Ben's stüff

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Random Tandem

"Why do people throw this stuff out?" I asked my wife. She said nothing and raised an eyebrow.. "Exactly, right??"

She face palmed and walked away.

She'll get the idea when she is propelling me along in the fresh summer mornings.

It raised a question, can we be charged for drink riding if one person is sober??

Anyway, cool future project.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Metallic chewing gum fixing.

Mmmmmm metallic epoxy putty. Fixes anything worth more than 100 dollars to replace..

This engine case used to have a huge hole in it, but after creating a mold using strips of plastic to create the correct geometry I was able to reform the case to suit.

I coated the inside with a hard setting fuel/oil resistant gasket compound. Seems to have worked a treat. The best fixes are the cheap fixes.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Ahhh a beautiful machine. A leather skiver, simplistic complexity at it's very best. This one is used to make shoes, it trims the under side away from the edge of a leather shape so that edge can be folded back on its self to allow for a super neat edge. Just until recently this machine lay alone in a state of disrepair..

That was until after years of sleepy searching I managed to find a replacement bell knife blade. Made in Germany, sent from Texas used in Sydney. Below you can see how much wear the old blade took.

Once the blade was fitted the guess work into how this machine was meant to work began. But before that could happen I needed to make a tensioning device to reduce slippage and in turn reducing creation of heat by friction slip.

With good traction, bedding in of the new blade using the inbuilt blade grinder commences.. The bell life needed to be adjusted in such a way that it is in it's position to skive. When it is bluntened during work, the sharpener can be engaged in the same place it was in during bedding to ensure the blade geometry is not interfered.

12 hours later.... A correctly honed, bedded in and super sharp blade ready for another 80 years of work.

By far one of my favourite machines so far.

This one was for you Dad.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Closing the case

My workspace, compact and simple, actually it's the only space left without shoe making equipment or kids toys..

I sand blasted and painted prior to the strip down, all holes sealed first. This is a good way to ensure grit isn't present after the rebuild as the break down comes after the fact. Most would strip right back and paint individual components but for this bike no such luxury.. Yet.

Semi-stripped for a good inspection. Everything looks good at this point so no point splitting the crank, that always comes with a risk of breaking a discontinued part. Top end work is all this thing needs.

Wiseco piston, the last time it will see natural ambient light.

Fresh rebore, I can and did spend hours staring at these parts in awe, such a good vintage for sturdy die hard engineering.

Freshend valve seats, clean and ready to be reassembled with new cam chain. Infact the only sign of wear in this engine was the cam chain and this is de to the fact that this engine uses a manually adjustable cam tensioner.

The previous owner didn't know this and was probably why they thought the engine was ruined. It sounded like a game of metallic ping pong.

The moment of finish, complete with re-wired magnito electrical cabling and pickup coil wires. Satisfying time well spent.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Garage re-use

Wow the wood from that old garage of mine really is becoming useful.

A scary thought, this beautiful wood would have normally been thrown on the ground..

Shoes, sculptures, portrait and guitars

'Shiny', pop up shop, a collective of local talent. The first for my wife showcasing her hand crafted shoes.

Victoria Chu shoes with full cigar box guitar compliment by Jon Watkins of Watkins guitars. Nice shelf!

The stools that Jon Nicol bullt, so much more elegant without the workshop background - well to those that don't love a workshop anyway.

Good times.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Put your stools down.

Jon's stool shed

Crafted from recycled flooring

I loved the fact that once upon a time this wood got walked on, and now it will get sat on, maybe in its next use it will become a bed and get lied on. A true symbol of our lives, displayed in a simple object, it's use and re-use.

Lovely work.

79 hilux utility - a damn fine vintage

Something super cool about 79, a time when design was about pure function, which in turn had the fortunate 'byproduct' of awesome styling. No cost cutting here, just pure design intention on wheels.

In a world gone mad on standards and streamlined manufacture, thank the good metallic lord this beautiful ute still has a place on our plastic bumpered streets.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Shoe shelfsies

Shoe shelves created from wood salvaged from my old garage pull down, coupled with some "incredibly perfect for the job" pieces of glass I have had literally for 8 years in my shed waiting for this day seemingly! With no time to make these, they somehow got made and will suffice.

This will shelve the shoes my wife will be show casing at a community pop up shop here in Sunny Sydney for two weeks.

Obviously the shoes my wife hand makes are a little higher spec than my test pair.

Check out her blog here:

http://lovelyshoeslivehere.blogspot.com.au

A major thankyou to Jon for use of his most awesome workshop, and brain wave generation. This man knows his wood.

Xl500s - (s is for shocking)

Slowly bringing this one back to life..

When Honda gathered their designers back in the late 70's for the briefing of the Honda XL500S I'm sure words such as 'functional' and 'robust' were used. I'm also pretty sure words like 'elegant' and 'beautiful' were completely shelved. The buyers of these bikes were abusers, and this bike certainly got its fair share of punishment.