stuff I used to make

madass140

madass140

VIP MEMBER
Joined
Nov 6, 2011
Messages
2,126
Country flag
stuff I used to make

I used to make all sorts of stuff, well, still do, these are Manx type oval swing arms for Slimline frames for road use, they were popular.
 
stuff I used to make

one of my Production Slimline frames, these had replica fabricated swingarms, in the background is a frame in jig covered and foreground frame complete with front end ready for shipment.
 
Well you're definitely an accomplished craftsman that's for sure. I rember the first time I saw something of yours for sale on ebay. I thought it looked like a good deal, ( might have been a rear hub of something, I don't really remember what it was). I do remember thinking there was no way I was going to bid on it because I thought it might be a scam since it was coming out of PI. Later when I found out it was you thru the forum, and on th up and up I knew I'd missed out.I remember thinking, yeah,,,,,right,,,,,,how many nortons ever made it to the PI. Oh well we live and learn.  
 
well I spent 50 years in Oz, so it was pretty easy to sell stuff, but selling stuff out of Asia is a task and rightly so, people know me worldwide so its not to hard to get my parts out there even though I refuse all requests from the Dealers (middlemen) to sell my goods, I figure if I'm the one to do the hard yards then I'll be the one to take any profit at the end of the day if there is any. I'm just havin a bit of fun.
 
I can remember a time when guys used to subsidise their racing by making frames, fork braces, manifolds, tanks and seats. These days we only use historic classes as 'constructor's classes'. I believe it is a major productivity issue, we will never manufacture motorcycles in Australia, even though we can buy Chinese and Checkoslovakian motors. There are no modern classes which promote any ingenuity. A lot of it has to do with our racing controlling bodies having friends with the large corporations. In both cars and bikes the mindset is that you buy the throw-away item - like table tennis bats .
You might find t his interesting :

https://vimeo.com/20789680

Do you have a web site ?
 
Jabiru has found a way to make aircraft engines in Oz and whole airplanes and kits too I believe. There must be some way around the legislative red tape for those who are so inclined.
 
I used to work in the Australian aircraft industry, in manufacturing. The industry is subject to stringent controls, and is greatly different to the auto industry. Australian Standards don't really apply. Materials and manufacturing equipment are usually imported from the US or the UK, or France. The attention to detail is extreme. Having said that, we lost our manufacturing industry when tail flutter caused a Nomad aircraft to crash, killing the test pilot, and causing the co-pilot t o become quadraplegic. It was due to flying the plane before wind tunnel test results had been analysed and reported.
 
cjandme said:
Jabiru has found a way to make aircraft engines in Oz and whole airplanes and kits too I believe. There must be some way around the legislative red tape for those who are so inclined.
Click to expand...

And what a fantastic small aircraft it is to cj, my brother owns one and I pinch it regularly! :mrgreen:
 
acotrel said:
I used to work in the Australian aircraft industry, in manufacturing. The industry is subject to stringent controls, and is greatly different to the auto industry. Australian Standards don't really apply. Materials and manufacturing equipment are usually imported from the US or the UK, or France. The attention to detail is extreme. Having said that, we lost our manufacturing industry when tail flutter caused a Nomad aircraft to crash, killing the test pilot, and causing the co-pilot t o become quadraplegic. It was due to flying the plane before wind tunnel test results had been analysed and reported.
Click to expand...

The aircraft crash comics report that 19 Nomads have crashed, over the 2 decades it was in service.
Thoughts are that the tail was somehow too involved in the airflow, and lost effectiveness in some situations or attitudes.
Could be why its nickname was the widowmaker. ?

Hearing that the testpilot bought it should have told someone something ?!!
P.S. Flight International says that 55 are still flying.

But we diverge...
 
....."But we diverge"...... you're right...sorry about that...Madass, do you still make slimline frames?
 
No more frames, i sold the setup with enough tubing and all the laser cut brackets, tabs etc to make about 50 frames before I left Australia 5 yrs ago, I dont think the new owners of the jig and tooling etc bothered to carry on with production, such a shame, everyone wants a Slimline frame, I have no intention to do it all again, it was a great purpose built frame jig , it would rotate 360 degrees within itself for ease of welding, I think Rohan would of seen it.
 
The wind tunnel tests showed the tail flutter which caused the first Nomad to crash. The plane was flown before the test results were available. The original design had a hinged fuselage so helicopter blades could be carried in the plane - Vietnam in mind. Just another example of a poor design brief, and changing tack in mid stream. Result - end of an industry.
 
Do you still have the contact info of the guy who got the frame jig from you??
 
No, but I'll have a think and do a bit of research but not sure how I'll go,
 
acotrel said:
The wind tunnel tests showed the tail flutter which caused the first Nomad to crash. The plane was flown before the test results were available. The original design had a hinged fuselage so helicopter blades could be carried in the plane - Vietnam in mind. Just another example of a poor design brief, and changing tack in mid stream. Result - end of an industry.
Click to expand...

Since they built several hundreds of them, in various versions and names, and Gippsland Aeronautics has apparently acquired the rights in 2011 for a new improved version GA18, your announcement would seem to be a little premature... ?

The stretched version, which crashed as you mention, was quite a while into the production sequence.
Raising the tail, and the fin, fixed the problems.

But we diverge, again...
 
madass140 said:
No more frames, i sold the setup with enough tubing and all the laser cut brackets, tabs etc to make about 50 frames before I left Australia 5 yrs ago, I dont think the new owners of the jig and tooling etc bothered to carry on with production, such a shame, everyone wants a Slimline frame, I have no intention to do it all again, it was a great purpose built frame jig , it would rotate 360 degrees within itself for ease of welding, I think Rohan would of seen it.
Click to expand...

I did see it, was quite neat I recall - although the actual details escape me these days.
Frames looked really good.

These days, I've wondered if buidling a larger tubed version would bring any benefits with respect to engines with significantly more orsepowers...
 
Rohan said:
madass140 said:
No more frames, i sold the setup with enough tubing and all the laser cut brackets, tabs etc to make about 50 frames before I left Australia 5 yrs ago, I dont think the new owners of the jig and tooling etc bothered to carry on with production, such a shame, everyone wants a Slimline frame, I have no intention to do it all again, it was a great purpose built frame jig , it would rotate 360 degrees within itself for ease of welding, I think Rohan would of seen it.
Click to expand...

I did see it, was quite neat I recall - although the actual details escape me these days.
Frames looked really good.

These days, I've wondered if buidling a larger tubed version would bring any benefits with respect to engines with significantly more orsepowers...
Click to expand...

There's a guy on ebay selling them. You don't need larger tube, just thicker walled.
 
swooshdave said:
There's a guy on ebay selling them. You don't need larger tube, just thicker walled.
Click to expand...

As in waterpipe thick ??

Larger tubing thin walled is MUCH stronger than smaller tube thickwalled, probably similar weights ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top