Elegance in machinery

I really think that moving machinery is so beautiful.  I love this table.  Some times I wish I was creative, or something.

Modified Fender

 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.

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.

Coffin Tank - Fini

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

Progress Progress Progress

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?

Some Tunnel Action

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.

Look Harder

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.

Wyo Tech 2010 visit

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