General Tech What did you work on Today?

[Hickey]

Your conduit may be worn out, or clogged with metal dust. Whenever I change a wire spool, I like to take the whip off and blow shop air through it both ways. If you have a kink right by the machine, then the conduit is likely broken. It can usually be replaced by itself, but if the whip is bent too badly you won't be able to feed the new one through.

It's the contact tips. It has happened twice right after I've swapped in a new tip since I bought these tips. They are either slightly under sized or scored inside. If I run a tip cleaner through them once it works fine after that.

 

[Jesser04]

I’m confused as to why you used two panels across the back? What’s the middle piece with the small hole in it for? Looks awesome just can’t figure out why you didn’t put one solid piece across.

 

[jeeper]

I’m confused as to why you used two panels across the back? What’s the middle piece with the small hole in it for? Looks awesome just can’t figure out why you didn’t put one solid piece across.

My guess is a B/U camera

 

[Hickey]

My guess is a B/U camera

DING!

Backup camera mostly, but I also wanted to make it look a little different than Brave Motorsports bumper. Just to make it my own.

I will also tie the receiver hitch into that center plate. It's 1/4" plate.

 

[YROC FAB.]

I brazed a stud to my chuck wrench and screwed on a old sidewinder shifter knob. I can change jaws out in 1/10th the time.👌

 

[zmotorsports]

I didn't show the screwed up welds. 😆

No one does. Not even the Instagram welding gods.

Welds look great as does the bumper.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

Saturday morning after a few cups of coffee while sitting on the deck I finally made it out to the shop to begin work.

First order of business was to change the order of equipment along the wall on machinery row. I moved the vertical bandsaw a couple feet further south, then moved the bench grinder to the other side of the drill press and the combination belt/disk sander in between the drill press and the vertical bandsaw.

All that to get my garbage can closer to the lathe and mill.

Basically it created a little space right here between the vertical bandsaw and my lathe.

Now I have about 32-36 inches for whatever may come in to the shop in the near future.

Then as I was starting to work on the project of the day and getting the video camera setup I happened to look down and see the small antenna from my wireless lavalier lying on the floor. That definitely explained the audio difficulties I was having in my last video. [emoji848]

Opened up the unit and out came the soldering equipment.

Soldered and repaired.

Put the unit back together and ready to test the sound quality.

Audio works and now that it’s about noon I could actually start on the project I went out into the shop to do this morning.

Mike

 

[rholbrook]

I know I am not the only one to spot the engine case on the bench. What is it from?

 

[zmotorsports]

I know I am not the only one to spot the engine case on the bench. What is it from?

Good eye Russ. That was the actual project of the day that I only got part way done. It came to me from a gentleman in Monroe, North Carolina. It's a KZ125 engine case that needs to be welded and machined/repaired.

Mike

 

[Hickey]

She's all cleaned up and ready for paint.

This is the final supports I added for the hitch.

 

[1969honda]

I like that, very clean and tight to the body.

 

[Herzog]

Nice work Jeremy!

 

[I Lean]

She's all cleaned up and ready for paint.

Your worries about 2" tube looking too large were unfounded.

 

[YROC FAB.]

I see a file hanger i need to build now. Thanks. . . .

 

[zmotorsports]

She's all cleaned up and ready for paint.

This is the final supports I added for the hitch.

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Very nice. Turned out awesome. Looks very clean and tidy. Great welds and execution all the way through.👍

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

I see a file hanger i need to build now. Thanks. . . .

It's a quick and simple little shop project but one that sure makes life easier on files rather than banging around with each other in a drawer. I built this particular one about 15 years ago and had it hanging above my old lathe at my last shop.

Mike

 

[zmotorsports]

This little job came to me all the way from Monroe, North Carolina. Between Saturday morning and last night I was able to perform a repair to this motorcycle engine case.

The drain plug threads were stripped as well as an earlier attempt to repair and it looks like maybe some JB Weld was possibly used as there was what appeared to be some residue in the previous weld.

New drain plug.

Piece of 6061 I’ll use for the slug.

There’s a couple ways I could have gone about this. One would have been to machine the existing bung completely off and replace with a new bung. The other was to build up around the existing bung with new weld using 4043 rod and displace the porosity from the casting then bore out and machine a threaded slug to press into the bore and weld.

I chose the latter for the main reason being that the case was fairly thin at this point and much heat at all may have severely warped the area. By creeping up on the thickness by adding material I could control the heat much better and float the impurities from the casting to the surface, remove them and add more material in increments until I obtained the thickness I was after.

Material added and the impurities removed with lightly using a carbide burr.

When using carbide burrs on aluminum I like to repetitively dip the burr in Formax with a light coating to prevent the burr from plugging up.

Engine case set up on the mill table using an angle plate and Kant Twist clamps.

Machined flat.

Centering up on the bore of the drain plug.

Bored out to .750”.

Machining a slug.

Drilled and tapped to 10mm x 1.25 thread. The slug is about .001” larger than the bore for a slight interference fit.

I put the slug in the freezer for a couple of hours while I mowed the lawn. Then heated the case to a couple hundred degrees and used the drill chuck in the mill as a press.

Slug TIG welded into the case.

Completed.

I placed some 400-grit sandpaper on the surface plate and lapped the case half as a final check.

Boxed up and ready to go back to the owner.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

 

[Pile of parts]

@zmotorsports Amazing work, as always! So a couple of questions. Do you know the person in North Carolina or does your reputation reach that far? How does a repair like that compare to the cost of a case? I'm not a motorcycle guy so I have no idea.

 

[zmotorsports]

@zmotorsports Amazing work, as always! So a couple of questions. Do you know the person in North Carolina or does your reputation reach that far? How does a repair like that compare to the cost of a case? I'm not a motorcycle guy so I have no idea.

Thank you.

I do not know the gentleman who owns the engine. He contacted me through another forum and said he also follows my work on my YouTube channel and wondered if I was to do the repair how I would perform the work. I responded on how I would repair the case based on my past experience. He then contacted me about a week or so later stating he could not find anyone local who would perform the repair and asked if I would be willing to repair the engine case if he sent it to me.

As to the cost, they're not exorbitantly expensive but their not cheap either. Many times on an older or rare bike they may be next to impossible to obtain. I don't think this bike was rare or very old but I still think it was cheaper to repair vs. replace.

Thanks for the comments.

Mike

 

[Jinx]

Wait a minute....

YOU HAVE A YOUTUBE CHANNEL?

I am not a big Youtube/TV person, but that is probably something I would enjoy watching!