some silicone molds for wrench jewelry on left,  and lap top computer cover on right. click the image below to see more about silicone molds. ibm laptop, hard drive door, mold, jig. this little door was tough to mold, it was 3 pieces. click the pic to see more on this project. a speedometer mount to convert the stock harley davidson dash lights into  the digital gauge from western digital. a carbon fiber racing muffler  for prototype racecar. the end caps are made by cnc i recently tackeled the rebuild of some super bike engines. setting up the ring & pinion in a hewland mk9 racing gearbox. pic on left is coast pattern, pic in center is the excel pattern, and pic on right is pinion pattern. special grease is applied to the gear teeth, the gears are assembled, rotated by hand, then dissembled, then the teeth are inspected for the contact pattern. a different pattern will appear for each kind of misalignment, the pattern is the clue to which way to adjust the gears for a proper alignment.       click the pics, for larger images. this is the furnace project. here i will try to outline the materials and techniques i used to build the furnace. first i studied as many designs as i could, using the internet, library, and a magazine i subscribe to, the home shop machinist. i read steve chastain's books on building a tilting crucible furnace, and building a charcoal burning cupola furnace. i chose to build a tilting crucible furnace that i could also use with regular lift out crucibles. for the outer shell i used a 25 gallon oil drum with the top 1/3 removed. the burner entry is cut into the drum at a tangent so the flame from the burner swirls around and around, before exiting through the hole in the top. a one inch thick kaowool blanket for insulation forms the outer layer of the liner. the inner layer is a cast-able refractory from harbison walker. i used some cheap wire fence to hold the kaowool in place while i rammed the cast-able refractory. in the 1st. pic, you can see the drum with the wire fence in place and the tilting cart. the cart is made from an old clothes rack, and has casters that will lock. behind the cart is a roll of tin that i used as a form for the inner layer of the liner, there is some tin for forming the exhaust hole, sticking out of the drum. pic2 is looking inside after ramming the cast-able and removing the tin forms. you can just make out the burner port entering at a tangent at the bottom of the furnace. there's a small hole in the center of the bottom that i stuffed with kaowool. in the event of a spill inside the furnace, i can poke out the center with a wire and drain the spill. while in normal use, a plinth will sit on the hole, and when tilting, the plinth is removed. click here to see more. there have been many projects that were confidential. i wish i could post pictures of them!