Almost there...

Well, after a year, the Vincent Black Shadow 1/6th scale master is almost finished. I finally got the etchings from France, via Portugal and glued them on. They were too fragile for solder.  I finally got enough pictures to make an operable front stand. Almost as abstract as the cylinder heads which I've done, but which need some cleaning up.  I made the exhaust today until the delivery of brass rod turned out to be 4mm diameter steel in 5" lengths.  I'm expecting the right stuff tomorrow.  Even just 2 apparently simple curved pipes are actually far more complex in shape and relationship than you'd first think.

We have had the wheel rims done by a process called SLA.  Some call it 3D printing, but it isn't.  A laser hardens a microscopic layer of resin in a bath of the stuff and then it pops up one layer.  There is also a complex support system which is very brittle, but he results were superb. Right down to the bumps from which the spokes issue. 

He is currently making tyre masters INCLUDING the writing on the tyre wall, Avon for the front and Dunlop on the slightly different rear.  Because all this stuff now has to be done from computer files, he is also doing the transfers artwork, equally beautifully.  Where, once, I did it all, my job these days tends to be one of not merely pattermaker, but "facilitator", harvesting work from the best in their fields.  It annoys me that they can all charge much more than I, even though I consider what I do to be beyond most of them and what they do something I could quickly learn if I didn't have to pay through the nose to do so (£500 a day plus accommodation!)  But these days it's the only way to get these things done.

I made the pattern for the hub recently. I was dreading it, but as ever with a feared job, it went swimmingly.  The caster is currently making 4 of them for me to modify into a set of parts. The front hubs have 5 bolts holding the spoke flange to the main hub flange and the rear has 10. I will get the 4 castings back and make one set with another 5 bolts.  The one side, front and rear has to be just the flange and the other, front and rear is the flange and hub cylinder, to be joined at one side.  Here's the brass pattern for the 5 bolt original. The ten slots round the etch take 2 spokes each and were done by drilling the hole centrally and then sawing out either side with a piercing saw. It went very easily. I was surprised and relieved!

Also made the chain guard. That was going to be two sides with a central piece sandwiched betwixt, but it turned out to be far more domed than that would allow, so the only way to make it was to beat two sides over at the top to get the curvature, then be filed straight and soldered together and filed to one curve. Then tiny fixings had to be made and soldered to it.

Why do photos taken with a mobile 'phone end up in a different orientation to that at which they were taken?

Well, with just a few final parts to be made and a final check that everything fits, we should be done.  Then, I have to make all the little changes that make it a Black Lightning and then a Series D.

And if that ain't enough, the next whole bike will be a BSA Gold Star with a Rocket Gold Star Twin to follow that!