Poor Man`s Lathe - AtomicZombie - DIY Plans for Recumbent Bikes

“Just dropping by to say Hi from Indiana. ”
~ Jacob K., Indiana
May 16, 2012
NEWS
Poor Man’s Lathe
By Brad Graham, AtomicZombie.com
AZTV
T
here are times
when you need
to modify a part
in such a way that you
need the use of a lathe or
CNC machine, but the
cost of such a job or the
wait time may not be
worth it. I like to spend
the day in the garage and
get things done right
away, but I have only the
basic hand held tools,
not a lathe or even a drill
press. So what is a
Adding
the 3rdtoloop
to theafour
garage hacker
do when
part loop
needssection
to be turned down on a lathe and you lack such a tool or the
patience to wait for the shop to do it for you? Simple - make an impromptu lathe from your hand held
drill!
I was working on this massive autonomous robot project and needed to adapt the axles from a pickup
truck rear differential to take a set of bearings and sprockets. Sure, I could have sent them to the shop
and paid $150 to have them machined on a lathe, but I did not want to fork out the dough any more
than I wanted to wait a month to have this done, so I decided to pull a "MacGyver" and machine down
the axles without needing a lathe. Impossible do to the precision needed? Heck no! I even added a
keyway to each axle using an angle grinder and the end result was a perfect fit.
Let me show you how I adapted the axle shafts shown here to fit onto the 1 inch diameter bearings and
sprockets.
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“I love getting your newsletters. It’s the
highlight of my week.”
~ Patricia M., Ohio
NEWS
May 16, 2012
(Continued from page 1)
AZTV
A lathe in its simplest terms is a machine that
spins a part so that a cutting bit can remove metal a
little bit at a time. So, I knew if I could get the axle
to spin, then I could just use my grinder to carefully remove the metal around the end of the shaft until it
was exactly 1 inch in diameter. At this point, the axles were about 1.25 inches in diameter and tapered. To
spin the axle, I welded a bolt to the center of the hub flange and then placed it in the chuck of my hand
drill. The axle was then placed into a simple wooden jig and greased so that it would spin freely.
I found the drill spun the axle a bit too fast for my liking, so I needed a way to reduce the speed of the
drill to about 120 RPM. Trying to tie wrap the variable trigger in place did not really work out so well, and
then I remembered something about the series wound motors in drills and saws - they work with both AC
current and DC current. My idea was to just reduce the voltage to the drill motor.
Going from 120 volts AC to 24 volts DC slowed the drill down to the perfect speed, yet gave it enough
torque to spin the axles as I held the grinder disc to them. To power the drill from 24 volts DC, I just took
two of the four robot batteries (marine batteries) and wired them in series with the drill power cord
completing the circuit. I didn't even use wires for the plug; it was just sandwiched between the two battery
terminals and held there by friction.
My machining process required shortening the axles and then turning them down to exactly 1 inch in
diameter at the last 2 inches on each end. Cutting the axle short was easy; I just spun up the drill and then
held the zip disc on the axle until it cut all the way through the axle. I did not need the splined end piece,
so it was tossed in the scrap bin.
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“Hello from your bike friends in Indonesia.”
~ PJ., Indonesia
NEWS
May 16, 2012
(Continued from page 2)
AZTV
To machine down the axles, I ran my grinding disc back and forth along the 2 inch section while the
drill spun the axles at about 120 RPM. I did not push hard on the grinder, and tried to keep a constant
pace as I moved it back and forth along the area to be reduced. After about 50 strokes, I would stop the
drill and check the axle thickness using the bearing I intended to install.
Once the axle was just slightly larger than necessary, I switched from the grinder disc to a sanding disc
so the final machining could be done more accurately.
The last 16th of an inch was machined away using the sanding disc, which produced a very smooth
and accurate final result, much like a lathe would have done. Considering how this was done, the final
result was quite impressive, having only the slightest variations along the surface of the machined area.
The bearing slid on tightly with almost no play, so now I only had to do the other axle and then figure
out some way to add a keyway along the length of the machined section.
The sprocket flanges were the friction fit type requiring a keyway to be used. Because I was going to
drive these axles with a lot of torque, the keyway was absolutely essential, but once again I wanted this
project done now and done cheap, so I decided to keep on rolling with my hand tools. A keyway after all
was just a slot in the axle, so why not hack it out with a zip disc? Seemed logical!
I marked out the area I wanted the keyway and then attacked it with a 3/32 diameter zip disc using my
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“Hi Brad and Kat. Nice to see the summer
background in the newsletter. I’ll bet your yard
looks very nice with the green grass, flowers
and trees in bloom.”
~ Kelvin L, Calgary
NEWS
May 16, 2012
(Continued from page 3)
AZTV
angle grinder. I used a small worn out disc to
keep the length of the keyway short and just took
my time, trying to cut out only the section
indicated by the black marker. Eventually, the
key stock fit tightly into the keyway, so once
again my hand held tools saved the day.
The keystock fit perfectly between the sprocket
flange and the axle once the keyway was cut out
using the zip disc. The slot wasn't perfect, but it
was certainly as good as it needed to be in order
to secure the flange to the axle for high torque
use.
Now, I had only one more keyway to cut in
order to complete the massive robot drive system. Total cost of machining so far was about 50 cents in
electricity!
Here is the completed gear reduction system after adding the sprockets and bearing to the hand
(Continued on page 5)
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“Hello my fellow zombies from Great Britain.”
~ Andrew W., Liverpool
NEWS
May 16, 2012
(Continued from page 4)
AZTV
machined parts. The modified axles drive a set of large
transport truck wheels through a huge 10:1
reduction system powered by a set of large 2000 watt DC motors. This transmission system worked
perfectly and required only hand held tools to make.
I have reduced several car differentials this way, and each time, the "Poor Man's Lathe" did the job
perfectly. In one project, I even cut a decent spline using nothing but a hand held grinder and a zip disc.
Never underestimate what can be done with basic hand held tools in combination with a small budget
and a lack of patience! If you are like me, you want things done right now and for minimal cost, so don't
be afraid to "wing it"!
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“I’m new to this bike building thing, but I’m
liking it a lot so far. Cheers.”
~ Damian G., New Zealand
May 16, 2012
NEWS
d
ilan
a
h
T
AZTV
My first tadpole trike, MkI. ~ FrankCrank
Australia
Big Daddy, built by Don Trimble, USA
I've made a hitch so I can attach the boys’ trailer to
my Warrior and take them along the tracks where I
live. They LOVED it. ~ Mitchthor68
You can now upload your own bike pictures to the gallery!
Go to the AZ forum and join us.
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Blue stiletto
built by Salvo
“Yahoo! You’re making parts! Great!”
~ Brandon O., Maine
May 16, 2012
NEWS
Atomic Zombie head tubes & bottom
AZTV
brackets for your bike projects
A
ttention DIY bike builders - we hear
you loud and clear!
Since we originally stated our intention to
manufacture some of our trike parts, you’ve
told us that you also want the basic building
blocks needed for practically any human
powered vehicle.
A salvaged bottom bracket
Of these basic building blocks, the two that
are most often used are the bottom bracket
and the head tube. In fact, you can build
many of our DIY bikes and trikes without
requiring any other frame parts besides a
head tube and bottom bracket.
We understand that in some parts of the world it may be difficult to salvage several frames for
chopping when taking on a project that requires several similar head tubes or bottom brackets such as
a trike or quad, so we are actively pursuing the manufacture of these raw components.
If you intend to pedal your creation, then without a doubt you will require one or more bottom
brackets, as they are necessary for holding the crankset and bearing hardware to the frame. It's easy
to simply chop one out of a steel parts frame and then grind it clean as long as you have a frame. A
tandem bike or trike requires two bottom brackets, and often matching crank hardware, so the
process of salvaging these components can take some time.
(Continued on page 8)
You can now upload your own bike pictures to the gallery!
Go to the AZ forum and join us.
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“Some of your projects will be used in villages I
am volunteering in. I will send pictures.”
~ James M., South Africa
NEWS
May 16, 2012
(Continued from page 7)
As we were looking at the technical
drawings for some other parts we intend to
manufacture, I realized how simple a part a
bottom bracket really was and took a drawing
to our local shops for pricing. Thanks to those
who chimed in regarding our intent to
manufacture in our recent newsletters, we
have decided to push ahead on making
bottom bracket and head tubes available to
our community and possibly bearing
hardware in the near future as well.
AZTV
A complete bottom bracket and hardware
Our bottom bracket shells will be mild steel
and take standard threaded bearing cups or a
complete bottom bracket cartridge. These
shells will be unpainted and ready for
welding, so you will not need to spend the
time cleaning or salvaging these parts. If we
can locate a reliable supplier for the bearing
hardware, we will also offer complete sets so
you won't have to remove them from a donor
cycle or wait to order them from your local
bike shop.
With a length of metal tubing and the parts
shown here, you can carve out practically any
kind of human powered vehicle. Our goal is to
supply as many building blocks as we can so
that you can spend more time building cool
bikes and less time digging scavenging and
digging through scrap piles for donor parts.
A salvaged head tube, bottom bracket, and
supporting hardware
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"My next project will be a velomobile. I hope you do one in
the future. The Warrior (tadpole trike) is perfect for this.”
~ Hendrik F., Switzerland
May 16, 2012
NEWS
StreetFox vs. Marauder
Hello from Thailand
“Hello all. My name's Frank and I'm a
British expat living in a small town called
Banglen, about 70k north west of Bangkok.
AZTV
Just finished building my trike and been
out riding it last few days - great fun. Hope
the pictures load OK, will get back with
some more chat later (no point without
More>>
pics). Cheers, Frank.”
“I'm a new hopeful getting ready to learn
welding and start my first build.
The two bikes I'm most interested in are the
StreetFox and the Marauder. Which would
be easiest as a first build?
Thanks in advance for your advice!”
More>>
Head tubes & bottom brackets
“We're working with a manufacturer to
also make head tube shells and bottom
bracket shells weldable-ready. They will
have slightly thicker walls so they won't
distort during welding.
Colorado
Since our plans call for head tubes and
bottom brackets and some people are
having problems salvaging useable bike
parts for their projects, we think that
offering these two parts for sale makes
sense.
If you are interested in these parts,
please add your name here so we can
gauge interest.”
More>>
From our Facebook Fan Page:
“I’m pretty impressed with the bike plans you have. Now, if
only I had a welder and a place to build ‘em! Keep up the
great stuff.” ~ Barney H., Pennsylvania
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Terri’s quad bike
Advertise in the weekly
AtomicZombie newsletter.
Affordable rates, high visibility.
Contact KoolKat for more information.
“Get ‘em early and give them something to do and
be creative with Dad. It’ll pay off in the long run.”
~ Paul P.
May 16, 2012
NEWS
(Continued from page 8)
AZTV
Head tube and bottom bracket shells are at the top of our inventory list, and we hope to add more as we
move along on this new venture. We are also going to make our head tube shells slightly thicker than
normal so that there will be less distortion in the round tube after welding it to your frame.
Parts manufacturing is a new adventure for us, so we have to work out many things such as shipping
and packaging, but we are working hard to get these parts ready to deliver. Our local machine shops are
working out a price for large quantities of head tube and bottom bracket shells and we will be taking
preorders as soon as we have a firm price for the first run.
Please let us know if you want to be on the list for these parts as this will help us determine how
many to manufacture at a time, with prices being lower for larger quantities. Thanks to everyone for the
feedback!
Kyoto with 26 rear wheel for better
gearing also shorter frame for
handling and transport
Built by ducky47
Feedback
“I haven’t been a part of the community for quite some time due to health issues. But, a
couple of issues ago, you had a message from a fellow who started bike building while
recovering after a heart attack. That’s motivated me to get back to this fun hobby a bit at a
time. I’ve missed it. Thanks for still being online. ” ~ Walter G., Tennessee
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“Your new chopper build is looking way kewl. Glad to
hear you got it back.”
~ Mark M.
May 16, 2012
NEWS
Special extended to May 31!
AZTV
Building custom bicycles is a great hobby that
can be learned by anyone with a desire to
create. The skills needed to dismantle, alter and
repair bicycle components can be easily
learned, and the parts and tools you will need
are quite inexpensive.
o
t
n
i
g
n
i
r
p
S
g
n
i
d
l
i
u
b
e
bik
Discarded or worn out bicycles offer many good
parts and can often be found at local scrap
yards, city dumps, or yard sales for a few
dollars. Even if you plan to build a custom
creation using all new parts, this hobby will
seem inexpensive compared to many, as you
can purchase a brand new bicycle at a store for less than a hundred dollars.
The great thing about hacking and welding bicycles is that you will be working with all steel
components, which are much stronger, more common, and much less expensive than high
grade aluminum or carbon fiber bicycle parts. If you have never torn a bicycle apart before,
then this basic introduction will show you all you need to complete a total bicycle autopsy in
minutes, stripping an entire cycle down to the individual parts
using only a few basic hand tools.
You can build your own recumbent bike, tadpole trike, chopper,
velomobile, electric scooter, delta trike, quadcycle or tandem
trike from our easy to follow plans. All of our plans are easily
modified to suit your own needs and you can work with the
materials you have on hand.
Combine the ideas presented in several plans into a unique
home built recumbent bike, or create your own racing trike based
on one of our DIY plans. The possibilities are endless!
Join the Atomic Zombie family of bike builders
Send us a picture of your completed handmade bike.
Each picture less than 2MB in size, please. JPG preferred.
>> [email protected] <<
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“I’m still working on my Marauder. It will be done
in the next month. It’s been a great project.”
~ Franz , Netherlands
NEWS
May 16, 2012
Atomic Zombie manufactured
AZTV
parts for your bike projects
By Brad Graham, AtomicZombie.com
D
ue many, many requests, we will be
manufacturing some parts that are used on
our delta trikes and quads.
We will be starting with the wheel and
transmission parts, and hope to add more to our
inventory in response to the demand. We may even
offer spokes, bearings, chains, and many other
common bicycle parts that are used on practically
every project.
Here is a description of the parts we intend to offer
and which plans they belong to.
Some of the Delta Trike parts we will offer:
Part (A) is a disc brake axle adapter, and it will allow you to install a standard bicycle disc brake
onto a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. The part will be drilled and tapped for standard disc brake
rotor mounting and will include a set screw for connection to the axle.
Part (B) is a threaded freewheel axle adapter that will allow a Shimano type screw-on freewheel
to be affixed to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. This part will include a set screw for connection to
the axle.
Part (C) is a threaded freewheel axle adapter that also includes a disc brake mounting flange.
This part is basically a combination of Part (A) and Part (B) so both a free hub and disc brake can be
affixed in the same place using a single part.
Part (D) is a hub flange that will allow a wheel to be laced directly to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel
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“Hello! I am from Poland. I got your Timberwolf
cargo trike. It will be a great project. Thank you."
~ Tomasz D., Poland
May 16, 2012
NEWS
(Continued from page 12)
Projects that require axle adapters and
flanges.
AZTV
axle. These parts are sold in pairs and will
include 18 or 24 drilled spoke holes for 36 or
48 hole rims.
All of our DIY trike and quadcycle plans use
one or more of these parts, and you certainly
use these parts to design your own unique
vehicles based on our plans or from scratch.
Having these parts available means that you
can shave days off your build time or possibly
weeks if you have to wait in line at the
machine shop for your parts to be made.
Because we will be making these in
quantities, we can manufacture them for less
than what a machine shop would charge for a
single unit.
All of our parts are tested to fit on the axle
and freewheel, so there will be no guesswork
or problems when it comes time to install
them.
Our freewheel and brake adapter will allow
standard bicycle components to be adapted to
any 5/8 or 3/4 axle so that transmission and
braking can be included. A threaded freewheel
will screw on to the adapter and a standard
bicycle disc brake rotor will bolt onto the
included flange.
With these two components mounted to the
axle, you can use a standard bicycle rear
(Continued on page 14)
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“I LOVE the Warrior trike. It rides great. My friends
want one, too.”
~ Deimantas S., Lithuania
NEWS
May 16, 2012
(Continued from page 13)
AZTV
derailleur to add speeds and a standard mechanical bicycle disc brake to offer solid stopping power.
All of our plans that include two rear wheels make use of one or more of these freewheel and disc
brake adapters. With our freewheel and disc brake adapters, you can add a pedal transmission to
practically anything with an axle.
If you are interested in purchasing any of the parts we intend to offer, please let us know! We will
start off with a small batch of parts and then base our inventory from the response.
Here’s the list of possible custom manufactured parts again:
A.
Disc brake axle adapter, and it will allow you to install a standard bicycle disc brake onto
a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. The part will be drilled and tapped for standard disc
brake rotor mounting and will include a set screw for connection to the axle.
B.
Threaded freewheel axle adapter that will allow a Shimano type screw-on freewheel to
be affixed to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel axle. This part will include a set screw for
connection to the axle.
C.
Threaded freewheel axle adapter that also includes a disc brake mounting flange.
D.
Hub flange that will allow a wheel to be laced directly to a 5/8 or 3/4 inch diameter steel
axle. These parts are sold in pairs and will include 18 or 24 drilled spoke holes for 36 or 48
hole rims.
We are currently collecting names so that we can tell the machine shop how many parts to make in
one run. That number will dictate the unit price, so the more people who are interested, the lower the
price per unit will be and we can pass those savings along to you.
In terms of shipping costs, those will be determined once we have the prototypes back from the
shop, (within a couple of weeks). Once we have tested the prototypes, we will determine packaging
and shipping costs.
Stay tuned to the forum, newsletter , Facebook and AZ site for announcements.
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