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Bogs Bitten By Bling Bug !!!
bogstandard:
Bolting down has been done for weeks, in preparation for the coming days.
John
rleete:
Well, whatya know. I was going to do my cylinder like that (the fins, not the rounded end), and decided against it. Seems I spend a lot of time and energy modifying parts, and never finish. So, I told myself to stick to the plans this time, and get it DONE. I even started out with a bit of round stock, but fought the desire to go off the beaten path too much.
Great minds think alike, eh? Next time I'll give in to my bling urges.
NickG:
Bogs,
Great stuff there, glad to see you doing something as a break from your mundane workshop tasks.
I usually end up redesigning stuff to suit what metal I have in my scrap box, I say scrap box, but all my metal is scrap really, the only stuff I've ever bought was when I decided to take the plunge and buy loads of materials to make sweet pea ...suffice to say that has never happened!
No matter how much I try to bling things, they always end up looking industrial / purposeful as opposed to shiny and fancy!
I need to learn some polishing techniques etc. and probably get some patience! Does everybody here use proper buffing wheels to achieve these fantastic finishes? I was reading some of the posts on polishing the other day but a lot of it went straight over my head!
Nick
bogstandard:
I have made my own buffing station out of a cheapo 8" grinder and a couple of pigtails.
Have a look on here, they take a while to download, but they should give you some good tips.
http://www.moleroda.com/acatalog/Polishing_Kit_Demo_Videos.html
Bogs
bogstandard:
I now can't get a good run at this thing, so I will have to do it in dribs and drabs.
The fist thing before going any further is get the bits silver soldered together. The stand top and the crankshaft bearing, were easy, just a bit of flux and silver solder and they were soon stuck on. The bearing in this shot still needs to be soldered.
I did it this way around because it was easier to stick the bits together in this state and then join it to the main base rather than the other way around.
For putting the base on, I built a little supporting blockwork with bits of firebrick to allow me to heat the base from underneath. When silver soldering, you should never, if at all possible, play the flame directly onto the solder and flux. You should heat up the largest part, and the conducted heat will melt the solder, and it will flow into the joint. Solder always flows towards the heat.
When you cut up bits of solder for use, they are then called pallions, it is a name that jewellers use, and it has tranfered across into our hobby.
As you can see in the pic, down the slot and around the joint liquid flux was put, just powdered flux mixed with a few drops of water and a minute amount of washing up liquid. Into the flux I put small pallions of solder wire. In the two end half rounds on the slot, that were formed by the milling cutter, I put some extra wire in there to fill in the holes.
A couple of minutes later, the job was done. If you look at the upright part of the stand, you will notice that very little heat has travelled upwards to cause the previous soldered joints to come apart. This was all due to heating from underneath.
Like any other job we do, forwards planning is essential. You need to be able to visualise the problems that can occur, before they happen. You can then plan the job so very few problems crop up.
The flywheel blank got it next.
Moved the chuck from the lathe to RT and centred everything up.
I had a vision for what I wanted the flywheel to look like. Three spokes, very slightly offset to one side, widening from the centre out, and with one edge of each spoke scalloped. Like a radioactive batman theme.
No figures were used, I just drilled and cut by eye until I had something close to what was wanted.
Both main bits roughed out, ready to start the big clean up. Blinging isn't all to do with polishing and painting. A lot of it is making the basic parts, then hand finishing until it is something like. All traces of solder removed, joints blended into each other so it looks like it was made out of one piece. Only then can it be polished, but first, ALL machining marks have to be flatted out, and no scratches left on the surfaces. For polishing, the surface has to be smooth as silk BEFORE you can start. Any blemish on the surface of the work comes out as a horrible ripple on the surface after is is polished. It is just a matter of finger aching hard work.
This is the first preliminary clean up. Final polishing won't be done until just before final assembly. The stand has been cleaned up and joints blended in. Still a lot of work to do on that. The flywheel came out very close to what I wanted, it just needs a little hand dressing to get the spokes matched up, and it will be just fine.
I now have a bit of a dilemma. I need a good base for it to stand on. I am leaning towards the jet black polished acrylic look, but on the other hand, although I hate working with wood, I do like a nice polished wooden base.
Why does life have to be so difficult, decisions, decisions.
Bogs
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