Indy Dealer Expo 10'

It's that time of year again, time to hoof it around the Indy Dealer Expo and check out all the new and interesting products. As usual, I'll be helping Steve at The Scooter Scoop by manning the camera. This will be the third year I've gone and I'm just as excited to go this year as the first year. Last year I tried to throw together a last-minute prototype of a part I was thinking about producing but didn't get much interest but that's ok because it was a total learning experience. This year will be much the same, I'm going to try and take some time off from my busy schedule of making stuff for other people to throw together a prototype of an idea I've had in my head for a very long time.. and hopefully show it around and get some feedback from people in the industry.

BST Blackstone's Carbon fiber 12" wheel

Getting comfortable..

Recently I was going through some photos from about 2 years ago
and I came up with this,

It's a tachometer mount I made for a vintage Sun tach
meant to mount to the steering column of a Model-A.

The car(and tach mount) belong to Ryan Cochran
from the famed Jalopy Journal and the HAMB.

Making cool parts for guys who are REALLY passionate
about their equipment is one of the things I really miss about Texas.

Settled in Seattle

After a 2300 mile drive and two days of unpacking and

storing our stuff, We've finally settled in.

Now my main goal in to find a nice steady and

hopefully interesting job here.

Monday I'm going to take a little time to stop by and

see all the shops I'vebeen reading about lately.

Cycle-Car

Red Soul

Eco Motors

 Cosmopolitan Motors

Moeller Design

CNC work

Lately I've been really been putting the Haas VF-2 to work making and modifying all sorts of things.

JSF parts for work.......and......Scooter triple trees.

Designing and making parts for high-performance vehicles

is what I love doing.

Makin' the donuts

Just your average everyday run of the mill jet fighter fuel pump..

Engineering eye candy

This past week I took off for a short vacation and along the way we visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC. I spent four and a half hours skimming over everything and I tried to take pictures of everything worth studying later. The design and construction of this type of machinery produces a form of unintentional art in my opinion.

 

ASM Gallery

Progress

Cleaned up the titanium swing arms and the wheel spider today. I'm really happy with the finish that garnet blasting leaves.

The Flying Jackhammer

The custom scooter rebuild is getting more attention this week with the remaking and repairing of the front suspension. I've managed to straighten the slightly tweaked titanium wheel center, lighten the Ti swing arms and clean up the aluminum wheel hub pieces. Also remade the stainless swing-arm pivot axle while I was at it. Still have a few more parts to rehab but not many.

I thought I'd model the front end as solids in the process of rebuilding everything, That way I can brush up on SW a bit.

Moving again

Well, Em and I are moving to Seattle and possibly Portland in the next 2 months. I'm pretty excited and looking forward to living somewhere else besides Texas for awhile. The PNW it seems, has a lot going on as far as advanced vehicle development and I'm hoping to be a part of it somehow. DP Cars and MotoCzysz are developing interesting high performance vehicles for sure and there seems to be a wealth of experience in the region working with composites as well as machining. I suppose Boeing can take credit for that.
Last week I started disassembling the front end of my wrecked scooter. The front end is pretty much the only thing preventing it from being rideable again and in the process I've redesigned it to accept a 12" wheel and tire as well as a much lighter monoshock. USM has graciously allowed me to remake the parts as needed and I'll have this project up and running before the move if everything goes well.
I can't wait to get moved and settled in so I can start getting back down to doing what I like.

Change of Address

About a month ago I was laid off from my position as a model maker at VisualCNC in Austin due to a serious slow-down in work, Which I personally believe could have been avoided by a little preemptive marketing.. But no matter, I was lucky enough to get laid off right before USM needed a replacement model maker in Houston.
So, USM is a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons a bit. I'll be in a similar situation as I was at Flyrite, They need someone that can set up and run a cnc operation from the ground up. Granted, They do have a couple of top rate manual machinist with some cnc experience but I'll be the master of my domain(er, corner). USM is just the kind of shop I like best, Varied. They have the facilities for cnc, welding, model making, painting, fdm rapid prototyping and engineering. They lack in the cad/cam and cnc arena but thats why its a good situation for me. I can help.
I've also had to move to Houston for this new job which has me leaving behind my home shop for awhile until I can find better facilities to conduct my research into composites.. And Em and I are taking a 2 week trip to Europe in the middle of May so I have little time for side projects at least for the time being. I will however be visiting as many automotive and scooter related operations as the itinerary will allow... pictures and posts pending.