Back in the Saddle

Update on my "situation" time.

Well, on the employment front, after more than six months off Ive got another short contract as an Engineer with my usual employer ... This is great news since it means that they are still willing to use contractors which I was not at all certain about since the company had been acquired by a larger company since I last worked there.
Ive been working again now for over a month and while its with a group I don't usually work with, I'm settling in well and enjoying it.  In truth though, a big chunk of the satisfaction is coming from a bank account that is now slowly increasing rather than rapidly decreasing :)
And my contract currently goes till end November only but there is plenty more work they need done (till end Feb or so) so there is a good chance Ill get an extension which I'm not counting on but which I would be very happy to get... we shall see.

On other fronts, its heading into winter again and I'm preparing to get back in the saddle of a Skeleton sled too.
My neck has been giving my quite a bit of discomfort for the last six months or so but I think that has a lot to do with me using non-optimal glasses for some of the things I do and so Ive got some new glasses and it seems to be helping a bit... But that not withstanding, Ive really been sitting-on-the-fence about sliding again this season.
I was feeling like I probably would not slide this year and then my friend Mat decided to buy a new sled and sell his old one... And well, since I had a job again... I couldn't help my self, so I bought myself a beat up old skeleton sled!

Now Skeleton sleds are about as rare as hens teeth in the Vancouver area. there are a few more of them in circulation at the Calgary track which is the base of all Canada-wide sliding activities. And because of their scarcity they are pretty expensive items... A brand new one from the leading manufacturer (Bromley of UK) will set you back well over $10,000. There are 3 or 4 other big names in sleds about and a few less known ones too but there are only a few dozen of each sold in the whole world each year.
Anyway, I am now the proud owner of an aging Davenport sled (which were the world leading marque about 20 years ago) and its worth about $1000 or so. Its been used quite a bit and there is some slack in the bushings now so it rattles a bit but other than that and the beaten up fibreglass base, its in pretty good nick.
And of course, me being me, Ive given it a bit of a renovation over the last few weeks...

So fist I took it all apart and had a look at it mechanically. Here is what the "skeleton of a skeleton sled" looks like:

It looks like just a few bits of steel welded together that you can bolt some runners too... But its actually a carefully engineered set of pieces that allow us to steer by body-weight shift...

 The front runner attachment point... Not much to see here other than the runner bolting in to one of the main stringers along the side of the sled at the front... The U shaped bar on the left is a front "bumper" which is the bit that hits the ice wall at about 130kmh when we steer it wrong :)

And at the back end you can see the runner bolts in again and there is another smaller bumper too... But there is some other stuff here too: Like at the front there is also the cross-member to be seen that keeps the two sides of the sled attached to each other but its not just a flat piece of steel, its actually a very slim "I" beam profile... and this stops the cross-member being vertically or horizontally flexible but allows it to be "twist" flexible... very important.  And there is that bolt sticking out the end of the stringer... Which allows us to squeeze the runner from the ends which makes it bow into a vertical curve and the whole runner/stringer becomes a spring bed that is balancing on its mid section on the ice ... as we rocket along at 130kmh.  And there is another bar ther tht is attached to the back of the stringer... That's the steering paddle... It allows the pilot to put lots of "emphasis" on one rear corner of the sled runner with pressure from one knee ...and twists the chassis to lift the opposite runner off the ice at the same time.

 And the "saddle" is what we call the padded metal cage on to of the sled that we lay our chest down in when we slide (arms on the outside of the cage and griping the steel bars at the back edge (so we don't fly out of the sled when we get air in the corners cos we mis-timed the exit... at 130Kmh.

But that saddle isn't one piece... Its split in two with an axle connecting the two halves at the front... again this allows the weight shift to maximize differences in loading the back corners of the sled so we can steer.

But all the intricacies of the chassis aside, I only slightly modified it by adding larger knee paddles (cos I'm taller than the previous owners and my knees were hanging off the edge :)
But the ratty old belly pan needed lots of work (it was cracked and crazed from years of use.
So I stripped off all the old coatings and paint and sanded it all down. Then I got some slow set epoxy and some black pigment and put a layer over the whole thing... Its self leveling and very penetrating despite its high viscosity so it filled all the old divits and worked into all the tiny hair-line cracks in the old gell coat. I'm hoping it will also stay just a tiny bit flexible so that it wont shatter like the old gel coat did as it aged... Stuff takes forever to cure though... It dripped off the edges for over 24 hours I kid you not.

So that was my base coat but it seemed a bit dull to just have another plain black sled, so I went surfing the internet for some sort of art to put on it... And came up with this... Dragon motif.

 Its maybe a bit fanciful I thought, but what the heck... I can always sand it down and start again if I don't like it :)

So, I made a simple stencil by cutting it out of paper and taping the paper to the sled pan. Then I sprayed adhesive over the stencil and quickly removed the paper... This left me with a sticky image of a dragon on the sled pan. Then I put gold leaf on the glue (what doesn't every one have a gold leafing kit laying around??? I know I do!)  And then I added a perimeter of glow in the dark paint to the image by hand ... cos I like it when the dragon glows as we ride up to the top of the track in the back of a cold wet pick-up truck in the dark of night ... Clearly I'm a child at heart :)))

 And then I put another layer of epoxy (clear coat this time) over the whole thing ... and waited another three days for it to cure...

And then I bolted the tray back on the chassis, put the padding back in the tray, and put the top cover back on the sled... And I guess I'm ready to go sliding again... Head first at 130Kmh and about 4Gs for about 60 seconds with my face just cm off the ice :) ... Lord preserve me from my own foolishness!  :)

Yep, Back in the Saddle indeed.