SWAG Off-Road Bandsaw

Best tool I've bought in a long-time:

http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-Portaband-Tables-Accessories_c_35.html

It turns a port-a-band into a vertical band saw and works great for sheet metal, bar stock, and tubing. It's a perfect low-cost solution for making racecar sized brackets, chassis stands, etc. It comes with a foot pedal on/off switch which makes it easy to use up on a work bench or on the ground with a small rolling stool.

2-Post Lift Install

On the trailer

Unloaded in the shop

1st post up 

And there's the 2nd one

Top bar on - now to run hydraulics and the equalizer cables

Arms going on, now for the wiring

It works

A bit higher than my jack stands....

Making Progress on the Lift Install

Still need to finish plumbing the hydraulic lines and wiring the motor/cutoff switch, but the lift is stood up and it looks HUGE inside the shop. Can't wait to put it to good use! Thanks to Josh, Stuart, Joe and Ali for the help this past weekend. 

A Little Upgrade for the Shop - Dannmar Brigadier 10ACX

The Camaro will get a little easier to work on soon with the addition of a 2-post lift to my race shop. I selected a Dannmar Brigadier 10ACX which is an asymmetric 10,000lb lift that is ALI/ETL Certified. Thanks to my co-workers for helping me getting it into the shop! My shop is already wired for the 220V power need for the lift and I will be setting it all up after the Holidays. I've been told they are pretty easy to install if you have some helping hands, but we shall see. More photos to come after it's installed. 

Now to figure out how to get lift from the trailer to the shop...

The lift is unpacked and waiting to be installed

Back to Blogging......

Life has been busy lately. This has been what has consumed most of my time:

The House

The New Race Shop

Ali and I have been in our new house for about 10 days now and of course it's still full of boxes....but liveable. Our friend and home-builder Gary Floyd Homes did an amazing job and we couldn't be happier. We snapped these photos last Friday when it ACTUALLY snowed in San Angelo. We probably won't see our house like this again for quite a while. 

We now have internet setup at the new house, so it is now time to get back to running the blog and prepping for the 2013 racing season. I have a backlog of posts I've been meaning to make so I'll be posting some tardy photos and video from the F1 race at COTA, a Cadillac driving event I did at COTA, some indoor karting, and plans for the 2013 racing season. I'll also be posting up some more pictures and details about my new race shop soon.

SpeedHunters: Inside MadMike HQ

Mad Mike's RX-7 and RX-8 Drift cars

I love the quote and dorifto sim rig setup

Mad Mike Whiddett is a Red Bull sponsored drifting star from New Zealand. His shop is epic and is inspiration for my shop build (more on that later). Here is the full article on SpeedHunter's website:

http://www.speedhunters.com/2012/10/inside-madmike-hq/

Photos from SpeedHunters.com

Finally Getting the Baja Car Project Started

Got some rolling stands made for the Baja car. Now time to take it apart. The big hurdle will be getting longer half-shafts made. Can't wait to run this thing on the West Texas dirt trails!

Moved into a New Shop

I am officially moved out of my small single-car garage and am sharing a much bigger shop with 3 Sprint Car racers in San Angelo. The new shop will give me much more space to work on my shifter kart, rebuild the Baja car, and work on any other fab projects. Plus, I get along really well with the Sprint Car drivers and it's a much better work environment than wrenching by myself in my small garage. I'm still setting up my work area now, but the shop already has a fabrication area and plenty of shelving so it should work out well.