Member postings for Tony sacc

I made this splitter a couple of years ago. The XS650 has two BS38 carbs as stock, the 74 model had a twin cable throttle, one cable for each carb. Adjusting the throttle slides was accomplished by an inline adjuster on each cable.

A very fiddly process using the tiny adjusters, so I built this cable splitter and replaced the twin cable throttle with a single.

The splitter body is aluminium bored 14mm and threaded each end, the slide is brass and the end caps are aluminium. Picture was taken before I slit sawed cable entries. When finished I plugged the holes in the end caps, assembled the unit and dunked it in my anodising bath. The finish came up rather nice.

Rather than have a splitter flopping around inside the tank tunnel, I opted to fix It to the right top engine mount. I spun up some 3mm nipples, fixed them to the cables and dunked them in my solder bath.

To fix the cable to the carbs and allow for butterfly adjustment, I made a couple of brackets and spun up an elongated stainless adjuster. Yes, there is a lock nut for the adjuster, just not assembled in the picture.

This mod made syncing carbs a breeze.

Later on I binned the carbs, bought a couple of VM34 roundside's and installed them on custom manifolds. The carbs came with a small plastic splitter, but the round slide cable pull is quite a bit longer than the BS38 cable pull, so, the splitter didn't have enough pul, it now languishes in the useless parts bin.

I may make a splitter for the new carbs later on.

Edited By Tony sacc on 29/08/2023 07:43:50

Who would have thought a simple post about a drill sharpening jig would foster such ire, says a lot about the people on this site!

I wonder why so many on this forum feel the need to criticise, does it make them feel superior, do they really need that to feel better about themselves. Only the Metalworking Forums members seem to have the same complex.

Offering a critique is great when asked for, but just plain ignorant and self serving when it's not.

Edited By Tony sacc on 28/08/2023 02:35:16

Edited By Tony sacc on 28/08/2023 02:39:47

Edited By Tony sacc on 27/08/2023 13:02:34

You don't need coolant when cutting wood, but when you cut wood,or plastic, you make swarf, so next time you use coolant it washes the swarf down the drain.

You could always clean the table afterwards I suppose, but why bother when the coolant washes it away. Wood and plastic particles settle on top, heavier metal particles settle on the bottom. Being as the pickup tube is 30mm or so from the bottom, I don't need a divider, unnecessary complication.

You don't need coolant when cutting wood, but when you cut wood,or plastic, you make swarf, so next time you use coolant it washes the swarf down the drain.

You could always clean the table afterwards I suppose, but why bother when the coolant washes it away. Wood and plastic particles settle on top, heavier metal particles settle on the bottom. Being as the pickup tube is 30mm or so from the bottom, I don't need a divider, unnecessary complication.

Well, I suppose I could have bought one from the local rubbish dump. Problem is they didn't have one, so I made my own.

FWIW, I could have used a single hose, stretching from the MC to the caliper, as many have done, and fitted either a mechanical switch to the lever, or a pressure switch to the banjo fitting. I decided to go with a split line with a junction in the middle simply because I liked the look and didn't want wires snaking their way up to an ugly pressure switch mounted on the end of a banjo bolt.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with banjo connectors, they are used on most bike braking systems. The stock XS650 used both banjo and cup/cone connectors, either can leak given the right circumstances.

It comes down to personal preference, if someone doesn't like a particular fitting then one will come up with all sorts of silly nonsense to prove to themselves the fittings aren't up to the job. There are rigid rules in effect on brake line, fittings, materials, design and so on, If a particular design is passed as safe and fit for the intended use, I'd find it hard to disagree.

Then there are aesthetics, what looks good to one is just plain ugly to another, but to expect everyone to agree with you on what is pleasing to the eye is just plain ignorant.

I find it always a good idea not to pass judgement, unless of course you are asked.

Well,the idea behind it was something that you can see, something that draws your eyes. You can't hide everything under a plastic cover. Have a look at the bike, if I hid everything, or made everything smaller, less noticeable, it would be a totally different bike. This is what I like, it's the look I was after, so, that's the way I built it.

You'll notice, the inlet hose is on the left and the outlet pipe is on the right, the junction was made to span the width, so the outlet hose follows as straight a path as I could get down the fork leg, allowing for the up/down movement of the forks.

Now if I replace the upper hose with a rigid pipe,how would I adjust the MC angle, how would I adjust the handlebar angle, how would I change the handlebars? And then there is the aesthetics: This system fits in with the design of the bike. Maybe, not to everyone's liking, but I haven't built to please everyone, just me!

I have similar parts like this in areas you can't even see, but I know they are there and that pleases me. I could have made the seat more compact, the side covers less noticeable, the catch can smaller, the air filters more compact, the cooler less noticeable, the spin on filter less noticable. i could have painted the engine silver like a stock XS650, I could have painted the bike in a brighter colour, put a squarer looking tank on it, longer mudguards, painted the wheels black, made a two into one exhaust, I could have anodisedall the aluminium instead of polishing it. In short,I could have have done a lot of things differently, but still there would be someone who would suggest I could have done something different to fit In with their bike ideology.

The bike follows my design philosophy, that's the way I built it, the way I like it. I'm pleased with what Ihave built.!

Here's some tool holders I made. I know you'll all hate them and pick them. to bits, but they cost virtually nothing to make, are. sized correctly for my lathe and have been used almost daily for the last 10 years.

I made some tangentias first, they work great but do tend to limitt access to some jobs, they are all built up designs welded together.from 16mm square, black bar, linished, machined on the lathe and welded together.

I then made some standard type holders with various rakes to try out. They all worked great, so I never made any more. Once again, made of black bar, linished, machined on the lathe and welded together.

To sharpen the bits for the tangential, I made a small jig for the grinder table.

I've been using these tool holders for the last 10 years, no doubt, that's why my work is so terrible!

I don't see the point in buying what you can make for a fraction of the cost, mine cost about $20. What did that cost?

In Oz, that pump setup is $339, that's 17 times more than what mine cost.  Mine has been operating for 8 years without problem.  I think I'll stick to my coolant system, pocket the money, and use it for something I can't make.

I have a. Similar setup on my lathe, that cost around $35 to put together.  It's been operating for 10 years without problems.  You'd hate it!

Edited By Tony sacc on 26/08/2023 01:54:29

Edited By Tony sacc on 26/08/2023 01:54:49

Edited By Tony sacc on 26/08/2023 02:02:30

Most motorcycle brake lines use banjos, I've never seen one leak or cause an accident.

The original setup.on the XS650 had a banjo and hose connected to the MC, on the other end of the hose was a cup/ cone arrangement connected to a steel line which connected to the junction box via another cup/cone fitting.

Then there was a banjo and hose connected to the junction box, running down the fork leg, that connected to a steel line via a cup/cone, then on down the fork leg connecting to the caliper by a another cup/cone fitting.

That's six fittings and 8 sealing areas.

I'll stick with banjos!

I have a BS-5S bandsaw, bought it around 8 years ago and it has served me well. I only use carbon blades as I cut a lot of tube and RHS so bimetals tend to shed teeth a lot.

The first thing I did for it was to add a coolant system. I tried a centrifugal pump first, but that didn’t last too long. The bandsaw makes a lot of very, very fine swarf which found it’s way into areas of the pump that the pump didn’t like and so the pump burnt out real fast.

After that failure, I bought a gear pump, these work well on the bandsaw as the fine metal swarf doesn’t find it’s way into the motor or bearings.. I’ve mounted the pump on the rear leg of the bandsaw stand, so it’s external to the coolant tub. The coolant tub is a plastic fuel container. I drilled a hole about 30mm from the bottom, turned up a spigot and bolted it in the hole then connected the tub to the pump via a plastic tube. The pump is powered by a 12volt power adapter.

I turned up a three way adapter and mounted it up by the base of the bandsaw hoop. Coolant is pumped up to the adapter, the adapter has one inlet at the bottom and two outlets above that. The coolant enters the adapter by the lower spigot and exits the adapter via the top spigot where it is fed, via a small retic hose, to the blade in front of the blade hoop. The tube is split and saddles the blade, so as the blade turns, coolant runs along the blade and on to the stock being cut. The coolant flow is far too much for the blade, so, I interrupted the line with a small retic tap, as the flow to the blade is reduced by the tap, coolant flows out of the midpoint spigot and returned to the tub.

Of course coolant splashes everywhere, so I had to make a few mods. The bandsaw table has a small lip around the periphery making an ideal basin effect, so I drilled a hole in the table, roughly where the material falls after being cut, turned up a countersunk drain, inserted it in the hole and locked it in place with a nut from underneath.

A 13mm plastic tube slips over the spigot on the bottom of the drain and feeds coolant from the table through a retic filter and a couple of rare earth magnets lying in the bottom of a couple of adapters between the filter and the coolant tub. That takes care of the coolant pooling on the table, however, some coolant flows over the side of the table behind the switch, so I bolted a small aluminium angle iron piece to the edge of the table.

The drain on the table clogs up occasionally, mostly after cutting wood or plastic, so that requires freeing up with a plunger every now and again. I also added a small plastic tray under the gap of the vice bed, but that has remained dry for the last eight years. Some coolant does escape the table when cutting tube, entering the tube through the cut and dribbling out the end. Not much I can do about that except place a bucket on the floor under the end of the tube being cut.

The coolant when it travels along the blade, shoots straight out the back, so, I removed the resting plate on top of the lower blade guide, fashioned another the same and cut a neoprene washer to fit between the plates and screwed them in place.

Here's a video showing how the system works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-WmtobrtV0

I don't think a 3mm hole really holds that much fluid.  Personally I like bajo fittings, that's why I used them.

I could have anodised it, but I think it would have looked out of place on this bike.  What do you think?

Edited By Tony sacc on 25/08/2023 10:47:26

Edited By Tony sacc on 25/08/2023 10:47:56

Edited By Tony sacc on 25/08/2023 10:48:51

Brake block.

This is a new brake line block I machined up to replace the original. The original hoses were rotted, so I replaced them and did away with the two steel tubes that connect the hose to the calliper and the hose from the master cylinder to the divider. Unfortunately, the new hoses have the banjos on the same plain requiring the lower hose to be twisted through 90degrees to connect to the original divider, so I machined a new divider to get around the problem. The lower hose connects at the rear of the divider, as does the brake light switch. The top hose connects to the side of the divider.

Can of worms opened again. Unfortunately, there are a few forums like this where everyone is an expert. But that's life I guess, without arguments and everyone agreeing, it'd be a pretty boring world.

Edited By Tony sacc on 25/08/2023 00:21:00

Edited By Tony sacc on 24/08/2023 07:18:36

Can of worms there. The experts will tell you the pilot drill should be around the size of the i flute, which is a reasonable way of doing it, however, drill bits are all slightly under siz,ie, a 6mm bit will actually measure somewhere around 5.96mm, depending on brand and country of manufacture. If you simply want a 6mm hole to stick a 6mm rod through and fit isn't that important, just drilling with the 6mmill will suffice.

I'm not that rough, when I want a good fit, I'll drill with 5.5mm bit and follow up with a 6mm drill, that way the hole generally comes out 5.99/6mm. The experts will tell you to use a reamer, but we don't all have reamers of every size on the planet. so, make do with what you have.

Keep in mind also, that that 6mm bolt is not 6mm across the threads, it will be under 6mm, how much depends on how the thread was formed.

I generaly pilot anything over 6-7mm no matter how precise I want the hole. Smaller bits also find the centrepop mark easiier.

Now there's a can of worms, opened right up!