Business As Usual

Photo From Here

Ain't that a pip! Nice shot of the Mercedes-Benz W196. Those older GP cars and Indy roadsters sure were a thing of beauty. And the craftsmen responsible for building them were the absolute tops in the field, as you would expect. I need to quit looking at these things or I'm going to want to drop everything else and get started on one.

Photo From Here

I got a phone call the other day from friend of mine. We go back a ways having raced motorcycles and bicycles together. He wants to build a HD Sprint this winter so he called me to see what I had laying around and for a little bit of advice. He's planning on putting together something for the street rather than a flattracker like in the above photo, but I'm curious to see what he comes up with. He's a pretty handy dude.

I'm thinking that's a Rickman frame in the photo judging by the layout and the nickle plating, by the way. Those boys have made some beautiful frames over the years.  

Here's the little part I machined up for the lab at college. Pretty simple - turn and face. I found a cut-off about the right size on the stock rack there, so that made it simple. Making it in the CNC turning center I used last semester would have made it real simple. Probably would have only taken 2-3 minutes to make as fast as that thing runs. The machine has constant cutting speed compensation, so as the part diameter gets smaller, it turns faster. Not at all like my old South Bend lathe with the step pulleys and back gear. I've made a lot of parts with it over the years, however. I would like to have something that I could metric threads on. Maybe I should ask Santa for a new lathe this year. Be kind of tough getting it down the chimney.