SUPER RAT MACHINE WORKS

primarily our work is in aluminum. and it’s nice to change things up. these dropouts, made of good ol’ 4130 chromoly, are for todd over at black cat bicycles.
he makes handmade bicycle frames, utilizing this dropout design of his and subtle mods such as the ever so sightly radiused toptube on this bike [...]

back in high school i went through the machine shop program at the local technical school. this tap handle was one of the projects in that class. we use it a fair amount in the shop, for different little fixes and whatnot and it’s been pretty handy. it’s made from mystery metal, more than likely [...]

i guess i’ve never really had the flu before… until last tuesday that is. i came down with what i anticipated being the usual cold that leaves you feeling crappy for 24 hours. ohhh no, not this time. sure on day three i tried to talk myself out of it, tell myself i was feeling [...]

well, thad has outdone himself once again. he’s reconfigured the site in a way that will allow Super Rat to move in some new directions. i am quite excited about the changes and the new look. he also showed me a nice DIY light box technique that worked much better than anticipated. construction: cardboard [...]

so, my friend casey was telling me this story the other day that had absolutely nothing to do with hippies or sandals but he did touch on the fact that real hippies don’t (or didn’t) wear sandals. he had this science teacher in high school that pointed out that real hippies had to wear [...]

summer time heat wave has prompted us to get creative with air temperature control around the shop. justin climbed his way up to the ceiling to inspect the gearbox of the “wall”, he determined that all it needed was some extra weight on in to lower the wall into place. thus sealing off the back [...]

lots of changes going on around the shop lately, seeing as how i’ve neglected to update the website in the last couple of months here is some pics of what we’ve been doing,
we’ve been fortunate to find a supplier for 7075 plate that has been very helpful in getting us what [...]

so the quest for kick ass coffee never ends. aaron over at solid bikes
hooked us up with a pound of Sacramento’s finest beans from the peeps over at coffee works, we’ve got the dark star version that is quality all the way… i’ve already had a cup or 3 this morning [...]

when we moved in the machines got wired up where they landed, all the while mumbling the mantra “never time to do it right, always time to do it over…” so two months, we’ve gotten a better feel for the space and the latest set-up is beginning to take shape. the saw/material shelf now [...]

there are few things worse than picking up a cup of coffee that you think is a few hours old, only to realize it’s a few weeks old and the cream has become something that your tongue should never have to see…
that has only happened once, which was more than enough incentive to [...]

we’ve getting a relationship built with the scrapyard down the road that takes our aluminum chips and they gave us a bin to put the chips in (i had been using 32gallon trash cans) the bin is a far superior method. although we put a little too many chips in and didn’t have a [...]

this is the view from our back dock (almost, if it wasn’t for that massive building right behind us…) but it is a short jaunt to this spot…

when i worked at nelson machine in lawrence, i came to really enjoy the sunrise on cold winter mornings. i would typically [...]

our good buddy thad
has rebuilt the site to coincide with us getting all setup in the new space at the public levee in kansas city ,kansas. complete with breakroom/office and sunshine! here are a few pics of the new space:

roughly moved in…

our current setup, luckily fredonia dave came to the rescue and helped [...]

The move begins soon, here is our new address effective January 1, 2007:
SUPER RAT MACHINE WORKS
1401 FAIRFAX TRAFFICWAY BUILDING D #222
KANSAS CITY, KS 66115
The phone number will be changing as well, since we are crossing state lines we’ll be forced into a 913 number. they can’t confirm the new number until it is put into [...]

tis true, we’re moving out of the cave at the end of december. i keep telling myself that there isn’t really that much to move but i should know better… we’re moving into our own space above ground! woohoo!
and woode is having a blowout sale on all the bmx goods that are [...]