dead man t shirt in store....

I've got a limited run of the dead man T up in the STORE .... print only on the front if your into beards, hair and dead men. 

concrete and stone insulated and reinforced wall

This is the wall that we are currently building along the south side of the house (southern hemisphere, north wall opens to sun). The above shot is where its at right now. We are a third of the way complete along its length. I wanted to have a wall that would give the coldest part of the house (south side) a large thermal mass. It had to be an insulated wall (which this is) and it had to be built by hand by my wife and I.

This is where we started. The first corner block. We did various walls around the property adjoining gardens and terraces as a trial. I finally was drawn to the idea of completely forming the wall in sections that were manageable. 2400 x 600 x 650mm thick was the chosen size. The sheet of form ply fitted well cut into two, and the height ensured that there was not too much pressure on the formwork as it was loaded up.

I constructed two forms, a corner mould and a straight mould out of RHS steel. I then fixed positions that threaded rod could be fed through conduit and tightened to keep the forms together. I will do some close ups of the forms next time i strip a block.

In the centre i used a 30mm styrofoam insulation which is fixed in position by silicon at sides and bottom and held vertical by a couple of welded bars that are removed after pour is complete.

down low on the wall are steel tubes 150mm diametre that will operate as cool air ventilation inlets into the house, allowing great cross ventilation, keeping the house cool in summer.

we found a neighbouring property that wanted to get rid of local granite they had all over their land. we got all this lighter coloured rock for free. we added a bunch of hard basalt from a quarry not far from here and mix the sizes and textures and colours as we go. We do all the concrete mixing by hand (9 mixes per block) and it takes us about 3 hours to pour each block start to finish. it takes a day to go off, an hour to strip and an hour to clean the block and the formwork. Two hours to set up for the next pour and off we go again.

i put two keyjoints into each block end, one on each side of the insulation.

above the wall along its length will be louvered and double glased window sections and architecturally the roof line should "float" over the heavy wall below.

750 ss barrel fin repair.

The barrels for the ss are in pretty good shape except this fin, located in the best spot possible. I have an old guzzi barrel that I use as a donor for fins like this.

Thats it tucked in under the head...see what i mean its in a good spot. Bead blast and it will be done.

front fender for the shovel.

I'm preparing to give my shovel a makeover. Its without a doubt the ugliest bike i've ever owned and its long overdue, but i just wanted it to prove itself to me over a year before i did too much to it.

It did. Its a fantastic bike, and i almost grew to like its ugliness. I had a spare early front end for it so i've just finished rebuilding it, only thing left is to get the brake back from machining and fit it up. i had an old 19inch pirelli that i had been saving for years... about 15 years actually. still feeling good so we will see if it stays for more than a week. Fitted it up to a acront alloy rim with stainless spokes.

I had picked out a chrome fender for the back off an old ducati so to match i found this CB250 front fender that im going to fit. I spent a couple of hours on it this morning planishing and filing dents so all i have to do is extend the bracket to fit and send away for chroming. I know i'm gonna love this front end. 

damiens pantah

..is staying in the shed for a bit while he's on vacation. 600ccs of desmo lovliness through the bush at lunchtime today in perfect autumn weather. i'll take some really good shots of it over the weekend and post them up.

pretty close on the mark 3 now....

\

still waiting for the instruments to turn up......6 weeks to replace a bezel and a glass and zero the odo,..lets see what the bill is.

so need to make a alloy dash that shouldn't take long and last bits of wiring and start up.....and then a whole bunch of shakedown stuff for sure.

i ended up not cutting back and polishing the paint, the finish off the gun is good enough for the time being, i'll let it harden over a couple of months while im sorting the niggly things and then i will do it.

Mikes WL in GKM ....

... very thankful to Guy for featuring another bike from the shed here.....mikes bike is in issue 32 and the story is a perfect representation of how it went down.....you the man mike.

so many good features in this issue....
including my melbourne maltese man justin zahra's trump... good to meet you kuda, see you guys soon.....

always loved brads ZON blog....hes got a great eye for the good stuff...

go get a subscription HERE.....GO SON...

Mark III paintwork.....

.....has been taking up some time in the last couple of days....i struggled a bit with the work yesterday, had a couple of stupid mishaps, scratched the tank, and generally got fed-up with painting outside...when we eventually finish our house and move out of the shed ill have a space for painting, but for the rest of this year its outside in the elements....

i chose some pretty conservative colours for this bike. silver, mercedes anthracite and black. This bike has all the running gear from a mark 3 but all the bodywork that came with my mark1 when i got it....so its a bitsa, and i didn't want to try and make it look like a replica but rather a tasteful custom, hence the conservative paintwork. i got some good clear coats on today, so its looking good. I'll leave it for a few days, block it back and hit the final coats of clear before final assembly.

tail section of Mark V Le Mans.

...is mostly done now. I have to construct a couple of front mounting points, although the idea of retaining a simple leather strap across the seat as per the original holds some appeal.

...the front section needs to be cut down but i want to show my upholsterer tomorrow what im intending to do so he can lead the way....

...im happy with the convex depression i put in the centre to match the imola tank and the small radiuses and angles worked pretty well in connecting it visually with the tank.

now you see it now you dont.

cleaned up for the first time in about 9 years last week.....just for a minute, cant do without my beard, no one takes me seriously.

Tail section of MarkV...

.... got some good time today on the tail section of the Mark V le mans...i've been trying to get it to sit right with the tank that we I have for the bike, an alloy imola ducati tank. I've taken a few of the details, the depression to the rear section, the radiused corners and the overall lines and tried to let that inform the tail. I had a basic shape in mind and drew a side profile keeping in mind the frame rails, mounting points and how i wanted the seat foam and cover to appear in the finished product. Then I cut the two side sections and annealed them in preparation for bending. I bent them and then mounted them to the frame rails. Once mounted I cut a cardboard section and did a greasy finger rub of its shape. I cut it and you can see how it fits above.

 I tacked it together, and once I had that done i removed the section from the bike and set to it with the hammer and various dollies to really get the joints flush.

I finish welded it along each length.

Next I got stuck into it with the course file. This is my favourite part...You can feel every imperfection when doing it this way.....much better than any electrical tool i think.....its also a shitload slower, allows you the time to correct any wrongdoing...no second chances with grinders.

Once filed up on one side i set to it with 120 grit on a block plane...

I will have a go at the otherside tomorrow.