Magneto Earthing Brush and Contact Surface

[RichardL]

 

[Butch (cb)]

Now, if it was DS&G or Holbrook ......

Ooh - I used to be on a Holbrook when still a boy.

[muskrat]

G'day RD.
Reminds me of the same size Dean, Smith & Grace I did my apprenticeship on.
Richard, it's surprising what you can do on a bench drill. I surfaced an alloy head with a fly cutter mounted in the chuck. Who needs a mill!
Cheers

[chaterlea25]

Hi All,
Richard
That's the way, a small size lathe with decent features costs way more than a large ex workshop one
The law of supply and demand

Last evening I saw a clean looking 13 x 42 DSG    for sale here in Ireland but its 300 odd miles away, and the latest Covid lock down regulations limit travel

There are quite a few You Tube guys posting on lathe work and you can lean a lot from them
joe pyzynski , Abom79, bbloc, Keith Fenner , David Richards are worth watching

John

[orabanda]

This one should do it (no, it's not mine) ....

Perfect for turning up fork staunchions for the chopper!

Richard

[RDfella]

Know what you mean, John. My B17 Holbrook weighs in over 3 tons and is one of the best lathes around for screwcutting / taper turning but a bit of a bugger when needing to turn something 2 mm or less in diameter. Could really use a small lathe at times, but they cost more than I paid for the Holbrook and I resent paying unnecessarily high prices. The choice is limited, too - either worn-out Myfords (when you can find them) or new Chinese models. Not keen on the layout of modern lathes, though. Guess it's a case of what you're used to. In my case, Harrison, Triumph, Colchester, Myford, Ward (capstan) etc in my early years

[RichardL]

Close to the end of my mag recondition and EasyCapping it became obvious I would need some body shims. Boy, did my garage get clean looking for them. Not sure if I lost them or if they were never there. I could have bought them from a UK source, but kinda expensive and maybe 10 days to get here. On advice from Groily, decided to make my own. Now, this would almost not be worth mentioning, except for the material I stumbled on in the auto parts store, specifically, 0.003"-thick adhesive-backed aluminum strip. I think the pictures tell the story: set the body on the strip, it sticks, trim the shim. I used the back of a spoon to smooth it out after trimming. Turned out I needed two pieces. Armature turns free and end float close to zero. Net cost for 25% of the roll, about $1.25. Many thanks to Groily for good advice.

Second to last photo shows finish from using my Harbor Freight soda blasting tank.

OK, last picture is a home-made tool for a different mag rebuild task. Call it a guessing game.

Richard L.

[Swarfcut]

  Richard. That use of Aluminium tape is something I never considered, but I'll certainly give it a go next time. I have some left over from insulating internal stud walls with polyurethane slabs. The tape is used to bridge and seal air gaps between the slabs. A good use for leftovers. Cost was about £8 for 50 metres from Screwfix or Toolstation.

 Swarfy.

[groily]

Don't know what the Runcible Spoon is for Richard (maybe you use it as a lever to hold the armature spindle by the little depression while setting the timing or something?) - but the ali tape thing is very good thinking!
Self-adhesive stainless steel tape, available in a lot of fine thicknesses, is also excellent stuff - for centralising camrings in sloppy housings and getting firing intervals and points gaps back to sensible.

[RichardL]

To find something like this aluminum tape in an auto parts store you must avoid all offers of help from the staff. Wandering the aisles in deep meditation is required.

The object in the bottom photo was originally the extension handle to a hand-held vacuum, not the common spoon I used for smoothing (which could have been anything), but happy to learn of the Owl and the Pussycat reference. Used in the rebuild, not for timing. I'm sure this will become a "so what" to those with more than a couple of rebuilds under their belt.

Richard L.

[RichardL]

Since any intelligent person has lost interest by now, I may as well reveal that the tool in the bottom photo is shaped to fit inside the drive-end bearing outer race. Thus, the tool is used for inserting the race inside the insulating washer without the magnet interfering.

Richard L

[Black Sheep]

Lacking in intelligence, I'm well into this. I had decided to turn up a bit of broom handle or similar in the wood turning lathe to do the same. Being particularly idle, I dug out a spare body with a good bearing and oil seal and used that instead. It did the job.

[Greybeard]

To find something like this aluminum tape in an auto parts store you must avoid all offers of help from the staff. Wandering the aisles in deep meditation is required.

Yup, the UK standard outlet for motoring bits is Halfords, a national chain. The staff trying to be helpful will ask what vehicle you want a spark plug for. Telling them it's for a 60 year old motorcycle and it will definitely not be listed in the manufacturers catalogue causes them to go out the back and have a little cry.

[Angus]

My eldest who also rides my bikes, works at the local branch. They love it when he takes a bike to work and he is trying to ensure the staff there at at least know these old machines are still out there and being used.

[Black Sheep]

I rode my 1913 Douglas to the local agricultural engineers to get some tractor bits. The storeman came out, looked over the bike and said we do have proper plug caps you know. Don't think they would look right on the Douglas.
On the same bike, setting off in the local town one sunny day I got a round of applause from bystanders as it puttered into life. 2 gears, no clutch, every start is a push start.
It's really important that old bikes are seen out and about. Anyway, I just love riding them.