tig welding project

I do love mid century modern furniture and when Dustin told me that his ottoman needed repair, I volunteered to help.  after all, Chris did just get his new Miller Maxstar set up and its always nice to work on welding projects when the finished product is not actually yours!

As you can see in the first pic, the wires were a bit misaligned and a previous repairer added a thick tab to "reinforce" it, but that wound up tweaking and pulling everything to one side, adding extra stress and causing the rest of the connection points to start to crack and break.  

I decided to leave that plat on there since it didn't need to look pretty, but to cut the entire frame off around the center and this silly little tab.  Chris then bent everything to be square-ish since perfectly straight wouldn't work with the bases shape and I vice gripped and tacked each corner joint into place.  Once everything was good enough, I grabbed the filler rod and finished up the work.  

finished job.

yeah, the welds aren't the prettiest things in the world, but this ottoman has a great leather cover that will never show the structure itself.  Oh and yeah, after it was done, I looked back up at Chris and said "I probably should have worn gloves this whole time, huh?"  In proper form he said, "nah".

shovel options...

...I really liked this option.  next go 'round?

and I'm super stoked to be getting into "playing mock-up" with Chris again soon.  His super sweet '56 Pan Shovel motor should be ready soon!!!!!

Solidworks World Day 1 - Nest

A "learning thermostat"?  Yep.  That's what Tony Fadell, the ex VP of iPod design is doing now.  And its amazing.

NEST



yeah, now I want a new thermostat.

looking back on the end of the summer

we are having one of the mildest winters that I can ever remember on the east coast....which is making New York City actually the best city in the world as of right now.  If winters were always like this, lets not forget last winter though, this would be the perfect seasonal climated place to live.

Friday night I layered up and headed to Kickstart Cycle's Pothole Social in Lodi, NJ.  We watched the screening of the EDR movie from last year's event and it definitely looked like fun.  Maybe next time I'll have to muster up the time off and join the crew.  ALSO, it was the magazine release part for Greasy Kulture's newest issue, so the party was a triple win for all! GK is one of my favorite biker mags right now.  Content is always great. 

The Social was at cool bar right of Rt. 80, only about 4 miles from the George Washington Bridge so I figured the ride wouldn't be too cold.  And it was right.  Sure, the thermometer read 38 degrees when I left Brooklyn, but with warm clothes, a nice leather jacket and the full face helmet, it was fine.  

Of course, I reminded myself of the day that Malcolm and I rode up to the Seaweed Yacht Club though a few months ago.  Same first half of the route, except instead of getting on 80, we headed up the Palisades.  OK, I'll admit, that time of year is much better.  Sweating through the manhattan traffic to be rewarded by the trees and the open road while riding along the Hudson River.  Yeah, that was nice.

Pothole Social

see you tonight Jersey...still deciding if I'm going to ride there or just drive the car where its warm.  Walter, can I just stay at your place so I don't have to freeze on my way home?  Thanks buddy.

watches

Anyway, I saw this new limited edition release from Bell&Ross and its mighty fine.  I will always love the BR 01-92.  One day I'd love to get one, but I'll never drop the $5,000 on it.  I've had knock-offs, but couldn't wear them.  

This version is limited to 999 pieces and once they are sold, they are gone.  So if you are a watchismo, pick it up!

Seeing it reminded me of one of the watches we made when I was at Nixon, the Murf, and now they have the Rubber Murf!.  The idea behind the Murf was to be a follow up to the ever popular Rotolog.  How do you follow that watch up?!?   I think we did a pretty good job, not perfect in achieving this goal, but the features and the fact that you can actually read the time, made it a bit more functional.

I love watches.  Always have, always will.  The problem with once working for a watch company is that once you've "seen it all" it becomes hard to get excited about new watches.  Nothing changes, its all recycled styling with someone's small tweak.  And I'm cool with that.  I'm not exactly a classic watch guy either, though, so I doubt you'll find me dropping $15,000 on the Breitling that I really love.  I'm happy with a $100-$500 watch that says something about me.

and yes, I would consider working for another watch company one day...or at least helping out with the new line at my current place of employment, hmmm......you think?

cuppow - use those mason jars

now that you have gotten your inspiration for how to decorate the hallway from dwell mag, picked up a few items on etsy, and scrounged through your local urban outfitters for the right oversized, yet understated hoodie, you can reach for your mason jars and use them on the go!


CUPPOW! from Paper Fortress on Vimeo.


I'm down with this idea.  I like it.  friggen smart....damn.....

buy them here.  

and totally saw this posted over at the 10 engines blog a few weeks ago.