The bike project is getting going again. One of the nice things is getting to machine some more interesting materials, e.g. a £300 piece of titanium bar for the motor shaft:

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I chose titanium purely for the 'easy' weight saving. We're getting the motor core length a little longer for more power, so the increase of weight from this will be offset a bit by lightening the shaft. My lathe seems to be coping OK so far. I first made sure the tailstock was properly aligned as the tolerances are pretty strict on this one and spent the rest of the weekend doing the roughing cuts.

More fun than millions of battery terminals:

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I programmed those using Octave (though just about any language would have done), parametrically so I just have to enter the dimensions and the rest is worked out. It seemed worth it to get an efficient toolpath - probably wasn't, but more interesting!

Next thing will be some parts from aluminium and carbon sheet to make a new tail unit packed with batteries.