Ham on The Street
(click for show shedule)
Thanksgiving Special

Turkey Bike Rotisserie Fabrication

What you see in the above picture is the final product: TheTurkey Bike Rotisserie project that I designed and fabricated for the popular Food Network TV show called "Ham on the Street". Well, this special episode is called "Ham on Turkey". I was contacted by the Stonehouse Production company that produces the show for the Food Network. They were able to see some of my work at a Sushi Bar and Club that I have done metal work for, and thus, they contacted me to build the contraption you see above. All I can say George Duran and the crew are great people and have fun at what they do. I also had a great time and the experience will be a memorable one. Follow along as I design and fabricate the Turkey Bike Rotisserie.

Here is the first phase of filming at my home shop. Here I am filling out some paper work of some sort. Film crew setting up the tents, cameras and sound.	Here is George Duran riding the bicycle that will be converted into the Turkey Bike Rotisserie. This was on a main road and the cars were at a stand still that prompted the local police to see what was going on.

This was the so called design phase where George gets the idea to convert the bike into a human powered turkey rotisserie. We used a white board and I drew my idea. I already had made the base frame ahead of time in the essense of filming time.	After we cut some tubing and squared up the edges on the milling machine it was now time to weld an upright that will support the bearings and sprockets.

Giving George a quick lesson on a MIG machine.	Here is George tacking the upright. He did a great job. It must be from holding the pastry bag and decorating cakes. He was so proud that he was able to fuse metal.

Ok that was the first phase of the show. I had only two weeks to finish this thing for the final filming and get the whole thing up to Plymouth Mass. I was pressed for time because in between that time, I went on my honeymoon. So I really only had a week to complete it.

Final Fabrication and Assembly

Ok now down to the fun stuff. I had to make hubs for the sprockets so they could fit on the 1/2" main shaft. I made mandrel to hold the hub while being machined on my lathe.	Here are the three bicycle sprockets and machined hubs TIG weleded in. I was able to get spare bike parts from a local bike dealer. Try walking into a bike shop asking for chain and sprockets and the kid behind the counter says "for what kind of bike". I relpy "the one that will rotate the turkey"... He gave me the old Beavis...uhhhhh....mmmmmm......what.

Here I am TIG welding a machined hub to a sprocket. I always say, "if you can't buy it then make it."	Here is the Rotisserie starting to take shape. This is the main feed chain that will come from the bike.

Ok now enter the bike. As you can see I had to modify the pedal assembly. I removed the larger sprocket and took the smaller one that was on the rear wheel and tire assembly. This operation took a whole day. There was extensive machining, grinding and welding.	Mocking up the set up to basically make it a stationary bike.

One requirement of this contraption is that it had to bolt together to allow for transport in a small truck or SUV up to the filming location at Plimoth Plantation in Mass.	Here is the completed "bolt on" bike support that will bolt to the main base of the rotisserie. Alignment of the chain and sprockets were critical so mock up was very time consuming.

Fast forward. After over 28 hours of design and fabrication I was able to get the assembly up at the Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Mass. As you can see in the pictures, I had to make an idler assembly in order to keep the chain from floppoing off because of the length of the chain.	Here it is all set up and Pete the intern was elected to pedal the Turkey Rotisserie. The ratio is 7 pedals to 1 turn of the turkey.