Quote:
Originally Posted by Gleeser
Well, metalshaping USED to be a dying art. Thanks to the advent of the internet it has seen quite an upsurge. It's not dying anymore. In the last 7-10 years it has grown by leaps and bounds. New machines and techniques have been developed and old techniques improved upon in many ways to make it an attainable art for anyone with the willingness to learn. There is a wealth of information here and a deep pool of knowledge to gain from a whole lot of the members. Rarely if ever will you ask a metalshaping question that will go un answered.
Welcome from the Northern corner of Missouri by the way. Nice to have another "local" here. There are several shapers in the vicinity of you, myself included. So show us some of your work, I visited your site but the gallery seems to be not working.
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I am
very glad to hear this.
It seems I have a habit of picking things up just as they're tailing off, so it will be a welcome change of pace to get into something on the upswing instead of just before the death rattle.
The site doesn't work, 'cause it's not finished.
I got the place holder up last year, and last month I finally got a main page made (roughing the thing out, you might say), but almost all the links from that front page are pointing to pages that aren't made yet.
There's only so much of me to go around, and I find it a lot harder to spend time of web development than I did ten years ago. It's more chore than project, so it gets put off a lot.
I'll drop a few pics here of some things I've done though.
My favorite race car. Picture taken in front of my fraternity house. I am the goober in the blue shirt and red hat, leaning on the roof:
A few paintball markers that I built from scratch:
This first one, I used the guts and frame of a stock marker and built the new body and pump handle from bar stock:
This one I designed and built from the ground up, almost entirely from scratch (the blue and black bits are off the shelf parts, but everything in raw aluminum, including the frame, are my design and machine work, done from bar stock):
Here are a few pistols I've done recently:
Springfield 1911 (lowered and flared port, new lo-mount sights, beavertail grip safety, tightened fit all around, new fire control group, etc), this is my carry piece:
Single Stack Master. I hand fit this pistol from oversize parts. Slick as glass, and tighter than a frogs bottom, slated to go to a new home in TX around Christmas time:
Mark XXII (1911 type chambered in .22LR), STI top end on an Essex frame that I welded up and refit to set the proper clearances on (when I got it new from Essex, the frame was so undersize that without the added material, the assembled pistol was loose and rattly as an old hay bailer). Eventually it will go to a new home, though the destination is TBD at some later date:
Double Stack Commander. This combination of parts isn't available from any factory, so a little bit of "persuasion" was necessary to get them to live together in harmony. I started with a full size slide (for a 5" barrel), and cut it down to accept the 4.25" barrel. That meant I had to design and machine a new recoil system to use a flat coil spring (like a coil of sheet steel wound laying flat, not on edge, instead of wire) and fit it all inside a space that was ~0.020" longer than the solid height of my components (IE, no crap-up room). I managed to pull it off without any issues, and it's now living with a nice fellow in IL who loves it dearly:
This last one I built 'cause a got a good deal on the slide and frame.
It too was all hand fit. It's now living with a very nice lady in NV someplace:
And last, here's where I started with the '36 Ford I'm trying to turn into a hot rod worthy of the name:
That's not everything, the paintball markers are just my favorites (and the one's that are the most unique), and the pistols are just what I've done in the last year or so, I've got lots of other stuff to post as well, but this single entry is already hella long, and you guys get the picture.
I hope to learn a lot from you fellows.
I've already spent about six hours reading Kerry's Bugatti/Imperial Roadster thread, and I'm only about 18 posts into it. That man gets a lot of information into a single post. I can't wait to see how that one turns out.
Thanks for the welcome guys.