Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tire is in
Now that I have two months left to finish this build I'm going to keep most of my progress under wraps. Most of my uploads dealing with this build are going to be close-up's and/or teasers. So here is the first.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Eerie
I haven't really been doing anything too interesting over the past couple days except making axles and spacers. Tonight around 8 when I was heading back to the shop to finish up the rear axle I noticed some tractors across the street looking pretty creepy with in the mist which had just rolled in. I took some pics to try and capture the feeling but I'm pretty limited in the high quality camera department; I tried my best though.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Next Blog >>
Have you guys ever hit that button? I know it's not that tempting and rather inconspicuous but I just tagged it about 50 times and I have to say they all sucked and 75-80% of them were Christian sites preaching God's word. WTF is that about? Why doesn't Blogger make the next blog button link to related blogs??
And the winner is...
Congratulations Mat! Good guess man! Thanks to everyone who participated and made this fun!
Sunday, May 22, 2011
What is it?
The first person who guesses what this is going to turn into will win a prize (probably a t-shirt maybe some parts). Either leave a comment or send an email. The bolt has nothing to do with it it's just to estimate size (1/4-20 x 1/2" long). Good luck.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Engraved
I got the rest of the gas caps and some exhaust badges back from the engraver. It's a cool local shop with an old world feel. All of the work is done manually on 60's vintage machines using microscopic hand-ground tools measuring no bigger than one or two thousandths of an inch. The badges were created from a hand drawing I made which is then cut into a steel plate roughly 2' x 9". This plate then gets fixed to one end of a reducing arm with the aluminum badge at the other.
The engraver traces the master plate blindly with a scribe attached to the arm and the machine reduces the image accordingly; in this case about 300%. It's a rather interesting process to witness and it's a dying trade as most things are CNC machined these days.
I like to do as much of my work in house by hand as I possibly can but I don't feel guilty farming out some work to local craftsman with the same ideals as myself. In this industry keeping things hand made is the whole lure. It's why the machines we make are so enticing.
Reverting to CNC takes that hand crafted richness and artistic flare from what we are creating and turns it into a monolithic piece of machined billet with no mystery. They all work the same and there are no flaws but as far as being identical they are not and that's a good thing. The way I look at it, any person who want's to "customize" their motorcycle and can't afford some $50,000 + custom, reverts to a catalog where every part is the same. If this is the case than how unique is your bike really? I am not a huge shop with trained monkeys aka bench welders making parts 9hrs a day. I do however offer unique limited quantity parts at the most reasonable prices I can.
Yes, you could buy a gas cap for $60.00 that is one of 10,000 made at some job shop slap it on your tank and say it's "custom" and maybe not think twice about it. Or for a couple bucks more get something you can brag about being 100% hand made.
I'm not speaking entirely for myself and do note I am certainly not the only person making their products completely by hand. My goal is only to pose the question:
Do you want "custom" or do you want unique?
The engraver traces the master plate blindly with a scribe attached to the arm and the machine reduces the image accordingly; in this case about 300%. It's a rather interesting process to witness and it's a dying trade as most things are CNC machined these days.
I like to do as much of my work in house by hand as I possibly can but I don't feel guilty farming out some work to local craftsman with the same ideals as myself. In this industry keeping things hand made is the whole lure. It's why the machines we make are so enticing.
Reverting to CNC takes that hand crafted richness and artistic flare from what we are creating and turns it into a monolithic piece of machined billet with no mystery. They all work the same and there are no flaws but as far as being identical they are not and that's a good thing. The way I look at it, any person who want's to "customize" their motorcycle and can't afford some $50,000 + custom, reverts to a catalog where every part is the same. If this is the case than how unique is your bike really? I am not a huge shop with trained monkeys aka bench welders making parts 9hrs a day. I do however offer unique limited quantity parts at the most reasonable prices I can.
Yes, you could buy a gas cap for $60.00 that is one of 10,000 made at some job shop slap it on your tank and say it's "custom" and maybe not think twice about it. Or for a couple bucks more get something you can brag about being 100% hand made.
I'm not speaking entirely for myself and do note I am certainly not the only person making their products completely by hand. My goal is only to pose the question:
Do you want "custom" or do you want unique?
Monday, May 16, 2011
Tail Section
The rear is starting to shape up. Got the rough work done, now I have to do some hand sanding and buffing...can't wait. On another note the AN fitting was fun to machine; I ended up making it -12 rather than -10 for ease of filling seeing as how this will act as the oil filler.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
I'm Addicted....
To tail sections. Got this done when I got home from the trip today. I'll finish it up tomorrow given Mike has a -10 AN I can copy.
Rat Style
My buddy Rich told me about this crazy cool junk yard somewhere up state, so today we took a ride and this is what we found. It's a pretty creepy place with no real signs of life except for some piles of wood chips around sharpened stumps left by the beavers. Enjoy the pictures.
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