Member postings for Hopper

Have a look at the recent thread on here titled "Rod's Hoglet" for an idea of what is involved. Looks to me like you would be able to do it if you have already made a Wyvern etc, There are build threads on several other model engine forums too.

And yet Harley Davidsons used silicon DOT 5 brake fluid from 1973 until just a few years ago when ABS required a switch to DOT4 conventional fluid. Never ever heard of the silicon fluid giving problems, and there are some serious braking forces and heat generated on their heavier touring models with half a ton of gear added on to them.

Harley specifies no change intervals for the silicon brake fluid, just inspect and top up. Indeed, I have had Harleys go for 10 years and more with the same silicon fluid without problems. But in our wet tropical environment here I have to change the conventional DOT4 fluid in my car and other bikes every two years or less, otherwise it tests over the allowable moisture content and if left will corrode the brake system internals. The hygroscopic fluid seems to suck atmospheric moisture in through the pores in the rubber hoses or around the copper washers, seals etc. Silicon does not.

So all my other bikes without ABS I have converted from DOT 4 to DOT5 silicon and saved a lot of maintenance. Been doing it for years with total success.

US military vehicles all use silicon fluid for this reason too, and I  believe NATO vehicles. Except for the ABS fitted ones. Silicon is too viscous to work in an ABS system.

Edited By Hopper on 08/06/2023 01:29:36

Awesome work. Fascinating to watch all those linkages at work. Love the drip oilers on the eccentrics. Haven't seen that before.

Maybe it was Billy and not Germaine then. I could have got them confused...

Good stuff, well done. A lick of paint and it will look as good as a bought 'un .

Good info there Dave and Jason. Thanks. I have asked Neil to put a note in the next mag to help others with the search.

If I just Google it, I get plenty of Australian suppliers, who all seem to use the EPL25 number, but not much else, probably due to my location and the wisdom of Google.

Dave, your dials are looking good. Great to see the design being adapted to other machines already. Now you only have the fiddly bit of all the lines and numbers to go! Keep us posted.

Edited By Hopper on 05/06/2023 23:57:14

So in Canada they need to put a knob on the outside to keep the bears at bay, and a lever on the inside so the oldies can get out? I've seen cats that can jump up and open a lever door handle so I am sure bears could.

I think it was Germaine Greer who said many years ago that the only marital aid she and her husband used was Vaseline, on the doorknob to keep the kids out.

Edited By Hopper on 05/06/2023 12:00:55

A UK reader has asked about a source for the EPL25 wave washer used to set the friction in the resettable Myford dials in MEW 328. Apparently not all suppliers worldwide use this code number for the 25mm x 32mm wave washer.

UK online supplier Bearingboys.co.uk stocks Wave Spring Washer W61510 that will do the job HERE. It is very slightly smaller than the nominal size but should fit the dials without needing to change any dimensions from the drawings.

They also stock the required 32mm internal circlip, listed as D1300/0320.

Your local bearing shop may well stock them too. The wave washers are used to set the preload on bearings in electric motors, so a commonly used item. And the 32mm internal circlip is a standard size. 32mm being the size bore it fits into, so it will be a bit bigger in its uncompressed state.

Happy twiddling.

Pete Barker

Completely unsure of t he connection between Harley choppers and vice handles but yes choppers like that were built for the wide open freeways of California, not dispatch couriering around London! Rigid rear frame with rigid mounted seat.is a literal pain the in the derriere, and back, and shoulders and neck etc. And two gallon gas tank gives a range of about 90 miles maximum between fill ups so no long distance cruiser. The long forks are all about style, the wide bars you need to control the long forks! That said, an American guy named Doug Wothke rode a very similar 1962 Harley rigid chopper around the world in 2009. But he did have a spring mounted seat and a 5 gallon gas tank. LINK

If the number is cast into the base rather than stamped it is more likely a casting number than an individual serial number. So would have stayed the same over many years on all such castings if the same pattern was being used.

They did make an ML8 which was an 8" wood lathe and an ML10, but its 6.5" swing had no relation to 10l. Neither did the ML1-4 series.

I never thought of the 7 in ML7 being related to the swing but it does explain the jump from ML4 to ML7.

I guess if you want a 9" classic lathe you have to go to a South Bend or one of its many clones, Boxford, Hercus etc.

The boss being 22mm thick adds a new dimension to the job. Scratch what I said earlier about filing it! I was assuming it was the more usual valve handle thickness of 10mm or less.

Can you find someone with a shaper, slotter or slotting head on a milling machine? That would make short work of such a job, starting with the 12mm drilled hole. Maybe one of the forum shaper owners could help if the job is for a railway volunteer group or whatever?

I'd better stop then before I ruin my reputation. GHT and Lawrence in one allusion is as good as I get.

Or you could go straight to the source and read Sir Algernon Myford's autobiography "The Seven Pillar Tools of Wisdom".

Might not the rougher finish provide a better grip for oily workshop hands?

I do like your shop made crank though, with the extra short-throw hex hole for 'rapid traverse'.

Fictional? Fictional? I was quoting Algernon Myford's speech to Parliament recorded in its entirety in the seminal book "The History of British Machinery and Other Oil Leaks, Volume 9" by B.S. Whitworth-Sockett. Published 1969 by Garlic Press.

He went on to become Sir Algernon Myford, knighted as a reward for his services to British machinery worldwide, and presciently predicted: "China will, in time, become Great Britain's largest market for our progress-breaking machinery, for China is wholly incapable of making anything itself."

I don't think a historian of B.S. Whitworth-Sockett's calibre would have made this stuff up.

Edited By Hopper on 02/06/2023 23:29:42

That's good. See how it endures over time under repeated shock loading. If not used all day every day it probably should do the job for hobby use.

I do tend to be a bit of an industrial-strength belt-and-braces kind of guy. I blame it on years of riding vibrating, bone-shaking, ground thumping old Harleys. As Mr Harley famously said to Mr Davidson "Nothing too strong ever broke".

Edited By Hopper on 02/06/2023 09:56:23

Edited By Hopper on 02/06/2023 09:58:19

The manufacturer's choice. They all did their own thing. Standard BSF etc TPI/diameter combinations were mostly used only on fasteners and the like, not necessarily on special machine parts.

If made in the UK it is most likely a 55 degree BS thread form, US will be UN form 60 degrees.

If you need tap to make a chuck backplate, try Tracy Tools, they stock a few different oddball spindle thread taps.

Not that much work to do one with a file. Even your dozen will take less time than finding an alternative.

Drill to 12mm then use a good sized file such as 10" round file to rough out the radiused end then a smaller half-round file to finish it off in the corners. A 10" three-sided file will make quick work of the other two square corners, finishing off with the small half-round to get the very corner point sharp.

Edited By Hopper on 01/06/2023 23:46:00

Sounds like making a simple expanding stub mandrel to hold the banjo in the lathe would be a way to go.

And I would search out a better supplier of copper washers if you are not happy with what you have. They are used throughout hydraulic systems and brake systems everywhere so plenty are available.