Shadow Build

[John H]

Today was not a good day The brake drum assembly rolled off the bench and broke a small chunk out of one of the fins.
If that wasn't enough, in the process of taking it all apart I broke a piece out of the hub trying to get one of the bolts out.
I got the drum welded up and while it was cooling I located another hub and cleaned it up in the lathe. While I have this disassembled I machined up a couple of pieces so I can bend the spoke flange a couple more degrees so the spokes can be added or removed anytime without loosening the bolts.

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[John H]

Today was a make lemonade out of bad lemons day. I machined down the destroyed front hub so I can bolt the brake drums on and true them up.

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The brake drum that was damaged in the fall from the bench was more than just chipped. It was actually bent .020" out of round. So another 'special tool' was made to jack it round again. I got it within .005" and finished it off with a light skin cut.

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Note the rubber bands around the drum. This helps stop the harmonic chatter that happens when turning a disk or drum. Another trick is holding a chunk of lead on the part while making the cut.

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[John H]

The wheel hubs are finished. The Borrani alloy rims that have been in storage for at least 25 year are slightly tarnished but will clean up with a bit of Blue Magic. The wheel/tire combination 19/20 was standard on the 53 Shadow so I will stay with that. If it was going to be ridden a lot I would change to a 18/19 combination for better tire options. Still waiting for spokes.

[Lotus54]

I imagine a fairly limited choice of 20” tyres.

Looking good!

[John H]

20" front tires are a bit odd but but still available from Avon. Probably not a good choice for long distance touring. Most rear wheels are 18" but 19" was common on early bikes.
I dug out some sprockets to see what would be a good medium range setup. I found a good combination (21/46) that was actually made for 520 chain instead of 530. The 520 was used on the Lightnings and with modern chains I think it's a good choice.
The rear wheel was designed to carry two different size sprockets, one for average riding and one for a full load or sidecar rig. I will mount just one sprocket and attach the 'water excluder' to the opposite side which is suppose to help in keeping water out of the brake drum.

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[John H]

It's officially the Christmas Season so let the shopping begin. The Shadow will have to wait.
My grandsons 10 and 11 are tool nerds and in the past I have restored a 1930s drill press and a bandsaw for their Christmas present. This year it will be a 1930s Craftsman wood lathe. Original catalog price $4.85. Some stripped threads, main shaft and bushings need repaired. Also the tail stock shaft and knob need attention. Motor seems ok but will need disassembled, cleaned and tested. Hope they enjoy it as much as I have restoring it.

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[Lotus54]

That is really cool.
Want an old dental handtool setup for the chair to restore? Ha (not sure what I’m going to do with it)

[John H]

Ha, I can only imagine a set of dental tools in a little boys hands.
Had to do a motor rebuild today for the wood lathe. The contact surfaces were pretty bad so took a skim cut. Found some 5/16" diameter carbon contacts so will see if it fires up next.

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[John H]

All that work on the cute little motor only to find that the rotation is wrong, that's if it is installed under the lathe. Otherwise it would be out past the end. It will get used for another project and a bi-directional motor will take it's place.

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[John H]

The wood lathe is finished so back to work The stainless steel spokes finally arrived!! I ordered them with a 'mill' finish as I was contemplating a bead blast finish to match cad plating. After looking at the beautiful Borranis again I decided to polish them.

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I use to have a centerless polishing lathe made for polishing very small diameter round bars but I have also done it this way and it works fine it just takes a lot of precaution. The small wheel is a Scotchbrite wheel that deburrs as well as smooths the surface to a satin finish. The large wheel is a fine stitched linen buffing wheel.There's a little more to the process than you see in the photos.

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One done, one to go.

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