Saturday 29 December 2012

The value of the past

I've learned a lot in the past couple of years, one of the big things I've learned is that good things aren't cheap, and cheap things aren't good.

Now that is a subjective statement. How do you perceive something as being cheap?

Well, without getting too deep - we live in a throwaway society, there is always a bigger, better, more efficient model lurking around the corner for us to spend our money on...

Well this Christmas, and with my wedding pending, I decided to buy something to keep, to hold, and to pass down through the generations of the family I hope to have...

A pocket watch is something that has always fascinated me. I remember going to sandown park racecourse with my day to a craft and tool fair, and being fascinated with the watchmakers. To make something that accurately that it adheres to our laws of time.... Now that is truly an art...

I've been on the hunt for a good few months, but came up trumps with the above watch. I've dated it to 1902-1903, making it 110 years old! This watch is still accurate to what seems to be actually 10 seconds a day (I thought 20 at first, but it's actually better than I thought!).

It asks only one thing of its duty, wind it on every morning...

So far so good!

And it's value? Thats hard to say, and it grows every day its with me. But for under 200 pounds- I think it's the steal of the century!

Friday 28 December 2012

Stripped

Been looking forward to getting the bike stripped down ready for powdercoating.

Sneaked an hour today while the weather wasn't too wet...

Got the frame in the shed, and made a start on cleaning up the frame and tending to a couple of welds that weren't finished off...

Saturday 22 December 2012

Have a Vintique Christmas!

Had a surprise delivery in the post today, Sean over at Vintique Cycles sent me a free Tshirt in the post. They say that Christmas is the time for giving and all that, well top man, thanks so much!

I've ordered bits from Sean, and it's always great service and delivery. He's building a great business, with some great parts. No compromise on quality, it's all good stuff and worth paying for!

Cheers mate, see you in 2013!

Get over to Vintique Cycles and spend the rest of your brass on cool as fuck chopper parts!!!

Sunday 16 December 2012

Oil tank #2

Had a buddy round to weld up a crudely migged hardtail this morning. Should have had a killer hangover with all the JD I hammered last night, but I was up and ready to crack on.

Only thing I got done for myself was to mess about with this old oil tank possibly for the 45...

Chopped a couple of inches out the middle...

Didn't get chance to try it on the bike, but should be cool...

Saturday 15 December 2012

Rework that space

My tiny little shed was a bit of a laughing stock, full of high class shit, but a total shambles!

Time to empty it and re-work the space, it's amazing the shit I had tucked away...

That's just the bits that I forgot about!

My old woodworking bench had to make way...

This was after day 1. I then realised I could put the late on the wall to the right...

This was about midday today. Well happy. Gained so much bench space it's unreal! Still loads of shit to put away, but so much better!

Decided to crack own with Elliott's BMW tank...
These are the plates to tack in the bottom of the tank....

Then with plenty of welding and fucking about...

Monday 10 December 2012

Evening shift

Went on a road trip to Ipswich on Saturday to pick up a myford ml7 my mate Elliott bought, then down to Hackney to drop an sr500 engine to a buddy.

The lathe is a Beuty, but didn't have any tooling. As there was no chuck key I decided to make one tonight as a little project.

Elliott seemed happy with it anyway...