Watch A Master Fabricator Whip Up A Perfect Battery Holder For A BMW R100

There’s nothing quite like a good workshop video to inspire and get your creative juices flowing, is there? Now, obviously not all of us are skilled metal fabricators that have shops outfitted with all the specialized equipment we could want or need to make our visions of beautiful, one-of-a-kind parts come to life. That’s why it’s so much fun to take a peek at what BMW specialist 46Works—and its incredibly talented owner, Shiroh Nakajima—are doing. 

If you’re a fan of this type of video, Nakajima not only regularly does some absolutely stunning fabrication work. He also puts out some of the best workshop ASMR videos around, and we haven’t had one of those in a little while, so we figured it was well past time. 

In this particular video, we get to see Nakajima expertly craft a beautiful little aluminum battery holder for the BMW R100 project he’s currently working on. When you’re making anything, of course, the measurements are the most important thing. If your custom part doesn’t fit where you want it to, then you’ll have to start all over again.  

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Thus, Nakajima carefully measures, etches, cuts, and bends as those measurements from the first step direct. Along the way, there is of course cutting, careful welding, and bending the aluminum to the angles required for each piece. From the holder to the mounting brackets, to the little protrusions onto which the rubber battery strap gets hooked, no detail is overlooked in this operation. 

Beyond the ability to make beautiful pieces like this one come to life, one of the other extremely cool things about having the kinds of skills Nakajima does is that you can put things where you want when building a bike. You want that battery to mount neatly next to (but not too close to) your oil reservoir? It’s up to you to make it happen—but the simple fact that you can, and that you don’t have to worry about whether someone else makes parts that will work for your application has to be incredibly freeing. 

Yes, Nakajima is impressively talented—but even if you don’t have these skills or experience (and believe me, I don’t, either), it’s cool to see that if you can find time and opportunity to learn, you can start to do whatever cool maker tasks are within your reach, as well. Or, you know, you can simply watch and enjoy the chilled-out vibes brought to life in videos like these. Wear some headphones, watch, listen, and have a little snack while you forget whatever’s going on around you. It’s all good.