Industrial Sewing Machine has made a Full Recovery!

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This just in from Ron at the surgery center:

I had the sewing machine checked out and oiled today. It’s ready to go. Deby from Debys Sewing Repair came over and oiled it, unjammed it and made a couple adjustments. It runs very smoothly. She gave me few pointers about the machine. I guess I’m the certifier for it until someone who knows what they’re doing comes along. It’s not a home machine, so there are a couple things that are don’t do’s. The big one is “do not remove the needle plate unless you know what you’re doing”.  I printed a manual for it.

Woo Hoo! The patient is ready to go back to work! (Jeff)

Industrial Sewing Machine in Stable Condition

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John & Ron performed necessary surgery on the industrial sewing machine yesterday providing much need support and structural stability to a patient with a deformed and curved spine. They had to remove most of the patients external components to assess the damage and provide access to the diseased area. Time and neglect had taken it’s toll. They took available angle iron and other metal components and welded, shaped, drilled, and mounted a rigid framework to support and shape the existing body.

After this successful surgery, there is still some examination and effort needed to bring the heart of the patient back to a full and beneficial life as expected from this fine specimen.

The next steps can be taken by other specialists (or wannabes too!) to examine the machine’s sewing mechanisms to lubricate and adjust.

Sorry, no pictures were taken as I left my camera at home. (Jeff)

Shakespeare Work Party Results

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Tatiana and Rachel and another parent putting the finishing touches on the stage for the upcoming Shakespeare plays for their seventh graders. They have spent almost every day last week working on this project. And there are lots of little pieces that are inside the Forge to dress the set.  (Jeff)

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The Shamancycle is Beginning to take flight

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The weekend was spent putting the pieces together into what the Shamancycle will become. It’s time to get serious about aligning the pieces, making accurate adjustments and getting the frame welded into a solid structure upon which will hang everything else. Visit shamancycle.com to see what Phoebe had been up to on this project and to see the Kickstarter video which should be live soon (I haven’t seen it yet either). (Jeff)

The Shamancycle!

The Shamancycle!

The Shamancycle build has started!

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trusssI spent this weekend building the trusses for the Shamancycle. The abrasive cutoff saw area was expanded a bit and the roller table was moved into a location that long material can be placed to feed material into the cutoff saw. The long pieces of 2″ x 2″ square steel tubing were cut to the various lengths needed.

The various pieces were assembled on top of the two workmate-like folding tables stored above the cutoff saw and tacked together. After re-checking the squareness of the truss (think of a ladder) I found that it wasn’t right. I changed the blade on one of the angle grinders to a cut-off blade and cut through the tack welds. I then set it up properly, tacked it, and checked it again. Then I proceeded to weld it all up. Thanks to Yvon for taking the picture on Saturday!

On Sunday morning I came in and did the same thing to the second truss, but without goofing it up this time.
(Jeff)