Little sprockets.....

Well time to try and make some 7T sprockets, I'm not spending a lot of time doing these to any great plan, just simple sprocket to (a) test the gearing and (b) see if the design works anyway, if all goes well, then I will spend some money on some good sprockets.


I know were not talking lots of money here, but when you have little money and a lot of free time, it makes sense to use that time to test an idea before putting money into it.


So, design printed on paper, holes drilled, sprocket rough cut with angle grinder, and then later to be smoothed with a file, well no, I stopped at the rough cut stage.....


Sprocket was welded to a nut, just large enough to slip over the stump of the motor, and a hole drilled and tapped in the side of it for a grub screw to tighten it to the key on the motor shaft.


a picture paints a thousand words, and shows what i mean by rough cut....

At this point I was going to mount the motors and size the chains, then I noticed the wheel I had removed from my trailer for the purpose, had gone missing....

Seems between it starting to rain in the afternoon for the entire day, and re-starting the thing this morning, someone has stolen the loose wheel....

As I cant have a one wheel trailer, I'm on hold while i decide to abandon or try and fit different wheels.

As the axles for the wheels were welded in, I'll have to cut them out if I change them, and I would need more wheels and to replace the stolen sprocket...

Bastards.

Sprocket to me.....

Ok to add drive to the wheels from the motors I have (see the electric bike blog) I could either go for direct drive, belt drive, chain drive or friction drive.




Friction was going to be it, but I eventually changed my mind and went for chain...


So, sprocket ordered, biggest I could find and thankfully smaller than the wheel...

Now the centre hoole of the sprocket was too small for the bearing to go through, need widening out, the original hole was 24mm, hole required is 38, so another 14mm, or 7mm in radius terms...

Now the maths is done we just mark the hole 7mm larger, align the ruler with opposing teeth on the sprocket, add 7mm, make a dot, join the dots, this is not precision engineering, but its accurate to a mm and that's more than needed for a floppy chain drive...

Nothing in my tool box to cut that with so its the trusty hand drill, and ever increasing circles....

Once its all cut then its time to knock it out with the screwdriver...

Issue then is its a bit rough... no problem if you have a drum sander...

If you dont then its no problem if you have sandpaper electrical tape and a drill..

In no time at all, well about 15 minutes, we have a very good fit to the wheel

Now its time for some motor work....

The motor is from a peugeot 406 radiator I think, there about 200watts at 13.5v, common size for a few cars, I did try another car first and it had smaller motors, will keep them for something else.

It has an issue....

The washer there for scale and size is a 100 ID washer, so as you can see the output shaft of the motor is only about 10mm across and about 10mm high, not much to work with...

So, trial connection number one in a hopefully short run of trial and error is this...

Its a 10mm nut from something, dont where i have got it from, so if something falls off something else then i'll guess thats where it should have been fitted....

Drilled from the side and a5mm bolt fitted to tighten it to the shaft

Seems to work, but going to re-tap it for a 6mm threaded bolt so it can be made a bit tighter...

Bolt is a torx20 so access will be easier, head will be slimmed down and thread length adjusted with the angle grinder...

then a sprocket will be welded to it....

Next instalment, motors mounted and chained up to the wheels... 

be back soon!(no stores open till monday ...)

Chassis build...

Ok time to start the chassis build, oddly i acquired an bunk bed, metal framed thing, very poorly made for it use and no doubt sold by one of the cheaper stores...

One think you can be sure of there made of light metal to save on shipping costs, and there just strong enough to hold one adult over its 6ft length, now as I will be cutting it down to half that size, I dont expect it to hold two adults worth of shopping, but its good to know that it should be ok as-is without any beefing up.

I was going to ditch the plastic wheels and go with some 20'' wheels my daughter got me attached to alittle bicycle, thing is it looks like it was an unwanted present for someone as its never had hardly any use, and as I also have a smaller daughter who wants another bike, shame to ruin this one when i can just perform a tune up on it and pas it on, its really like new.

First problem, cant find my pillar drill and need to drill a hole at 90' to the steel tube....

Solution, some paper.. folded its 90' and two pieces gives me two axis to guide my hand held drill, no i didnt have a set square/T square to hand instead of paper, Norm would not be proud....

Seems to have done an adequate job of centering the hole.

Anyhow, onwards, wheel axle fitting, nothing more than a large pin really

Bit of weld to keep it snug, lots of force going to go through it, weight of shopping, motor torque, bumps in road adding to the stresses...

other side...

On this side a washer was tagged to the tubing, same as the shiny one, the shiny one is then loose fitted as well, this provides the job of a spacer for the wheel from the tube.

End of axle pin cut short, grooved for a circlip, washer fitted to protect circlip, they had no C clips in stock...

One side done.....

Now time to drill for the floor panel, 3 bolts down each side, the tube is actually two tubes, the outer is rectangular in section and the smaller one is square, provides support all along the length of the sides for the floor.

Must get some threadlock for those nuts...

or just bruise the threads...

Finished base!

I must apologise for this photo the angle makes it seem much larger than it is and seems very long, its only 3ft/1m in length!

just takes two plastic tubs, each tub can accommodate 2 grocery bags, so a 4 bag cart with a bit of room to spare for odds and sods.

need to add the towbar / draw bar, bit more of the old bed....

Bed had a rounded section, like an arch for a headboard, so heres where it goes....

Works out just the right height for the hitch, which will come later...

Next page, motors...

New wheels.....

Ok thanks to a friend I have got my hands on an old 3 wheel puschair/buggy....


Its got some nice plastic wheelks with inflateable tyres that have a lovely bearing on the outside of them. bearings are good, always better than wheels without, as they wont turn so well and if there do then they wear out in no time, ok for a pushchair thata does not go many miles and a kiddy grows out of, no good for a buggy full of beers doing a shiopping trip a few times a week or so.....


Heres wheel number one...

 

Nice from that side....

But now look at it from the other side....

The 'black cog' is part of the brake system, but as you can see no bearing on this side.. the baring from the other side is in the centre of the wheel but still, one bearing means wobble...

Theres  a fix...

 

The 'cog' has a bush (removed) that sits in a cutout the exact same size as the bearing, looks like the plan was to use a bearing, but then cost cutting made them throw in a plastic bush, so I can just buy a bearing the same size, but....the front wheel uses the same bearing and i dont need the front wheel, and it does have one either side.

So, bearing removed from one side of front wheel to improve the rear wheel, and before its thrown away I can remove the tyre and tube as spares for he trailer...

Alls good.

Next step, chassis build...

Page 1

The build begins....

Hello and welcome to this little blog, its to keep updates on my beer buggy as i now call it, a trailer to attach to the back of my bike and get my shopping home since i stopped driving my expensive to run car, so I'm saving money and working off a few pounds, or at least if I don't, it should compensate for all the ones my bad diet tries to make me put on....


although as I have also started a conversion of the bike to electric (link), maybe its not that healthy after all...(or soon wont be...)


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