A co-worker sent me a link to Jalopnik.com which has a car company family tree. It’s very interesting… I didn’t know that Nissan owns Infiniti, nor did I know that the Fiat group was tied to GM, making GM in a round about way related to Ferrari! Very interesting stuff if you’re a car guy.

Here’s the link

Wow! Two posts in a day!

I was reading the Hemmings Blog this morning, and came across this very cool BMW Motorcycle. They say they believe it to be a 1920’s BMW R32 model.

I thought those of you who are into bikes would dig this one. I really like the lines of it. It reminded me of the vintage Harley, Fred Fox showed me in the basement of LeMans a few years ago when I was there on business. He had just taken delivery of this bike which was still in the original crate, and had just taken the top and sides off. He said he had found it online, and the story was that it was a surplus military bike that was forgotten in either Africa or Australia (my memory is bad).

I’m usually into traditionally styled hot rods, stuff that could have been built in the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and maybe the 70’s. However, once in a while, I come across something that’s more recently styled, or downright modern that catches my eye. This design by Mr. Grogan caught my eye this morning. I’m anxious to see more of his work, as he is a great artist, and excellent designer from what I can see in this rendering. The only website I could find for him was his myspace page.

I spent some time yesterday re-organizing the garage, and while I was at it, I mounted the cab on the frame for the first time in about a year! That was pretty exciting, and it really looks alot better now!

I also turned the truck around, so I can get at the rear suspension to rebuild it, and c-notch the frame easier… so while it was in the driveway, I took a couple of photos. I also shot some of my own photos of the new Miller 330A/B TIG welder I recently bought. I got a tank of Argon for it, and have fired it up. Mainly I’ve just contaminated my tungstens, but it seems like with some (read: ALOT OF) practice I’ll be able to TIG weld.

Being sick is the most frustrating thing in the world. You feel awful, and that stack of things that you didn’t have enough time to do when you were feeling good just grows larger!

I got sick this past weekend, and thus didn’t even take a look at hooking up the new Miller 330a/b. But I took some time this Tuesday and got it wired up, and got to try it out (despite only having argon/CO₂ gas until this weekend). It worked great! I’m anxious to get some seat-time in on it, and get good at making good looking, strong welds!

Ben

I wrote a Yahoo Pipe a couple weeks ago to give me a data stream of welders on Craigslist in my area (see it here ) for use on my google homepage. I’ve been watching for a TIG to go for a decent price for about three years, so when I came across a Miller 330 A/B SP in Watertown, I jumped at it!!

After I verified it was what I was looking for and the price was right, I told the guy I’d take it and be down to pick it up Yesterday. About two hours later I found out it was Watertown… WISCONSIN!! Yikes. It was still a good deal, so I packed up and drove down to get it yesterday. Man, what a machine! It’s huge, and burly, and goes up to 460amps! I’ll hopefully have it hooked up this weekend, and will be able to start playing with it. Here are a couple photos the guy sent me… I haven’t taken any since I got it home, yet.

It came with a big water cooler (the grey box on top), but I don’t think I’m going to use it… it just looks too gunked up with grime. I’ll maybe try cleaning it this spring, but I’ll probably look for a Bernard cooler online at some point.