Two steps forward, four steps back

I'm not quite ready to go Mike Ness on the whitehouse or anything, but these lousy A35 manifolds were a bit of a set back. In addition to taking way too much effort to make and costing me a ton to set up all the jigs and such, they have been somewhat problematic in that they are the first product I've made like this. There is a good reason nobody else makes these things!

Version 1

From Moped Factory Products

The first batch of 10 had some quality control issues first of all, the welds left something to be desired visually (they were airtight- tig welded inside) and the powdercoating was a bit spotty. Definitely not up to Moped Factory standards. I was in too much of a rush and sent them out anyway and right away one of my product crash testers got back to me and said that there was a placement error, on the A35 frame the old intake (ver 2) went right into the front side cover bracket. The bike I tested them on was an A3 and slightly different in that area.

Version 2

From Moped Factory Products

So last weekend, the forward progress was interrupted to re-make the offending manifolds, with what I hope will be a more universal and all-around better design. Version 3 of the manifold is less trick, bringing the carb out farther from the frame, and on the right side this time (starboard), instead of the port side. As much as I like designs that allow you to keep things tucked in neatly, the Tomos engine and frame layout doesn't give much of an option for that. Perhaps in version 4 I'll use an actual a35 frame and make it specific to that model, in the mean time I've got something that will get the job done and should be a bit more universal for all the hackers and wierdos out there putting these things on Puchs, Batavus (more regarding this soon!), etc.

Version 3

From Moped Factory Products

The new models are welded with some tricky machine shop magic to give much better looking welds. Mig, not tig, which has certain advantages to the manufacturing process. Mostly that its faster and doesn't heat up the plate as much, so it wont warp as badly, and it looks so nice.

From Moped Factory Products

And another pic to show clearance:

From Moped Factory Products

This is finals week coming up here, so I'm working on a pile of final reports and crap, but next week I'll be hard at it getting some more exciting new products out and I'll mock up a puch frame to make sure this intake clears... take some pictures.

If all goes well, hopefully I can get some work done on some of my own projects, might make for more interesting blogging.