My Hollywood Days....

I found some of my old flash drives the other day and was getting a good reminder of the good old days when I was working for CVM / Clorox R&D building all kinds of crazy laboratory prototypes.


Kinda funny to see these old videos... well it makes it easy to remember where you came from and the fact that I still stand in front of a press brake all the time means I still got a strong love for it...

Bending sheet metal is my love.... Welding it together is my love and making shiny parts is my love....

Monkey Like Shiny was born from that love...

Enjoy some blast from the past...

 

Learning from the big kids....

If you have followed the blog for a while you have got to see Gabe learn all kinds of stuff over the 2 years he has been with me, pretty rad to think this kid that wondered in to the shop 2 years ago was some punk with no drivers license or GED...

Amazing what a little swift boot in the ass can do for a kid and how just trusting and believing can make someone push themselves to get all the things needed to keep them wheels amoving... Now hes becoming a good fabricator with a GED and a drivers license and going to school to become a machinist so then I can retire and do nothing but write blog post so I can quit getting emails from people about how little I blog because what they don't know is that I am doing secret projects for companies that would strangle me to death if they found out I was talking about their project...

 Ok back to Gabe ha ha because this post is about him and his skills so he can look back and use the blog like myself, to see how silly he was and how much he has grown over the years.

One of the biggest challenges when becoming a prototype fabricator is just understanding things in 3D and what it take to make something work.... Its not always you get to work on flat things that just land perfect 90 degs to each other and a tape measure just hooks too perfectly... I wish, and I am guessing he and every other fabricator out there do to.

But like most of the time, the twisting tubes and odd corners make it more of a brain and eye measurement and truly test your brains understanding of whats missing or whats not straight.

Teaching Gabe is fun, if I didn't enjoy teaching him these skills I wouldn't be making this post. I can't say its been quick either teaching him to think in this Dot to Dot idea, but hes getting it and I am slowly letting him take the wheel on these projects.

Training is one of the biggest things that makes anyone the best ( no news to you, I am hoping), training in the metal working industry basically sounds like a fancy word for WORK but really when it comes down to it, its important in 2 ways the way I look at it....

1. That when you build a lot of stuff and do it start to finish you generate a very rapid thinking and processing and that leads to getting it done quick for when it really matters, for example. -  a customer walks in to your shop with a rush project that you know he has been quoted high on but because you have built a lot of stuff like it, you know the tricks to do it fast and very well which means a returning customer and a good profit margin.

This also helps a lot with quoting which is one of the biggest problems with fabrication and where people fail, if you have built it then you sure as hell know that it takes you X amount of time to do it... Plus tacking on a few extra because you know your buddy is going to swing thru and bug you and that will slow you down plus other factors but for the most part you are very close in the ball park.

2. Just being good at what you do gets Chicks !  I don't think I need to go in to details about that....

Over the last 2 years I have had Gabe making frames out of steel tubing, doing sheet metal, welding, machining and just being an all around fabricator/machinist and builder. I don't know if he will stay around forever but thats not really the reason I teach, I teach so I can learn and be a better teacher of my craft.

The other day we did a warm up set of frames to see what he could think up on his own and kick out to really fancy stuff for the shop. The idea was thrown out there about doing tool box holders and making them based off some designs I had seen at Boeing in their fab shop, but it was his idea and his thinking so I just let him roll on the project.

Heres what we got in about 2 days.

The frames were sent off to powdercoating right away... 

Mostly because the tool boxes were everywhere and unmovable.

Pretty well done !

Boxes are in ! 

Mine are the green ones and his is the orange one. 

One is machining and one for fabrication. 

This is my machining one custom built for tool holder shelves

I can't wait to finish it and get it running!

My favorite color is Kermit the Frog Green 

I made him remove the Jegs sticker if he was to put this stencil on the bottom

As according to proper Boeing style - AEROSPACE DIV. stencil is painted on

This was the warm up for the next project which would test his skills a bit harder...

The project is to build a crazy dirt bike stand for a company ( no name given yet ) that will be for Virtual Reality Dirt Bike Racing and the real bike will be bolted to the stand with a computer inside the stand to run the VR equipment.

I will talk more about this soon when we get more in to the project for right now its just a concept.

I think we did about 50/50 on the work for this beast...

I did most of the layout and design and he did all the tubing bending, nothing and fit up.

Hes pretty stoked...

He did the steel Tig root pass and then I went over it with a single pass with bronze

This is the Aluminum door to access the computer inside. 

There is a lock on it to prevent anyone from messing with it inside.

Not too bad for some wild tubing fabrication

Its only going to keep getting better.....

Hes landed a really rad new job as a fab kid at a famous Hot Rod shop in the Bay Area.... Not going to blow it up yet and talk about it until he at least has a few months in and feeling good... So far things are looking really good !

Enjoy the fruits of learning....

One week later we got some trophies

Just the other day I got a call from Red Bull's Central California guy Rico asking for some help quick on a throphy project.... Not a big budget and nothing super crazy but something fun.. and 3 of them...

Here it goes and really quick...

My buddy Paul Troutman and fellow fabricator was saying to me, you should make Red Bull snowglobes for this event.... so I am not going to lie.... I used his idea... with a week until they were due I didn't have much time to think about it and I really liked it anyways.

My first sketch was to mount the globe to a little plate with a mountain cut out.

So I ran one quick on the CNC plasma cutter without any fine details to see how it looked with the globes I had rushed over.

It looked good but after talking with my buddy Matt we both said the mountain needed to look like a mountain... So back to the computer...

I then did a more mountain design

I am good with Solidworks but theres little things I don't know like how to do Jpg to drawings and such and so I called in Matt Carney because he a machine on design programs and a hell of an engineer. He did a bunch of the tune ups on the bulls to make them ready for the laser cutter.

 

 

Ryan of Seaport Stainless in Richmond,CA does all my laser cutting

He really makes it happen for me when I get in the time binds.

Ryan and I dig thru the bottom of the laser to find some of the best things... like the cut outs of the bulls.

Back in my shop bending away on the DiAcro an hour later...

 

With the first one looking right on the money...

I decided to use a big 1/2 radius die to give it a nice smooth bend.

Next, I had a friend Kyle Fvk hammer out these rad little mountains with 2013 cut in the side of them.

The kid is a hell of a sculpter and has a blast doing it.

 Mocked up in a few days since the order came in from Red Bull
  I had to get the final go ahead from Red Bull.

All systems are a Go...

2 days until the event.

Loaded with snow, water, clear coated and bolted down, these little creations are ready for the slopes of Tahoe,CA

The event is really neat... Heres a video.

 

Sheet metal pleasing to the eye

Thru the grapevine I ran in to a dude named Ernest Doty, who asked a question about help working on sheet metal that would be used for canvases.

It was a style he had been doing for some time, really simple square " pans " as we call them in the sheet metal world, with welded corners and such.

His work is very On Point and I like the guy, so why not add some MLS flavor and make it even more rad and join in on the fun.

Since I started working with Ernest about 8 months ago, think I have done 40+ metal canvases ranging from 8 x 8 foot giants to little 3x3 inch babies.

So when the phone call came in for a custom giant canvas during the craziest time of the year for me, some major things got thrown off to the side in order to slide this one in to the work que.

This is still my favorite

A 18 gauge mild steel canvas beat to piss with dents and rust all over it.

All the work he does has hidden messages in it 

" DISTRESS"

Ernest always wanted to be a leg model so heres his chance....

Thats 2 giant sheets of 20g mild steel 

After some cutting and bending we came up with 2 - 4x4 foot

2 - 3x3 and some little 1x1 foot panels, all with different depths on the return to give the canvases an uneven surface, each canvas is about 1/2 inch different in hight from each other.

I was at my laser cutter Seaport Stainless and spotted some

little letters left in the bed of the laser cutter 

So I welded them on....

with grinding under them.

One week later - So rad

That man can do some crazy detailed work in a short period of time.

This was just one of the pieces he finished that week.

The over all is about 11 feet wide by 7 feet 

but can break down and nest in to a 4x4 foot box if you want to buy this piece from him, he can ship it to your door.

Also look for the hidden laser cut letters all over the canvas - the extra touch....

As a tip, I was given a big 18 gauge 4x4 foot piece...

So stoked to hang it in my shop.

So stoked

Each month I make a ton of these little 1 foot by 8 inch pieces for him.

He has so many cool little ones, check out his site or hit him up if your interested.

Ernest Doty

The work overload.....

Anyone that has talked to me in the last weeks has realized one thing....

I am overworked....

Its an amazing feeling to be in demand on such a crazy project, but can be very stressful when it comes down to it.

Sheet metal is one of my most enjoyed metal crafting adventures, but when the expectations and tolerances become very high, thats when it gets fun.

The 1967 DiAcro press brake has made over 4000 hits now since I got it about 3 or so months ago and every hit has been on a crazy project.

I think this is the perfect Ad for Starrett Tape measures.

USA

Take two- Photos by Kane Lynch

I can't thank everyone enough for making the press brake happen with the T-shirt sales and such, trust me when you see what I have been building in a few months you will be stoked too..

The next few months things I have a feeling will slow down and I can jump back on some personal projects, until then the DiAcro will keep on pressing...

Maybe you have seen the new ad for New Belgium Brewery with some MLS love in it?

The DiAcro Press and some of my skip tooth chainring collection on the wall.

I had some time to kill the other day so I made Jen from New Belgium a fun little

flower vase using a mini drill press base and some lab clamps

On Friday night World Champ Downhiller Greg Minnaar stopped by the shop and convinced me to 

come out drinking for the evening,  midway thru the night and 35 beers later ( maybe ), we decided that he would be my world champ mechanic for a trials competition the next morning and I would enter the comp as pro. 

Problem is - I haven't built my sheet metal trials bike yet or own a trials bike

Solution - Greg decided to call every professional trials rider he knew at 1:30 AM from the bar

Outcome - we both we to hungover to make it to the start of the trials comp, but we made it to the end of it to see a friend Aaron rip it up. 

So it was a success

Aaron riding and Greg watching 

Berkeley, CA with San Francisco in the background

I kept score for Aaron 

Back to the fun of building stuff....

There is some madness being created in the shop and its got a deadline closing in for the MAKER Fair

and it involves a pedal car for the figure 8 race....

Stay tuned

Building the future using the past...

Building stuff is my passion...

Building stuff for the future is my goal...

Building fun stuff is my job...


When I was asked to join the Meka Robotics crew on a future changing project.... Hell yeah I said yes!

Remember this MLS blog post a few weeks back...

Making parts on the old Verson 1950s Press brake to change history...

Heres what I was making parts for -

Yep its only a few sheet metal parts but it doesn't matter to me, because I am proud to be part of an amazing project with a amazing team changing history as we speak.


Good work guys - its rad !

Nasa.....

Its been my dream to build things that fly for years and years......

I am addicted to Aerospace and its ways of thinking....

It always crosses my mind when I walk thru the Aerospace junk yards of Southern California, of a time when craftsman across the USA, looked at the part in their hand and with pride said - " that the best work I can do ".

I have seen these amazing parts ( now considered junk) that were built in record times in the 1960s with overnight learned skills and unknown material sciences,  to preform one task...

Get to the Moon first... !

The people didn't look at the big picture of the rocket ship, they looked at the small picture which was the part in their hand and making sure they put 100% of their skills in to that one part.

This is the way I try to think when building stuff at MLS and all the work I preform...

Yes, its fun to think of the big picture... Example - Boeing 787 dreamliner,  but stop for a second and look at that plane.....

Theres thousands of parts and I can't build them all and take all the credit ( I wish ),  but if theres a thousand people like me with pride, just making one part for the project .... well then we have one hell of an airplane..

Who cares if its just a seat bracket or a stair part, the fact still stands it takes pride in everyones work to make a project amazing..

The San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge was built in months, start to finish  - 100% pride in an amazing project that still stands today.

This is what I am talking about....

DI ACRO !!!!!!!!

Well....

Between everyone buying a ton of T-shirts and getting a huge robotic concept project the other day,  I had to hand over the cash and add to the fun at MLS....

I have dreamed of having a Di Acro press brake for about 4 years now, and with new crazy jobs coming in, I got a random phone call asking if I was still looking for a press brake.

" there is an aerospace company not far from your shop looking to get out of sheet metal and they have your machine fully tooled and ready, your the right person for the machine, you deserve it, bring some money and we will make it right! "

I showed up a day later to take a tour of the company selling the machine, I needed to look it over and run the machine, it was in near perfect condition for a 1967 machine, my eyes were in disbelief, this was all my money I have been saving so it had to be perfect !!

Nate from All Power Labs came over to help unload

The old CalTrans GMC truck was the perfect truck use

Enjoy the post and Thanks to everyone for helping out who have bought shirts, and to those who are going to be buying T-shirts if you haven't already, theres still a lot of stuff to get for it before the magic starts.. Thanks to Kane Lynch and Matt Ducot for the photos, I was to excited to take photos.

The crazy MLS concept Titanium SheetMetal Fuel Cell Race bike is coming up and this little machine will be making it happen at the MLS skunkworks.

 

                   1958                                                    2012
                         





                         I will give you a quick test drive
                                                     

I had to make a quick video of the machine because I was so excited.

I will teach you to run it in posts down the road but for now, I will just show you the 18 tons of Hydra-Mechanical power built in good old Minnesota.

Each T-shirt has a small machine or tool on the arm sleeve indicating where the profits from the T-shirts sales went to, this shirt I am holding was part of making the Di Acro Press Brake happen this last week. 

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