Minds Eye Machine

Long time lurker and fairly new poster!

Figured it was about time to post some pictures of the shop instead of just browsing the forums silently. Its been quite the process getting to this point but a little hard work seems to always pay off in the end. Started out growing up in my fathers shop with a 9x20 Jet bench lathe and a drill press with a cross slide table. After many frustrating hours of beating my head up against the wall with a drill press working off of hopes and dreams we upgraded to a Jet Mill drill. Far above and beyond that ole drill press but still left a lot for the imagination.

Fast forward several years and many projects later, and now we have what more or less resembles a "real" machine shop. Bought the Cadillac and Wells Index from the original owner of both who was selling out to retire. That brought the opportunity to take on some "real" jobs. Then came the Hitachi, that was acquired through a friend, and it was more or less to good to turn down. Needs a little time and TLC but there is still a tight machine behind the archaic controls. Last but not least the Matty... That was the most recent addition to the shop, finally worked it from my previous employers grasp the beginning of August. It took 3 years of working on the shops owners but my persistence paid off. I'm extremely thankful for the fact they sold it, and believe it or not it brought us closer together as friends. I have a lot of respect for him, not many previous employers would even consider doing such a thing. Any who with all of this, it doesn't leave a guy with much free time so I figured I better take advantage of this opportunity to post some pictures!

Thanks for sharing the pics. Really cool set up you have there. The "matty" is a tight squeeze! I really like the name: Minds Eye Machine. Then you posted The KX500 motor in what appears to be an 07'ish 450F frame. That one I can really relate to!

Yeah that ole matty will go for a long time yet. Whats the story on that platinum piped rocket ship? Judging by the 55gal drums of VP id say u have flown one before one or twice?

Yeah I can tell you one thing, I'm not in any hurry to move it again! Put I this way I'm just getting my money's worth out of my floor space lol! That's actually kawi 450 frame, 06 I believe. Project for an ex coworker that kinda just got dumped on my plate. Funny how it works when someone mentions bringing over a couple pieces of aluminum to weld up.. Then he shows up with just a motor and frame. It ended up being a good project tho. As far as that matty goes, the thing hasn't even been broke in yet. It only has 1200 hours

Wow, good story and a hell of a cool shop!! You guys have come a long way from the little drill press with a mill/drill table. looks like yall do some good quality work too! Oh, and Im diggin the 2 stroke action! Thumbs up!

ormachine said:

I would say the big 2 smoke is nestled in a CRF frame. What say you wheelieking?

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I admit, I did think CRF at first. Then I noticed where the head-stay mounts are at, and knew it was a Kawi.

Regardless, it's waaay cool! I grew up on big-bore two-strokes. And, love everything about them. I can't start them anymore with my bum leg, or I would still ride a CR500. Instead I am stuck on a CRF because it is so easy to start (I am a Honda boy. It's the ergo's)

Looks like in the second photo in the second post that you were "renewing" the oscillation pin bore in that axle cradle.

Turret mills are great for that kind of stuff!

Nice clean shop, too.

I just realized what the last pic in the 4th post is LOL, nice part!

Definitely enjoy the comments guys! I've grown up around motorcycles and racing motorcycles all of my life so the majority of things here revolve around them! Wasn't sure that the KX would have been such a hit on the forum, but I was wrong. Il dig up some more pictures! Bridgeportin, yes turret mills definitely can do almost everything your mind can imagine with a little bit of creativity Its always fun when projects like that stumble through the shop, nice to give the brain a good work out once and a while. Try to keep things as clean as possible here, sometimes things get a little behind and its a different story. Clean shop is a productive shop in my eyes.

Here is a couple more detailed pictures on that KX build.

Just stumbled upon some photos from several years ago moving the little green machine in! Living in MN with a sloped drive way does not make moving heavy equipment any fun, that is for sure

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Little winter update here in northern Minnesota, still pretty damn cold out! So in other words never a better time to be spent in the shop. Here is last weekends project that I just put the final touches on. Its a linkage for our RS750 Dirt tracker, the one on it had been very very poorly "modified". Took a little bit of thought and a couple mickey mouse setup-ups but actually went surprisingly well!

Sweet looking part!

Nice shop. I had to look up Rollag, MN on google maps. Nothing really there. Never heard of it.

mmcgrew10l said:

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I know there is a mild debate going over the clean vs. dirty shops, but I have to say I just LOVE when I see it like this. It just screams pride all the way around.

I leave you know to your regularly scheduled (cnc) programing.

Very nice shop and even better to hear you are a dirttracker.
Would be nice to see some pics.of your RS. All the ones that are left seem to be in hiding.
Thanks, Dave