Thursday, August 25, 2011

Coffee and Customs

If you have some time, check this site out....

http://www.coffeeandcustoms.com/

Henry prints up some awesome t-shirts and has some pretty tasty coffee in stock.  He also can get hats made.

In addition, the "Rescue Network" is a pretty cool concept.  Basically, it's a place to post adds or known whereabouts of old cars and trucks that are destined for the scrap yard.  The intent is that someone will be able to rescue them from the crusher.  I hope to see it catch on...



Get them while they last...

You know it's legit when you have company apparel....


If you want one, shoot me an email...

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Vintage Metalworks and Foundry

The last time that I did any type of casting was 12 years ago in my high school shop class. Ever since then I have been trying to figure out on my own how to accomplish it at home.  The wait has finally paid off.

In an attempt to try and make a useful casting, I figure that the first project should be a relatively easy one.  With that in mind, I wanted to make a spacer to shorten the throw on my T-5 shifter.  I know…I could have machined it out of billet, but what fun would that have been?

First step was to make a mold.  I was originally going to make it out of one piece with a 3-4 degree draft angle on the sides.  I was then going to face both sides and drill the holes.  However, I could not come up with a good way to hold the final casting while I attempt to machine it.  So, I made a two piece mold with the parting line in the middle.  This allowed me to clamp on the widest part in both set-ups.  Before cutting the halves to size, I drilled for dowel pins to align each half.



Since I did not have the recommend talcum power to use as a mold release, I used baby powder.  The problem with baby power is that absorbs moisture and clumps up.  I didn't really hurt anything in this particular case, but it didn't really seem to help either.  Now I know....


 i built the furnace several years ago.  It is a cut down 55 gallon drum  lined with fire brick.  There is a 2.5" tube near the bottom that I can force air into using a modified furnace blower.  It currently uses charcoal as fuel, Kingsford to be exact.  I takes about an hour to melt about 5 pounds of aluminum scrap.

Unfortunaley, I did not get any good pictures of the actual pour.  Here is the aftermath...




Ohh, just think of the possibilities!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Let down...

The '40 let me down this weekend.  Good thing I have AAA.  Don't know what happened yet, but I am leaning to a fuel delivery issue.  Damn pesky fuel pumps....

Thursday, August 11, 2011

XXX

If you ever are in the Seattle/Kent area...I suggest you go here...


mmmmm...tasty!