I picked up a small electric walk behind forklift that had been scrapped.

The batteries (4 x 6v) were completely dead, so I replaced them with a couple of normal car batteries. It won’t give as long a run time as the original setup, but I only need to use it occasionally.

There were some wiring issues to correct, and I still need to fix a broken hydraulic fitting, but it’s working - and proved to be quite useful for carrying things like gearboxes around

The water taxi has a hydraulic steering setup, which was connected to the engine with a linkage made from old GTR swaybar links and a piece of stainless steel rod.

The geometry wasn’t quite right and it could foul on the steering ram bracket when the engine was tilted, which caused it to break a couple of times.

I made a new linkage using some stainless steel rose joints, bolts, and tube.

It looks a lot tougher (and less rusty) than the old linkage!

This required getting the ex-scrap lathe up and running to make some aluminium spacers for the bolts

just for a change I went and helped put up the frame for a big shed / carport.

We didn’t stick entirely to amish methods

Today was the Sydney branch of the Australian Electric Vehicle Association’s field day.

I took my new bike (Electrocycle 2!) along, in an unfinished but ridable state.
Hopefully it will be all done and on the road soon

It’s currently a bit slow, because only half the batteries are installed, but it’s still pretty fun to cruise around on.
The other half of the batteries are in this bike for now:

It’s Geoff’s very nice conversion of a Hyosung GT250R, using a Perm132 motor and the same Thundersky lithium batteries as mine.

Since his batteries are in the go kart, we used half of mine in the bike so we could have everything running for the field day.

Takeoff is a bit quicker on my bike thanks to the larger controller and series wound motor - but the top speed was coincidentally pretty much exactly the same!

It’ll be very interesting when both bikes are 100% finished and road registered

At the field day I also got to have a drive of Kearon’s electric formula vee, which was very impressive! Now to talk him into letting me take it to the track

More info at: www.theelectriccarcompany.com.au/

My turbocharger based home built jet engine has been running with a combustion chamber way oversized for the turbo.

A while back I bought a couple of large turbos from some sort of earth moving equipment. Apparently the original engine had four of them!

I plasma cut a flange to bolt onto the turbo, and welded a short piece of 100mm exhaust pipe between that and the outlet of the combustion chamber.

A new air pipe was made up using 75mm aluminium intercooler pipe and a CNC cut flange, which should give really good air flow from the turbo to the combustor.

The oil plumbing needed a couple of minor changes, and the whole setup was bolted onto the test frame.

I’ve found that the usual leaf blower starting setup won’t work with this turbo, so I’ll need to sort out a better leaf blower or mechanical starter.

This thing should make some serious power (noise!) when it’s up and running

The water taxi rebuild project is finally done! (well, mostly)

After a bit of a flat out week finishing off the wiring, doing some hull repairs, and making covers for the front, it was ready to go on the water.

The day after launching it was still floating

After a bit of a break due to being busy with other things, I’ve finally gotten back into the water taxi rebuild.

There’s not too much left now, but a lot of the small things end up being extra fiddly and taking longer than expected.

One of the next things to do was to get the hydraulic steering setup working and adapt it to the “new” engine.

The hydraulic ram that moves the engine to steer the boat was bolted onto a bracket which then bolted onto the old engine.

The bolts holding the ram onto the bracket were corroded and stuck, and wouldn’t come out without breaking them - so a new mounting method was needed.

Just to make it a bit more difficult, there’s no space on the new engine to fit the ram in the same way as the old engine - so when the engine tilts up the steering linkage needs to change angle quite a lot.

To mount the ram onto the boat I made up a stainless steel bracket that wraps around the ram and holds it solidly without needing any bolts.

The bracket then bolts onto the transom of the boat using the top two engine mounting bolts.

The actual linkage from the ram to the engine took a lot of working out, but ended up being fairly simple.

I used the ball joints from a Skyline GTR swaybar link and welded a longer stainless steel rod in between them. This connects the steering ram to the engine while allowing all the necessary movement.

After that the system just needed filling up with fluid and the air bled out - and it was up and running!

Years ago I built a jet engine as a bit of an experiment, using mainly scrap metal and various leftover car parts.

Every now and then I drag it out and try some new parts or modifications.

It’s based on a small turbocharger from a Mitsubishi Starion, and currently has a combustion chamber from a Rolls Royce Dart turboprop engine.

Last week I took it along to an event called Dorkbot (http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsyd/), which is a monthly gathering of people interested in electronic / mechanical / scientific art performances, displays, and experiments.

I fired up the jet engine, made a lot of noise - then gave a bit of a talk on how it works, how it was built, and what I have planned for it in future.

The second presenter on the night showed information and video from an installation artwork / experiment he did in California, where an earthquake simulator was set up in the middle of earthquake territory and was used to display amplified real time seismic activity from the whole state!

The event was a lot of fun, and definitely worth going to if you’re interested in all manner of crazy experimental things!

I just hope I didn’t offend the neighbours too much with the jet, and they’ll have me back to show some of my less noisy projects

For anyone interested in home built jet engines, have a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pTUeuEv8Uc

Also check out this very serious backyard jet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX5U8DlBzzk

It’s actually sitting on a trailer now!

The roof is mostly done, so I just need to finish the front canopy, cut the carpet to size, install the wiring, sort out the steering, bolt the engine on, and fix up various bits of damage I’ve found on the hull. Easy

After many hours of grinding, wire brushing, sanding, and flaking the old paint off, the boat now has most of its new paint job done!

Compare this to how it was originally:

Now to get all the lights, wiring, controls, carpet, windows, and engine in!