Gettin' A Handle On Things

So with the new tubing bender we've got this, a little short handle and Popeye's spinach or

a handle what am. I made the he-man handle from a piece of 1" pipe. I had to bore one end out in order for it to fit over the stub handle on the bender. It's some metric size that's about .025" over 1". I welded a nut on the end that slips on so I can put put a bolt down on it to prevent the pipe from slipping off. I also wrapped a bit of hockey tape around the other end for some grip. So that's taken care of.

I managed to get a bit more done on the sidecar fender. I've got it pretty close to what I want but I've still got a lot of planishing to do yet. That always takes a while but when I get the fender done, other than wiring and paint, it'll be done. Pretty happy about that. 

Didn't get the trim job done in the house, however. I went to the lumber yard and they no longer carry the cove molding I needed. Went to the hardware store and they didn't have the matching stain, either. Headed out to the closest real lumber yard and they had both the trim and the stain. The other piece of trim I had to mill is shaped like a parallelogram with a notch on one end. I managed to stain the back side rather than the face side so when I went to install it I said a few bad words and headed back out to the shop to fix it. And because it takes two coats I didn't get that job finished like I wanted, but it should be done this week. 

All in all, things are looking good around here these days. I'd like to get a few more things done before the weather gets cold but the weatherman is forecasting some decent weather for the next week. That'll help.

Happy Halloween!

A Little Trim On The Side

Photo From Here

Novel approach to sidecovers. One of these days Surly and I will get back on the BSA project.

In the mean time I'm working on the sidecar job and tackling some things around the shack. I put up new wall paper and boxed in the stairway going up stairs a few years back - quite a few actually - but never got all the trim work taken care of. Worked on that a bit yesterday and finished up the majority of the whackin' & hackin' the job required. Now that I've got most of the woodworking equipment up and running, these kinds of jobs are actually pretty easy, other than running back and forth from the house to the barn and one last trip to the lumber yard. 

In addition to the last piece of trim I need, I'll pick up some material to start on the veranda for the new barn. That's been a few years in the making as well. I hope to have that completed before the snow flies but no guarantee on that. Between November fast approaching and my notoriously poor record of job completion, maybe not. But if you want a road paved to Hell, I've got the requisite good intentions.  

Government Jobs

When I was making the fender braces for the sidecar the other day, I needed to splice a piece of tubing. I had a fixture I made for that at the high school but I left it behind when I retired. After struggling a bit the other day, I decided I needed to make another one for home. I got lucky in that I found some short pieces of angle that was just what I was looking for at the college shop. Later in the day I was doing my lab tech gig and I was able to get on a mill and do my machine work and then weld it up later that day in the weld shop.

Two pieces of 2x2x1/4 angle 12" long with a flat milled on the points to keep the clamps from slipping off. Four pieces of 3/8 flat to separate the angles so you can get the clamps in there. After it's all welded up, cut a slot in the middle so you can weld all around your pieces while they're clamped in the fixture. Not much to it but it works pretty slick.

I finish welded TVI's golf cart dash on company time as well. Looks pretty good, he said it should work. It's his now.

Also got started on the sidecar fender. This one I'll have to do at home. I did take the sheet to work and trim cut it, however. I was going to weld the fender braces on but I got to thinking that it would be a real pain in the arse taking the wheel off if it had to come out the bottom. I'm going to make some brackets up so I can bolt the braces onto the frame and make a piece to connect the two braces at the top. 

I started shaping the fender. I'm telling you it's a real leap of faith to take a nice, shiny, flat piece of aluminum and start wacking it with with a wooden mallet over a shot bag and expect it to come out like you envisioned it. So far it's looking like I might get there but I've still got a long way to go. I need to get the braces in place so I can get an accurate measurement of the radius before I can finish the shaping but it's close. I'll draw a layout and then use the shrinker to bring it in to the line so I get a nice even curve. At least that's the plan.

Getting Closer

Beautiful day yesterday. Almost too nice to be working in the shop but I wanted to get some more progress done on the sidecar. I got the windscreen tack welded on to the main frame along with the handhold/grab handle. After I got that done I started working on the braces for the wheel housing.

I got a chance to try out the new tube bender - not so sure about it yet. It comes with a little short handle and an extension. However, even with the extension there was no way I could bend the 3/4" chrome-moly. It's only .065" wall but I had to hunt up another piece of pipe to give myself more leverage. Also, with the springback, you can't get a full 180 degree bend on the tubing. Additionally, where I have the big vise mounted, I had to unbolt the bender from the base I made and turn it 90 degrees a couple of times for the required clearance. That's no fault of the bender, however.

I'll make myself a longer handle before I try bending anything else. I did manage to bend the pieces I wanted, so I'll get those fit up and then I'll be ready to start on some sheet metal.

Shopping Trip

Busy couple of days around here of late. Friday morning Cuzzin Ricky and I went out for breakfast and then I did a little welding job on his trailer for him. After we got it fixed, we loaded up some steel scrap I needed to get rid of. Cleaned the chicken coop after that and did a few other exciting things.

Went to the gym Saturday, stopped by TVI's place to check and see if the piece I made for his golf cart was going to fit. Looks like it should, so I'll try and get that welded up this week. I came home, had a bite of lunch, and then the Missus and I set off for Blaine's Farm & Fleet. It's been a few years since I'd been over that way. I was looking for a heated water fount for the chickens and my online search turned up this one:

$29.99 at Blaine's. I saw the same thing locally for about $45.00. Not really worth driving the 45 minutes over there just for that but I did get a few other things.

Oil filter for the old Allis and some hardware. They sell the hardware by the pound for the most common things, so the 13 locknuts in the foreground only cost me $1.48. I'd be lucky to buy two at that price at the local hardware store. Likewise, all the stuff in the bag was only $1.50. Since the Missus was along we got some other things as well. But the real highlight of the trip was this:

Buffalo! Hard to tell from this picture but the dark patch just past where the water in the wheel ruts stops - those are buffalo, or bison if you prefer. A lady there was kind enough to allow us to use her binocular to get a better look. It was cool to see buffalo on the prairie like it would have been way back when. This is property of The Nature Conservancy. I've been meaning to stop in at the visitor center for a while now. I'll have to go back again and check it out in a little more detail. 

Hope to get back in the shop today and make some headway on the sidecar.

Bikes, Persimmons & Gas Welding

Probably won't see those three things grouped together very often, but let's start with the bikes.  These were in a couple of recent e-mails.

Moto GP madness from Vintage Motorsport magazine. Great magazine, by the way. I've been cutting back on the magazine subscriptions but I'll renew this one when the time comes. It's right in my wheel-house as they say, one of which I'll be starting on shortly.

BMW Rnine T Racer

Triumph Street Cup

Both of these from Cycle World. Two more to consider if I decide to pull the trigger on a new bike. Realistically, as little as I ride I should just keep the SV and get a couple of my older ones roadworthy. I do like the looks of both of these, however.  

Cuzzin Ricky and I were supposed to go to a midget race in southern Illinois yesterday. It was a rain out, so I decided to make persimmon bread instead. I had already picked the persimmons and needed to do something with them before the house was a-swarm with fruit flies. The Missus was kind enough to help out a bit to ensure the success of the project. (Me working in her kitchen is about like her working in my shop. Even if you know what you're doing, you still don't know where all the tools are.) Actually, it was all fairly straight forward other than coming up with the two cups of persimmon puree. She put her cooking genius to work so even that was pretty easy for a baking novice such as myself. It was worth the effort - this stuff rocks!

This is a piece I welded up at the college the other day for the lab tech. Oxy-acetylene welding like we used to do back when. In a place that has square wave inverter TIG machines, this is kind of an anachronism, but when the grid goes down, I'll still be able to weld, and when I take a break, I'll be able to have a cup of Joe and a slice of persimmon bread. Maybe being a bit on the anachronistic side isn't such a bad thing.

Tubing

I got the mounting plate for the new tubing bender made up - 3/8" plate with another 3/8" plate facing down at a right angle. I cut three slots in the top plate and made three corresponding teeth in the bottom plate and then plug welded the two pieces together so there wouldn't be any weld along the bottom edge. Now when I clamp it in my big vise it will fit all the way down in the jaws and I won't have to hold it up a bit while working the handle on the vise. 

Even though I got the bender ready to use, I went over to the high school and used the Hossfeld. As you can see from the photo, the radius is much smaller on the tube than what I would have gotten with the new bender. The Hossfeld die is a 2" centerline radius where the new die is about 3-1/4". Now, not only do I have a bender, but I've got a couple of radii choices on a couple of the tube sizes between what I've got at home and what I have access to at the school. After I get my tool allowance built back up, I'm going to look into buying one of the small universal style benders. I'm sure it would come in handy.

After I got the tube bent, I ran some errands, swapped out the blades on the mower and mowed both the front and back, finished a few other chores, then I decided I was too tired to work on the bike. But hey, at least I got a  little something done on that project.  

Check out the door Surly built.

Weekend Update

I didn't get much done on the sidecar rig the last few days. I'd planned on welding on the windscreen frame but decided to hold off until I see about making one of the handholds. I bought a tubing bender set that will bend 3/8" to 7/8" round tubing and 3/4" & 7/8" square tube. I'm making a plate to fasten the bender to so I can clamp it in my big vise. When I get that done, I can bend the handhold tube and then see how everything is going to work. I might run over to the high school and bend it there, however. I think the die for the Hossfeld at the school is a little smaller radius than what came in my set. Regardless, I'll get it bent and tacked on in the next few days along with the windscreen frame. I'll start on the fender after that.

A couple of the guys from the gym were fighting in Marion, IN Saturday night so I went over with the dad of one of the fighters along with my bicycling associate. The young man in the photo fought very well and came home with the win. The other fighter got stopped in the second round by a big shot to the ribs. I ended up working the corner since Jimmy was having a lot of trouble with his feet. Since having his accident he's been in a lot of pain and his mobility is not too good. It was a lot easier to just have me slide through the ropes and work with the fighters between rounds. No biggie for me, I just feel bad for Jimmy. There's another show in about three weeks. I might end up getting drafted to work that one also depending on how he's doing. 

I finished grading papers and posting the grades for the end of the first eight week session at the college. New classes start today and run until the middle of December. I'll be teaching Stick II this semester - very little classroom stuff, mostly just weld practice getting them to where they can pass a stick certification. It's a good class to teach. I stay busy but it's not really hard work. 

Surly's birthday today. Happy birthday, Sonny!

Afternoon of Life

I saw this the other day at Coyote Prime/Running 'Cause I Can't Fly. Lots of philosophy stuff there, as well as other items dealing with what's going on in this country and the world today, some of which is pretty scary like the Fukishima updates. 

I would say I'm definitely in the afternoon of my life. When I was in my late morning/early mid-day I took some psychology & philosophy classes and while I studied a bit of C.G. Jung, he never made much sense to me. Now some of it is starting to come into focus, which probably verifies what he's saying above. So now I look at life a bit differently with the Zeigernik Effect also taking on a little more relevance. I seem to be more concerned about the unfinished things than I have been in the past. In a few years it will be time to downsize so I need to start getting rid of things and, of course, it's much easier to get rid of things with wheels if they are operational or at least all together. The list of things that need finishing around the house is shrinking, however. I've gotten quite a bit done this summer. My "punch list" no longer looks like a 15 round main event but more like a prelim, so as I go into the evening of my life I might be able to ride there in/on a vehicle of my own construction.

I guess like most of us old farts I'm becoming a little more philosophical as I age, which is probably a good thing. I'm still developing my skills and looking forward to the future while appreciating what I have, just looking at things from a little bit different point of view. 

It's a Great Day ......

to whup somebody's ass. Not because it's a bad day but rather the opposite is true. Probably the old boxer coming out in me. I was feeling pretty froggy last evening when I wrote this.

First thing, I took the wife to the oncologist yesterday and everything is still good - CT scan and the blood work were all aces. Hallelujah!

And now it's pickin' time. Our field got picked about a week ago but when I went for a bike ride last evening I went past three fields that were being picked and I had to pull over for another big combine that was moving down the road. Actually, it was more like he pulled over for me, thank you very much. Those big combines take up most all of the road even without a grain head on them. The farmers are looking at three or four good days in a row for harvesting. There probably won't be much left in the fields around here after that, with the knucklehead behind me being the notable exception. I'm looking for him to pick the corn someplace close to Thanksgiving.

Surly brought me a fender to throw on the sidecar to either use or to mock something up, or to get out of his garage - the last one probably closest to the truth. However, the radius looks about right and the width is surprisingly close to what I need, so it might be helpful from a design standpoint as long as I don't have to move it around much. The damn thing ways a ton. 

I got the frame for the windscreen made up. Since I had made a pattern when I made the fairing for the road racer, I used that for my layout for the frame - drew a line around it and bent the flat stock to fit inside the line. I welded the frame to the table and then heated up a strip about one inch down from the top edge and used an adjustable wrench to bend the edge inward to match up with the taper on the windscreen. It took me a couple of times around the perimeter and a little hammer work but when I checked it after it cooled it was just about dead on the money. Sometimes you get lucky. I'll get it tacked on to the sidecar frame later today. 

I did the heating and bending at the college when there was a high school class in there. With the exception of one kid, none of them seemed to be interested in what I was doing. The windscreen is clearly a motorcycle part. I figured that would have aroused a little bit of interest. Apparently not. Seems like more and more of them are just too wrapped up in the smart phones to take an interest in what goes on around them in the real world, and these are guys that are getting college credits while attending. The school is currently going through an upgrade to insure that the cell phone coverage is state of the art. If I was in charge I think I'd be going the other way - make it a dead zone except in a designated area like the commons or the cafeteria. 

I've got a lot lined up the next few days. I need to make a couple of decisions on the sidecar project before I continue on that but no shortage of things to do while I'm thinking about it. The temps are getting down in to the thirties, so time for a bit of winterizing and outside work before the snow flies.

Jungle Park Reunion

I had seen where the Jungle Park Reunion was coming up on the 520 Chain Cafe blog. As soon as I saw it I called Cuzzin Ricky and we penciled it in on the calendar. Yesterday was the day, and a what a beautiful day it was. There were quite a few cars on display - midgets, sprints, hod rods - a bit of everything. Several former and current racecar drivers. I got autographs from Dave Darland, Tom Bigelow, Billy Vukovich, and Donald Davidson, the official historian of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I also managed to run into Joe from 520 Chain Cafe and we had a nice chat. I'm sure he'll be posting a lot of photos, so check his blog out in the next few days.

There was a short ceremony concluding with the unveiling of a historical marker by the Indiana Racing Memorial Association that recognized the significance of the Jungle Park track through the years and the people associated with the track. They were going to have a parade lap for all the cars in attendance but we didn't stick around for that. Cuzzin Ricky and I were down that way something like 15-20 years ago and took a lap around it in my pickup truck, so we've hot lapped Jungle Park. Not everyone can say that, I'm sure.

It was a good day out for a couple of old race fans.

Hillbilly Elegy

I just finished reading Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance. Quite the interesting story. The story is of his dysfunctional hillbilly family with roots in eastern Kentucky and his growing up in southern Ohio. Dad was no where to be found, mom was a bat-shit crazy woman with addiction problems, so he ended up living with his grandparents much of the time. Of course, this was the same grandma that had once set grandpa on fire by dousing him with gasoline. How he managed to escape the poverty and lunacy of the situation is what the book is all about and the story goes a long way towards explaining how these things come about and are perpetuated generation after generation. He also does a good job of explaining the failure of schools in these areas. In fact, his explanation is probably the best I've seen as far as explaining the relationship between poor communities and lousy educational outcomes.  Remember the words Social Capitol.

There is a TED talk here that compresses the things in the book into a 15 minute synopsis. I would suggest you read the book, but if you can't find the time, at least check out his TED talk.  

Sidecar Floor

I got the floor cut for the sidecar. I still need to do just a bit of filing and trimming but it's looking pretty tasty. I was able to crawl out the front and get a better idea as to where the hand holds need to be. I'll work on mounting up the windscreen and then I can be a little more definitive with placement but it's coming together right smartly.

I took a few measurements of the hack wheel and it's location in the frame. I'm going to draw up a couple of ideas to scale and see what I can come up with for a fender and braces.

It's a Roller

I got the remaining bracket tacked on to the bike frame so it's a roller now! I sat on the bike and leaned a bit to see how it felt and it's pretty easy to lift the side car wheel. The frame is set up pretty neutral now. I might need to have the bike lean inward toward the chair a bit more. That should be easy enough done with the  knee braces/support rods being threaded both left and right handed - loosen the jam nuts and twist them in or out. If they don't give me what I need that way I'll machine up a couple of wedge shaped washers to put behind the lower mounts to facilitate the bike leaning inward. I don't think that will be necessary, however.

Next up is to mount the windscreen. I've got a piece of flatstock cut and ready to bend. I'm going to get it bent to the desired shape to fit the windscreen and then I'm going to have to put a little angle on the top edge to accommodate the angle of the screen where it will bolt up. I can cut the tread plate for the floor now and I'll keep thinking about the handholds/grabrails and the fender design.

Now We're Talkin'

I got the sidecar frame welded up - good practice for me. It's been a while since I've TIG welded any tubing project. The welds all look acceptable and the frame fit back on the bike after I welded it up - so I've got that going for me. The next step is to weld the bracket for the rear knee brace onto the bike frame. The hardest part about that will be holding it in position while I tack it - that's the trouble with TIG. It takes two hands to weld, so you're always needing a third.

After I get that last bracket welded on I'll see about mounting the windscreen on the front of the sidecar frame. That might be a little tricky the way I'm planning on doing it but I think I can pull it off. I'm still not 100% on what I'm going to do about the grab handles and the fender but I've got a couple of ideas. Time has been a little bit limited the last couple of weeks and will be the next couple as well. We've got some medical things going on with the Missus that require my time, another bike ride, the normal day to day things, plus the grass keeps growing - I don't remember ever cutting this much grass this late in the season. It's October, I'm still cutting grass and the Cubs are still playing baseball. Might want to check and see if there are any pigs flying around the local hog farms.