Friday, September 30, 2016

Maple Mead -- Oaking Completed -- Taste Test

A browner shade of yellow
After a few weeks of oaking the Maple Mead, it was time to remove the oak chips from the mead. At first glance, the color change of the brew was obvious. The oak chips turned the mead from pale yellow to a translucent brown.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Maurice White's Mic Stand

I always thought there was some kind of spiritual connection between Maurice White and some street called White Avenue. Actually, that's entirely untrue, I didn't even know his name until they announced on the radio that he had made the jump to Electric Kingdom two nights previous.... but in any case, I found this cast iron brake rotor on the side of White ave. which had his initials on it, so I figured he probably wanted me to make a microphone stand since it's already the correct size, shape, and weight for a base.
brake rotor
First disassembling the thing. Wow! that's a lot of grease.
cleaning out bearing

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Bicycle Trailer ep. 8 - Light Mount/ Finale

The finishing touch for the trailer was to add a rear light for nighttime usage. I found this light at a garage sale which had a 1/4"-20 thread mount, so I figured I could bolt it onto the trailer frame. I decided to tap a 1/4" thread into a 3/8" bolt for this. I figured I might as well use my most messed up bolt since the external threads weren't going to be used anyhow.
a light and a bolt

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Bicycle Trailer ep. 7 - Bathtub

Now that the trailer is in working condition, the first assignment was to get the rest of the metal to complete it. Conveniently, the metal store had the exact size piece of aluminum I was looking for to make the cargo bay.
piece of sheet metal attached to the trailer
Using aviation snips to cut the pattern.
sheet metal pattern before bending

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Bicycle Trailer ep. 6 - Deck

For the deck, I cut some pieces of wood. Initially, I used carriage bolts to attach it, but decided I was going to add a cargo bay below it, so the deck should be readily removable.
First, I took some 1/4" bolts and welded them from underneath through the holes.