Trying is dying

Well.... I made it another year older and if you don't know I am 72 years old.... or maybe its 27.... either way I feel old in the bones...

Thanks for the birthday wishes...

I was standing around and I said to Gabe, lets build something really really rad that no one seems to think is a good idea or safe, something we can build in a day or two and take to Salton Sea to have fun with for my birthday and with all the friends from LA.

We thought about if for a few and we came up with a crazy idea to build a new flame thrower but making it powered by people to keep it more of a team builder and involvement...

Well, How would we tackle such a thing....

The more I stood there thinking the more I realized why not go backwards and build something that's suppose to put out the fire.... Like a fire pumper truck.... to shoot flames... now were talking....

But its just toooo easy just hooking up a motor to it and sitting back and shooting flames, one person can do that, and the idea was a team builder so the more I thought...

Got it!

Build something like a 1800s Fire pumper

With the fuel taking the place of the water

Some different examples of styles

It would take a full crew to make it happen back in the day, pretty neat to think of this beast throwing flames....

 

So we started with a new style of the hand pumper just freestyling...

I can't just build what has been built... that's no fun...

 

We decided what would be cooler then making it kinda like a engine and making the people the pistons and have it hand cranked as opposed to hand pumping vertically...

Heres what we tried...

First we did some sketches of what madness was in the brain...

Using some stuff laying around we made a fixture and started making a hand crank.

We used some laser drops from Seaport Stainless  = Free

 

Gabe is welding up some of the Brown and Sharp Cams we got from Edward Koehn Swiss Machining , these would be links to the tube we had left over from the Oakley Project = Both Free

Action shot for the ladies

We had these vertical steel tubes from a old Red Bull prototype ramp we built that never worked..

Free !!!!

Gabe did a sweet job cutting these holes in line...

Did you know hes in school to become a machinist now?

And is now CERTIFIED as a level 1 Machinist

I think I am a level 2 so I will watch the level 1 and ask questions....

Tacked up some sweet bearings and holders we got from

Performance Machine that get put in their motorcycle wheels, these were some leftovers from R&D

Ok... Well I didn't take many photos that afternoon because my camera went dead so heres where it went to next... A swiveling gunner seat and the Hawl Pump mounted..

Hes been waiting all year for photos like these so he can put them on facebook

He should have been a gunner in the Army...

That chair was in the trash.... so we welded it to a giant lazy Suzan bearing left over from a bar stool..

Both free 

Having a good stop for the swiveling seat I used the axle sticking out.  

Heres a side view...

 

Ok so that night I made some stuff on the gunner seat...

I was on one of the possessed fabrication nights where all I wanted to do is build... Wait... that's every night...  

 

That's some old garage door bearing rollers I cut apart and just welded the bearings on to make the gun have movement in 360 degs.

That pressure washer gun I found in the recycling at the Exploratorium because it had cracks in it...

FREE!!!

This is a shot of the wood chain guard which was a backup for a exhibit at the Exploratorium called Echo-Tube and the pump was found during the move out of the old museum, Dave Fleming and I found some really good stuff while packing up.

Close up of the brown and sharp gears that I got from the Koehn Machine shop and the big monster #50 sprocket was from when I did R&D work for Clorox, it got the wrong bore in it...

FREEEEEEEEE!!!!

Close up of that sweet pain job and pump....

Sweet 1" aluminum pipe over 1" steel tubing...

Perfect for a handle grip.

 

As you will see that's some left overs from Greg Minnaar's Bike Shop racks...

The propane tanks are held by a sample of an aluminum sail boat mass

You can see the sweet bearings in the gunner swivel at the top left of the photo.

both ----   FREEEEEEE

The seat was mounted on this giant Stainless Steel Gate Valve I found in the recycling at the Exploratorium.

I cut the back and shaped it so it didn't hang over - custom & FREEEEEE

Those are engine puller ( cherry picker ) legs at the bottom with wheels, Some one stole my cherry picker from my shop ( classic Oakland style ) but they forgot the legs.. so that week we decided it wasn't going to return so we welded the leg on the bottom, That engine puller was free so I can't complain... Making those Legs FREE too

Overall shes a sweet piece of scrap metal all welded together...

I can't say it was the best idea....

Gabe even painted his truck to get ready for the flame thrower... !

 

Then... I got a hernia and my intestines dropped in to my ball sack...

Fuck that.... I had to go get surgery for my birthday...

So much for going to desert...

and the dream of blowing minds shooting flames...

The healing process in California is styling... My titanium hand made pipe got used for a few days...

 

Well... I am resting these days but it was a bummer we didn't get to go to the desert and test.... Maybe soon...

Check out these videos to get a good idea of what we built.. 

 

This video shows us running the pump at full speed, its bypassing pressure and is not easy to pump...




We didn't have any water left in the tank for testing...

Enjoy - and don't get burned.... Until next time....

I am not an Artist .... I am a machinist....

It happens a lot....

People call me an artist and think I live in a studio....

NOPE.... Wrong.....

I am a machinist that lives in a cold machine shop that smells of coolent...

But every so often I gotta venture in to the art world and throw it down for the kids using some metal...

This time days before the opening, I was asked to make a mini art exhibit to be placed in to the wall, that would serve as a mini art gallery for people to peek in to a hole and see something fun in miniature

( the cool part is - the small window in the wall is a lens that makes the mini gallery appear even smaller, so it looks to be 2x2 inch, but really is about 6x6 when you build it.)

The Compound Art Gallery located in Oakland asked me to do the wall piece, so like normal I waited until the day before the show and then had to rush the concept...

So heres what I came up with in about 2 or 3 hours, didn't even take any pictures I built it so fast, sorry...

So the idea was to make a small stainless steel  cat that said " ART " so I could say I make art...

I designed the tail to make a loop so it can be put on your key chain without it falling off

With the 1 hour old design ready for the laser.....  about 3 minutes later 50 cats were cut....

To the shop to build the box and hammer it out.....

This was the finished product...

A mini power plant that is powered and is designed to be fueled off of " Art Pussy " 

Its designed using Free Range Vegan Steel so I can brag to Artist Chicks about being hip.

Overall .... As it didn't sell at the opening and offended about 40 people, I think it was a success !

Think more then anything I was stoked on the laser drop from cutting the cats...

Was able to make a sweet American flag on my weld shop door. 

That is the Puritan Stitch machine next to it... So damn rad ! 

All this art made me get wild and make some personal projects like this one....

I call it " Light Bulb Scrap "

Its a symbol of an American's boys dream to take over the world but is tragically denied due to fiscal troubles..... Its really to intense to try to describe on my blog.... If you would like to purchase this or other pieces described on this blog post contact my agent..... 

building a monster in a moments notice

During the Red Bull trophie build, I recieved a call from Chris the owner of Farley's Coffee. Over the last 10 years or so Farley's has been one of the big players in the bay area for coffee shops, having locations in San Francisco, Oakland and Emeryville and staying super involved with the community makes these places really neat.

The question Chris had for me was if I could build a giant 30 foot mini park to be placed on the side of the street taking up 3 parking stalls, and providing all the things that a normal park has to offer packed in to a tight little steel chassis.

Like normal.... There was a catch..... It needed to be done in a very short time... and by short I mean under 2 weeks with the Mayor of Oakland waiting its arrival for a press release on "National Parklet day"

You ask what is a " Parklet "?

It is a small PUBLIC urban park, often created by replacing several parallel parking spots with a patio, planters, trees, benches, café tables with chairs, fountain(s), artwork, sculptures and/or bicycle parking.

The prints showed up and Gabe and I placed the order for steel and fired up the welder.

100 % USA made steel

2" x 6" tube and 3" x 4" Angle for the flooring

The MLS large scale fabrication annex ready for building

 

After I had most of the cuts all dialed in, Gabe started to tack it up as I did the squaring.

When doing these big frames, my secret is using clamps all over on it and using the clamps as points to attach Ratchet Straps to them and pulling them to square them up. Really easy way to get what you want when making it square.

 

No one said being a welder was a clean job

Putting the steel angles in for the wood flooring to sit on.

 

Hours later on day one....

We had most of the chassis hammered out.

 

With cut pieces of 1.5 square steel tube, I held while Gabe tacked in the verticals for the railing.

Having this covered area next to my shop is so rad, even in rain we can work outside, its so rad.

 

I made a bunch of fixtures to hold the railing together with the correct spacing.

Sometimes spending the 20 minutes making the fixture pays off big in the end, saving time, money and mistakes when your moving this fast.

 

Next was doing the bike rack.

With myself being such an avid rider, I had to make the rack hold 6 bikes not the 4 like people thought it should hold, I put the 2 extras inside the parklet.

Using my daily riden 1938 Schwinn Superior for testing the fit

Next for the wood for the floor.

Jesse setting it all up with lovely green treated lumber.

next is the big flower planters out of 3/16 sheet steel on the far end and near the middle.

 

 The next step was Jesse and I went out and did some shopping for slabs of redwood lumber

These would become the benches and table.

Once you find the piece you want...

They spray it with a bit of water to show you what it will look like once you do a coat of finish on it.

Really neat shopping for big slabs of wood.
This Redwood tree was from around the Bay Area.

 

 

By taking that single piece and cutting it down the center we made a matching back rest to the bench.

Matt to the right and Jesse on the left helping test the fresh cut wood.

 

With no time left, and a day before the mayor was due to arrive to talk about the city of Oakland and how it kicks ass, it was time to get the parklet out of the door. I put down a sweet paint job on it with some Epoxy black paint and it was ready to go out, with or without Jesse's finished wood benches. They would need to be installed at the site due to the time frame with getting the parking permets for the street for the install.

With a madman behind the wheel.....

Nothing else needs to be said .....

 

Trust me...

Hes becoming a better forklift driver everyday....

This just wasn't his day.....

 

Just for a photo and prove a point....

That two people can build a monster in just DAYS....

With a saw and a welder, the world is your playground....

 

As we do it in Oakland....

Work by night.....

With the flatbed down and the winch hooked up... we pulled it up on the rig.

showing up to Chris the owner laughing at us for doing this at midnight....

MLS style 24/7/365

 

Now for the hard part....

The unloading...

 

If anyone is going to drop it... I would rather it be me

Lucky we wore our brightest colored clothing for the drop off

On the ground and looking good

A beer was needed after that...

That next morning Jesse put some more finish on the Redwood.

It would need to be installed that day to ready for the Mayor the next morning

 

As planned the Mayor of Oakland showed up to a parklet with no grass because it didn't show up on time like normal. But it really didn't matter, there was a mini super tinny mirco sample on the table for people to get the idea about the grass which really didn't work that day but it really didn't matter, people were stoked.

With any parklet is the need for a giant banner.

If you want to see it....

Grand Street and Broadway in downtown Oakland.

Farley's East coffee shop.

Proof that the grass did get put down....

 

 

 Go Enjoy it....

 

You need more info and need one built and shipped out ASAP?

Email me - jefftiedeken@hotmail.com

JT