• Machining aluminum and brass!

    Øystein • 04/19/2020 at 16:17 • 0 comments

    So, the handlebox is now ready to be machined in aluminum!

    The box is cut out of 5mm aluminum and the lever is cut out of 10mm aluminum. Now over to assembly!

    On the left is the 3d-printed prototype on the right is the part for the aluminum version.

    Quite happy with the finnished result. I really benefited from doing alot of prototyping on this part. As You can see on the end there are two unpopulated holes. This is for the brass attachment. The brass attachment is for making to lever more comfortable to operate


    It was tricky to find some brass stock localy but I got in touch with a very kind blacksmith that sold me some stock for a decent price.

    The finished parts looked quite nice! One side has countersinked holes for the screws and the other is threaded for the m6 screw.

    The finished result is working very well. The brass parts made it stand out nicely.

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    Here it is as it will be mounted on the bike. Later today I will mill a part for the bottom of the locking device.

  • Prototyping, prototyping, prototyping, prototyping (developers developers, developers developers)

    Øystein • 04/17/2020 at 10:28 • 0 comments

    Quite a bit has happened since last update and I have gotten alot done. Last time I showed you all the locking mechanism working. Now I have made a prototype of the handle on the other side that is going to actuate it.

    So The whole thing is going to be milled out of aluminum in 5 pieces.  The mechanism work via a cam that pulls a gear wire that is fed in form the bottom of the box. The two long screws on the top will fit into existing threaded holes in the frame of the bike.

    I took many iterations to tweak it to my liking. First a system based on a second class lever but that did not work out. Then I did a bunch of versions of the cam based system. Now I have a prototype that works like this:

    Quite satisfied with the mechanism now. Next thing is to mill the parts in aluminum. My plan is to start with this today. More content soon!

  • More aluminium pats and functional test!

    Øystein • 04/09/2020 at 22:26 • 0 comments

    The last few days have been very productive and I started today by making more parts redy for milling:

    Todays task was aluminium milling and that is always a fun thing to do.
    I made a rig out of osb to make shure my part was properly located and fixtured.
    These parts are responsible for holding the wire in place and making it actuate the locking cam.
    There are several pieces missing but I had the pieces that was recuired to make it work.
    Here is a look inside the mechanism. A wire is hooked on the arm to actuate the mechanism. Here is a demo of the unit being actuated by the wire. On the end of the wire it will be a handle that actuates the mechanism.

    In summary: IT WORKS! Im very happy and motivated to further develop the system.

  • Back after 3 month procrastination break!

    Øystein • 04/06/2020 at 20:02 • 0 comments

    Finally more progress on the locking mechanism. I have acquired a gear wire I will use to actuate the locking mechanism and a spring so that the default state will be locked. A lever has been designed to attach the wire to and a body to house it is in the making.

    V

    The lever, housing for the lever and locking cam will be made out of aluminium. I have also made improvements to the locking cam design. The bolts are now m8 and locks into place using a triangle pocket.

    Viddeo of function test below:

  • 6-sided aluminum cnc milling!

    Øystein • 11/10/2019 at 23:28 • 0 comments

    just completed the milling of the lockbody in aluminum! It's was quite a learning process. I made a rig to mill all 4 of sides + top and bottom.

    Tada!

    This involved 3 new milling tools, chamfering and backsided chamfering. Fun!

  • Designing the locking mechanism

    Øystein • 08/20/2019 at 21:43 • 0 comments

    So, it all started with that I got this bike:

    This is a electric transportbike. It originally comes either bare or with a open box as a 600 euro option. I thought I could make a box that fitted my needs better. Here where my criterias:

    • Detachable via locking mechanism
    • detatchable wheels and sliding handle so it can be used as a suitcase when going inside
    • lockable to prevent someone just picking up stuff from it


    So I figured the most difficult task was to design the locking mechanism. So I started on that. I was inspired by the pallet system that pierson workholding uses for their pallets.

    This works by having the steel balls retract into the body to release the pallet. The pierson system is based on compressed air. I knew my system is could not be based on compressed air on a bike. My system is there completely mechanically powered. It uses a cam to retract and extrude the steel balls.

    Here you can see a breakdown of how it works:

    So far it seams to go smoothly. The progress is good!