how many of you windjammers have seen diamond cut cylinders prior to 1995. And on what.

 

My dad, known as Gonzo, started "cutting" on the ends of fins in 1970. Back then it was done, not to successfully, with hand files; he later began using all types of rotary bits (air and electric driven) in search of a way to do it quicker and with better results. The process was NOT KNOWN as diamond cutting back then.

In 1989, while hanging out ( I think this meant imbibing in adult beverages and "Bench Racing ) at Clyde Rawlings' Motor Maniacs shop in Fresno California, he stumbled across a diamond flywheel cutter in a box of junk Clyde had gotten from a small machine shop he'd bought a bunch of machine tools & equiment from. The flywheel cutter, after a lot of screw ups and experiments, gave him the result he'd been looking for.

He did a little bit of work for several people and in May 1989 started a set of shovelheads that were to go on Ralwing's Top Fuel bike; the first head was done on the night of May 29th and he was supposed to return the next night and finish the other head. The date is easy to set as on his return to the apartment complex he worked for he was attacked by dope dealers in retaliation for evictions done by the complex owners in an effort to get the dealers out of the complex.

For the next 3 years my dad spent a lot of time in being treated for the injuries caused and learning how to function. In 1992 he moved to Phoenix AZ where he worked for Accutronix designing and redesigning their products and did a little cutting trying to regain full control and udde of his hands and arms.

In 1996 he moved us to St Louis MO where he also did diamond cutting for others. In 1997 we moved to Mon Luis Island AL (between Mobile & Dauphin Island) where he supported the family doing diamond cutting and other related customizing. I remember the work best while in AL as I was 6 years old and loved to collect the chips and, to his dismay, scatter them around the house - I thought they looked cool. I also remember cutting my foot on a diamond part in 1996 - getting into places I shouldn't have been.

On September 28 1998 my dad was rushed to the hospital where he had opn heart surgery. Me and my 3 sisters where placed in the Alabama Baptist Children's Home while he was in the hospital which was a good thing as Hurricane Georges took the roof off the house we were living in, destroying most of our belongings and scatterring harley parts all over the place.

In 2000 we moved to Springfield TN where my dad again started doing limited customizing to bikes specializing in diamond cutting. This time he had a website put together, www.yourMachinist.com- no longer online due to court order, and started getting more business than he could handle alone - keep in mind that since 1993 he was, and is, a single father with 4 of us rugrats to deal with. While in Gallitin TN he met a guy named Billy Taylor who was also doing diamond cutting at the machine shop (Murray Machine) he worked at as a CNC programmer. Dad and Billy started working together with dad handling the website business and 1/2 the cutting with Taylor doing the other 1/2.

In 2002 yourMachinist.com was ranked on the first page of most search engines and the work load had gotten out of control so he started teaching others how to diamond cut. In 2003 www.Diamond-Heads.com (Keith Brinton) filed suit against my dad and Billy Taylor; he filed suit in Salt Lake City UT for Patent Infringement and Trademark Infringment, where his lawyers were located (he was in Las Vegas NV at that time) as they had a paralegal, who worked for Trask-Britt, purchase a copying of how to diamond cut over the internet.

My dad had hired a law firm, located in Nashville TN, who was able, after a lot of expense got the suit thrown out by the federal court in Salt Lake City UT. Dad tried to get Taylor to get involved, but