Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here in the US. To everyone else...happy Thursday.

I am still very busy making stuff, just not posting here because my read counter says that nobody has read any of my content for some time. I don't like just talking off into space. If the read counter is totally wrong and you want to see new content, leave a comment and I will start posting again.

Reconstruction Begins

One of the most important tasks was getting my laundry back!! I had to install a new utility sink, and then with the help of my pops, we got the washer, dryer, and freezer placed. The freezer left me with a large bruise on my thigh...but I won't get into it.

Shop Floor Done

Shop floor as of right now. I'm stoned on fumes, and I've had a few beers...but it looks good. Hiring pros was the way to go. Once I saw how bad it REALLY was, I had to hand it off.

Shop Is F*cked!!!

My shop looks like this...as of about 15 minutes ago...

New floor on Wednesday. Move back in over the weekend? Maybe? Hopefully? 101 year old basement shop. Everything except the water heater and furnace is coming out. Honestly, I can't wait to get the shop back together and get back to doing cool shit. New layout, new Gusto!

Porsche: Rennlin Pedals

Yesterday, I installed new pedals and a driver's side floor board into the Boxster. Not a difficult task on paper, but the footwell of a small sports car is not an easy place to work. Though I mainly did this for cosmetic reasons, there are other benefits. One, the rubber grips on the pedals are better than the OEM pedal covers. Second, as I get a little better with performance driving techniques, the shape of the gas pedal lends itself to heel-toe shifting better than the stock pedal.

Let's get started, shall we...

The Rennline floor board and pedals. The four piece pedal set also includes a dead pedal.

Saying Goodbye...

...to one of my bikes. After four and a half years, it's time to send my Aprilia off to her new home. I've been considering this move since last fall. My day job leaves little time to ride, and this is not my only bike. I have plans for my Porsche, and other tools and machines that I would like to add, so something had to give.

My one big hangup was that I didn't want to sell it to some dude-brah type guy. No. Just no. Aprilias are special machines that deserve good homes. The new owner intends to make her into a track bike, and that couldn't make me happier. He is also a big RSVR enthusiast. I found the perfect home for my bike, where she will get the love that a machine like this deserves!

Add caption

Honestly, I never got fully comfortable with this machine. Not long after I bought it (and before I rode it the first time) was when I was in my crash. I've been a little gun shy ever since. I'm familiar with my Triumph, and I still have confidence when I ride it. This was a different machine, though. I get freaked out sometimes when I'm riding, and that is not good. That's not a feeling I get on my chopper. So, the time has come to part ways.

A Neat Little Transfer Punch

This is a little something I made the other night. I needed to transfer a bunch of countersunk holes for a day job project. I didn't have time at work, and just made it at home. It will probably come in handy for some of my shop stuff, so I had no problem doing it on my own time.

Excuse the long thumb screw, I just didn't feel like trimming it.

Riser Block Follow Up

It just occurred to me that I didn't show a follow up to the riser block for my mill. It turns out that I was ever so slightly off. My machines have limitations, after all. I work on bench top machines, not million dollar CNC's capable of sub .0001" accuracy. Small, light weight machines have to be coaxed a little more than their larger brethren.

A quick and dirty little rig for holding the head of my mill while I messed with the riser block. It supported the top while I moved stuff around and worked on the bolts.

"Why You No Posting?"

Well, I'll tell ya! My day job is sending me away all the time and I basically have my shop shut down at the moment. Let's have a look...

This has nothing to do with my lack of posts. It's just my new ride. My dad and I have talked for YEARS about getting a nice little sports car together. Well, we finally did it! A '99 Porsche Boxster. Right within our price range, and super fun to drive. I've had a love affair with Porsche since I can remember. Now I actually have one!!! How exciting is that? It has a couple of minor things that need work, but I am still super stoked about this.

Kydex Belt Clip

Continuing on from yesterday, I did a little more work towards making my belt clips from Kydex.

Today I milled a female piece to go with the belt clip mold. Usually Kydex is molded between foam...I wanted something sharper. To make this work, the thickness of the kydex (.080") needs to be taken into account. The female part is two thicknesses (.160") wider than the male part.

Sheath Stuff

Making this sheath got me thinking about things. For one, I don't like how these belt clips only have a single hole. It allows them to turn and that's no fun (so I added another hole and second rivet). Next was, "how do I make a better belt clip?"

Not Much Today...

...just a new knife:

A new Mini. Red C-Tek handles with G10 bolsters over black liners.

Riser Block

I believe I mentioned recently that I wanted to lift the column of my mill. The way to do this is a riser block. This mission has two outcomes: success or failure. Either it works perfectly, or I abandon ship. Progress so far:

Here is a dull picture of a block of aluminum. At this point the two sides have been decked and I've cut reference edges. I see no need to machine the entire block. It would be a waste of time to cut all the way around this block. Add to that the fact that my end mills aren't long enough anyway...and what you see is what you get.

Letr's Talk About Stirling Engines

Since I didn't do anything of note this evening, let's have a chat about Stirling engines. If you don't know what they are, then google one. They are pretty neat.

The one I am building is based on this design. The "Stirling 60."

I am making small changes and changing dimensions from metric to imperial on the fly. Just to add that extra bit of frustration that these projects need. I have neither the time nor the inclination to give a cut-by-cut write up on the construction. I'm a machinist and fabricator first. Writing this blog is just my way to let out the remaining creative energy. In other words, my time is dedicated to making and not writing (it shows, I know).

Cutting the cooling grooves for the power cylinder.

What A Weekend!

Yeesh. I'll tell you what, I work more at home than I do at work. If I got paid for all of this other stuff, I wouldn't need the day job. But hobbies are hobbies, and they rarely pay for themselves.

Friday was mostly spent doing secret squirrel stuff, and some work on my Stirling engine (we'll get to that eventually). Saturday meant working on my truck. Nearly 250,000 miles on it...it needs stuff. Then I drank beer and did stuff like cooking and more secret squirrel work.
Today was another story. I wanted to move the bikes out of the garage and do some cleaning. Set up the welder. Ya know, stuff every dude does on Sunday. Then I decided to fix the alternator on my chopper and shit got weird.

So...replacing the alternator turned into a full engine swap. It turns out that the key that drives the alternator decided to wipe out the crank shaft. A damaged crank means that the whole engine needs to come apart. Damn. The silver lining is that I have the engine from Organ Donor (the bike I crashed). I can swap that in and get back on the road while I rebuild kOOk's real motor. This is what she looks like right now. I'm at the point where I just need to pull two bolts and then get the motor out.

I'm Baaaaaack

Not that anyone is reading, but oh well.
Anyway, the day job is sending me away all of the time and I don't always have time to update. I have a rather involved project at the moment that I will add here soon. Tonight we're just going to talk about my new dividing head for the mill.

New dividing head. An infinitely useful fixture in a machine shop. Used for cutting gears, flutes, flats, hole patterns, and a host of other features.

Where Was I?

Catching up...(my life is chaos)

An acid etched Tacti-Hunter. We'll talk more in depth about that process later as I learn more about it.

Carrying On...

Forward progress...

So...the other night we saw some red burlap getting ready to go into the press. This is the raw block, ready to get cut into handles.

Catching Up

Been a few days...

A big purchase for me. A 10 ton hydraulic press from Baileigh. Such a nice tool! Very well made...and it's sure to get put through the paces. I've been wanting a press for a long time.

Three New Finished Knives

Some progress was made tonight...

The first of its kind! The Tacti-Hunter. 4 3/8" cutting edge, approx. 9" OA. 3/16" thick A2 blade. The handle is my own black canvas micarta. The blade is sandblasted.

A Very Good Afternoon

Occasionally, I get to leave the day job a couple hours early. Which is what I did today. For some reason, this act has a tremendous effect on my motivation. I got home ready to hit the shop. And hit the shop I did!!!

OK...this is actually from yesterday. Not my knife. It's a Cold Steel that belongs to a coworker. He wanted a new sheath, and I wanted to practice working with Kydex. I think it turned out pretty good. Gawd, that's a bit knife, though.

The Last Couple of Days...

...have been exhausting.
Anywho, I've been working on some grinding guides and other tid bits. I also spent some time on a secret squirrel project that I can't show here per my customer's request.

The Tacti-Hunter. Something was bugging me about the grind. We'll get to that in a minute.

Busy On My New Design

Spent my evening on the Tacti-Hunter

The top one is the first Tacti-Hunter...it will serve as a template. Bottom will become the first finished knife.

Keep It Moving

Just another day. Gotta keep that progress moving along...

I try to stay organized. Sometimes I do...sometimes I don't. Baby steps!! One thing I did to this end is to get all of my handle hardware sorted and to establish storage for spare drill bits. I like to have 2 or 3 spares of all of my most used drill bits on hand. Since a drill index only holds one of each size, these little Plano boxes are perfect for the back ups. The drill bits in the hardware box have specific purposes related to handles, so they are stored there.

Valentine's? You Mean, Tuesday?

While everyone else was out eating cheap chocolate and drinking cheaper wine...some of us were being productive. I'm not much for holidays, and Valentines' has never been on the top half of my list. Anywho, let's get into the shop.

Four knives to wrap, and exactly enough foil left on this roll to wrap them. This marks the end of my first full roll of stainless foil for knifemaking. I had another roll that I bought several years ago for making plane irons...and that has been used up too. This one, however, is a bit of a milestone.

Tomorrow Should Be More Exciting

A pretty boring evening. Sometimes gym days mean that my evening is a bit slow.

Every time I use that mill stop I'm glad I made it. I love the ability to remove and replace parts, or make multiple parts without having to relocate them every time. This time around, I'm making two nearly identical parts. In the vise is a piece of scrap, but we have to economize where we can...and this scrap is big enough to make what I need.

'Twas a Productive Day

Lots got done today. Let's have a look, shall we!

Two pairs of Outdoor knives...ready for the band saw. I like to drill the handle holes before sawing, also, I like to add a bunch of relief holes to assist in sawing the inside curves. If I was going to name a least favorite part of this process, it would be sawing.

Darn Day Jobs

I was supposed to be gone for a week...ended up gone for two. Trying to catch up.

I finally finished this acrylic handled Large Outdoor knife.

First Post on New Blog

Here we go...
Getting up and running on the new location. You can visit my old blog here .
Unfortunately, I don't have time to go into a lot of detail today. I've been up since 3 a.m. and I'm tired. I'll be updating the look over the next few weeks.

I want to work on these today. I have some limited time, and I'm not likely to finish. A friction folder, neck knife, and a hunter.

Under Construction

Yup...like the title says. This blog is under construction.