FunJimmy
Been Around the Block
snmavridis said:
Thanks for checking in, following along and all the kind words.
By trade, I’m in sales and marketing, but I come from a family of mechanics.
My only technical training came from high school metal and power mechanics.
Aluminum is easy and forgiving to work with and gives excellent results as long as you take your time.
Metal finishing with wet #220 and #400 grit followed by Scotchbrite will give a great anodized finish that looks pro.
Lots of people will cut you some slack if you tell then that your build is just a hobby.
I found an anodizer that would add my parts to existing batches for beer.
I also found a powder coater that has a passion for bikes too and goes the extra mile to help make it affordable.
Carbon fiber work can be surprisingly affordable too.
I purchase all my materials from industrial suppliers, not the retail composite businesses.
I use polyester resin (same as fiberglass) as the epoxy is twice the cost and I didn’t feel that the performance differences warranted epoxy.
I’m a perfectionist, so it may have taken a half dozen tries to get the tail section or a fender just right for me.
Well I sold 5 (paint grade) carbon tail sections on ebay before I sold the mold.
That recovered all the materials costs of building pretty much all my carbon work.
I also swapped a carbon fender for the Yoshimura pistons to a forum member etc.
I’d never want to actually add the build costs, let alone post them on the internet for my wife to find but there’s lots of ways to offset your build costs if you are willing to make a few extra parts and sell to builders along the way.
Keep in mind that you don’t need expensive machinery to get good results working with aluminum.
The only purpose build machine that I own is a lathe.
Invaluable for making parts as most are turned bits but a bandsaw, drill press, bench top sander and files can get you a long way.
Cheers
FJ
(unless i pay a few thosand bucks)
