Pair O' Gizmos

We'll I did make it out into the shop and get something done the other day. I'm not exactly sure what these are, but there's a pair of them just the same. Even if you did know what they are, you probably couldn't tell from the crappy photo. These are for my brother the mechanic. He explained what they were for when he was checking with me about making them, but to be honest, I really don't care. They're for my brother, which is reason enough to make them, but otherwise not much interest beyond what was required to actually do the machine work.

While trying to remember the lessons from Stress Relief Mondays and incorporate those into my daily living, I think I may have gone over to the other extreme. I used to worry about anything and everything. Now the circle of concern seems to have shrunk down to the size of a pinhead. Obviously I still haven't found the elusive middle path, and to be honest, I'm not sure I ever will. I seem to have the type of personality where I either care or I don't. The problem is I care too much about things I'm involved in and in the past I was involved in way too many things. I think it's a lot healthier on me if all I'm concerned with is my health, family and a few close friends. Hard to keep the old habits from creeping back in, though.

I did enjoy farting around on the old lathe making these. Even more so because they're for my brother. The piece of stock I started with was just a little too big on the diameter to fit into the center hole on the lathe chuck so I used a steady rest to hold one end while I faced, center drilled and through drilled the part. After that I removed the steady rest and supported that end  with a live center. Then it was pretty straight forward: turn the three diameters, thread, flip it around and repeat on the other end. Cut the pieces off on the band saw and then put them back in the lathe and face them - that's machinist talk there, by golly. A little more involved than doing the daily crossword but in the risk/reward formula, much more satisfying.

As long as I'm on a roll, maybe a little more machine work next week. I'm kind of intrigued with the idea of widening the rear wheel on the 900.  If it keeps raining, I'll get all kinds of things done in the shop.