My Mercury Ratting Rig

[T 20]

Well folks, yesterday afternoon I took a ride over to BBS member, steveo's house in Tamworth and picked this up which Steve kindly donated to the cause --- thankyou once again Steve. :-

image.jpg


Now here's the slight problem, I incorrectly thought that the HW80 had the plug joint 6mm back from the breech face like a HW35. :-


image.jpg




But it doesn't, the HW80 breech joint is in line with the breech face. :-


image.jpg



This means the breech plug diameter on the HW80 is 30mm right up to the breech face, so if I set the 32mm OD Mercury tube back from the breech face to allow for welding I'll have a step down to the 30mm plug which isn't ideal.
The answer is to fill the top step with weld and then hand finish the top breech face to correct things, which is a bit of a pain --- I won't bother with the bottom breech face too much as nobody will see it once the action's in the stock.


On the up side though --- my ally trigger didn't turn out too bad. :-


image.jpg


image.jpg






All the best Mick

[TonyL]

You've never been one to shun a challenge, Mick.. Phew!

That trigger's looking mighty fine.

[T 20]

That trigger's looking mighty fine.

I meant to ask my mate Martin if he did anodising so I could get the trigger and housing blacked, but he was a bit preoccupied yesterday morning as someone had told him of a cheap Buell Lightning being up for sale locally.

Guess what he showed up on last night.

[greenwayjames]

Bowkett sent detaiis and a picture of a T shirt launching "pistol" that he made for a stunt rider who was sponsored by Buell at the time. It had to be "tuned" to boost velocity when he used it shooting from behind the stood on end Buell at the Bol D'or circuit to reach into the spectator area. The device was much envied by his competitors and he was able to charge a premium on top of his fee for its use. Buell made a rather special oversize tuned engined bike for him to tackle the world record for traveling on the front wheel after he told them the speed he had calculated to break the record.

[T 20]

I think it will crack with a bit of use,perhaps after you press the two together you could radially drill through comp
tube wall into the 9mm of plug and spot weld them and seal comp tube after with JB Weld.

You know you my have a good point after all, sir. :-

Fast forward to 4.40

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=96OMCcv8Zvc



Holy shit --- to think I worry about my welding technique.

You can imagine Peter Kay walking past saying "have it".

[Shed tuner]

You know you my have a good point after all, sir. :-

Fast forward to 4.40

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=96OMCcv8Zvc



Holy shit --- to think I worry about my welding technique.

You can imagine Peter Kay walking past saying "have it".

And no eye protection, no gloves, not even shoes ! The elf and safety bods would have a fit

On the plus side though, 200 amp stick welding should have enough penetration

[TonyL]

I hope Martin enjoys his new toy, Mick. Please pass on my regards.

I haven't seen that video yet but will try to have a look in. Sounds entertaining.

[MattyBoy]

I meant to ask my mate Martin if he did anodising so I could get the trigger and housing blacked, but he was a bit preoccupied yesterday morning as someone had told him of a cheap Buell Lightning being up for sale locally.

Guess what he showed up on last night.

I think the distraction was down to me Mick for turning upon your doorstep unannounced and out of the blue

It was really good to see you mate and thanks awfully for inviting me in, making me a brew and showing me some of your toys

Matty

[T 20]

I think the distraction was down to me Mick for turning upon your doorstep unannounced and out of the blue

It was really good to see you mate and thanks awfully for inviting me in, making me a brew and showing me some of your toys

Matty

Don't worry, Matty, everyone's welcome to turn up at my place unannounced for a brew.

Thankyou for your assessment of the two HW50s and the Original 35 --- I always find it a good idea to step back and let someone else try these things for a more objective view.
With me being unable to travel to the Boinger Bash I don't get the gun feedback I used to get from the Boingerati.

I hope Martin enjoys his new toy, Mick. Please pass on my regards.

Out of all the bikes he's had over the years he reckons this is the best handling bike he's ever had, Tone,
it's bloody loud though --- not quite as loud as the Sportster chop he had though.
I used to be able to listen to his Sportster chop exhaust all the way from my place to his Tattoo shop 4 miles away.
Anyway, it turns out that Martin's body jewelry supplier does Anodising so I can strip and polish the back block and trigger and get them blacked locally when I'm ready.

I could do with getting the cylinder finished asap as it's ideal weather for fume bluing right now and I'm thinking of bluing this lot instead of going with the original BSA black paint.




All the best Mick

[T 20]

And no eye protection, no gloves, not even shoes ! The elf and safety bods would have a fit

On the plus side though, 200 amp stick welding should have enough penetration

If you want a laugh try this one, Jon. :-

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tlv3YKIh84


I'm actually considering pegging the Mercury threads to the back block to avoid such a situation.




All the best Mick

[Shed tuner]

On the plus side, he did my favourite Diana 28mm seal conversion

[T 20]

On the plus side, he did my favourite Diana 28mm seal conversion

He seems to have a big bucketfull of 28.6mm blue Diana seals, Jon.

That's probably why there's a shortage of them in the UK --- they've all been shipped to India.

[TonyL]

Don't worry, Matty, everyone's welcome to turn up at my place unannounced for a brew.

Thankyou for your assessment of the two HW50s and the Original 35 --- I always find it a good idea to step back and let someone else try these things for a more objective view.
With me being unable to travel to the Boinger Bash I don't get the gun feedback I used to get from the Boingerati.

Out of all the bikes he's had over the years he reckons this is the best handling bike he's ever had, Tone,
it's bloody loud though --- not quite as loud as the Sportster chop he had though.
I used to be able to listen to his Sportster chop exhaust all the way from my place to his Tattoo shop 4 miles away.
Anyway, it turns out that Martin's body jewelry supplier does Anodising so I can strip and polish the back block and trigger and get them blacked locally when I'm ready.

I could do with getting the cylinder finished asap as it's ideal weather for fume bluing right now and I'm thinking of bluing this lot instead of going with the original BSA black paint. :
All the best Mick

A good many years ago I had the opportunity to have some extended plays on the later Buells with the fuel in the frame - City X and Lightning. I've never tried the other models. The ones I rode provided immense entertainment. Lovely handling and punchy low down. The Lightning would wheelie out of slow corners like a good 'un!

If you're up for a "kidnapping" I can always divert via yours, Mick, and bring you to Quigley Bottom for the day.

[lightning22]

On the plus side, he did my favourite Diana 28mm seal conversion

He seemed to struggle with the ‘sliding fit’ part of it though.

[T 20]

He seemed to struggle with the ‘sliding fit’ part of it though.

He seems to struggle with every gun he plays with --- he ain't got a bleeding clue what he's doing.



Anyway, moving right along, I've not managed to get much lathe time in the last couple of days due to work.

So far I've just machined a steel slug and welded it in the HW80 jaws and started machining the jaws down to 1 1/4" (32mm) from the HW80's 34.75mm outside diameter. :-

image.jpg


image.jpg


One slight problem I had was that I found that the tube was running out by 0.017" despite my best efforts to get it spot on --- you can see this in the second photo.
This showed up once I started machining into the tube, I cured this today by welding up the revolving centre hole in the steel slug, resetting the cylinder in the lathe and then drilling another hole.
The tube now runs out by just 0.002", not ideal but it's workable as I'll have to hand finish the final piece anyway before bluing it.
Luckily this 0.002" discrepancy shows as lift on the top of the breech so hopefully won't effect barrel alignment to the cylinder.

I've stopped machining the HW80 breech jaws for now and left them at 33.5mm OD as I need to machine the plug out of the Mercury cylinder next to get an idea of its ID and where to machine for the joint on the HW80 jaws.




All the best Mick