Saturday, November 28, 2020

air & space and shop truck















I received a shipment of various parts and pieces from Taylor Studios yesterday. I worked for Taylor Studios straight out of graduate school. Jill and I had Noah that year, so getting that job was a true blessing because I had a family to support. 

My old project manager, Jason Cox, had contacted me during this past summer and asked if I could whip up some prototype samples for them for a job they were working on securing. It was a simple job where I did some knurling for him on some steel rods on the old South Bend lathe. I rushed shipped them to them so they could powder coat them and get them to the potential client. 

It turns out that Jason contacted me a few weeks ago as they got the particular job, and they needed some help completing the job. The job is for the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in D.C. I'm not allowed to disclose what the work is, at this time, as these exhibits will be new additions to the museum. Regardless, I'm stoked to be working on the job. Taylor is going to purchase a new pulse welder for me to use on the job. I spent considerable time a few weeks ago researching welders and trying to figure out which one to recommend they buy. I was looking at the Orion and the PUK pulse welders. In the end Taylor Studios had the final say so, but I was able to put in my 2 cents worth. 

I ended up reaching out to Arthur Hash to see if he had insight into the Orion as he uses them. He put me in contact with Patrick McMillian. Patrick and I spoke on the phone and he was super helpful and recommended I contact the company Sunstone Welders that makes them. Kyle Kinyon from the company came back with a quote on the Orion 150s. I contacted Rebecca Hannon to discuss the PUK 5.1. She had contacted me a few summers ago as she was dong a residency in Germany and was using their machine with aluminum and she was curious about anodizing. We had also met in Milwaukee once time when she was traveling through the city and wanted to visit the DCRL. We discussed the PUK at the time of her residency, but I reached out again to get more info as she has an Orion at her school but had used the PUK a lot in Germany. I also contacted PUK and spoke directly with Michael from the company in Germany. Michael put me in contact with a US representative as well as recommended several makers, artists, professors that use their welder. I was really interested in the use of the PUK by diemakers for repair dies. Taylor decided to go with the PUK 5.1 so I'll be sure to post some info when it arrives and I get to using it.

In the mean time, I went out today and snapped some pics of the Ford truck that's next to the '58 Ford Fairlane. Shop Teacher Bob had inquired about it on Facebook so I figured I would grab some pics. Turns out there are a couple engines sitting on the rear frame section. One of the flatheads has a set of aluminum Edelbrock heads on it. I always loved the look of these heads. Anyway, the truck is super cool. It's a super heavy duty Ford truck too. I'm not certain of the year but I'm thinking maybe 1945 -1948 or somewhere around those years (based on the tag). If anyone knows please let me know. This would make a super cool shop/work truck. Too bad my neighbor will probably never part with it; it would be cool to see it driving again.




No comments:

Followers