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..

The 20 hour work day.....

Tired...... But its worth it......  I will show you real soon.....

 

“Find what you love and let it kill you.” ― Charles Bukowski

 

 

 

 

The unknowing drive..... for something......

My life is an odd one somedays and leads me in odd way.... I think living day to day is the key to my sucess and not being alarmed by any suprises that I encounter because of this poor planning....

But on the other hand it makes for a fun and exciting road with so many corners you can't see around that your bound for consitant surprises with lots of ups and downs....

I love my craft and my dreams.... Sometimes I feel like a snowplow pushing anything that gets in the way to the side and moving forward...

 Its stressful....

Sometimes I see things get pushed to the side that I feel could have helped me keep in control or move forward faster but my brain is this agressive plow born to push and make new tracks.... where those tracks lead to on that crazy road is still unknown, as life is full of surprises.....

I set a bunch of goals every year and write them all down on a piece of paper, then cover them with clear tape and put them on my wall leading to my bed room so that I have to look at them everyday....

 This shitty looking piece of yellow paper covered with written goals for that year looks really nasty on the wall, but is totally needed ... I hit a few goals and they made me smile.

Time to set new goals for 2013.... Holy shit talk about raising the bar for myself.... I slept on average about 4 hours a night this year just to make some of the goals that I feel are totally worth it. This next year for the MLS company and myself personally are going to be setting the bar even higher with some bigger projects that are going to twist some brains...

Get ready ....

When I get super busy working on stuff that feeds my shop, I sometimes forget about why I do this stuff and the need to stop take a moment and do something for myself....
Sometimes it takes someone to tell me that... Someone I actually listen to and respect..

Tom Lipton is a dude that I respect.. Hes done the time in the shop and knows his shit! Its good to see these crafters out there and know that after 20+ years in metal crafting you can still do the same thing for your job as you do for your hobby and not get them all mixed up. So when he told me, get back to building that espresso machine because you need to hammer it out and finish it, he was right, sometimes I need that kick in the ass from someone that knows its value to remind me I got it I just gotta hang in there and finish it.

Some background on Tom ( if you want more info check out the rad blog "Nothing to strong ever broke "). Hes one of the best metal crafters I know and the US government thinks so too and thats why hes in charge of some big concept projects at one of the coolest US Gov. labs.

His metal working background leads back to making some cool stuff, such as the first prototype Independent trucks for skateboards, to crazy machines that produced products that are most likely in everyones houses reading this. Doing 20+ years of work in just about every industry leads to some really cool storys too, some of these are on his blog... I first heard about Tom while doing work for Clorox and all the stuff he and the crew built, so like expected it was my job to hunt him down and ask a million questions about making stuff...

His blog might give MLS a run for its money.... We might have to get more half dressed girls around the shop to get the hit counter going again...

The espresso machine has been my personal project for the last months.... I am not going to show you all of it yet because thats some of the surprise in it... But how about some teasers.

All the sweet USA made parts

from left to right

Copper - USA Pen - 800 watt heater - theromstat - high temp float switch

I go off of whats in my brain and what shape I want as I am spinning it

 

Because copper is such a crazy conductor of heat its super important to get rid of a lot of the material so it doesn't require so much amps to weld and also just reducing the weight and making more volume is a bonus for the little extra time spent machining it out.

Using a big 1" NPT tap, I put the treads in for the heater.

Notice using the tail stock to hold the tap straight... Just a tip... Thats why they put the dip on the end of the tap, just for the exact reason.

The spun copper parts of the boiler are 8 inch diameter but I don't have a hole saw that big so I will have to make a bunch of notches with the biggest hole saw I had. I love doing this work on the K&T mill.

still in the quest for more material removal ....

I decieded to mill out.

I did a quick mock up of the legs and everything to figure out where the best place for the heater,float and stuff would be before making the cuts in to the spun parts.

Windows in it and LED light ports ready to go.

 

One problem that welders do all the time

when preforming very important welds....

 

CLEAN THE DAMN FILLER ROD !!!!

 

Good way to mess up a million dollar project... or make something fall from the sky and hurt someone...

 

CLEAN IT !

 

 

Part safety is very important when you get to a point like this on a project..

One drop of the boiler and your done...

Tricks I have learned over the years in medical and aerospace work, is working inside shop traveler boxes so you don't have parts roll off your bench.

Tom has tricks too for doing small stuff by working in clear bags so you don't loose screws or small parts.  

I do a lot of the tacking and fit up with the part in the blue box for safety.

 

Old Timer photo of the copper welds

 

Getting stoked on it....

100% USA made so far and proud of it.

 

Is a job suppose to be fun?

The last months I have been working my normal 16 hour days and like normal having a blast doing it. Gabe has been building all kinds of stuff as well, prefecting his skills to someday take my job and my fun.... Until then.... I will try to keep in the lead...

One of the major things in the last months has been the big project of working full time at the Science Museum in San Francisco, otherwise known as the Exploratorium. Its one of the most reconized science museums in the world for not only its amazing exhibits but for its vast amounts of knowledge that the valued employees carry.

Its so cool to get to work around these people everyday and learn their strong points, its truly the first job where I can't even predect what people do for hobbies or for a trade. The people are so cool and friendly and its been a pleasure to work with them. Like normal, I am under a contract to be around until about the end of January, mostly to help hammer out the big projects before one of the biggest projects.... THE MOVE.....

The museum is moving to a new location across San Francisco to a more easy to acess location, the place will be double the size which means.... More exhibits needed to be built to fill the space. The other cool part is its on a pier now so we can build all kinds of cool things to go in the water and hang off the railings.

I will keep more updates coming in but I figured these pictures would do the trick and give you a quick glance in to the normal day to day and how much fun it is.

 

Why wouldn't you want a picture like this?

Jesse one of the engineers took this sweet photo

A look from the shop window....

Nice view..

To teach kids and adults about the Golden Gate Bridge, Dave Fleming ( the main ring leader )

built this little 1/400 scale model to teach about earthquakes and wind and how the bridge moves.

 

Easy parts  +  the CNC Bridgeport Mill + sippin coffee + Friday

=

The perfect Friday....

 

Bending up mini bridge decks on the DiAcro press brake.

These little pieces will become the Bay Bridge 1/500 scale model

This is my sweet office complete with a broom

Those are the little Bay Bridge towers

The floors in this early 1900s building are amazing redwood planks.

This is my first time working on wood floors and its really nice.

 

As if its normal...

The lathe has plastic covers to watch the gears in oil and spindle speed controllers with some classly name plates to get a good laugh ...

World Champ downhiller Greg Minnaar had to come visit me at work before heading back to home for the holidays...

So we put him to the test to see if he really knew how to ride a bike, on one of the " How to ride a bicycle " exhibits teaching kids about how your legs work when riding a bike.

Its so rad to see kids everywhere being super stoked out on everything they see.

Jen brought this back from the Midwest, some of Minnesota's finest.

On a normal day...

I love to race these things...

I ride my 1937 Schwinn Superior to work everyday.

Lunch time is perfect to work on the espresso machine...

 

Once home....

Its time to work on other projects.
Getting the new MLS weld shop all dialed in, its looking really nice.

Building an Exile gas tank on the floor there, for Russells new project....