Another (new) workspace

Lately I've been putting off the supercharger to attend to more immediate needs, namely my work space.
I spent a lot of time just getting rid of junk in the garage and basement to make room for my stuff.
Finally, I've arranged everything in the garage to be functional and efficient as well as repairing my lathe and building a scooter work stand.
The stand was a "weekend project" that ended up taking 40hrs and a couple hundred bucks, but it's so worth it not having to crawl around on the floor while working on the scooters. And as usual, I went way overkill on the construction, casters, height levelers, forged eye bolts, grip tape, aluminum machined parts, ect..
Now that the work space is in order, It's time to get back to making scooter parts, The best damn scooter parts I can make.

Really small superchargers

So I'm back from chilly, snowbound and slushy Indianapolis!
I went with high hopes and returned with:

Sore feet

A lighter wallet

Better camera skills

Awesome industry contacts

And a whole lot of hope for the future.

As per 2009, I took along a prototype of a new product idea, It's a supercharger for under 250cc 4 stroke scooters and small motorcycles, specifically the Madass125. But because of the nature of the design, it should be easy to adapt to other vehicles also.

To give you a sense of scale, the impeller is 2" in diameter and the inlet to the compressor housing is a diminutive 1.1"

If time allows, I'll have a fully functional prototype in a month.

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.