Burn Baby Burn

After several hours of trial and error in the weld pool (or the doo doo that once was a weld pool...) I finally cracked a good portion of the code last night with some help from Gary at UBI...stand up guy that Gary. A few tips on welder setup and things started to click. I think another couple of hours learning how to keep things even cleaner than I have been and tightening up my beads a little and I'll be ready to lay into Dan's Bike.......

2012 Resolutions :
Finish Dan's Bike, and maybe my own.
Write more.
Yoga regimen by 40!

Onward

Aligned….

Wow, it worked. The jig is straight and adjusted. Now just need to get my welds a little cleaner and we are off to the races here.



This junction is some fun mitering…once it's cleaned up it'll fit up nice.



Barlow is still completely nonplussed by the whole affair.



Welding day #1 was a frustrating bummer. Flows all wrong, settings all off….just a bunch of trial and error on some practice miters I made. Some progress however….can't deny. Even if it all looked like the tin man's poo. I just spent the past hour machining up some more practice miters that I'm gonna hit later this week.

onward.

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

Creeping towards a triangle. Layout looks good.



Tube, this is tube...and head tube. Play nice.



Sliders…for fun.

Steinbeck Rules

"You know, if chickens had government and church and history, they would take a distant and distasteful view of human joy. Let any gay and hopeful thing happend to a man, and some chicken goes howling to the block." - Samuel, East of Eden

Making chips...

First off, I would like to introduce you all to Mr Bender. Mr Bender? A few words?


"Hiyinz. Where's all the dames? Who's got a light in this joint?"

Ok, there you go. A gentleman from the gun.

Working on Dan's bike tonight. Assignment, miter top tube.



Gigi all cockeyed and all. She's feeling it.



Digging in.


Thanks Dan for picking up big boy here…he was hungry.

Fall 2011

Yep, Fall 2011. So much water under the bridge. So much thought, frustration, time, dreaming, believing, stress, resignation….all of it.

Behind.

Almost there. Bike #1 in the jig. Fire soon.

ONWARD

August WHAT!?

And I guess another month and a half have slipped by like water down the pooper. But that's summer, right? Quick as lightning. Been a pretty good summer though, lot's of camping/cookouts/parties/hangtime/beachtrips/etc. I'm still grinding away on the bike shop plan. I've found two of the loveliest machines I think I can find, TOGETHER, in a gunsmith's shop out in the midwest. He'll part with them for a good price.....too bad I need all my pennies right now. Still not giving up hope. Looking for a way to acquire. I also got the first CAD drawings back from an extrusion manufacturer in my clueless attempt to construct my own frame jig. I think I can get there on my own, but I will need my two lovely machines to mill up all of my own custom connection points to the extruded frame of the jig. Get the argon FLOWIN.

Anyway, baby steps are steps nonetheless. The tortoise won the race, right?

And there's Hood To Coast...yipes! Been riding heavy for months, leaving precious few ounces of energy to put towards running training, but nonetheless, the scare of the impending relay in 2 weeks time has had me pounding the pavement again. I went straight for my tried and true training regimine of my alternating Rocky Butte and Mt Tabor loops. When you got a little time, it's no time to go little. I think I got it. Guess I don't really have a choice.....

ONWARD