Make: Online: Transportation Archives

Archive: Transportation

July 2, 2009

Motorcycle brake rotor repair kludge

My dad recently took a minor tumble on his motorcycle. He's fine, but the bike was banged up a bit, including a bent brake rotor. Consensus among his buddies in the Magna Owners of Texas was that the rotor would have to be replaced, but of course they're pricey, and since the rotor was "shot" anyway, Dad figured he might as well try to straighten it and see what happened.

Here's what he did, in his own words:

Since I had mounted the tire/wheel on the axle in my vice to polish the wheel, it was a simple matter to rig up the "feeler" shown in the first picture to check out the rotor flatness. Just a piece of copper wire about AWG 7 to 9 or thereabouts -- I had in my electrical junk box. With a light behind the setup, one can use the reflection of the end of the wire from the rotor surface to obtain a very sensitive indication of warp when one spins the tire/wheel. Brought it back to planar using a soft face (brass) hammer. Go slow, it takes some time. "Sneak up on it" by whacking gently, measure, whack a little harder, measure, etc. until it yields just a bit.

Then, concerned that the rotor needed to be flatter than he could detect with the naked eye, he rigged up a second jig to test it:

Read full story

July 1, 2009

How-To: Weave a rope mat

I've seen this thing referred to as an "Ocean Mat," a "Prolong Knot," a "Ladder Mat," and a "Sailor's True Love Mat." Whatever you want to call it, it's a noble expression of the manly art of knot-tying, and this tutorial at the UK's Scullion Enterprises will show you how it's done.

More:

June 29, 2009

Scottish rotary boat lift - The Falkirk Wheel

This amazing machine transfers boats between the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals of central Scotland, which are some 80 feet apart vertically. It was opened in 2002. Gareth wrote last year about artist Andy Scott's proposal to install a pair of titanic mythical sea-horse heads as part of the lock mechanism below the wheel. Via Neatorama.

June 27, 2009

LOLrioKART: Dancing in the rain

Well, classes are finally over, and people like Charles can finally settle down to the important work of...extreme grocery carting:

While I seem to be in "build season" mode year-round, it is during long breaks with little in the way of academic or life obligations that I get the most done. Last summer, I began work on LOLrioKart and built Überclocker, Pop Quiz 2, and Nuclear Kitten for Dragon*Con.

So, for many of us, summer has arrived. Whether you are a teacher, student or neither, you likely have some essential experiment, project, mission or other task for the curious long days ahead. Fill us in through the comments, and point out some links so that we can see your winter and spring dreams come to summer's reality.
[via MITers]

June 23, 2009

Re-Make: Transparent boat

My latest guilty SkyMall pleasure is this "Moloniki" transparent polycarbonate canoe by Clear Blue Hawaii. It's 13' long, 3' wide amidships, and almost 1' deep, and the polycarb is UV-stabilized to prevent sun-yellowing. Of course it looks cool, but what is really attractive, to me, is the prospect of being able to see what's going on underwater beneath you. The price, unsurprisingly, is prohibitive: $1600 new.

Ouch. I can't justify that. Especially since the lip-syncing scandal tanked sales of my album.

So, as usually happens sooner or later, my thoughts have turned to making my own more accessible version. And, as I've learned by many embarrassing experiences, the first step of any new design project is researching what people have done before. There isn't much out there, but after googling around for awhile I finally hit on it with "plexiglass boat."

These pictures are from a fairly anonymous Picassa album belonging to "Shadicus." If you know anything more about this boat or its builders, feel free to drop me a line. From what I can tell, this craft, which took first place in a "junk boat" contest, has a hull made of scrap polycarbonate sheet. It's not great looking, and one of the captions mentions that "it takes on a little water." Still, it's a starting point: The Thing Can Be Done. And obviously it didn't cost much.

Now, having wiled away the better part of a day building boats in my brain, I have my own fairly well-developed ideas about how it might be done. But I want to hear yours. So make with the comments, folks: How do we do this?

From the pages of MAKE:

Totch Brown's Pit Gator Boat from MAKE 06 might be a good starting point.

June 22, 2009

Puddle duck racer

Lucky, of Pizza Crusade, writes:

I saw your post on Tyvek sails, and immediately thought of the PDRacer (Puddle Duck Racer) - a little sailboat you can build for about $150 with tools most people already have. There's a ton of info out there, as well as info so you can get involved with a local group of PDRacers - or start your own group. I haven't built one yet, but can't wait to try my hand at it.

When I was a young teen, my dad had a 37' cabin cruiser for a while and I had a dinghy sailboat about this size (plastic). I loved that thing. This brings back fond memories.

PDRacer

June 21, 2009

My grandfather's home built car

[Photo from Uncle Ray]

Long before my time, my grandfather Raymond Albert Sheffield, was messing about with cars. When I was about 10 or 11, we sat on a beach on Martha's Vineyard watching the ferries come and go exchanging cars and passengers while he told me of the car that he had built in his younger days.

Apparently, not having enough money for a vehicle was not going to stop him, so he built his own version of what I recall was a Model A. Where the model name would have been embossed, he put his own name. During the winters, he needed to get his ride off the street, so he and his mates dismantled the vehicle so that it could be carried down the stairs to the basement of the house he and my grandmother lived in. I imagine that he spent the winter modding and tuning the components for a better vehicle in the following year's driving season. In several of the pictures here, you can see the gleeful pride he had in owning and driving the vehicle that he made with his own hands. In this one you can see the excitement he had of driving his project.

My uncle Ray inherited the task of dealing with the room full of photos (no kidding!) after my grandfather passed on. He has since scanned and archived the decades of black and white photos that my grandfather shot, developed and printed in a darkroom located in his office.

My grandfather went on to become something of an inventor, tinkerer, and maker. Some time in the 1970's, I recall being at his Cambridge workshop, Air Conditioning Engineering, and seeing all the metallic creations he was cooking up with the help of his staff. One that I recall was a tubed fireplace contraption that drew the cool air from below the fire and expelled warm air out the top of the tubes, increasing the efficiency of the average wood burning fireplace.

Much of my grandfather's life's work seemed to track back to the creation of his car, the RayBiltIt, and the practical joy of a useful project. We should all do what we can to cultivate this kind of competent pursuit of dreams in the young people around us. Who knows what can come of such interests? New inventions, new technologies, new solutions to the world's problems, or maybe just some good wholesome fun with innovation?

If you have a father in your life who has nurtured your making spirit, you can share some stories with us in the comments, and if you are still hunting for the perfect gift, he may enjoy a discounted subscription to MAKE magazine.

Sailing with Tyvek

[Image from John's Nautical & Boatbuilding Pages]

Buying a manufactured sail can be very expensive. If you are making your own vehicle and want to experiment with wind-driven propulsion, you might want to check out the idea of using building wrap as a way of forming your sails:

Now plan the sail. For this first sail, let's not have battens; they would complicate things a lot. Draw a picture of it, and figure out if you can make the sail without a seam. Remember, as you draw it, there will be curve to the luff to shape the sail. And also, at each edge the sail will be two inches wider, for the taped hem. If you do need a seam, plan to use the edge of the material at the leach, and run the seam parallel to the leach, as in the sketch. Located in this way the force across the seam, tending to pull it apart, is kept at a minimum.
Let's make the leach and foot absolutely straight, unless the foot is to be attached to a spar. But any edge attached to a spar needs to be curved in order to get shape into the sail. The deepest part of the curve, for a reasonably stiff mast, ought to be one third of the way up the luff from the tack, and its depth should be one inch for each five feet of luff (or foot). By the way, for now let's call that point "D" for now. More about it later.

Now you need a gym or a dance floor, or something like that. You can guarantee the owner that you will not harm it. And you and your helper, if you have one, will for sure need a set of knee pads, like volleyball players and flooring people use, or you will come away with sore knees.

I like the suggestions on how to source the materials as inexpensively as possible, and the flexibility of the design. If you have tried this out, show us some photos or other documentation!

You can use the techniques for making a sail like this for your nascent parking lot surfer, kite, or other wind-powered transport. You will probably want to build and test a few before letting the shoreline leave your line of sight. Once you get the hang of the designing technique, then you may want to take the best of your plans to a professional sailmaker to have a formal, durable sail made up.

Open source EV controller

Photo from Paul and Sabrinas EV Stuff

Nikki likes this open source Electric Vehicle controller project. With an EV, your primary components are the motor, batteries, charger and the controller. If people can develop a design that will allow a more inexpensive and high quality motor controller, they can move the technology in a good way towards better components and systems. Nikki says:

They're looking for people to help with the project and donations to help finish the testing and documentation. It's certainly worth a go at building yourself, or working on with some students. They have some videos at YouTube of the conversion and the prototypes.

The OS EV motor controller project ReVolt wiki with a bit of info, including a set of photos showing the build process, and the MPGuino, to help keep track of your energy cost per mile.

If you are interested in the process of building an EV or even building your own electric motor controller, you will find this web site a great place to start. Our electric motor controller project involves not just us, but several gracious contributors from other sites including Ecomodder and the EV tech group.

You may want to listen in to the EVCast featuring the project.

June 19, 2009

iPhone motorcycle installation

RocketJohn rigged up his motorcycle and iPhone together to keep his phone charging while being able to listen to music (with a Bluetooth headset, I'm guessing), via @joepemberton.

June 17, 2009

MADE ON EARTH: Real-Life Concept Cars

MOE_conceptcars

Photograph by Sally Myers

Like many people of his generation, Baron Margo was dazzled by the futuristic concept cars Detroit trotted out year after year. And, like many people, he was disappointed that those streamlined vehicles remained unobtainable concepts to the average motorist. But unlike many people, Margo did something about it. He, as he describes it, "stepped up."

He started to build his own cars. Cars that appear to come from a parallel world, one where you debate whether to vacation on the beaches of Venus or go skiing at Olympus Mons on Mars.

I first saw one of Margo's rocket cars parked at a local diner, a gleaming silver torpedo wedged between unremarkable Corollas and SUVs. Closer inspection showed the work of an incredible craftsman: the sleek aluminum surface was covered with metallic detail, bristling with rivets, lights, and a massive faux jet exhaust with a rotating outer rim.

The three-wheeler uses recognizable parts -- a modified front suspension from a VW Beetle, a motorcycle engine -- in clever reworkings of proven designs, a practical approach that makes Margo's vehicles not just beautiful to look at, but also legally roadworthy.

But these quite noticeable cars are just the surface. Margo's home is a treasure trove of robots, rockets, and intricate machines, made primarily from found scrap, aerospace salvage, and construction remnants from the Glendale Galleria. Standing in one place, you can see a brass-and-steel train, an old Crosley auto, a gigantic robotic dragonfly, a family of upright robots and their android dog, and so much more. It's dizzying, inspirational, and humbling.

Margo is a reserved man, and while he's sold some works to the rich and famous and to the movies (rayguns for the Men In Black series), Margo does what he does simply because he loves it.

Margo is a wildly creative man, a dreamer who manages to actually make things real, thanks to a strong sense of the pragmatic, as seen in the two pieces of advice he gave me: "Take the easiest path" and "Don't burn yourself." Sage advice for every maker.

>> Baron Margo's Cars and More: baronmargo.com

From the column Made on Earth - MAKE 12, page 18 - Jason Torchinsky.

June 15, 2009

LEGO tank has full interior detailing

There's so much amazing work coming out of the AFOL* community these days that it can be hard to single out any particular work as outstanding. Nonetheless, mad_a0's mini-fig scale tank, with full interior detail, is, well... outstanding. Bravo! Via The Brothers Brick.

*That's "Adult Fans of LEGO" for you non-blockheads out there.

June 12, 2009

Nikki's plugged Prius

Nikki is all about electric vehicles. She does a great job at explaining how she is rebuilding and modifying the old and new EVs in her fleet. Her photo stream on Flickr helps her document projects like converting her Prius into a plug in hybrid electric. She is a frequent host for the EVCast, a podcast about electric vehicles. Check out her site for her regular updates on all things EV.

Nikki is a maker who is using her tinkering skills to convert the systems in her life to be more green. She is also having a good time learning about electric vehicle transportation and sharing her knowledge with the world.

Look for more photos of electric vehicles:

Extreme corpse motorcycle

Check out the attention to detail on this custom bike by Blue Flame Alley. Via Street Anatomy.

June 9, 2009

How-To: Sew a catamaran trampoline

No, not a trampoline for bouncing, which is what I thought when I first saw this, too. The fabric bridge across a catamaran is also called a trampoline, and is constructed from strong fabric, sewn to the frame through the grommets around the edge of the fabric. Instructables user TimAnderson's catamaran trampoline was in disrepair, so here he shows us how to repair the piece using the original grommets, but new fabric. He used a UV-resistant fabric for lasting strength in the sun.

June 8, 2009

How-To: Floating dock

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Here's how Instructables user pilx made this simple floating dock with some wood carpentry and four 55 gallon plastic barrels.

Make: Projects - Pedal-powered phone charger

by Alastair Bland

This winter, my dad and I took up the project of building a simple pedal-powered cell phone charger to mount on my bicycle. Cell phones are small potatoes in the big picture of energy consumption, but the apparatus we built could be a very practical concept for those on self-supported bike tours or those living temporarily in situations without electricity. Just unplug your phone from the wall, and in the time that it takes for you to rig up this gizmo your phone will be out of juice and you'll be due for a long ride!

A couple visits to the local hardware store and Radio Shack secured all the parts we needed for the job.

Read full story

June 7, 2009

Prong your Prius

If you have a Prius, and want to go more than a mile in battery mode, then you might want to check out 3 Prong Power

3Prong Power is delivering enhanced Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) conversions for our customers. Our goal is to meet and expand the demand for PHEVs that has been seen nationwide, starting in the Bay Area.
This technology enables using two distinct power sources and enhances fuel efficiency. Take it to the next level, make your car a true Hybrid...Plug it in.

This sounds like a neat system. Certainly it is not free, and the conversion costs fall in a lump onto the consumer's bank account, but in the long term, it appears to save fuel costs and have environmental benefits as well. Refueling with electric takes a few hours, and costs about as much as the equivalent of $1 a gallon of gasoline.

June 3, 2009

Creating a keyless "iFob" entry system for your car

Nathan Seidle. of Sparkfun, is on a campaign to create a keyless life for himself. One of his last locks to join the 21st century was on the door to his Mazda:

I hate keys. I am on a mission to dispose of them all. There is currently a key pad to enter the SparkFun building, a key pad on my home, and RFID to get into the interior rooms at SparkFun. It is my goal to get rid of the last key in my pocket, my Mazda key! I combined the Nike+iPod device and my key fob, with an Arduino Pro Mini, to create the iFOB.

iFOBing A Mazda

May 25, 2009

Back yard kayak

[Photo from Bouyant Safety Paddle]

Joe caught the kayak bug, but didn't want to pay to have one shipped to his home in Hawaii, so he made one.

In the summer of 2005, I bought a dealer demo Perception Sonoma 13.5 and a used Honda Element. I bought the kayak thru Ebay from Adventure Sports, and the Element thru Craigslist. After 18,000 miles and paddles in Arizona, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia it was time to go home. Freight for the kayak back to Hawaii was more than $300 with packing. I decided to leave the kayak on Vancouver Island and buy or build one on Maui.

His build documentation shows the process he used to make is own kayak on the picnic table in the back yard.

Working outside, ventilation was never a problem. Wind, dust, leaves, insects, birds, chameleons, noise restrictions, sunlight, proximity to living quarters all impacted the build. Wind broke the EPS foam before I got started. Dust and leaves fell on the wet epoxy. A big, black bee burrowed into the EPS. Birds were always chirping and chameleons entertained me from the fence. I used hand tools whenever I could to prevent noise fines from the condo association. Sometimes I had to slather on the SPF and wipe sweat out of my eyes. Mrs. was constantly after me about EPS balls and glass threads on her fancy Indich carpet.

You can check out the rest of the story. Some of the build process would have gone better with a hot wire, and the choice of materials doesn't look like they are the way he would do it again. He did, however make a kayak that met his needs for practicing rolls. Have you made a kayak or other boat? Tell us the story!

[via DIY Happy]