG-welding. It gives a clean result, is applicable on all sorts of metals and is by far the strongest connection you can get by welding. Like I explained in my "Tip 1", I had to change my steering housing from metal tubing to a decent housing made from a solid bar. The new housing needed to be welded on like the first one. Unfortunately, my regular mechanic was closed at that time, so I had to ask someone else to do the welding.
Probably due to a misunderstanding, the other guy used acetylene to weld the housing on to the forks.
Luckily I do a checkup of the bike before every ride, so this is what happened after a few rides:


This could have resulted in a serious accident if I hadn't noticed this in time! Of course, the repair was pretty straight forward and I was riding again a few days later...

Friday, November 15, 2013

Tip 4: how to extend your spokes

As I pointed out in my previous tip, I used bicycle spokes in the end with the following specs:
- length: 215 mm
- material: stainless steel
- 11G (2.9mm diameter)
I paid about 65€ for 100 spokes.

But now comes the trick: I needed spokes of about 650mm and thus needed to lengthen the bicycle spokes...! So, back on the net to search for a solution. It was actually Joff Summerfield who gave me the idea to use a kind of a long nut to make a connection between the original bicycle spoke and the spoke extension. After a search on the web, I decided to use PCB spacers. These are normally used to keep electronic components and board at a distance from each other.
I bought about 100 of these things in a Hong-Kong ebay shop for about 20€


They have a length of 30mm and have M3 thread inside. They are made out of brass.
It took me some time to cut every spoke and spoke extension with M3 thread, but the effort was worth it: like I said, I've had no more spoke trouble since I changed my spoke configuration like this.


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Tip 3: use spokes with a 90° bend at the end

My first big front wheel concept was made with just straight spokes with a nut on one end and a 'nipple' on the rim side to put tension on the spoke. During the time I rode the bike with this configuration, I had broken spokes at the hub side every time, which frustrated me. There was no way I could undertake big trips with this kind of unreliable setup. Since the spokes tend to break at the hub side and not on the rim side, I decided to change my front hub. I also bought 'regular' 90° bend bicycle spokes of the 11G-type which have a shaft diameter of 2.9mm.
Since the use of this new type of spoke setup, I've had no broken spokes anymore so far.
Also, if you think about it, it is much more straight forward to tighten the spokes, since the hub side of the spoke has a 90° bend.

Another thing I experienced with straight spokes is that the wheel can suddenly 'jump' of out shape and leave you with the number 8 instead of a nice and round number 0 wheel. Normally you can push the wheel back in shape, but this is stressful since it can happen if you push too hard on one pedal for example when driving up hill.
This is also the reason I used a 3X cross pattern to weave my spokes for more strength and stability.
So, actually two lessons learned in this case.


Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Tip 2: use a steering pin tension bolt that is strong enough

I started out with a steering pin tension bolt of M10 which broke after a couple of rides. Luckily the part that broke off was left inside the steering housing and I was able to reach my workshop without accidents.
The second attempt with an M10 bolt was unsuccessful too and left the bolt bent.
I did a third attempt with an M12 bolt - which is the bolt on the right in the picture - , but in the end, I used an M16 bolt to be sure. I suppose an M14 could have worked fine too since the M12 didn't show any signs of wear or tear.


Tip 1: don't use metal tube for the steering housing

My first steering housing was made of gas-tube with a wall thickness of 3 mm. This proved to be insufficient. Especially in the beginning of your career as a penny farthing rider, you tend to use too much force on the handlebars in an attempt to keep your balance.
The steering column is a part on the bike where a lot of forces are concentrated: the weight of the rider is distributed on the steering column through the steering pin ; the force exercised on the handlebars is also transferred to the steering column and the tensioner bolt to keep the steering pin nice and stable between the two extremes of the steering column also puts the steering column under a lot of stress.
This was the result of a few rides with the original gas tube steering column:

As you can see, the steering column opened up by the forces exercised on the bike. You can see the paint that chipped off in the corners of the opening for the steering pin.

The new steering column was made of a solid stock metal bar and the wall thickness was kept at 5 mm.
This proved to be the right strength and everything has been perfect since then.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Winter...

Winter is coming and I need a new project...
But then: it's been ages since I posted on my penny farthing building blog.

So, what happened after my last post where I impatiently awaited my handle bars? In the end, I went for straight handlebars because the local mechanic couldn't bend the right curve for the 'moustache'...
I hope to post a number of 'do's' and 'don'ts' soon for people who are thinking of starting a similar building project, but more about that later. I've been paddling about 300 km in the country side and a little in the city as well, but cobble stones are awful to ride on with a solid tire...!
I've been told I'm popping up on lot's of peoples FB pages so here is a rare shot of me mounting my penny farthing:


Cheers!
F.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Handlebars?

Still waiting for the handlebars! It's lovely weather at the time, so ideal for a test-drive. The mechanic promised them for tomorrow so fingers crossed he will not delay them again...
In the meantime, the saddle is mounted and the tyres have been fitted.


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Almost there!

After a couple of busy weeks, I was able to put the main parts together and started to finish some smaller parts like brackets and support for the saddle, brake spoon, step,...
I took the bike inside for a nice photo:


Only missing the handlebars and the tyres.
I bought some cheap classic cranks and pedals in the local hardware store to test-fit on the axle. Everything fitted like a glove! In time, I will make some genuine high bike cranks and pedals, but this will take a couple of weeks.
Since the weather is getting better, I want this baby on the road as soon as possible.
Next week, after I pick up the handlebars, I will finish off the remaining items like saddle bracket and brake spoon.
After this, the bike will be completely disassembled and painted, while some parts will be nickel plated.

Cheers,
Filip

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Off topic... or is it?

Not directly my ambition, but I've seen some people doing tricks and shows on the high-wheel bike.
This is an old drawing I found whilst browsing the web. German origin, but I don't know the exact source.
Still, maybe an inspiration to some of you?

Friday, May 24, 2013

Update

Today, an update without any pictures:

1) I took the backbone to the mechanic to give it a little more curve so it will follow the shape of the big wheel better. I hope he doesn't overbend it now!

2) The mechanic will also make the moustache handlebars and the brake lever.

3) I contacted a local nickel plating company which I thought closed some time ago, but apparently still exists. I wanted answers on some technical questions like layer thickness of the nickel plating that I can take into consideration when finishing the parts that need nickel plating. The specialist was out and will be back on Monday, so more on that later.

4) Next on the todo-list are the little bits and pieces to finish off the handle bars. I haven't thought about the wooden grips yet, but that will work itself out I hope. Also on the list is the front axle: I need to mill the flats for the attachment of the cranks. And the saddle bracket is also on my list for this weekend, although I will need my backbone to take precise measurements.

All in all, the bike is getting there. If progress goes on like this, I'll be on the bike somewhere around July I hope!

Cheers,
Filip

Monday, May 20, 2013

Tyre has arrived!

After a week of mental en physical enrichment in Dijon, France, I'm back into the penny farthing project!
I met my good friend Rob in Dijon who brought me my tyre from the UK. He had some trouble having to explain to customs why he had a solid rubber hose in his luggage, but fortunately they didn't confiscate it.
Needless to say, I'm grateful Rob took the effort carrying this 10kg package halfway around Europe for me!


Also, while I was in France, The welder took care of the front and rear forks. They look great and I won't have a lot of cleaning work on them.


I started trueing the big wheel and it actually went great! I could true the wheel in half an hour or so with a piece of tube I used to keep the rim in the middle of the forks and then loosing or fastening the spoke nipples accordingly.
I also cut the backbone almost to final size. I noticed that it could do with a little improvement: the curve of the backbone is a little too big to match the big wheel curve so I will take it to the mechanic for an additional bending before I start with the final cutting and welding.
Some small parts have been finished too: all rear wheel parts like axle, spacers and nuts have been finished.

Next I will be finishing the handle bar setup and the steering connection between fork and backbone.




Sunday, April 28, 2013

Short update

This weekend I finished some minor things on my bike. I spot welded the front fork and did some other preparational things.
A general view on progress:


I found my old and weathered Brooks sadle back in a box of old bike parts. This sadle will look great on the bike!


Thursday, April 25, 2013

Front forks - part one

Ok, time to have a go at the front forks.
I had a design in mind with standard square tubes. Square tubes are more easy to handle and don't roll of the table ;-)
I first started out with cutting the 4 fork leg tubes equally to the correct length.
Next I paired the leg tubes two by two and clamped them together as a pair:


Check out the left end of the tubes in the picture above: I filed them round so they will accept the bearing housing later on. Also in this picture is the steering assembly which will go on top of the forks (just above to the right) and the axle with the bearings and bearing houses installed (in the middle of the picture).

Next, I needed to cut and file the contours of the steering assembly in the leg tubes:


To keep the tubes together, I already welded them them at the bottom (on the inside of the fork legs).


Needless to say I repeated this for the other pair of tubes.

Back when I made the steering part, I made sure I had a hole in the bottom of it through the center of the steering axle. This hole was tapped with M6 thread. I now used this hole as a reference to the center of the steering axle. As you can see in the picture below, I screwed in a threaded bar and used it to hold the fork legs equally spaced from the center. I also made sure there was no 'wobble' in the fork: both ends of the fork assembly must be flat on the table to make sure the big wheel will run perfectly in the center of the bike.


I haven't done the final part yet: spot weld everything together. I just want to run some checks tomorrow: I have to make sure the axle will run parallel with the steering part.

Anyway, the fork assembly will look pretty square after I weld it together. Everything will have to be ground and filed round and smooth. But let's just take one step at a time... cleaning and finishing up the whole bike is still a couple of months from now...


Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Rear fork - part 2

So with a little thinking I came up with a 'jig' to hold the fork legs in position.
This picture shows the jig mounted on the fork before cutting:


Basically, it is a bar of M10 thread passing through the center of the fork with a piece of square tube for the axle. When torquing down the nuts, everything is fixed in place.
The white tape you see on the fork legs is to mark where I have to cut off the legs to shorten them.

Next step was the cutting:


And finally, bringing the fork legs to the new position by adjusting the nuts:


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Rear fork - part 1

I haven't mentioned this yet, but I was able to salvage a fork from a vintage bike I had lying around. It was beyond repair - at least for me - so I decided to recycle the front fork, to serve as rear fork for my ordinary bicycle.


I was thinking how to adapt the fork for my needs: since the rear wheel of my ordinary bicycle is considerable smaller, the fork legs need to be adjusted:


The solution I see the most is to simply cut off the fork legs and re-attach the flanges that hold the axle for the rear wheel. Since I like the curve in the rear fork, I would like to see that on my bicycle, so I will try to figure out another way of doing this...

Rear wheel

The rear wheel hub was picked up on Friday and drilled when I got home.
I had some trouble with the spokes on Saturday morning, but in the end, everything turned out ok. Only a few more spoke nipples to be done. The bearings and rear axle fit well...


Friday, April 12, 2013

Rear hub - part 1

Just finished the hub for the rear wheel! I spot welded the parts together and will take it out next week for a proper weld. After that, the holes for the spokes will be drilled.


As you can see, I fitted one of the bearings for testing purposes.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Front wheel assembly - bis

Ok, I don't want to show off... but I'm so proud the big wheel is getting there (only a few nipples left to mount, but the tap broke again).
So here's another picture of the wheel with me behind it to put things into perspective. It's huge. I hope my legs will reach the pedals!


This is a close-up of the hub:


Front wheel assembly

I picked up the front wheel hub at the welder. He did a nice Tig welding for better strength and I started with  mounting the spokes right away. It went better than expected!
I could tighten everything down and this is how the wheel looks like after 1/3 from the spokes is mounted:


Seeing the wheel getting finished spoke by spoke is very satisfying! After finishing the big wheel, I expect the rest to be fairly straight forward... (fingers crossed).

Next will be the making of the axle and necessary parts to hold the hub. Otherwise I won't be able to true the wheel with enough precision.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Spokes - part 5

Another cutter broke during the weekend. Very annoying and given the cost for a cutter, pushing the price for a spoke up with about 0.5 euro (as long as I don't break any more from now on!!!).
I spend the first hour in the workshop with making a new tool. As you might remember, I clamped the cutter in the chuck of the lathe and feeding the spoke manually. I found a way to turn this around for a much more stable way of cutting the spokes:


The thread is coming out cut perfectly symmetrical. So the stress on the cutter must be much more divided between cutting lips. I hope I will be able to cut the rest of the spokes for the small wheel without further problems...

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Spokes - part 4

Ok, I'm back in business... the new cutter arrived yesterday, and I was able to finish some more spokes. I also chamfered the  holes in the bigwheel rim.



This is how my spoke - rim setup looks like:

As you can see, the head of the nipple is almost flush with the rim.


Still a lot of spokes to be done...

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Spokes - part 3

At last, Friday evening I was able to pick up my M3 cutter in HSS-E version suitable to cut stainless steel.
The difference in ease of cutting was noticeable and I managed to cut the thread in all of the big-wheel spokes and attach the little M3 nut:


Just when I wanted to start with the small wheel spokes, this happened:

As you can see, a big chunk of material broke off the cutter and left me without a job (again). I guess one of the possible reasons could be I didn't use the proper cutting oil for stainless. Will remember to get some when buying a new cutter.

To fill the rest of my Sunday  I started out with a little side-project : a little Sterling engine. I turned the pillars, the working cylinder and the main shaft to begin with:



Bigwheel hub - part4

Busy weekend, and with mixed results.
The bigwheel hub version 3 is finished so far: the flanges have been turned on the outside and spot-welded to the center tube:


No more welding on the inside of the flanges so a more reliable, cleaner and more rigid solution.
I even spend less time overall turning these parts then with the ring/plate configuration.
Next, I will take this hub assembly to the welder so he can proper MIG weld all around.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Bigwheel hub - part3

Ok, so I decided to start from scratch with the hubs. I didn't like the welding so I started out with a piece of solid bar.


I was thinking about the hub-axle connection. In most cases, you would want to use a broach to create a raceway for a key. But that would mean I need a broach, a press and probably a milling machine for a more accurate setup than what I do on my lathe.
Hmmm... I will have to put some more thought into that.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Getting a little anxious

Hello people!
This week, I haven't been able to make any progress. Two main reasons:
1) still waiting for some tools
2) I decided to redo the front hub. I started out with a ring welded to a plate, but I figured out that this is too difficult and complex to achieve. Instead I ordered two pieces of solid round bar which I will have to turn on my lathe to correct specs.

I feel like progress is not going like I would want to. So I'm posting a photo with a little detail of my workshop. Especially for Don: look at the top right. A while ago, I figured it would be great to give the workshop a little touch of contemporary style. The pipe rack is from the first half of the previous century and was quite common in this region of Europe. The little poem engraved in it reads something like: "during days of pain or sorrow, don't neglect your pipe!"

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Spokes - part 2

Today, I started out with preparing the spokes.
I had an idea in mind to make the threading easy, because my first attempt to cut the thread on the end of the spokes ended up with an uneven result:
As you can see, the thread is not cut symmetrically mainly because I was unable to keep the spoke steady in the middle of the cutting die. This should not affect the strength of the spoke, because the thread is cut all around the spoke. Still, it looks crappy and unprofessional.
I came up with this setup in my lathe to 'feed' the spoke to the cutter:

Basically, It's a piece of metal with a hole of 3mm centered before the cutter. The cutter is clamped in the chuck of the lathe. I used a little M3 bolt to position the hole exactly in the middle of the cutter.

Unfortunately, this setup did not prove to be practical. So I decided to use my vise clamp to do the job manually.

In the picture, you can see the improved version with pieces of aluminium to protect the spoke from little nicks and scratches. I started out without this protection, but the imprints of the claws were too deep.

A number of finished spokes with the nut attached:

A quick simulation in the front hub:

As you can see, the nuts hide the sloppy welding in the back so it will look nice once completed.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Spokes

I picked up the 65 long spokes and the 25 short spokes today. I ordered a few more of each length just in case I screw some up.


I also picked up the little M3 round nuts to fit at the end of each spoke on the side of the hub.

A lot to be done! I don't think I will finish these in one setting.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Penny farthing tyre

Just a quick update: I ordered 6 meters of penny farthing solid tyre last week with an English company and had the tyre shipped to some of my best mates who live in the UK. So that's excellent news to start the weekend!
There is still enough to be done before I will be able to cut the tyres to length and fit them on the wheels.

I received no word from the supplier where I ordered the spokes. Hopefully they will arrive next week.

Have a good weekend!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Bigwheel hub - part 2

A lot of drilling this evening: the 30 hole pattern in each hub halve has been drilled:


Next step will be to weld everything together in the correct position. I must not forget to make sure the holes from one hub halve fall right in the middle of the holes in the other halve. If I fail to do this, the spoke layout will be screwed.
As you can see: I used a paper pattern with 30 radii to transfer the position of the holes to the hub halves.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Bigwheel hub

As I said: I figured out a new bigwheel hub concept. I finished the rough idea on my lathe today:

This picture shows an almost finished hub half.


The axle of 10 mm is just a temporary solution to keep the inner faces of the hub halfs parallel to each other. An important thing to keep in mind if I don't want any trouble with fitting the spokes later on.  A tube will be welded in between these hubs later on.
The axle that will be used will be 20 mm diameter.

I had some trouble welding the rings to the plates because I don't have a MIG welding device so I just spot welded them to keep everything in place. I might decide to ask a professional welder to do the complete welding for me so I'm sure it will be a good weld.
After this part will be completely finished, I plan on nickle-plating it. Nice and shiny hubs are a great contrast with the black parts of the bike. Other nickle plated parts will be the handle bars and the cranks.