Mars or Bust...

Tonight it was offical ....    I was extremely proud to be an American ......

About 30 of the smart tech ind. kids from around the Berkeley,CA area decieded to have a " Martians Party " to celibrate the landing of the new NASA Mars rover, yep a Nerd Fest ....

And if you know anything about me..... NASA and Aerospace stuff is my favorite stuff ever and yes I am a total nerd.......  So damn right I am showing up at the party dressed as an Martian from outer space!

This landing is very rad and it shows that if you put your mind to it and do the work it will work.... Good work to everyone that helped make it possible in every department big or small, it was a sucess!

I hope things like this get kids back thinking of the future without limits and that it takes a team to make a crazy thing like this work, from the grunts to the scientist.... everyone plays an important part in a future changing thing!!!

I have heard thru the machinist grapevine that the wheels have "JPL" in Morris Code so as it drives across the Mars dirt it leave the code, the origianl design with the actual JPL logo was just to much party for the dirt ... so in a last minute ditch effort they put it in Morris Code which is super bad ass and kind of top secret....

Matt from Meka Robotics and I

Matts Solar helmet transmitter he was wearing was really cool, I should have got some better pictures.

I looked more like a scrap metal hauler with a welding helmet on.... I was shooting for the Alien look

NASA live TV on the Wall for the room filled with people

Everyone was stoked !

I come in peace.....

We have landed !

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

T-Shirt fun raiser..... Hot off the Press and Shipping NOW

Buying T-Shirts is really cool I read on the internet, but what if you were really an Investor in MLS by purchasing a T-shirt, is that a double bonus ?

The other day I was thinking of an idea,

I have been designing this Hydrogen Fuel Cell Race bike and have been thinking of what machines I need in the shop to build this thing. My goal with the frame of the Hydrogen Fuel Cell bike is to be 100% full Titanium sheet metal with 0 ( ZERO ) round tubing.

So heres where you come in....

I have been looking at getting a small DiAcro Press Brake to build the
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Bike frame and parts.



This is a little 4 foot DiAcro Mechanical Sheet Metal Press Brake
made in good old Minnesota for over 60+ years
cost for one of these 1960's used beauties is about $6,000

So here is my idea with the T-Shirts...

All the profits generated from the T-shirts will go towards getting the machine, with each shirt it will come with a small screen printed silhouette of the machine on the arm sleeve that the profits are going to.

That way when your riding around you might see someone else sportin' a rad MLS shirt, BUT they have a different machine silhouette on the arm sleeve indicating that they helped fund a different machine in the shop then you did.

Thats my little idea to make each shirt a little personalized and custom.

This is the first time that I am trying something like this, who knows if it will work but its worth a try!

Size

S M L XL

If your ordering from overseas extra shipping will be required.

Sizes

S M L XL

International Order

Just remember the small detail about the shirts - Just like Henry Ford put it best

" You can have it in any color you want as long as its BLACK !


If you are feeling like you just need to help make the shop a learning tool for the next generation of metal crafters and group of 10 year old kids taking my welding class right now ( extra points ), then I am going to put the donate button up for you.





Consider yourself as an Investor in the creative thinking and progression of concepts World Wide!

If you ordered shirts already they are going out this week if they haven't already... Thanks to the early birds that have helped get the project rolling.

                          A true MLS made shirt here in Oakland,CA
                       

                        Printed on an American Apparel USA made shirt !
                                              MLS is a Non-Profit
                       because we burned it all up having fun building stuff !

The days of USA made bikes

Check out this rad video I found, it shows most of the steps in building mass produced bicycles.

I like the movie because it shows them making the tubing in house - this was very common, up until the late 1970s for Schwinn and Columbia. The very large roll of thin flat strips of steel shows up at the factory on train cars and the tubing mill rolls the steel strip in to a tubing shapes. The last step of the mill is to weld the seam of the steel strips closed, making a sealed tube. Some machines even finish the tube by grinding it.

The other machines shown in the first part of the movie are Swiss screw machines. The machine is the fastest machine in the machining world for mass produced machined parts. It runs on cams and gears and uses raw force to drill, cut and profile the parts. The operators had to understand how to adjust the machines by using a large series of gears, cams and belts. The cutting tools used have to be made to the outside shape and contours of the parts as the machine only travels on one axis when cutting, so it could only make one cut to make the outside shape of the part.

Check out the video for all the cool machines