Lockable Gate

Lockable gate with snooker ball knobs on

The gate is now lockable (either from inside or outside) and when open, as you can see, it takes up no room - so that the GT550 can just ride straight through, especially now that I can fold the mirrors in. All that has to happen now is that I need to render the wall, which will be another new experience for me. Click to see the bike and the changes to the bat-cave.

Nothing new under the sun! - CarBQ

Damn, just when you think you have something unique up your sleeve, you find that someone is already doing it. It is a nice job too - well designed, tidily made.

A girlfriend of mine has been telling mates about mine and has been talking about marketing them but the name has gone, as you can see, dammit, but where mine is different as an idea is that I'd be building a more grunty, basic, sculptural car-b-que out of various classic cars' panels facing the crusher or disintegration...and so would appeal to a wider market. Also mine are for traditional cooking by fire, not gas.

Black Numbers

I must try and take a picture earlier in the day (when there is sun and neither rain nor wind), as I always seem to get the gate backlit by the setting sun. I have just black hammerited the numbers for contrast.

Now out to the shed to finish the locking mechanism. I wasted a few hours last night fiddling with an idea which ultimately was no good. I think I have a solution that will work tonight.

Gate 94

Now just need to hammerite the detailing and weld on the bolting mechanism etc and it's done.

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Mechanic's Gate

Buying the bike meant taking my narrow wooden gate down and replacing it with a wider, steel one....making it myself by welding two small ones together to make a tall one and designing fittings which would mean that when open it would not take up any space at all in the aperture (pictures later). The gate is now standing and the locking mechanism is in production.

But I wanted the gate to have a cute finishing touch:- scroll work and a house number made out of spanners, pincers, sprockets and motorcycle drive chain. I have just come up from the workshop (1.30 am) having finished welding them together. I will weld them onto the gate tomorrow, if the weather permits.

The pictures here show the parts mounted vertically. I don't know whether I shall hammerite the non-bronzed bits black to give a strong contrast to the silver gate or whether to let them rust naturally. It is very satisfying knowing that these parts are all recycled. The spanners were rescued from a skip last week and the chain and sprockets came off John's bike. The whole gate cost me £10.

Incidentally, I don't know if it looks like it from that sun and pincer motif, but I am not a Freemason ;)

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Teardrop plans for my trailer

I love teardrop trailers and would eventually like to build something similar to this one on the chassis that I was given by Dad's girlfriend. John and I have studied its suspension and we feel that it must have been modified from something fairly substantial like a caravan. A teardrop is lower than a caravan...and can be seen over when looking behind, making it easier to use; it is more aerodynamic and compact; it has a classic aesthetic; and best of all, it can be easily built by a keen amateur, at little expense.

Basically, it is a double bed on wheels with cooking facilities in a compartment which goes above where your legs would be in bed. They can be pretty elaborate but I'd like mine to be simple but well finished.

I will post some of the many excellent sites, but for now, here is a commercial example. Typical of the age, there are many outfits over-designing these things for customers, which I think misses the point. They ought to be amateur affairs, but people seem to have lost or forgotten how to make things, or maybe they can't be bothered to do even the simplest DIY project themselves any more?

Security Hitching Post

Have a look at one of my most successful projects: a secure, fold-down hitching post for my trailer (click here).