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I did a quick project with a box-fan grill (one of the old metal ones.) I took some black fabric, hemmed the edges, and then hot-glued it to the fan grill. I mounted the fan grill under the generator/windmill: it tends to keep people from accidentally sticking their head or hands into the rotating windmill and the fabric provides a little shade.
I layed out how everything is going to fit on the rear deck. I have a "Zero" brand box for most of the electronics and I'll have to set it about 5 inches off the surface with the hinges to the back so the combination will be accessible below the battery box and so it'll clear the rear frame bar. I bought some blue spraypaint and painted some of the parts — the color isn't exactly right but it's close enough for the accessories.
I had picked up a couple futon mattresses from the trash. One of them was red on one side and black on the other. I separated the two sides and pulled all the stuffing out — it's cotton batting that wraps around three layers of urethane foam. I cleaned the pieces of fabric.
I used plywood for the seat bottoms and back, cut to fit the mounting holes. I cut pieces of foam and wrapped each in batting then cut sheets of red fabric, wrapped them around the seat-side of the seats and stapled it all in place. I just kept finding where the fabric was slack, pulled it tight, and stuck in another staple.
In my mind I wanted something like lips which is why I picked red. I decided to cut notches in the seat back to imply lips. I want to maintain the industrial-organic appearance and very fluffy, organic-looking lips would seem out of place so I gave the "suggestion" of lips. I haven't had a chance to put it together to see how it looks.
One of the forks broke during a test on July 4. The wheel got stuck against a bump in the grass and wouldn't turn. When more force was applied at the front wheels, the axle slipped out of the slot in the fork causing all the force to be applied to one leg of the fork and the wheel axle. It bent both parts pretty good.
I noticed that I had used forks for 26" wheels so I did the same for this one. I created two more bent forks so I'd have a spare.
The title says it all: I made a wood box to hold the 6 straight bars for the vehicle. It's reasonably compact and keeps the bars from knocking against one another.
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I finally had a chance to put everything together with the office chairs and check it out. Some of the angles of the mounting points are off by a bit, but otherwise everything went together fine. |
I added masking tape to the portions I don't want painted and brought them to Austin-Spencer Collision (2433 Brighton-Henrietta Townline Rd.) I talked with Mark who didn't give me a rosy outlook for getting done by Friday — I hustled to finish the frame so I could bring it to the ARTWalk (University Ave. from Atlantic to Merriman) Muse-a-Thon on Saturday, June 11. However, after he had his painter check it, he felt they could finish by Friday afternoon.
I took apart the wheels I had (the front rims are being painted) and reassembled the tires for the back wheels. It took a while to get the hang of assembling the wheels right — alternating the spokes the right way and all so it all fits together. I tightened up the spokes and got them "true enough:" they're still a bit warped, but good enough for what I need.
I used some office chairs I had and took them apart to use temporarily on the vehicle.
I stopped by Austin-Spencer Collision (2433 Brighton-Henrietta Townline Rd.) around 4 on Friday and by the time I left around 4:45, they still weren't done. Mark said he'd try to get there tomorrow morning around 8 and I could come by and pick it up, but that leaves me almost no time to finish building stuff, so I suggested we just call it off. I doubt that I could be ready in an hour from the time I get back with this stuff until the time that I could get to ARTWalk (University Ave. from Atlantic to Merriman) since I had to build the bike wheels, build the seat, and getting everything taken apart and put back in the car (the event was from 10 a.m. to noon.) There's just no way. I e-mailed some people I told about it and called it off.
On Monday I picked up all the parts. They look really good with the navy blue automotive clear-coat applied. Definitely much different than the scrappy metal I started with. When I assembled the front wheels, it took nearly 2 hours to make two wheels so I never would have made it to the ARTWalk event on Saturday.
I had found a metal cage in the garbage across the street so I cut it to a smaller size and welded it together. It's for the top of the rear shelf so people are tempted to use the shelf for stuff instead of riding on. I sanded it a bit and threw on a couple coats of primer real quick — it's already mostly painted.
I applied primer to the eyes and the top rails then drilled holes and tapped top rails for the brackets to hold the light tubes. I finish-welded the seat brackets, measured them (figuring I could build the seats while it's getting painted at the shop) and ground down the sharp edges.
I created a pretty decent battery holder out of the battery cage in a dead computer UPS but did a lousy job installing it. The solid metal shelf which is welded to the frame is a bad idea. It warped even more with the additional welding and I got really unhappy about it so I had to cut off the battery cage and the shelf.
I got the front end parts stripped of rust and primered. I spent the better part of a whole day painting and finished applying primer. I made hooks for all the parts so they can be painted.
I built the bent frame parts (the overarching parts) and welded them in place. I also added a cross-piece between the front unicycle forks. I welded the rear shelf in place and welded on the backs of the eyes. I used the sheet metal from a junked washing machine. I welded pipe angles behind the eye holes to house the LED's to light up the eyes. I created the pupils by welding a large washer onto a bolt head. I also installed mounting points for the seats.
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I went to Paint Masters (3327 Brighton-Henrietta Townline Rd.) and bought primer and sandpaper. According to them, I should apply the etching primer then either apply the fill-primer while it's wet or let it dry then very lightly sand it before applying the fill-primer. I should put on a couple coats of fill-primer and sand it with 320-grit paper. I'll need to sand off all the rust on the metal first, though, which could be a bit of a pain.
I added the rear horizontal support and the one that goes across the middle of the bottom of the seat. I got it all assembled and put the pedals on and laid a couple 2x4's across to sit on. Freewheelers (1757 Mount Hope Ave) is at the end of my street so I took it there and the owner Roger and myself tried it out. We could only get it to run backward — it seems the trail on the rear casters isn't enough to allow them to swivel.
I modified the forks for longer rake by cutting notches, bending the forks, and welding it up. Roger and I tried it again. It sort-of works: it's very difficult to control. If you get going okay, you can stumble a little and it tends to spin around to do a 180. I kind of liked it for that.
I had to fix one of the forks so it wasn't bent so much because one of the tires was actually hitting the frame.
I modified the frame so the connection from the front to the sides was rigid and I made bars to connect the seat back together. It all went together rather sloppy and I wasn't very happy with it. I decided to test the welds on the front of the side-frames and they snapped, breaking the tubing. I took a crack at fixing it but had to put it away for the day.
I decided to replace the bottom seat sides with 3/4" pipe because it's stronger than the bike tubes. (As a footnote, I used the pipe from my friend's house on Burkhard Place — it was the original water pipe that was installed 110 years ago ... so if it breaks sometime in the future, that might be why.)
I also made couplers for the eyes by using 1" pipe with a slot cut in the side and bolt holes through. I mounted them to the unicycle forks. I put it all together and took some pictures.
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I spent a bit of time getting the front-end of the frame redesigned. In my original concept, the triangular framework on around the unicycle wheel would meet the bottom seat bar at a single point. The center pole always met with the seat bar in line with the top of the fork, but I changed it so the two bars off the forks run back to the seat bar rather than to a common point which would attach to the seat bar. The kinked tube is part of the fourth bicycle frame sacrificed to the cause. Oh yeah, and a few days ago I went to Austin-Spencer Collision (2433 Brighton-Henrietta Townline Rd.) who were much more amenable to painting things other than cars. The "short answer" is $60/hour for materials and labor to put paint on something. I figure I can easily pay $60 in spraypaint cans alone and do a crappy job, so I'm very tempted. |
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I took a bit of a hiatus from the bike project to do something else but I finally got back to it. It took a little while to get my head around it again, but I quickly got going.
I put the seat bottom on the rear frame parts and added the diagonal cross-member (which didn't work out very close to specification, but no matter — I made it symmetrical.)
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I got the diagonal supports that tie the steering tube to the midpoint on the seat back. My calculations were off somewhere and the support is higher on the seat back than I had expected so I'll need to make some adjustments: I had originally designed the line of the support to pass through the seat back and cross the bottom of the seat but now it won't.
I found a fence gate in the trash the other day and the tubing has the same inside diameter as a bicycle steering tube. I cut a couple pieces and tack-welded the top rear tube to the steering tube at a right angle. I'm using a grinder to create the rounded seams — sometimes I do a really good job and others will need some fill material. For the right angles, I've got magnetic holders to square them up. On the other end of the top tube, I welded a short length of 3/4" schedule-style threaded pipe. This way I can thread together the frame as needed.
The The University of Rochester Medical Center (601 Elmwood Ave.) is just down the street from my house, and they just recently closed their surplus sale site to demolish the building sometime in the future. During cleanup, they had thrown out the bed frames that rotate — I don't know what they're called, but they've got big steel hoops on each side. They had cut them up, but I snagged two pieces that I hope to use for the top of the vehicle frame. They were 72 inches across and 25 inches high &mdash approximately half of one of the hoops. I put representations in the CAD drawing and they're arcs from an 80-inch diameter circle. I'll need to bend them tighter than they are currently, but at least it's a start and will save me the trouble of starting from scratch with straight tubing.
I chopped up 4 bike frames and now have enough pieces of adequate length to make both sides of the rear end.
Short update: I stopped by Mac's II Collision (3301 Brighton-Henrietta Townline Rd.) to ask about getting a bike frame painted but they said they wouldn't do it. However, I can get automotive quality paints next door and special primers for zinc coatings (like some of the pipe.)
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I found that I had some problems in the back end. First, the tubing I expected to use was longer than any bike tubes I had, so I made them all shorter. However, I had drawn the wheels castering backwards: if the wheel were to spin 180 degrees from where I had drawn it, it would strike the frame. The forks I have vary but the axle was typically 2"-2.5" from center — I had estimated 3 inches in my original drawing. I also measured the distance from the bottom of the steering bracket to the top of the wheel, and that's about 4 inches, but I had only given 1 inch in the original drawing so I increased it and adjusted the other parts. In the process, I added some more support. I worked on the bike frames and cut enough pieces to make one side of the rear of the frame. I wasn't going to have enough time before sunset to finish the frame, but I did get out and weld the eyes together. There were a few strokes of the welder that went really well, and as I went, I improved. I had to grind a lot of material away to get it to a reasonably attractive shape, but it otherwise looks pretty good. |
None of the bicycles I have currently have the correct dimensions for using the triangular front-end as-is on the back of the Bike With 2 Brains, so I'll have to custom build those parts. It's probably for the best anyway since I don't like the size of any of the top brackets.
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I redesigned the frame with a rounded top and moved the rear wheels as wide as the edges of the seat. Prior to deciding to make the top frame rounded (which is an aesthetic choice) I had to make the eyes (in full scale) to test that I could indeed bend Schedule-style steel pipe with the hydraulic bender I have. I moved the rear wheels further apart for aesthetic and practical reasons. Aesthetically, the copper model looks like forward is indeed forward owing to traditional conventions of wider wheelbases in the rear of vehicles. Practically, 24-inch diameter wheels would hit one another if the axis of rotation was only 24 inches apart. I think it's a good decision because it'll improve stability as well — the only downfall is that it's not so clear how I want to make the whole frame come apart so I can transport it. |
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I decided to build the eyes first. I have some pieces of Schedule-type steel pipe which I wanted to make sure the pipe bender I have can actually bend it — and in a controllable way. I also tested to see if I would have to strip the pipe to bare metal but it appears I can just use a wire brush to knock off the loose zinc and rust for the paint to stick. |
I decided I can use 3/4" pipe unions (which are three-piece deals; two of which have threaded ends and the third is a nut that keeps the two other parts together. They are beefier than typical pipe so they should be strong enough. Unfortunately, they're about $3.50 each so I'd like to see if I can find them as they are removed from old construction.
I also noted that even on eBay, the base price for a unicycle is $75 with shipping. Unicycles.com has the "cheapest" unicycles which sell for $63 with $12 shipping. On eBay the situation is worse with sellers using exorbitant shipping costs to offset low prices. So far, $75 is pretty much it.
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The bulk of the frame is a pair of direct-drive bicycles placed two-feet apart. Triangular parts maintain structural integrity and an overarching roof structure provides support for the windmill generator and to resist bending from the rigors of pedaling. All four wheels are 24-inches in diameter and the rear wheels caster to allow the front wheels to provide steering as well as propulsion. The frame has been modeled in 1:15 scale using copper wire. The material and scale were chosen because they were convenient. Although balsa wood and glue would also have worked, 14-gauge copper wire and solder were more readily available. The scale was chosen by printing the CAD drawings on an 8 1/2" by 11" page and then cutting the wire according to the lines on the page. |
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All content copyright ©2005 Jason Olshefsky.
