One year ago today: April 10, 2014, annual bicycle prep.
Five years ago today: April 10, 2010, on proofreading.
Ten years ago today: April 10, 2005, repetitious due to the era.
MORNING
This is the object under very close scrutiny these days. Yet again, I come up with an idea that is NOT on the Internet. The people who say I make that claim suspiciously too often are the same who don’t try to find the same information themselves, I can tell you that. Try to find some specifications on it, or a used unit on eBay. The pub crawler. I may have misread the original pricing (which has now raised to $50,000 each) as the crawler itself. But it is the advertised cost of starting the business.
This time, you are looking closely at the simplicity of the design. The on-board beer tap must be for water or mixers, as this operation does not sell any alcohol. Strictly BYOB. This design holds fifteen people plus driver. And room for a server, a very small server by Florida standards, ha! I don’t know what’s in the barrel unless it is the mixer.
While we don’t have the wherewithal to weld this together, we know how to bolt together the prototype and spotweld small pieces. These could then be properly joined in a regular shop.
How the unit makes money is renting the chairs. Judging by publications in Austin, Texas, the unit rents for $175 per hour, going up $30 per hour on weekends. With a minimum of three hours, so call it $600 a pop. That’s $40 per person, which is trivial for what the tourists get gouged in this town. I see they will take random riders for $25 per seat. Best drawing feature for me? A cash flow business.
But just you watch, because I am finally taking a serious look, I’ll discover some big corporation has moved in and started a fleet in Ft. Lauderdale. Except the corporation has not replaced the rear bench with a country & western musician. Does that steering column look “bent” to you?
NOON
“Don’t jump if you can’t see bottom.” (Farm wisdom)
Correction. The batbike is not in the shop. Not until next Monday, because of parts on order and my reluctance to leave it parked there over the weekend. The problem was no the brakes, it was deeper and invisible. For those who like to follow along, I’ll explain. Who recalls that slight “ticking” rumble on the way to Colorado in ’12? It came back with a vengeance.
My inclination is to replace all the wiring with a new harness first. See how that goes. But I am prepared to have the motor pulled to get at the alternator or generator, whatever. While over there, I showed the shop owner the reverse engineered plans I was putting together for the pedal pub. That may be my parking spot, the rig is 22 feet long at least.
The club meeting last night was well-attended. We went over some demo rides of electric two wheelers. Agt. M has that new Schwinn, which is nice, but takes getting used to. It is totally pedal assist, so there is no throttle control. It has the usual eight gears, but I know from the past you only use the top two. There was also one of those little sit-down models with the battery under the floorboards. It’s also great, but I’ll stick with my scooter.
A third option was the neighbor running up and saying somebody had thrown out one of those electric skateboards, the one with the handlebars. Fast as we raced back to the dumpster, despite it being after dark by now, somebody had already grabbed it. Hence, I’m back to my old Jamus, which I think I’ll have a new chain and sockets installed. And wait for a deal on an electric.
AFTERNOON
You know, you are right. It doesn’t look like much. But it is the most complicated mechanism I’ve built to date. And that includes as a kid with my meccano set. These is the first stage of a set of gears in a larger project. So there’s more to it than it seems, for instance, the gear ratios are carefully calculated to step down half speed at each stage.
In the photo, I’m holding the second stage, if you look you can tell the small center gear is running slower. That was the plan. I learned the gear teeth don’t have to line up exactly, how to fix pin the gears together (to eliminate the use of glue), and how to cut drive pulleys with my drill press.
To anyone who says, “Golly, speaking of drive pulleys, what is that red blur near the first gear? Why, it looks a lot like those sewing pins used to make shortsleeve shirts.”
And to those who say that, I see you have to scurry along. What’s not shown on this photo is the two stage off/on switch, the battery supply, and the plate that will hold the Arduino detectors.
NIGHT
Caution. The gears being run in the above photo are powered by a 6Volt battery clip with no amperage of significance. The operation can be stopped with finger pressure. Also, I am holding the secondary gear train by hand and can easily move it away if necessary. The setup, as shown above, is operating at a low speed. What follows is another matter. Be careful.
What did I learn? That even gears as “small and weak” as these ought be housed in a protective compartment. The good news is at truly high speed, my wooden gears still mesh flawlessly and so far show no wear and tear. However, the turning rate, not yet measured, of the fastest wooden parts is at least 4,000 rpm and not to be toyed with. If any foreign object fell into the mechanism it could potentially be propelled at dangerous speeds.
Overall, the cost of this project is zero out-of-pocket. All lumber and electrics was surplus or free. All work performed used existing equipment. In terms of utility, this apparatus is “pretty useless”. But now I can do a lot more than pass the test. To expand the scale of these gears is now straightforward and at these prices, they are disposable. Broward County’s first throw-away robot parts.
Furthermore, I saw this in operation and know what it is capable of in the right hands. If my scooter is finished tomorrow, I am heading directly over to Harbor Freight for a bench vise, a belt sander, and a complete set of drill bits to the 64th of an inch. And a larger set up to the maximum they make a wood bit. I also need, if they make such a thing, a drill extension to get at those axles. The photo shows the cumbersome process being done by hand. The green tinge is from neon lighting.
If you see anything in the section below, it is test material only. Seeing what works and what doesn't. Blog readership is declining planet-wide but this one is holding it's own. I'd like to keep it that way. Alas, these are video links that are far too much work to maintain here on a regular basis, plus they are links to locations that I really doubt will exist anywhere near as long as this blog. Enjoy now, it will be gone soon. For that matter, you should see nothing now. The video links have a strange parameter that cancels formating for the balance of the document.
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