Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Gas Tank Mount Tabs

Tank mount tabs done. The large hole is too accomodate a rubber grommett for vibrations dampening. 2 different length tabs becuase the tank is wider at the front and the longer tabs will provided more stability and allow less tank resonance and vibration at speed. Reducing the chance of failure and getting a lap full of gasoline sitting right over a smoking hot air cooled engine.
Profile complete and the width is set. The 'fishmouthed' end of the tab will wrap the top tube of the bike. Commonly the tab is just flat stock, butt welded to the top top tube. Rigid choppers, like I am building, are vibration nightmares which like to break the welds on gas tanks. I wanted to get a wrap too the top tube that will also allow me to spread my weld over a larger area, adding a lot of strength and sending the vibration forces into the thicker radiused corner.
Op 1 complete, flip them over and finish them off. You can see below that i don't have much meat left in the vise to hold onto. I would have like a thicker piece of steel such that i could machine the profile to height, then flip it over and run a face mill to finish the overall width of the tab. Bigger pieces of steel cost more money, so i got a piece the is right to size. Just had to make sure I located it accurately so there is no mismatch when machining the same profile from 2 different sides.

Start to finish gas tank mount tab machining. Off the shelf 1018, low carbon mild steel stock. Cut to length, design set and programs loaded. Let's make some chips.

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