Vincent Motorcycle Gunga Din scratch build

[albergman]

6 hours ago, desert falcon said:

Most impressive work so far, will be following with interest  

 

6 hours ago, PLC1966 said:

Some proper building going on here

 

4 hours ago, Brandy said:

Coming along beautifully and some impressive metal working skills on show too.

 

Ian

Thanks for your interest guys.   I know this sort of thing doesn't appeal to everyone but I just love figuring out how to make parts and finding appropriate materials.   I did a Fusion 360 project and 3D printed a steam locomotive recently but it didn't give me the same satisfaction as a hand-made project. 

 

A few other scratch builds ... Maserati 250F   Lancia D50   Sport Fishing boat   Ferrari 375MM in wood

[elderly]

Wonderful building skills albergman, and a subject that interests me a lot.

 

In 1967 I had a 1950 Vincent Rapide, it was sidecar geared which meant that acceleration was even quicker than standard!

 

Mine didn't have a decompression lever and so kick-starting it was a challenge; I added leverage/length to the kick-start lever by temporarily adding a Mole Grip to it.

Bump starting was for me impossible, mainly due to the type of clutch that Vincents used.

 

I paid £99 for it and sold it a few months later for £105 ........ ("'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."  Alfred Lord Tennyson)

 

I've a Bailoy .Big 6. 1/8th model of it, (which cost me more than my 1:1) not  my build as I don't have those skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by elderly

[desert falcon]

18 hours ago, albergman said:

A few other scratch builds ... Maserati 250F   Lancia D50   Sport Fishing boat   Ferrari 375MM in wood

True craftsmanship, all of them !! 

[albergman]

12 hours ago, elderly said:

Wonderful building skills albergman, and a subject that interests me a lot.

 

In 1967 I had a 1950 Vincent Rapide, it was sidecar geared which meant that acceleration was even quicker than standard!

If only we'd known what we had in our possession back in those days.   At least you and I had some actual experiences with these wonderful machines.   Now they're out of the reach of most mortals.   I'm guessing that your different gearing you mentioned meant that the rear wheel was reversed

so that it used the larger of the two available sprockets?

 

Lovely model by the way.   I've never heard of that brand but then I don't ever build kits.

8 hours ago, desert falcon said:

True craftsmanship, all of them !! 

 

Thanks DF ... too kind.

Frank

[Bandsaw Steve]

I’ve thought about scratchbuilding motorbikes but have always thought them way too difficult.

 

If you can build this you’re a better man than I Gunga Din.

 

It’s looking brilliant so far!

 

[elderly]

On 7/20/2022 at 11:22 PM, albergman said:

I'm guessing that your different gearing you mentioned meant that the rear wheel was reversed

so that it used the larger of the two available sprockets?

 

Lovely model by the way.   I've never heard of that brand but then I don't ever build kits.

 

Frank

I honestly don’t remember Frank, but I don’t think that mine had both sprockets, maybe a previous owner removed one from a sprocket carrier to save weight?

 

I’ve just had a quick Google and couldn’t see the answer but by strange coincidence,

an (Australian?) forum member of the VOC had the username  albervin!,

 

[OWL1975]

Highly impressive work there,  I'm a huge motorcycle fan and this is right up my street.

 

Looking forward to seeing more of your excellent work. 

 

Jerry 

[Zephyr]

I just caught up and it keeps getting better!

Simply amazing work.

 

 

[Major_Error]

I have allways loved these age of motorbikes. They are the classics!

[albergman]

On 7/22/2022 at 9:49 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

If you can build this you’re a better man than I Gunga Din.

Don't know about better Steve ... definitely older!!   I'll be 84 this Saturday and finding all this tiny hand-work a challenge for gnarly fingers and failing eyes.   Maybe I should have just 3D printed it LOL.

 

On 7/22/2022 at 11:56 AM, elderly said:

by strange coincidence an (Australian?) forum member of the VOC had the username  albervin!,

Albervin huh?   My name comes from owning an Alberg sailboat and our sailing friends referrred to me as the "albergman".

 

Haven't done a lot of new stuff lately as, now that I know how it goes together I've re-made many of the parts!   Today I made the little bracket the fastens to the front fender and attaches to a plate between the forks.   That allowed me to mount the fender in its final position.

 

 

Got all the tiny bits up at the handlebars shaped (might remake a couple) and that completes the list of all front end parts.  I've slipped a piece of brass rod into the holders for the handlebars.   I won't be working on the model for a while so I did a test assembly of all the pieces to see how it goes together.   To stabilize it I've glued a block of Renshape material between the lower front forks otherwise it's impossible to put it together.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Frank

[Bandsaw Steve]

It looks the biz mate! 

[JeroenS]

5 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

It looks the biz mate! 

Absolutely.... 

 

You're doing quite well with those gnarly fingers, I'd say! If I'm still around at your age I hope my fingers are the same type of gnarly as yours  

[Pouln]

Looks great, Frank. Enjoy your 84th Saturday. 

[Brandy]

Happy Birthday for Saturday.

The fork assemblies look wonderful!

 

Ian

[albergman]

Moving along I'm ready to tackle the front wheel.  This will be very different to my wires I make for cars and I mulled this over for a long time before getting started.   I needed a chunk of aluminum big enough to cut out the rim and it needed to be 5/16 thick at least.   I can buy small aluminum plates at most hardware stores but it's always just 1/4" thick so ... into the parts bin where I find a couple of old heat sinks from some components.   This one is large enough and thick enough 

 

 

so hack off the fins in the band saw and round it as much as possible.

 

 

 

The lathe brings it down to a blank that I can now shape to a rim ...

 

 

I really have to be careful here because any error that goes too far means I can't make my rim from this piece and I only have 2 suitable heat sinks ... and a rear wheel to make!

 

Cutting  a recess in the outer surface for the spokes to eventually poke through

 

 

Here it's glued to a block so I can rotate it and drill the 40 spoke holes required in 2 rows.

 

 

Here's the tiny hub with a few trial spokes.   The 2 flanges will eventually have 20 holes in each.

 

 

Took me a long time to come up with a jig that could hold the hub and rim at a suitable position that I could start adding my spokes.   

 

 

For spokes I'm using ordinary straight pins which I snip the head off and bend a 90 degree about an eighth inch from the end.  I thread the pin through the rim and drop the bent end into the suitable hole in the hub.   As easy as this sounds it took many many attempts at getting the pattern right and only after perusing many Vincent videos on YouTube.

 

Here's an early attempt that'll give you an idea what I'm talking about

 

 

Further along in the process ...

 

 

I won't bore you any farther so let's move on to the end.   I smeared a layer of JB Weld epoxy around the slot in the outer rim to seal the spokes in place then ground it down flush to the rim when it set (and snipped off the pointy spoke ends).   Here I've slid on a working tyre that I've been experimenting with so you can see how it might look.

 

 

So that's where I am now.   The front end is just about finished fabricating and maybe I'll get it painted and assembled soon.   Both brake drums (dual drums front and rear ... in 1948!!) have been turned with the requisite 4 cooling fins after I made a super-fine tool bit to cut them.

 

OK I'll leave it here for now.   Hope you approve.

 

Frank

[Brandy]

Something looks amiss there right where your thumb is. A spoke missing and maybe adjacent ones pointing the wrong way? Not exactly sure but something definitely looks off. Lovely work though!

 

Ian

[albergman]

11 hours ago, Brandy said:

Something looks amiss there right where your thumb is. A spoke missing and maybe adjacent ones pointing the wrong way? Not exactly sure but something definitely looks off. Lovely work though!

 

Ian

Ah what can I say?   Ya got me!    Yes, I found when well into the job that I had a big mistake and the only solution would have been to start over with a new wheel rim and I don't have the material to make another ... could find some I suppose but it took so long to get to this point that I wasn't about to throw it all away.   I'll tuck the flaw behind the front forks and let it be.   Nobody ever sees my models anyway and, if you know anything about my previous scratches I'm not all that particular about correctness ... should be but I'm not.   I just enjoy the process of figuring out how to make stuff from scrap.  My eyes aren't so good anymore and I really have to look hard to see the flaw.   I can live with it.

 

Frank

[Bandsaw Steve]

Yep. Hide it behind the front forks mate! That’s what I’d do.

 

Sooner or later there’s are spoked wheels in my future so I’m watching and learning!

[s.e.charles]

just when i thought there was nothing of interest on this forum....

[albergman]

2 hours ago, s.e.charles said:

just when i thought there was nothing of interest on this forum....

Hi SEC ... welcome aboard and I'm glad you found this somewhat interesting.

 

12 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Yep. Hide it behind the front forks mate! That’s what I’d do.

 

Sooner or later there’s are spoked wheels in my future so I’m watching and learning!

 

Ha ... you read my mind Steve.   Exactly my plan.   So, wire wheels eh?   You must be getting ready to buy a mini-lathe?

 

 

 

Sample of scratch builds ... Maserati 250F,  Lancia D50, Mercedes W196, Ferrari 375MM (woodie), Flying Scotsman loco, Sport Fishing Boat

[albergman]

Not a lot to report but starting to assemble front end parts and fine tune them now that the wheel is in residence.

 

 

The tire you see here is just a rough "mule" that I made to see how the wheel/tire combo is going to look.   I'll be making a new one.   I use Renshape composite material for the tire and just blackened it with a felt pen. 

 

so ... now I can start making the brake mechanism and as of today I have one side nearly complete.   I'm using a fine piano wire in place of the brake cable as it looks quite OK (to me).

 

Here are the components that operate the drum on one side ... pencil for scale.

 

 

Got them loosely assembled to test the fit.   

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Frank

[Brandy]

Neat, tidy, beautiful. Not much more to say. Top class work!

 

Ian

[albergman]

1 hour ago, Brandy said:

Neat, tidy, beautiful. Not much more to say. Top class work!

 

Ian

Thanks Ian.   Can't wait till everything is finally made and fitted so I can take it apart and paint and polish it up.   Looks kind of scruffy at this stage.

[Pouln]

Looks very nice, Frank.

[pg265]

Hi,

 

Incredible!

Starting from… Nothing(!!) and reaching such a beautiful result and parts is for me just incredible!

Bravo!

 

Pascal