Monday, August 18, 2008

Cranked axle


Cranked axle
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Oh dear. The instructions say assembly of the crank and flywheel is easy. Fit the crank to the axle, put it through the block making sure it revolves (I reamed the hole slightly for this) and then force it through the flywheel by gentle tapping with a hammer on a vice.

I tried that. The tapping had to be a bit more than gentle but it went in. Sadly the same tapping bent the axle. A lot. The only way to get it out was to chop the axle up with a junior hacksaw and take it away in bits.

The problem is the wrong material is supplied. A brass axle is fine in theory but it's too malleable. I was lucky, in a drawer I found some of the correct material - silver steel rod of the right diameter. Although it was a bit short - I had to put a join in the middle of the fat flywheel, this went in perfectly.

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