Past projects: Detroit Flyhouse Contortion Box

In an effort to really get this blog going again, I wanted to take a look at past projects of mine. First and foremost, my favorite for many reasons, the Detroit Flyhouse Contortion Box. This project was born out of a conversation with a friend of mine, Josh Bacon. Josh asked me something like, "Would you be interested in an unusual project? Next day, Josh put me into contact with Micha at Detroit Flyhouse, and next thing I knew, I was building a contortion box.

Photo Credit: Paul Della Mora

First things first, a visit to Detroit Flyhouse to meet Micha and Matt, and see what their wants and needs were. That's my head in the lower right, I was taking measurements and looking to see where the limitations of their current contortion box were at that time. Micha wanted improvements over the box pictured above, that would allow for a smoother transition into a box during a contortion act performance.

With new measurements, and Micha and Matt's ideas in mind, I went home and began sketching. 

And, this would turn out to be the sketch I referenced and scrawled umpteen notes and measurements on as I built the project, until it looked like an unintelligible jumble of numbers, decimal points, grease stains, a madman's roadmap.

Time to get started. A trip to Metal Mart USA, Production Tool Supply, and Lowes, and I was ready to start cutting material, but first things first: I needed a flat, level surface to start building on. I hadn't yet constructed a welding table, so I took a page from small aircraft fuselage building and built a wooden work surface from 2 pieces of strawboard. Formed from shredded straw, glue and sawdust, it comes out of the machinery  it's made on nearly perfectly flat, which makes it a great, cheap work surface to build something square. I clamped it, drilled and countersunk a few holes, and threw in some drywall screws, checked for level, done. 

After cutting the steel to size, the next step was checking measurements, and checking again.

Here, I am inscribing lines in the steel with a dial indicator height guage. The smooth surface of my wood project table allowed for basic use of this tool which is more at home on a trued granite surface table in a machine shop. If you look close you can see a perfectly horizontal line inscribed into the steel.

There is a method to the carbide scribe madness: In the above photo you can see a ruler and my sharpie marks. Once I figured out a cool measured design pattern for concentric circles in each piece...

I then took a hammer and punch and punched each hole location. A punch is a primitive but very functional way of locating a hole in metal. A drill follows a hole, plain and simple, and by creating a small start of a hole with a punch, the drill will locate to that start and follow it. 

You can see that process in the photo above. Here I am using a "center drill" which is the next step of drilling material to keep the desired final diameter on center. You'll see why this is important in a minute. Note the completed center-drilled part to the left, on the work-bench. 

all 12 pieces center-drilled. Approximately 112 holes. By the time I get to the finished dimension for each hole, I will have stayed up, working through the night, until 9:00 AM. 

This is why punching, then center-drilling each hole is important. At this stage of fabrication, I am using a hole saw to cut each hole to it's final diameter. The hole saw uses a 1/4 inch drill that follows my previously center-drilled holes, and keeps the hole saw from "walking" or otherwise sloppily hacking it's way through the material and creating an unsightly hole, which would detract from the desired look and reason for all of this work in the first place. 

Above photo shows progress at this point, and you can maybe see from this photo how things are lining up nicely. At this point, it gets nerve wracking, because each piece has so much time put into it, that making a mistake and ruining the the piece becomes a variable to avoid. 

Drill, drill, drill. Home stretch. The final holes to drill to complete the design are made with a 1/2 inch drill. The 2 x 4 clamped in the vise made a great wooden buck for the drill and hole saws to "crash" into after completing the cut, which is easier on your arm, and creates less of a burr. Basically, it's just easier. 

112 holes, finished. 9:00 AM. A night's work. I think it was a Sunday, and I went home and fell on my face for the rest of the day and slept, had to recharge for the J-O-B Monday.

Checking, and checking again, all measurements, for square, fit up, before the next phase: Welding.

The bottom of the contortion box, clamped and ready to be tack welded. This is important, because if things aren't as square and level as can be, you end up fighting the mistakes and buildup of tolerances later, when they aren't as easy to fix. 

Going up...

And up...

And up. Level and square as can be, which is important for the Lexan box which was being custom built for this project by Acrylic Specialties and Plastics whose initial response was, "You want to do what?" I'd end up with less than 1/16th of an inch tolerance to fit it inside the metal frame... Which is what I calculated for, but still was a challenge. 

Next, it was back to the drill press to create some "blocks" from 1 x 4 square tube for the casters to mount to. Doing this would give the box a bit more stability, as Micha wanted the stability and versatility to be able to perform on top of the box. The original plan called to mount them directly to the framework, but the mounting bolt heads would interfere with the Lexan inner box, and this made tightening or replacement just easier. 

Next up...

...was sculpting what would be the top edges of the box. I messed with ideas on this one, but a samurai-sword like curve seemed to be the best fit, since this project was now going to include swords as part of it's contortion box performance repertoire. 

The contortion box after some slice-o-matic action with an angle grinder and several cutting discs. 

Caster wheel mounting blocks getting clamped and welded in place...

A moment to stand back and look at progress. This is the contortion box right-side up. 

Meanwhile, it was time to take inventory of other parts of this project: The Hot Rod Red caster wheels...

...taking delivery of the $650.00 Lexan inner box, the heart of this project...

...and material for the swords.  

Time to build a top for this thing, as now, the design called for a three swords dropping through the top, and two through the side. 

Second verse...

...same as the first. 

At this point, it's been a lot of work. So, I took a trip down to Detroit Flyhouse to show Micha the progress, who, up until this point hadn't seen anything but a sketch, and, to put Micha in the inner Lexan box to sight in where the swords were going to go. It was satisfying to deliver results. Love me some Detroit Flyhouse!

Photo Credit: Paul Della Mora

Then, back to work.

I had to build a wooden buck to fit the inside of the Lexan contortion box, to support the surfaces as I drilled into them to create holes for the swords to go in and out of. I had to custom grind drills as well, to drill through the Lexan without chipping or cracking it. Or otherwise, I'd have $650.00 in scrap Lexan. Talk about stress... 

Here is the box mocked up with a piece of material going through one set of the holes I drilled. To locate the holes properly, I had to get Micha in the box, and then we used a laser pointer (Thank You Alison) to locate where we had an opening to run a sword through the box with Micha in it. 

Sword building time. 

The "blades" are 1/2  inch stock hand ground into their final form. The handles are rebar. 

And...

Finished! 

Photo Credit: John Wiley

The above and following photos of Micha using the box for the first time at a live performance at Winter Ball: A Detroit Fire Guild Formal Affair, in early 2011. 

Photo Credit: John Wiley

Photo Credit: John Wiley

Special thanks to Micha Adams and Matt Buss of Detroit Flyhouse, www.detroitflyhouse.com. Photographers: John Wiley, of photasticimages.net, Paul Della Mora, official Detroit Flyhouse photographer. Alison Nawrocki for the laser pointer, Josh Bacon, without whom this never would have happened, Elektra and Maureen Petrucci, William "Billy The Tile Guy" Olson, Kevin Roberts, www.addguy.com, Ron Davis of Acrylic Specialties And Plastics Madison Heights Michigan, Metal Mart USA Warren Michigan, Len @ Speedcult Detroit, speedcult.com, My Mom & Dad, and all friends who put up with me as I sorted out the particular needs of this project. Thank You. 

A shop tour with Ron Finch

It's great how life works sometimes, granting opportunities that seem like a stroke of luck that was undeserved, yet welcome. Such has been the past few days. One of these presented itself through my friend and tile guy extraordinaire, William "Billy The Tile Guy" Olson. I got a phone call last night, (A Sunday) which went something like "Hey, can you schedule a few hours off around noon tomorrow? There is a tour my Dad is organizing with a group of car guys and bike guys at Ron Finch's shop." As if my weekend couldn't have gotten any cooler. A scant few hours earlier, as if some kind of foreshadowing, I had been blasting through Michigan farm country on my friend Len Von Speedcult's recently rebuilt and fully customized Harley Softail. Not to mention, attending Theatre Bizarre Saturday night. Let the weirdness and coolness continue!

My response was something like, "Hell yeah, I'd like to tour Ron Finch's shop!" A text or two later to the boss and my mid-day field trip was approved. I gotta make up the time, but so what. Ron Finch's shop. 

I used to work for a family-owned Tool and Die shop back in Livonia, 18 years ago, called R&M Machine and Mold. One of my many responsibilities as the kid in the shop was driving the shop truck, shipping finished fabrications around town. One of our main clients was A.B.B. Robotic, on Brown Rd. off of  Joslyn in Pontiac; right down the street was Finch's shop. I used to drive by the ornate, glass and steel gates and wanted to stop in but never quite had the time. Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda. Fast forward 18 years. 

Interestingly enough, there are four different streets with the same name as Finch's, ending in Ave, St., Drive, etc... Now running late, I panicked as I cussed out my GPS. A phone call to the shop yielded Finch's wife Ruth giving me directions. I was immediately put at ease and thought "...this must be Ron Finch's wife. And she's cool as hell! This is gonna be fun."

I get to the shop 5 minutes late, the car club guys are thankfully still rolling in, and as I get out of my truck, Finch must have seen my Speedcult Detroit shop jacket, and cracks a grin as I walk up, producing a Speedcult Detroit beer can cozy from his back pocket and shakes my hand. Any anxiety I had about being late immediately vaporized. I hung back while the guys from the car club talked with Finch about African road rallies past in a 67 Mustang, and gear ratios in tractor transmissions. 

Ron's wife comes out and introduces herself, and cues Ron to start the tour. We follow him in through the kitchen and into the back of his home away from home, the studio. We start on the second level.

Ron tells us how he got started. Before he got started pin striping, painting and customizing bikes, he had a job driving factory modified muscle cars to storage lots. He dug the job, when no one was looking he was burning rubber and shiftin' gears to the tune of 100 mph+. "Most of the older guys didn't like the bumpity-bump-bump of a 427, they thought they were too loud, so they'd give 'em to me to drive." 

This all came to an end one day, when union goons "approached" Finch to become part of the union. His boss was none other than Jimmy Hoffa. What they were after were conformist dweeb types that would enjoy getting intimidated and sucked into a 40 hour+ factory box. Thankfully for us, being told what to do didn't sit well with Finch. He said the money was good, but one day he went in to work and just couldn't do it anymore. He quit, and with minimal tools and little money rented a small shop that became home, where he slept on his bench for 3 years and starved to make it. He says he has no regrets. 

Finch shows us "Double-Cross" The bike that won the Discovery Channel Biker Build-off. He was pitted against Jesse Rooke. (Previously I had written it was Detroit Bros. out of Ferndale, MI. A blunder on my part, as I have 10-15 years of not really watching much television or owning a functional TV to thank. I finally had some time and watched the episode on youtube.)

Finch's Triumph Trident powered "Trilogy" trike. The "3" theme follows throughout the construction. Ron says the trike is loads of fun to drive, it's just that the gawker effect makes it scary, as people drive up next to him to check out the trike, and stare so hard, they start to veer in towards him. 

Backside of Trilogy, featuring 3 gas tanks and 3 exhaust pipes for the Triumph Trident engine.

A sculpture crafted by Finch, called, "The Hopper." Sculpture as a free form art are Finch's medium of choice these days, he says feels he has more freedom to create. I can't argue with his logic. He's been there and done that in the custom motorcycle business, and dealt with the headaches that come along with employees, overhead, and everything else. His sculptured and hand airbrushed and striped metal art pieces are way cool. 

Finch's collection of metal bits for art work. This shop is starting to look like another shop I know... I dig the similarities, and the hoarder aspect of metal artists. I feel at home. 

The lower level shop crapper. Actually, it is a replica of Finch's old shop throne room from the Joslyn and Brown Rd. shop, with actual features from there. Among them: The Honorable Robert L. Shipper District Judge placard, and Ron's hamburger collection. 

Finch's welding table. This table is an oldie but a goodie. Finch has built many custom motorcycles here. This is the original table he built way back in the day when he got started. I really dig this welding table for a couple of reasons: I asked Finch about a story shared with me by some guy who claimed he knew him back in the day about how he used to build custom motorcycles. The story I heard was that he used railroad timbers with a channel milled in them to set the steel tube and build his frames. Myth busted. Total bullshit story. Second, it reminds me of Len's table at Speedcult Detroit. I'm sure the beer can is helping with that, but it was cool to see a commonality, in this case a utilitarian one. Notes to self about my future welding table build. 

Like every artist I've ever met, we all seem to have multiple projects going on in various states of completion. Finch gives us a rundown of some current themes he likes to work into his art. 

Below, a look around Finch's shop. Now, ask yourself, how cool would it be to work in these surroundings? 

This is the inside lower floor main shop, just a few feet away from Finch's welding table, it opens into a two-story turret that travels through each floor, separated only by an ornately decorated steel floor. 

The beautifully translucent blue "stones" that make up the turret are actually chunks of blue-green glass, from a glass foundry outside of Pittsburgh. I believe they are discards from the glass making process. 

Next up, a side-car bike named "Outsider." 

I dig the beer, I mean, the "beverage" holder in the sidecar. The "bottle-cap" V-twin Harley based engine is pretty badass as well. I want one. 

Next up came a tour of the grounds. This is the view from Finch's balcony, outside his paint spray booth, where he works his airbrush magic.

This is the view of the full balcony from the ground. You can see the turret peeking out on the side, as well.

Pretty cool, no?

The glass turret. Magnificent. And even better in person. I want one at my future compound. 

There is art everywhere. If anyone needed evidence that an artist resides here, they'd have to be blind to not recognize it. 

Everywhere.

Art and Artifacts in the floors...

Doors...

The garden paths... This door is from one of the boilers from the old Jacobson's Department Store in downtown Birmingham, MI. 

 A wooden wheel from Henry Ford's Wife's wheelchair...

Even the beaver is creative at Finch's studio. This beaver dam actually controls the stream running through the property. 

Finch shows us his gigantic chopper sculpture. He has two of these and features them in local parades and charity events. 

The engine cases are built from spare aircraft engine parts that were given to Finch by a vintage aircraft museum that didn't know what to do with a room of vintage spare parts. 

Ron Finch and myself. I hope you enjoyed the reading about the tour and the pics as much as I enjoyed being there. I've always admired Ron's work and his story, and I was honored to meet him and be an invited guest at his studio. Helluva way to cap a great weekend, even though it was a Monday. 

Check out Ron Finch's website