Oh Baby, You Know What I Like

 

Small planes and helicopters have claimed the lives of a lot of musicians and sports figures. The Big Bopper died in what was probably the most famous plane crash, along with Ritchie Valens and Buddy Holly. There're still getting airtime 65 years later, though. That's quite the legacy the three of them left behind.

 

I received an email from Hitchcock's that contained a new fuel management "brain" for the Royal Enfield Himalayans. The one in the photo allows a lot of tuneability and goes for $245.00 US dollars. They also have a non-tunable one for a few bucks cheaper. I'm thinking the pro version would help the rideability of the bike, especially when it's cold. As little as I ride the thing, might not be worth the investment. However, the teaching gig has given me some disposable income that isn't earmarked for anything. It would be nice to ride a bike with it installed for comparison purposes before ordering one, though. 

I welded up the pieces for the boat console yesterday. The welding machine and I signed a truce and things are working better now. Actually, I broke down and read the manual. That and the flowmeter doesn't seem to flow the amount of argon that the numbers on the glass tube would indicate. Anyway, things have improved dramatically, but I still need some more work with it before I'll feel really comfortable taking on anything too tricky.

I went to the hardware store yesterday to see if they had the metric bolts I needed to bolt the VW engine to the stand. At $11.00 they weren't cheap, but they had them. Sometimes it's worth it to pay for the convenience, though.

A little more work on the boat console today and maybe fix the chicken bell mount. The stack of mail keeps getting higher, so I'll have to address that soon. Always something.

Makin' & Wishin'

 

The grandson came down yesterday to make up his fab class assignment. Since he got into the class late, I asked his instructor for the blueprint, and I brought the print and some material home so he could do it in my shop. I neglected to take a photo of the finished project, but it looked pretty good. I gave him a bit of help, but no more than what his instructor would have done.

While he was working on his project, I finished making the parts for the boat console project. Pretty simple looking in the photo but the top of the two aluminum angles had to be cut to fit inside another aluminum angle that gets fastened to the console at an angle. The original plan was to weld the angle to the existing piece of the console, but I'm leaning towards riveting it on. I've got rivets I bought specifically for boat repair but I need to run it buy the owner first. I'll get the pieces in the photo welded together and welded to the other piece and then pow-wow with the owner and see what he says. I am going to practice a bit with the new welding machine first, however. We haven't established a good working relationship yet.

I'm not sure where this was taken or where I borrowed it from, but it appears to be a pair of Royal Enfield Himalayans in their natural environment. I'd love to take mine on some type of epic adventure. I've taken several bicycle adventures, don't know if I'd call them epic, but they were definitely adventures. The AMA has some rides that might be worth looking into. I'm sure I'm good for at least one more two-wheeled adventure. Especially, since I went to the funeral home yesterday afternoon to pay my respects to a friend one year younger than me who passed away. Too old to put things off. If I'm going to do it, need to get after it.

Saboteurs

 I went to the courthouse last week to pick up our mail-in ballots, not realizing we needed to fill out applications first. The nice young lady said they needed to be returned by 4:00 PM that day or filled out online by 11:59 that night. No way the Missus was going to be able to fill hers out and return it by 4:00 since she was out for the day, but the clerk got me lined up to do the online thing, so that's what we did. I'm still not sure I'm even going to mail mine in, however.

I've voted in every election since I became of age - and look where that's gotten me. The country is 35 trillion in debt and rising and the only way they'll stop printing money is if they burn the bearings out of the presses, which wouldn't surprise me what with them running them non-stop for the last few years. 

The Feds have allowed or expedited the influx of illegal aliens that for the most part have no job or English language skills. Like the recent influx of Haitians to Logansport, Indiana, they receive a debit card and housing, but because they have no skills, they can't get a job with a livable wage. So what do they do when the debit card runs out? Become a burden on the town and county, that's what. And don't forget your tax dollars are also supporting war in Ukraine and the Middle East while 20% of the young people in this country are food insecure. But the feds did buy some electric chainsaws for the unfortunate hurricane victims. Of course they didn't have electricity, which also made it tough to sign up for their $750.00 relief checks. "Doing a heckuva job there, Brownie."

I've just had enough of the saboteurs in Washington destroying the country. Those of us in the middle class seem to be the primary target. Once we all become dependent on the government teat, they'll have us all under their thumb and we'll be forced to do whatever they please or they'll cut us off from our welfare checks. The rich and powerful will become more rich and powerful and voting will be an exercise in futility - which it might be already. They did after all cheat big time in the last election, hurried up and verified the election in spite of the improprieties, and then threw all the "insurrectionists" in the big house for daring to visit Congress unannounced.   

You need to do what you think is best on November 5th. I'm still thinking of writing in Cyndi Lauper for president. Like her, I too just want to have fun. However, before casting your ballot keep in mind what George Carlin said: "It's a big club and you're not in it."

Early morning edit: Powerful message concerning the election here.

Persimmon Bread and Shop Projects

 

Made my persimmon bread yesterday. The recipe makes two loaves, but I've got enough puree for two more, so that's on the agenda for this morning. At least two of them will go in the freezer. If it wasn't for the fact that it makes a mess of the kitchen, I'd pick some more and make a couple more loaves. Just as well I don't, not all that good for the waistline.

 

While the bread was baking, I made a big pot of soup with the root veggies I got this week from the CSA. About a half-hour of peeling, slicing and sauteing, add the vegetable broth and seasonings, then let it simmer for a couple of hours - leftovers go in the freezer as well.

  I got another job to do for the guy whose boat I welded on a month ago. He's installing a console that came off another boat, so needs some modifications. I'll work on that today after I get my bread in the oven.

I finished up the VW engine stand yesterday, as well. Looks good with the fresh coat of paint - now we just need to get the engine out of the back of the trailer and onto the stand.

The wife's sister also brought me a welding job yesterday - cast iron chicken bell mount. Man, they're going to miss me when I'm gone.

Update

 

Surly sent me a couple of photos of the finished belt squat apparatus that was a collaboration of three generations of craftsmen. One of the nice things was his design allows it to be folded up out of the way when not in use.

I picked up a piece of plate for the sled Coach Jen needs for her new gym. It's large enough to make most of the pieces I'll need except for some pipe couplings. It's going to take a bit of labor to cut everything out, but it'll save a bunch of money on material cost. When I get all the pieces made, I'll have the grandson weld it up. I had lunch with Coach Jen yesterday and she updated me on her plans for the gym and where I'm to fit in. I just recertified both my boxing and Safe Sport credentials, so I'm good on that for another two years. I'll have to wait and see how much demand there is for another boxing gym in the county, but as she presented her plan to me, looks like it could work out well without cutting into Jimmy's business.

Planning on spending most of the day in the kitchen today. I got the persimmon puree processed the other day, so I'll bake some persimmon bread and make a big pot of soup with the root vegetables I picked up at the CSA this week. It's getting cold out there in the mornings now - soup season is here.

I did a little machining job for the high school yesterday and got the engine stand about ready for paint. I should be able to get it painted while the breads baking or the soup's simmering. Might be able to get the VW engine bolted on this weekend if some help shows up. Moving forward around here but I want to get back to motorcycle and car projects.  

 

Golly, Dolly!

 I stopped off at the library to return a couple of books and they have a cardboard Dolly Parton in the entry way. The last time I was there I noticed her eyes seemed to follow me when I was walking out. This time I brought the camera with me to see what it looked like on "film".

Here's Dolly as I was exiting the building - looking south - with Dolly looking right at me.

Here's Dolly when I'm looking west, and once again she's looking right at me. Pretty crazy, but nothing that lady does should surprise me by now. Certainly no surprise to find her in the library, considering she's given away over 200 million books. And she just donated one million dollars to help the hurricane victims in Tennessee and North Carolina. A credit to the human race and I'm sure there's a special place in heaven waiting for her.

And to close out the post, a little teacher humor:

From Here

When I got to the second frame I figured there was going to be a shot at the students but that was going to be too easy. The last frame tells it all, though. I've worked for some good ones over the length of my career. Probably the best one I ever worked for was the man in charge when I first started my career way back in '76. He also ended up being my boss during my last year at East Chicago. As for a few of the others, like the man in the cartoon said, no comment.

Persimmon Time

 

I picked persimmons yesterday. If I remember correctly, the persimmon bread recipe I use calls for two cups of pulp. There should be plenty in the bucket to make that happen. There are plenty more on the tree but they're up high and I'd rather not have to try to pick those. I do have some pulp in the freezer if I need a little more. I'll get these processed today or tomorrow and then make a couple of loaves of bread.

I got most of the engine stand sanded down yesterday as well. I used a 7" sanding disc but I'm going to switch over to a smaller disc to finish it up. I might use the torch to burn the paint off the pipe on top and then hit the whole works with a small wire cup wheel. It's an engine stand, not a Steinway, so the main objective was to just get rid of the rust and get some new paint on it. As soon as that gets done, we can get the VW motor out of the trailer and onto the stand. 

Once the VW motor is out of the trailer, need to get the jointer and welder out of it. I can then get the hydraulic cylinder and pump installed, get some hoses and it'll be operational.

Back to work this week. Another eight weeks of trying to stamp out ignorance. This class will mostly be made up of the students from the last eight weeks and they all did a pretty good job. If they do the same this time, most of them should have an AWS certification when they finish the class. I've had good results in the past with the majority of the students passing the cert test. Mostly it's just a matter of how much effort they put into it. We'll see.   

Great Day to be Alive

 

Beautiful day yesterday - good day for doing some outside things and combining sorghum. I don't know enough about sorghum to know when it's time to harvest. Do you need to worry about moisture content? Can you store it for a while to get the best price? Where do you take it once you've picked it? Our farmer works for the co-op, so I'm sure he had all the answers before planting.

I bounced around from one thing to another most of the day yesterday. Burned off the brush pile, moved a few things around, charged the battery on the old Allis and put some air in the tires. While I was at it, I aired up the tires on the mower and the Himalayan. Painted up the VW mount for the engine stand and started sanding the stand itself. Perfect day for doing things.

That's a New One on Me

 

The "chimney sweep" was here yesterday to clean out the fireplace chimney. After he left, I worked on recertifying my boxing coach's license. Nothing difficult, just a couple of hours on the computer. 

Afterwards, I grabbed the dog for a walk down to the mailbox to take advantage of the beautiful weather and clear the cobwebs after spending all that time working on my license recertification. As we approached the mailbox I heard something coming down the road, but I couldn't identify the sound. The reason I couldn't identify the sound was because I don't recall ever hearing a pickup truck driving down the road on the rims. There was another pickup following behind it with the flashers on. They both turned around in the parking lot of the tavern and headed back my way, so I was able to get the photo.

This is the soundtrack for a lot of what goes on in the county - been guilty of a little bit of it myself over the years.

The dog decided to walk the perimeter while we were out, and I spied this along the back fence line. It's a good 12"-14" across. I took the photo later when I went out to mow with the phone and I had an old camera with a couple of shots of B&W left on the roll, so I finished off the roll on the fungus. I might have to brew up another batch of developer but I'd like to get the roll developed before too much longer. I've got a few more negatives I'd like to print but I'd like to see what I've got on this roll first.

I'm planning on doing a bit of yard work today, as well as working on the engine stand from the previous post.

Taking Care of Business

 Busy day, yesterday. I got my grades posted in the morning and then went to the steel supplier.

One of several engine stands I've made over the years. This one was designed for motorcycle engines. There are several slots allowing to bolt most anything on there, and if the engine won't bolt up, make a couple more brackets. As it sits, it's set up for a Sprint. 

Since the stands were made with what I had on hand at the time, there's no standard design or sizing on the material. I've got a VW motor in the dump trailer that needs to get moved out of there. The yellow head in the above photo is for the VW but it fits in the stand that's holding the spare Slant-Six. I bought a short piece of schedule 40, 2-1/2" pipe yesterday and slipped it over the 2" pipe of the VW head and tacked it on so it would fit the bike engine stand. There's a stiffener on the back of the upright tube but I'm going to weld on a couple of braces down to the legs before I bolt up the VW engine to the stand. Probably give it a fresh coat of paint while I'm at it.

The piece of grating I use on top of the horses sags in the middle if it's not supported. Instead of laying it on top of a couple of pieces of flat stock like I've been doing, I welded on a couple of pieces of angle. Something I should have done quite a while ago.

I put up another shelf yesterday. I had some plywood that ended up here courtesy of the wife's sister. I ripped it down for a couple of the shelves to keep short pieces from falling through. I need to support the center of the empty shelf, but other than that, I'm hoping that's all I'm going to need.

I've got some errands to run and some chores to take care of today, but I'm pleased that Surly lit a fire under my ass to get going on this.

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. 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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.