velocipede jeweler's saw

I mentioned in a previous post that a few folks from the AppState DigFab group have been getting together each day this past week to work in the studio at school and make some work over the span of two weeks. We meet for breakfast and lunch and work in between. It's been fun to dedicate some time to making some work for an upcoming exhibition. I have a few things in the works this week, but the main big project has been my velocipede jewelers saw. I cast the parts for this in Milwaukee in July of 2010 and this piece has moved across the country with me in an unfinished state for the last sixteen years. You can read and see pictures of me casting it back then in the foundry with Chuck.

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/velocipede.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/velocipede-progress.html
https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/fragmented-day.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/day-of-work.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/open-molds.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/hot-tear-weld.html

I also cast a bunch of bicycle seats in aluminum around the same time. 

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/aluminum-bicycle-seat.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/in-progress.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/seat-shells.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/broken-seat-shells.html

https://frankieflood.blogspot.com/2010/07/cut-seat-sprues.html

I had mocked up the piece a while ago in my studio next to Spice Bottom Creek and it was sitting there a few weeks ago when I was cleaning and organizing my studio and I figured it was time to drag it out and attempt to finish it. This past week, I brought it to campus and set up a workspace in the Sculpture studio. I 3D scanned the piece in it's current state and then I got to work making a few prototype wheel designs for it. I think I've come to a final design that will work for this. I have some mdf glued up that I'll use to make some foundry patterns for making a mold in resin bonded sand. I spent most of the week cleaning up the cast texture from all of the parts since I want this to be fairly sleek. I'm trying to accentuate the various curves and facets of the cast pieces and I'm pleased with how they are coming out. I'm not moving as fast as I would like on this, but I need to take my time and do things right. I hope I can CNC mill the wheel pattern first thing tomorrow. I still have a long list of things that need to be made and figured out. I also have a few smaller projects that I'm also currently working on.

The tool aspect of this piece is something that I'm enjoying. I had gotten away from making tools for a while and this feels right to me. It also hits a part of my soul since I cast this in Milwaukee and it gives me the midwest feels since the original Barnes velocipede was designed and made in Rockford, IL.  There is also something about this that hits the mark and reminds me of bare metal hotrods from Rodder's Journal and hand built cars and motorcycles and furniture. I can't yet put my finger on it yet, but it is starting to have some of the vibes that I was hoping for, but had not taken the time to get it far enough along to start feeling good about it. It's funny how you have to get past this certain point with a piece to feel like you can continue. I think I'm there now, just too bad it took sixteen years to get there.

Getting back into the blog this week is making me think about some things that I've been discussing with Jill. Eric's visit has me thinking about these things too. I took a break from social media last Spring. I got back on at the start of the summer and now I've had to leave it again a few weeks ago. I felt good the first time I left it and I feel even better this time. What is it about that stuff. On one hand I want to know what's going on with friends and people I know, but it's a curse at the same time. I'm realizing that I haven't done any real introspective thinking about what I'm doing or making since i stopped blogging. I don't write enough in my sketchbook or even sketch for that matter. 

Scrolling other people's content has a numbing effect and leaves me empty with no ability for self reflection. Maybe that's the point. Rewire our brains to look at others; compare and then render us unable to formulate a real sincere and unique thought of our own. Bombard us with content so we don't have to tackle the important quiet moments that we NEED to have with ourselves. Steal every quiet moment from us, and make us a part of a perpetual machine that accomplishes nothing but to brainwash us by segregating us into our own echo chambers. Make it so we don't really connect with people where we might hear other people's points of view and tackle hard conversations and topics. Steal the time we would normally have, loving the people that we live with, sharing our thoughts and feelings, and being creative.  

Well, I'm going to try and work on these things and myself and make an attempt to think about things I feel and see; and use this space to do it all again. We'll see how long it lasts.

 

land rover frame in paint

I worked on a lot of things yesterday and I was productive. A guy came to pick up the giant roto caster that I had. I had gotten up early to get it staged and set up for loading on his trailer. I took the giant arm off so we can load things easier. I'm glad I got up early as it started pouring rain  by the time he got there around 10:45am. We got it loaded in the rain though and we got him strapped down and back on the road. I worked on the computer some, doing some school work and making some blog posts while I 3D printed some casting patterns for a project I'm working on. Then the sun popped out and I finished grinding down the land rover frame, soaked it on phosphoric acid and then loaded it in the truck to power wash again. Then I rigged up a makeshift paint booth under my 4 post lift. I dried everything off and then decided to go ahead and through some paint on it. 

It was hard to decide how much to clean this up before painting. The welds on these frames are unsightly but it's just the way they were made.  If you grind the original welds down then the there's nothing holding it together. I guess they were seen as utilitarian objects and time dressing the welds was not a priority. I didn't do much better than them with my rear crossmember and I feel like some of that is supposed to show through to match what's there already. I did take care of some of the original weld spatter, and just did a quick once over on it before getting it covered. I think 'm going to put another coat or two on it later today. Over all I'm pleased and ready to get the axle housings and leaf spring panted and bolted back on to I can roll this thing around.

 

land rover work

I've been working on the Land Rover off and on since getting back from Detroit. I power washed the frame since it still had some grime from the Diesel engine and I still needed to cut out the dreaded steel bushings and take out the steering relay. I snapped a all four bolts on the relay retaining ring, so I had to drill those out. Luckily the relay came out fairly easier. I've heard of these being rusted solid. The bushings came out AFTER I had made a tool to press them and determined that the tool wasn't going to work on these bushings; again this is common. I ended up hacksawing the steel liner and driving it out. What a paon though. I'm not looking forward to pressing new ones in.

I still hadn't finished up the backside of the rear crossmember, so I machined a PTO sleeve on my South Bend and then made bushings for the hitch mount holes. I got that all welded in, so now it's ready for paint.

I've also spent some time cleaning up some of my petrol engine parts. I cleaned the valve cover the other day and I currently have the axles completely torn down and the housings ready for paint.

3d scanning: reverse engineering cast iron parts

A few weeks ago I purchased a new 3D scanner. Adam had someone reach out to him to see if we could reverse engineer a part for a Ford Model A woody. He had one bracket from the right side, but he needed a left side bracket. I 3D scanned the bracket and then Adam took the model and mirrored it and scaled it to allow for shrinkage via iron casting. the owner will make a mold to pour in iron. I printed a version from the raw scan and it's crazy how much texture is picked up from the scan. The reduced mesh model I gave to Adam actually printed better, but its amazing the amount of info the scanner can get. The scanning markers are awesome for aligning the model and I am in awe of how much better things have gotten with 3D scanning.

I really enjoy this kind of work. It makes me think that I should start a business recreating hard to find parts for automotive and motorcycle industry or at least make one off parts for people restoring old cars or bikes. I just want someone else to run the business and I'll do the work.