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Soon to be a free agent in the motorcycle industry, there have been a few good habits I've picked up in the shop. Organization, and always having the service manual in front of you.
Enter the Mechanic's Dirty Cheating Blanket! This wonderful rubber-coated, grease smeared, brake fluid saturated
beauty is your road map to your own work. Starting at one corner of this mat is the product name and task to be preformed. For example: '03-'05 Suzuki SV1000s Swingarm R&R.
Unfurled long-ways (or which ever direction best suits the task at hand) there is a bold yellow aarow winding its way up and down the mat interrupted by small or large circles for placing and keeping track of bolts and fasteners, silhouettes of parts to be removed in order of disassembly and easy to follow instructions for removing each part in sequence.
Now for the easy part. When you're ready to reassemble whatever it is you've dismantled, simply follow the big yellow line in reverse order. All bolts and fasteners waiting obediently to be reunited with the parts they held steadfast. All torque specs written inside their respective bolt areas on the 'map' to reassembly.
When you're done, simply hose-off, roll-up and put it away. Available for all common service tasks. Sorted by product model and task. Doubles as placemats at Thanksgiving.
picture on an idiot cloth
http://www.hk94.com...ges/m16exploded.gif
[Voice, Jun 11 2010]
[link]
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If only as a great learning tool. [+] |
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Nice one, Lets. And good to see you back, too. |
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<sensible hat> yes, lots of little pockets for those odd screws... |
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what if you accidentally mess up the part order? |
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I love this [+]....Maybe each circle would have an appropraite clip or pocket to hold the parts in place, I imagine in some cases several whole procedures/mats may be used and have to reapplied in reverse order. It would be bad if you had to move the mat, and all the bits scatter into oblivion on the floor :( |
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I could do with something like this in the kitchen. |
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You repair motorcycles in your kitchen?! |
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In my brief experience repairing my own cameras, I used cigarette boxes to hold parts, labeled by sequence. Tiny, tiny, tiny screws... |
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There's something very Zenlike about this... |
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We could sew-in magnets to keep all the screws and small metallic objects in place. |
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//You repair motorcycles in your kitchen?!// |
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I think in 1977, My Dad re-built his racing motercycle in the dining room just off of the kitchen. It seems weird now, though. |
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Yeah. Next to market: Motorcycle in-home display case/entertainment center. For the real motorcycle enthusiast its all the same thing anyway, but I bet we'll put one in every house. |
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[LBAF], The sheet could be printed out, and slipped inside a plastic sleeve. |
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SWANK, [ling]. Good call. OR how about having plexiglass workstations with under lights, using magnets to secure a sheet to the underside. Like a big, cheap x-ray viewer that doubles as a workstation/bench. Nice, [Ling], nice! |
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[Lets], for goodness' sake take this off the site and go sell it! It's a brilliant idea, far too good for this place.
Nice to see you back, though. |
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genius! and if [Lets] could see his/her way expanding from motorbikes to ford V4 engines i'll be jostling to the front of the que. |
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What moomintroll said. Most excellent. |
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+
Cool - could do for cars too! esp Mini's, i'm forever losing bits off the thing that I either can or cannot do without.
Could also go for laptops, cameras and in fact anything else that man (or crazed woman) would wish to dismantle and attempt to reassemble! |
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[RayfordSteele] Ever read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"? |
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[marked for hiding from would be idea thieves]: This kind of idea shouldn't be put in public ;-) |
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Heh. Thanks, guys. I may indeed have to call up my lawyer friend. See if maybe he handles patents. |
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I like. My older brother once dismantled my granny's 1955 Buick, much to my mother's chagrin. (She had only driven it to the beauty parlor, and in 1975 it had less than 2000 miles on it.) |
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Had he had your magic carpet, well, let's just say things would have been different, and better. (And thank you for a well thought out, well presented idea.) |
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There's many bike brands and many service tasks. So how about the big yellow arrow and small magna-doodle panels for recording the parts and notes along the way? |
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Brilliant [LBA] - perhaps there are applications in surgery too ? lay all the swabs and forceps out before the op. then make sure they are replaced before you sew 'em up again (the last needle has a special place at the end of the trail). |
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Goddamn you, Split, get this fucker MANUFACTURED, then let's get really trashed on some PBR's with the money you make! |
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Also, you should probably put a flamethrower in it. You know, just in case. |
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And jetpacks! ... MMmmm - jetpacks. |
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I wonder if the mech snobs might not take umbrage at the thought that they might need directions. I can see gnarled bikers suggest their blanket-owning buddy might need a mat to direct him how to wipe his butt, or possibly perform other, er "nonmechanical" activities which might require certain actions to be done in sequence. |
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You're talking about jumping jacks, aren't you? |
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PBRs? I was expecting some complex molecule that only the hip drugs klan would know about, but it turns out you're talking Pabst Blue Ribbon. I am reassured, and thirsty. |
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I was wondering whether a human clothing one of these would be handy. I cycle to work and very often forget my socks, or leave my cufflinks at home or similar. If I had a human sized, rollup one, I'd see straight away that I was amiss. |
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Nah, [Afro] is talking about Peanut Butter and Riccotta sandwiches. |
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Hey, Mr. Phase picked up on the reference... |
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Hey [letsbuildafort], I've looked into the patenting process for an idea I had. If you want to actually make these, I'd recommend just starting manufacturing w/o a patent. In the US, you have 1 year from the date of public disclosure of the idea to get a patent. Then, you can get a provisional patent for about $1-2k to give you the right to delay getting a full patent for one additional year. By that point, your business of selling these should be able to pay for the cost of a patent ($10k+), or it's probably not worth patenting. Alternatively, you could get some of the benefit from copyrighting the individual graphics that you use, and copyrighting (i think) is automatic. |
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I started doing that years ago: whenever I take something apart that I plan on putting back together, I get a pizza box or closest equivalent, make a sketch of the thing, and stick screws, washers, etc. right into the cardboard in the corresponding place on the sketch. It's worked for numerous synths and gizmos and I really hope it works on the Hammond that's been disassembled in my bedroom for the last 3 years, pending my remembering if I've already fixed whatever was wrong with it. |
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these exist for weapons, the're called idiot cloths I
think. But no arrows.[+] |
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Splendid idea. I've been doing a similar thing by drawing & writing on my steel topped bench. The benchsurface is also home to calculations, a list of the changewheels & screw pitches for my lathe, tyre pressures of all the bikes etc. |
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WRT patenting, a patent is only worth having if you can back it up with legal resource. When a far eastern manufacturer copies your idea, it can cost a very large amount to protect your patent. |
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