Monday

It's never good when your chimney is surrounded by scaffolding. The masons have it torn down to the roof line now, plus they've cut a corner out to repair some water damage. Looks like all the flue liners are bad, so that's going to cost a bit more than I bargained for. There goes the down payment on the Jag.

The news this weekend wasn't all bad. I got the backing plate pulled off the Sportster. Here's the before photo above.

And here's the after. First time I used the blast cabinet. I filled it up with glass bead, turned on the vacuum and away I went. The vacuum worked well, as did the lights I added. Pretty happy with that. Now I have a bit of a quandary, however.  I stuck the newly blasted backing plate back on the rear wheel to see how it looks and, while it looks better than before, I'm not so sure I like the plain aluminum look. I could polish it up but I think I'm going to repaint it gloss black to match the swingarm and sheet metal. I've got a new chrome lever and actuating rod for it. I think the black will set off the chrome nicely. If I don't like it, I can always blast the paint off again. 

Since I had the bead blaster up and running, I figured I'd also blast the paint back away from the weld zone of an aluminum piece I need to repair for a guy and then I'd prep and weld it. The first part of the operation went well but not the grinding of a weld bevel around the break. When I retired I think I left my die grinding bits at the school. I had a couple for grinding aluminum but I don't have any at the house here. Or if I did bring them home, I can't find them now. Either way the end result is the same. No go on the aluminum bits. I do have a few other bits so I made a organizer out of a piece of one - by and a plastic baby wipe box. I'll order in a few more bits and I'll be all set.

I managed to catch up with the gas man Saturday. He hooked me up with a tank for the new heater. When I told him what I was working on, he was already aware of it. Apparently, someone in the office pulled up the blog and showed him. Thanks John and best wishes on your retirement.

I've got the tank outside of the shop, so I think it would be best to pipe the gas into a shut off valve that's inside the shop. I also need to make a bracket or something to hold the tank upright. Nothing too tricky on either of those but I want to get it done sooner, rather than later. Cold weather's on the way. 

Have a good week.