Dear Phil
Many thanks for the reply. By trade I am a modelmaker so manufacturing things by hand from a set of drawings is something that I have been doing for a job on a daily basis.
On and off for the last 30 years I have been restoring vintage bellows cameras all over 100 years old, when I first asked on the forums about making bellows I had the same reply from one and all that it is impossible and all the craftsmen whom used to make them are all long gone. To me that was a challenge and within a few weeks I was up and running manufacturing brand new concertina bellows with over 1 meter of draw for my large format cameras, and it seamed that I was the only one in the world doing so because no one knew of a machine that made them yet couldn’t comprehend someone doing it by hand.
The way I look at it is that 100 years ago the radiators were being produced by several companies all by hand with very simple tools, I can still purchase all the same raw materials today (well saying that I have the choice of 6mm or 8mm brass tube but not the desired 7mm) so there should in theory with patients and practice be no reason why I cannot do what people in my grandfathers age were learning as apprentices, or at least have a attempt. If I fail so be it but I would rather try and hopefully learn a new skill and pass that knowledge on to others that fit a radiator to the bike that is held together with tape. I will post my attempts and failures on the forum as I work the process out and hopefully I wont be eating humble pie.
For the Chronometric Speedometer I will need to wait till my bike arrives on the 23rd of August to see if there are any tolerances to install a Smiths speedo drive on the front wheel. Although I am not a rivet counter so if I need to go for a classic looking modern equivalent that would also be fine by me, the speedometer needs to be fitted purely for the Government MOT test not for something I actually need to use.
Regards
Stuart
