Thats it.
This morning i was looking over the lower pulley and I could see several threads of the center drive shaft sticking out past the tribar assembly. There was much more of the shaft sticking out than when i originally assembled the lower.
I removed the lower and disassembled it in order to determine what went wrong. The problem is the tribar assembly essentially over tightened itself on the shaft beginning to mushroom the threaded area of the tribar assembly. While nothing had failed it was easy to see that it wasn't going to last.
Stock lower- The threaded shaft is flush with the tribar assembly.
Over tightened lower-You can see how many threads are sticking out of the front.
Stock Lower- The out side of the threaded area of the tribar is even with the drive assembly
Over tightened Lower- The threaded area has been "Bubbled" out because the threaded area of the tribar has been compressed.
I spent the afternoon building 2 anti-tightening plates and will mount them via studs like others have done. I'm going to visit with the machine shop and see how quickly they could work something up. Sam AKA Cozmo has volunteered to possibly help build some up anti-tightening plates for this run just to get them going. I will have to see about getting them mass produced though in the future as they're obviously a must as my testing and the previous caged pulley makers have shown.
There is also some good news for people that aren't needing 4lb lowers as I when I was picking up the lowers the shop owner told me it would be no big deal to change the outside pulley diameter. Thus opening up the option for 2lb and maybe even -2lb for larger blower guys. Sorry I can assure people that there won't be 6lb available as it will only add more headaches to the project.
For everyone thats sticking with the project and paying attention I do appreciate it. I hope to get the new parts whipped up ASAP and get these pulleys available to people that want them.
Here are pics of the piece I welded up today that I hope to get made as well to accompany the 4lb lower. You can see the 14mm shaft in the center prevents turning and is bolted to the tribar. This will probably be studs pressed in as then you don't need welding on the tribar.
I was trying to see your pics of the lock plates. It was hard to picture in my head how they worked without seeing them. A few pages later I found some pics of how the installed. If you have some extra, that's cool if you want to let one go. But it's something I can make at work. No big deal either way. The stainless studs would be nice. I assume I can find them at McMaster Carr or something. If you have extra I'd definitely take 3 of those. If not maybe the deminsions of the treads and shaft would help.
I just bought a lower cage assembly. I am going to do the full disassembly and reassembly with a 4lb lower. I don't know if I'd want to build and sell. I just like to build stuff on the side for fun. Especially sense I would have to rely on a machinist for this one. Too many people involved for me.
Where did you get the 14mm hex bar stock at?
