This
summer, I couldn’t cast if there was even a threat of rain because molten
aluminum explodes when water contacts it. So I’ve done a lot of casting in
these past few weeks to finally cast the shifters for our wonderful Kickstarter supporters. These supporters contributed
a full year ago, making this project possible. I’m sure appreciative of their
patience waiting for their collector shift levers from Mold #1!
Mold #2
will be back here next week after more refinements at the machine shop. Once
I’ve caught up with our supporter shifters, I’ll start casting some for sale with that mold.
Not
only am I finally sending these shifters out to our supporters, this ramped-up
production offered some fun photo ops. Here’s a pile of shift lever parts in
various stages of assembly, some still stuck to the extra aluminum from the
mold sprues, others ready for assembly, others assembled ->
Sometimes
these casting days stretched into the night, which wasn’t my preference, but at
least I was treated to an incredible light show every time the melt was ready
to pour – check out that neon pink!:
Here’s
a photo of today’s assembly line as I prepared to assemble a batch:
I’ve
still got several batches to go before all of our Kickstarter
backers are taken care of. This has been a great reminder of how many fabulous
folks stepped up to make this project possible. A huge thanks to all of you!