Fox Valley Fab: Shop Projects

[yaidunno]

Picked up a new toy, and it needed an actual cage.

Starting to get the hang of welding tube joints. Gotta tighten it up a bit more though.

Buddy needed a cage built for his as well.

Made this exhaust for mine using a Yosh can from a Honda 600rr. Sounds great, and has the quiet core/spark arrester for the trails.

Here's another project that came in. LTR500 case needed to be extended for a lock up clutch. Had the 2" extension water jet. Metalfinished for a factory look.

 

[yaidunno]

Made a little human. She likes the animals.

Found a niche market in making quick change clutch covers, and installing them on 250r's.

But these require CNC machining. So the only logical thing to do, was get a CNC mill.

That's better.

Stacks of covers and adapters.

Everything is better anodized.

 

[yaidunno]

The next project is making 4130CM frames from scratch for the 250r. This starts with a jig, and a lot of time to reverse engineer, and re engineer the new design.

Fox Valley Fab will soon become Outlaw Motorsports LLC this year. We've been swamped with all kinds of powersports repair and fabrication, so that is the direction i will be going with things. And for liability and tax reasons, its time to go legit with the business.

 

[zmotorsports]

Bryan, glad to have you back posting. I miss seeing your awesome workmanship. Sorry to have seen you leave but glad to have you back and hope that you continue to post.

Looks like you've acquired some very nice machinery since you've been gone and especially congrats on the new arrival to your family. She's adorable and you should be a proud papa.

 

[zmotorsports]

The next project is making 4130CM frames from scratch for the 250r. This starts with a jig, and a lot of time to reverse engineer, and re engineer the new design.

Fox Valley Fab will soon become Outlaw Motorsports LLC this year. We've been swamped with all kinds of powersports repair and fabrication, so that is the direction i will be going with things. And for liability and tax reasons, its time to go legit with the business.

Your small fixturing table looks very similar to the one I built when I was building 4130 ATV sand drag chassis. Mine had adjustable feet to level and I simply placed it on my motorcycle lift and then drilled/tapped holes to attach sub-fixtures. My swingarm and A-arm fixtures were much smaller and I built those on my fixturing/welding table.

I really miss building the chromoly ATV chassis as they were always fun and many clients liked variations so no two were identical.

 

[4 FN 27]

Welcome back!!!

Very cool projects and nice investments!!!

Can't wait to see more.

 

[yaidunno]

Bryan, glad to have you back posting. I miss seeing your awesome workmanship. Sorry to have seen you leave but glad to have you back and hope that you continue to post.

Looks like you've acquired some very nice machinery since you've been gone and especially congrats on the new arrival to your family. She's adorable and you should be a proud papa.

Your small fixturing table looks very similar to the one I built when I was building 4130 ATV sand drag chassis. Mine had adjustable feet to level and I simply placed it on my motorcycle lift and then drilled/tapped holes to attach sub-fixtures. My swingarm and A-arm fixtures were much smaller and I built those on my fixturing/welding table.

I really miss building the chromoly ATV chassis as they were always fun and many clients liked variations so no two were identical.

Thanks Mike. Yea, she is finally getting to the age (1.5) where it's fun to interact with her. The infant thing really isn't my cup of tea, but i knew that going into it.

I'm looking forward to getting started on the chassis as well. At some point, i'd also like to jig up A-arms and swingers like you did. People i've talked with have expressed interest in "custom" options, so i'm sure each will be a bit different than the next.

 

[slodat]

I've followed you on IG since you said you were taking a break from posting here. I really enjoy seeing how you do things. Thanks for sharing!

Excellent work in all regards. That extended case was awesome!

 

[yaidunno]

Welcome back!!!

Very cool projects and nice investments!!!

Can't wait to see more.

Thanks Pat. I've enjoyed catching up on everybody's project threads here lately.

 

[yaidunno]

I've followed you on IG since you said you were taking a break from posting here. I really enjoy seeing how you do things. Thanks for sharing!

Excellent work in all regards. That extended case was awesome!

Thank you sir. I'm a bit jealous of the Pacemaker you picked up. That is quite the piece of iron.

 

[Duker]

Bryan, glad to have you back posting. I miss seeing your awesome workmanship. Sorry to have seen you leave but glad to have you back and hope that you continue to post.

Looks like you've acquired some very nice machinery since you've been gone and especially congrats on the new arrival to your family. She's adorable and you should be a proud papa.

^^^^What he said... Looking forward to seeing the latest projects!

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Coming in hot!

Welcome back man! Congrats on the daughter, she will be the best reason you get half as much done as you want to in the shop! You have another year before she's trying to turn every handle she can reach.

The TRX450r is beautiful and those Yamaha cages are first class. I look forward to drooling over your stuff once you get the business flowing.

On your 250r chassis, are you doing adjustable upper shock mounts? I've never seen that before, is that for lowering the machine for ice racing/flat track racing?

 

[mgermca]

I've been following on I'gram too, lots of gaps in continuity there so hard to follow.... thanks for posting here, great stuff!

 

[yaidunno]

^^^^What he said... Looking forward to seeing the latest projects!

I will try to update here from time to time.

Coming in hot!

Welcome back man! Congrats on the daughter, she will be the best reason you get half as much done as you want to in the shop! You have another year before she's trying to turn every handle she can reach.

The TRX450r is beautiful and those Yamaha cages are first class. I look forward to drooling over your stuff once you get the business flowing.

On your 250r chassis, are you doing adjustable upper shock mounts? I've never seen that before, is that for lowering the machine for ice racing/flat track racing?

Thanks! Yea free time is a bit harder to come by these days, but that's to be expected.

The adjustable shock mounts are for fine tuning the ride height without effecting spring preload. There wouldn't be enough adjustment to go from a MX setup to flat track. Im not 100% sold on it, just due to added costs, but we will see.

I've been following on I'gram too, lots of gaps in continuity there so hard to follow.... thanks for posting here, great stuff!

Thanks for checking things out.

 

[jeepinerdeep]

He's back !!!!!!!

Always slick work outta this cat.

 

[Mark_17]

I love the 250r work. I have a 1988 with a bunch of work done to it. Such a great machine

 

[BORING HOP YARD]

welcome back and thank you for posting!

 

[yaidunno]

He's back !!!!!!!

Always slick work outta this cat.

I love the 250r work. I have a 1988 with a bunch of work done to it. Such a great machine

welcome back and thank you for posting!

Thanks guys.

Here are a few more updates.

Next items off the mill are some parking brake block offs. Simple little parts that should look nice anodized.

I replaced my Delta 14" bandsaw with this nice and heavy Walker Turner unit. Not a tool that gets used every day, but it's sure nice to have around. I went through most everything on it and wired up a VFD.

Had a gear in the lathe that was giving me issues. It took a tooth off, and was in poor shape. This gearset is not hardened, so don't roast me for the heat input. The lathe has been running smooth and quiet since.

I put together a quick cart for the bender. At some point in time, i will have a hydraulic power unit and cylinder for it.

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice work Bryan. You will love having a hydraulic ram on your tube bender. One of the best mods I did to mine. I don't use my tube bender as much these days compared to when I was building chassis but it is sure nice when I do use it.

 

[yaidunno]

A few updates from the past 9 months, for those interested. I picked up this Webb lathe to compliment the Webb mill. Its actually a licensed copy of a Mori MS850 made by Whacheon. This lathe has a number of nice features over the Leblond including metric threading, coolant pump, larger swing, gap bed, and a larger and more robust spindle. Like most everything i buy, it needs some repairs and adjustment. While inspecting the machine, i spent about 30 minutes in the headstock looking over every gear. I was pleased to see that all of them are in great shape, and the machine runs quiet and smooth in all speeds. While its stripped down, it only made sense to give it some fresh paint.






The mill has been busy making all kinds of parts.







I picked the Hurco up knowing that the X axis rails were toast. The previous owner let a broken way lube line take these parts out. After waiting 2 months for the high precision (and high price) rails to come in from Bosch, I was able to get the rails and bearings swapped out. It was quite the project, and involved lots of cleaning. The mounting surfaces have to be 100% spotless, and free of any burrs or rust. The end result was more than worth it though. I've been able to drastically improve the surface finish of the parts.




This was a fun project that brought me back to the Motion days. A client needed some gauge trim rings made up. I was happy to help on this one. You can see the tooling that was made in the background.

 

[zmotorsports]

Amazing work as always Bryan. Glad to see you've been busy. Newly acquired lathe turned out great.

 

[yaidunno]

Amazing work as always Bryan. Glad to see you've been busy. Newly acquired lathe turned out great.

Thanks Mike! The lathe is still an ongoing project. It's incredibly time consuming going through each component and system on the machine. A bit more than i bargained for, but it should be a nice machine once i'm finished with it. Hoping to have it back in service within 3-4 weeks.

 

[Duker]

Amazing work as always Bryan. Glad to see you've been busy. Newly acquired lathe turned out great.

X2 great to see what has been going on in the shop!

 

[mgermca]

Thanks for posting, always inspiring seeing what you've been up to!

 

[mgermca]

Brian, do you still post as foxvalleyfab on Instagram or has your handle there changed?

Thx

Mark
mgermca on Igram

 

[yaidunno]

X2 great to see what has been going on in the shop!

Thanks for checking things out Duker.

Brian, do you still post as foxvalleyfab on Instagram or has your handle there changed?

Thx

Mark
mgermca on Igram

Hey Mark, yes i'm still on there. It's where i document most of my work. I did change my name on there though to better reflect where i'm going with things: _outlawmotorsports_

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[mgermca]

K, great. Will check it out over there.

Mark

 

[Bears Fan]

Awesome seeing new posts from you! one of my favorite garages here on The Garage Journal, I have been following along ever since you first started to post here and love seeing all your new projects.

 

[bulletpruf]

Welcome back! Enjoyed catching up with what you're up to these days. Congrats on fatherhood, and good call on setting up an LLC.

 

[harley jim]

I'm glad to see you back also. Old Aurora boy here.

 

[bugnut]

Machine works looking good. Grey paint on the lathe is outstanding!

 

[Bigblue&Goldie]

Machine works looking good. Grey paint on the lathe is outstanding!

I was thinking the same thing; really nice job on the paint!

 

[HMCFab9]

Cool stuff & great projects!
Hopefully we can make use of your old LeBlond.
I was going to say hi when you dropped it off, but i didn't want to interrupt your convo with Austin.

 

[yaidunno]

Been almost two years, so i suppose this thread is due for a few updates. Lots of new equipment, projects, and parts in that time frame.

 

[mgermca]

Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing B.

 

[gotham]

What is the control on the Hurco?

 

[bulletpruf]

Very nice! Is that an Atlas 1060 drill press? If so, did you refurbish it? There's one for sale locally that I'm interested in.

 

[yaidunno]

Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing B.

Thank you!

What is the control on the Hurco?

I'd have to double check, but i believe they are both on Winmax

Very nice! Is that an Atlas 1060 drill press? If so, did you refurbish it? There's one for sale locally that I'm interested in.

It's a Delta 17 with the optional foot feed. I restored it about 12 years ago now. Doesn't get used a ton, but its handy for poking some quick holes when needed.

 

[indisguise]

Amazing work! That Webb lathe is making me very jealous Wonderful job on the motor mount... it gave me some ideas.

 

[zmotorsports]

Amazing work as usual Bryan. Glad to see you bring some updates back to us.