Recent content by Betsy

Yeah.. thanks for the insight! We was literally telling you if was a forging from Pg1 .. retrobate was blue in the face, I was pulling my hair out.. did we get any recognition?.. oh no.. it’s just “Thanks Caj, we’d be clueless without you Caj.. we’ve only got them useless fks @retrobate and...

It had a guard .. it’s a piece of hardboard, inserted into a piece of ply 😁 Yes, you can use the stylus manually to plough off material then when you get close to finished size you can set the auto-feed and the bed moves left/right.. up/down with the stylus tracing the shape while the...

Morning @Lucidone .. it’s an Alexander 4HB I’ve still got all the instructions manuals, catalogues, parts lists, original bill of sale and a die making instruction manual issued by the Engineering Industry Training Board for Engineering Craftsmen no less :cool: Operating the stylus This...

Quite.. i used to make tooling around the same era these cranks were manufactured (in the days before CNC) we had a machine called an Alexander Die Sinker / Copier. I would make a pattern of (lets say) the crank, then cast a PU mould around it, remove the pattern so i would have a negative of...

Ear defenders?

Ahhhh! It's not a casting.. do we have a 'pulling ones hair out' emoji? 😁

Oh.. i give up 😁

It's not CNC it's forged from a die.. like this.. you can even see the flashing created around the shape The section where the thread goes for the pedal is built up into a flat surface because they will not drill into a dome surface.. the forging then has the flashing removed, it's linished...

This is the crank in question This is the eBay forging If you cut around the shape of the crank^.. removing the flashing.. from the back.. it will look like this ..giving you this shape

Go for it Lee.. they didn't give a shit when i reported Nazi memorabilia being sold 😁 I think the seller probably does believe it is what he's claiming it to be.. probably bought at a flea market or sale and took the sales patter as gospel.. Without any knowledge of manufacturing processes...

Agreed @retrobate It's not moulded.. how would you get the molten metal into the cavity of a closed mould?.. the crank doesn't have a flat back, therefore it would need to be made in 2x halves to create the shape.. You need a runner system.. like this^ You would pour your molten aluminium...

If it was an unfettled casting, you would see the head and ingates / evidence of where the metal flowed into the mould. I believe The 'F' in F-Type stands for forged so i would stick with unfettled forging.

I'd have to have a closer look at it.. but i don't think that's a mould, it looks like the forging of an actual crank arm which had been formed but is yet to be fettled up, remove the flashing, drill, tap and so on.. maybe it failed QC.

..an element of 'familiarity breeds contempt' too.. i ride this trail most weekends, i've been going to Burbage for most of my life so i know exactly what's coming.. alas, i just pushed it a little too hard yesterday. The younger me would have been fine, i would have just hopped up onto the...

I'm fine.. the frame Isn't too bad.. i have a similar amount of scrapes on my knee.. i kept waking up in the night and managed to convince myself the frame was much worse than it actually is.. 😁 #nightterrors .. in the cold light of day, it's mainly the rear stay.. here, here and here...