Lacking Wisdom and Getting Cranky

My lovely wife celebrated a very significant birthday this week and she is no more grumpy than usual. But that's not what I mean anyway. This shedweek I have started work on the right hand crank arm, this is a far simpler affair than the planet gear carrier but I'm not going to mention that in case I screw something up again. What with arranging the lavish parties and the parking for the convoy of trucks carrying her presents, I haven't had a great deal of free time (as usual). My brother has prompted to me update the blog though, so I'll have to take some time out from my hugely busy social life and post an entry.

The original right hand crank arm.

As before, I'm going to start with round billet and machine off one face

And then flip it over and machine the other.

Next I can saw off the thinned section and remount parallel to the ways. 

Using the same techniques as last time I can space the centre holes and 

also thin down the end of the crank to near final size.

Bolt down using the new hole and thin the centre section.

Remount on the faceplate and machine the back of the boss. 

Of course I forgot to take photos of the faceplate set up so you'll have to take my word for it.

Now mill the angled face at the back of the crank.

Then using this new angled surface as a reference, I can start to mill the relief into the front of the crank. 

This cut is at full depth so I can now get in with the ball nose cutter...

...to make the correct shape of the relief.

Mark out the shape of the crank...

...and chop it out with the hacksaw.

Finish off with hand files.

Finally mill the slot for the locking tab.

I now need to finish off a lot of little jobs on the geared assembly. The cranks need to be attached to the axle with taper pins, the locking tab needs to be made, the hole for the oiler needs to be drilled and tapped in the left hand arm and finally the patent information still needs to be stamped into the crank. All little jobs but I'll start on those next week.


In other news, my lovely wife's sister has just gone back to England after coming over for the birthday celebrations. We all had a fantastic time together and she has very warm memories of the visit. She's also pretty much back to normal after her operation a few weeks ago which is a huge relief for us.

Last Thursday I had my bottom two wisdom teeth taken out, they've been border line for the last 20 years and they finally got bad enough to need some action. I now look like a grumpy hamster but less cute. I have an interesting drug cocktail to take, some of which I'm not supposed to operate machinery with. Ho hum...

In more other news, my brother has sent me a link to a video he made of this years Benson run. The Benson run is one of my all time favourite antique bikes rides and I couldn't make it this year. If you are ever in Benson, Oxfordshire, UK on the first Sunday of July and you happen to have a pre 1928 bicycle about your person, I strongly recommend you try it.