good now that you are humming that, you can imagine me gob bluth style dancing in front of the little house as it rolls down the road.

not really something you see everyday.

the crew:   greg for advice and doubt, my dad for actually getting stuff done, and me to hold a piece of plastic pipe in the air over my head.  We made it to the farm with out a problem, surprisingly didn’t even pop a tire on the trailer, lots of bending of axles but that’s just because this is a racing model so it has really tight tolerances.

here’s the frame from that camp trailer that I destroyed last winter

remember buddy that this was an illusion not a trick, because tricks are something a whore does for money or…… cocaine.

I am back from the alaska, and going to get started on some projects, this is your warning!

The Idea really came from me being unable to bend tubing worth a damn and then coming up with a design that didn’t require 90 degree bends.  I also hit upon the Idea of using only one support stay and then tying into the canti-tabs for stability.  Despite it’s delicate appearance it will hold a cinder block or more likely a 6 pack all day no problem.

I would love to make another one for myself  someday but there are to many other projects in my Que.

My wife has been asking me to make her an “inspiration board” for quite some time now. The idea was to have a large space in her office where she could post notes, mementos, photos, and other bits and pieces that inspire her writing. Since she just recently passed her Masters in English literature comprehensive exam (Yeah ‘Lissa!) I decided it would be fun to surprise her with a congratulatory board. I wish I would have taken pictures throughout the process of putting this together, but my wife hid the camera from me (hiding in plain sight btw) and left for the weekend. Alas, I only have pics of the final piece. The completed board was created using the simplest of materials: two 40″ lengths of 2″ x 12″, baling wire, 4 ceiling hooks, and some rusty penny nails.

In what is quickly becoming my lazy man’s trademark, the boards were treated to a few minutes under the welding torch to give the wood a nice patina. No sanding or staining required! I thought about spraying the boards with some clear satin spray paint to seal the boards, but promptly forgot until it’d already been put together.

My favorite part was to cut two 1/4″ deep grooves on one side of each board. The boards were then attached 5 1/2″ apart so that you can slide a 4″ x 6″ photograph into the space. I was really pleased with the result, however it only works for portait shots, landscapes have to rest against the wall (as shown in the foreground)

MOTORCYCLE: A lot has been done to the bike since the last post. Again, I have been negligent in documenting my progress with photos, but this time I have no excuse. In short, the springer fork pictured actually took months to build and this is likely version 3.0. There are several bits of charred, twisted, and otherwise useless shards of metal strewn about the shop that represent the failed attempts that came before it. Reminders that I don’t actually have a clue as to what I’m doing.

Another new feature is a rebuilt handlebar stem. Many of the motorized bicycles you see on the web look especially “bicyclely” in the handlebar area. In attempt to make the “cockpit” look somewhat more boardtrack racer period specific, I cut a stem in half. I had no idea those old steel quill stems were solid all the way through. It took an entire cutting disc to get through that thing. I discarded the middle section, filed down the two pieces I had left and heated them up until they were glowing. It can be difficult to get the brass filler to move all the way through two pieces of metal you’re joining (especially when they’re thick). I spent a long time making sure that the filler material penetrated the entire area because, as you might imagine, the results of a poor weld here would be disasterous.

Finally, the joining of the down tube and the chainstays has been a source of a great contention. I tried a couple of different ideas out and eventually landed on a good one (I think). I began by cutting the existing down tube just below the lower crossbrace and then heating and bending a length of 1″ OD tubing to shape. Next, I took a length of tube that fit inside the 1″ tube and hammered it up into the frame and welded it in place so that 6-8″ was sticking out of the frame. I then slid the bent 1″ tube over the smaller tube and brazed it all together. The last step was to bend the chainstays inward and attach everything with some heavy-duty square tubing I found on the road during a bike ride and carried home.

Well, that’s about it. Here’s the latest mockup. The seatstays aren’t welded into place yet. I’m waiting until the wheels I’m going to use show up.

…and the dramatic glamour shot of the bike to come

In an attempt to make this crap a little easier I won’t have lights of any kind at first.  That got rid of some of it but I was left with all of this.

the thing on the left (that I think is the coil) sprang into being when I pulled it out of the inside of the other bike. I hadn’t really expected it and had to come up with something to house it in (because there is not a lot of spare room on the bike).

this piece fits  under the engine and holds the coil along with all the extra wires that I wasn’t using but don’t want to get rid of.  I know that it looks like a cluster f but I needed to wire it up to make sure it worked before I went through the trouble of routing all the wires inside the tubes.

I also built up this stand to hold the bike instead of leaning it against the wall to work on it.  Besides I had always wanted one of these free standing bicycle/ motorcycle stands, it kinda makes it look like a museum piece.