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MHF Crocker

Hi Paul
The frame is pretty near now, it was 1/2" out at the front !! I cant photo it properly because i am getting a fish eye lens effect because i am to close but its much closer than it looks.
once the engine is in the frame it will be 10x more rigid and once i get the forks and wheels in it i can fine adjust alignment

rotor under the cap Bob.
 
Note to self............remember to check if the frame is straight ?

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:)
 
This stuff is like putty Paul. It bends if you look at it. My worry is i have to drill all the holes in it for the spokes and they are all at an angle.
I can set it up on the drill press to drill them all at the same angle but i fear the wheel will bend under the pressure of the drill unless its supported round each hole. I need to put my thinking cap on.....
 
Wheel has a front? Paddy you've made spoked wheels from scratch before. Why not use this as a template and scratch one? (easy for me to say way over here...)
 
I have some resin rims that would work Bob but what i have found with this model is the further you go with construction the more rigid it all becomes. I wouldn't mind betting that as i add spokes this wheel will hold its shape and quadruple in strength.
The frame was the same but as you add the engine and other parts it all becomes a lot more rigid as the other parts are a majority of its final strength.
I will find a way to true the rims, the difficult part i suspect will be drilling 42 holes in each and keeping the shape :)
 
Not impressed with these wheels. I got them passably true, etch primed them, gloss blacked and clear coated them however in order to fit the spokes you need to press the rim into as rough cast jig....which just takes the paint off the rims.

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so i stripoped them back to bare metal and semi polished them

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I will get the finish a bit better then clear coat them so they dont tarnish.

Poor design, poor casting and a very strange way of building. The rim must not move in the jig in relation to the hub but there is no way of holding the rim in the jig.
the spokes supplied are very hared, could be stainless or chromed piano wire, either way they all need to be bent and cut and they killed my cutters instantly :)

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Resin wheel rims would be 100x better and cheaper, if 3D printed then you could put the spoke holes in, they would be easier to paint as well
I have ordered some 0.5mm Nickel silver wire tonight and will probably make my own spokes

This is a resin rimed wheel with nickle silver spokes i made for my recent Alfa 2300 build
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More than adequate, sometimes less is more.
 
Could copper or brass wire be substituted? By the by, what is a good compound for blackening metal parts (besides paint)?
 
You're making it happen again, Paddy! All these little blurps are a pain and drive us nuts, but that's half the fun right? Ok, don't answer that,........:rolleyes:
 
I decided to go ahead with the kit option on the wheels, mainly because i can get away with unpainted rims on this bike.
Its not going to work on the other MFH bikes i have like the Vincent black Shadow....I have ordered some different spoke material for that as its easier than trying to get the shine off the kit parts. Why did they make these polished or chrome ? I cant think of any bike from the 30's or 40s with chrome spokes ...lol I may need to find a better way of lacing them up that isn't going to scratch the paint on the rims.

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PS.....i will flat coat those tires :)
 
I bought some carbide (or so the label said) nippers that are made for clipping steel wire and they seem to work fairly well
 
These are easy and quick Bob only 2 and only 2 rows of spokes, the Alfa wheels had 3 rows and there were 5 of them :)
Problem i have with snips is they need to be as small as poss to get into tight spaces and the thinner the blade the better but unfortunately the thinner the blade the weaker as well.
what is a bit unknown is the drive chain which is hundreds of bits of PE :)
 
Today MFH required me to drill to 0.5mm holes in the end of 2 spark plugs :)
this because they give you 2 0.45 pins to hold the plug leads....

where this becomes tricky is if you look along the line of the top plug there is a bit of PE that joins the plug lead to the plug. For this to be correct you need to roll this into a tube while retaining the part with the hole flat :).......i think this might beat me. the clue is you need 2 of these and they give to 10...just in case

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One thing i haven't mentioned so far is this

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This is a pen drill rechargeable via a usb port, its 4 speed with top speed just 700rpm.. Most of these things dont go down below 10,000 rpm as they just lose all their torque, this one is geared. Its pretty much essential in these builds because there are 100's of holes to drill much like above..
down side is it doesnt have a chuck but it takes std 2,35mm shank bits like Dremel.

Only other thing to day is the Crocker has external oil feeds, ie: the oils is not carried as it is today in drillings in the castings. some crockers seem to have painted lines, some are plated, probably nickle. some are copper like this

d2851ac6032061a1e1950adcec8057cb.jpg


Question is which to go for ? the kit comes with lead solder but its too soft in my opinion if you ever want to handle the parts

I made this up in copper, what do you think

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.
Is it a bit too bling ?
 
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