I am very pleased to show you today the completion of another project that I started several weeks ago. This being my 1912 Indian motorcycle display that I have been putting together for my workshop. I put the finishing touches on the project late this afternoon and I am thrilled how it all turned out.
Here is the finished project that will really brighten up my workshop. The tubing for the framework is standard 1/2 inch PVC conduit that I removed all the markings off of the tubing using acetone. This worked out so well that I have eliminated the idea of painting the tubing red. With the gray in the illustration of the Indian's engine it seems to tie in nicely with the entire look of the display by leaving it gray with the red 3D printed mounting parts. So it saves me a bunch more work and I can call it done.
This photo is of the corner fittings that I designed and 3D printed for the display framework. The black cylindrical plugs slid easily into the red fittings so that the PVC tubing could be plugged into each corner of the frame. The black plugs were simply glued in place using plastic modeling glue.
These three assemblies are the hangers for the frame which again were designed so the a standard "Eye" bolt could be mounted to the upper portion of the printed parts. This eye bolt is held in place with an upper external and lower internal nut. I put a hex cavity in the upper internal portion of the parts so the nut would not spin when the eye bolt was mounted to the base parts. The middle assembly above is slightly different than the two out assemblies as this required a vertical PVC tube mount to tie it into the bottom tube of the framework. This eliminated the sagging of the cross tubes when it would be hung up for display. Worked out rather nicely when I put it together in the final assembly.
In each of the corners of the framework are these triangular 1/4 inch thick plexiglass shapes. These I cut out using my CNC machine and a milling bit for plastic. Did a nice job on these parts and only took about three minutes to make each one. The slot in the center of the part is so the corner of the Indian motorcycle banner could be pulled tight using a mounting clip assembly.
Here are the clips that I found at my local home and builders store. These are called tarp grabbers and the look and function of these little guys were perfect for this project. Four of them only cost me $3.00. A good price so I snapped them up as soon as I found them.
These odd little bits I designed for the tarp grabbers so that everything could be tied into the corner plexiglass parts. The first ones I made were similar to what you see here but without the dimple on the side of the base. This turned out to cause an interference problem with the tarp grabber so these were designed to take care of that little problem.
Here's a good shot of one of the corners of the framework with all of the components assembled and in place. The tarp grabber is mounted to the small cylinder with the dimple that in turn is mounted to the plexiglass triangular piece. The plexiglass is mounted to the corner tube mounts and also to the two outer mounts. All of this is bolted together using 3/16 inch button head bolts and nuts that are countersunk into each red 3D printed part. The entire assembly is put together using only a couple of allen wrenchs and a 1/4 inch wrench for the bolt that holds the tarp grabber to the plexiglass part. I like the look and it was very simple to put together once I had all the holes drilled for the tubing. This by the way was accomplished by using the 3D printed parts as guides to center the drill holes. It all worked out very well so it was another great day in the shop.
The overall size of the display is 36" x 76". This post has the title "Worth a thousand words". I hope you agree with my sentiment on how this project turned out. No matter what, this display will really brighten up the rather bland white wall it now covers. Enjoy the photos.
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