Massic Effect

Modified Fender

2011-08-09T19:46:00.002-06:00

So because the back right tail light went out and I needed to replace it I decided to change it up a bit. I wanted to move the lights up and face more out. I hope this will increase visibility and save my lights in the future.

Oh and I added some accents to match the tank.

All in a days work.

2011-08-09T19:41:00.000-06:00

I got bored I suppose and added a jockey shifter to the bike. I needed to fix the foot shifter from the accident I was in back in April.

I got some 1/2 in. hammered stock and bent 'er right up.

It took some fine tuning to get it just right next to the motor and through the pipes. I think I still need to tweak just a little to get it right. It only took me a few hours to pump this out.

Welds to be seen

2011-08-03T21:23:00.000-06:00

So these are some of the welds I snapped from the frame jig we just finished.

This one has 2 MIG welds at the top of the pic witch are ok and are considered a 1F Tee Joint. The joint in the center was a 2G Butt on the sides and a 1F Tee on the sides.

Now this one I have to say at first glance will look messed. You can see the bead is really convex and some serious undercut. This was done in position 2 x 3G vertical down (either side) and a 4F underneath, w/o filler metal. This would be a great example on w weld joint to get full pen on the root pass then I could do a filler/cap over it with filler rod.

Some welding

2011-08-03T21:12:00.000-06:00

I'd sure like to say that every time I weld I want it to look pretty and nice. Sometimes though its just about getting the job done and being able to walk away. I did a job for some lunch the other day.

This guy (Jared) brings me a BMW seat pan that is swiss cheese, and paper thin. So I patch the holes. Pretty simple .0625 Tungsten and some .035 filler wire from my MIG, and some 16ga. backer plates. Totally not pretty but solid. I told the guy to make a mold and fiberglass the thing and toss the original.

Axle Plates for Brady

2011-08-03T18:01:00.000-06:00

new frame Idea

2011-05-02T20:23:00.000-06:00

Sorry for chopping the front. But this is my first concept. Any takers?

Get Schooled...

2011-04-29T21:53:00.000-06:00

Better late than never, MM 4-4-11

2011-04-28T20:58:00.000-06:00

Look Right

Look Left

Brady Please this is a family blog!

These were from Moto Monday the beginning of the month, Crazy that the next is just around the corner.

Coffin Tank - Fini

2011-04-28T20:49:00.000-06:00

Well I hope to get it mounted and filled tomorrow. To bad the weather has turned for the worst.

Seat, Tank, and Bars

2011-04-15T22:24:00.000-06:00

So Sorry it's taken so long. But my bars and tank are done, and I have few pictures here. This is my redone seat. So the seat pan that I have been riding around for almost a year is actually the back up pan. The original as done and it looked so stinking stupid I could not live with it. I was put in contact with a guy named Randy in Springville at Tumbleweed Leather. He did a bang up job, just what I wanted in the first place. If you need leather work hit this dude up, he is legit!!

The Tank here is all welded up. I was placing the petcock in the spot I needed it. Interestingly it was more thought provoking than expected. Depending on the angle I put it at would determined how much I could use as a reserve or not. I had to actually think well do I want to have a decent reserve or basically none at all.

So I had welded the tunnel on a piece of flat and then tacked that into the tank. I used my shops air grinder with a cutting disc to trim it out. I looking into using Brady's nibbler, but time was of the essence.

Tunnel freed at last.

I little extra grind work, and then I went back around all the welds, now from what would of been the inside, and I didn't use any filler. In industry it would be called a backing run, just welding the back side of the weld. For some thing that will have to hold fluid this should be a must.

Give me fuel, Give me fire, Give me a gas cap that is centered and I'll be happy.

Don't ask where my camera has been but this is the tank done, check Brady's facebook photo's of his day in the shop with me. But he'd got some good pics of this tank finished. This here is the front mounts, I went for the hook under in the front to leverage it down.

Here is the back mount. I tell ya having the CNC cutter is awesome for some one off parts.

I use a liner called Red Kote, and I love it. You can get it in a kit like Tank Kreem if you like. But I have had no problems with it, but make sure you have great ventilation this stuff will knock you out.

The old tank mounted back on cuz I wanted to break the new bars in around the schools parking lot. 50mph straight aways, no biggie. I love how the feel, the are so much better than the old ones. Let me tell you this, all you that make bars out there, more power to you! I had all the material cut I just needed to cope the uprights and it took me from 9 till 4 to get this set all welded and polished. I was getting pretty pissed at times, just not lining up, not staying straight, errrr I almost threw them across the shop and said forget it. Sorry this is the only picture of the bars, I was not in the documenting mood at the time, but I think they look good and they ride Great. Brady's got the clear coat hook up, so hopefully not too much longer and we are in business.

Toys

2011-03-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

So I finally spent my gift card to HD today. I needed to cut a hole for my gas cap and I needed new tools. Well you can start drooling now. Oh and I don't favor one brand or the other I just buy the best!

YES!!

Progress Progress Progress

2011-03-04T17:24:00.001-07:00

So here are the pictures I have been promising

The metal after it was cut out

What the computer says

Tacked together 1

Tacked together 2

Tacked together 3

Just a little peep show of the TIG

Tunnel is being cut to size

Tank was trimmed an inch and then tunneled

It FITS!

What do you think?

Tank Progress

2011-03-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Well I was able to cut out the panels for my tank, and weld them together. I have pics on my phone but I'll get them uploaded sometime before never. I think I have a new idea to use some of this new TIG brazing I picked up to out line the tank and of course my lightning bolt. But we shall see.

Some Tunnel Action

2011-02-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

So how do we take a piece of flat 18 gauge sheet steel, and make it into a tunnel for a new gas tank on a old Honda motorcycle? A lot of beating, real hard beating!


Flat 18 Ga.

Beat it, strap it down.

Grabbed a plastic hammer from the shop

It started getting hard towards the neck.

The SS zip tie broke so I just got some cheap wire I had lying around and fastened her down

Over all I don't think this turned out bad.

So yeah only took an hour and half to do this. I had the piece about 5"x24" but that was about 6" to long. I had no way of cutting it till I found some cold chisels in my tool box. I struck a line and it broke right in half and now it was 5"x18". I wish I wouldn't of had to beat the crap out of my back bone, I muffed up that paint something fierce, also you never know what structural damage was caused. I don't think it affected the integrity of the backbones steel because it was a soft hammer and not metal on metal but you never know. So now sometime by the end of this week or next I'll cut the tank out, but I would like to ask should I cut out all separate panels and weld them up individually or try and keep as much as possible in flat development and bend it up?

Thanks for looking.

Argyle

2011-02-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

Blue Moon Customs did this nice Argyle paint schematic. I like it but I'm not sure it would work on just any bike.

Lego Trike?

2011-02-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

So I grabbed this off another blog I look at about 3D modeling and stuff. Feast your eyes on this wonder.

Educator Jack van den Broek presented at SolidWorks World 2011 and told me that he has not met a student too young for SolidWorks. Thanks to Jack, I am fortunate to share a new Toy Trike tutorial that is written for young students. I am not going to put an age on this tutorial. Just download the .pdf and have fun. Model parts and assemblies are included below.

Jack has created other tutorials in SolidWorks including the Toy Car. Use this tutorial with LEGO (R) building blocks in your classroom or at home for a great visualization exercise that's fun.
Jack has also created Technical Vocational Tutorials for his students that work with SolidWorks in the machine shop and are located on our Tutorials page. The Tic-Tac-Toe project engages students and teaches valuable skills.
Congratulations to his students that have passed the Certified SolidWorks Associate CSWA exam at the youngest age yet!. Marie
Document:Download SolidWorks Trike USA Engels Final
Models: Download Assem1000 My Trike

Help Me Decide?

2011-02-09T16:48:00.000-07:00

So I have been trying to get an Idea for what looks best on my bike. I am doing a coffin tank cuz I don't have fancy wheels and hammers to do curves. My hard spot is the back bone, I can't decide what looks good with the crap square of a mess tube. so here are my choices. Mainly two are really similar and mounted with a shallow tunnel, and the other design will be more deep tunnel. Either one can be modified, I have it saved in Solidworks and can change depth and length with ease. So please give me some feedback and suggestions.

Thanks!

1,2, and 3 next to the original.

Tanks tanks tanks

2011-01-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

Left Right

Right

Right Left

Help me choose. The left one might be stretched 2in. and the right would be shrunk 2in.

Look Harder

2011-01-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

So I'm not a big basket ball kinda guy, but a bud of mine got some really nice free tickets to a BYU game and wanted to hang out.

Classic BYU Zoob

Where's Waldo?

So this is my first stab at TIG brazing. I saw it on the Lowbrow video I got for my advanced welding students, and I was blown away. I had never heard of it before, so I ordered a few pounds and well it wasn't too bad, I wish I had more time to practice this stuff.

Christmas present gone terribly wrong for my sister. I was turning a Cherry and Purple Heart salt and pepper grinder set. The Cherry grinder blew up on me, only after 8+ hours into it. It was going to be totally tight with the Celtic knot in it. I told my sis that I would finish it before the end of this year (2011) and get them to her later.

Just a small elk project for a bud of mine. After I cut it out I took an abrasive disc and polished it up. I then took the torch and did some heat affected blueing. Not bad, well the picture sucks, sorry.

What the Long time

2011-01-07T21:59:00.000-07:00

So I have been meaning to post this bike pic for some time now. This was taken the end of November after we (Brady) got the carbs all nice. It was 22degrees out side. I could not feel my fingers at all, but it was pretty rad. Brady's clutch cable crapped out on him during the ride, and that was pretty dang fun.

I could not help my self when I saw this. I was at the thrift store and this was like finding gold. It seems to be some super old ski suit. Jacket and Bib combo! I was thinking some cold bike ride material, also a lady killer on the slopes! The best part is the butt is all sorts of stretched out, my wife said and I quote "You got junk in that trunk, like you could fit a basket ball back there."

Merry Christmas

2010-11-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

To Friggin ME!

Bench Project

2010-11-10T18:07:00.000-07:00

Wow 3rd one in a single day!

I figured I need to be posting less B.S. of my life and more project stuff ...So my students come up with an Idea to make some benches for the school. They pitch the idea to the big guy, and now the school will pay for one of these benches to be made, and if it turns out good he'll pay for 2 more. This is our rough set up, but the color scheme is the school colors so it should look nice when we are done. The school almost out sourced these to a local CO. but we can build this almost 80% less then them, go figure slave labor.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

First pic is of trick or treat night second is an 80's prom themed b-day party we went to the next weekend.

Punk rocker and a little Kitty

We are super hot.

Cali trip

2010-11-10T17:40:00.001-07:00

So I have a really good friend of mine thats at UCLA Dental school. He's in his 3rd year and I have been promising him that I would visit. My wife and I had a weekend off that actually lined up together and we made a weekend of it.

Here are a few pics of us a this bowl somewhere near LA.

It was super vert, like old school wana be a real pool bowl. The 6' section had at least a 18" of vert.

Here's me carving up the deep end.

My buddy Justin getting up there.

I have been surfing once before in my life and...it was hard. I didn't have anyone telling me what to do or how to do it, I was just out in the water by my self. Justin is getting big into surfing so he convinced me to give it anther try. Lets just say the next pic here show perfectly well how well the day went.

The Suit is inside out

We are ready to go, I went and I tried and I'm leaving surfing to the surfers. I suck and I thought I was going to die.

Oh we also visited all the Rob Dyredek Skate Plaza's close by. This one was not too bad the others were pretty sketchy.

Ugh

2010-10-25T21:12:00.002-06:00

Sorry blogging is hard :( I have some skat photos from my Cali trip to come soon. I'm almost ready to build some Z bars too.

Crotch Bobber

2010-10-12T21:33:00.000-06:00

I knew it could be done right and look sweet as all get out. This bike is so legit.

www.flightcycles.com

Random

2010-10-08T19:43:00.000-06:00

I peeped these over at bubble visor, definitely not the norm. I think they are super rad.

Then I saw this chopped Harley tank and thought it was super fantastic. See more at kemosabe and the lodge

Your Favorite Hand Signal

2010-10-07T12:19:00.000-06:00

Found This over at Blood Falcons website. Though it was pretty nifty. I love the Pit Stop one.

Unique Bars

2010-10-06T18:55:00.000-06:00

These guys over at front street have got it going on, and I hope to soon.

http://frontstcycle.blogspot.com/2010/10/unique-bars-for-unique-builder.html

Flat Development

2010-10-05T21:36:00.000-06:00

I thought it would be easiest to weld across that seam than the other way. Each Half will be bent into shape and then welded together. I just need to make the tunnel.

Oh and "I am Batman" only because they look like bats.

Gas tank Final

2010-10-04T20:18:00.001-06:00

Or at least for now. What do you think, I actually modified the dimensions to about the size of my current tank.

So these are a few tanks I peeped today on the net. I really like the far left one.

Gas tanks?

2010-10-03T15:15:00.001-06:00

Which one do you think I should go with? or spend most of my time working on for my bike?

Thanks.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Signage 2.0

2010-09-25T17:13:00.001-06:00

It's funny to look back and see who things develop and come to be. From a random encounter to a friendship to an idea to help someone out, then a design, and finally into production.

The concept design was pretty sick if I do say so myself.

This is basically what the DXF file looked like. From this one file I selected just the anchor points and the background and saved a base file. Then I reopened and selected the anchor points and letters, saved this as a letters file. I had to adjust a little bit of the pipes because the distance between cuts was too narrow. With Plasma cutting the kerf is still pretty small, a little over 1/16". So when two lines are closer than 1/8" that will pretty much destroy the line.

The base cut out with out a hitch! a good size sign base.

Then I had a break for lunch.

DO NOT LOOK AT THE ARC!

The Letters are cut out and displayed for your enjoyment. So what you have to be aware of, is that this is a relatively hot process. The effect that heat has on metal, especially thin, metal is pretty dang gnarly. The entire 30+ minutes I have a squirt bottle and damp paper towels to cool off the metal as fast as possible, if I don't the metal will warp really bad. I think I did a good job at this the metal only expanded a little.

This is the left over piece of 4x8 16ga. metal, it's pretty cool I think.

And a rough layout of the finished product. We still have to drill out the holes and get this think cleaned up of all the slag and coolant, then get it powder coated. I need to talk to Brady and finalize how we are going to mount this thing all together.

Well I hope you like the feet added in. Sorry for the so so pictures, taken on my not so so camera phone.

laters

Spare Time

2010-09-18T12:54:00.000-06:00

So my life has been getting more and more hectic. And as the school year progresses I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water. But in my spare time (chuckles) I have been working in some images and STEP files to send to a CNC. Brady at TWFMco. has been wanting to start doing some bike bars for a while now. so for you viewing pleasure I have 4 prototype images. Please give my your feed back.

Click on it for Full Screen

Car show 9-4-10

2010-09-10T17:55:00.000-06:00

So here are some ill rides from the SL Hardcore / American Legion car show last weekend. The same weekend my throttle cable broke on the way home. Some real serious cars here and I posted the ones I thought were bestest.

Turning Tables

2010-09-06T17:11:00.000-06:00

So my good buddy Jeff who gave me the name "Jared the Welder" had this XS650 that was nothing but a head ache and a money pit. Well today I just dropped my bike off at Two Wheeled Freedom Machine Co to get it fixed, and he just picked his up today and road it home. On Saturday I was on my way home from a car show in SLC and getting on the freeway my throttle had gave out. It looked like it was just the linkages that came out. Today we found out that I had snapped the cable in two. I guess I'm riding too much like a bat outa hell...oh wait thats fine cuz my full throttle speed is 75mph. Anywho so I decided since I'm needing this fixed that I would get the rest of the bike worked over and tuned up. I haven't done any tuning since I put the new exhaust and float it, so I needs it.

Snapped Cable Bike on the lift.

Side note This is a sick bike I saw today on the Church Of Choppers Blog. I'm having an emotional affair with those pipes!

Peep 1.0

2010-09-06T08:24:00.001-06:00

So I posted some bars from Front Street Cycle a week or so ago, and tons of people thought I made them. I had a link on the page to their site but it wasn't very noticeable. Any who I updated that post and now you can see how I would of made them if they were mine. You could make them straight bars, or put some drag right in them like this. I think the added detail in the uprights add to the look a little. But please add your thoughts These bars measure about 9" high and 20" wide the uprights are about 8" wide.

Bars 1.0

Bars 1.1

Wyo Tech 2010 visit

2010-09-04T15:49:00.001-06:00

So over the summer Wyo Tech in Laramie, WY invited me out for a tour, they picked up the tab so it wasn't hard to say yes. Below are just half on the pictures I got. The place was just rad. Of course I love the Street Rod and Custom Fabrication areas. They just can do anything at this place. But take a look at this stuff I tried to put captions on some of the pics.

My Goodie bag

this is some sort of Rock crawler

More Goodies

Some sweet rail frame

This is a drag frame

see how they splice

Mechanics to the left

Mechanics to the right

a sweet little go kart

This is a working motor with all controls and both fuse boxes. Complete diagnostics can be run on the and the Instructor can change any problem he wants.

Some nice body work being done

Killer BBQ!

I WANT!!

They had tons of projects cars all around, some were just unbelievable.

They used they fab skills to mold this hood from a piece of flat metal. I want a Iron Hammer and English Wheel so bad

Seam machines

They have a sick painting class. This is your project!

More Hammers

Oh yes I will have one of these tanks, but the paint on mine won't be as nice.

This hood is so ridiculous. The base is textured with a grinder, then a grinder was used again to put a textured flame pattern down, then a really nice fade and candy and clear.

Their Diesel department is freakin' HUGE!

More Diesel

SO Sick

2010-09-02T18:55:00.000-06:00

So I ran across this pic I found it on BubbleVisor.blospot but they say they got it from Chico Moto.

Either way that is the most raw looking front end, I love this.

Caps

2010-09-01T20:34:00.000-06:00

Feast your eyes on these sicky sick patterns I picked up so my wife could make me some new welders caps! Now before you get a head of yourself I am no chauvinist, my wife is doing an online sewing class and I am merely helping her with this endeavor ;)

Yeah they are crazy but nothing compared to this place.

Park Run

2010-09-01T17:31:00.000-06:00

So a few weeks back or well maybe it was a month ago I conned Two Wheeled Freedom Machine Co. owner Brady Knotts to go skating with me. I wanted to go kinda far and to a place that totally rips. I give him a hard time cuz he likes hepatitis and the Springville Skate Park. Ya know what I found out? Skateutah.com doesn't even claim Springville haaha. Any who it was such a huge blast!

Brady and 2 of his kids eatin' zza

Best Snake Run in Utah

Brady got like 5 hot n' Ready Pizza's and started offering them to the other thrasher kids out there. And I was like Hell No earn your keep, I made these kids do their gnarliest tricks for a slice. It was pretty rad and it wasn't even my pizza.

So now that Kearns Skate park is open I say another sweet freakin' ride!

Nightmare

2010-08-31T22:17:00.000-06:00

Oh my gosh I have a severe LOVE/HATE relationship with technology. I have been trying to put the final touches on the sign I am making up for Brady and pretty much all that could go wrong did. I had to fix it all and it was a real nightmare. I think you can't tell the difference, but non the less here are the images that the CNC will see. So yeah soon one 4x8 sheet of 16ga. steel will have a new birth...soon.

Peep

2010-08-30T22:05:00.001-06:00

Over at Front Street Cycle they made these killer bars. I think I can modify these banana bars and make them a little sicker.

http://frontstcycle.blogspot.com/2010/08/production-banana-bars-for-customer.html

Nerd Alert!

2010-08-28T23:16:00.000-06:00

It's late and I'm tired/bored so why not make a post.

This is a concept of some new bars for my bike. I don't know when I'll get to them, but I have it ready to go I suppose. I also want to make a Coffin Tank for my bike, so I'll probably model that first cuz it's always good to have a plan before you start. Also on my list is to make the holes in Brady's sign, which will happen much sooner than my tank or these bars.

School has started and got into safety with the beginners this past week...I'm just gonna say I love to be descriptive when we start talking about First Aid.

I have a lot of previous pictures that I haven't loaded up yet, but this was from Go Skate Day 2010. My bike was so close to being done but alas it was not. So I followed in my tuck and had a blast, even lost a toe nail. We went all to a bunch of parks here in Utah, this picture happens to be from the American Fork park. It was loads of fun I hope next year my bike will make it up parley's if we go that way.

Well I guess thats it I hope you liked it.

1 down only 176 left

2010-08-24T16:34:00.000-06:00

So a teachers day is never over, after a crazy day of again running between two schools and this time with students, I will now sit down a develop a safety test for my advanced kids as a refresher and go over my safety curriculum for my beginning students. Just think about that the next time you vote NO on a education bill to give us teachers in Utah (who are way underpaid) less money for our classrooms to better the education of your children.

Well I have more stuff I need to add on here. Sunday I went a quick ride up AF canyon, and as it turns out we pretty much did the Alpine Loop, pretty sketchy in some parts but loads of fun. We had the rain on our heels, the wind blowing us over (seriously I thought I was going down), oh any my tail light broke SOB!

Us at the Aspen Grove side

The Storms coming from the AF side

Dang Light!

Solo Ride

2010-08-21T21:32:00.000-06:00

I was so stinking bored today so I went on a 30 or so mile bike ride. I decided to ride down by Utah Lake. It wasn't that smelly, it was mostly the cattle that stunk. But I figured I would take some pictures with my phone. It's a sweet phone but it can't take a picture for crap.

So I tried to get creative, but eh whatever.

Well not that more people read this but, riding alone stinks. We need more ride events in the UC. Ok well I'm going to watch the news.

Summer #2

2010-08-21T15:08:00.000-06:00

So being back in Ohio we were able to do a small mini vacation with in a vacation. We drove up to NY to see some crazies run all over a hill. Here is my old boss from college!

Mormon

On our way back we noticed that Niagara Falls was on the way, so we stopped. We didn't have any money except for tolls, so we found 2 hour street parking for free. The wife was worried we were gonna get towed but have no fear. We parked about .5 mile away got in line for tickets, got in line for the elevator, got in line for the boat, got on the boat, got wet, and got off the boat, walked back to the car and on the road again, it all took less than 1.10 hours

Thats how its done!

So we rented a car when we were back in Ohio, and for 2 weeks we put about 1400 miles on that bad little Accent! Got our monies worth.

Summer #1

2010-08-19T22:26:00.000-06:00

So I did a lot this summer with my wife, so I need to do some catching up. First off I have to say I love roller coasters!

So this is me and my wife in front of the awesome Millennium Force at the World Renowned Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Yes the main town from Tommy Boy.

This place totally rocks and the coasters there are even better. Check it out someday if you have the chance.

One of the sad things of what I do is that I am always looking at things that could be projects for my students.

So we also went to Amish country in Ohio, and I peep this at a flea market (totally not Amish), but it tried to capitalize on the tourist market. This is a pretty simple candle holder but I think it would be a simple project for a n00b.

Well I have other pictures from Ohio, and my trip to Wyo Tech in Laramie, WY. So that will be some other post as well as some Moto Runs to post about.

School

2010-08-19T21:35:00.000-06:00

So I don't have much to say, other than meetings are not the funnest thing. So school starting up and the copies are being made and the material is being ordered.

Signage

2010-08-18T13:03:00.002-06:00

So a good buddy of mine has a shop in SF, and doesn't have a sign. The first time I went to look for his place, I couldn't find it at all. So I talked to him and we came up with a sweet idea.

It should be about 4'x4' and black base with white letters all powder coated. The letters are actually lifted off the base. T is 2" W is 3" F is 4" M is 3" C is 2" and the ~ are at 1". I think it will look sick, we should be able to get it cut out pretty soon.

white season

2010-08-17T16:14:00.002-06:00

The snowboarding season is upon us...I need to find a cheap seasons pass. I'd love to go back to PCMR, but they don't offer any sort of teacher discount.

Off the deep end.

2010-08-17T15:38:00.000-06:00

Well I decided that I might want to blog about the stuff that I go and do and see. Also of current and past projects. I like to work with metal, wood and other media, so I have a few projects completed that I could share with all of you down the road. Well I guess until my first real post I'm done.