| Geoscience and Environment |
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An elaborate workshop is not necessary for construction of kite equipment. My workshop is more or less what you see in the photo below. I use steel for small parts where weight is not a factor. Drilling steel requires a power drill with a 3/8 inch chuck. The larger drill bits are expensive, especially since they wear out fast when used to drill steel. To make the work easier and to extend the life of drill bits, I start with 1/16 inch and work my way up in steps of 1/16 inch or 1/8 inch until I reach the size I need. Where weight is a factor, aluminum is preferred because aluminum is much easier to cut than steel. Though a steel wire brush will remove aluminum from coarse files, the finer files clog up before long.
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| Cutting a circle by hand is not one of my skills. So I tried to get a rough approximation and then used a rasp, file, and emery cloth to finish the job. The photo below shows the jig I made for finishing the side of the spool. A bolt through the center of the rough-cut disc fixes the disc to a wooden support which is fixed to the bench by the C-clamp on the right. The C-clamp on the left is fixed at the point on the disc nearest the center bolt. I call this clamp a stop because it prevents the disc from turning unless the radius of the disc is equal to or less than the distance to the center bolt. Cutting with the rasp and turning the disc allowed me to smooth the edges of the disc into a "perfect" circle. (I countersunk the nut securing the center bolt to avoid damaging the bench.) |
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| Considering the technology needed to manufacture bearings, they are incredibly cheap - all four bearings cost less than one US dollar. Two kinds of bearing packages are shown above: one has a shell with a flange that simplifies the axle assembly; the other has only the inner and outer bearing races, which will allow me to conceal the bearing inside the handle assembly. (This refers to the handles used to turn the spool, work that I have not yet started). The bearings are actually fixed to the spool. The bearing assembly shown below is to illustrate the relationship between bearings, bushings, sleeves, and axle. One 5/8 inch nut and bolt sliced, drilled, and smoothed with a file make up most of the assembly including the bushing, the sleeves. The size of the bolt was determined by the size of the bore of the inner bearing race and the diameter of the axle. The axle is a piece of bolt stock 5 feet (1.5 m) long. A smooth axle is not needed. Since no moving parts touch the axle, the threads do not matter. |
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