Break Time!

It's Spring Break and the weather is actually spring like. We've been setting records here lately with all the 80 degree days - I actually mowed the front yard this afternoon. I can't remember ever cutting the grass in March here in northwest Indiana. Not complaining, mind you. It's been pretty much ideal by my standards. It cooled off later in the day, though. Actually closer to what we normally would be having. Looking at a high of 60 and sunny tomorrow, that's just plain great.

We got some artwork done the on our Thursday collaboration with the art class. The piece on the right is finished other than a little clean up and paint. The piece on the left is part of  fairly intricate design. It's being made from some thin sheet metal so I'm welding it up after one of the Welding students cuts the pieces. We're making display panels in the Wood Shop for the big art show so I've got artsy-fartsy stuff going on in two places.

I got the spiral stairs plumbed up this afternoon. I'm still doing a little thinking about the best way to tie everything together on the top. I'm going to make a couple of collars to slide over the center pipe and stick one of those on and take it from there. Since my welder's working again, I might just make a couple of pieces and clamp them in place on the top floor where it's cut out and then tack them to the collar. Probably be the easiest. The other collar will be used to extend the center pipe so I can tie into the railing that goes around the floor cut-out. The stairs are clamped in place so they're usable but I need to get the railing put around the hole before I make too many trips upstairs and find myself falling right back down.

The above photo is a piece for the VW floor repair. It goes along the bottom of the kick panel from the door opening to the firewall. I'm not worried about making anything as per the factory. I'm just replacing things so they'll be strong and functional. It's tacked in and looks good just the same. Just not quite the same as stock. As soon as I finish welding it in I can put the floor pan in on that side. I need to get a roll of smaller wire for my MIG machine or pull out the 110 volt machine, however. It's a little tricky trying to weld that thin stuff with .035" wire. I've got .030" on the little one. .005" makes a big difference on the wire diameter, believe it or not.

I've got a list a mile long of things to do over break but I'm looking forward to seeing some progress. Now that the barn is no longer the all consuming project, I can start back on a few of the loose ends. The students will all be worthless after break but I don't fight it like I used to do. I just don't take on any big jobs unless I want to do them myself, because that's what ends up happening. I'll just keep pitching and hopefully they'll do a little bit bit of catching. I handed out report cards the other day and it looks like a lot of them have some big holes in their gloves, though. That explains a lot when it comes to their performance in the Wood Shop. Lots of wasted talent there, unfortunately. But I won't have to worry about that for at least a week anyway.

Ciao