make a home made uni

What do you mean by "home made?" Do you have a machine shop in your
garage? You'll need a lathe to turn the hub, a mill to make the
splines / square taper, a punch / press to make the seatbase and
bearing holders (unless you're really good with the mill), a welder to
stitch things together... and on and on.

Having the machines, you'll likely need to buy specific tooling for the
jobs... make jigs for assembly... integrate premade parts into your
design (who's gonna make their own bearings?)... buy materials above
and beyond what you need for production (to account for prototypes,
mistakes, etc.)

Even if you buy the hub, pedals, spokes and rim premade, you're already
spending quite a bit of money. You'll definitely end up spend a lot
more time than the few minutes spent clicking around Unicycle.com to
find a pre-built unicycle.

All this being said, it's totally possible to build your own unicycle.
I've built (and since thrown away) a frame out of scrap steel.
Gerblefranklin built a spankin' aluminum trials frame himself and rides
it to this day. Handles and seatpost / seatbase mods are quite popular
garage projects, requiring very little machinery / tooling to produce.
There are even a few engineer types floating around these fora who make
(or have made) splined hub / cranksets, carbon fiber seats / handles,
titanium components... but they have access to fully equipped machine
shops.

Why not start with a pre-made unicycle that you can afford then make
some mods for it? This way you get some idea of what goes into making
a unicycle better, while having something to ride at the same time.
Start with making your own handle or seatbase reinforcement. Move onto
a better seatpost. Then you might be able to put together your own
frame. Build a wheel or two from premade components so you can learn
the subtleties of its design and implementation. The experience of
making the mods will be good "practice" for when you decide to really
put one together from scratch...

Who knows, maybe you'll come up with a mod that everyone will want...
let us know what comes out of your shop!

--
maestro8

Those are my principles. If you don't like those, I have others. --
Groucho Marx
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I agree it is more expensive to build your own but I still do it
anyhow.
I have built quite a few in my time and am rideing my newest one still
and am planning on a modified version of it with some small design
changes.

I prefer to build them that way I don't have a cookie cutter uni.

--
X51
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I think Jason is right. Yeah, building a unicycle at "home" is possible,
it just takes an extraordinary home. Not many homes are equipped with a
full compliment of welders and machine tools.

It's a big deal to make any unicycle parts one-off. The fastest metal
part I ever made for a unicycle was a handle reinforcer/brake mount set
for Jason and myself. Each one took ~20 minutes. My BC plates were
similar. Those were also the only 3 parts I ever made that were cheaper
to make than to buy. Custom fabrication is slow and inefficient, at
best. It's far more expensive than buying ready made parts in most
cases.

--
gerblefranklin

http://gallery.unicyclist.com/Trials-Muni

Nick's main man.

"I love freedom dearly, ideally, in theory, but in reality we're not
there yet--Not nearly."--Cold Duck Complex
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that's a old unicycle that made at home
'[image: http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/1857/monopapi7pn.th.jpg]'
(http://img239.imageshack.us/my.php?image=monopapi7pn.jpg)

--
recommanded poster

samiaul who want good speak english!!
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recommanded poster said:

that's a old unicycle that made at home

You built it sideways...

--
paco

Blah Blah Blah BACON Blah Blah Blah
--Harper a-la Catboy

768
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Keith Griffiths (keg) built some frames. I believe they're steel frames
and I think he was brazing them together. Even the first one he made as
a test is very smart.

But they do almost certainly cost him about the same or more than a
nimbus frame, even ignoring the equipment cost. People make frames cos
they like making frames, rather than to save money.

Joe

--
joemarshall

my pics http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuq44
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I built my own for about the cost of buying one of similar quality. It
rides great and I'm still really proud of it. Here it is;
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44064

To be sure, building an entire uni would be very expensive and
difficult. I just built the frame. Hub, wheel, cranks, seat, etc.
were all purchased and bolted on. The frame is still something that
will require some machining and/or welding. I still highly recommend
it. It's fun and gratifying.

--
underdog

'I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody
tell you different' - Kurt Vonnegut
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