Sidecar Flip
Living Legend
Cane.....think about this......
Cane:
I'm certainly not a 'master' of anything...Just ask my wife Amy. She's the boss and master, I'm the go fore.
There is one way you could use a wooden mold over and over and that's to coat the release side of the wooden mold with an epoxy that impervious to the release agent used with fiberglass resin. I know there is such a thing and I'll have to do some checking. remember, anything is possible if you really want to do it.
Just look in the corner of your computer screen.......Says Flipmeisters Specialty Products up there. Know how all that started, betcha you don't, but I'm gonna tell you. It started in Nashville last year with Dave and Rusty and George and Dennis and Ed and Carol and Scott in Exile and Raymond Braswell and everyone else. I especially credit Dave (Pianoman) and Rusty. Dave had a set of Brakeline Clamps that he bought from Rivco on his bike. I looked at them and said....I can make them better and less expensively.....and that's how it started.
It took some time, a lot of designing and a lot of scrap but the finished product is better as well as cheaper than my competition. Then I looked at the other cheap plastic fasteners on the bike, namely the handlebars. Who buys an almost 20K motorcycle and has zip ties on the handlebars to hold the wiring.....WE DO. Along came the Billet Aluminum Handlebar Clamps. No more cheap plastic crap for me. I even make them from 6000 series aluminum which, is basically as inert as the 304 stainless I use in the brakeline clamps. 6000 Series aluminum is marine grade so it don't degrade or white rust like lesser grades.
Next came the Pannier Liners, which, have been very popular all over the world. I looked at my 'sad sack' Panniers and thought to myself....These cost 800 bucks and look like ****te. They look like a sixty year old drag queen in need of a breast reduction....along came the Pannier Liner Kit which restores the angular look to the Panniers and keeps them that way. I never worked with plastic before except maybe as a kid, gluing together plastic models of boats and cars (remember those...you built them and then sunk 'em in the bathtub)...Here I am doing thermoforming. I knew how to build the dies, as for the rest of it, the proer forming temperature, cooling cycle, the properties of the HDPE, I knew nothing. I'm surprised I didn't burn my shop up...I came close a few times, like Amy running out because smoke was billowing out the windows......
None of it came easy and none of it came cheap. I was blessed in the fact that I already had a completely equipped short run job shop but I never designed products and made a marketable item.
It's been a long road and I still have a long way to go, but there is a tremendous amount of satisfaction in doing what I do, whether it's for a limited market or not.
Just do it. I'll help you any way I can. Honestly, I couldn't carve a wooden dildo let alone a spoiler.
Don't get discouraged. When it's all said and done, you'll look back and you'll say...'I did that myself'. That's something thats priceless and don't ever forget it.
Cane:
I'm certainly not a 'master' of anything...Just ask my wife Amy. She's the boss and master, I'm the go fore.
There is one way you could use a wooden mold over and over and that's to coat the release side of the wooden mold with an epoxy that impervious to the release agent used with fiberglass resin. I know there is such a thing and I'll have to do some checking. remember, anything is possible if you really want to do it.
Just look in the corner of your computer screen.......Says Flipmeisters Specialty Products up there. Know how all that started, betcha you don't, but I'm gonna tell you. It started in Nashville last year with Dave and Rusty and George and Dennis and Ed and Carol and Scott in Exile and Raymond Braswell and everyone else. I especially credit Dave (Pianoman) and Rusty. Dave had a set of Brakeline Clamps that he bought from Rivco on his bike. I looked at them and said....I can make them better and less expensively.....and that's how it started.
It took some time, a lot of designing and a lot of scrap but the finished product is better as well as cheaper than my competition. Then I looked at the other cheap plastic fasteners on the bike, namely the handlebars. Who buys an almost 20K motorcycle and has zip ties on the handlebars to hold the wiring.....WE DO. Along came the Billet Aluminum Handlebar Clamps. No more cheap plastic crap for me. I even make them from 6000 series aluminum which, is basically as inert as the 304 stainless I use in the brakeline clamps. 6000 Series aluminum is marine grade so it don't degrade or white rust like lesser grades.
Next came the Pannier Liners, which, have been very popular all over the world. I looked at my 'sad sack' Panniers and thought to myself....These cost 800 bucks and look like ****te. They look like a sixty year old drag queen in need of a breast reduction....along came the Pannier Liner Kit which restores the angular look to the Panniers and keeps them that way. I never worked with plastic before except maybe as a kid, gluing together plastic models of boats and cars (remember those...you built them and then sunk 'em in the bathtub)...Here I am doing thermoforming. I knew how to build the dies, as for the rest of it, the proer forming temperature, cooling cycle, the properties of the HDPE, I knew nothing. I'm surprised I didn't burn my shop up...I came close a few times, like Amy running out because smoke was billowing out the windows......
None of it came easy and none of it came cheap. I was blessed in the fact that I already had a completely equipped short run job shop but I never designed products and made a marketable item.
It's been a long road and I still have a long way to go, but there is a tremendous amount of satisfaction in doing what I do, whether it's for a limited market or not.
Just do it. I'll help you any way I can. Honestly, I couldn't carve a wooden dildo let alone a spoiler.
Don't get discouraged. When it's all said and done, you'll look back and you'll say...'I did that myself'. That's something thats priceless and don't ever forget it.
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