THIS IS A TEST

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Finished Sculpture

The work that Matt and I had labored so intensely on through the summer of 2011 is now in the open air for the sun, the wind, and the pedestrian. Note the plumbing by the hubs - special hydraulic motors to control rotational speed. All moving parts are stainless steel with stainless bearings. Built to last.

sculpture progress

A wainwright original now an artifact on the wall.

The new:
Machined stainless hubs with included angle for spokes, and welded to rolled 1" stainless tube "tire." hubs get special end caps with welded shaft collars.

Personal Projects

This tank received a lot of love, cutting out the old channel, new fuel tap and filling hole, dents erased and profile narrowed.

Recent Work

I built something small and something big.

These are special brackets to mount the windmill speed control to the outside of the tower. A hydraulic motor that couples to the windmill bearing shaft slows the rotation by resistance of the hydraulic fluid.


This tower is 26 ft tall, welded construction, ready to be hot-dipped galvanized.

Working

This is model in progress for a local sculptor.. its brother is similar, try 20ft longer.
The piece pictured needed a little stretch so i chopped the top, bent up a new dome with slightly taller geometry and welded it back up.

Nautical Lamps

Parts are coming together for a custom nautical style "explosion proof" lamp project. Consider something like this:
Matt's design is simpler, heavier and includes beautiful milk-colored hand blown glass. I spent this week in the machine shop making parts and here is a little progress.

silicon bronze welding on bulb socket holders:

detail for countersinking assembly screws:

result:

Matt and I put our heads together, and he came up with a unique metal spinning set-up on a Logan engine lathe.

The product:


PARTS!

The lamps will be incorporated with original sea-fairing hardware.

More progress coming next week, at the shop of Bobs Welding.

Motor build.

First legit go at it. I have a few skeletons in my closet as far as engine rebuilds go. but this one is for real..

sludge trap bad bad bad, crank needs reground. new pistons found at mid-ohio. new bores thanks to hutch.

this transmission was BAD. main bearings shot. shift forks did not budge. selector plate in rough shape. plunger pitted. the whole nine yards. good replacements found on the internet. sigh of relief.

more progress coming soon.

BACK AT BOBS.

I'm pleased to be (once again) working under the wing of the incomparable Matt Koestner at bob's welding. Years ago Matt took me in from the fog of art school and taught me how to weld, run a lathe, and a Bridgeport. gee thanks Matt!

Rush job for local sculptor: armature for wearable "junk mass"

An afternoon with the roller and mig gun. (four foot sphere in background)

two finished products on our end: armature with backpack 3 ft size sphere.

BOBS WELDING AND FABRICATION.

The Ride.

This is a '67 T100C chopper built by the original owner in the late 60's early 70's. It was parked after the death of the owner, the son held onto it for a little while, then sold it to a dude in western MA. When I dragged it home the pistons were stuck, and the rear tire was flat, but with a little love and some help from the fish, I got the motor free and the tires filled.



I really love the spun aluminum oil tank and matching velocity stack, the bars were funny to me, and the front end seemed wrong at first, But now i'm digging the original stance. Unfortunatley the seat is just too wide for its own good, and really makes the bike look chunky when you walk up to it, but maybe some day i'll trim it down or outfit a classy replica.

This whole thing started in July, and I'm feeling about 50% done right now. as long as the lady's car runs and i have a job, I'll be jammin' in the summer time.

This is me in LA with a bro's bike. He had not ridden it in a while so i gave it a little charge, some air in the tires and some fresh gas and took it for a ride. Plenty of fun. I've never ridden grooved pavement, or anywhere in California for that matter so it was a real treat.

Thanks Owen!

Weekend in Brooklyn

In more moto-related news, I went to down to Brooklyn last Saturday for the first annual Brooklyn Invitational Kustom motorcycle show. We spent a few hours taking in the vibe with a solid line up of bikes outside and a small but impressive gallery of custom scoots inside. It was held at the Autumn Bowl, which is a sick skater-built space, with some very interesting architecture. the pics here aren't so hot, but the photo coverage at hated of the world tell the story well. The rest of my afternoon were spent well on the water with some friends, and taking a solid hike through Williamsburg to the train, and running the gauntlet of Chinatown as well. If I'm in New York and I appear to be anything less than pumped about living, check my pulse, Because I truly love it there.











OH YEAH.

Lars Anderson European motorcycle show

Aaron, and I rode out to the Lars Anderson auto museum and historical grounds for the annual European motorcycle show. There was a full representation of vintage bikes with plenty of modern riders and vendors, including the lusty Ducati test drive. The high pitched spinning of dry clutches followed the riders as they took a short tour through some of the more secluded winding roads of Boston's Brookline neighborhood. So I drooled much, saw some old friends and some new tricks, and once again lit the fire to build myself a more formidable two wheeled motor machine.

LEARNING CONE

My good friend Aaron from TriMount Iron procured some nice 18 gauge sheet for me and I began the work of cutting and forming the patterns. This kind of work is best done with 18-20 gauge sheet metal, because you really have to do much of the work by hand. the shapes are too tight to form with your average sized slip-roller. So the technique comes down to bending by hand and hammering around a round mandrel about the size of the smaller opening of the cone. I then made sure each end of the cone was sized per my drawings and then tack welded those ends in place. after the tacks are on you can be a little more picky about having round ends and flat mating surfaces. Then weld the seams.
Final installation to come next week
Beginnings.

Individual Sections (with tapered header and two-stage diffuser)

Mock Up

Expansion Chamber Design and Templates:

This is a project I have been reading about and pondering for some time.. my first attempt was wildly hair-brained and hacked. I guessed on a bunch of figures than decided that air-forming would be easy and fun... That turned out to be a nice wind chime the first time around. Now, I have a thrice-read chapter of A.G. Bell's two stroke tuning under my belt, and I know more functions on a scientific calculator than I ever did before. Watching the guys at the Moto-Matic moped shop and checking in on an old pal Josh, from Ohio really inspired me to get moving on this, and i'm excited to try different designs in the future.

Homework for the past two weeks:



Mock-Up and Templates


So the next step is finding and cutting sheet metal, and ordering tubing for the header and stinger..