Recent content by Clarifixer

I have a Jet vise with 5-inch jaws and a very different style than what you have pictured. I bought it new in the late 1970's, and haven't used it a whole lot, but man, it's a nice piece. I got it because it was advertised as being made from tool steel and manufactured in France, but memory is...

Just completed a long term project of assembling the components for miniature machining, vintage style. It's a Levin watchmaker lathe with collet holding tailstock, which takes the same WW 8mm collets as the headstock. The cross feed and longitudinal attachment, along with the "big" scroll...

Been looking for a Boley-style watchmaker's vise, and found one on eBay, but should have looked more closely at the ad. This thing is TINY--less than half the size of the one I have which is already small by the standards of this thread. I did a bead blast and wire wheel clean up and couldn't...

I'm setting up a bench for a possible apprentice and duplicating my set-up for the most part. I figure it will make it easier to translate "watching" into "doing" by having similar tools. I picked up a nasty old Boley watchmaker lathe as a first step in equipment acquisition: A few hours of...

Re: Trice The lug work is beautiful. That was one thing I was a bit disappointed with on the new models, and though the TIG work is strong and well done on mine, it sure doesn't have the panache of that hand work.

I have a light coating of Universal RIG on them (used to prevent rust in black powder shooting gear), and an pretty **** about keeping things bright. The rings were pirated off of the original nuts--I looked around the 'Net for something similar, but couldn't find anything.

You should see the kids laugh, wave and shout out "Cool bike!" when I whiz by. I try not to keep too close a watch on the expenses, and don't give my wife too many details about it, but the trike cost about $3100 new in 2009, and I've got about half again that much in it with performance...

Finally got around to making some "hubcaps" for the front hubs. I've already done a lot of turned aluminum with red anodized hardware elsewhere on the trike, so I followed that theme. First shot is the knurled nuts in place--with shortening the axles, I actually lost about 10 grams. The...

Man, who'd a thought there would be a site like that? Very interesting. A lot of that stuff takes me back to my first job in the early 60's as a mechanic in a bike shop when things were fairly simple. Today's high end $$$$tuff is off the charts with materials and aerodynamic enhancements. You...

I.C.E. has a new fully suspended trike out this year utilizing elastomers that are interchangeable for individual riders' weight. They are one of the premier builders, base in the U.K., with very elegant ideas and first rate build quality. The front suspension is also a retro-fit, and I'm...

Well, O.K. (*sigh*), now that you've twisted my arm :lol:, here's the beast, with the outboard Q.R. levers. It's an I.C.E. (Inspired Cycle Engineering) Q-26 with lots of mods. After decades of seriously riding a diamond frame bicycle, my back, neck and shoulders are much happier, not to...

Always wanted a custom vehicle that I could machine and/or fabricate bits and pieces for, and found with my skewed taste, a tadpole-style recumbent trike was fertile ground. When I reversed the quick release mechanism on the front wheels for looks (and maybe a tiny bit of aerodynamic flow), I...

Here's a Flickr shot you might enjoy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincent_martin/4547874456/in/faves-werks2/ Sure shows how small the car is.

Great stuff--thanks, guys. I might get into this myself! Larry, I'm don't know what that "step it up for pitching strength" means. Could you elaborate? I just ordered Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Home Brewing from Amazon so I'll probably stumble across it, but experience speaks...

My son's birthday is coming up and he is just starting learning about brewing beer. :beer: He has a starter kit with basic (probably cheapie) tools, but I'd like to get him something nice that an experience brewer could not live without. I know nothing about making beer even though I like...