Thursday, January 10, 2008

SF Bay Area: Learn to make metal fenders by hand

Ooh, you can learn to create your own Honjo-style fenders! From TechShop:
Learn the principles and practice of cutting and forming simple and compound curves and shapes from aluminum and light-gage sheet-metal material without molten metal, flames and expensive molds etc. Use an English wheel, shrinker/stretcher, air-planishing hammer, delrin shaping hammers and beater bags provided. Through tool demonstrations, you'll shape, form, harden and fabricate a custom bike fender in class. Other tools and techniques as well as your project and future classes will be discussed.
See TechShop for class schedule and more info.

TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment...or a Kinko's for geeks.

TechShop was founded in 2006 by Jim Newton, a lifetime maker, veteran BattleBots builder and former MythBuster. TechShop is located in Menlo Park, California, on the San Francisco peninsula 25 miles south of San Francisco.

Anyone can come in and build and make all kinds of things themselves using the TechShop tools, machines and equipment, and draw on the TechShop instructors and experts to help them with their projects.

TechShop is designed for everyone, regardless of their skill level. TechShop is perfect for inventors, "makers", hackers, tinkerers, artists, roboteers, families, entrepreneurs, youth groups, FIRST robotic teams, arts and crafts enthusiasts, and anyone else who wants to be able to make things that they dream up but don't have the tools, space or skills.

The TechShop workshop provides a wide variety of machinery and tools for the open and unlimited use of its members, including milling machines and lathes, welding stations and plasma cutters, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws, industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities, tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools, and pretty much everything you'd ever need to make just about anything all by yourself.

Props to Alison for this information.

3 comments:

Pete LaVerghetta said...

That is crazy cool. I'll have to look around and see if we have something similar here locally. I've been sorta fascinated by the English wheel since I first saw Jesse James making a gas tank on TV.

jim g said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jim g said...

I took this class last fall and did a write-up on my blog.