Slow Monster rebuild

[utopia]

On the drilling ...
I've struggled for years using thin machine oil (or cold tea, even) as a cutting fluid for steel but last week I threw off my scroogeish behaviour and bought a small bottle of proper cutting fluid from Machine Mart. The difference was marked. Well worth the cash, I reckon.
On cutting speeds, most DIY market small pillar drills run way too fast. Mine has never, ever been on anything above its slowest speed for anything .. and I've owned it since the 70s. I have even cut larger sizes in aluminium by turning the chuck by hand. I'd advise trying slower.
Strictly speaking, it is bad practice to open out holes using an ordinary, two-flute drill. Ideally you should use a three-flute or "core" drill. The three flutes give the drill support much like a three legged stool, whereas the std drill will tend to chatter on its two flutes. Of course nobody has any core drills to hand, but the theory still applies.
And on the drill sharpening ... do you do this yourself ? Its a pretty skilled job to do it "offhand", without a clever gadget. Getting the angles correct and equal, sufficient rake behind the cutting edge etc is quite tricky. I sharpen mine by hand, but I was shown how to do it properly years ago as an apprentice. Well actually, I was shown how difficult it is and advised not to do it, but I'm too cocky for that.
Dormer used to produce a little handbook for engineers on the ins and outs of drilling .. maybe it is still available.

[350TSS]

Thanks guys - I started this project to learn how to do stuff I haven't done before and possible to get better at doing stuff I've been doing wrong for years. This means that most jobs on what is essentially a prototype will need to get done and re-done - sorry if it is getting repetitive.

[350TSS]

On drill sharpening I have a Clarke electric grindstone with a range of holes around the outside . You insert the drill and twist it on the grindstone the take it out and do the other flute. seems to work OK although how close you get to optimum angles I do not know. I have tried the hand held method on the 8" bench grinder but generally just ruin the drill.

[utopia]

I don't know exactly how the Clarke drill sharpener works but be aware that you need a clearance behind the cutting edge.
Merely rotating the drill will not provide this .. it needs to be advanced slightly as the drill is turned past each cutting edge.
Then, when you hold the drill vertically and look at the line where the new grind surface meets the outside diameter, it should taper down slightly behind the leading edge .. if that makes any sense.
Failure to provide this clearance means that the drill just rubs on the work.

Tbh, in my opinion, having the optimum angle for the "point" is not of huge importance.
More important by far is having clearance behind the cutting edges and equal angles on each side/flute.
Also a good chisel edge at the apex, which should be as near as possible to 90deg to the tapered cutting edges.
Actually, when drilling from scratch without a pilot hole, it is the chisel edge which does most of the cutting .. or at least initiates it.
In fact some specialised, deep-hole drills (sometimes called gun-barrel drills) only have the chisel edge and no tapered cutting edges or flutes at all.

On a cautionary note, I have seen budget drill sets where 80% of the drills were incorrectly ground and would not cut properly, if at all.
But then again, after I reground them they were fine, so if you're prepared to do this then budget drills are probably a reasonably sound option for occasional use.

[350TSS]

2 steps forward, one and a half back today. But progress is knowing not only what you want to do but crucially how it is to be done.
I started on the battery box mock up based on a certain size of battery, when I made the dummy battery I knew it would be challenging to accommodate all the electrics and the selected battery in the space behind the head stock.
Spent most of the day fiddling about with the mock up and realized finally about 5 .00 that it was never going to fit. The carburetors even with foam pod filters just take up too much room. Gave myself a bit of a scare as well as I am not 100% sure there is enough clearance on the bottom of the tank for the carburetors.
I have now acquired the electronic black box to replace the relays and the fuse box.
Solution now is to research an alternative battery with enough oomph to start the beast but packaged smaller.
Also tried to start on the Mosfet regulator mounting (in the absence of the actual regulator which has not arrived yet). You will recall I intend to hang the plate beneath the centre line of the steering stem and mount the regulator on a plate that does not turn with the steering.
Made the threaded bar to hang the assembly from the top yoke centre nut and turned the threaded aluminium bush all OK. But when I tried to shorten the bronze bush in the lathe it spun out of the chuck and destroyed itself.
I was not completely happy with the original design anyway as I was concerned that to get it tight enough not to jiggle about with vibration etc it would have to be too tight for the oiled bush to overcome the friction. So I bought a thrust race from Simply Bearings for about £4 which should do the trick, although I will have to consider how to keep road grit and salt and spray outside the bearing itself

[350TSS]

[350TSS]

[350TSS]

Sorry upside down - Doh!!!!

[350TSS]

Original battery in space behind headstock

[Albie]

I don't suppose you have any original tea tray bolts you don't require as you seem to be tea tray less

[350TSS]

I will have a look. I will have them somewhere. they will undoubtedly need plating for your quality build When I strip down i store all the bolts etc in those plastic lidded containers that you get from Chinese take aways - keeps them safe , dry and together but the boxes themselves are just opaque enough that so that you cannot quite see what is inside them - I spent about an hour going through the boxes yesterday looking for the inlet manifold rubbers - I had them - they were in the last box I opened

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

..........they were in the last box I opened

Of course; why would you carry on opening boxes to look for them once you have already found them?

[350TSS]

There is an appealing logic to your post. Today i shall mostly be ................. putting labels on the many boxes

[Darren69]

Originally Posted by Darkness

Of course; why would you carry on opening boxes to look for them once you have already found them?

Yes, you must decide first which box you will opening last and then open that one first. Then you would find them straight away.

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Darren69

Yes, you must decide first which box you will opening last and then open that one first. Then you would find them straight away.

Isn't that contrary to the principles of Quantum Mechanics, where the object exists in all of the boxes until you open the box?...or was that cats?