New Guy in Central MO

[CoolHand]

Hello all, I'm a younger fellow from Belle MO. It's a dinky little town out here in flyover country (AKA BFE), which is wonderful, I wouldn't live anywhere else. My name is Ryan Shanks.

I'm an engineer and self taught machinist. Self employed as a niche market inventor and entrepreneur. I've developed and marketed products for race cars, hot rods, customs, paintball markers, firearms, and industrial machines. The name of my company is Logic Industries LLC. I'm sure as I go along, I will build tools for myself that might be of use to others. If/When that occurs, I'll probably offer them for sale, but there's no telling when or even if that will happen, so don't look for it any time soon.

I raced open wheel dirt modifieds all around MO for nine seasons. Basically since I've been able to drive cars, I've been racer.

The common denominator in all my pursuits is metalworking. I love making things from metal.

I've been a welder and a fabricator since I was a kid. Learned to arc (SMAW) weld when I was twelve, and I've been slowly been adding processes as I age. Learned mig (GMAW) when I was a freshman in high school, learned to gas weld (OAW) sheetmetal (which I love, BTW, pretty much the only way I will weld thin sheetmetal is with the torch) about three years ago, and I've been working on my tig (GTAW) technique since then. I am constantly amazed at how versatile the GTAW process is. Honestly, I'm a little pissed that I waited so long to learn it.

With the race cars, we did a lot of flat panel fabrication, some sheet welding on the steel bits (floor pans and protective plating), but mostly it was aluminum joined with rivets. That was very interesting, and I learned a lot about fixing crash damage, as least the best I could without knowing how to shrink the stretch out of the dent (0.040" alum body panels and steel bumpers make for large and deep dents with a lot of stretch and tearing). With stock cars, especially on the dirt, there's only so much body work you worry about, 'cause it's gonna get torn off again next week anyway. Patch the huge holes, make sure the doors and quarters don't fall off, verify that you can read the number from 50 feet, and you're good to go.

With the demise of my racing program, I've gotten into hotrodding in the last few years, which then lead me to discover the HAMB in 2007. The more I got into the body mod side of that, I realized I needed to learn more about shaping body steel without pie cuts and other such hackery.

Add into it that this kind of panel shaping is sort of a dying art, and I feel highly motivated to learn everything I can about it from any of the old timers I can find, before this knowledge is lost entirely.

It seems like nobody cares for craftsmanship and skill with one's hands anymore, but I assure you, there is no higher pleasure for me than to step away from the bench or the machine or the welding table and see a shiny new "thing" or "outfit" or "whatsit" setting there that didn't exist the day before.

THAT is what I love, and I hope that lurking and posting here will allow me to apply another set of skills to my pursuit of that end.

I am currently in the process of building an english wheel, from scratch. That will likely be one of my first build posts here. Not sheetmetal shaping "per se", but definitely a step in that direction.

Basically, I hope to come here, steal your secrets, and use them for my own selfish ends.

Bwahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!

Wait, I said that out loud, didn't I? Damnit!

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Welcome Ryan. Lots of good metalshapers in your neck of the woods.

[jhnarial]

Right On Ryan.

Your just the kind of member I love to see join our site.Plus I like the avatar.

I live about twenty minutes south of KC if you are ever up my way let me know and we'll beat on some metal.

Welcome aboard

[52pickup]

Hey Ryan, welcome to the site. There is a munch of good info here. And, I believe there are several guys from Missouri. There are a bunch of guys here that are on the HAMB also.

[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.

[CoolHand]

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.

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.

[rlile]

Belle....huhh......I stomp through there on my way to Vichy...
got kin folk there.....
went to UMR.....
I know right where that turkey rests

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Beautiful work Ryan. I need to talk to you off line about your 1911 work. I'm building one this winter. It ain't metalshaping but it sure is difficult and you've clearly got a gift for gunsmithing. I'll send you a PM.

Regarding your Ford, what areas do you intend to work on?

[Gleeser]

Yeah, I think you just made a new best friend.... lmao

[mr.c]

1911's, you bring a smile to my face. The only one that I have welded on was to make a long-slide bowling pin match piece. It's a shame that we don't have an applicable category here. Perhaps I will send you a pm as well. I wouldn't mind tightening the slide clearance on that piece.
By the way, excellent photography.