OP
OP
Snowbound
Jim
Small update:
Don got his bypass done. 6-1/2 hrs in surgery but everything went very well. Ended up with a pretty mean scare. 58 staples and 12 stitches.
He spent 3 nights in hospital and on the 4th day I still wasn’t in any shape to help bring him home from hospital. Pulled that ace out on another good friend and he came thru for me. Don’s son also showed up so it worked out.
No real updates on the Esky but I did manage to sit at my welding table and start on another project that I need to get done.
The kids go-kart. For some reason they keep breaking the intake off. The weight of the carb shouldn’t be causing this but it’s the 3rd time it’s happened. The part is only $10, $12 I think shipped is what I paid but I’m not gonna keep doing this. So I decided to make my own.
It’s a pretty tight center line radius and I don’t have a die and roller with that small of a CLR. I looked around and all my 3/4” pipe had a thicker wall so I decided to use some 3/4” rigid conduit. It’ll be stronger that cast aluminum part that keeps breaking. If this doesn’t work I’ll go to a heavier wall pipe.
So how do we get a tight CLR without bending? Pie cutting is the only way I know how. So I started off by measuring the diameter of the pipe, multiply that by pie (3.14) and we get the length around the diameter of the pipe. Divide that by 2 and that’s the radius. You can also cheat and not do the math by taking a piece of paper and wrapping the pipe, cut it so the paper butts against each other and then fold it in half to use as a template to mark your lines. But I’m a math guy so I always just figure out the measurements.
Here’s the pipe with the lines marked. One on each side, perfectly opposite each other.
Next step is cutting the pie shapes. 4.5* and 9* transition angle is the most commonly used. That’s because at 9* you can hit all the common angles. 45*, 60*, 90*, 180*, you get the idea. I decided to go 9* cuts to keep it less seams to weld. Make your 9* cut then 9* in the opposite direction. Instead of switching the angle of the blade, I just rotated the pipe 180* for the next 9* cut.
So you end up with a piece that’s 18* total angle. Simple math tells us that 10 of these will give us 180*. We only need 90* so 5 pieces will get us there. I cut 8 pieces because this intake is a little more than 90*.
If you line up the line you made on the pipe, it makes a perfect angle. I ended up using 7 pieces plus the end pieces that have 9* on one side and straight on the other.
Then I transferred the mounting flanges to some 1/4” flat stock.
Then proceeded to tack weld the pieces together and cleaned it up with flat disk.
Still have some more welding and cleaning to do but you can see the inside is a smooth transition, no kinks like you would get from trying to bend on such a tight radius.
I’ll post finished product when I get a few minutes to finish it up. Bottom line, it’s gonna be stronger and match original piece. And I’m also thinking about getting rid of this Chinese carb and going to a Walbro in the near future and that will be as easy as cutting off mounting flange and welding a new one on that matches the new carb.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Don got his bypass done. 6-1/2 hrs in surgery but everything went very well. Ended up with a pretty mean scare. 58 staples and 12 stitches.
He spent 3 nights in hospital and on the 4th day I still wasn’t in any shape to help bring him home from hospital. Pulled that ace out on another good friend and he came thru for me. Don’s son also showed up so it worked out.
No real updates on the Esky but I did manage to sit at my welding table and start on another project that I need to get done.
The kids go-kart. For some reason they keep breaking the intake off. The weight of the carb shouldn’t be causing this but it’s the 3rd time it’s happened. The part is only $10, $12 I think shipped is what I paid but I’m not gonna keep doing this. So I decided to make my own.
It’s a pretty tight center line radius and I don’t have a die and roller with that small of a CLR. I looked around and all my 3/4” pipe had a thicker wall so I decided to use some 3/4” rigid conduit. It’ll be stronger that cast aluminum part that keeps breaking. If this doesn’t work I’ll go to a heavier wall pipe.
So how do we get a tight CLR without bending? Pie cutting is the only way I know how. So I started off by measuring the diameter of the pipe, multiply that by pie (3.14) and we get the length around the diameter of the pipe. Divide that by 2 and that’s the radius. You can also cheat and not do the math by taking a piece of paper and wrapping the pipe, cut it so the paper butts against each other and then fold it in half to use as a template to mark your lines. But I’m a math guy so I always just figure out the measurements.
Here’s the pipe with the lines marked. One on each side, perfectly opposite each other.
Next step is cutting the pie shapes. 4.5* and 9* transition angle is the most commonly used. That’s because at 9* you can hit all the common angles. 45*, 60*, 90*, 180*, you get the idea. I decided to go 9* cuts to keep it less seams to weld. Make your 9* cut then 9* in the opposite direction. Instead of switching the angle of the blade, I just rotated the pipe 180* for the next 9* cut.
So you end up with a piece that’s 18* total angle. Simple math tells us that 10 of these will give us 180*. We only need 90* so 5 pieces will get us there. I cut 8 pieces because this intake is a little more than 90*.
If you line up the line you made on the pipe, it makes a perfect angle. I ended up using 7 pieces plus the end pieces that have 9* on one side and straight on the other.
Then I transferred the mounting flanges to some 1/4” flat stock.
Then proceeded to tack weld the pieces together and cleaned it up with flat disk.
Still have some more welding and cleaning to do but you can see the inside is a smooth transition, no kinks like you would get from trying to bend on such a tight radius.
I’ll post finished product when I get a few minutes to finish it up. Bottom line, it’s gonna be stronger and match original piece. And I’m also thinking about getting rid of this Chinese carb and going to a Walbro in the near future and that will be as easy as cutting off mounting flange and welding a new one on that matches the new carb.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
