People Get Ready

Another oldie but a goodie. Now's a good time to get ready in all aspects of your life - " You need to get your mind right, Luke." 

I did a clean-up, paint-up on my little grill yesterday as a small part of my getting ready. It was looking pretty rough but it's almost ready to go back into service. The inside of the top has a nice coating of smoke and grease, and the outside coating of heat resistant paint needs some heat to cure. I'm going to load it up with some charcoal and bake the paint and melt some of the schmutz out of it. 

The students in the metal shop where I started my career used to make these. I liked the looks of them, so the instructor gave me the plan and I made myself one. It's light, durable and big enough to cook four big burgers at one time. I remember taking it to the bike races at Elkhart Lake one year. There was a couple of guys in their "ambivalance" parked next to us and they couldn't cook their breakfast due to a no open flame rule in effect. The little grill came to the rescue, we combined their grub and ours and we all ate like kings.  

One more bracket for steel storage in the big barn. This will be the last one for a while. I've got a bunch of small aluminum sheets and plates I need to get a home for as well. I've got a piece of aluminum diamond plate I'm going to put on a couple of blocks and then stack the pieces on the diamond plate either laying flat or leaning up against the wall.

I dug out my old Coleman camping stoves yesterday as well. I've got two of the two burners, and one single burner. The old two burners run on white gas or Coleman stove and lantern fuel. I've got a place in my teardrop trailer specifically for one of those, so I'll put one in there. The other two burner is going to go to my back-up location. I need to figure out if there's any issue with shelf life with the fuel, however. A tankful goes a long way. If I fill up the tank, that should be plenty for my 72 hour emergency plan as long as the fuel is stable. Since I've got at least two of most everything - whether I need it or not - I shouldn't have to buy anything besides some batteries and a mouse proof container. Since I'm off this week, it's a good time to get it done.

More Brackets & After Action Report

 

From Here

I got up off mine yesterday and made a couple of more brackets for the clean-up/organizational marathon. I got them painted after they cooled down a bit and they'll get installed today.

While I was waiting for the brackets to cool down so I could paint them, I decided to see if the point adjustment on the welder did anything, and boy did it! I brought the torch down towards the scrap piece and when it got to within about an 1-1/2" it jumped right across. Startled me in fact. The three short beads were mine. Not my finest work but I was fiddling with the controls a bit and the piece moved for the one on the left. More practice will be required, but it now works as advertised.

I've been reading some more things about the hurricane preparations - what worked, what didn't. One common theme is cash is king. With no electricity or internet, without cash you're not going to able to buy anything. And the time to get your cash is long before the storm's on the horizon. ATMs ran out of cash and banks were closed. Get a stash of cash and keep it in a safe place. 

Food, water and security are always mentioned, as are first aid kits, medicine, batteries, and physical conditioning. Radios were mentioned, regular battery-operated ones, as well as ones with weather alerts and shortwave bands. Also, ham radios were mentioned. Ham radios seem to always come into play whenever there's a big weather emergency. That's one of the reasons I got my ham license.

I'm going to be taking stock of my preps in the next few days and put together a kit I'll keep at a separate location. A few days food for the Missus and I, as well as some pet food. A stove, cooking utensils, flashlight, lighter, etc. Basically, everything we would need for a 72-hour outage except water - my secondary location is not heated. With my experience taking bicycle camping trips, I've got a pretty good idea what it takes for minimalist gear. The Missus won't be comfortable, but if the tornado blows the house down, at least we'll have something.   

High Frequency Adjustment

 

That's what the inside of an inverter welding machine looks like. I've read how they work, but I'm still not convinced all of that electronic mumbo-jumbo is necessary. The old transformer-rectifiers worked well and were pretty much fool proof. Also, are these things going to work in the event of an EMP event? Should I store it in a Faraday cage when I'm not using it? Anyway, I took the cover off so I could adjust the contact points on the high frequency generator. I'm hoping that makes starting the arc easier now when I weld aluminum. It was dinner time when I got the cover back on, so I'll try it out today and see how it goes. Going to pick up some steel as well.

Hose Job

 

I bought a hank of hose yesterday for the new welder. The TIG torch, ground and electrode leads are all pretty short. The welder is on wheels and I have an extension cord for it, with the longer argon hose I can roll the welder around and reach most anywhere I need to. I have longer leads for stick welding I can use, but right now I can barely reach the vise on the welding bench with the TIG torch. I should have specced a longer torch when I bought the machine, but the longer hose should do the trick. 

Thinking about the finish of the vintage trials bike - powdercoat or paint and what color. I'm leaning towards a green frame, which should look good with the alloy fenders and tank. The photo shows a Francis-Barnett Plover that came in Arden Green. To my color deficient eyeballs, looks like British Racing Green. I put in a search for British Racing Green and found there are several shades of British Racing Green. There's a real good article all about that here. I have a Plover like the one in the photo, but mine is blue. If it was green I might be able to find a spot on the bike somewhere that wasn't faded and get it matched up.

This is a '67 XKE I assume is British Racing Green. It shouldn't be too difficult to track the color name and code for that one. I'm planning on making the last part for the bike's shift linkage today. Shouldn't be much more in the way of fabrication left, so conceivably, I could get this one finished yet this year. I'm going to have eye surgery sometime after my class wraps up in December - be nice to have it done prior to that.

I hung up the latest bracket yesterday and loaded up some stock on it. I think at least one more set of brackets would be advisable, maybe two. I need to get some more angle before I can do that, however. I also need to make a couple of hangers for some wire and a gaggle of swingarms. Lots to do, but since I'm off next week I'm thinking about going camping for a couple of days. It's been a long time since I've had my little camper out.

 

Never Ending Clean-Up

 

Shop Teacher Bob doing my thing. The junk on the table is part of the crap that came out of a couple of the corners of the shop. We're still cleaning and organizing but there's been a lot of progress. The pile destined for the scrap yard keeps growing, anyway.

Another wall bracket for the big barn. I've been making all the brackets out of whatever material I've got laying around. However, I'm about out of angle like I used for this one. I need to replenish my inventory of both angle and square tubing. I'm pretty well fixed for round stock for lathe work, and I bought a bunch of aluminum round bars years ago from a supplier that was closing down. In fact, I'll probably never use all of that, but it was one of those deals if you take it all, I'll give you a real good price. So I did.

I need to head back to the college in the next couple of days to grade the final exams and swing by Menards to pick up a few things while I'm in the neighborhood. I've got a week off and the weather's nice, so I want to tackle a few things on the to-do list. Steady by jerks as my old pal Joey used to say.

Races, Pie and Final Exams

 

A little something to think about now that the election is a short month away.

Cuzzin Ricky went to the Silver Crown race at Terre Haute Sunday night. We stopped in at the Grand Traverse Pie Company like we usually do on our way into town for lunch and a piece of pie, only to find out they close at 3:00 on Sundays. Major disappointment there.

Races were good however - 100 lap feature but boy it was dusty! 

We went to Steak & Shake after the race like we normally do only to find ordering kiosks rather that servers waiting tables. No-one coming around to check on you or buss the tables. This 3rd World country thing is going to take some getting used to. 

Rick had booked us a nicer hotel than we normally stay at due having accumulated reward points, so we had a nice breakfast that was included with our room. And then we topped off the gas tank with reward points as well. With the rewards points they almost paid us to go racing - then we stopped and got some pie to go on the way out of town. That's always like the cherry on top.

Final night of class this evening - welding final rather than a paper final. Should go well. Since they no longer teach any sort of blueprint reading in high school in most places, some of them had a little trouble interpreting the print I handed out the other night of the required weldment. In addition to not being able to tell time on an analog clock, many of them are seriously deficient in the use of fractions. Not only in being able to add and subtract them, but they have no idea even what a 1/4" thick piece of steel looks like or what a 3/4" fillet weld should look like either. To paraphrase Thomas Sowell, it makes you wonder what they've been doing for the last 12 years before getting to college.

I'm off next week, then another eight-week session.

My Hero

 

The Missus and I were discussing the hurricane damage and the federal response a few days ago and I asked her if she had heard anything about Dolly Parton. I didn't believe she'd sit this one out. And then, I hear the tapped-out FEMA is going to give the hurricane victims $750 and Dolly is donating $2,000,000. That's right, six zeros in the number - 2 million American dollars. Man, I love that woman. She ranks right up there with Mother Teresa in my book. 

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I was getting ready to unroll the welding cables and looked down at the floor and saw this bad boy. I'm glad it wasn't in my welding helmet. I'd of pissed my pants.

Some kind of squat contraption for muscle building. Surly's design and machine work on the pipe couplings, I cut a couple of pieces and drilled a couple of holes, and the grandson did all the welding. The kid enjoys welding and has an aptitude for it. His younger brother is looking at carpentry as a trade. It's nice that both of them seem to be on a decent career path. We definitely need more tradesmen these days.

Hard Times

 

Just gettin' through the day is tough enough for many people these days. It's going to take a lot to get through the hard times for those affected by the hurricane. I do know mountain people are strong, though. They'll make it back but it sure as hell won't be easy. Especially since there will be something else that will come up in the news cycle and we won't hear any more about their problems in another week or so. I for one won't forget about the lack of help from Washington and I'm sure they won't either, however.

I've seen lots of photos of the flooding and damage, but that little girl and her puppy just broke my heart. Of course, the bottom half just added insult to injury.

I've a couple of questions now: 

How devastating has the loss of livestock been, including wildlife and domestic animals?  

What are they going to do with all that debris?

What's the real body count? 

And a general question. If you have prepared and stocked up on extra food, water, etc., what can you do to keep it safe if your house floats away or is destroyed by a tornado or fire? Seems to me the only good option is to have a secure secondary storage facility. "Two is one and one is none."

Update

Apropos of nothing, photo of young women eating spaghetti.

 Sorta busy day yesterday. Picked up veggies from the CSA in the morning, stopped at the grocery store and the bank on the way home. Had a little down time and then took the dog to the groomer. 

There's a business a couple of doors down from the groomer that has a sign on the building advertising it does MIG welding and powder coating. The actual name is RCR Metal Fab. There's also a sign out front advertising the business being for sale. My curiosity got the better of me, so I stopped in and talked to the owner. He's a couple of years older than I am and wants to call it quits. His primary business is making engine stands for cars, bikes and outboard drives for boats. They're well-made and look good with the powder coat finish. He's looking to sell the building and all the contents as a package deal. He said he'd be willing to bring in a young guy and get him started in the business. I have no idea if the price he shot me is a good one or not. I don't have any idea of the value of the property or what it would take to get financing. I'm not interested in going into business for myself, but it might be an opportunity for Surly and the grandson.

Now, to the business of Helene. What a disaster for those poor souls, and to make it worse, I've read a few things about the lack of official help, including the fact that FEMA has no money. Apparently, they've spent their budget on the illegal aliens (read more here), so there's no money left to help the citizens unless you count the $750 the Biden administration has pledged to help those in need as long as they apply for it. Of course, if you don't have a home, internet, electricity, or mail service, applying might be difficult. And then how far is $750 going to take you when the only things you have left are the clothes on your back. 

I contacted Frankie Flood who lives down there and asked him for a recommendation of where I could send a little money where I know it will get to those in need. He sent me the info for his church. He said his wife helped serve 600 dinners the other day. There is definitely a need for help. If you're able, send a few bucks here, or somewhere else that will help ease the pain of those poor people. Once again, we can't rely on the government, so it has to be neighbors helping neighbors. 

Welding Job

 

Shop Teacher Bob doing a little TIG with the new welding machine. I need to address the high frequency issue and then spend some time twisting the dials to get comfortable with it. In the photo I'm welding a loop onto a "lat" pull down bar for Surly we made from a piece of heavy-wall pipe that was among the pile of stock that was languishing in a corner because "I might be able to use that for something." And we did!

We've got another piece of equipment to make for his home gym. The plan is to have the grandson do the welding and to be involved in the fabricating end of it as well. I also hope to involve him on a couple of other pieces of training equipment for Coach Jen's new facility. She'll be doing personal training and some boxing coaching that I'll be involved in as well.