Custom Japanese swingarm bobbins...

[BG Wells]

OK....so in my additional 'Mods' thread I promised I would do a little creative machining last week as I was off work....and after decorating the kitchen for my wife I was finally free for a little lathe time..!

I had intended to make a custom set of Swingarm spools/bobbins for a little while (and I wanted to incorporate a Japanese theme)...

I like working in brass (my favourite metal) as it allows me to get a little intricate.....

A strange quirk with the Kawasaki swingarm is that the location points for the spools differ slightly in that one is welded on further inboard that the other (right versus left) and as such this was catered for in the machining process.

Anyway I trust the step by step photos will convey the story to completion..and this thread quenches your fix.


























































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[Red,]

[BAMA-ZRX]

DIBS LOL

WOW... your creatively is unbelievable! One of a kind those are outstanding but we've learned that's all that comes out of your camp

Nicely done Brian

Wayne

[Dirty Howie]

Sick.

[Racer Gil]

Sick.

As in,"I feel sick looking at Brian's workmanship"? Yeah, I hate to like his work too.

[Deerslayer64d]

Stunning as usual Brian your craftsmanship knows no boundary

[AV80R]

They're too nice to use anymore Brian! You really gonna scrape them up with a rear stand?

Beautiful work and fun watching how it unfolds in the pics.

[Steve516]

Holy cannoli! You never cease to amaze me! Incredible detail and beautiful results!

[AV80R]

The rotation bit is really trick Brian! Just awesome.

[Brians ZRX]

You continue to amaze my mind with your creativity Brian. You took several common items and made something beautiful! Like has been said already I would not want to scar them up putting a stand to them!!

[Jim C]

How about some cylinder head porting!

[Perko]

Purdy.

SS

[sebintheworld]

[AV80R]

I just noticed they are asymmetric. Neat.

[BG Wells]

Reminsent of some of the fine inlay work on my high end pool cues.

Ok so although these custom made bobbins required a bit of work ....there was just something about them that kinda did not please me.

I posted them up on another motorcycle forum for 'another opinion'....and although the vast majority were complementary....one member posted what I was already thinking.....and that was they were a little "Kitsch".

I was never going to be happy having my own thoughts confirmed (despite the work I had invested)....
So I decided to raise my game and re machine them..!

This would be MUCH more involved than before...but ..."If a job is worth doing.,it is worth doing right.!"

I still wanted to carry the Japanese flag theme...but tie in the Kawasaki colours..(easy to say in theory..but very complicated to construct)

I am much more satisfied with the overall presentation now....and although I needn't cover the entire construction process (Having covered much of it previously) I will cover some of it in the accompanying photos.















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[AV80R]

Rev 2.0

[REXNFX]

beautiful results

[Tom]

You're one heck of a craftsman. Those things are beautiful!

[AV80R]

Top notch!

[Deerslayer64d]

DIBS



Those are the shite Brian wow

[Big Harry]

Utterly Amazing Fabrication Skills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[BG Wells]

Top notch!

DIBS


Those are the shite Brian wow

[QUOTE=Big Harry;4761602]Utterly Amazing Fabrication Skills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![QUOTE]



Thanks so much...

The only thing left to do is shoot them with some 2 pac clear coat suitable for Aluminium and other non ferrous metals..

I called with them to my friend Phil Smith (who painted my bike) of 'Crazycustompaint.com' today to get some advice on this and he kindly gave me all the 'materials' (and tuition) for free.!

Two perfectionist nutcases together in his workshop bouncing ideas of each other..? (It's what Saturday's are made for.!! Lol)

Here are some 'in progress' shots....(and one of the Joey Dunlop tribute helmet he is airbrushing).......now this IS a guy with incredible talent.!




The most important thing in making something intricate is figuring out how to 'hold it' during machining......here is one of a pair of brass 'holders' who's only puropse is to have the 'inlay' bonded to during the initial machining process.... (they will Not be part of the completed bobbins....)



Illustrated are two carefully selected sections of Acrylic which will ge used for the initial inlay background..



The two 'internal' lime green discs are machined as a basis from which to build upon.... (their 'outside' diameter is critical and predetermined during the design process by me)



Two Aluminium "machining holders" are made to allow machining of the black Acrylic which will mate to the Lime green 'core'..





Machining the black Acrylic it is critical the 'inside' diameter matches the 'outer' diameter of the Lime green core...



The brass backing plates of the bobbins have been recessed to accept the Acrylic 'inlay'... (machining these has been covered in the first page of this thread...



The Black Acrylic outer discs have been removed from their Aluminium 'holders' via the 'flat' left on either side during machining for their removal process....
They have now been bonded in position over their lime green cores which remained on their Brass 'holders....



The freed up Aluminium holders now have white acrylic bonded to them for matching the white Japanese flag sections...



Segments are removed via a slitting saw (60mm X143 teeth) and the 'work' mounted in the rotary table......I opted to go for 1/9th segment division this time (as opposed to 1/8th for the previous incarnation of these bobbins....on the first page)



The 1/9th segments removed alongside their corisponding white counterparts to be fitted...



The white 'flag' background segments now fitted along with a pair of 0.9mm brass separating strips now ready for further machining...

The surface illustrated is infact the rearside as I am working in reverse for this project..



Prior to further machining two sections of 10thou styrene sheet~plastickard were prepared to bond to the Acrylic inlay rearside surface...(without this the entire inlay would fall apart during further machining) as each part is now separate...)



With the 10thou styrene sheet bonded in place to ensure the inlay stayed intact 'reduction machining' can now take place...



The Red 'Rising sun' portions are now machined to 3mm diameter from thicker red acrylic rod to be bonded into corisponding predrilled holes in their respective 'flag backgrounds'.... (this process is covered on page one of this thread)



Final machining is now completed on the various components...



The rear of each brass backing plate has a variation in its respective 'spigot' (Right to left) to suit their mounting points on the Kawasaki swing arm...



Machining all done the bobbins are awaiting two 'Kawasaki' lettering logos to be added for completion



I had 'considered' entrusting these bobbins to a Trophy engraving company for the lettering process......however I opted not to as I would then have no control over 'spacing'...'font'...'consistency'..etc and one mistake from a third party would result in my work being completely ruined...

After much consideration I opted to do the lettering myself and sourced a suitable sheet of 2.4mm dry rub down lettering in the Netherlands...



After many tries (and failures.!) I finally got the lettering to a point where it was absolutely consistent and I was happy with....

The bobbins only remain to be clear coated to seal everything in for protection...








A lot of work for two little items that will almost certainly never be used and simply serve to mount to their respective location points on the swing arm..

Nevertheless although I have made them fully functional...I will continue to use my paddock stand with its rubber 'cups' and raise the bike via this either in front of or behind these bobbins...

Thank you all for your interest and kind comments..

Stay tuned till next time,
Brian.
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Edit.....

I had some free time over lunch...and I guess I still could still find one more little area to 'tweak' and that was their retaining screws/bolts.

I sourced two replacement stainless steel Allen/hex recess cap head retaining bolts/screws.

1@ M10x1.25 pitch..40 mm
1@ M10x1.25 pitch..45mm

The differential being to compensate for the longer versus shorter spigot on each bobbin back plate (left versus right ..as per the location points on the swing arm)

Well I had custom machined everything else and I thought I'd change the heads on the rather plain screws to make them a bit more unique...

The first thing is to machine the stamped 'nomenclature' from the front...

Secondly the little 'curve' where the shank meets the rear of the head had to be machined out sharp so thread is no restriction for the rear of the head to interface perfectly into the recession on my bobbins.

This might have restricted the front of my bobbins to 'rotate' as I had designed them to.

I then machined the front section of the head 14mm whilst retaining the rear at its stock 16mm to act as a retaining 'flange' for the rotating front section of my bobbins.

Everything was then chamfered and polished......the resulting 'reduced' heads enabling the 'inner' brass 'sleeve' of the front section of the bobbins to be visible whilst still having a retaining flange to keep the two part bobbins together...simple yet effective...



















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[greenenvy1]

I just drooled on my screen....wow that's awesome work indeed.

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[Cundalini]

Very nice. My plastic sleeved ones are getting chewed- up from using my stand

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[benbaboon]

Damn!! I don't even have a bike anymore and I'm tempted!

[Dirty Harry]

Amazing workmanship Brian, especially in the incredible manual process of laying down the letters.

[jacohatt]

Unbelievable work, Brian!!!

[merc16]

Wow! Are you a machinist for Rolex ?

[Kuztom]

I have no idea how I’ve missed this topic but man oh man are you talented Brian. Very cool!!


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