Progress report on Little Walt. Gears 1
Greetings, Alb here...transmitting from deep cyber space.. Cos that's where I live, my workshop is in 'The Shireshire' though. The lights have been burning brightly and the lathe has been spinning whizzily, so good news...I've a few pictures and informative words I can share with you. Extremely exciting stuff if you love the smell of hot cutting fluid and the clickety click of digital calipers as raw metal gets cut to reveal it's destined shape.
The gears on Little Walt had suffered the same fate as the old crankshaft...probably having been submerged in water for quite a number of years didn't help.. Not like they may not turn again for a few last miles but to match them to the bling new crankshaft would be a criminal act. .
My search for a gear cutting specialist began in Minskip. A small 1 x street village just off the A1 in 'The Shireshire' An overnight stopping place in years gone by for the drovers as they worked their way south towards old London town with cattle and sheep. A lone engineer known as Trevor had a small industrial unit next door to a chum of mine. "Trevor's your man" said my friend. So we popped next door to ask about gear cutting. Hummm...do-able he said. He recommended that I buy gear blanks from the largest manufacturer of such things in Blighty a company called HPC Gears (Chesterfield). Their catalogue was huge. I first had to learn about DP's and P.A.s then reference the replacements to match the Raleigh gears. I needed x5 gears to sort the 2 x speed transmission and valve timing gear. Gear blanks are oversized width ways and undersized on the centre bore to allow re-machining to fit most applications. Made of the correct steel too.
Once in possession of the gears I reached out to Trevor the engineer. .emailed... No reply ......sent another email...No reply again. Hey you could bet money on this happening...Now what?
Our window cleaner..(a biking chap) reminded me of a long established small engineering shop in Bradford. Located deep in the city of curries. No fear, down there I went....Phuff. Old skool engineering chap he was, past retirement age but still there hanging on to life. Didn't look too keen on doing the job. You could tell. At least in the end he told me straight up he wasn't.. Did get a workshop tour though. Not one machine in his shop had a D.R.O. All work measured with vintage Moore & Wright micrometers or eye racks and feel. He continued to tell me the business used to be his fathers, passed to him. Trade slowed as the factories around shut and cheap replacement parts were the way to go on repairs rather than mend. he just likes to be in his shop now, small jobs and ebay sales on a conversion bolt he'd invented to improve the one on a VW Golf engine that shears a grub screw or something like that. By the time he'd finished talking old days and how many skilled operators used to work the machines he had a tear in his eye. No worries, I can relate to what he was telling me. Skills lost for good. Shame on the youth of today...at some point this disinterest in working with hands will bite their arses, but there's no telling um..
Place your bets again...odds on that your Uncle Albert will be working the gear blanks. Correct!!!!!!
At this point I knew that the chances of me getting an exact fit on the gear internal bore to match the crankshaft was not going to happen with a general internal boring tool. Tried an adjustable reamer on a test piece of gear steel but that didn't fill me with confidence either that I could do all 5 x gears.
Hang on...in amongst the engineering treasure I have a little grinding arbour that fits a Myford lathe tool clamp. Made by my Grandad. (cos he was Myford thru and thru) Who'd have thought after all these years I'd be in need of it.. He'd be proud and of course I'm proud to own it now and hopefully use it...In fact just like the engineer down in Bradford, connecting with those gone through their tools and teachings has got to be the best inheritance left.
Let's get the grinding arbour fully stripped of the tallow grease, oiled then rebuilt. Unfortunately no motor to drive it. I was planning on doing internal micro passes with a spinning mini grinding wheel just taking cats cocks off it till the gears are a perfect slide on fit.
Ali-Express...dream it and they have it. Like Alladin's magic lamp but with a cost. Everything guaranteed to your door in 8 days. So I purchased a small motor complete with speed controller. Internal grinding wheels I sourced UK. Pulleys and belts to follow when I get the fixings sorted.
