Steampunk Moped

Finished!

2009-11-23T19:55:00.000-08:00

I put the third mile on my odometer while breaking in the bike at 25% throttle around the block pretty much signifying the completion of the bike. Finally, after 6 months of work the bike is finished!

It's...ALIVE!!!!

2009-11-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

After taking Halloween weekend off, I got my throttle cable in the mail. I installed it in to my new PHBG carb (which was cast a bit poorly and took some sanding and filing to fit the slide) I attempted to start the bike for the first time. Luckily my buddy Adam was around to help fitting the slide and spring, a huge pain in the ass.

So after a of couple of tries, nothing. Then, my friend Tyler takes a try and gets it to sputter and then, with a true quarter-kick, the engine roared to life! The bike idles deep and strong and I couldn't be happier. Even cold it will kick over with a modest pedal and seven months of work was celebrated with a 10 mph ride down the street and back. The engine temp gauge worked as well, showing a healthy 250 degrees. Some tuning definitely needs to happen (I'm a bit rich at the moment) and other small tweaks, but it's all minor compared to the success of last night.

Oh, and here's a picture of the back wheel flying, just to prove it!

Last Steps

2009-10-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

As you can see, the bike is almost completely done. I tested the spark last night, and it's bright and strong so my kill switch and all the lights are operating correctly. I can officially scratch the electrical system off my list!

There are three last things remaining:

Throttle Cable - Usually we have them lying around but I had to order one.
Carb Tuning - Having the throttle will let me actually start the bike, test for air leaks and tune all the jets properly.
Speedometer - The drive I bought was too small for the axle, and the cable was too short, of course. I tracked down a long cable and new drive on ebay and handybikes.com, so fingers crossed they're compatible.

Other than that, I'm completely done with construction. Once the bike is running (and the snow that's falling right now passes) I'm planning on doing a quick video-tour of the bike and all the parts for a final post, followed by some nice photos. Let's hope it's soon!

The journey nears and end...

2009-10-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last few weeks rebuilding from the ground up. The light at the end of the long tunnel (400 hours I'm guessing at this point) is getting close, so I haven't been posting much.

Here's a brief update: I started with the frame and engine, obviously, and began building up from there. I have to be constantly aware of parts scraping together so it's slow work. Also, the paint does change the tolerances of certain tight-fitting pieces which have to be sanded, oiled or ground down to fit together once again.

This is where the blog and photos have come in real handy. Complex parts like the lantern had bags of parts to be reassembled but with records of everything I've done made it easy to figure out the steps.

The most intricate part was the wiring. While I had wheels off I had the advantage of running the final splices through the frame in sleeves for a nice clean look. Some minor setbacks such as a speedo drive that was too small have been the only real problems.

Here you can see some washers and bolts I've painted before installing. It's tedious, but I'm painting each set of bolts before they're put back on the bike and it is SO worth it, the contrast really pops.

The bike is almost done, save a few more components including seat support, exhaust, condenser, wings, etc. A few more days I may actually be ready to start it. I can't wait. And I have to say, even though it's mine and I have spent so much time on it (yeah, I'm a bit biased) i still think it looks fucking awesome.

Engine Upgrades

2009-10-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

The start of the re-construction process began with installing the new engine upgrades. The Minarelli has one of the biggest kits available, a whopping 80cc jug. You can see the difference between the old cylinder (left) and the black monster on the right.

The jug and piston went on pretty easy, as did the beefy PHBG 19mm carb and intake. Once the housing was installed the engine looked mean as hell, and I'm finally ready to start rebulding.

Phase 2 Finished - Painting Complete

2009-09-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Phase 2 is finally finished! I received my second batch of AutoAir paints that I used this weekend in an 7 hour paint-a-thon thus bringing this phase to an end. Luckily, an entire week of cold, rainy weather broke for a warm and clear weekend allowing me to paint outside.

Slowly but surely the gold layers were built up on the parts until each one had even coverage. I barely had enough supplies to finish but the end product turned out great. I dare say even "pimp."

After the color, I used a urethene clear coat with a separate kicker for the gloss coat. I made sure to clean all the paint from my gun, seen here, soaking in thinner, to make sure the clear wasn't contaminated with any color.

Finally, after a long day of work (and a wicked migraine from the fumes, even through a mask) I finished the gloss coats. I made sure to take some photos of the parts in the sun to really capture the sheen and I'm very happy with the way they turned out. Now all I have to do is put the thing back together and hope the weather holds for a few rides before the snow!

Staining

2009-09-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

This week I've been sick, and I'm still waiting on my next order of paint so I started staining the wood pieces with a dark walnut stain. Compared to the painting process it's pretty straightforward and the wood parts came out nice. I'm having a bit of a motivational problem at this point, but after I finish painting I'll be in the home stretch so I'm trying to keep the momentum.

Painting Continues...

2009-09-14T19:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had some free time to start painting the brass colored parts. I unfortunately ordered too little paint to cover all the parts I had, so I made it stretch as far as possible and tried to get at least a middle-weight coat on all the parts.

The metallic paint was a lot different to work with than the red though. I don't think it's meant to be applied directly to sealer so it ran a bit. However, after evening out the coats the parts had a kind of oxidized look which came out pretty cool.

I've got more paint on the way, but I'm actually feeling a bit sick so the next few days will be a nice break. It's starting to get cooler, though, so the pressure is on to finish now.

Paint!

2009-09-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

Here's some process photos showing the actual paint process. I'm using all AutoAir colors, starting with Dark Red, which is cut with 10% Flash Reducer. The reducer is a thinning and reactive additive that lets the paint dry faster and flow a lot more smoothly. The first step was a few coats of straight red.

After a solid red coat and 24 hours of curing in my hot-box shed it was time to add the magic - a blended, wine-colored shimmer paint combined with the red. Here's the paint being mixed.

Once I put a few coats of the shimmer paint on it was looking really purple, like a pimp moped or something. But after a few hours the brightness faded in to the base color, just as I had hoped, and produced what I call "Shimmer Blood." My low-quality iPhone camera and the poor lighting in the shed doesn't really do it justice, but the glittery maroon is going to look so awesome with the brass accents - I can't wait!

Also, a tip for anyone painting with an HVLP gun for the first time: I keep a big can of thinner nearby and run a tablespoon through the gun between every cup of paint to keep the nozzle clean. I also break the gun down every night and soak it in thinner to clean out any residue inside. I clogged the gun pretty bad the first night of priming and this seems to have fixed it.

Sealer

2009-09-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

After the primer, I had to seal all the parts with either light or dark pain sealant. This fills in the gap of the primer and lets the paint bond to the lower layers more effectively. It's also kind of tacky so the paint should stick extremely well to the sealed parts.

For the maroon body parts I used the dark color and the lighter color for the parts that will be painted with the brass metallic color. When I start painting, I'll bag up the parts that are not being painted, then switch when I switch color.

Finally, FINALLY, I'm ready to paint!

Sanding Primer

2009-09-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

After painting all the parts with my gray automotive primer, I had to sand down the rough texture with 1000 grit sandpaper for a really super-smooth finish. Most of the parts had very few dings so I think the finish should be fairly even. When I did this step, I had to make sure to wear gloves while sanding and handling of the parts. Any oil from my fingertips could affect how the final paint adheres to the frame so it's pretty important.

Here's a photo (just to prove to myself how much of a pain in the ass this was) showing all the parts in separate bags to keep dust and oil off them, ready to be sealed.

Primer

2009-09-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last update, but that certainly doesn't mean I haven't been working. Last weekend I finished stripping and prepping the second set of smaller parts for paint including the chain guards, shocks, seat bars, etc. I finally got everything set up in the shed and got to it.

I'm using a mini-HVLP spray gun for all of my painting since the area of each piece is relatively small. I'm trying to minimize my overspray since this stuff is pretty expensive. It took some experimenting to see what my best material/air ratio was but the most important thing I found was that running thinner through the gun after every cup of material (and soaking it after use) kept it operating without any problems. I'm using a 1mm nozzle at 40psi for anyone who's curious.

As you can see, the shed out back of our house is the perfect place to hang parts. It's still about 90 or so during the day here (+10 in that sweatbox at least) so I shouldn't have a problem keeping the temperature above 72 for curing.

The next step for these parts is sanding with ultra-fine paper to remove any surface blemishes. The final paint will show anything that stands out so at the very least I need the body, tank and fenders as smooth as glass. Then it's sealer, then paint, then clear. It starts to snow in October so the pressure is on to get everything painted before then!

Paint Stripping

2009-08-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend was all about stripping the old paint from the bike and preparing the surface for the new auto paint I have coming. It's an extremely tedious and messy process, but necessary to achieve a high-quality finish.

Here you can see the tank with some high-strength epoxy/paint remover on it. Crazy stuff. Whoever painted the bike before I got it used pretty low quality paint to so that layer was eaten off pretty easily.

A few coats of stripper, a razor, and some sandpaper made short work of the decals and the surface turned out to be pretty smooth. It's really handy that Snark's have detachable tanks.

Next I started with the frame. Layer after layer was slowly removed and scraped away, the crevasses and welds in the frame being the biggest pain in the ass. Luckily, the most difficult spots are located up underneath the frame so the blemishes will be minor.

It turned out kind of odd how the original color, the darker red under the old paint in this photo, is very similar to the new paint color I'm going with. It was obviously higher quality and took 6-8 coats of stripper to finally remove off the frame and fenders.

Here's the nearly finished pieces. There's still some gunk in the seams which I may pressure-wash to ensure they are as clean as possible, but other than that just some light sanding and I'm ready for primer!

Breakdown

2009-08-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

With my paint on the way I've started to breakdown all the parts I added to the bike over the last three months. I've spent about 3 hours so far, and I'm a bit farther than these pictures show (down to the frame and wiring) so I should finish up the teardown tomorrow.

I've been putting all the parts, screws and custom parts in ziplock bags to try and keep everything as organized as possible. I just hope I can put it all back together again!

Construction...Finished!

2009-08-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm done! After 3 months and 300 hours of searching for parts, cutting, fitting, sketching, thinking, failing, and more money spent at Home Depot that I'm willing to admit, I'm finally done with phase 1. The last two phases are paint and finally performance upgrades, but they're relatively short phases in comparison. I've already begun gathering supplies for painting and planning how to tear down and organize all my parts. But for now, I'm basking in glow of...completion. It's not quite a success yet, but I'll settle for "done" at this point.

Paint Supplies

2009-08-11T21:05:00.001-07:00

I've spend a good deal of time researching painting techniques as I've never done any work with an HVLP spray gun before. I thinking I have the processes, tools and materials decided on so I'll probably be ordering them sometime this week. I decided on a wine-burgundy color (with a slightly glittery tint) for the base color of the bike. I think it will be a good fit. I'll take some final pictures of the completed construction once it's complete.

Gauge Sleeves

2009-08-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

One more small addition I made to the front end is a set of sleeves for the gauges. These will help protect the wiring connections on the back of the gauges and give them a more finished look. I have only one more small piece to install, a tube that will hold some spare 2-stroke oil and then construction will be complete!

Whistle Install

2009-08-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

The solution I finally decided on is fairly low-tech, but proved to be the most effective in producing the loudest sound. I simply attached some rubber tubing to a valve I installed in the whistle and made a simple holster allowing me to pull the tube out and blow in to it to make the whistle sound.

The whistle itself is mounted behind the seat which actually ties the whole rear end together quite nicely. It's not advanced as I originally wanted, but I think it's a good idea. I have a trumpet mouthpiece coming from ebay to finish this section off.

Whistle Test

2009-08-03T13:28:00.000-07:00

I tried using steam from the stove to see if my boiler idea was going to work. Unfortunately, it seems that the power of just the rising air was not enough to make the steam whistle. I used the weights to make a seal between the pot and the wood and attached the tube over a small hole to funnel the steam. No joy. I also tried using the air compressor with various nozzles with a variety of success, but I think I'm going to need a simpler solution.

Gauge Lens

2009-08-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

The last finishing touch to the dash section was the articulating arm that held a lens for a true steampunk touch. I used desk lamp arm that I picked up at the thrift store provided the part I needed, and it fit perfectly on to the lamp assembly.

As you can see, by aligning the lens in front of a gauge the needle and numbers appear larger, so the piece is pretty functional.

Whistle

2009-07-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in a previous post about a plan to use steam for "something". Well, I found that something. It's a 5 note air-whistle that makes the sound of a train! It's copper and has a threaded end so it can be attached to piping, which got me thinking.

The plan is coiling something like steel dishwashing hoze or copper piping around my exhaust (which heats to 500+ degrees). Then, I let water from a small tank in to the coil using a valve and once the water hits it, it will flash-evaporate causing steam to shoot through a pipe in to the whistle making a sound.

That's the idea, anyway. All my roommates think it's not going to work so I'm going to do some experiments on the stove with boiling water to see if I can even get the thing to whistle in the first place. Fingers crossed!

Long Weekend

2009-07-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

The brass sections are finally done, cut and mounted. Even with our beefy air compressor and cutting tool it took me 6 hours of grinding away to get the pieces cut and cleaned up. I sat in the garage with my earbuds under some big ear-protective headphones and watched movies on my iphone as I would cut an inch, then wait for the compressor to re-fill. In the end, I'm fairly happy with the result, although I wish the etch would have been a bit deeper. But the show must go on...

...And on it went. It was nice to be back to more straight-forward fabrication and mounting the gauges took no time at all. I used some modified 90 degree mounts and hefty pipe couplings with rubber cores to hold the dials, which worked out better than I thought. The next task is to sew some sleeves for the rear ends of each to hide and protect the connections which I'll probably make out of the same vinyl as before. Glad I got extra. Finally, I have an idea for a dashboard detail that may or may not work but that's on the list as well.

Etching Ready to Cut

2009-07-22T12:34:00.001-07:00

Last night I touched up the etching with some black paint. My already-abstract designs became even more so with the imperfections inherent in the process, but I still think they convey what I was going for. At least the nameplate is pretty clean. I'm going to seal these with a good amount of clear coat to keep them protected and glossy and start cutting them out with my air tool this eventing.

With any luck, I'll wrap up this phase and get going on my gauges to really finish up the dashboard.

Shed

2009-07-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, and we finished the shed. Right now it has 2 mopeds and 4 frames in it with room to spare. Not bad for only a few hours.

Etching Finished - Finally

2009-07-21T10:30:00.001-07:00

The brass etching has been the bane of my existence the last week or so (and my girlfriend was becoming concerned I was delving in to the mindset of the obsessed mad-scientist). It took me six tries (and four kinds of paper) to simply get the toner on the brass and three tries to etch the damn thing. In the process, I scaled down the number of pieces to the foot plates and the name plate.

But, I did finish it with moderate results. My only question now is whether I hand-paint the negative back, or use a dremel to deepen the cuts. The etch was successful, but not quite deep enough to spray and sand as most people recommend. I think I may try hand painting tonight and see what I get, since Acrylic can easily be washed off.

As for the process...here's the toner successfully transferred on to the brass. I heated 3-4 inches at a time with the iron on the hottest setting with my cellphone timing 5 minutes. Then I would move the iron and rub the revealed section until no air bubbles were left. Put in a movie for this part.

Next, I made a tank with about 7 gallons of water with 1 whole container of salt. The pieces were dunked and separated by about 3/4" of wood. The positive charge was attached to the piece to be etched and the negative to the other.

Here's about 1 hour in. Crazy looking, huh? This nasty stuff is basically rust from the salt water. I really wanted to try doing a non-toxic (or less toxic) etch without copper sulfate. It was bubbling and fizzing like crazy. Fingers crossed here.

Here's the piece with the toner still on and the etch finished after about 2 hours. What's cool is that the other piece with the negative charge essentially became copper-plated, which I an use for something else later, I guess. The next step is to clean off the toner with carb cleaner.

Finally, the brass is revealed! Once the black paint/primer is added back in to the negative spaces the design will really pop. It's not as clean as some of the awesome etching I've seen online, but screw it, I've spent enough time on this part and there's much more to be done!

Lastly, my tips for etching, for what they're worth:

Keep it small, under 6x6. Next time if I do something large I'll break it in to pieces. I think the charge is just too dissipated and weak over a large area.
Use magazine paper (semi gloss pages from Wired or something) for the transfer
Get an iron with no auto-temperature control safety features. You want it maximum heat all the time.
Use copper sulfate, it will give you a much deeper etch, combined with the smaller size (I think)

Lights

2009-07-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend my roommate Adam and I spent Saturday building the new 'ped shed. It took a bit of time getting started, but it progressed nicely. Here's a photo of the frame completed. We actually did get the walls, roof, and door completed but I neglected to take a photo, but I will once we get it painted. It's only 4 feet tall, the perfect size for bikes and we should be able to fit 4-5 in there which will free up a lot of space in the garage.

As for progress on the bike this weekend, I watched Pulp Fiction while doing some wiring. Here you can see the LED lights burning bright off the 12v battery. I haven't yet spliced in the brake lines or the power switch but it should be pretty easy.

I also attempted to print my images on the brass to begin etching. However, the paper I used was just too thick and the toner only transferred a minimal amount. Set back. But after some more research, I discovered that printing with a laser printer on to magazine paper, which is glossy and thin, can give you better results so I'll try that again tonight. Luckily carb cleaner pulled the failed stencils right off so I can try again since brass PRICEY.

Electrical Work

2009-07-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

I started working on the wiring for the bike, which is going to take a good couple of days to finish. Electrical is not really my forte, but with my roommate's help (he builds robots) I should make it through.

First, I hammered out the frame that will house the lamp. I harvested this piece from an old slide projector ad it was nearly the right size, but 10 minutes on the anvil made it perfect. Man, I love hammering shit on those.

Next I epoxied my lamp in to the, again, perfect-sized housing (talk about a lucky find). The LEDs have such a long life I'm not really concerned with having to replace it. The thing will probably out-live me.

Here's the assembly inside the headlight. Trust me, it's a LOT brighter than it looks. Plus, this light is more for people to see me, the secondary light below is for the road.

Finally, here's the rat nest that is the wiring process. As you can see I've tagged all the wires to make sure what's-what. Once I run all the wire I'll attach them to their respective lights and terminals and see if I can get the switches working. This weekend, however, I'm planning the big electro-etching process so I'll have one more night to work on it until next week.

Grips - Process Photos

2009-07-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

The grips were my focus last night and I'm pretty pleased with the final result.

First step was to bore out the interior diameter of the neoprene grips. I bought them thinking they were actual wood, but it turns out they were just wood colored, but comfortable. So I decided to use some vinyl left over from the seat to make matching covers. Like I said, the first step was to make the interior diameter wider so the grips would fit over the wide throttle assembly.

Next, I cut three lengths of the vinyl to be sewed together and stretched over the grips. Luckily, the masking tape width was the perfect size, so I used strips of tape as a guide.

After cutting the pieces, I sewed them together to create a tube. I used three lengths which I thought would stretch a bit better than one big piece held together by a single seam.

Finally, I made 9 tiny stitches at the top of the sleeve to start to close the top. As you can see it's almost sealed, but the final step would be threading a screw through a small hole for the finishing cap.

Here's the finished grip with the accents securing the top seam to the neoprene core.

One more shot of both grips. I love how they match the seat perfectly and are super comfortable. One more thing to check off the list!

Pedals and Wings

2009-07-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

Last night was really productive. I finally got the wings wired up and mounted, and the stiffened fabric was a breeze to work with. I taped up the sheets on the armatures just to make sure they worked, but looking at it, it seemed like the bright white was a little too bright.

So, as you can see from this gross-looking picture, I soaked them in steaming-hot water with tea bags for 15 minutes or so. I made sure to crinkle them a bit to let the dye soak in unevenly for that natural aged look.

As you can see, the finished wings definitely have that DaVinci flying machine look to them and I'm pretty pleased with how they came out. The darker color matches a lot better with the overall look I think. I may need to spot weld the joints just to be safe, but we'll see how they hold up during some test rides soon.

Also, I mounted my collapsible pedals which are really sweet:

4th of Juy - Off

2009-07-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

I went to the Midwest with my girlfriend for the 4th to visit her family, leaving me with no progress this weekend. However, after we got there the lambs stopped screaming and I was able to enjoy myself without even thinking about the bike. I'm pretty refreshed and motivated once again so I'll be back at it tonight. I know it's not moped related, but I have to post this picture that sums up the small town we were in:
Ah, small towns.

Anyway, I should be receiving my engine parts today which include a new PHBG 19mm carb, intake and new exhaust. After I wrap up all the custom body work I'll be working on the actualy bike with these new components. Not only is the bike going to look cool, it's going to SCREAM.

OCP

2009-07-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

"Obsessive-Compulsive Productivity (Disorder)"

I'm pretty sure I have this.

Wings Take Flight

2009-07-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

Last night I spent the evening watching V for Vendetta and building the DaVinci wings. The metal armatures came out SICK. It's like a cross between Edward Scissorhands and a Chinese junk sail. Anyway, the construction was the easy part, and now I have a pair of matching ones.

The fabric webbing, on the other hand, is proving to be difficult. I tried a number of webbing patterns and construction processes such as mounting the middle arm in a small sheath, then trying to stretch the outsides, or starting with outer sleeves and working in. I wasn't really getting anywhere though. The wings are just not strong enough to pull fabric taught. So, I decided to make the fabric self-supporting.

Here you can see a crude setup that stretched the fabric. I soaked the piece in fabric glue and let it dry overnight. It's now pretty stiff and will be more like mounting cardstock or something that holds its shape a bit better. Plus it looks weathered, which is always cool. Hopefully this will be a bit easier to work with.

Mirrors Complete

2009-07-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

I fashioned mounts that allowed the mirrors to be fit inside the armatures for a great steampunk look. The dash area is really coming together!

Also, my roommate Adam and I sketched out plans for our "ped-shed" that we're building next week last night. As you can see in all the photos, we have quite a few bikes in the house at the moment between the 4 of us (I think the current count is 13) and we're running out of space. I'll post some photos of that as well.

Etching Tank

2009-06-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight I put together the tank I'm going to use for the brass etching. There's a wooden base in the bottom of the tank that the negative brazing rod is sitting on, soldered to the black wire. The positive brazing rod is suspended over the brass to generate the charge and is connected to the red wire. The next step is getting the designs printed out and the brass cleaned and prepped.

Mirrors

2009-06-28T21:13:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend I installed the "helping-hands" on the bars which will act as my mirror mounts. I drilled through the pipe and bolted the mounts in, hopefully they'll be strong enough hold the larger mirrors I have once everything is tightened down. Also, I found a cool horn to mount on the bars as well, for that extra eclectic look.

As for the mirrors themselves, we had a pair laying around the garage, but they were pretty rusty so I've been soaking them in rust-remover. This stuff is amazing, it eats right through rust without touching anything else AND it's reusable. Bad ass.

The last thing I started this weekend was construction on what I call "DaVinci wings," inspired by schematics of Leonardo's designs for flying machines, out of an old umbrella. I'm going to sew some canvas panels between the arms, add some starch, then attach them behind the seat somehow. They should look pretty sick!

Total Time...

2009-06-23T08:50:00.001-07:00

I was wondering how much time I had spent up to this point on construction. I average 2-3 hours a night M-Th, plus I'd guess a good 8-10 per weekend which puts me at about 115 hours for 6+ weeks of fabrication, sketching, and design work so far. I'm thinking I could be wrapping up the construction process in the next few weeks and I am hoping mid to late July I'll start breaking the thing down to prep the frame for paint.

List of things to do, in no particular order:

Wiring the electrical system
Mount and install the gauges (once they arrive)
Finish up dashboard details
Mirrors
Grips/throttle accents
Water tank for steam part (to be described later ;)
Electro-etching of brass pieces, installing them once complete
Install 80cc kit
Install new carb
Install new pipe
Pedals

Control Box & Mount - Nearly Finished

2009-06-23T08:41:00.001-07:00

I spent the weekend and the last few days putting together the rail that will hold the fairly hefty control box against the tank. You can see all the little details in these shots, and the coolest part is that the front screw of the compass actually hold the entire lid in place, so it can be removed if necessary.

The rails came off of an old brass fireplace screen that I bent to shape to follow the curve of the tank. The trick is that I can't actually drill in to the tank to mount the whole thing without worrying about sealing it back up, so I've devised a way to use some mounts at the bottom to bolt in to the frame, a bracket around the gas nozzle to hold most of the weight, and two mounts at the top (tonight's project) to secure it to the frame up there.

Hopefully after tonight I'll have the whole piece mounted and get to wiring up the lights!

Goldmine

2009-06-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

I was working the night before last on the control box and I was feeling like I was a little low on junk parts. I stopped by a few thrift stores on my way home and found a pair of gems: an old sewing machine and a slide projector.

After taking them apart (which took a hell of a lot longer than I anticipated) I found some really awesome components to use. The sewing machine had tons of little linkages and arms which I've got on the control box now, interconnecting with the sundial compass I installed.

Also, the projector had a couple really cool lenses I think I can use on a light or two and one diamond of a find: this small rotary fan! I have no idea where it's going to go, but it's going somewhere. I was considering putting it on my carb's air-intake but there's so many possibilities!

Dashboard and Switches

2009-06-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

I'm getting close to doing the wiring for the bike so I've started working on the dash and control box which will have my light and kill-switch controls. I've mounted my switches in to the box (the status LEDs are next) and modified the inside to be easy-opening.

The dash, as you can see, is kind of 2-leveled with a slope connecting the two pieces. When I get the rest of my gauges (which unfortunately could be a month away) I'll be finishing that piece up. But since they are on such a delay I may cut some PVC to size and finish the mountings before then.

Weekly Progress

2009-06-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

This week has been really busy and I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like to have, but I did happen to finish the tail-light assembly. You can see all the finished details here. I also got my battery, LEDs and sockets today, all of which should fit perfectly. Still waiting on my beefy 42 LED cluster head-light but that's ok, there's always more to do...

One such task is the dash/top-end of the bike. I got one of my three gauges so I've been playing with cardboard to mockup how they will mount in a kind of dash display. This part has to be really cool since the focus is right here while riding, so I'm taking some time to sketch up some ideaas this weekend.

I also put together the designs for the brass plates I'll be electro-etching with copper sulfate. I've added the brass color for effect, but basically all the black will be "eaten" away by the chemical process leaving a cool 3D effect. I used high-rez photos of gears to make it seem like there's inner workings inside the bike. I've never done anything like this part before, so it'll be interesting! I'm hopeing to print these out full-scale and tape them to the bike for one more fitting and look-see over the weekend.

Rear End

2009-06-09T10:34:00.000-07:00

I received the little trunk that will serve as my battery box got it mounted, and I've started putting together the tail and brake-light assembly which you can see here. The brake light is similar to the spotlight up front but I tried to make it a bit different with the little rails. There are bolts through the frame holding the light and box firmly so I just need to finish mounting the bottom of the tail and add some details to the lamp itself.

Also, I've ordered all my electrical components so Tyler and I will be starting on that pretty soon.

Finished Headlight

2009-06-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend on small-scale details to really put the finishing touches on the headlight. As you can see, I've added some 'punk ornamentation as well as the lower spotlight that will house a powerful LED to help spot potholes and such at night.

Here's the detail of the spotlight, made from a light socket, over-sized carb manifold and some little parts I had from the set of trumpet parts I bought on ebay.

I'm really happy with the way this piece turned out. It's one of the main focal points on a moped and I'm glad it stands on its own. Some friends we're hanging out at the house and one of them said "That thing looks like a time machine..."

Mission accomplished.

Headlight Process Photos

2009-06-01T15:15:00.001-07:00

This weekend I worked on both building my new headlight and doing some maintenance on my ride-around bike, my WWII themed Puch Maxi. Here's some process photos for the headlight:

First, on either side of the light there were different panels. One had an extra pane of glass, the other a double thick brass wall. To make them symmetrical, I knocked out the glass on one, then cut out and ground down the edges of the metal on the other, leaving two holes.

Then, as you can see above, I used wood blocks made for door moldings as the side pieces. I drilled holes in those, epoxied conduit pipe in them and add the supporting brass hardware.

The green arm (part of an antique mole trap) was used to mount the springs by drilling support holes in to the frame. The (almost) finished product turned out to be the perfect size and shape, and after a little bending and boring, the original headlight mounts were reused to mount to the bottom.

Just for fun I mounted up all the parts I have so far and I gotta say, it's looking pretty punk!

Headlight Sketch

2009-05-28T08:54:00.000-07:00

Before the ride last night I did a quick sketch of the headlight assembly. The lantern will sort of be suspended by springs mounted through the center. At the bottom of the main light is a smaller secondary light that will be angled to illuminate the road 5-10 feet ahead of the bike for night riding. My friend T-Y, who builds electronics and robots, is helping me out with a wiring diagram and all the components needed to make it happen.

Long Weekend Contruction

2009-05-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

The long weekend was a great stretch of construction time. It rained every day so we couldn't do much riding anyway, though beer and barbecuing was accomplished regardless.

My major progress was on the floor runners. About 18 hours total for the pair was the total build time. Unfortunately I screwed up through the deck on my first one and had to recut it which took a lot of time but the next two went pretty quick. This photo shows me marking the pilot holes for the main side piece. I used cherry because it's a bit stronger than pine but still easily to work with and will stain nicely.

The hardest part for sure was grinding down the chamfer angles and getting them all to fit, but they turned out ok. I'm no cabinet maker so up close I'm sure they are a bit off. This picture shows me guling up the insides. I'm hoping the glue and screws will be strong enough to withstand the vibrations and weight.

Here's the final runners. The big funny looking washers are 2 of about 10 of those things that I found in the gutter coming out of the theaters after seeing Terminator. You never know what you'll find out there! Here you can see the 1/4" recess that will hold the brass footplate. I've been researching, thanks to my friend Sam, electro-etching so I think I may try that and do my own brasswork for those. The last part will be finishing and sanding, but I'm going to leave that until the paint phase.

Also, I finally mounted the shocks linkages to the seat with a crossbeam and some custom metal mounts I made. The coolest part is the damn things flex when you lean back in the seat. They actually function! I'm not claiming to have anticipated that, but man is it sweet.

On the list next: I have to mount some springs on the linkages but other than that I'm ready to start on the footpegs that will mount under the runners. But that will have to wait. Tonight...we ride!

Runners

2009-05-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

Going off the concept sketch below, I've built some cardboard mockups of how the runners are going to look. I've elongated the tail and used the bent pieces up front to loosely get and idea of the pipes for the foot pegs.

I haven't really decided what kind of finish or details the wood will have, but I figure I can leave it unfinished for now and save that for the paint stage.

Also, the cardboard is good for working out the sizes of all the parts, which I've determined in my crude blueprint. I actually had to use some trig (what?! high school math?!) to determine the angles of the chamfer cuts but with a good chop saw I don't think it will be too dfficult.

Seat Brace

2009-05-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

I finally got both sets of linkages I bought off of ebay and got them mocked up how I want them. As you can see I need to get (or make) some mounting brackets and a long cross beam to attach the dog bones to the seat but it looks so cool and very much like the original concept.

The best part? The links are the EXACT distance between the shock screws and they mount perfectly to the frame without any modification, giving the seat 2 points of support.

Linkages

2009-05-18T10:01:00.001-07:00

If you notice in the seat sketch there's a Matrix-looking armature on the back of the chair that looks kind of like a creepy dentist chair or something. Not only for looks, it's going to mount to the aluminum seat frame to the frame of the bike itself for added support. I finally scored the parts to make it of ebay: a few rear-shock linkage assemblies for motorcycles that should work perfectly.

New Sketches

2009-05-18T09:50:00.001-07:00

I did some sketching over the weekend trying to get a handle on a few of the other components of the bike:

In this sketch you can see how the box and the compass (both shown in photos below) will sit on the tank. The run/kill switch and lights on/off will be installed with old-looking amber lights while the wiring will come out both sides through brass elbow pipes. I haven't figured out how to mount the thing to the tank without punching holes in it, but one step at a time.

I sat on the seat for a while to feel how comfortable it is. My legs are a bit longer so after a while the built-in footboard felt a bit too cramped. My idea was to mount a second set of handle bars from the footboard underneath the tank to use as foot pegs. Placed far enough forward they should allow the pedals to still function but not interfere with the forks turning. I may be able to use the point at which the bars mount to the bracket to attach the control box at well, so it may be a good solution.

Sundial Compass

2009-05-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

I found this great accent piece that I think is going to go on top of the control box. It will take some work getting it level but it's SO punk I couldn't resist. Ships today!

Seat Process Photos

2009-05-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos highlighting the construction process for the new seat. I've never done any real upholstery before so I was really just winging it but the end product seemed to turn out ok. The seat itself is very comfortable and gives a certain regal (and ridiculous) look to the bike, which is pretty much what Steampunk is all about.

I found a great upholstery supply store http://www.brandtandwhitney.com/
that had everything I needed to get started. I used high-density 2" foam and durable brown vinyl for the fabric (leather was about $30 a square foot and with everything else I need to buy, I went for the cheaper option)

I used 1/2" plywood to fashion new bases for both the bottom and top cushions. I added holes in the wood which would be used for the pillowing effect. The foam was spray-mounted and carved to fit.

I cut pieces of vinyl, two for each cushion. One for the back and one for the top. The first step was to get the sizes about right. Then, using #17 guitar strings, I threaded the beads through the fabric, foam and wood and tightened them on the other side. This pulled the cushion in to that classic pillow look. Once that was done four times for each, I folded the top cushion tight and hammered the brads in one at a time with a leather-covered hammer. I took a guess at the spacing and left about a half-inch between them.

After going all the way around both, I had my finished cushions. I was concerned the vinyl would look too "fake" being uniform whereas leather has subtle texture changes, but the pleats break up the solid color quite well and the highlights have a really classy look.

The next step was to mount the cushions to the frame. This was actually extremely difficult. I had to use small l-brakets under the frame to ensure a good fit. You can see in this photo some strips of vinyl I sewed that are held on with pipe-clamps. These are purely for decoration and are meant to break up the solid line of the chrome piping. All the chrome here (including the clamps ) will be painted to look like brass.

Finally, the seat was mounted to the old seat mount. I ripped the foam off and had my friend Adam (who I think was a blacksmith in a previous life) heat and pound the thing flat, so that I could screw my new seat directly on to it. This allowed me to use the spring built in to the seat mount and the mount itself, which is strong enough to hold the weight.

It was a bit of work, but the seat is almost complete. I am in the process of finding linkages I can add for further support, but all in all this component is mostly done.

Chair Concept

2009-05-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

Now that I had the basis for my seat, I did some sketches to get an idea of what I was going to do. I wanted to make the thing look like a cross between something from Sherlock Holmes and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's enough to give a me an idea of supplies I'll need, so the details will be figured out as I go.

Seat Construction Started

2009-05-07T11:17:00.000-07:00

There are 5 thrift stores on my way home from work that I have been rummaging through and finally found a gem: an old foldable high chair seat. I know it doesn't look like much, but imagine it reupholstered with thick foam and leather with brass tacks along the seams and brass tubing instead of stainless steel. I think it's going to work and the scale of the child's seat is actually perfect.

I've removed the pad from my current seat and will use the metal mount and connect it to this new seat. I tried it out last night and it is totally comfortable. Here's a photo of it mostly fabricated. I need to replace all the rivets with bolts but all in all it's looking pretty SP!

Control Box

2009-05-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

I scored a cheap antique cigarette box that I'm going to try to rig as a control box above the tank for my switches. For .99 on ebay I couldn't lose so I should have it in a few days.

I need to figure out how to fill the slot (maybe with a brass plate or something) but I think I can figure something out.

Headlight

2009-05-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

After my antique experience I found that ebay is going to be the place to find the certain pieces I need for key components. Luckily, I snagged this bad boy that will be the case for my new headlight. Once the paint is sanded off it should look pretty 'punk with some armatures added. One less thing to find!

Scouring Antique Stores

2009-05-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend scouring every thrift and antique store I could find searching for anything I could use. The salvage yard idea turned up to be a dead end, but a few vintage hardware store (the owners of which even knew what Steampunk was!) ended up being pretty helpful.

The best ones I found were:

The Antique Exchange
This store hand two huge floors where I found some antique tools and tongs and some cool door knobs I could use for something.

Grandpa Snazzy's
This weird store is mostly for home restoration but I found a few brass arms and some hinges that should be pretty useful.

Packrat Antiques
This place had the COOLEST collection of science and tech antiques ever. They had microscopes, surgery kits, lamps, guns, all kinds of cool stuff. The owners, however, are the meanest old cranks I have every met. If I do end up buying something from there I will definitely tell them I'll most likely be destroying the item for parts (after I pay for it).

Concept

2009-05-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

I did some sketching and came up with this concept. I took a photo of the bike and did a faint outline in illustrator then added on the custom parts. You can see a lot of mechanical stuff that will be added, but a lot of this design will be changed based on what I can actually scrounge up out there, but I think the basic idea will be the same.

Searching for Salvage Yards

2009-04-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

I didn't think it would be tough to find junkyards in Denver, but apparently it is! Most places I've found are auto-focused with sorted inventories. I'm looking for a true junk yard with piles of rusty parts off of god-knows-what to rummage through to find my steampunk components but it's proving difficult.

I did find one place called "Charlie's" that I'm going to check out today, hopefully it'll be a good start. The flea market may be the next stop this weekend in search of sewing machines or clocks or anything I can use the start gather parts for inspiration or later use. If I have time I'll do some initial sketching and post the results as well.

Moped Purchased

2009-04-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

I purchased the bike I'll be using for my steampunk moped project a few days ago. The model I'm going with is a 1977 Bianchi Snark Eagle with a 50cc V1 Minarelli engine that I picked up for $300.oo. Here's the bike:

The concept here is to create an awesome steampunk moped with components that are 100% functional, not simply for looks.

As you can see, Henry, which I've named him, is pretty stock at the moment. The first part of the process will be upgrading the engine to a solid high-performance base. While I'm doing that, I'll be designing the steampunk details and searching for parts to actually put them together.