Manky Monkey Motors Axle Mounting Clamps

[tbone]

Oi!
I sort out the ramblings & iffy camera work! Tazzie does the clever button pressing thing, but I'm not just a pretty face you know! 

ah yes, that i did know 

[tazet]

I'm no gud at spelling and grammer stuff but give me a web page to play with and I'm just fine 

[tbone]

So now we have got the pipe sorted, lets put it on the `axle jig`, which is the 2" O.D pipe i mentioned earlier. 2 things to note, firstly, the 50mm I.D pipe i`m using isn`t a snug fit around the axle, but it will clamp up better so i`m not worried, and secondly, the two halves don`t meet!
Beacuse i used the angle grinder with a cutting disc fitted to slit the pipe, i lost 3mm, the thickness of a cutting disc, each side. But as we are using 3mm plate to make the flanges, its ok.

[tbone]

Next we tack weld one flange to one half of the pipe, and then another flange to the other half on the opposite side. This will fill the 3mm gap i made when i slit the pipe.

[tbone]

Now to even things up a bit, i take another flange and place it in position alongside one we just welded on, then mark down its length, then we need to cut or grind the metal away, back to our line. Do the same again on the opposite side and hey look, we now have a 3mm gap either side again!

[tbone]

 Slide the remaining 2 flanges into the gaps down either side and tack weld those in place. Then clamp the two haves together, this will hold the flanges in position to stop them distorting under the heat and pull the two halves of the clamp tighter around the `axle`. Then weld everything up fully.

[tbone]

Let it all cool down and a quick check that it all still fits snugly around the 2" jig

[tbone]

Now we gotta drill the bolt holes. I marked mine out before i fully welded but it doesn`t matter if you do them after. Gonna be making 10mm holes to take some chunky 10mm bolts, so i measured 15mm in from the slit pipe and 15mm in from each side of the flange and marked this with a centre punch.When drilled out, the holes will be 10mm in from each side with a 60mm gap between, don`t have to be but i liked them that way.

[tbone]

Drill a small 2mm pilot hole to start with then straight through with a 10mm bit taking it nice and slow. Then screw the 10mm bolts through to make sure the holes are straight.

[tbone]

that should give you 4 nice evenly spaced holes, and when nuts are added to the back of the bolts, a clamp that erm clamps tightly around your axle.

[tbone]

Still need to even up the flanges and round the corners off, so i`ll post that wen its done.

[Manky Monkey]

Nice & concise explanation TB.

[tbone]

Right, time to even up thoses flanges. I measured out from the inner edge to somewere that looked good, 35mm in this case, and marked my line. Then clamped the mount in a vice and, using a cutting disc in the angle grinder, i simply cut through both flanges at the same time. Flip it over and cut the opposite side.

[tbone]

All that needs doing now is to round off the corners. Dont suppose you have to, but hey, why not? Nothing fancy here (do i ever do anything fancy ?), simply grind the corners off to a nice radius, you can pre draw this if you like, but i just did mine `by eye`.

[tbone]

Give it a quick run over with the grinder to remove the burrs and sharpe edges.And there you have it! One axle clamp with nice rounded ears. While we are on the subject of shape, theses flanges are simple rectangles, there is nothing stopping you being creative and adding a little flare to the shape of the flange.