A Little Side Job

Stuart Ablett

Member
Messages
15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
A buddy blew into town and needed me to so some work for him, while I was doing some other work, a new challenge appeared, I offered a solution, and got some more work.

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Made from UHMW black plastic rod, turned by hand on the lathe, the tolerances are tight, but not super tight.
This stuff machines nicely, but the ribbons make you stop and clean up a LOT.

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I got eight done, they need six, but I thought a couple extra would be good.

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High tech drawings.... :D


Anyone have a guess at what they are for?
 
It's clear those are bushings for the hinges on an elaborate moving bookcase installation that covers the secret passageway into a hidden ninja dojo behind the liquor store. Sheesh! Anybody can see that. :rolleyes:
 
My guess is they have something to do with the bike store. I say they to use on axles on a jig for holding wheels in a specific location while they balance them or adjust the spokes etc.

sent from s4
 
Well I guess I can spill the beans :D

My favorite circus is in town again with a new show, Cirque du Soleil, and my friend Fred from the last show is here for just two weeks to help set up the new show. Fred is kind of a fireman, he goes around the world wherever he is needed. Now a short story before I tell you where the bushings are being used.

This story was related to me by a third person who was there when it happened and when I was eating lunch at the jobsite sharing a table, the fellow found out who I was and he had to tell me this story.

They work with a rather larger company here in Japan partnering on the shows, for logistics and workers etc, really this is a HUGE company that is all over the world. Some things changed on the set up and meant they needed to build some new brackets and thus they needed a MIG welder. Fred asked the head foreman of the Large Japanese Company (LJC) if they can please get him a MIG welder, like tomorrow. The foreman doubts it can be done, but says he'll look into it. An hour later after much searching and many phone calls, utilizing everything at the disposal of said LJC the foreman comes back and says "Sorry but MIG welders are not common in Japan (true) and to get one on a Sunday, well that is just simply impossible, very sorry". Fred then hold up one finger, takes out his cell phone and makes a call, asks a couple of questions to the guy on the other end of the line, says "Great, see you tomorrow" and hangs up. He turns to the foreman of the LJC and says, "Don't worry, I'll have a MIG welder here tomorrow, Sunday at 9:00 AM, thanks". The foreman of the LJC is speechless, he sputters a few things and then says "Who did you call?" Fred says "My secret weapon in Japan".

Yes that's me, the Secret Weapon in Japan :D

While I could not do the welding, as I'm not certified and Cirque is, understandably, rather strict on such things, I could rent them my welder. On the second day they decided that while they had the welder there, they wanted to do some aluminum MIG welding, OK I had to take out the Argon gas bottle and some other items to swap the machine over to aluminum. While waiting for the guy that was to do the aluminum welding, Fred asked if I could look at something, a problem they were trying to solve.

If you look at this video....


..... and I hope the link goes to the 4:05 second mark, but the slack rope the artist is on is moved adjusted, the rope goes through some pulleys and the anchor point is on the floor on the large baseplate on the bottom of what they call a rigging mast. For whatever reason the LJC changed the mounting points for the rigging mast, that is one reason they needed my MIG welder, but then another reason came up, that is the anchor point for the very bottom pulleys for the slack rope had also changed, the old fixture would not fit, the bushings were now the wrong size and the shaft is too short. Well they can make a new shaft, but the bushings, no can do, so I made them on my lathe, not my machinist lathe, as I don't have one, but my regular lathe.

It was very cool the be able to help them out, and get paid too. This had to be a tight fit, like tap it in with a hammer fit, and they were. Everyone was pleased.

Fun to do stuff outside the box for sure!

PS with the money I've earned I've decided to buy a TIG welder, I mentioned this to Fred he called me an hour or so ago saying that if I can get the TIG welder soon, they would LOVE to rent it off me for a few days..... :D
 
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:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

Very, very cool story. :thumb: That was so far outside my mental box that there was basically zero chance of me guessing that.
Of course as soon as you started the story my middle-aged memory started remembering something about you and Cirque from a long time ago...

Here's my Cirque story.

Couple years ago, Cirque was here in London at the arena. (Then called the "John Labatt Centre", now renamed to "Budweiser Gardens", just to get overly detailed.) However, they were NOT performing. They were not on the schedule of events, and you could not buy tickets.

What they were doing, was rehearsing. They needed an arena to practise setting up and performing in an arena, since they were going to be playing in arenas on that tour. No one really knew that Cirque was even in town.

So one day, out of the total blue, my wife gets an email from a homeschooling organization that we are a part of. The email was offering up tickets to a dress rehearsal. To make a long story short she jumped on this, asked if she could get six tickets (we have four kids), and we ended up with seats on the floor in about the tenth row. For free. :headbang: Never ever been that close to a cirque show before.

We were warned at the start of the show that this was a rehearsal and that they might need to stop the show. Yeah right. We saw maybe one instance where someone might have slipped a bit. It was awesome. We heard later that as cirque has their roots in street performance that they like to cast the net wide for rehearsals and try to bring in schools, street-level folks and the like.

...art
 
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That was très cool Stu. Glad you got the work & which led to a new "toy" for you.

The Cirque du Solei has always been my favorite "Greatest Show on Earth" It truly is, and the incredible talent of the performers is outstanding, art times unbelievable.
 
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