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'Professor Hämmer' customizes on campus
News Editor
Ron Covell, the half-bald, thick-
bearded car legend nicknamed
“Professor Hammer” morphed into
“Professor Harley” for his seminar
Feb. 17.
Well over a hundred people gath
ered for Covell’s fourth appearance
at Clackamas. Covell took a turn
from the normal street rod presenta
tion and brought what he called “a
motorcycle-oriented evening.”
Covell began the evening with a
slideshow of custom bikes that “cap
tured his fancy.” The slideshow even
featured some of his own work. Most
were Harley-style motorcycles that,
according to Covell, were “very dif
ficult shapes to create and exquisite
metal work.” -
Some bikes were built just for
novelty, such as Ron’s burley, unique
‘57 Chevy cycle. The machine was
constructed for a customer who
Wanted to splice a car and a motorcy
cle. The outcome was phenomenal.
The back end of the bike was obvi
ously a ‘57 Cheyy when it was com
pleted.
After the slideshow, Covell began
the demonstrations using aluminum
sheet. “Aluminum sheet is my
favorite metal,” he said. “You can
bend it (annealing), stretch it, or
shrink it. Those are the only three
things you can do to shape metal.”
The goal for the evening was to
construct, from scratch, a teardrop
shaped motorcycle gas tank.
The first approach Covell demon
strated was shrinking the metal using
the shrinking machine. The machine
is an over-sized metal clamp, similar
to a large vice, that squishes metal to
form new shapes. Picture a rotated
vice that opens up and down rather
than left to right and add a lever
Covell displays the tear
drop motorcycle gas tank
he created during his prés
entât ion.
photo* by Pt Ik FORD Clackamas Print
Above: One of many students’ custom made
motorcycles. This particular bike was the trophy winner
of its class at the fifth annual Portland Rod and Custom
show on Feb. 16.
(which moves the teeth up and down)
instead of the normal clockwise rota
tion; that’s a shrinking machine. This
technique can be used for anything,
but is most commonly used for creat
ing pieces such as custom hubcaps.
After that demonstration Covell
quickly began explaining the
process of annealing, better-
known as bending metal. Heating
up the metal to roughly 800
degrees using a blowtorch begins
this process. This allows you to
shape the thick aluminum like foil.
There will be two
new street rod classes
offered Spring term at CCC.
Students will learn to build cars similar
to this street rod.
See Covell on pg. 4
“Lend Me a Tenor," written by Ken Ludwig and
directed by David Smith-English will open tonight at 7
p.m.
“Lend Me a Tenor," according to Smith-English,
is a quick-paced, highly intense comedy.
“The characters are wonderfully wild. The fur
ther out they get, the more you are willing to accept it,”
said Smith-English.
Plot Summary: When world-famous tenor Tito
Morelli takes ill on opening night, Saunders (Matt
Morrison, pictured left) the stage manager steps in to
save the day.
Reality Bite: Real life ran parallel to the play’s
plot when assistant stage manager, Matt Morrison took
over the lead role weeks into rehearsing. Former lead
Mat Lingmann stepped down due to work-related
scheduling conflicts.
“We have a very dedicated cast,” said Smith-
English.
LUKE MAHAN Clackamas Print