Early in the month Danny Melville of Hexagon Metrology visited the shed with state of the art 3D scanning and metrology equipment. Danny 3D scanned the Skeoch radiator badge & the Model T Ford front axle, he also accurately determined some key dimensions on the engine and gearbox:
The Skeoch cycle car project
The Dalbeattie Men's Shed's signature project. We recreated a cycle car, that was built in Dalbeattie over 100 years ago from a handful of parts and some of the original plans.
Displaying 11 - 20 of 38Using files from the 3D scanning by Hexagon, Tim produced our first 3D printed, red on black, Skeoch key fob, and we send Skeoch themed Christmas cards to supporters of the cycle car project.
The festivities are behind us and work on the Skeoch picks up on several fronts. Patterson Engineering cut and folded rear spring supports from supplied .DWF & .pdf drawings, the parts are now with Jas P. Wilson for welding.
We now have enough data to complete the rear axle/hub/suspension/wheel design. Early in the month work commenced on fabricating radius arms (by member Donald) and stiffened rear spring supports (by Patterson Engineering).
Dave Dickinson’s donated front axle and radius arm from an early Austin 7 was delivered, minus a few fittings, enough to allow finalisation of the front wheel hub and front spring designs. Keith Dennison donated a contemporary Browne & Barlow carburettor, missing a choke slide, Donald will make a replacement.
A piece of software discovered by Dave Higginbottom designed to colourise old monochrome photos has revealed more detail on a profile picture of the Skeoch (see image) and revises our understanding of the tyre and coachwork finishes.
It doesn’t feel like a year since Billy Connolly visited the Shed and saw the bare ash frames laid out to begin the Skeoch build, but the time has fled by.
Sunday 9 th June was cloudy but remained dry and warm, this combined with the added attraction of veteran, vintage and cherished cars made for a record attendance at Wm Kennedy’s Orroland Lodge annual open day with the Skeoch display front and centre.
To prepare the Skeoch chassis for Orroland a number of components had to be fettled to compensate for shortages, such as a missing trackrod link, errors, such as misaligned mounting holes in one of the front wheels, and trial parts, such as the 1⁄4” leaf rear springs.
Work continued on fixing the snags revealed during preparations for Orroland, then in the 2nd week of August, Bill Simpson arrived with a prototype exhaust for the car, returning a couple of days later after having tweaked some of the compound curves to clear the engine crankcase and to leave space to fit the steering column bottom journal. This then allowed the donor Model T Ford steering column to be offered up for alignment through the engine firewall down to the steering rack, and at the rear end work started on the rear brake actuation controls.