Danny's Daily Delta

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I am sure I said this is difficult ? the angles are so small that it is impossible to cut them accurately and have them line up !

However you have made a cracking job , but not out of the woods yet !

See the gaffer tapes on hand for the tricky bits :sneaky:
 
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I am sure I said this is difficult ? the angles are so small that it is impossible to cut them accurately and have them line up !

However you have made a cracking job , but not out of the woods yet !

See the gaffer tapes on hand for the tricky bits :sneaky:
Indeed so.... Luckily, I am an accomplished cheat when it comes to rectifying mistakes so no-one knows what I did the first time around. :ROFLMAO:
Some Honeydew stuff to do today, but I may get back on it after that. Watch this space.
 
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Not much to report today. After Gym this morning and some Honeydew activities I was able to try and make the part of the triangle that will bolt onto the pivot.
It wasn't easy, and only time will tell if it is up to snuff.

I took a section of the oblong tubing that the frame is made of and inserted 2 solid crush-tubes to take M8 bolts.
Alignment went a little "off" when the metal was in its "melted-cheese" state so some remedial file activity was required.
It does bolt onto the pivot, and I have pictures to prove it....So there!



It may (or may not) be OK and the next step is to insert this section into the front triangle.



We will see. I'm happy to re-think/redo it if necessary. This is just a proof of concept.
 
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A bit more progress this afternoon after a good session in the Gym this morning and some work on LOKI (see the LOKI thread).

I welded the aft section of the frame all together and for once it went very well.

The side-rails of the frame were cropped to length to allow the previously made section that bolts to the Pivot to be welded onto the ends of the rails.
The end section was over-length (for a reason) and the side rails were welded on all the way round to ensure plenty of weld area (90+mm) on each rail.









The "Horns" of the cross piece were finally cut off and the ends flap-disked "flush". 3mm steel plates will be welded over these areas as well as some small corner gussets being added to further increase the frame rigidity.

I could not resist bolting the part finished frame to the pivot itself and mounting the front wheel. I will do the front-end's cross-rail and the plates and gussets next.

Here is a little Video of it bolted onto the pivot.

 
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I completed the triangle frame and added the caps on the cross-tubes at both ends of the frame.

It was awful. For some reason everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I should have walked away.
But despite the problems I managed to get it closed off. I may try the corner plates tomorrow.


For some strange reason the 3mm steel plate used to cap the cross-tubes was hard to weld???
There is a rust resisting coating on it, perhaps that was interfering, I don't know, it should not have been an issue.
It almost looks like inadequate heat being applied, but 90A was going in and the fact that holes got burnt suggests otherwise.
I will review it in the harsher light of day tomorrow and if necessary I will run the sparkle-stick back over any edges I really don't like.



I did manage to blow a huge hole in the tubing when doing one of the internal fillet joints of the far end of the triangle (the end away from the pivot) and I had to build it back up with weld material. Its not a pretty sight TBH but the damage was repaired by adding filler material to a molten edge and progressively closing the hole. Here is the fillet where it happened. I can take a file to it, but it isn't in the way and its is doing no harm.


So today was a disaster compared to the ease of things and the successes of yesterday. Life's like that.
 
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DannyC

yeah I have have some really bad metal that either does not want to weld properly or spits and pops at you ...

I have noticed it is mainly the junk you get from B&Q , some of it was very hard to clean and never seemed very bright when it looked clean ?

Yes I know B&Q is expensive however if you only want 6" of angle it is cheaper than buying a 20ft length :D

Err
I may try the corner plates tomorrow.
What corner plates , don't tell me they were explained on the video I watched with the sound off ?

I doubt they are need IMHO
 
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Update 23rd March 2020:

Much ado about nothing really. I finished the tri-mangle and added a bridge superstructure to enable me to mount the thing to my pivot in a 75mm vertickle offset (don't ask).

Although it all bolts up OK and the wheel runs square (the rim needs dishing to compensate for the offset of the hub itself) I am stumped for mounting a BB shell.

Yup!.....I done goofed.

I think I will need to amend the tri-mangle to close the front-end up tighter allowing the BB shell to be fitted directly there while NOT fouling on the frame with either the chain-wheel, cranks or the chain itself.

Here are some amusing pictures of the Heath-Robinson affair so far. Never before has so much metal been tortured to no good purpose with the expenditure of so many angry pixies and high-pressure compressed Unicorn fartz.

I console myself with the notion that this is all just an expeppermint and I try not to take it, (or any setbacks) too seriously........ Honest!





 
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It is the end result that matters, not that which is replaced, covered up, re-designed, discarded, fudged, etc. If it can't be seen in the finished article it won't matter. The real expertise is in the getting it to that finished state.
 
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DannyC

This is mine from a slightly different angle ?



The tyre to side frame gap at the front is <> 6mm NOT a ' yard and a half ' !
 
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As anticipated and spookily right on cue "mid-seam" the Argon ran out.

I hope to pick up 2 full bottles tomorrow (9.5L & 20L) so I can continue. EDIT 21:24 Confirmed for an11AM pick up tomorrow. Just have to get past any police nonsense.

I assembled some of the frame elements and got them to fly in a formation looking something a little like a trike. :)

Measuring the distance from the seat back on the tadpole to the BB shell's axle I get a distance of 34".

There is hope for this trike yet.

 
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Update 25th March 2020:

Virus Lockdown day 3 (or thereabouts) was challenged by the need for Argon. 30L @200 Bar was purchased in a brief sojourn while the guards were looking elsewhere.

I managed to do a little bit more work on the trike today, nothing too exciting but progress is progress.
I measured the distance from the back off the seat on the tadpole to the axle of the cranks. It is c.34".




I put the component parts of the Delta trikes frame loosely together again in order to get a similar measure for that configuration.





It seems to me that there is definite room for "tinkering" here.
  • The front section of the keel can be turned over and mounted "above" the rear section, raising the seat height by 40mm.
  • The suspension travel is only limited by the spring in the "as shown" picture, but limited to about 20 degrees if the front section is turned over - how much is enough?
  • There are opportunities to rework the front triangle to both reduce the weight, and provide an adjustable BB position fore & aft.
  • Handlebar attachment looks like it could be "messy/awkward".
But it is all good fun really, and with 12 weeks of lockdown predicted, plenty of time to play.

 
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Update 26th March 2020:

I did a little bit more today. Sunny but VERY cold weather.
The rear spar is mounted, I need to move existing suspension mounts on the back-end frame , but I can see how it should look now.
I was delighted when it came time to pack up for the day and the whole thing dismantled and folded up in less than 2 minutes.
It will be a little bit more cumbersome when the pivot-spar is actually welded on, as the weight of the front triangle/hub/wheel is considerable.
But it seems like it will fulfill it's original design brief of being a trike you can readily put in the boot/trunk of the car.



The trike has kept to the planned wheelbase (more or less) @ 48" and the track at the rear is 32.5"

I will weld the pivot-spar rearward of the seat mounting so that the pivot itself is directly under the riders hips.
In the picture above the pivot angle is 59 degrees. I am a little concerned about the possibility of grounding out on the pivot spar, but as this is a test platform I think it will be a case of "suck it and see".

 
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DannyC

To raise the pivot all you need to do is this ?



You will see this a real ' man ' riding a 2 wheeler with the handle bars on the non steering part of the bike ......

Simple build is here P300 Python Lowracer

another example



Python

Browse here ? Python pictures
 
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To raise the pivot all you need to do is this ?
Hi Paul,
I could do that but then the whole front triangle would have to change (not that that would be a bad thing).
I will think on it. The overall size & shape I have today I quite like (height, wheelbase, & track).
Remaking the front triangle is no great hardship. A lot of it is just cut-n-shut work.
 
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man up down there !!!

I cut the end of mine this afternoon to make a better job of it , and yes that was the bit with the best welds 😁
 
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Not intimately involved with such things but, wouldn't the pivot angle on the two-wheeler cause the rider to lean out on turns? Isn't that the opposite of what you want or is that something peculiar to these machines?
No sure why you would think that ?

If you image a normal bike with the seat fastened just behind the handle bars ? if you could pedal it then it would lean and turn just like a normal bike ?
 
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I cut the end of mine this afternoon
Hadn't you better get yourself off to a hospital? :ROFLMAO:

I have a basic plan on how to revise mine to work that way.
 
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No sure why you would think that ?

If you image a normal bike with the seat fastened just behind the handle bars ? if you could pedal it then it would lean and turn just like a normal bike ?
One normally leans into the corner on a conventional bike.

Anything between straight ahead and the front rotated through 90 degrees, let's assume left, would cause the rear half to lean to the right, out of the corner - and vice versa. That is because the top end of the pivot leans to the right. Maybe the steering rotation is to enough to make it noticeable but it has to be there and the sharper you turn, the more it leans.

Is there any reason why it couldn't/shouldn't be angled the other way or would that interfere with the riding experience?
 
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Update 27th March 2020:
Minimal progress today as I was doing the Hokey-Cokey with suspension spring mounts for most of the day.

However, other metal was tortured into agreeing to become a mounting plate for the pivot to be bolted onto and I was assisted into an "Aha!" moment by our resident snake-rider.
The plate may get welded to the front of the keel tomorrow and after that the rework of the front triangle will begin.
 
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