Murphy’s Law Hits the UFO Build HARD

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Hello. Welcome in.

[00:00:02]Welcome in. Do you notice? Seems like everyone's saying that lately when you go into an establishment and when you say thank you, instead of saying you're welcome, they say of course. I don't know. It's not just here where we moved. It's like welcome in.

[00:00:18]Okay. Thank you. Of course. I don't know where I was going with that. Today we're talking about UFO and spinning action. I got a motor. 12 volt DC gear reduction motor.

[00:00:31]Got a sprocket. Got some bicycle chains.

[00:00:35]The blow mold gallery is just increasing. We've got zombie flamingos.

[00:00:41]We've got actual healthy pink flamingos.

[00:00:44]Four alien mascots. We have a choir couple. Penguins. Snowman. But wait, you got to see this. Is any workshop really complete? I mean, this was my wish list.

[00:00:56]This is true crowdsourcing.

[00:00:58]Is any workshop actually complete without the big mouth Billy Bass?

[00:01:05]You probably can't use that music because I'm sure it's copyright protected, but song has to do with Take Me to the River. It's quite an intro today. Started with stress.

[00:01:17]Let's get started. discuss the stress and the challenge right after this.

[00:01:46]All right, I mentioned stress and disappointment, but it's not all stress and disappointment. Uh, good news, we have a hydraulic unit to control this thing. I got a friend working on uh setting up a schematic. It will have electric and manual controls.

[00:02:06]That way you can potentially at least operate one function when you're not sitting in there so you can get in and out of it. I ordered a shift coupler.

[00:02:13]That was our little pop quiz on our YouTube community host on Facebook. Got a 12volt battery. Have the aforementioned gear reduction motor.

[00:02:24]12vt DC.

[00:02:26]Got a couple heavy springs. That's the plan. And I got three bicycle chains.

[00:02:31]And this is where the misery started.

[00:02:35]You know, I'm kind of a brute like that, right? I just see this package. I got three of them. I just crack it open and start to investigate. I'm like, "Oh no, the master link.

[00:02:46]The master link sits in this little compartment right here, one on each side."

[00:02:52]And I noticed there's only one in it.

[00:02:56]So, I'm like, "Oh god, Mr. Mr. Monster Hands just cracked it open, and the link is on the floor somewhere." So, I've spent no less than 25 minutes scouring the floor with my glasses, with my spotlight, literally like this, looking under everything.

[00:03:14]No Master Link. Then I look at this picture.

[00:03:22]Did you see what I just saw?

[00:03:25]It didn't come with the other master link.

[00:03:29]This one had a half a link and this one was empty. And I look at this box and there's two.

[00:03:38]And I look at this box and there's two.

[00:03:42]So it wasn't me. I just picked the lucky one without even knowing.

[00:03:47]So we got to buy a master link. That is what could complicate today's mission.

[00:03:53]We don't have enough master links. We're never going to get this UFO to spin. But let's discuss theory and take action.

[00:04:01]Can't win the war. Try to win the battle. All right, here's the strategy for today's battle. This is our model UFO. We got that little ring with the bearing. My thought was there's so much grab on that surface, you know, sort of.

[00:04:18]We have this surface where the little steel rings that I made are. We're going to have to put something to hold the chain from falling. But my thought was I got three of these chains. We're just going to wrap them around there. So, it's just one big sprocket. And see, just like that. You know, it has some grab. I may have to do something. I don't know. We're going to test it like this. That's where the springs come in.

[00:04:42]Now, we have our motor here.

[00:04:46]The chain does fit. I tested that. So, that's a good thing.

[00:04:52]Got a simple mounting pad on there. So, I figured that this was just going to be on a pivot, right? Because I know that that's not round. That deflects. It's an oval. I know it. And it has a pointy edge where it comes together. So, this motor is going to need to swing with the out of roundness of that. But I think that might also offer it some traction because that egg shape, you'll see it as it loads up the spring tension on this.

[00:05:21]You know, it's going to naturally come around. Does it have potential to stop in the slowest part of the apex of the curve? Possibly, but hey, it works for the moon and the seven planets in our solar system.

[00:05:36]Boomerang, the ellipse.

[00:05:39]I've been watching too much Neil deGrasse Tyson.

[00:05:44]Too heavy duty springs. We don't know how much spring load we're going to want on this. Actually, we're going to want to pull it away from the chain. So, we'll probably set up the bracket on this side. Right. Then there's a pivot here. Think that's pulling away as it spins.

[00:06:04]Now, our solar system has no springs or sprockets.

[00:06:09]because it's magic. It relies precisely on magic. This is actual science.

[00:06:16]Got it.

[00:06:18]I think it's about 8 ft around. I mean, we could do the math real quick.

[00:06:23]You have a 18-in radius. You have a 36 diameter. What's the circumference of a 36 diameter?

[00:06:31]But it's actually not 36 in diameter because it's not perfectly round.

[00:06:38]Let's just put three of these chains together, wrap it around that UFO, see what happens. Maybe get away with half a master link just to test. I can't believe just my luck to get jipped from half a master link.

[00:06:54]Look at that.

[00:06:56]See, when I opened it, I just did this.

[00:07:01]So naturally, you'd think the master link buffly flieth away. All right, put on my spectacles. Now, usually these things just Oh, I could see it just clips together. It's an ingenious little design. You know, they're always upgrading these master links.

[00:07:20]Back in the day, you had some with a little clip. Some of them just press together, but this one is actually like a uh slip fit.

[00:07:28]Pretty cool.

[00:07:30]So, I don't know if you can see this with my big old monster hands in the way.

[00:07:37]I can't even hold them. Let's Let's just do it really broadly and generically, right? You got your little pin there. They just index and go clip.

[00:07:50]You got a little oval thing. It's a cool idea. You know, these hands will never play the piano. I'm lucky I don't have arthritis. I don't, but I think I definitely have dehydration cuz my hands, they're slow and they hurt a lot. All right, let me get a pair of needle-nose pliers. See if we can't clip that together. I don't even want to risk taking a closeup on this because with my luck, I'm going to fly this thing across the shop. Oh, it totally worked. Amazing.

[00:08:26]This guy is on a lucky streak. All of a sudden, things are changing in my life.

[00:08:32]Started off stressful. Nope. There we are. Got two chains. So, that's about 6 ft. I believe they're 36 in a chain. I mean, they measure them in lengths, so I don't really know, but let's just see the tip of my to the bottom of my No, it's about 10 ft.

[00:08:56]Right. That's touching the ground. I think it's going to have to be bigger than that. I'm just going to rough this out up here. It's going to go on the underside, but I'm going have to make some kind of retainer, I'm sure.

[00:09:10]Yeah, it's definitely Oh, wow. Wait, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. It might be right there. Look at that. Two chains will do. It is a little bit close. Oh, yeah. Cuz this bottom ring is bigger. Yeah, we're going to have to do we're going to need we need to buy a master link. Dang it, man.

[00:09:36]Why is it always my life? My luck. There is a bike store down the street.

[00:09:43]But I don't know.

[00:09:45]Nope. Not going to be any defeat. No defeat in this dojo.

[00:09:54]It just might work. It's not going to work. It just might. It's not. All right, let's focus on the positive.

[00:10:01]Positive is we got to make a mount for this thing. Let's explore how this is going to land.

[00:10:08]All right, so this is what we're working with. This ring, it's on a bearing.

[00:10:14]And uh this triangle here, you know, this stays with the ring. The other two are uh isolated by hinges. So, you'll have to have this motor mounted to this.

[00:10:26]Plenty of room right there.

[00:10:29]Lines up with this lower ring, right?

[00:10:32]That's how it spins. And this is the ring that we want to put the chain on.

[00:10:36]So, it's going to need some kind of shelf here to hold it.

[00:10:41]So, if we see how much distance there is right here, I'm going to bring it around.

[00:10:49]And this is what I was describing right here. See how where the ring comes to its seam, it's much further out.

[00:10:56]So I don't see that as a deal breaker.

[00:11:00]See right here how that comes outside of the aluminum. So if you look here, you know, it's a good 5/8 3/4 of an inch deviation.

[00:11:12]That's why I thought this motor would be on some kind of a pivot.

[00:11:16]So, as this loosened the chain, you know, the springs would naturally let it go back and forth.

[00:11:24]I think that's still what we want to do.

[00:11:27]So, let's go ahead. I mean, we could keep this right up tight to that.

[00:11:33]I think we're going to have to cuz that gets really close.

[00:11:39]All right. Well, let's try this. We just might make this with that chain.

[00:11:45]That would be pretty epic. All right, let's start on the bench by creating the plate and the pivot because that looks very simple. Like if we had a big bolt with a tube and a plate, we could weld that bolt. Actually, we would drill a hole and we'll weld the nut right there.

[00:12:00]That way we can access that point. Yeah, I just said Yeah. All right, we see what we got. Find out what thread pattern this is. We might have to rethread it. Let's make it ever a dull moment from the missing link.

[00:12:18]Oh, zombie flamingo down. I knew I should have held him up there better. We have to work on that. It's the missing link joke. You know, it gets them every time.

[00:12:34]Tough crowd. Oh, plate.

[00:12:38]They want something very strong.

[00:12:40]probably stronger than eighth inch.

[00:12:43]That's what we have sitting right here.

[00:12:44]Maybe we'll make it out of eighth inch.

[00:12:46]Then we have this. And it has a hole in it already, too. Look at that. It's perfect.

[00:12:51]Amazing.

[00:12:54]It's got a hole in it and everything.

[00:12:56]All right, I'm going to turn this off for one second. I'm going to go find a large bolt. I got the trailer with all the buckets of bolts in there. So, I'm going to get a bolt and a piece of tube and a nut. I'll be right back.

[00:13:09]got pretty much everything I needed.

[00:13:11]Like to thank one of the members of our community, sent us a whole box of these awesome bolts.

[00:13:21]I'm imagining grade eight or something even better.

[00:13:25]And then a series of these little copper bushings that fit it. So, I mean, for a pivot, copper bushing is optimal.

[00:13:36]I have this piece of tube. I think the copper bushing just might fit.

[00:13:43]It's had a little burr on it. That would be ultimate.

[00:13:49]No, but there's a little slop here.

[00:13:54]Yeah, I think.

[00:13:57]Dang, it's going to be close. Oh, you know what it is? There's a Dang, there's a welded seam in this one. And I have this incredibly heavy business here, which I could use, but I think that this Yeah, bummer.

[00:14:18]Always a little of something, a little more than nothing.

[00:14:23]And is this the disappointment episode or what?

[00:14:28]We're going to make this work.

[00:14:31]First, this is a metric thread.

[00:14:35]I don't have metric hardware at hand.

[00:14:37]We're going to tap it to quarter20.

[00:14:42]I have a/420 tap. Last time I went to tap with quarter20, I just picked up the unit and went to work. And when I put the bolt in, it was a 5/16 bolt. I have no quarter20 taps. Isn't that the life?

[00:14:57]I have another tap and dive.

[00:15:00]I really treasure these things. I've mentioned that I've had them for so many years and they do last forever. But the plastic fails and the pieces fall out every time you open it. It's a brake line flaring kit.

[00:15:20]Come on. Tap and die.

[00:15:27]It's a tap and die set. Every one of them loose. See, that's what I was saying. That's the trap right there.

[00:15:32]Especially with a guy like me and my workt etiquette.

[00:15:38]Recipe for disaster. Got all these beautiful pieces.

[00:15:43]All right.

[00:15:44]Can I even read quarter 20? You know, I did it once this way.

[00:15:52]Just send it. You could always turn it to 516.

[00:15:56]All right. We're going to want to get a lock washer on that, too.

[00:16:05]Anchor lube. Yeah, I put that stuff on everything. I tell you, when it's time to bore that hole or cut those threads, you just put a little squirt of that on there, you're in business. I mean, it's just like so satisfying.

[00:16:23]Look at that. Perfect cut.

[00:16:25]No heat.

[00:16:33]Yeah, if this was a fast food commercial, it would be like this.

[00:16:45]Ask me how I know about fast food commercials.

[00:16:49]One of my friends, Tommy, Tommy Maloney, if you're watching, thanks for all the support over the years.

[00:16:55]He was the famous beer pouring hand in different commercials. Get a lot of Coors Light commercials.

[00:17:03]I would get a lot of free Coors Light.

[00:17:04]No. Was it Miller Light? I don't know.

[00:17:06]One of them. You know, Hollywood. It's all the same.

[00:17:10]All right. So, we're going to have this plate on the pivot.

[00:17:13]I'm imagining right now looking at the trike.

[00:17:18]Um, where do we want the hole in the other side? I made two of these.

[00:17:22]Let me look. Be right back. All right, I figured out we want to put on just like that. So, let's just check this out. Grab a marker. I always drill these holes a little bit big cuz I'm never the perfectionist when it comes to layout. And I don't mind putting a fender washer on there. That's just how I do it. I don't expect you to follow my lead. Just describing how I go through life without driving myself insane.

[00:17:53]with measurements and perfection.

[00:17:58]I'm just looking. I got my finger on the pulse. Blip blip. Drill those oversized.

[00:18:08]I bet I'm going to come pretty close.

[00:18:12]You know, just like I always say, with a hand drill and a little anchor lube, you can do just about anything.

[00:18:20]Let's take the cap off. Today started out so strong.

[00:18:24]So strong. I went and picked up all these awesome things from the post office box. Just so you know, if you're having a hard time, you're not you're not going through this alone.

[00:18:39]We're all having our own struggles in our own way. Mine just happens to be building this nonsensical UFO.

[00:18:49]All right. And as I said, perfect job every time. That's right.

[00:19:14]I really can't believe this project's going to beat me.

[00:19:17]You know, takes a lot takes a lot to humble a guy. I'm up against it today.

[00:19:27]The forces are working against me. I can feel it.

[00:19:33]And you know, you got to accept the good with the bad.

[00:19:36]But I'm telling you, I'm not going to complete the mission today.

[00:19:45]I can feel a certain impending doom. I don't know why.

[00:19:51]I don't know what I did to have this fate today.

[00:20:00]Nothing's working.

[00:20:05]It's really, really interesting.

[00:20:09]Love those days when you just come in the shop, set your course, boom, you make it happen, you nail it. Hitting some obstacles.

[00:20:19]This hardware is too long. I'm going have to trim it as I bolt it down.

[00:20:30]Maybe it's not too long. No, it's fine.

[00:20:33]It's too long, but I can leave it as is.

[00:20:41]hits the case a little bit, but not going to affect anything.

[00:20:53]All right, we got that locked. We got that locked.

[00:20:58]Now, I need to get this hardware to set. I'm going to just slice this with a grinder and see if I can't tap it inside that and maybe that bolt will go in because there's a little ridge on this one as well.

[00:21:16]Now, let me tell you one thing. If you know copper, like I know copper, that thing is hot and I'm not touching it.

[00:21:26]See if we can slip it in there. It' be nice if it did. So, this has a little welded seam. I'm going to try to line up that as I squeeze it into place with the seam.

[00:21:41]Might just have a success.

[00:21:43]Maybe it's our first success of the day.

[00:21:45]I don't know.

[00:21:50]This thing is hot. But as long as I don't get too carried away with holding on to it. There it goes.

[00:21:58]Now the question is, is it all congeal? Is it all going to make sense?

[00:22:05]Starting to fog up my glasses. Getting so excited.

[00:22:11]Look at that. First success of the day.

[00:22:14]Every once in a while it works out.

[00:22:18]Now, one thing I know, this thing is going to have to be shimmed up.

[00:22:24]And we're going to want to weld this nut. Can I thread it this way or is that a lock nut? It's a total lock nut. Let's do this. Let's drill this size hole into that tube. And we'll set the nut in there. That way the lock stays beneath the surface.

[00:22:45]And we'll just tack weld this on there.

[00:22:47]That should be adequate. All right, let's bring this over, make some marks, and drill it. I'm really surprised that that worked out. Lucky us. If that's the case, you only have that much thread in there.

[00:23:02]That's a pretty good amount. We might open this up. Send this tube right through. Let's explore. All right. So, here's where it is coming down to the wire. And it's not going to be long enough.

[00:23:17]Got that indexing on there. All right.

[00:23:20]It might work. All right. I know this can get confusing, but here we are.

[00:23:26]Back to real world mock-ups.

[00:23:29]We got our plate, our gear. We want we want our sprocket up here at this level. We want as close to that as possible. And I'll be that doesn't just look like a perfect case scenario.

[00:23:48]Want that nut to fall through an index.

[00:23:57]Not for any specific reason except so that the bolt will go through if it needs to. All right, we definitely don't want to heat this up. So, just going to give it a quick tack and let it rest. We don't need any real strength at the moment.

[00:24:21]Come on now.

[00:24:23]Tell me you changed your dimension so soon.

[00:24:27]Okay, so that's cool. This is on that.

[00:24:31]That goes right into place. That looks great. So, it's a little bit low, but I think we can work with that. In fact, what we might have to do is uh bring this sprocket up.

[00:24:45]Not something I really want to do because this is really close to the the hoop right now.

[00:24:53]The only thing that'll tell is a hard bolt down on that pivot to see if that hoop see if the hoop does that.

[00:25:04]If it does, we're going to have to compensate.

[00:25:07]But this looks really good. And we got all that swing until it comes out and hits one of these ribs. So that's that's a huge amount of adjustment. That's awesome.

[00:25:18]And what I was saying is somewhere in here, the spring will pull on that to give it tension.

[00:25:27]So here's what we got. We got this much bolt showing.

[00:25:31]Me check that camera.

[00:25:34]So I think I mean if you were to take this I think we could put a washer under this.

[00:25:42]Let's just do this.

[00:25:44]I tighten that. I bet that's pretty large. It's bigger than 19 mm, which is what I have sitting here. So, we're getting right into the thread lock area right around here. I think I can feel it starting to tighten up. So, let's just say this.

[00:26:05]That's definitely locked in. I want to cut this tube with the bushing.

[00:26:13]to come up to the head of that bolt.

[00:26:19]See what I'm saying?

[00:26:21]So, we're going to want to mark this and drop that in the saw. And we're going to weld this to that.

[00:26:31]Cut this to size. Let's see what we got here.

[00:26:38]The thing is, I'm going to tighten this down so I can gauge where that needs to be.

[00:26:47]Then I'm going to loosen a little bit so it'll swivel. But I'm going to put one washer beneath it. So I think with the squeeze it's going to offer just a little bit of an improved uh direction on that gear.

[00:27:04]That is really tight. But this was my concern, right? With it this close, is it going to bind?

[00:27:14]So, right there, it comes in and hits.

[00:27:15]It just pushed it out.

[00:27:22]So, that's the mark right there. So, right there, that's the apex of where it can be, which I think will work, you know. So, we'll put a stop there so it never comes in closer than that.

[00:27:35]And I bet I bet I could work with that a little bit with the grinder and just clear it out just a touch.

[00:27:43]So, this is cool. But what this is going to need, I know, is a flange to keep that chain up there. That's going to be a bit of a task cuz I'm going to want the flange to not just be straight out. It's got to the flange has to come out and turn down a little bit so that chain is always received so that it never derails.

[00:28:05]And also so it's not so big that it hits this motor cover.

[00:28:11]That's where a sprocket would come in.

[00:28:16]Let's roll this around once or twice more and just really verify it.

[00:28:31]So yeah, it's furthest away from the sprocket right around here and it comes in.

[00:28:43]So I guess what we want to do is wrap that chain around at its, you know, in its orbit, its apex, its furthest away point. And man, that chain just might do it. And if it doesn't, maybe we can modify that ring because I would love to just have two chains lock just like that, not two and a little eighth or whatever and extra master links.

[00:29:11]So, the problem we're going to have is that chain is going to keep falling off unless we create that that little flange.

[00:29:20]So, at this point, do I just stress out or do I tape the he That's what I do. I taped the heck out of that chain all the way around.

[00:29:32]Well, that was pretty cool. It went right to the master link as it should.

[00:29:38]Now, how many times is this tape going to break over the next five minutes or so? We're going to find out.

[00:29:49]This is going to be a wrestling match. I could see it already. God bless it.

[00:29:54]I should just make that thing. How do we do that? I make it out of sheet metal.

[00:29:58]Do I make a million little tabs? That might be the easiest thing. A million little welds. Million happy little welds. Cuz when I turn this, the whole chain is going to want to.

[00:30:14]Let's just do it.

[00:30:16]We got to do it caveman style. We will.

[00:30:18]We're just trying to get an idea here if this is going to even work out before I commit because this this thing is going to be a trip guaranteed.

[00:30:29]Of course, I can't rotate it cuz I'll rip the tape.

[00:30:32]All right, so here's where it is coming down to the wire and it's not going to be long enough.

[00:30:39]Got that indexing on there. Unless there's some weird in the chain.

[00:30:44]Oh, there is a weird in the chain.

[00:30:46]It's losing some steam.

[00:30:48]All right, it might work.

[00:30:51]Let's see.

[00:30:53]We are flat against it right here. I like this.

[00:30:58]Like that. And then here. It's getting a little bit wonky.

[00:31:05]That's there.

[00:31:07]And then it flips. That's the problem.

[00:31:10]It's like when you put your belt through its loops and it's got to twist somewhere in there. Isn't that fun? You get your belt through all the loops and it's kind of like that. Yeah, we all know, right? And this has got to go like this. There it is.

[00:31:27]Does it work?

[00:31:30]Of course not. Of course, it's going to be one inch too short.

[00:31:36]We got it.

[00:31:38]So, we can link this.

[00:31:41]Now, it comes out to the exact length.

[00:31:43]Isn't that my luck? We're like two lengths short of success.

[00:31:49]Wonder if I pull on that. Is there any give? Oh, there was a little give.

[00:31:56]This just might work. Hold on, everyone.

[00:32:04]I know this is exciting, right? It's like watching paint dry.

[00:32:12]cuz we know that's going to want to stay there like this and that.

[00:32:21]Oh, that's so close. That's like chain breaking close.

[00:32:25]No. Got to come a few lengths different.

[00:32:28]Does this all make sense? Everything went as it should all the time.

[00:32:34]Wouldn't life be grand?

[00:32:37]There'd be a UFO in every garage.

[00:32:40]I'm going to go to the bike store. I'm going to get a couple master links. I'm going to modify that chain.

[00:32:45]And then I'm going to work on making this little flange. You know, you can imagine you can imagine we're working with something like this. See how that flange always keeps the pulley centered?

[00:32:56]Well, we don't need a top side cuz gravity will do that. But we need to come up with something like this to weld.

[00:33:04]Chain comes around.

[00:33:07]We got that. So, we just need to index that.

[00:33:12]Need to index that up onto that ring without messing with this. So, maybe it'll be one video. Maybe it'll be two. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Come back next time.

[00:33:33]Heat. Heat.