{"id":83721,"date":"2007-06-14T01:42:37","date_gmt":"2007-06-13T16:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/?p=83721"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:41:05","slug":"24-hours-2-arms-10-fingers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/20070614\/everyday-events\/24-hours-2-arms-10-fingers","title":{"rendered":"24 Hours, 2 Arms, 10 Fingers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>

 
\n
 
Hoke hoke~\u266a Yeah, the nights are peaceful and that’s nice\u2014really!
\nNot loud! It’s cool\u2606 This is the season when the sound of insects is so pleasant. (Though they haven’t started chirping yet.)
\nToday I happened to be swapping out the cam on a GS1000\u2014not an oil-cooled bike for once\u2014and it brought back old memories.
\nBack in the early Asakawa Speed days, you needed manpower in a way that’s unthinkable now.
\nSo few machine tools! Seriously, we had almost nothing.
\nJust a drill press, a double-ended grinder, an electric drill, and a grinder\u2014and all of them ran on 100 volts.
\nAnd on top of that, we worked outside under a tent (hot in summer, snowy in winter, but still outside).
\nMan, you really needed guts! Seriously\u2606
\nI got to work on all kinds of amazing bikes, and I still think the experience I gained from that was enormous.
\nThe reason I’m writing all this is that to adjust the valve timing, I’d slot the cam sprocket with elongated holes,
\nand back in the AS days it was all done with a hand file! And not even a good one\u2014I don’t know where half those files came from, they’d wear out fast, cheap things.
\nWe’d have Z engines, GS engines, oil-cooled engines coming in, and Asakawa would ask me to “slot those for me,”
\n.
\nCam sprockets have hardened surfaces, so they barely cut at all, but once you get past the hardened part, the inside actually cuts pretty easily!
\nYou’d just file away for nearly an hour straight\u2606
\nThen once that was done, you’d do the “Calshard” finish with sandblasting…
\nThat was the worst! Back then we did everything ourselves\u2014painting, sandblasting, all of it in-house!
\nSandblasting was a full day’s work, starting in the morning and going until early afternoon, and since we built the sandblaster ourselves, it was rough\u2014
\nsand would leak everywhere, so you’d be covered head to toe in sand… I was so sick of it~
\nDuring this period we were renting a little space from Mazda Speed, so after sandblasting we’d head to the hellish wash room for
\nengine cleaning…
\nThere were three wash stations and this monster tank. First you’d do a rough wash, then into the monster tank! It was big enough for a person to fit in,
\nkind of like a spin dryer if you will\u2606 It would blast you with scalding hot water and shake everything around!
\nWhen you pulled it out it was too hot to touch. Then you’d do a middle wash and a final wash, and the washing was done!
\nLast, you’d carefully blow out all the oil passages with compressed air, and by the time you finished it was already 6 or 7 o’clock.
\nBeing in the wash room messes with your sense of smell, and washing by hand really does a number on your hands! They’d turn bright red.
\nIt was rough, really\u266a
\nBut we’ve taken that experience and used it to improve efficiency. Today’s micro rotary tools are seriously convenient\u2014
\ncam sprockets just slice right through! Wonderful!
\nAnd if we’re not satisfied with that, well, for slotting you could put a circular cutter on the mill and get a cleaner, easier result\u266a
\nI decided to buy a circular cutter!
\nTaking time to do things right matters, but since time is finite, to make the most of it you really need to improve efficiency and create a more comfortable
\nwork environment.
\nThis month the wash room and machine shop are getting finished, so lathe and mill chips won’t scatter as far and we won’t need to do as much cleanup,
\nwhich should really boost our efficiency.
\nThere are only 24 hours in a day, and with just 2 arms and 10 fingers, you want to work as efficiently as possible\u266a
\nI’m really into the mill these days! (I put all new teeth on it, so it cuts like a dream~)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   Hoke hoke~\u266a Yeah, the nights are peaceful and that’s nice\u2014really! Not loud! It’s cool\u2606 This is the season when the sound of insects is so pleasant. (Though they haven’t started chirping yet.) Today I happened to be swapping out the cam on a GS1000\u2014not an oil-cooled bike for once\u2014and it brought back old memories. Back in the early Asakawa Speed days, you needed manpower in a way that’s unthinkable now. So few machine tools! Seriously, we had almost nothing. Just a drill press, a double-ended grinder, an electric drill, and a grinder\u2014and all of them ran on 100 volts. And on top of that, we worked outside under a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pochipp_cv_data":"","swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1924],"tags":[100,55],"class_list":["post-83721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-everyday-events","tag-asakawa-speed","tag-old-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}