Wednesday, December 26, 2007

How to Set Up Your Workshop

One of my favorite things to do at big races is walk through the pits. Not to see the bikes – they all look the same – or even the racers. No, my favorite thing to see is the factory rigs and the pit setups. I love seeing what sort of cool, labor-saving jigs and tools and setups they have. It's the next best thing to seeing inside a professional race shop, which I have never done. I am always looking for things to do to my own shop or trailer to make them more efficient. So when I ran across this book from White Horse Press I bought it right away even though I didn't expect much (I find low expectations are a great way to avoid disappointment.)

I was pleasantly surprised to find the book is nice a collection of reviews of different shops - ranging from small, personal workspaces all the way up to the Yoshimura Racing facility. The author, C. G. Masi, does a great job describing the shop, the work done in it, and the various trade-offs the owner made for space, layout, etc. There are lots of pictures and plenty of helpful advice for anyone looking to revamp a shop, build a new one, or just rearrange the garage. It's chok-full of tips for cheap storage, effective layout, and guidelines for things like compressed air plumbing. If you like to plan things out before you start renovating you'll probably like this book a lot. Add it to the list of things someone can get you for a birthday. You'll both be happy.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Nice Vintage Engine Stand

This is a product I've used in my shop for over a year. It works really well with ca 1969-1975 CZ motors. From what I can tell it will work with almost any vintage single - two-stroke or four-stroke. It's highly adjustable, easy to use, and Mike Kincaid over at Rampant Racing is a great guy.

When you buy a lot of products over the internet, sight-unseen as I often do, you never know what's going to show up at your door. Often it's a decent product taped into a shoebox or grocery bag or somesuch. Mike doesn't deliver that kind of nonsense. The Rampant Racing stand came fully broken down and fixed in a custom wooden shipping fixture. It was the best-engineered shipping container I've seen and made sure that everything arrived in order and undamaged no matter what the chimpanzees at the freight company did.

That might seem silly, but a guy who puts that kind of thought into how to package his product isn't going to make a cheesy product to go in it. You can bet the engine stand is first-rate — solid engineering, excellent manufacturing quality, nice finish, and easy assembly. If you work on engines out of the frame this is a tool you wqant under your Christmas tree.