This all started when V2Steve and I did a bit of bartering, Steve wanted a couple of tool stands and I got a couple of wood tax disc holders as payment, I don't do wood - have tried welding wood, it just does not work!!. One of the holders went in my Moggy the other was converted into a mirror for my bike
this got me thinking that wood holder on a bike could look good. After talking with Steve and with the help of Andy & his 3D CAD from work, we came up with the MK2 tax disc holder that would be suitable for fitting to bike.
All this making bike parts out of wood reminded me of a forum post by Jolly Green Giant, some brilliant looking seats and a headlight, thus a plan was formed. I put this idea to Steve and he was up for it, now we were at the questions stage - how do we make this, how to fit lamp, how to fit to bike, what to do about wiring and do all this so it looks good.
After exploring several ideas I came across a plastic headlamp shell for kit cars that was ideal. As Steve & I had agreed it would be best to use 2 headlamp brackets, rather a single point fixing, it was decided to use a steel plate which would be attached to the plastic shell with a couple of tabs to bolt to the headlamp brackets. This plate would then be sandwiched between two halves of the headlamp i.e. rim & shell, the rim screwed to plate & plastic shell and then the shell could bolted to plastic shell via a special bolt from the rear - bolt drilled out for the wiring to exit. This was my part of the project, cutting out the steel plate, making special bolt & spanner and a small plate with captive nut to go inside the plastic shell.
With that sorted it was time to pester my Andy (3D CAD man) to do a drawing for Steve, he did a brilliant job Inc 3D images and even a couple of animations! Steve then came up to my house so we could have talk & bounce ideas session , this is when Steve said he could make it out One piece of wood and if done right you could end up with the ' how the hell did they get the light in there factor'.
Now over to Steve for the next stage
The first problem I encountered was were on earth do I get a piece of dried wood 240mm x 180mm, usually those dimensions are too large to kiln dry or naturally dry wood.
After a lot of asking around my woody contacts my friends at Bedford saw and timber centre found me a piece of Pine that would fit my requirements. It left me in the position of I can not make any mistakes if I want to make it seamless.
(This shows the Pine mounted on the lathe after I had rounded it off to nearly the required diameter.)
Next job once I was nearly down to the diameter of the unit was to round off the outer shape of the bowl, This was to be the first mistake of the day, With out thinking about it I should have really turned the inside first because I could have mounted the piece on the chuck easier when it came to a later stage in the build, But I did not realize that at the time.
Once it was rounded off and a groove was cut into the wood marking were the join between the rim and bowl was to be I gave it it’s first sanding to smooth off any tool marks made during the turn.
(Bowl mounted in Chuck after first turn)
Next was to turn the bowl round so the flat face was pointing outwards so I could cut out first of all the rim, I needed to do this as accurate as possible because later in when it came to finishing the rim I had to mount it in a jam Chuck, Basically it was to be jammed onto a piece of hard wood and not come off whilst spinning at around 2500rpm. This was fitted onto the lathe with what is known as a screw chuck (a 12mm screw fitted to the chuck screwed into the back of the bowl) This is now the point when I was regretting not turning out the inside first because screw chucks are not very strong ways of securing such a large piece of wood to your lathe. What I had to do was use my tailstock to ensure the piece did not move when I was turning out the middle, this will now leave me with a pillar of wood in the centre of the bowl that I will need to loose after im down to depth. That was it for that day as I had to get the kids from school and be domesticated.
(Bowl turned in chuck with rim marked out)
Two days later I had another chance to do a bit so I started to turn out the rim of the headlight, It probably took me about twenty minutes or so at about 2500rpm to do it, It came out really well too, I was well chuffed. So far so good, Now it was time to turn out the groove so I could fit Richards Bracket he had sent me so I took away the rim repositioned the tailstock had a fag and went back to work, 10 minutes later I had it turned and the slots taken out so the bracket could come out of the side.
(Testing the Bracket for size with rim turned out and on lathe bed)
It was all going really well for me that is I usually have had a disaster by now on my projects so I was getting an air of confidence about me which was to shoot me in the head about half an hour later.
With everything mounted back up I started to turn out the inside of the bowl, I got down to just about the required depth and width so the headlight unit could fit inside and was left with the pillar of wood in the middle as per my first mistake.
I had to remove the tailstock and turn the pillar out with the bowl just held on by the screw chuck, I had nearly finished when it started vibrating quite vigorously then it flew off the lathe scrapping on the tool rest as it flew off missed me and hit the floor with a bang. My first words were unprintable but were along the lines of male genitals and making love vigorously to a beautiful woman a lot.
As you can see the thin wall on the bowl were taken right off during its walkabout.
(Green bits are the paint off my lathe as it bounced around, Lucky it wasn’t my skin and blood on it)
Oh well it wasn’t time to give in I remounted the bowl now by drilling out a bigger hole in the back, Getting a large nut and bolt from the local hardware shop and basically bolting the bowl to the chuck. It wasn’t an ideal solution because everything was now off centre so it would spin with a vibration and would not match up as well now but what the hell it was my only option.
I set the lathe to spin at its slowest speed and carried on until the headlight unit fitted it inside, just taking it down a little at a time and testing it.
(The two screws on the unit were sunken into the bowl by drilling out holes for them to fit)
Once the bowl was fitting ok I made a jam Chuck so I could turn out the inside of the rim to fit the light brackets and adjusting screws then put it all together for the first time.
(First fitting with the rim wider than the Bowl after the disaster the grain still matches up ok enough to pass)
The only problem I encountered was that the rim was now a little wider than the bowl due to the repair job I did after it took flying lessons, That was easy enough I just screwed the rim via the brackets to the bowl, Bolted it back on the lathe and turned it down to size sanded it and all I need to do now is tweak it about a little just to make everything fit perfectly and then Varnish it with a good quality Yacht varnish to make it as weather proof as you can with wood and to send it back to Richard for fitting to his project.
(Just needs Tweaking and varnishing to finish)
There are 3 grooves in the side designed to hide the join of the rim and Bowl, They may be black grooves yet I have not decided but once the headlight is finished the join will be invisible.
Richards Visit
On the 29th March Richard took a ride down the M1 from Leicester to see how the build was going, to bring down the light fitting bits and to help make a few little adjustments and take some measurements so he can make the brackets up to fit the unit onto the bike. During the morning we encountered a couple of snags that could be fixed there and then.
one problem was that the wood was moving and settling after being turned so the rim didn’t match up exactly on the Bowl, No worries until I was mounting the rim on the jam Chuck because it needed turning down a little and the damn thing split. Out came the wood glue for an instant repair job.
Then Rich took some measurements for his brackets, Dropped off some bits of Walnut and Beech he had bought and we said farewell. The next time he was to see the headlight was when it was all complete.
Well after Richards visit I waited for the first oportunity to finish it off. At last on the 31st march I rubbed it all down with 120 grit sand paper then 320 grit and gave it it’s first coat of yacht Varnish, After leaving it overnight to dry I repeated the sanding and gave it a second coat of Varnish, Waited a few hours to dry and once it was ready I fitted it all together.
On the whole I think it has been an extremely interesting build with many mistakes made that if we do any more would and could be totally avoided, I have had to put a small piece of rubber foam on a small part of the join due to the wood warping a little but you cant see the loin as I blackened the grooves and made it hard to see unless you are really close to it.
All we need now is a few orders for headlights and we will be well on the way to our first million. Lol
THE END .....
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