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

Core77 Design Awards Entry

If your are in to really cool designs and always hunting for whats hot and wild in trends, then you have for sure come across
Core77 design website

They throw a contest for the hottest designs of 2011 and so I figured I would enter with the MLS Gravity Bike...

Who knows.... There is some really really cool stuff entered....

But why not try.... Not the cheapest contest to enter but the trophies are really cool, and who knows maybe I can get famous...

Kyle from Tracko testing 

If you ain't dragin knee, you ain't turning...

It turns like a 250cc GP bike that weighs 19 lb

double sketch....

Heres a link to their top picks from the site of whats hot for 2011...

Best of Core77 2011

Enjoy

JT

Polo...

My buddy Mike Aroche got captured by Pedaling Century sporting a MLS shirt at the West Coast Polo Comp in Fresno, CA.

Good work Mike....

PS....       Careful to all the polo players - hes got a mean shot

My 250th Blog post

I got a bunch of emails today about an article that came out on 45dgree.com, a cool motorcycle website.

Its funny when articles come out like this from projects I did years back, I think I was working for Edelbrock Automotive doing product development at the time of this photos and doing night time fab work for Roland Sands Design.

 oh, the good old days. Doesn't seem like much has changed... still working 24/7 building stuff I love...



Check it out - Great article and photos by Steve Kelly

Heres the link to the article on 45Dgree

This is the little sporty I built for Adam Stark

Male Model ....  minus the beard

Close up of the mega tuned Edelbrock engine for this beast.

Malibu, CA

250 blog posts is a lot ..... Damn

A day in the life....

Patrick 360 brought over the camera the other day and did a quick shoot around the shop while I was working on some camera rigs and rails also teaching Gabe, my new helper some tricks around the shop.

Enjoy - Thanks Patrick

Working in the shop on the new steady cam rig and rails

Testing it on a short section of rail

Just email Bruce Gordon bicycles and ask what this sticker means...

StrongHand Tools sent me some rad tools

Starting to fall in love with these On/Off magnets for prototyping parts.

Think they work the best for preventing stuff from falling off the table..

Just the start of a camera rail and rubber drive wheels

Finishing up robot parts on the Di Acro press 

over lunch time...

Not a clue whats going on here...

Gabe - working on the cold saw

I have paid my dues on the floor...

Teaching Gabe about setting up the tooling for CAT 40 and how to run the mill.

Put him to work making parts

How about some quick parts on the Sheldon Lathe

Back in the fab shop making sparks

its getting longer

Tacking up the steady cam mounts.

Honey I'm Home...

Product placement - $$$

Young Gabe didn't believe me, you can party with these girls

Tig welding party

Full throttle until you see baby Jesus....

So I am always getting in trouble for MLS posting too much info and like normal I got caught...

I will shorten this up and fill you in later when more info and the filming is done...

I have been building camera rigs for a few years for all kinds of TV commercials / movies and one project that has come up over the last year is one for a very major vehicle manufacture for their commercials.

Let me give you the low down on the rig and some of the fun of build it.

The final product will come months from now when I can link to the site.

Anyone that builds stuff knows the hardest part of designing something is where to start and what size to make it.

Lucky I had a left over door from a prototype project for Brita Water Filters that served as a perfect starting point using a nice square frame. I took the sheet metal off of it, that will be recycled in to metal canvases to paint for Ernest ( up coming blog post )  

Next was building some wheels and turning for it. 

Anyone that has been on movie sets knows,

A. it has to drive over power cords

B. it has to have the wheel enclosed because it hits everything

C. it needs to be super versatile 

Made a center sliding rail mount for the boom and some steering arm.

I took a break to go get some licence plates for the MLS rig #1

I needed new plates because of a pit maneuver I pulled on an out of control car on the freeway months back. Saved the couple from getting hurt but spooked them a bit I think. 

So I got new plates before I left last weekend....

Decided to test the rig with Patrick before leaving for LA

See the right angle drill to drive the fast turn acme threads and drive the camera up and down on the boom.

Custom made computer tray and goodies on there as well.

Once in LA like normal I forgot like 20 things on it...

So making the classic Will Call pick up at McMaster..

And a late night help from Blake at Exile cycles...

It was ready.

Yep I am tired...

Blake and Russell are finishing up the Exile Cycles Rockstar Dragster

I did the welding on this one about a month ago...

This thing is one of my favorites..

Someday, I will build an Exile for myself....

On the streets of LA durning a shoot with the rig

One of the weirdest sets I have ever been on...

Had a dude run across the hood of the car while we were filming

and everything else couldn't have went worse, but we got it done.

Melted plastic - Why you ask?

I was so bummed about the 16 hour shoot on saturday that I needed to bail and go back to Oakland.

I decided to leave with no sleep at midnight and drive all the way back up.

As I was climbing the mountain leaving LA in the MLS rig #1, I drove in to a cloud or what I thought was a cloud at the summit.

As I slowed down thru the smoke, I noticed it was from a car that was on fire and there was people in the road trying to get things out of the car.

Knowing that if I wouldn't have slowed down, I would have hit this car...

I yelled at the people in the free way trying to get stuff out of the blazing car..

" get on the shoulder, get on the shoulder!!!!"

I kicked my F150 down in to low and rammed the huge ball of flames in the #2 lane as the people ran to the shoulder...

Pushing it 100 feet proved to be a mission because the car was in park but  to add to the rad factor - the ground was covered in burning gas, which became a flame thrower as the rear tires on my truck burned out across it while pushing the car...

As this madness was happening a fellow big rig driver with a crazy powerful fire extinguisher put out the inferno and that was the end - minutes later the highway patrol rolled up to the fun being over. 

Over all everyone was safe

 - my truck didn't burn - 

my licence plate and truck front end is covered in melted plastic

 and no one died on Easter morning

Job well done...

perfect end to a stressful weekend back at the Skunkworks