First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

quote:

Originally posted by 04zx6r I'm building my tubing bender right now- should be done in a couple weeks or so, as soon as that's ready, I can finish chopping the rear half of the frame off and building the new rear section.

Hah, I make myself laugh- so three months and two welders later, it's finally finished

I finally ponied up and bought a Miller instead of that chinese welder crap. I feel much better now, plus I can do aluminum, but I don't have a plasma cutter anymore, oh well, the trade off was definitely worth it.
Here's a couple shots of the tubing Bender.
I have realized that drilling large holes through thick metal is NOT my calling in life- that has to rank high on my list of crappiest jobs ever.





I built myself a little table to raise the level of the bike to where I could work on it better, and sort of use it as a frame jig. Don't worry it's not fully bolted down or anything, just used this shot as a reference.
This is basically the length the bike will be when done; 7' 4"
So it's pretty lengthy, but again, now that the bender is done, I'll be able to brace the frame, and cut the final part of the rear section off and FINALLY start building the rear frame sections.




Thanks for looking and hopefully I'll have updates a little more regularly now

Report post | Post #16 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

quote:

Originally posted by knotwerk once your set, if you could fill us in on how you did that i would greatly appreciate it!... loving the stance so far man!.... good luck

Ok so again it's not all the way finished, but here's how I did it. I ground off the weld on the bottom the stock triple clamp so I could get the stock steeing stem. Then I used the factory triple trees from the ZX6R- chopped off the excess of the steering stem and drilled a 7/8 hole through the center of the stem. I also opened the hole in the stock stem to the same diameter, then i inserted a 7/8 hardened steel shaft to connect the two.
Once the steel shaft is cut to the correct length I'm going to weld it to the stock stem.

If anyone thinks this is unsafe, let me know and explain why.

Thanks!
Sky

Report post | Post #17 of 381

First name is JIM
Joined on June 2nd of '04
Lives in CHICAGO, IL
Local time: 02:14 PM
PM Posts: 1814

You want to use mild steel for a stem, hardened steel will crack.

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Report post | Post #18 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

Hmm, interesting. well the steering stem itself is mild steel, the hardened shaft only extends about an inch and a half into that shaft, and through the lower triple tree.

would that change things?

Report post | Post #19 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

Got in my tubing last week, was able to get a good start on building the frame.

First off I have to say, to anyone thinking about building one of these tubing benders........DO IT! this thing is awesome! it worked extremely well.

Keep in mind that these peices are just rough cut and set into place with painter's tape but you can see the general shape. I should be able to refine this setup a lot in the next week or so.
Until then, here's some pictures to tide you over.

Looks like just a bunch of bent metal



mocked into place





It's going perfectly so far, I'm really excited because what's in my head is coming out through my hands perfectly.
Stay tuned for the next updates!

thanks
Sky

Report post | Post #20 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

So i got some work done this weekend, and should have been able to post some good pictures of that, but about 2:00 on sunday my angle grinder decided to try to cut off my index finger of my left hand.
a trip to the doctor and 6-8 stitches later i should be o.k.


hopefully i'll be able to finish some stuff up this weekend and get you guys some good pics of the progress.

On a side note, my total count of novicane shots is up to 46!

moral of the story, don't be a dumbass when using a grinder.

Report post | Post #21 of 381

First name is Carl
Joined on June 1st of '07
Lives in Marikina, Philippines, -
Local time: 04:14 AM
PM Posts: 687

Ouch!

Report post | Post #22 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

So I worked on the bike pretty much all day today. doesn't look like I got that much done, but I felt like I did.

Got the frame pieces tacked together finally, got it all braced so I could take the motor back out.













Also got started on my handlebars: these bars are costing me $14.00 :P







They'll be much shorter than this when they're finally on the bike, but this is approximately what they'll look like, basically just like factory, just longer.



I never get a shot of me welding so......



On a totally separate note, just because I feel like saying it, on Nov. 2nd my wife and I get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl! Yay! Needless to say, I'm excited.

thanks for looking
Sky

Last edited by 04zx6r on 10-21-2007 at 07:33 AM

Report post | Post #23 of 381

First name is Carl
Joined on June 1st of '07
Lives in Marikina, Philippines, -
Local time: 04:14 AM
PM Posts: 687

Sky, congratulations! looks like you're building a bike AND a family! I wish you all the best on both.

As for the bike, now I'm a bit curious, once you have the air piston in place and you raise the bike to take a ride, will your frame rails be parallel to the ground? They're parallel now, so I think you're going to have a bit of an angle, especially with the weight of the engine and rider pushing down on the forks. I don't know if that was your original plan. On the whole though, it's looking real good.

By the way, is that a Subaru Impreza I see there in the background? Nice!

Oh, how's your finger?

Report post | Post #24 of 381

First name is Robert Hilman
Joined on July 18th of '06
Lives in South Amboy, NJ
Local time: 08:14 PM
PM Posts: 766

Congrats!

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Report post | Post #25 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

quote:

Originally posted by carld Sky, congratulations! looks like you're building a bike AND a family! I wish you all the best on both. As for the bike, now I'm a bit curious, once you have the air piston in place and you raise the bike to take a ride, will your frame rails be parallel to the ground? They're parallel now, so I think you're going to have a bit of an angle, especially with the weight of the engine and rider pushing down on the forks. I don't know if that was your original plan. On the whole though, it's looking real good. By the way, is that a Subaru Impreza I see there in the background? Nice! Oh, how's your finger?

Yeah that was the plan from the beginning, the bike is mainly for cruise in situations and shows. Should be fun to ride around too, but it'll look best when at rest

Yepper, that's my WRX- my next project when this is finished. My wife owns an '02 outback as well. We live where it snows during the winter, and the AWD on these cars is great.

Finger is doing Ok, stitches probably come out next week.

Report post | Post #26 of 381

Joined on December 19th of '06
Lives in Boise, ID
Local time: 08:14 PM
PM Posts: 936

It is good to watch the progess of this build. The look of your orginal plans is different and things out of the box are very cool.

Keep on building.

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Report post | Post #27 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

quote:

Originally posted by Diechop It is good to watch the progess of this build. The look of your orginal plans is different and things out of the box are very cool. Keep on building.

Thanks man, I appreciate the comments

Got some more work done tonight, worked some more on the new bars, they turned out pretty good I thought, still need to finish them up, but they are in their final position.
Here's a few shots:









I like this shot


I also worked on getting the rear swingarm pivot arms tacked into place.





And a final parting shot, my yet to be born kid's new ride:


Thanks for looking
Sky

Report post | Post #28 of 381

First name is Sky
Joined on November 16th of '05
Lives in bend, OR
Local time: 12:14 PM
PM Posts: 377

Yo, so I was going to buy some axle blocks for the rear of my frame, but they cost like $100.00 and I don't have that kind of money to spend on something like that. So I decided to try to make my own.

Here's what the real thing looks like, usually CNC machined out of steel.


Basically they are axle blocks that have a plate covering the axle, so they're called hidden axle blocks.

My version:



cut the 1.5" inner diameter piping in half



space the two sections apart using 1.5" pieces



Bevel all the edges and weld it up then grind them smooth



now do the other side



I had some spare aluminum from building my last intake manifold, so i used that for the covers



to attach them I made some little tabs to go on the inside, welded a nut to the backside. and countersunk the holes in the cover for the screws











These basically took me all day and they're not done yet, still have the cut the plate that goes on the backside for the axle. I might make another aluminum cover for the one because the fit is kind of poor. Other than that, I was pretty happy with how well these came out. Never tried it before, but it was a lot of work.

Big thanks to mechwerks for giving me the idea that I could make a set myself.

Let me know whatcha think
thanks
Sky

Report post | Post #29 of 381

Joined on April 6th of '05
Lives in harrisburg, PA
Local time: 03:14 PM
PM Posts: 7207

i think you oughta sellem to support this build thats what i think.

Report post | Post #30 of 381