December 24th 2002

I managed to spend most of today in the workshop. Sorry, I didn't take any photo's today, maybe later, if I get time.
I have fixed the pinions to the motor shafts and keyed them in with the broken drill bits as per Paul's instructions. The wheels have been drilled and tapped for the nylon gear wheels. The key ways have been filed in the wheels and the axles and the wheels have had a couple of coats of primer and a top coat of gloss black.
I have also tapped the holes in the cranks and finished the crank pins.

I followed Paul's instructions pretty much to the letter with today's activities. The nylon gears and the wheels need care when drilling, both for accuracy and health&safety. I lined the gear and wheel up using the axle, (make sure the wheel is pushed hard up against the step in the axle) and clamped them together. I had already marked the gear wheel where I wanted the holes to be, but because of the clamps, I could only drill two holes with out moving the clamps. So I drilled and tapped the two holes and then bolted the wheel and gear together to drill the remaining two holes. When drilling these, I was unable to clamp the wheels down to the drill table, so had to hold them by hand. I used a pair of strong gardening gloves to protect my hand if the drill snatched. And don't forget the safety glasses!

Paul suggests filling the outside of the holes in the wheels and sanding them flush before painting. Quite often, wheels have 2,3 or 4 holes in the disk ( I believe these are so that the wheel sets can be mounted between centres on a wheel turning lathe, a bolt passing through the holes into the face plate, so that the tyres could be re-profiled), so I have drilled blind holes in the other two wheels to match the ones with the gears.