Off topic: welding

[Waiex191]

I'm teaching my youngest to run the MIG welder.
https://youtu.be/Oc5tHwJNmUE

I think I've been effective with my kids, and other people's kids on this teaching stuff because I can suppress the urge to push them aside and do it myself, though sometimes it kills me. I think confidence is the most important thing to teach. He needs to be able to weld for his Mega wheel project. I'm not doing it for him.

Matthew is building a pedal powered monowheel. I'd like to get him into something safer like sailing or riding motorcycles, but this is his current interest.

[T Legg]

Pretty nice bead. You could tell it was going to be good just by the sound. My welder buddy always used to say it should sound like tearing panties. Your son has picked an ambitious project. This generation needs a lot more experiences like that.My youngest loved helping me work on things. I helped him build his first motor for his Karman Ghia when he was sixteen now he is fearless and will try to fix anything. At thirty one he is my partner and has been for three years now in my commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning business. In the last couple months we have rebuilt the front axel on his land cruiser and replaced the transmission on one of my FJ's (although I screwed up and put first gear in backwards causing it to pop out on de-acceleration we will be fixing that soon). Robert Randy's son is another fine example of a young man starting mechanical work with his father early on and is now proficient mechanic on his own and a part of his business. I think teaching your kids these skills early on is far more important then sending them to college. My daughter and son in law are carrying on the tradition with my grandkids. They have sent me videos of my three year old grand daughter helping taping and then painting the drywall we installed in their house and using an electric sander to sand the picknick table they made. Your doing a good job raising your kids.

[fj1289]

Well done!  On both parts.   Also cool he feels comfortable to choose his own projects . 

[Firehawk068]

Awesome Stuff!

I agree that kids today need to be more involved in "Hands-On" projects...........I know mine could use a bunch more of that!


As a side-note on the related topic, I bought myself a Mig-Welder this year, wired an outlet in the Garage, and taught myself how to weld!

I needed to fabricate a couple new Battery-Boxes on the back of the Camper, so this was the year to get that accomplished.

[Waiex191]

Thanks for the positive feedback guys!  Awesome welder and first project Alan.

Monowheel work is progressing. The prior session Matthew made prototype tooling and a first bracket. Two holes a set distance apart, then a bending tool made out of oak. He had to calculate the bend setback and that factored into the hole spacing. Here is the first one, got it right on the first try.


Here is the tooling in action. YouTube is not happy with me playing music, so this may be blocked in your country.
https://youtu.be/FmLiBdoftxc

Here is the wheel itself.


Now he has to weld all those brackets to an old bicycle we bought for $5.

[Firehawk068]

Please continue posting updates on this project!

I absolutely want to see it taking shape. 

I'll make sure to share it with my boys.

[Waiex191]

Still making progress.  One of the challenges is how do you put a wooden gear on a bicycle wheel hub?  Matthew put together a design which picked up 6 of the spoke holes.  Those holes were updrilled to 3/16".  The gear needed a hole big enough to slip the hub in, but then of course you need to be able to bolt it to something.  Here is one side.  Note it is split in two so you can get it under the spoke flange.  One side has features to center the hub in the bore of the gear.  Note the captive AN3 lock nuts.  These parts were printed in PLA on his Flashforge Finder.  His older brother got him to move up to Onshape for design instead of the "3D microsoft paint" type thing he was using before.  That was a good thing - some actual skills are being developed.


He still has to drill the 6 mounting holes through the first adapter, then plywood, then the second adapter.  The second adapter does not have the 6 holes for mounting it to the gear.  Easier to drill it together than it is to design the holes to be in the right place.  Also note my dusty FJ waiting for the snow to melt.  


I had to work hard to actually get a smile in that last picture.  Parents of teenagers everywhere will understand.  Here is an edge view of the assembly.


Completion of this task will get us back to welding.

[Waiex191]

Here is a test of the gear on the bike:
https://youtu.be/83vmyh5o9yY

Setting incidence so we can start fabricating and welding:

[T Legg]

Is there going to be another cog in place of the front wheel?
I wonder what the land speed record is for the pedal powered mono wheel. It could be a wide open catagory.

[Waiex191]

Is there going to be another cog in place of the front wheel?
I wonder what the land speed record is for the pedal powered mono wheel. It could be a wide open catagory.

Matthew has made up 6 of these bracket/roller things:


We have a bunch of 1" square stock which will be welded to the Magna bike frame and those rollers will support the bike.  We are thinking 3 under the bike and 3 spaced around the rest of the perimeter.

it could be a wide open category.  Personally after this I'm hoping he does something more sane like a 2400CC twin motor FJ.

[fj1289]

Is there going to be another cog in place of the front wheel?
I wonder what the land speed record is for the pedal powered mono wheel. It could be a wide open catagory.

Matthew has made up 6 of these bracket/roller things:


We have a bunch of 1" square stock which will be welded to the Magna bike frame and those rollers will support the bike.  We are thinking 3 under the bike and 3 spaced around the rest of the perimeter.

it could be a wide open category.  Personally after this I'm hoping he does something more sane like a 2400CC twin motor FJ.

You scared the crap out of me!  I started reading the updates from the last post - didn't see the BICYCLE frame pictures.   I read magna frame - and thought this had changed to a HONDA powered mono wheel!

[Waiex191]

You scared the crap out of me!  I started reading the updates from the last post - didn't see the BICYCLE frame pictures.   I read magna frame - and thought this had changed to a HONDA powered mono wheel!

It's hard to say which would be more dangerous!  I think this will be a hard machine to ride with pedals.  Needs to be high enough so the pedals don't hit the ground, but how do you get the thing started?  Or stopped?  Not my vision, I'm just the enabler.

My other kid has a V30 Magna and on the V4 forums the guys are all into the Magna bike frame in the monowheel.  The V30 kid was given a weed whacker motor a couple of years ago and he had it temporarily mounted to the Magna bike.
https://youtu.be/KS_enua7YzY

Note, I don't have normal kids.  I have no idea where they get it from.  Must be my wife.

[fj1289]

Awesome!  So it gets going for a bit, it won't take too long to break out the weed wacker engine again!

[Waiex191]

In some ways the weed whacker engine would be better than pedals.  At least you don't have to worry about pedaling and getting rolling at the same time.  Plus you can put your seat lower because you don't worry about pedal clearance.

Any way I look at it, at least he is doing something productive with his hands.  And the idea was all his own.  I'm just here to enable him.

[gumby302ho]

 I think this is great to see with the modern youth, actually using there minds and hands and making/creating something/anything. On a funny note in one of your son's pictures he really looks like a very young Jimmy Page! lol