Most interesting/useful non-vehicle thing to make from a Zero powertrain?

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Jul 16, 2018
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I totaled my '13 FX riding dirt a while back, and instead of trying to bandaid it back together, decided to tear it down and make it a bigger project of it. It's gone nowhere so far but I dug it out this weekend and it's got me thinking again. Original plan was a custom cafe racer and more recently I've been thinking of cramming it into a competent dirtbike frame (if I can find one with a blown motor cheap), and gokart and all the usual projects sound fun, but I've also been wondering what kind of interesting uses I could put a relatively compact/portable 44HP motor to beyond a vehicle (which I already have too many of). Getting that kind of power would generally require high voltage 3-phase or a huge generator, so I'm wondering what kind of industrial-strength apparatus it might bring into my reach! It could some kind of serious blacksmithing equipment no doubt. Waterjet has crossed my mind but only running 20min at a time would be too limiting, and even the consituent parts of intensifier pumps ain't cheap, though I could spend a few thousand for the right project. What do you all think?
 
A Zero drivetrain would make an awesome boat motor?

Here's a Zero drivetrain in a cruiser...

Estreet15.png
 
LiveandLetDrive said:
I've also been wondering what kind of interesting uses I could put a relatively compact/portable 44HP motor to beyond a vehicle (which I already have too many of). Getting that kind of power would generally require high voltage 3-phase or a huge generator, so I'm wondering what kind of industrial-strength apparatus it might bring into my reach!
LiveandLetDrive,

British railways have converted a rail grinder (a power tool) from petrol to a Lynch motor:
https://lynchmotors.co.uk/case-studies/electric_railway-motors.html

These two are really vehicles, I guess, but not road vehicles.

Lynch motors also power boats
http://bluefinelectric.ca/

A pancake motor (Briggs & Stratton,maybe?) powers a hang glider, and an electric motor powers a private aircraft, from the same company:
http://www.electraflyer.com/
.
 
It'd make a heckuva lathe motor. ;)

Or a treadmill, for the entire family, with extreme uphill settings. :)

If you have a need to cut a lot of wood, perhaps a sawmill.

If you have a lot of wind, or water, it could also be used as a generator.

If I had one here, I'd work out how to make a differential to drive the rear of my trike with it, geared down so I could pull a bus full of people (or a series of trailers full of dogs, dogfood, pianos, and everything else I've hauled separately). :lol: Would probably take me a long time to design around, though, so the drivetrain would take the torque and the frame would take the strain.
 
Not a big cruiser fan but damn, that's a nice clean build. Electronics must all be hiding under the tank I presume.

Boats and aircraft struck me as power-thirsty (i.e., I could only make a fairly weak one), but an ultralight is an intriguing option! http://www.kolbaircraft.com/firefly.htm Probably not enough energy to travel very far, but would be a great intro to local flying. Not sure how much additional battery one could add before a motor/contorller upgrade would be desirable but seems like a reasonable progression would be available without totally redesigning the airframe. (I do thermal/aero for a living but NOT on flying things.)

I also like the lathe (or mill) and sawmill ideas. Most of my woodworking involves 2x's but if I could mill my own it'd definitely open up my horizons. I don't have access to 3-phase so it could upgrade my possibilities there, and maybe run at low enough a power level to last for several hours of work. And once society collapses I can charge by day and work by night and be the only fab shop left in town after the diesel runs out... (;

Perhaps the answer here is that I need to package the thing into a modular, highly portable frame with an output shaft that could be attached up to a variety of applications. That might not work for a dirtbike but could adapt to machine tools and air/water craft. For reference, I'm on 1/4 acre in redwood forest with a mid-sized shop.

Anybody else have any outside the box wild ideas?
 
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=89043
Lathe or sawmill seems such a waste of portable power
If you have land etc , i would find a busted motor mini tractor (or vintage Farmall etc) and repower it.
 
should make a nice powertrain for a kart, or the worlds fastest mobillity scooter....
 
parajared said:
flippy said:
should make a nice powertrain for a kart, or the worlds fastest mobillity scooter....

I have my suspicions that a number of long-time endless-sphere users are going to end up with some impressively awesome mobility scooters in their later years.

i already built one that does 60mph.... :roll:

worse thing is that it could so faster but the original tires come off the rim at that speed. :mrgreen:
 
1JohnFoster said:
>A hang glider launch winch brings hours of fun..
That would be fun!

I was thinking high speed cable elevator to a tree house.

Cable elevator sounds fun too... But careful on high speeds and cables of course... One plus of launch winch is a little better view... Unless you have some 1000' trees handy :)
 
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