The leaf springer fork from H*LL

[spinman]

Ratsters,

Being one who can never leave 'well enough' alone, I thought I'd make my life more difficult than it really is.

I took Hooch's leaf spring fork design and made it one big mess. After having made a zillion 1/2" holes in my Higgins chainguard, I thought I'd carry that theme into other areas of the build. Someone mentioned that adding holes in the leaf "may" make it less stiff. So I bought four 1/2" cobalt bits ($8 a pop), marked up the leaf and started drilling for oil.

It ain't so easy going thru over 1/4" hardened spring steel. I get about 3/4 of the way thru and then the bit starts whining like a stuck pig. I've got the 10" drill press on the lowest rpm and throw some 3in1 oil as I go thru. I'm not sure if drilling a 1/4" pilot hole first would help out or not.

I've got about 5 more holes to go.

I doubt it'll loosen up the spring, but I like the look.

Spin

 

[vanilla_gorilla]

pilot holes always help and find lube stuff made for drilling steel
should go through it no probs

 

[sensor]

what i do when i need to drill holes in car frames is 1/8" pilot hole followed by a uni-bit (theres a link to them in the how to where you asked about holes for the chain guard)
now just incase you havent guessed this yet the holes will give that spring ALOT more movement(or spring if you will)so you might need to add afew more to stiffen it up again

 

[karfer67]

cool idea i was going to use something like that in an upcomming build now i have to think of something else lol :x

 

[spinman]

...now if only my Kruzer King fork would EVER get here, maybe I could proceed on this bike before the end of the world :shock:

 

[sensor]

im going to do hoochs idea with a little twist of my own :wink:
hope your fork gets there soon cant wait to see this!

 

[Hooch]

sweet!!!!!!! people are building leaf spring springers!

 

[KOTA]

sweet!!!!!!! people are building leaf spring springers!

HOOCH SPRING springers!

 

[musclebikes]

aww......you gave away my secret, I was planning on building one of those forks on the next build off

what the heck, Ill probably still build it anyways ........Leaf spring-springers were born during the 1920s, Some motorcycles used them, other motorcycles even used leafsprings for the suspension on the back of the motorcycle, but these designs were death traps and there for the whole idea didnt last very long.

 

[karfer67]

wow seems like a lot of people were going to do forks like hooch's for the build off (me too by the way) so i guess i have to come up with something different hmmmmmmm. now you are all in trouble my gears are turnning. :mrgreen:

 

[spinman]

I vote to officially name this type of mechanism the "Hootchie Springer".

 

[KOTA]

I vote to officially name this type of mechanism the "Hootchie Springer".

2nd it! :lol:

 

[karfer67]

figured out my fork delema more to come ......