ASO MILL Blog

New e-bike motor 自転車モーター交換

2022-09-05 by David

春に作ったEBikeには最近問題が発生しました。

The lovely eBike I converted to electric in the spring has hit a few problems recently.

▲ モーターからチェーンが2回外れましたが、2回目にコグが爆発しましたのでもう使えない状態です。同じ風に修理したらまた同じ問題が発生する可能性がありますので違う形のモーターに変更します。

The chain flew off the rear motor twice (it was a couple of degrees off straight), and the second time the flywheel kind of exploded slightly, losing all the ball bearings inside. That's the brass bit in the middle of the photo. So even if I replace that part, it's possible that it might happen again at some point, and it might be a loooong walk home.

▲ 今回フロントホイール用のモーターを付けます。モーターがホイールの真ん中に付けないといけないので、スポークの付け替えも必要です。YouTubeのビデオを見ながら変更いたしました。

ますは前の長いスポークをすべて外しました。

So I decided to try a front-hub motor this time. The previous motor was connected to the rear wheel via a chain system, but this new one (from AliExpress again) fits right into the centre of the front wheel instead. Unfortunately that means you either have to buy one already mounted into the correct size of wheel, or replace the spokes on the existing wheel to fit the new motor.

After checking some YouTube videos, I was fairly confident this could be done easily-ish, so I removed the front wheel and unscrewed all of the old spokes.

▲ ビデオのとおりにモーターを真ん中に置いて新しいスポークを入れました。

The new spokes are shorter, to fit the bigger motor in place of the slim axle, and I had to guesstimate the length (using an online calculator) and order some from Amazon. Then, following video instructions, I started to add spokes...

▲ スポークを注文したときにできるだけ正しい長さで計算しましたが実は５ｍｍほど長すぎでした。空気入りタイヤならパンクになる恐れがありますが、去年ソリッドタイヤ―に変更しましたので、パンクなれないタイプです。ラッキー！

... and eventually all 36 spokes were in place. Then it was a fairly easy matter of placing the wheel back on the frame and systematically tightening up the spokes in turn, to true the wheel and remove wobbles. My spokes turned out to be about 5mm too long, and normally this means they would protrude inside the wheel and potentially puncture your inner tube. Happily, I switched these tyres out for solid ones last year (I was tired of constant flat tyres), so they are puncture-proof. Yay!

▲前と比べたらモーターが小さくて軽いですので、カッコよくなったですね。パワーが同じ３５０Ｗです。急な坂道の所にちょっと足も使わないと早く進めないんですが、満足です。

Compared to the previous chain-driven rear motor, this fronthub motor is lighter, quieter and smaller, and I was still able to use the existing batteries, throttle switch and cables. The power (350W) is the same, which means I need to add a bit of pedalpower on steep slopes to keep it moving along, but I'm still very happy with it. With a top speed of somewhere around 35km/h, it's great fun!

Tags: ebike 自転車

Garden design ガーデンデザイン

2022-06-13 by David

庭の作業がすごい時間かかったが、やっと終わりました。写真日記で見ましょうか。。。

It's taken a really, really long time, but the garden has now been mostly completed! So let's take a look back at how it first looked 3 years ago...

▲ 2019年：買った頃の状態。あっちこっちに小さい木とジャングルのような植物が多かったです。家の正面はほとんど見えませんね！

This is how the house and garden looked back in 2019, when I first bought the property. Most of the ground floor is hidden behind loads of small trees and jungley shrubs!

▲ 道から見ると大きい窓も見えないんだ！

This was the view from the street. You can't even see the 4 large windows that now lead onto the deck!

▲ 家がよく隠れていますね。やはり買いたい方は少ないと思う？

It's not really a surprise that the weeds all grew up so fast in 3 years of abandonment, and also not really a surprise that nobody else wanted to tackle the project!

▲ 現在デッキがあるところにレンガの花壇もありました。

This was the original view of how the side of the house looked. The brick and concrete flower beds all needed to be smashed apart before I added the deck there.

▲ 2021年夏: 中のリフォームがほとんど終わりましたので、家を赤にペイントしました。そして、デッキを作ったときにも植物を一応切ったが雑草が多かったですね。

右側にある植物が全部竹でしたので、まずはそれを抜きました。

Jumping forward two years, this was how the house looked in the summer of 2021. The interior had mostly been completed, the deck had been built around the front and side of the house, and the house had been painted red. I cut back most of the shrubs and small trees while I was building the deck, but it's still a mess!

The area to the right of the steps (where Katie is standing in this photo) was a big thicket of young bamboo, and it took quite a bit of work to dig down deep enough to pull out all those root systems.

▲ 2021年秋にこっちに芝生の種を広げましたので、数か月後にこんな感じになりました。大満足！

Once the bamboo thicket had been removed, I seeded the soil with grass seeds, and after a few months and a few more quick bouts of weeding to remove the last of the tough bits, the grass popped up nice and thick.

So I was very happy with that, and it was time to move on to the rest of the garden!

▲ 2022年春：やっと道揃えの庭から根を抜けました。34本の木根もあったので結構時間かかった。

In the spring of 2022 I started work on pulling all the tree roots and bushes out. I counted 34 root balls in total, which were a pain in the ass to remove! Many were over half a metre deep and wide!

▲ そして、約1トンの石も拾いました。過去にはあっちこっちに置いていたみたい。

In addition to the backbreaking process of removing roots, I also shifted about 1 ton of random rocks, which had been buried at various locations around the space - I think they were used to mark paths and edges. They were also a complete pain to dig out and haul away!

▲ 根と石を取ったら、好きな紅葉を買いました。愛車が軽トラックのように便利だった！

With all that mess removed, I could start adding in a few young saplings. I love Japanese maples (acer), especially in autumn, so I found this beautiful red one at my local DIY store, and got some very funny looks driving it home in my .... er..... multipurpose pick-up truck!

▲ 2022年夏：紅葉を道ぞろえに植え付けてから芝生の種をまきました。ちょうど梅雨の前ですので、いいタイミングだ！

Finally, by the summer of 2022, the land had been more or less flattened out, and a few small maple trees added. Then it was time to sprinkle several bags of grass seeds around, and wait for rainy season to start!

▲ 道から見るとこんな感じ。。。緑になったら最高！

Here's the view from the road, looking north. Hopefully all that brown soil will turn to green grass in a few months...

▲ 杉の間にハンモック！

After relocating that green maple tree nearer to the road, I was able to string a hammock between the two giant cedar-pines.

▲ 緑色と赤い紅葉が大きくなったら、素敵だと思う！

I'm hoping that these maples will grow up and spread out nicely, to make a gorgeous autumn canopy of greens and reds.

▲ 種をちょっとずつまきましたので、まだ植えている線が見えますね！

とりあえずこれで行こう！あとは雨を待つしかないです。

As you can see, the grass seed has been added in patches, but hopefully the lines between sections will disappear soon?

I think I'm done with the garden for the moment, but I'll add some flower beds along the side of the deck at some point, and start growing herbs and flowers there. But that's a job for next year....

Tags: garden 庭

Making a shop stamp 店のスタンプづくり

2022-06-11 by David

アトリエの店をもうすぐでオープンしますので、お土産として小さい３Dプリントでできている商品をこれから準備します。お土産ならちゃんと袋なども用意しないといけないので、店名・ロゴが入っているスタンプを作ってみました。

I'm planning to open the studio as a little shop shortly, so I'm currently trying to get things ready for that. In addition to a basic register and music system, I need to prepare some simple bags for anybody buying small items. The local 100-yen shop has excellent small plastic and paper bags, and I wanted to see if it was possible to create a logo stamp using the 3D printer....

▲ スタンプは6cmほどになりますので、ロゴのデザインをちょっと変えました。そして、３Dプリンターでこのスタンプを作りました。もちろん反対に作らないといけないので、これはちょっと失敗でした。でも形がフラットですので、きれいに押せないんですね。ゴムじゃないから、形がちょっと丸く作らないとね？

The stamp needed to be about 6cm to fit on the stamp pad, so I had to simplify a few elements of the logo so everything was slightly blockier and larger. Then I set the printer to work on this stamp (which I forgot to reverse - oops!). It worked okay, considering it's printed in hard plastic rather than rubber, but it was hard to get uniform pressure everywhere when pushing down on the stamp.

▲ バージョン2.0です！ちゃんと逆にした上で、ちょっとカーブがある形にしました。これでゆっくりロールしながら押せるかな？

So I created this second version of the stamp, which (in addition to being reversed properly) was put onto a curved block. For those interested in designing a stamp like this, it's was actually surprisingly easy - 10 minutes to create a large cylinder in 3DBuilder, then slice a chunk off, and then emboss a PNG file of the logo onto the curved surface. Much, much easier than I expected!

▲ まぁ、これで行けるかなぁ？

This was the end result. Not perfect (a couple of places were too thin to print and stamp clearly), but I'm happy enough with that.

▲「乙姫」て書いているランタンを準備しました。ボタン電池とLEDのセットですので、子供でも簡単に作れるお土産商品となります！

I've designed a new version of my popular lantern model, with the kanji characters for "Otohime" written on one side, as a little souvenir item. I'm planning on selling this as a set with an LED bulb and button battery, simple enough for kids to quickly push it together and have a flickering lantern on their desk! With the logo-stamped bag it looks cute!

Tags: studio アトリエ

Studio Displays アトリエ展示品

2022-04-13 by David

今日はアトリエの展示品を見せようかなぁ！

The house and studio are completed (for now!), so I thought today I'd show off a few pics of the items on display downstairs.

ドアを開けるとこんなもんが並んでいます。。。

Ironman greets you as soon as you step in the door.

戦国時代の模型モデルがメインですが、これからアイアンマン仮想などの作品も展示しようと考えています。

Most fo the items currently on display are the historical architecture models, as I'm super proud of those!

本物の甲冑もありますね！

Turning to your left, a genuine suit of armour sites in the corner, and Katie the dog will be barking to greet you too!

只今、お寺の作品がいっぱいです！ぜひどうぞ見に来てください。

So many temple pieces on display at the moment! Come take a look!

Tags: studio アトリエ

Otohime Cherry Blossoms 乙姫の桜

2022-04-06 by David

家から歩いて2分で桜の道が咲いています！素敵な景色の中で、桜のトンネルになっています。ぜひ、「乙姫子安河原観音」への道を見に来てください！

Just 2 minutes walk from the house is a small, winding road leading to a shrine, which looks stunning every spring. Woods on one side of the road, and rolling fields and a view of Aso volcano on the other side, the cherry blossom tress make a tunnel of light pink blossoms at the start of April.

I couldn't resist taking a couple of pics of the car on this picturesque road!

Tags: sightseeing 観光 car 車

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Aso City, Otohime 2070-48
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