Funny how one small job leads to another isn’t it. Tyre wear on the 500 means I need to track it. My home made tracking gauges will work on the 15” wheels of the 500 (more on this at a later date!). But it’s real pain setting the tracking without radius plates, so….To the bay of E.
OK, so a set of radius plates will run me to about £400! I’ve got some 2mm plate left from making my benches and a big box of ball bearings. Some scrap MDF and some 1.6mm sheet. Sounds like the recipe for radius plates to me.
First I need to cut some circles. Two discs of 10mm thick MDF with a series of holes to retain the bearings. Bought radius plates often just have a ring of ball bearings, spring loaded to keep them on centre. Because my discs will only be 2mm thick I want a bit more support than that. And I have got a LOT of bearings, so let’s not be tight. So the first job is to make a circle cutting jig for the band saw. Just something functional for now, I’ll polish it later.
Then two discs of 2mm thick steel plate, so I need to make a trammel for my plasma cutter from whatever is in the scrap bin. Then zip out a couple of 12” discs. (I appreciate that only people of a certain maturity will know what Heavy Metal is and only those that are older still will appreciate the 12” disc gag). Finally bend some C section channels in the mini folding brake to make a frame around the outside. Then it’s just a case of assembling the puzzle and applying a lick of paint.
Tomorrow, after the Grand Prix, I’ll actually set the tracking!
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