Making a Panorama Head with a Difference.

[armando_m]

Awesome project

[Erik Lund]

Nice to see a challenging project


Looking forward to some drawings and more images,,, 

[Seapy]

Update:

Spent a very enjoyable evening at my friends shed, tea and biscuits as expected!

The 'lump' fitted his lathe with about 5mm clearance from the leadscrew.  Getting a safe setup for the tooling was a challenge but we succeeded.  The metal cuts really nicely, no tearing or chatter, leaves a really nice finish even with roughing cuts, so I am hopeful the finished product will be nicely finished.

I have taken video with the Go-Pro but yet to review it, also some photographs of the Rudge, despite rather cramped situation.  Again not checked out the images yet.  Didn't get home until 2am this morning. 

Will post pix later.

Have decided how to deal with my uncertainty over the width of the rail, 2" (52mm) or 1½" (38mm); I have decided to make the first cut at 2" then cut out one partial sector, probably one third of the total circumference, then continue machining the remaining two thirds down to 1½".  That will give me the both, which I can use or not interchangeably it I feel the need.  From my experience of last night the lathe didn't vibrate or chatter with the interrupted cuts of the rough edge, so I am confident it will be OK cutting just cutting for two thirds of the circumference.

Barring accidents I should end up with three curved Arca Swiss rails with a centre radius of 200mm. One inch thick and with a 45º dovetail grip on each side.

[CS]

Like others, I'm following this thread with great interest to see what you come up with, Robert.

[Seapy]

.

   This is getting better and better. Please, an image of that hillclimber! If possible...☺️

Here we go!   

Not sure we both mean the same by the term 'Hillclimber' this is used and adapted for speed hill climbs on hard pavement, roads  I *think* it's about 1926 and it's road legal, he does test it on the road between racing.  You may also catch a glimpse of a Greeves with a Triumph 650 engine, maybe been bored out to 750, can't remember...  That's a trials bike in the UK.  Used for racing on fields and hillsides on rough tracks and paths.







Notice the open push rods and valve gear... The valves used to seize in the guides so my friend made a drip feed lube setup and the little cups around the valve springs stop the oil from splattering every where.



The back of the Vincent can just be seen through the back wheel in picture two.

I have a couple more if you are interested showing the Greeves and a 250 Triumph which is awaiting restoration.  The Triumph has a 500cc speedway engine which runs on methanol.

[golunvolo]

Not sure we both mean the same by the term 'Hillclimber"

  I think we do  beautiful machine, should be a dream to ride. I´m interested in those "couple more" you have... my only vehicle for the last 15 years have been a series of motorbikes. I had a Triumph for over 3 year, speed triple 1050cc 2006 model. A complete different kind of beast but so much fun to take to work everyday. I´m in love with older models. Classy and a great engineering.
   Thanks a lot for sharing all this 

[Bent Hjarbo]

This tread is getting more and more interesting.
I thought that all British motorcycles had to leak oil everywhere, remember my friends Velocette, it managed to drip from all places 

[Seapy]

LOL!  Leaking oil is a design feature... saves the chrome!  (sometimes)

OK, my friends HRD Vincent.  At his birthday bash with his rally Mini in the background.



The Tri-Greeves same birthday bash...  The 'silencers' were made from two fire extinguishers welded over perforations in the exhaust tubes (my idea!).



The Tri-Greeves yesterday, as my friend was getting the Rudge out to have it's photo taken. Not a lot of room.

The bike in the middle is the Triumph, originally a 250 I believe but my friend is going to fit a very powerful, fully tuned methanol 500cc single speedway engine, a JAP I think. 



Riders eye view of the Rudge, the big knob in the middle of the handlebars is the steering damper.  Crude but effective.



Hope you enjoy, I have hundreds of vintage motorcycle pix, mainly racing, also Morgan three wheeler racing stuff.  Maybe another thread... Another day!

[CS]

Racing improves the breed, without a doubt!

[Frank Fremerey]

you are quite a craftsman

[Seapy]

you are quite a craftsman

I just like making things! Since kindergarten, probably before?

[Seapy]

I looked at the Go-Pro video and was horrified at my personal appearance... Looked like I had been dragged through a hedge backwards!

So, I have just taken some screen shots of the lathe setup for now, next time I will have my self tidied up before I stand in front of  camera! 

My friend Sid is the smart one.  The yellow contraption in the top left hand corner is an English Wheel I made to form double curves in aluminium bodywork, Sid has been  using it to repair the bodywork of the racer with the blue chassis/frame on the left.

Sid drove the gearbox of the lathe while I operated cutting controls.  This was the first time I  had used this lathe, and we wanted to be able to stop it immediately if the disk showed signs of leaving it's position!

Grabbing a final sip of tea before getting started...



Roughing the edge.



Going nicely, relaxing a bit with nice swarf rolling off the tool.



The Go-Pro ran out of battery after nearly two hours so didn't record it all.  I had only really intended to check the lump would fit in the lathe and be workable.

Sorry about the scruffy dishevelled appearance, not used to being filmed at close quarters!

The Arca Swiss nodal slides have finally arrived from eBay, very impressed.  At least I have something to match up to now.

[Matthew Currie]

That's a mighty close fit to the gap in the lathe bed. 

Nice machine.

[Seapy]

That's a mighty close fit to the gap in the lathe bed. 

Nice machine.

Yes, about 5mm!  But more critical was the diameter clearance to the lead screw, we could have mounted it on a faceplate if it had been too thick. That was only about 6mm and we had to take the thread indicator off the apron to allow the tooling to get anywhere near the width of the disk.  It's rated as an 11" lathe but that's diameter!  This disk is just under 18" (455mm dia.) so it's pushing the limits.

It's a Harrison, hardly used, not sure of the history but it was found in a local garage unwanted and unloved.  I now have my friend Sid's old lathe but I haven't set it up yet.  Hope to get it going over the holiday if I can because it's a 60 mile round trip to Sid's.

I am trying to scheme how to get a lathe tool to cut the bevels of the dovetails so far from the tool-post.  I think some special tooling may need to be made.

[ColinM]

The Vincent can just be seen through the back wheel in picture two.

Richard Thompson would approve
https://youtu.be/AxKTzwaEa2o