i’ve been trying to figure out how to make one of these for a long time. the original idea was to use in-line style pumps and heaters for an aquarium or hot-tub to heat and circulate the water bath, but the hot tub equipment was too expensive and it was hard to find information on how it worked and how to connect the parts, and the problem with the fish tank heaters is that they don’t get hot enough to cook a fish. the temperature range that i was shooting for is 100-160 degrees, and the system needs to be able to maintain this temperature for up to 24-hrs (as a maximum). through some poking around on the internet, i found that some people have been using commercial rice cookers and crock pots. so i headed down to target and picked up the largest capacity crock pot for about $40. i’m not to psyched on the oval shape of the crock pot, i think that a more uniformed temperature gradient would be acheived through a round pot, but hey, it works. upon dissassembling the crock pot, i found that the heating element is just a resistance heating band that is wrapped around the chamber surrounding the ceramic pot (this is why nothing sticks to the bottom of the crock pot).
i spliced the relay loop of a love industries temperature control module into the AC power supply to the crock pot, and bored out one of the rivets on the glass lid, so that i could fish a j-type thermocouple into the water bath, for my feedback. i dropped a $20 recirculating fish pump into the bottom of the 5-qt crock, with some tubing to channel the water in a circular fashion around the bath. the one thing that i was concerned about was burning out the circulation pump, since aquarium pumps usually do not operate at 140-degrees F (i don’t doubt that the lifespan will be stunted, but it’s $20, and i’ll probably find something better). i did a few tests for extended periods of time, running the pump at high temperatures, and during the last test i actually threw in a chuck fillet and tested it out. i replaced the variable power supply with a 12Vdc transformer, and it has been running great. check out how the fillet turned out over here.
[ps: i’m going to put some better pics of the unit up when i finally get around to making a housing for the controls and common power supply… according to the done manifesto, this probably isn’t going to happen. see #5.]
helped the guys over at geekhouse develop a headbadge for their new cyclocross bike. we went back and forth for a while and just needed to get something made in a very short amount of time that could go on the team bikes for the new cx squad. the headbadge is waterjet cut and polished stainless steel. the graphic was designed by dan st. g, i formatted it for waterjet cut and did some other little things, and joe of sugarcoat laid down some elbow grease and polished them to a nice shine.
[photos: geekhouse]
zack (second world design), TJ (ask design/build), and i designed these snowboard racks for the concepts shop in harvard square. the racks were delivered in time for the newest video premier for burton snowboards, this last friday. the tour included an in-store appearance by some of the sponsored riders from burton, which took place at concepts.
the racks are laser cut 0.125-inch thick 1018 steel, which was then bent into shape and painted. radii matched the geometry of the architectural millwork that already exists in the shop. two versions of the rack were delivered, one holds seven boards and is approximately five feet in length, and the other holds five boards and is just under four feet in length.
i did a very quick rendering of the rack to send to the client a few days before we sent out the drawings for manufacturing (shown at the top of this post). all of the design and manufacturing of these racks was completed within a week, so we had to use materials and processes which we could rely on and were not particularly labor intensive. as always, it was exciting to work on a project where the turn-around and brainstorming was quick and intense.
there is a possibility that these might be for sale at some point, so if anyone is interested, i could send you a quote on what it would cost to make one or more for a shop, and they can be made in any size pretty much.
let me start this post by mentioning that i have little to no interest in going into production of bicycle components, especially in something like chainrings. this was more of a study in manufacturing and design and something that i completed just to see how difficult it would be, and find out what goes into the design of a mechanical component like a chainring. i started my research by tracing back the roots of the bicycle chain to an old ANSI standard for transmission roller chain, determining the foundation, which is a 0.500” pitch (ANSI #40) and 0.3125” roller diameter. searching in the machinery’s handbook, i was able to find the ANSI sprocket tooth form for a roller chain (ANSI/ASME B29.1M-1993), and design a custom chainring based on some specs that i had determined (and a whole sheet of equations). i designed a 42-tooth sprocket, and not surprisingly, it looked nothing like the tooth pattern on a modern bicycle chainring. unable to find any information on the evolution from the old mechanical standard to the modern chainring, i decided to push on and choose which tooth features i thought were critical, and design the intricacies of the pattern myself. the guys at open were kind enough to let me borrow a chainring, and a i had a few on hand at my office, and by way of mechanical measurement, and my fine-tuned “eyeballing” skills, i came to a design with which i was comfortable. originally designed around a 144-BCD (for most track cranksets), i designed a version for a 135-BCD that would fit on my miche crankset so i could test it out.
the profile of the prototype chainring was waterjet cut from a sheet of 6061 aluminum, and then the counterbores and facing operations were done using conventional milling. the machinist kind of rushed through this, and subsequently messed up MOST of the machining operations. it did not make me happy, but the prototype is good enough to test out the tooth pattern on my bike. i also had a problem with different seat diameters on two different versions of the 135-BCD miche cranks, so i had to take a file to the inside seat diameter on the chainring, which also did not make me happy (especially because it fit fine on the drive-side crank arm that WAS NOT on my bike, figures.) so basically, i have noticed that the teeth look a little thinner than some of the more beefy track chainrings, the styling looks pretty great, it would look a lot better if the machinist had been a little more careful. the chainring has been on my bike for two days, and is running very smooth and quiet. this makes me happy. i think i’m going to try and optimize the tooth pattern and make some more of these, at least for my own bikes, maybe a few 144-BCD, who knows?!
there’s a spot that i pass on my way to/from work when i go a certain way that has a pretty large patch of mint. occasionally i harvest some of it. poked the roots through the straw opening in the cover of a plastic cup. it seemed only appropriate.
some small parts and prototype runs for geekhouse bikes. custom, extra-squatty crown races for the geekhouse signature segmented forks. these were made with a cnc-lathe. the material is 1018-12L14 steel.
also, trying to streamline operations over at geekhouse, these seatstay/chainstay caps used to be hand-cut. this huge bag of 4130 lasercut ss/cs caps will hopefully make things a little easier.
this thing was in pretty bad shape when i found it. i talked to at least two people from the neighborhood who were thinking about snatching it up from the side of the road a few blocks from my apartment…i’m glad they didn’t. upon removing the grates (which were all accounted for) and cleaning out all of the ash, i was pleasantly surprised to find that there were no rusted-through spots on the inside of either the main grill or the offset smoker, so basically it just looked really bad, but most of the damage was cosmetic. i removed most of the hardware (and tightened the remaining hardware), the two handles, and all of the wooden slats that made up the front rack part of the grill, and gave the outside and inside a once over with a tough wire bristle brush. after removing as much of the loose rust and debris, the entire outside was wiped with a rag dampened with solvent, then somewhere between three and six coats (some parts got more) of 1200-degree stove spray paint was applied to the entire outside.
i cut some 1.25” pine dowels and drilled some holes to remake the handles, and cut some lengths of 1x2” pine to remake the shelf (cut this by hand with a 4” silky saw, it came out really nice and straight). all of the hardware for the handles and slat shelf was replaced with new brass hardware and the hardware for the shelf was countersunk. i put a few coats of teak oil on the wood, slapped the charbroil nameplate back on, and installed a HUGE river country brand 3” 50-550 degree thermometer (which mounted nicely with the 1/2” npt fitting in the knockout on the top of the main grill chamber). after everything was done and i had gone to the inman hardware store about six times, this project took about 4hrs total and cost about $100. considering that these are available new for $150 (without a $20 thermometer), i think that i did ok, and this smoker/grill has waaaay more character than a new one. now i just have to fire it up to cure the paint and start cooking. some more pictures here.
this was another project that happened pretty quickly during some spring cleaning. i ripped the handles off of a square-bottom steamer basket/colander, drilled a 1/4” hole in the center, fed a drop down light socket through a cleaved green glass bottle, then through the stainless basket, spliced the wire back together, and hung it up over the coffee table in the living room. i put a dimmer switch in line and used a small incandescent looking compact fluorescent. worked out pretty well, but the green light is kind of annoying.
just kind of tossed this one together during some home rearranging. this is an old drill-press that my dad gave to me, it has been sitting with a bunch of old tools, kind of on display in the dining room. just rigged a construction light that was lying around up through the place where the drill should go. it could have been done a lot better, or integrated more, but this is my drill-press, i want to be able to use it when it’s not busy being a lamp.
marty of geekhouse bikes and myself worked some long hours to get this prototype track dropout ready for the 2009 nahbs show. in the geekhouse blog, marty says:
So at the NAHBS show I was finally able to unveil a project that I’ve been working on for the past few months. This is the new Geekhouse drop out that I’m working on for all fixed gear, and 700c single speed bikes. The drops feature an integrated chain tensioner system that is integrated into chain stay area. With a quick turn of the knob you can have a totally tensioned chain. This system is different from others out there in that there is no external knob that can fall off or you hit your foot on while riding. Not included in this picture is another small aluminum piece that actually craddles the axle itself and helps move the whole system forward and back. Also the dropout itself is sealed off so no moisture can penetrate the chainstay. And finally my favorite part is that is looks real pretty..;)
This drop out took me about a year and a half to work out in my head before I had the idea for most of what I really wanted in a design. But I really have to thank the engineer on this project Aarn. Aarn and I spent a bunch of snowy days over the past few months staring at a computer screen trying to get the design perfect. I’m looking forward to working with aarn on some other projects coming up, so stay tuned for those too.
the line drawing above is an early concept for the dropout, a few things were changed to make it a little easier to manufacture in a short-run setting, with minimal milling operations and tool changes. marty had the prototype dropouts on all three of his bikes at the nahbs. in urban velo’s day one coverage of the nahbs they noted that dropout featured very subtle tensioners built into the track ends. and said that it was the small touches at the show that make the biggest bang.
look for the first production version of the dropout this month, and more geekhouse/aarn collaborations in the future.
more pictures of the most recent geekhouse track bikes here.
i didn’t invent this, but it’s the only one i have seen. cut a white wine bottle, polished the edges, flipped it into itself, potted plant. trying to bring the basil that evan gave me back to life in an old wine bottle…sick of terracotta.
kim says she wants some of these, i guess i’ll take this opportunity to see how much interest there is in these.
some more laser work for icarus. check out miguel’s custom track bike here, featuring both the large quill headbadge and the small quill emblums.
a concept of something that i want to design for my bedroom. there’s a 60x30-in nook on one of my bedroom walls, the idea is that an array of benches create a shelving system. the benches resemble a more modern version of “the bench” found on sides of soccer fields. all profiles will be cnc milled from plywood and visible dowel-pins with a few standard fasteners will attach the components.
i messed around with the sketch in illustrator…just to see if i could get some contrast. hopefully i’ll get some more specs tied down for this project by the end of the month.
this is just the first mock-up of some canister lights that are kind of a work in progress. a few years ago i found a box of antique glass beer bottles and decided that it would be nice to make them into lights. trying to keep this project classy is an ongoing struggle. the black electrical tape is a rought gauge of how much coverage is needed to provide a nice amount of light, but not be blinded by the bulb. i’ve been looking into some different coatings/dips for the bottles and experimenting with different cut lengths. a rotary diamond-tip bottle cutter was used to score the glass, and a coarse grit emory cloth was used to remove the burr.
more progress on this soon…
took a sketch from ian of icarus frames and turned it into some vectors, tweaked it for cutting, and then made a dxf for the laser shop. he has been using them on his most recent creations. more icarus stuff soon.
more pictures of the nice icarus bikes here.
