$50 mod thread

A tip for removing powder coating and anodize at home.

A quick trip to the hardware store to pick up some Red Devil drain cleaner, a bucket and some protective gear of you don't have any. It's basically lye powder and when mixed with cool water will eat both powder coating and anodizing in short order. I don't have a majik ratio to mix, kinda depends on the job your doing and also because I just kinda wing it. Just watch, check your parts every minute or so and you'll know when they're ready to be rinsed. You may need to do some spot scrubbing/sanding to get the last remnants off but it works a treat!

Keep in mind!!!!!
You want to wear gloves, a shop apron and a face shield when you use this crap. It's REALLY aggressive and will burn the shite right outta you, ruin your sneakers and make holes in your skin, gooey and runny. Also the fumes are nasty and will kick your ass if you're dumb enough to take a big sniff or are working in an enclosed area. Don't blame me if you're a doofus and end up looking like a mutant, if that happens perhaps it's an indicator that you're not right for this kinda work and should take up cross stitching or perhaps crochet. :p
 
Uh, I hate holes in the skin, unless otherwise purposely intended to be there.
 
Home made tools - part #0006

Staffy said:
If there's not one up and going when i get back home i'll dig up some home made tools and kick off a thread.
Click to expand...

add this one to the list Staffy:
steeringStemNut.jpg


50mm OD socket, shaped with angle grinder/file to fit the (honda) steering stem locknut. Works like a charm.

cheers
ian
 
You can make a similar looking tool to remove the clutch basket locking nut on a CX500. I guess there'd be some other hondas that would use a similar clutch locking nut also.
 
How to make cheap cloth covered wires, fuel line etc.....Paracord.

Paracord is pretty nifty looking rope (lots of colors and patterns) and I always have it around for lashing things down. It generally has a nice looking durable woven outer 'sleeve' with a load bearing core. If you work the core out of a cut piece of the stuff you end up with a nice slightly expandable woven sleeve to play with.

You can get it anywhere from 1/8" up to friggin' huge so covering an entire harness could be done.

Some shoestrings can also be used via: http://www.instructables.com/id/Cloth-Covered-Banana-Cables/
 
Re: Honda Radio Shack Rectifier

mitchellsk said:
So I test my rectifier and it seems to be bad. I went to Radio Shack and bought the recommended diode for about $4.
600_Radio-Shack-276-1185.jpg


I cut an oem rectifier plug off an old wiring harness:
600_Rectifier-Plug-Female.jpg


Then I pushed the terminals out with a small screwdriver:
600_Rectifier-Plug.jpg


i was planning on using this method for my bike but can't see the pictures any help. hopefully we can get this worked out.

This is the plug disassembled:
600_Rectifier-Plug-Assembly.jpg


The terminals fit perfectly onto the diode terminals:
600_Rectifier-Terminals.jpg


I put plastic terminal protectors on the spades, and added bullet terminals to the other ends. Then some heat shrink wrap from Harbor Frieght. I'll need to cut the plug off the wire harness and put some female ends on so this will plug in to it:
600_Rectifier-Finished.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Adding vacuum ports to your CB450
so you can sync the carbs the RIGHT way.

Vacuum ports - $5
5 mm tap - $8

If you want to get your 450 running in top condition, those carbs need to be in sync. The best way to do that is with a vacuum gauge carb sync tool or a manometer. But Honda neglected to put any vacuum ports on the 450s. So, what are you going to do? Add some.

The boys at DCC whipped up some little vacuum port tubes just for this specific purpose [SEE HERE]. You could make them yourself with some bits from a hardware store, but at that price, why bother.

I've seen some folks drill and tap holes in their cylinder head in the intake manifolds. This gave me the willys so I found a better place. The rubber intake mounts actually have a metal base inside them on the forward side so there is some meat there to mount the ports to. I ground some of the flange off on the bottom of the mount so I could get the hole as close as possible to the fwd side. I then drilled a hole all the way through and tapped it with a 5 mm tap so the DCC tubes could thread in. I cleaned up the holes and touched up the mount where I flattened it with some high heat paint. The DCC vacuum ports come with the threaded tube, o-rings, nuts and rubber caps to seal them off. Screw those babies on there so the o-ring compresses so you get a good seal and you are done! Since the holes are in the carb mounts, if you screw them up or they leak or you decide you don't want them, you just have to get some new rubber bits off of ebay instead of trying to fix your cylinder head.


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I made a blast box. It only cost me $50. Here is what I bought (Im sorry for the length of this post):

Rubber Maid Box:

DSC_1089.jpg


Light:

DSC_1090.jpg


Grill to rest the parts on:

DSC_1088.jpg


Plexi:

DSC_1091.jpg


Air Hose:

DSC_1092.jpg


Rubber Hose :

DSC_1093.jpg


Epoxy:

DSC_1094.jpg


PVC Coupler:

DSC_1097.jpg


Now I cut the holes and put the PVC in for the gloves:

DSC_1098.jpg


I cut the top an inch shorter than the plexiglass so I could epoxy the plexiglass in:

DSC_1100.jpg


I epoxied the glass down and placed bricks on the top to secure it down:

DSC_1101.jpg


DSC_1111.jpg


Hole for the light:

DSC_1109.jpg


Hooked up the hoses:

DSC_1107.jpg


And from the top down:

DSC_1112.jpg


It works! I mean for a $50 blast box. There was very little media on the floor.
 
I see some great ideas here...as someone who is pretty unskilled and doesn't have a lot of knowledge in bike building and repairing or money for that matter, these posts will help me out a lot. Thanks guys...keep up the good work!
 
Cheap paint removal aid:

I'm too broke/cheap to buy stripper so I decided to try a little experiment. I'm sure at some point a lot of folks here have had a mishap with brake fluid and it's ability to destroy paint. USE IT!

I used some dirty brake fluid from bleedin the truck and wiped it onto the part I was about to take the wire wheel to. Let it stand for about 10 minutes, then rinse off. Wire brush eats through whats left quick like. Not as good as proper stripper(s) but a good way to use up some of the nasty in jug #36. Repeat for primer coat. Reduces wirebrush time by close to 75% I'd say. After words just rinse off the piece and lightly oil if not painting immediately.
 
I rigged this up for less than five dollars. Its simply a 10ml syringe attached to a length of 3mm rubber hose that exits onto the rear sprocket. Push the plunger a bit as you go along and oil trickles onto the sprocket and then the chain; repeat every 100km or so.

lube.jpg


lube4.jpg



Cheap, simple, easy to make. Should make chain lubing a bit easier for the meantime until I get a proper system. I'm thinking of getting a Tutoro chain oiler before I go around, check them out at www.tutorochainoiler.com. They look like a good bit of gear and are quite cheap compared to the big names like Scottoiler... under $50 actually ;D

Cheers - boingk
 
1911pewpew said:
Cheap paint removal aid:

I'm too broke/cheap to buy stripper so I decided to try a little experiment. I'm sure at some point a lot of folks here have had a mishap with brake fluid and it's ability to destroy paint. USE IT!

I used some dirty brake fluid from bleedin the truck and wiped it onto the part I was about to take the wire wheel to. Let it stand for about 10 minutes, then rinse off. Wire brush eats through whats left quick like. Not as good as proper stripper(s) but a good way to use up some of the nasty in jug #36. Repeat for primer coat. Reduces wirebrush time by close to 75% I'd say. After words just rinse off the piece and lightly oil if not painting immediately.
Click to expand...

I know that one well. It's the only way to remove paint from plastic, such as from side covers, without harming the plastic.
 
cowboysculptor said:
I know that one well. It's the only way to remove paint from plastic, such as from side covers, without harming the plastic.
Click to expand...

Son-of-a............ Wish I had thought of that. Would've saved me alot of headache, re-finning my side covers, recently! I shoulda known better. :(
 
Parts/paint cooker!

I am impatient and I hate waitin' so I built this.

Got a brand new 20 year old toaster over from a thrift store for $5 and got this crazy aluminum box from a surplus store for $25. Pulled the toaster apart and moved everything around. Cut some holes in the box so I could access the controls.

Works great. Turn it to 200 (thermostat still works) put the parts in it and let them cook. It's awesome but man it smells nasty.

Fits a lot of tanks perfectly.



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