Son Of Szanter - Slippery Jim

Construction Diary

Read on for Ants's account of the building of the Slippery Jim

Entry's in Blue are added by me (Jules)

Day One: the conception

I thought, "The Szanter was really rather good, wasn't it?"
Jules possibly agreed.
I thought, "It's about time we did some more Greceting."
Jules probably agreed.
I thought, "I think we should make another steerable sledge".
Jules certainly agreed. Agree

Jules thought we could make a trike-style sledge. it seemed like a good idea at the time. We thought about it. Disgramming was necessary, I suppose. After all, I am the chief disgram. But then, knowing Grecet, the final product would probably end up completely different to any designs anyway: thus is the spirit of Bodgetry.

We agreed to have an early start the next day, and spend an entire day making an as-yet unnamed sequel to the Szanter: the second steerable sledge. The second true winter Grecet project. This was truly "Bodge Cold 2: Bodge Colder", and this time Jules was armed with a deadly weapon: a welder, and the deadly skills to accompany it.
A restless night followed: there had been a distinct lack of bodgetry over the preceding few months and the Grecet workshop was aching to be used again.

Day Two: the construction

I woke up. It was time. The cold winter's day wasn't as clear or dry as I'd hoped. It was a true English winter's day, being drizzly and grey and cold and nasty. The weather gods have nothing against Team Grecet though. They never thought that people would invent buildings with roofs.
I arrived at Jules's house and we opened the garage. He had a new exhaust tip to weld to his car that day as well. This put a dent in the tight sledge-building schedule, but the single-day completion of the project was still possible.
We had a look around the place to see what resources (bits of scrap) were available to us. A fuel tank here (useless), an SPV rear wheel there (also useless)... an entire Gingus front section, with working steering?!?!only just, after Ant slammed it into the wall at point blank range ;) Yes. It was obvious: we would make a Szanter clone. The Son of Szanter.
We also had a look around for some metal with which to fabricate a frame and some skids. We would need to produce the two thin front steerable skids, and a wide, flat rear skid or two, with ribs to keep the sledge going straight. Upon these skids, the seat would be placed. A set of lawnmower handlebars would probably provide enough steel to make the front skids, and the old Gingus engine plate would comfortably produce the rear ones... but the engine plate was made from heavy steel at least 6mm thick. Cutting it would be difficult without using an VERYdodgy angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel.
We had some metal, but not lots, so we had a lot of things to buy at Bue & Queue.

Shopping list:
Some metal, enough to make a frame and maybe some skids from.
One can of spray paint, preferably Rust-Not or similar .Preferably insane coloured.
Some welding wire for the welder.
A cutting disc for the angle grinder.

We drew a quick sketch of what the thing could look like and went off to Bue & Queue to buy the stuff.
We bought a large 5Kg spool of wire for the welder, which would certainly be enough to complete the project(!), a can of Bue(TM) blue Rust-Not spraint, two metre-or-so lengths of reasonably light but strong enough 20mm box-section steel, and a metal cutting disc for the angle grinder.

I attached the steering support to the Gingus front section, and looked for a steering rod, which Vugel found instantly only after five mins of snauss searching;).
Jules attached his exhaust tip to his car, while I started cutting and drilling the box-section, ready for him to weld together to form the front skids. Soon after, the exhaust was attached and the front skids complete. We were surprised at the amount of plastic that coated the steel of the lawnmower handlebars, but the welder made light work of it. Made a nice barbecue smell.
The skids were attached to the front section. By now, we'd decided that it was to be called the "Slippery Jim". At this point I looked forward to shouting "RELEASE THE SLIPPERY JIM!!!" for I knew I would not have many chances to say such a strange phrase, and really mean it, in my life.
Jules had tried cutting the Gingus engine plate with the angle grinder. That plate is nearly indestructible! It was reasonably obvious that we wouldn't be able to seriously make any ski-like articles out of such solid steel. A quick bodge-it rethink was in order. Ant just couldn't be arsed to rub the rust off ;)
New design: have two long, thin rear skis. Make a flat square frame upon which the seat would sit. Attach the skis under two sides of the square frame. Attach this, somehow, to the front section. Excellent.

We basically then went about making the thing, and it was all rather uneventful not sure how it went so well without any problems... not like Grecet at all. Jules welded a nice square frame, the seat sat nicely in this frame, the rear skis sat parallel and level with each other underneath it, and all was rather nice. We weren't sure entirely how to attach the front to the back, though. After much deliberation (the story is almost quite boring at this point), the frame was to be attached through the use of two pieces of old Gingus frame welded alongside the protruding tubes of the front section, and butted up against the box-section of the square seat-frame. The fear of doing this bit wrong we decided to do somit else first We made a steering wheel in the following shape: |_| and welded it to the steering rod. (Jules starts to notice welds are getting progressively worse and Snauss disappeared off to take chelle to bingo)

Jules turned on the welder and started to tack weld the frame together. He thought, "Hmm, these welds are rubbish", turned off the welder and pulled the trigger. The hiss of the CO2 shielding gas was not heard. Disaster! Out of gas! It was 6pm, surely Bue and Queue was not open. Surely the Professor could not afford a new bottle of shielding gas? Surely the sledge wouldn't take ANOTHER day to be completed?!

It would seem so. The valiant Ant (that's me), on his own, quelled his curiosity (is that right?) in seeing if Bue and Queue was actually closed. It wasn't. Success! Frantically, I strolled into the shop and searched for the gas. Finding just about exactly what I came for, I phoned Jules and he agreed to pay half of the cost of the gas. Success!(Szanter saves the day)
I returned to the Grecet workshop (success!) and we continued (success!) the project (success!).

Success! Yet it still was not complete.(Success!!!)

The flimsy butt joint had to be finished yet! This wasn't very rigid on its own, so we Jules decided to and then welded the handle bars from a mountain bike between the top of the steering support frame and the middle of the front of the square seat-frame.
And that was just about that!

Hanging the frame from the ceiling, Jules brandished the Bue(TM) paint with exceptional vigour, and ensured that every part was covered and covered again. The end result was a Buetiful blue sledge, a true, worthy Son of Szanter. It did, though, look a bit boring, since it was entirely blue. Highlights were what it needed, and Jules had just the jiffery: glittery purple spray paint. A nice camo scheme ensued, and the Slippery Jim is now... yes, that's right... blue and purple.
We sprayed the back of the seat in Buetiful Bue and Purple, and it was done.

The next day was to be the test day, if it was frosty enough on the ground.

Day Three: the observation

I awoke at an ungodly hour to see if it was frosty. It wasn't. I went back to bed.
Later that evening, we reminded ourselves of the beauty of the Slippery Jim, and took some pictures of her. Very nice.

Day Four: the test that never was.

I awoke at an ungodly hour to see if it was frosty. It was a bit frosty, so I got out of bed and discussed the plan of action online with Jules. He said that the sledge didn't work!
Arrrgh!!!
The front skids didn't slide. They just turned over on the grass. Jules said it was too hard to push. He went to the test site to determine whether or not the ground was suitable. It wasn't.

So, instead of testing the Slippery Jim, we made it into the Even Slipperier Jim by removing the plastic from the metal skids, stripping them to the bare metal with a rough sanding disc, then smoothing them with a fine disc, T-Cutting them and finally Turtle Waxing them. The Jim is now exceedingly, extremely slippery. On the compacted snow, the Slippery jim will almost certainly outperform the Szanter. Still with a Ant sitting on the sledge i could not budge it at all on the grass, i think it just needs some slidey ground like a bit of snow or a bit of frost there.

All we need now is snow (or at least heavy frost!).

Update:

Tested the even slipperyer jim in some heavy frost and it worked pretty good. See the photographs in the media section.

Update 28/01/2004:

SNOW NSOW SWON

On my way home from collage I hit dunstable just as the snow storm does and it feels good, everything in site has a think white coat of powdery snow, I quickly(as I dare) drive home and get the sledge ...but decide to walk as the car has only been parked for five mins and already has about 50mm of snow on its roof. after donning far too many layers of clothes I take the jim in one hand... erm yes and the jim in the other hand too, and make for the side of Dunstable downs.

After climbing to the top I switch on the cycle light i have taped to the front(as it is dark) and sit down, i firmly clasp the flight yoke and push off, at first it seemed like the sledge was gonna be slow but then it took off and accelerated very quickly untill i reached the end of the slope.

I also met Muzz's bro having a laf down a little slope. He had a go and hit a hard lump on the ground which put the front tracking out, but with some force we put it straight again, although he did think the sledge was rather cool.

After several fast runs weaving in and out of people and getting some pretty good air time off the small jumps i decided it was time to leave, so i line up for the last run and push off, this run seemed very fast, whilst hurtling down the slop i drift left to hit a jump but the front right ski hits a odd shaped mount of snow/earth and jams left then buckles under the sledge, this then jams into the soft ground and catapults me off over the front and slightly to the left. I also catch my stomach on the yoke while i fly free.

With a hammer and some force it will be sorted tomorrow but this has proved to be a weakspot when pushing the jim through its paces on very rough terrain. i will go over the frame when its like and check for damage but i think the rest is fine.

- Ant

- Jules