Chicken Bell Completed

 

The chicken bell looks pretty good welded and stripped of paint. The welding was easy enough, but the bead blasting took a lot more time than it should have. When I finished blasting, I took the air compressor apart and ordered a water trap/filter/regulator, and a manifold to hook everything up.

Originally, the air manifold had a switch of some sort that hooked into the tank pressure, a pop-off valve, a tank pressure gauge, a regulator, and a working pressure gauge. I ordered a water trap/regulator and a manifold so I can install the feed line, the tank pressure gauge, the switch, and the pop-off valve. Plus, I need to be able to plumb the water trap/regulator off the end. The water trap/regulator has a gauge built in for the working pressure and the outlet. It shouldn't take too long to get it plumbed up. I'm going to put a union in the line as it comes out of the tank. It didn't originally, which meant I couldn't unthread the unit, or tighten it up since it had somehow worked loose. The Sawzall took it apart easy enough, though. 

I sanded down and painted the piece I made years ago for my boat motor on the engine stand. I no longer have the motor, but I do have a couple of boats that may need a motor someday. I did just repair a skeg on a motor the other day, so it's not unreasonable I might actually need it again. Plus, it's not really junk if it's got a fresh coat of paint, now is it?

I didn't get anything done on the vintage trials bike yesterday, but I did a couple of piddly jobs that needed my attention. So, a productive day.

Flap Discs & Chicken Bell

 

I bought some flap wheels from my usual online source. Price was good, less than a buck a piece. And if you look closely at the one in the left side of the photo, you can see they're made in PRC. I've never seen that before as the country of origin, but I'm pretty sure that stands for the People's Republic of China. Maybe the commies are trying to fool people as to where the product comes from - not sure why that would be, since we don't manufacture much in this country anymore. It has to come from somewhere.

I welded up the broken chicken bell yesterday. Since it's cast iron, I brazed it back together and burned quite a bit of the paint. I decided to bead blast the remaining paint off, but I was having trouble with the water trap on the blaster. What I need to do is install an industrial strength one right at the compressor. The compressor has a regulator and a couple of gauges mounted right to the tank but it has somehow loosened up and I hear air escaping when the pressure builds up. I don't know if it's because it's loose or maybe the diaphragm in the regulator has gone bad. One more thing that needs attention.

I finished up the boat console job and I got back on the vintage trials bike project only to get sidetracked with the bead blasting. I've about got it cleaned up, so I'll finish it today and then maybe look at the compressor to see what's what, then look into installing a water trap. Finish up the brake pedal on the bike after that. 

And it's November already, damn!