Points Cover and Anniversaries

I finished up the points cover. As easy as it was to make it, I'm not sure why I waited so long. If I were to make another one I'd do a couple of things differently. The flat surfaces slope down at an eight degree angle. I was planning on ten degrees but the stock I was using was a piece of a weld coupon that had bevels on both the top and bottom of the piece with a narrow root face so I was limited to where I could grab it in the vise. I should have used another piece but it was almost the perfect size and I thought it would stick up out of the vise high enough to give me the ten degrees. Eight's not bad but ten would have been better. Also, I should have turned the OD to a larger size and then turned it to the finish diameter after I bored out the inside to eliminate the marks from the chuck. They're not too noticeable but I should have thought it through a bit more before starting the job.

I'm going to order some stainless button head screws for the cover and get some stainless socket heads to replace the case bolts while I'm ordering. One of these days I'll pull the cover all the way off the bike so I can see what else I need to do on this thing and then try to make a little more headway.

I was reading the latest Welding Journal the other night and came across a couple of interesting anniversaries. First of all it's the 100th anniversary of the American Welding Society and they've been promoting that all year but it's also the 100th anniversary of the hard hat. It was originally made to protect miners and was fabricated from steamed canvas, glue, leather and black paint by the Bullard  Company. It's also the 40th anniversary of Honda building motorcycles at their Marysville, Ohio plant, the first bike being the 250 Elsinore by the way.

On a totally unrelated point, I had a black squirrel in the backyard last evening. I saw a couple of them around town earlier this year for the first time, which surprised me. The Missus has some kin buried in Warsaw, Ind. and we always see black squirrels there when visiting the cemetery. The one in the backyard was a cute little thing but I'm sure it'll be just as destructive as the red and gray ones are if I leave a vehicle out where they can get at the wiring.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Once again, I've got so much to be thankful for - hope you all do too.