This week! on... This Old Tony! Front end, steering & controls! I'd hoped to cover the whole kart build in 3 videos, but alas, twas not to be. So close. Expect the last and final installment soon.
When I was about 12 my dad and me made a "soap box" cart from an 8 foot piece of 2 by 4 with an axle and wheels scavenged from a scrap heap. The whole thing in the end weighed nearly 18 tonnes and was a rolling death trap. We dubbed her "Poker Alice". nearly 25 years later my Dad is very ill and doesn't have a lot of time left, but I will always cherish that time and effort my father spent making Poker Alice for me. I teared up watching this. Your son will be very proud of you in the future, you seem like a worthy father.
Practical Engineering I haven't finished the video yet but the rack and pinion steering eliminates a lot of Ackerman adjustment available with simple linkage... if you have a background in racing karts, rack steering is never used. I also might have a couple national champ trophies on the shelf from my younger days and now work as an Engineer. Good build though!
A noble effort. I like it. The kids may, or may not, fully appreciate the effort - but Dad Projects are a lot like Dad Jokes, in that Dad really enjoys them.
@@ThisOldTony hey, ToT! looks like i'm getting conscripted for little kiddo go-kart-fab duty over here myself, and I've been loving going visiting this build again. how'd it work out? they ever get any good use out of this bad larry, or is it all trials bikes all the time? love what you're doing, and how you do it man. cheers
@@ThisOldTony Would you put this video in the "Chainsaw go-kart" playlist? Video 1, 2, addendum and 4 are in there but 3 is missing. Every now and then i go back to your past projects to relive the moment ☺️.
Blah blah you're a great fabricator. But one thing that strikes me that people don't comment on often enough is that your comedic timing is flawless. It's difficult to be funny and not have your (lame) jokes fall flat, your delivery and instinct couldn't be better. Puts you a cut above.
This is what you get when you describe the concept of a go kart to an engineer who has never seen one. I love This Old Tony but this is the strangest go kart I have ever seen. Makes for a very interesting series.
This is the highest tech home made go cart ever. I hope your kids watched you make this so they appreciate how much engineering went into this project. They should love it!
I just want to thank you for posting this. I've gone thru several medications trying to get over the time since the last, but nothing has taken the pain away. This. This was what I needed all a long. Thank you Dr. Tony.
This is the best thing you've ever done for youtube, the frustation of learning while making something new is palpable and that's so good and real. Best channel ever.
This project is so awesome. Your kids will remember this for the rest of their lives, regardless of anything else you do as a dad. I remember all of the projects my dad did when i was a kid, especially the ones that directly involved me.
+Paul Tribbey It's only getting complicated because he's having fun. This thing is vastly over-engineered for a kiddie kart. Don't get me wrong, it's cool, but one must be realistic.
This construction is turning out to be one of the most elegant, sophisticated and attractive looking go kart builds I have ever seen! I just hope it is strong enough to not bend the first time it hits a pothole...
You gotta start leaving everything tacked, weld when fitting is complete. Saves alot of time, argon, and wire. Love your videos man. Witty and knowledgeable.
It is looking good but for peace of mind I would put nylock nuts on the steering rods. Hanging down a lost nut would cause a dangerous steering loss on one wheel.
"The WeedEater" thats the greatest name ive heard in the history of ever for a kid's go-kart.... I'm so done with you today 😂 also subbed. I really like your creativity and ingenuity
There are so many off-the-shelf bike parts you could’ve used to build in some adjustment allowance-for chain line, chain tension, brake caliper/rotor adjustment-that would’ve made your life easier here. But whatever. This is totally awesome.
YESS!!!! Since the start I've been hoping you just figure out the Ackerman angle on the cart, otherwise the kids would be in for some interesting hopping cornering (or lack off) experiences. If you were really really worried about them toppling over while turning you can also get the nose of the vehicle to drop down into the corner but that's only for high speeds.
When I was about 12, I built a very similar cart, although it was done by a 12 year old. I stick-welded the frame, it had no brakes, and was incredibly dangerous, but I learned a lot doing it myself. My father did help me with some of the steering, but otherwise it was mine to build and learn. I certainly hope that your children get a similar chance to learn by themselves. I learned almost nothing watching my father do things, and everything when I did it myself, mistakes and all.
Thank God you installed a steering u-joint, lessening the odds of a chest impalement by creating an angular breakpoint in the shaft. Now please go to an auto salvage yard and get a proper steering shaft with two cross-and-roller u-joints and cut out that piece of a socket set. You need the part located between the firewall and the steering rack. Install that shaft section at an angle to your overall steering shaft to create a collapsible section. You've installed great brakes, but your kids' safety is hanging on a cobbled steering system. Reinforce between the two arms on the end of the rack. I'd also reinforce the forward face of the rack C-channel, keep it from bending downward; those gear teeth are short and just a little distortion if the channel bends could disengage the steering. Like you said, the first unauthorized modification will be to remove the throttle stop. Make the steering safe and bulletproof.
Maybe you could make where the steering shaft tube is welded to the frame adjustable on a track. That would make the steering wheel angle adjustable and make it so that if your kids crash and hit the steering wheel it could "break away" but actually just pop forward on its adjustment path.
Benjamin Watson he very well might know better. Tony straight up said he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. How about you learn the difference between you and U. Maybe go back to school and learn the alphabet.
I feel the pain in this build, recently decided to make a scooter out of a leaf blower motor... NEEDLESS to say its cost a lot more money than i expected, with a lot of setbacks, because of my lack of planning. thank you for posting this video.
I appreciate the design even more than the machine and steel work.Great project and most skillful fabrication, congratulation and waiting for the rest. To my 7 kids I got as far as promising then they grew up too fast and bought their own junk which I had to fix a non-stop bases..love your work . That Old Bo
I'm thinking your steering wheel position problem came from the fact that your kids are now 2 years older than when you started. Just kidding of course. This type of 'extremely over the top' simple project is something I would do. By the way, I'm sure your son already knows about the throttle restrictor screw if you let him watch these videos, and I think we will all be very disappointed if you don't fabricate a perfect scale formula 1 body for this thing. Nice job.
hahah, indeed! The 'problem' is more for my daughter, she's 3 years older. boy fits pretty alright. It's a compromise. I appreciate you stopping by Joe!
Actually, the way you did your steering column, it seems like you could make it an adjustable tilt. I mean, not easily adjustable by your kids... but something that you could move and set to customize it for each one. Just a thought. Anyway, awesome build! I'm intensely envious of your tools and talents.
Just hack the frame in half in front of the seat and weld 2 inches of tube in there to lenghten it. It would lower the boys knees and make the cart look less like a farm equipmnent ;)
Your welds are incredible! It might somewhat diminish my praise that I don't actually know how to weld and everything I think I know is from watching RU-vid. I am really blow away by the complexity and beauty of this project. Seeing your mistakes, I mean improvements, gives me solace in all the mistakes I make in my projects.
Looking good! That steering column reminds me of a modified VW Beetle I once bought. The previous owner had lowered the car by unbolting and moving the front suspension beam up in the body and welding it back in place 2" higher. This also raised the steering box so it wouldn't line up with the shaft, so he welded a Craftsman 3/8" drive swivel extension between the two. Luckily for him, the car was never "finished" or driven long enough for it to kill him. One of the first things I fixed.
You're not Building a go kart for your kids, or it would have been finished already. You're trying to build an engineering marvel to brag to your friends about. You know it too don't you.
I had exactly the same thoughts like: "wait a minute, would it accommodate fully physically grown adult male" just before This Old Tony decided that the steering wheel placement needs adjustments.
as soon as i seen he was going rack and pinion i thought shit, he's really going to town on this car, i mean "go kart"!, then a universal joint! haha awesome, i love it
Hi Tony nice video I'm hobby metal worker from Costa Rica, I just got to my hands a huge 2 ton shaper, it's a Cincinnati 32" crank shaper and I got it almost for free but it needs some restoring work that I'm doing this days. So as I see you have a shaper I will strongly appreciate if you did a video about this machines and their use, types of tool grind, speeds, maintenance and general joking around with a shaper, maybe we can get in more close contact via email or text we we can talk about this and so that I can show you this almost 100 year old machine. Sincerely Kevin Rodriguez
José Alberto Rodríguez , adónde está usted? Yo vivo en Costa Rica, me gusta encontrar un milling machine barata, no sabe adonde ? Yo tengo un Clausing 4914 lathe. gracias
Tony, Always fun and educational to watch! On the steering universal joint, you may want to tack the roll pins in at all four ends, I've had pins slip out under stress. Capt. Kev
Congrats on RU-vid top 100,000 by views! If I could borrow your time machine, I'd say to do the kart in stainless so you didn't have to paint it! I like that you mention ackerman steering, but because of the spindle acting as a lever arm, to get the most desirable result when tracking through corners the line should be drawn from the center of the pivot point of the spindle and the where the tire contacts pavement, this mechanism takes into account the closer distance the inside tires contact point with the road. This is not talked about much(at all), but you can see that as the front(inside) tire gets closer to the rear, less of an angle will cut down on scrubbing. Also, be sure to use the low rate steering and have a few holes in each arm so you can lower the rate as he gets older and bolts the KT100 on. I almost forgot- Thats not a router. If that thing can chew through hard steel with a carbide bit and not break the carbide, its a precision milling machine!
You do broaching! I worked for Broach Master's in Auburn California for many years. Probably have never heard of them before but my best friends family owns it and Vian Enterprise. Two separate companies but same family. We did pull broaching and blind hole broaching and shaper cutters everything was done in house making and running the broaches, heat treat was done at Vian Enterprise witch we shared parking lots so wasn't much of shipping costs. Surface grinders were made into spline grinders to make the Go/ no Go measureing tools and the Hopper's and blind hole. I could go on for way to long with all that the two companies do but I already board most of you with my opening sentence probably!! Lol. Your channel is way cool I really enjoy seeing the projects you create!!
Dear gentleman, your work is so professional !!!! Congratulations !!!! I belive that CNC machining it is what you do for living, because this is not an easy job.
Now that's some engineering ... within some engineering! Love that circular feed table thing in use, and the welds! And the welds! ..Welds. Nice going, that thing is going to have years of fun! Can't wait to see the end result, and the test!
Your building the steering components almost as if the internet is not on today, the linkage they use is very simple for these karts, but i like watching your marvelous images and humble approach to ultra-fine machine work! ;]
excellent build. Nice to have amillion dollar machine shop! In the end though, it takes a creative mind to figure all this stuff and skills to use the tooling. Great video's.
You should increase the audio bitrate for future uploads - it's alright for just your voice, but sounds awful for music and tools. It's slightly detrimental to your otherwise great production quality. Shouldn't increase file size much either!
Thanks Tephra. I've been wrestling with this for quite some time, though I don't always hear it myself. I personally don't hear it in this video. I think I'm using YT recommended. 48kHz/192kbps. Any suggestions?
Now we are critiquing the sound? Ok you did watch all the stuff he was working on right? The sound is fine. I didn't even notice the wacky organ music at all... it just faded into the background. This isn't Avatar OK?
You are getting a lot of "swirly" compression artefacts for 192kbps. Perhaps the editing package is dropping the bitrate somewhere in the pipeline before render or the codec is not up to snuff. What video editing package do you use? What audio codec are you exporting with?
You are thinking of safety for you kids! I becoming a dad in approx. 4 days. I already planned a go-cart.... *cough* for me* cough* but I see the benefits already of watching them. Thank you for your videos.
That's the coolest cart I have ever seen by far I am a mechanic and have seen a lot of custom cars and that kid's cart looks better thin most full size cars killer work!!
I love the way you resolutely call that thing a router! I've got a mini mill that would struggle to make those cuts :) Great you rethought the steering column, the original looked chest-piercing!
One hell of a great job! From someone that built a unit similar to yours. Go on the Garage Journal, in the fab section and search for the "Old Milwaukee Express" Unfortunately all the pictures won't load, but you can still read of all my trails and tribulations. Same boat as you, didn't know shit about building a cart, had to figure it out as I (we) went. Started with a 23 HP Briggs Vanguard and ended up with a 38 HP fire breathing monster.This thing had everything from dual slide Mikuni carbs to hydraulic front and rear disk brakes. Spent the better part of the winter of 2010 building it. All motor work was done in house, nothing was sent out, thanks to my good friend, who is an excellent Motorcycle mechanic and tuner.
Love the Hammon mood. Reminds me of some late seventy's documentary on physiological compatibility exercises. Ron Jeremy; scenes we wish we could unsee.
this thing is really over the top. i fully expected to see independent front suspension by now. ha ha .i'm constantly looking for reasons to justify my expensive shop toys and you have provided me with quite a few, keep up the good work.
Excellent job. Only one recommendation i would have is drill holes in the column that the bolt runs through at the front tires and tap for a grease zert..only my opinion. Love the humor!
For a simple rack and pinion steering setup, A section of chain,such as used to drive your cart, placed in a section of square tubing with an opening in it for a sprocket to act on the chain. A steering shaft gets attached to the sprocket and that's it :)Rough explanation but steering arms connect to each one of the chain .
Suspension alignment is so crucial most people don't even know. It's a precision art. I just spent $540 to balance and align my race car a couple weeks ago. That might sound a bit expensive to your average joe, but in a race car, you need to be dead on with what you want out of the car with your given suspension and tire hardware.
Always nice to find things you can reuse in the cut off (error) pile. Haa This project looked fun! I always find it fun to watch things behind machined.
I could watch a twenty part build of this go cart just so there could be more videos. I probably sound like your kids when I say it is taking to long between videos. You are in my top three RU-vid stars.
On the cabling.... we usually loop the cable around the pedal by 180 degrees leading the cut end back down the rest of the cable. The 'gearing' of the pedal on the cable can be adjusted by having loops welded on the pedal at various heights through which the cable runs. You then take an electrical connector blocks and cut the twin screwed 'tube' out of the plastic. You then run the cable through the 'tube' around the pedal and back through the tube. You now have two screws with which to trap the cable. It also places the cut end of the cable parallel to the rest of the cable so that the loose end can be taped off to avoid spiking anyone that comes near it. If you want to make sure the cable is firmly gripped, use two 'tubes' touching each other. That now gives a four screw fixing onto the cable. They don't move after that...… On the brake side..... if you have particular worries about a cable failing, simply add a second cable attached in the same way. If one cable fails, the other will still work as a backup.
Brilliant Tony! Had to laugh at your steering placement conundrum - when I was a kid it was the consideration of how much you'd have'ta jam your foot on the bit of wood to help the rope steering unjam from the knot you'd tied... Kids these days ;) you make me want to get/learn tig.. Nice work!
This old Tony, this is an great video as always, suggestion about the die for your tube bender, in the past i've used car flywheels, the starter gear, is easy to remove and you have from 200 mm to 400 mm round price, that you pay scrap value for at any car disassembler, my favorite is Yugo 45 it has a small bore in the center and is thick, and the starter gear teeth, can be strengthened and be used as a rack.
Skid plate. I had gokart as kid. Cement mixer engine, chain drive on one side (centrifugal clutch). Pop and uncle made it. It was longer up front and bit light. But man, it needed a "weedeater" plate because when you rode off grass into a field, it was a scythe! BTW, great work so far! (a splined u-jointed steering would allow adjusting for various ages. Also, would have extended the chassis forward for leg growth and avoided that mod for steering-knee issue.
Ah. Love your videos. Also love that you, along with other builders, have some sort of hypnotic affect on me and put me to sleep. Like, 5 minutes and I'm nodding off. MelaTony.
Amazing work. I am quite envious. My small vehicle building experience tells me the first failure point will be the steering system moment arms at the weld near the end of the rack, or a similar joint in the steering system at knuckle pivot point. Just based on observation. Regardless, I am impressed and hope it is a blast!!!!! Let me know if I am correct! I'm watching this for the first time and about 18min in.
