Truing Alpha and Villiers crankshafts

[Rob]

Ian, Have a look at this:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.g...nditioning.pdf

The old Alpha info was always a good guide. Assuming you have some way of setting up the crank for truing, all you then need is a big hammer, inquiring mind and lots of patience. It helps if the crank has not previously been set upon by a half-crazed gorilla!

As you can see from the pic, some people make light work of this with minimum resources!

[IanCordes]

The old Alpha info was always a good guide. Assuming you have some way of setting up the crank for truing, all you then need is a big hammer, inquiring mind and lots of patience. It helps if the crank has not previously been set upon by a half-crazed gorilla!

As you can see from the pic, some people make light work of this with minimum resources!

Rob. That is a great link, thanks. Interestingly, having read it, Rob Carrick and John Wood disagree with it, saying the Alpha method is too inaccurate! Alpha made them, so I guess it would be a safe bet to follow their method, as I don't have access to a lathe, unless I pay for it, with engineer's time t'boot. Also, that didn't work anyway! I have dial gauges, but need some sort of knife-edge blocks, such as the Alpha Tru. If I could find a set of suitable rollers, I could make one, but a search of the net has come up with nothing. The V blocks that the Aussie used in the video are a bit crude, but seemed to work, if all else failed.

[Rob]

Ian, I've been meaning to make up some knife edges for ages. I have some Sigma bench centres and they just about take a Villiers crank. They are old and secondhand and you can sometimes pick them up.

Regarding the ins and outs of different methods, it is like suspension units and electronic ignition. Everybody has their own ideas and this is better than that. The only way is to try both methods and make your own mind up!

The problem with centres is that the end of the mainshafts have usually had the gorilla treatment at some time over the intervening 60 years. Hammering cranks out of cases with club hammers was always a favourite method of achieving this.

Dick and I are now off to the Somme, sorry, Gloucester, for the March Hare Mud Madness!