if you think your in control... your going to slow....

Over the last weeks my life has been shifting in to 5 gear... or maybe I was already in 5th gear and now for some reason I am just noticing it?

Between bouncing off the walls working on projects for Google X, Oakley, Make magazine, getting ready to go to Italy for Red Bull and one of the main things happening to me -  MOVING TO A NEW SHOP IN BERKELEY !!!!

I will have more info about all this madness when I take a breath of air in less then a month.... I mean as an example of my life lately - its like 4 am right now and I am waiting for the CNC to finish cutting so I can take a quick nap while it runs the next parts, this is becoming more normal the more I do prototyping work, I feel like I haven't slept in years because theres too much stuff to do.

Peace and quite at 4am... well maybe... the streets of Oakland always have some odd activity going on 24/7, you hear some noises that kinda resemble a animal but it is clearly a human making those noises, I think you can figure out the rest.


One of the cool projects I forgot about that I did last month because I kicked it out so fast was these trophies for Red Bull Ride N' Style a bicycle race event they were putting on in San Francisco, the call came in to make something quick, cheap and cool looking so I fired up the computer and put my brain in to Sheet metal mode, by the time I finished that call I had a concept modeled up and emailed to Clayton at Red Bull.

Some times I get in to Autodesk Inventor and go crazy with the sheet metal...

Don't ask how my brain lays stuff out or anything like that....

I had Ryan over at SeaportStainless.com cut it up about an hour later after I had modeled it and it was on to bending up this puzzle

 

I love sheet metal, did I say that?

That next day... 

I decided to cut up one of the Velocity prototype rims Matt had sent me long time ago because really it was my only 700c rim laying around... I may regret that later 

 

First place with some San Francisco Action happening in the back and a mini chain in the front

Custom bent sheet metal Hub!

My mad skills with the 24k gold spray pain has hit an all time High - insert joke here

Check out that cross profile for the tech nerds !

 

 

Rockin Chairs !!!!!

People always wonder what I do to make money to stay alive because everyone thinks all I do is build crazy projects for myself all day.... Then I explain I don't really make any money and am poor because I am addicted to what I do and spend all the money on cutters and more material to build more stuff...

Then they understand and offer to foot the bill for dinner...

End of story....


But when it comes down to what gets me that little bits of money to move to the next personal project here is a good example of concept to reality and working with designers and engineers to make it happen.

I teamed up with Lukas of Shibuleru Designs out of San Francisco about a new type of outdoor chair he had designed. He had the design and drawings pretty much fully locked down but it was on to me to do a lot of the little tweaks in the prototype and to do all the parts to allow it to be broken down to fit in a box and lay flat.

Just a really cool example of putting the cherry on top working with the designer/engineer to make a product just a little bit more rad but not straying from the original design plus it kept me alive and building another month....

Turned out super rad and glad to be part of the building....

Bent up the first set of parts without the arm rests.

If Gabe is going to take my job then hes gotta to learn...

Plus I like taking photos..

Hes welding in the connector pieces

On to the K&T mill to put the holes in for the arm rest bars...

This is the first prototype so its all learning for everyone at this point...

Lukas showed up once we had the first prototype welded up with the prototype cloth.

Its kinda fun when you get to this point in the concept to see all the things come together...

Its always a guess if you got the number right and the feel correct....

This time... we were soooo close but some adjustments to the geometry would prove the perfect fix.

I started the next group of adjusted geometry chairs that would also break down for shipping to Italy

 

Lukas finished up all the arm rest design and then I realized he only wanted them on the inside of the frame ( as you can see in the photo they are on both sides of the arm rest) so I had to cut off the one side of the laser cut sheet metal arm rest... no worries, small details...

The bolt together design is really neat...

It is a total of 5 steel pieces per chair and the fabric, then shipping all flat in a box designed for bicycle frames makes it really easy for everyone.

This is a close up of my welding, root pass with steel rod and Bronze over for the big radius.

I put a long bolt in it to show the hardware location all hidden under.

SOOOOO COOL

Love the black!

Close up of the bolted together pieces..

can't even tell...

Also a close up of the aluminum pieces SeaPort Laser Service cut and Metalco Anodized in a flash for us. Looks great.

The yellow was really neat!

Took me a bit to really like the color but I was sold with the fabric on it.

Quick drawing of how the seats work with the fabric.

 

Enjoy!!!

heres the link again

www.shibuleru.com

 

Out of hiding for a bit... Good to be back...

The last months have been a wild ride that I wasn't expecting....

Its been just a good old around the clock of building rad stuff to make people smile... My year long full time term of working at the Exploratorium Science Museum ended the other day and but was kept on as a builder/designer part time to keep the fun going so I am super thankful they see my love for building the joys of science. The coolest part of that museum is when they find people like myself and others they really like they give you freedom to do other stuff without any pressure, its really what makes the place such a special place to me and what keep me wanting to bring new concepts and ideas to that place. They see the true benifits with having me more as a freelance dude without the pressure and they really notice the results when they get my true love of my craft in every project I work on for them.

The last months I have also been working on a TV show for a major network as a lead role as a designer/fabricator designing stuff to make peoples lives better that have lost limbs - thats as much as I can go in to detail about ...

The other projects have been for Red Bull and all the events they have been hosting such as the Training Grounds Media events they have been holding, which are Red Bulls enter in to the Esports Online gaming such as StarCraft 2 and other games... They have really just given me freedom to be creative and design some of the most rad trophies for them. The big event for me this year is the America's Cup sailing race, where Matt and I will team up to build one of the most rad trophies Red Bull has seen for their Youth's Cup race using the AC45 boats Red Bull bought... Stay tuned its going to be so rad.

Check out some of the projects ... heres some pictures

Welding away on the Exploratorium's " Bay Window Exhibit " 

There is 5 of these in stainless and 3 in mild steel... 

Its a lot of work... thats all I really want to say....

After the 2 pieces of glass, inner race and bearings are put in the mud samples are put between the glass and its closed up. Once installed on the railing the water is put in to the exhibit and then....

You give it a spin and you get to see how rocks and sands settle from the river deltas in to the bay...

Heavy rock lands first then the swirl of light sands show how it travels.

This photo is Erik Diamond " El Jefe " giving it a spin without the covers on it, so we can see all the bearings spin freely. Overall Adam, Shaun, Erik, Herb, Brice and Jesse and who else I am missing really nailed it with this exhibit, it really fills the side of the museum with some rad learning fun projects. 

After hours I have been working on my Espresso machine

I have found that its not worth risking it by using hole saws and other cutters trying to cut holes in the spheres because of damage, so this is how i do a lot of the bigger holes about about an inch in size. Don't risk your hands or body by trying to drill it with the big sizes. Gabes figure pictured in the top left. 

When setting up the small stainless steam generator I purged it with argon and used lab clamps for the torch and did it on the welding positioner. The foil is set up to cover the other 2 inch NPT fitting but not to hard because i want the argon to escape slightly so it doesn't pressurize and blow out the weld. 

I machined some parts for holding the gauge on the stainless steam ball, still got a lot to do but its a start.

Went out for a ride with Steve Pete, Greg Minnaar, and RatBoy Josh from the Santa Cruz downhill team

Gabe driving me to Oakland Airport so I can fly to Hollywood to film the TV show... 

I feel cool on these days....

The shop truck is like a limo that leaks gas and is missing windows... 

I have been filling orders for Exile Cycles Gas tanks and Gabe has been watching and following along on his personal projects. Hes building a tail for a cafe racer out of a little honda gas tank. 

Its 4 AM does your mom know where you are?

Mine does....

CNC ? yeah right.... I can make it from hand almost just as fast...

Getting wild on the Excello Mill with a big block of aluminum 

Throw it on the old K&T Model H mill for a clean up around the outside

In under a week with the help of Matt Carney on the computer and Seaport Stainless laser cutting we had a custom Giant Hard Drive Trophy for Red Bull Training Grounds in Santa Monica

I weighted the platter disc so it always had the logos perfectly level 

I was so stoked when the kid that won it held it and the logos stayed correct.... Everyone was stoked...

So they asked if I would do the next event in Florida 

So this is what Matt and I came up with in a afternoon .... The event is this weekend so I will show more pictures soon

Red Bull Training Grounds - Orlando, FL

Built this trophy with Matt Carney in under a week turnaround... Custom Billet aluminum keys and full sheet metal construction ... sick !!

A new customer of mine is Boasted Boards

I have been running the prototype production of their wireless Electric Skateboard...

Its so rad.. I got to take it out for a afternoon .... Talk about fast !!!

.000 on the money.... sheet metal parts ! 

I bailed out to Cheyenne, WY the other day to go visit Union Pacifics Steam div. 

So rad...  

Why wouldn't you jump the fence and climb UP's BIG BOY.... 

Back from World Cup Mountain Bike Racing,  Greg Minnaar, His lady Laila , Gabe, and myself made up some good old Sushi... I had to take this photo to show Gregs family and friends hes all grown up and can clean up the kitchen all by himself...

Figured I should learn to make a worm gear....

its hard.... If you want to waste a full day and lots of money on tools I will tell you how to do it...

the Plus side is ... My cold saw is fixed now...

I will have more details on it soon but this is one of my new shop aprons I designed with the help of John from High Above Bag company out of Seattle, WA. This bad boy is so damn sick with the removable pockets and all the goodies... If you really need one... Send him an email... I will be making a post about the design and details about it and how to buy it but if you can't wait... hit him up... Best apron you will buy, the quality and details are so well done....

Espresso boiler time...

Tom the owner of adams and chittenden Glass in Berkeley made me such a rad Lab style sight glass.

These guys make some of the Gov. Labs most crazy glass experiments pieces. Lucky for me, Tom is a huge fan of the Exploratorium and also just down the street from my shop, so he was stoked to help on the project and make this wild glass tube for the water level. 

Top view of the details of the glass and also the fab work

Steam generator... Figured I can get it up in the 50+ PSI safely ...

But who knows... I am just a welder not an engineer....

This is the table I started building for the machine...

Don't ask how my brain got on this one. 

Sometimes it works in a wild way... All freestyle design

Ryan at Seaport cut it for me off some drawings but who knows what it will look like

0% CAD on this project... All in my brain...

Still figuring out how to take a picture of the table... 

Just wait to see how wild the table is going to be ...

Never seen anything like it...

Well enjoy some of my joys in the last months.

Theres more to come but I figured all the piles of emails asking if I was dead or gave up on the MLS site forced me to do some updating and letting you all know I am still here turning the handles making chips and sparks..

Holy $#!+ where have I been.....

July at MLS is always a mad month for many reasons and so this is my complete July post in a nut shell...

1.Interbike is coming up
2. New product releases for 2012 for various companies
3. Prototype medical stuff
4. Bike Expo in San Francisco is coming up
5. Doing a Kickstarter.com grant for the 120 mph Speed bicycle project for filming
6. Working with 2 electric motorcycle companies
7. Designing home decor and gardening products for a few new companies
8. Working with a green company that produces generators that run 100% off of wood chip and biomass
9. Doing R&D machines for Clorox and its brands
10. Making various research projects for donut making
11. Still making more designs for the video game console project
12. Threw MLS prom at the machine shop
13. Getting ready for an art show coming up in a week, here in Oakland.
14. Also pulled a high speed chase with the cops for fun.... first time I have gotten caught.... sucks..... $$$$ :(
15. Working in LA and helping my brother on the turbocharged Honda race concept project
16. Its summer and you know how it goes... This is my first full Oakland summer and its been amazing with all the stuff to do and people to meet. It reminds me of back in Minneapolis with September weather, but all year round.
17. Almost forgot - Had personal lunch with famous designer Pierre Terblanche who designed all the Ducati motorcycles for the last like 15+ years, kinda stoked me out to say the least.

so where do I even start....

How about the fun stuff.... wait its all fun.....

This blurry pictures seems to stoke me out so much - its my summer and its been a blur of good times.
Matt leading the cruz on his custom Traffic cross bike to the hidden lake in the Oakland hills. Swimming at midnight is EPIC after a long ride!!

The new MLS Laboratory Home decor line will be coming out soon...
Made from recycled Lab materials and goodies these should stoke out your mom and have her asking for more. I bend them up on the big 90 ton press shown in the MLS video and the flowers are not included.

This is Jay (Chemical Engineer/designer/good looking smart girl) and myself hanging out after our meeting at All Power Labs in Berkeley. This company designs, builds and test a system called Gasifiers, which in a nut shell - take wood chips, chars them, extracts the gases from the charring process then uses that to run a natural gas engine. Running completely 100% on wood chips - sooooo cool to see it all happen.

This is one of the prototype systems that gets tested around the clock with various different things, if you ask them what they have run in the machine other then wood chips, this list will go for days, they have even run cigs for a full tobacco running gas engine you could drive a car with. That is Abrim the Fabricator/Shipping bitch standing in the blue hat.

I spend about 60+ hours a week working in my shop and other shops, but every once and a while I just have to shut it down and relax. we made a Santa Cruz run to swim in the river with the friends, Mr. Poe the dog is always down to relax it seems....?

Don't feed me coffee at 10 PM or else you will have a set of bars to ride down the street to the local bar for last call.

For real don't do it, now the 1938 Schwinn New World is a racing machine in under an hour.

PROM  at Monkey Likes Shiny -  "a moment in time" theme prom

The idea was to dress as a couple in a matching period correct clothing, we went as Steampunk....

My lovely dates for the night - Louise Chen and Mr. Poe

I fired up the sheet metal press and made her a fan out of aluminum using a clear plastic protractor in the middle so she could measure the degrees.

The punch was so spiked it almost evaporated.... need I say more

Thats Matt up front dancing to Kenneth's hit single " Girl check your signal" 

We had a list of celebs show up which stoked me out, also a live performance from  Kenneth Ronquillo and with over 70+ couples attending, the MLS headquarters was hopping with fun. When no one wanted to leave because of all the fun, I decided to take things in to my own hands by doing a 4th gear burnout and donuts on the dance floor with my dirt bike, in my own place destroying the hardwood floors and smoking the place out ( please don't tell the landlords) 

This is the Show coming up in Oakland if your in the area 

Also I have asked Mike Cleaver of Cleaver Bikes to join me in displaying some oddness brewed in Oakland.

To finish up this post I think the electric motorcycle will do the trick.

Jeff Sand of Sand Studios contacted me about doing some odd fab work on his top secret project.

The idea was to build a concept 100% electric motorcycle that looks good and rides even better.

Using his odd  1 to 1 scaled blue prints and no numbers given ( all by eye ) I some how made the bash guard out of 1/8 thick aluminum all cold worked on the big press and all my sheet metal tools. With little to no time left before the date to unveil I put the last minute polish on the bash guard ( its the aluminum part around the orange battery box, it protect the batteries from stuff hitting the frame, batteries or underside of the bike) I receive an email from him asking for more things to be made. This use to be my life doing this last minute BS when I was fabricating on air for Discovery Channel shows and also when I was working for Roland Sands Design, so to say the least I don't really even get upset or frustrated like most people do when this stuff comes in hours before the big event. 

The email said " hey make this stand for the bike and make it pretty" 

BAM!!!

done, the only problem is now my track bike only has one grip because I put the other one on the handle for the stand as you can see in the lower left of the picture. 

The photos is in Derek's shop in San Francisco which is sooooo sick, its called Moss Machine and they build some neat stuff there, even parts for the cable cars in San Francisco.

This photos is like taken an hour before we were to show the bike to a fully packed press release.

The BRD Redshift Electric Motorcycle with my bash guard left in the raw aluminum

It got painted black for press release. 

If you want to read more about it here is some info from the press release

 MX action  or  for some cool photos from the night( pictures )

Thanks everyone - This July has been fun !!!!!