How do you make an entire weekend disappear? Keep reading.
The Guzzi build is starting to become the a textbook reference to the famous cliché “Tumbling down the rabbit hole” !
I am still hoping that Mr.Williams will accept my wish to have him build my tank and seat, but in the case he doesn’t want to play, I need to find other ways to get the bike finished.
So… what if I did it?
After some time sat hunched over a long calling list at my kitchen table, listening to each en every one I called explaining me the complexity and difficulties of my design i came across a few guys that gave me complete opposite opinions, just go for it! – The only thing that can happen is that you fail!, at least you tried!
Stopping by my local tool and car DIY shop I ranted away about the DIY option, the guy behind the counter gave me a flyer with the heading “Sheet metal – Beginners class”
I gave the guy on the flyer a call, firstly to see if he could do the project for me.. but instead I ended up getting a “worth it`s wheight in gold” conversation about doing this myself – what kind of tools to buy, construction know how etc. This was back in june – his classes was to start-up again in the autumn. i booked mine in October
Day #1
We were 6 guys on the class, both age and background was different on all of us so it was a intresting group to hang out with.
The instructor used some time talking about tools I have seen and used for years, but not in the way he described – and that is the biggest difference between YouTube learing and doing a hands on class.. you are right in the middle of the information highway, the amount of Youtube video’s you must watch to get he same ammount of learning you get from 20 minutes just watching the instructor and others is enormous…
Making a bowl
The first object we were assigned to make out of a perfectly flat piece of aluminium was a bowl, how deep and what kind of curves was up you yours truly!
Belive me.. there are some hours and a sore shoulder between those images!
Raw shaping was done pounding the hell out of that sheet of aluminium against a concave shape in a wooden block.
Then a few hours in the English wheel followed, the finish out of the EW is quite shiny, only reason for mine being matte is that I scotch brited it a bit to get rid of the last imperfections.
Starting to get my hopes up here – I shaped this from a flat plate to a bowl – by deforming it badly and then bringing the surface structure back to a smooth finish…
Firstly – sorry about the image, but it was the only one i had – my shutter was a bit off 🙂
Our instructor for the weekend was Karl Fredrik Skjæggestad, he runs a Restoration/Training class/ special tools shop on this family farm, being an auto repair technician for many years he knows a thing or two about how sheet metal can be manipulated. I must tank mim for his patients and perseverance, even if we were six guys I never felt i didn’t get my questions answered or the help i needed, and belive me – help was needed 😉
The layout of his shop was very efficient, and I never felt i had to wait for anything, there were plenty of tools to go around and he gave us the possibility to work on machines in all price classes, one of my main goals by doing this class was to find out what i need to spend money on – whats important – whats not ! he knows.
Not all of the equipment used during the class was off the shelf items, some, like this wheel set on the EW was self constructed by Karl Fredrik.
Day #2
Day two mostly consisted of making a wheel arch, including tipping of edges and panel straightening.
Making patterns and templates for mirroring designs and duplicating also had a central role in day two curriculum, very useful info!
I must say that the headline was true – the weekend just despaired !
Many Thanks to Karl Fredrik for his efforts to give me a very nice introduction to this and i will be coming back for more.
I am supplying the link for signing up to the class, this being a Norwegian business its kind of irrelevant for people in the 40+ country’s that follow this blog but for the wondering Norwegians , here its is:
L`acceleratore 