Bad Weather & Wombats

The weather turned sour so I canceled open shop tonight. I did finish machining the swingarm bosses for the Rickati project as long as I was home, though. As always, my mind is about six months ahead of my work schedule, so I'm thinking about painting or powder coating the thing. I'm thinking maybe powder coat the frame in silver and paint the gas tank blue like an old Ducati 900 SS or maybe go with a black frame and paint the gas tank like the VW in the photo ala Alice's Restaurant. The circle with the triangle in the middle might be a cool logo. Kind of like the old Hodaka logo, now that I think of it. Don't know if I could think up a model name for it as cool as some of the ones they had - Combat Wombat, Dirt Squirt, Road Toad. I don't think they hired anyone from Madison Avenue to come up with those names. The Rickman tank badge looked pretty good in it's own right. I could go with that shape and style of lettering and swap out the Rickman name with Rickati. The bike in the photo is the same model that my frame came from. Damn shame it got hacked up. Maybe make an aluminum tank and just buff the hell out of it and let it go at that. I think I'm finally at the point I could pull that off.

I got a little progress made on the train today. I'm having a little trouble forming the nose piece but I went to plan B and it should come out looking OK. I've still got a couple of weeks so the boat and the train should be done with a couple of days to spare. If I get desperate, I'll just call off a day and stay home and finish them up. I need to start burning some sick days anyway. I wouldn't want the new boss to think I'm a model employee. The way the weather's acting right now, I might have tomorrow off, anyway. If so, I'll start painting the boat and get the patterns made for the sails. That was Job 1 for tomorrow after work, anyway.

Catchin' Up

I had a pretty good weekend. I stayed after work Friday and painted, hopefully, the last of the folding chairs. All in all, I painted close to a hundred of the little darlings. They look nice but a real pain in the ass job. Worked a little on the boat that night and slept in Saturday morning. That was not only nice but needed.

Jimmy took a few of our fighters to the Silver Gloves in Terre Haute Saturday so I ran the gym by myself. It was a small crowd and I finally remembered to take a picture of the glove dryer and the medicine ball rack as you can see in the photos.

I worked on a couple of things around the house and machined up a couple of pieces for the single shot rifle project. I needed to make some tooling for the gunsmithing work, so I decided to work on the muzzle loader and the single shot I mentioned way back when simultaneously. That's actually code speak for me working on whatever suits my fancy on any given day. I need a tailstock for my spacer/dividing head so I can machine the breech and the barrel as one piece. I figured I'd make a couple of pieces for the single shot so when I got the mill set up, I could machine both the breech/barrel combinations rather than coming back later and having to set up everything again. Of course, I need to make the tailstock first, but I'm working on that as well. While I was out in the shop, I started on the swingarm bosses for the Rickati, so I can keep that project alive.

I did get the boat assembled. I need to make the stand and a couple of little bits for the rigging but it's pert near done. I'll make the patterns for the sails this week and the Missus can get those sewn up while I paint and varnish. Nineteen days 'til Christmas - no sweat on this one.

I need to put together a little photo studio, as well. I'd like to work on my photography a little more and rather than take photos of my small projects on top of the work bench or freezer, as is the case above, it would be nice to have a small cardtable size setup with a couple of dedicated lights and a choice of backgrounds. Something besides the calender and can goods for a background would be nice. Maybe an evening or two spent over the Christmas break would do the trick. I've got the room and the lights. It's amazing how one thing leads to another and even more amazing, I always seem to take the bait.

This week, it's work on the chair cart and the little train.

Running Late

I'm a little behind on my posting this week. I've tried to get out a post at least twice every week but just too busy this week to get time in front of the computer. The gym has been taking up a little more of my time than usual. I painted some more chairs and worked on the van a little. One of the studs that holds the back seat in was rusted to the point that the nut wouldn't come off and of course, the nut was rounded off as well. I didn't want to twist the stud off, so I farted around with it with some penetrating oil, Vise Grips, hammer, chisel and a few choice swear words until it finally came loose. I crawled around underneath it afterwords and took a good look at the rust damage. It won't be all that hard to fix - I've done a few that were worse - but it will be time consuming. No hurry on getting it done, however.

I did get a little bit done on the Rickati this week. It's a little hard to see in the photo but I've got a good start on the back section. I made up a template today for the side plates where the swingarm bosses will go. I'll see what I've got for stock to machine the bosses out of and try to get going on them pretty soon.

I worked on a handrail for the gym and made a piece for the suspension on a little radio controlled race car for one of the maintenance guys today also. It's a cute little car. It's built just like a real race car but only about 2 - 1/2 feet long.

I taught a little school this week just for a change of pace. I got the rookies started on 7014 stick electrodes. So far most of them are looking pretty good. I should turn out a pretty good crop of weldors this year if they keep it up.

The little boat is coming along. I've been retiring to the basement just about every evening for a session. I should have it pretty well completed other than paint by the end of the weekend if all goes right. I need to paint a few more chairs some time though. We've got another in house show next Friday. I'd like to have them done before the show. I put a student on building a cart for them today. It would be nice if that was done before the show as well. It'll make storing the chairs a lot easier.

That's all for now but I should have some photos to put up early next week of a couple of things.

Links

I've put up a couple of new links on the sidebar. Still Life With Cranston Ritchie is about photography and motorcycles primarily and is posted by Surly, who happens to be my son, and A Quality Shop of Master Craftsmen will be the recounting of an HD restoration project and is posted by a guy who happens to be my cousin. Surly used to post quite a bit but then kind of dropped off the radar. He's back at it again, so you might want to check him out.

The title of the other blog, A Quality Shop of Master Craftsmen, was taken from an ad in the Yellow Pages for my uncle's welding shop. Probably doesn't carry too much weight with most of you, but to those of us who were associated with Selsor Welding years ago, it holds quite a few memories. I learned to weld in that shop 40 years ago and I think I can safely say that I'm now a master craftsman. If you've been following the blog for any length of time, you've had the opportunity to judge that for yourself. Anyway, the blog will be following the progress of my cousin as he restores the motorcycle he's had for about thirty years. I don't expect a lot of blog posts but you might want to check it out once in a while and leave him a comment. Something like: "Pull the rag out of your ass and get that thing finished, would you" would probably be appropriate.

I put the photo of the little pond sailer up there just to show you that even though I've got a couple of projects I've been tripping over for about thirty years myself, I'm at least staying busy.

Thanksgiving

The student with the expansion chamber came back to school so I finished welding up his job. When I was ready to weld it, and prior to that as well, I suggested we just tack it together, he take it home, check the fit and then we'll finish it up. He assured me it would go right on there. Well, he brought it to open shop last night and it went right on alright. As the picture shows, it's not the tidiest of installations by any means. A couple of bends and it would have fit much nicer. It still would have been darn near as long as the bike but it wouldn't have looked quite so much like something you would see in a cartoon. It sounds nice, though. Loud but not obnoxious. Parking lot testing showed a little boost in power according to his seat of the pants dyno. He still needs to make a rear mounting bracket but he went home happy anyway.





















The photos of the little Ford show what you can do with a bunch of rattle cans of flat black paint and a roll of masking tape. One of the boys swapped his truck for this little gem and some cash. It gets much better fuel economy and since he also races go-karts, it's just the right size. He put the spoiler on last night and finished his painting. I'm figuring he's going to come up with something for his wheels next. He already put some kind of can on his exhaust. These boys do have fun, I'll say that for 'em.
















I got the keel poured for the little boat. I had to do the job twice, however. I didn't have the edge of the mold deep enough for the lead to run all the way out the first time. I cut things a little deeper and trimmed the edge of the sheet steel back a little and it worked pretty nice the second time.

I've got lots planned for the Thanksgiving weekend. A little more work on the house trim, paint some chairs for the gym, take a good look at and maybe hit a couple of licks on the gym van, grade some papers, work on the boat or train or gun project. Or maybe all three. Oh yeah, I'm running a 10K in the morning as well. Lots to be thankful for, though. We're all relatively healthy, still gainfully employed and want for nothing. Can't really ask for more than that, now can you?

Have a wonderful holiday.

Projects - We Got Projects

I finally got around to painting the glove dryer and the medicine ball rack. So there's two in the finished column. I took the camera to the gym to get a picture of the finished product but, of course, I forgot it in the truck. I was totin' way too much crap around in the cab this morning and it got lost in the shuffle.









The kid with the expansion chamber has been gone all week long, so that project came to a halt. Not much more for me to do on that one anyway. We need to find a piece of tubing for the stinger and then weld everything together.
































I started on a little scooter for the youngest grandson's Christmas present. I saw the red one at the Hunnert Car Pileup last year and it looked like something that would be fun to make. It's a streamlined train that the little tyke sits on and pushes himself around on. The original is probably from the 30's or 40's, I would guess. I don't do a whole lot of sheet metal stuff, so this is fun.


The little boat moved from school to the basement workshop. It too is a Christmas gift. I'm planning on cranking up that operation next week. I made the sheet metal keel and found the brass tubing I need for the rudder shaft. I'll throw a few photos up when I get a little more done. I need to get some progress on this one so the Missus will have some time to sew up the sails for me.





















The Rickati project is also moving forward. I should be able to start tacking some pieces next week. I need to do a little thinking about the swingarm before too much longer but as soon as I do that, I should be able to scoot right along.

Finishing up the trim work on the parlor at home as well.

Busy as hell but things are coming together.

Honda 50

I saw this picture at The New Cafe (Racer) Society blog. I don't know where this guy comes up with all these photos but this one he found here. I used to have one of these baby's, myself. There were two other guys around who had these as well and we road the wheels off these things. I was fifteen at the time I got mine and I bought it with the money I made from my paper route and doing farm work. I had to stack a lot of hay bales and shovel a lot of cow dung but it was well worth it. A buddy of mine, Jim, had a Honda 90 with a windshield and saddlebags. Ninety cc's of touring power - no need for one of those big monsters they're passing off as motorcycles now. We rode over to his Grandpa's farm one November afternoon - it was about 30 miles and 45 degrees. Just as we walked into the kitchen his grandma was taking a grape pie out of the oven. We warmed up, ate pie, had a nice visit and headed home. Man that was a good day. After talking about that day every time the subject of pie came up for about twenty five years, the Missus now makes me a grape pie about once a year. Every bit as good and I don't have to freeze my ass off to appreciate it.
















If you click on the link and go the website where the Honda photo was originally posted, scroll down the page and you'll see a Bultaco Metrella. This bike was on tour with the Guggenheim's Art of the Motorcycle. I saw it when it was in Chicago on tour and it's absolutely beautiful. The one in the photo here I snagged off the Internet and it's pretty but not as nice as the one I saw. I've got one of these but of course mine is in need of some serious work before it would even come close to looking like either of these. Mechanically, mine's pretty sound but cosmetically it leaves a lot to be desired. The Bultaco and my 750 Sport Ducati will probably have to wait until I retire before I can get around to them. That's OK though, it won't be too much longer. Maybe I'll even get around to working on the Francis Barnett. If I stay healthy and don't drag anything else home, I might actually have a nice collection of motorcycles someday.




My Francis Barnett even has the pedestrian slicer on the front fender.