Delivery With Dignity

 

If you have a pickup, sooner or later someone will want you to haul something for them. I got the job of moving a treadmill for my wife's sister. It gets delivered tonight when I meet up with Surly and the boys to get it off the truck and into the house.

I saw the following at the Running 'Cause I Can't Fly 2 blog - link on the sidebar. Nice little opinion piece about those of us in "the productive class". 

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"The Dignity of Work"

by Paul Rosenberg

"At one time I lived close to the Field Museum of Chicago; I had a membership and spent a good deal of time there. One evening, about ten minutes before closing, I noticed that workers had begun preparing the first floor for an evening event. I had a panoramic view from where I stood at the second floor balcony, and what I saw has stuck with me ever since.


What I saw was a lone man setting up tables and chairs – simple work, the kind that a teenager could do. But what I watched this man do was every bit as beautiful as dance. He moved with integrity, with precision, and with intent. He carefully spaced the tables in a precise geometry, he moved every chair with efficiency. This was more than just work; it was art. This man knew that he was doing his job well, and, perhaps most importantly, he enjoyed doing it well. I was transfixed by it all, and I stood there until the guards asked me to leave. And even then, I moved very slowly until I lost sight of him.


There is real beauty in doing a job well, even a simple job. It is our great loss that this form of beauty is never mentioned in public these days – double-sad, because at one time, such beauty was acknowledged.


The Virtue of Productivity: It is productivity that improves life upon Earth. What I call “the productive class” are the people who build and repair our cars, our houses, and our computers; the people who provide us with air conditioning, electricity, plumbing, and food; the people who make, clean and repair our clothing; the people who treat our sicknesses and wounds.


If you can drive around town and point out places where you repaired things, or delivered things, or fed people, or made human life better in any of a thousand ways, you are a producer. And if you are a producer, there is an inherent dignity in what you do. You are actively making the world better. You are directly creating benefit for yourself and for other human beings. What you do every day is morally virtuous and worthy of respect. And you should never let anyone tell you otherwise.


And, it’s worth pointing out: Money is not a measure of your worth. Money is certainly useful, and getting it should matter to you, but merely having money is no measure of your dignity. Actively improving the world, however, that conveys dignity.


What, Really, Is Work? It’s important to look at things directly; to clarify what they really are, not just what people say about them. This is what I see when I focus on work itself: Productive work is the insertion of creativity into the world. It is the birthing of benefit into the world. It is, in a word, beautiful, and people who do it should be deeply satisfied with what they do.


Compared to productive work, status is ornamental puffery: a shiny coat with the word “Important” emblazoned upon it, worn by a sad little man. If you are a member of the productive class, please work at re-arranging your assumptions and stop revering status. Instead, start respecting things that actually improve human life. Creating things, improving things, or making it possible for other people to create… these are noble, beautiful, and important. Please start giving yourself credit for them."
- https://freemansperspective.com/

Welding in the Gloaming

 

It was a great evening for welding yesterday. It started getting a little cool when the sun went down, but my student was doing well with the 7018 electrodes. 

Yesterday was an anniversary of sorts. My buddy Kevin sent me an email asking me if I remember what we did 20 years prior. Of course I had no idea. I've never been one to remember the dates of any event of my life other than my anniversary and a few birthdays. I can remember the events but since it happened in the past, I never bother trying to remember exactly when. Anyway, the event was Kevin and I running the Detroit Half Marathon. We ran into Canada over the Ambassador Bridge and back into Detroit through the tunnel. All of the runners had an underwater mile split time. Mine was 11:11, and we finished on the 50-yard line of Ford Field. It was a great weekend for both of us, but even better for Kevin. I dropped him off on the way home to meet up with a friend of his to go to the White Sox play-off game that got them into the World Series. 

Ham radio antenna scheduled for installation this morning.

Readouts

 

The digital readout kit came when I was out of town, so I opened it up yesterday to see what I had. After thumbing through the book a bit, it looks like it will do everything I want it to do plus a whole lot more. It'll be nice to be able to do a bolt circle layout to the gnat's ass, as well as engine turn a part with accurate stepovers.

Laying on top of the manual are the snap rings I was looking for. I ordered them from Grainger. They came in a five pack for less than $5.00, and the shipping was cheaper than I could drive up and get them. I ordered them on Monday and they were here Wednesday. 

I'll be getting back to work in the shop now, but it's going to be requiring heat. Frost warnings from the weatherman for a couple of days. I got my spare propane tank filled Tuesday, so I'll be ready to spend some time out there putting the finishing touches on the trials bike and the Sportster, and getting the mill worked over. I've still got some outdoor things to take care of and the guy is supposed to come tomorrow to help me get my antenna up in the trees. I'm going to have plenty to keep me busy this winter.

Grand Canyon #2

 

A couple more shots of the Canyon. I probably should have walked back down there when the sun started going down. The evening light and shadows would have made for some lovely shots. These were taken on the Rim Trail as we approached the Kolb Brothers Studio. The studio was built right on the rim of the Canyon. I bought a book about them and their work. Those boys were something.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Surly located a set of pipes for the Sportster that look like those in the photo. Those would be just the ticket. They would look like they were made for the bike, because they were, and be much quieter than the drag pipes.

I didn't do much on Sunday - unpacked the suitcase, did a little laundry, and then went to the gym. After spending 36 hours Flagstaff to Chicago and then a few more on the second leg, I figured it would be a good idea to exercise something besides my fanny. 

Did a little catch-upon the computer yesterday - emails and a survey from the brain research group I'm in. Swapped out the mower blades and proceeded to get the mower stuck on the first pass along the edge of the corn field. Between the rain yesterday and the apples on the ground I spun the rear wheels and it sunk to the depth of the mower deck right now. I had to get old Allis out and pull the mower free. However, if you look closely at the above photo, you'll see a couple of apples still hanging on the branches and apple blossoms like it's spring. Crazy stuff happening these days. 

Grand Canyon #1

 

Made it home from the Grand Canyon trip Saturday night about 9:00 pm. There's no easy way to get to the Canyon by rail. The Amtrak runs to Flagstaff but then you need to get to Williams, and then you can catch the Grand Canyon Railway to the National Park. It wasn't too bad on the way out but on the return trip we had to catch the bus at 3:00 am to get to Flagstaff to board at 4:00. We had a roomette on the Amtrak, and they had our room all made up for us, so all we had to do was crawl in.

This is the train that runs between Williams and the Park. They give you a spiel on the way up about where to eat and things to see, as well as entertaining you with a musical act. On the way down they had some "hold-up men" come aboard and a mandolin and guitar player singing a few tunes. 

We had vouchers for the Fred Harvey restaurant where we ate a breakfast and a dinner. Big buffet loaded with just about anything you could want. Excellent service, as you would expect, since the Harvey restaurants were always about excellent service since day one.

In addition to the train taking us into the park, we did a bus tour on our first day. The bus stopped at only two places, but the views were spectacular. The following day we did some walking and got a look at the canyon from a few additional vantage points. 

I'll put up a few more photos in my next post.

Heading Home

 Surly's birthday today. Momma's and my pride and joy.

Meanwhile back in Arizona, Cuzzin Ricky and I are beginning our trek home. We both enjoy traveling by rail, but it's not the fastest way, especially when the train doesn't actually stop in the town where you wish to go. However, our traveling philosophy is similar to the toilet paper commercial - enjoy the go. 

It'll be good to be back home. Need to find the snap rings for the trials bike, try wrapping the muffler inserts on the Sportster with some packing and there's more bell hanging work to be done as well. The digital readouts for the milling machine should be at the house when I get home, so that'll be on the agenda as will be getting the antenna up for the ham radio. 

 

“You go up to a man, and you say, “How are things going, Joe?” and he says, “Oh fine, fine… couldn’t be better.” And you look into his eyes, and you see things really couldn’t be much worse. When you get right down to it, everybody’s having a perfectly lousy time of it, and I mean everybody. And the hell of it is, nothing seems to help much.”
- Kurt Vonnegut

I saw this at the Running 'Cause I Can't Fly2 blog - there's a link in the sidebar. This is one of my daily haunts. He puts up a good variety of financial and political things so you can see what's really happening here in this country and other countries that we're involved with. I don't know when Vonnegut made the above quote, but I'm sure it applies equally to what's happening currently.

According to the itinerary, today Cuzzin Ricky and I should be riding on the Grand Canyon Railway trip and the Motorcoach Freedom Rim Tour. Since I couldn't figure out how to post using my phone, this one is prerecorded. So, I'm going out on a limb and say we're not having a perfectly lousy time of it. There'll be an after-action report coming later.

Harvest Time

 

Harvest time! 

The farmer showed up on Saturday to pick the corn - beautiful day for it. It was a good day to be a farmer. It takes a special breed to be a farmer, whether you deal with grain, livestock or a truck patch. Out here in the country, the equipment will cause some holdups on the roads during planting and harvest time and you have to be careful coming around the corners on your motorcycle due to spilled grain or dirt from the fields, but as long as I'm able I'm going to live in the country. 

Traveling

 Google is adding some new search features - so that may throw me off my game when I'm trying to write up a post. Going along with that, I've got a new computer. Windows 10 will no longer be supported after the 14th, and my current computer decided to add a new feature all on its own. When I log in now, the initial screen comes up, when I click to go to the log in screen nothing happens unless I do the control, alternate & delete procedure, which is why I ordered a new computer. Might take me a bit to get everything transferred over.

My welding student is making progress. He started with E-7018 electrodes on the second section of his paddlewheel. The first section with the E-6011 looked pretty rough, mostly because he hadn't mastered overlapping his beads. You can see in the photo he's still having a bit of the same trouble, but he's getting there.

Cuzzin Ricky and I are boomin' out on the Southwest Chief for a trip to the Grand Canyon. Amtrak doesn't run there directly, but it can be done, or so they tell us. We'll be gone for a week, so blogging will be light. I've never tried writing a post using my phone, but I imagine it can be done, maybe not with photos but we'll find out soon enough.

Amtrak runs the Texas Eagle directly to Dallas, which would be nice if I wanted to take the train to see the Haas Moto Museum. Also, Cuzzin Ricky wants to take another trip out west to ride a couple of tourist trains - steam powered I believe. We can talk about that one on our way to the Grand Canyon.

Hanger Brackets Done.

 

I welded up the bell hangers yesterday. The leg they're resting on in the photo will be vertical when installed. I'm going to clean them up today and then send them down the road. 

Heading to the doctor first thing this morning, however. I've got a big red spot on my shin - maybe a spider bite. Doesn't look good and itches like crazy. 

I got a lot of piddly things done yesterday in addition to the bell hangers. Still have plenty to do yet, in the shop, in the house and around the yard. Some big jobs and some little nuisance jobs. Just need to keep picking them off the list. It does keep me off the bar stools, though.

  

Bell Hangers and Muffler Inserts

 

I picked up the plates for the bell hangers yesterday. Beautiful job and I didn't have to do anything other than drop off the drawing and pick up the finished parts. I'm going to try and get them welded up today but there's a couple of other things on the schedule that might take precedence.

The muffler inserts for the Sportster's drag pipes were a little too big to fit in the pipes. I hammered on one for a while, but it wasn't working like I wanted it to. I chucked up a scrap piece of heavy wall pipe and bored the ID to just a bit under the ID of the pipes. I drove the muffler insert down into the pipe and it shrunk the OD on the insert right nicely. You can see the insert inside the pipe in the bottom photo.

I got the inserts installed into the pipes and started the bike. It seems to be a little quieter but it's still noisy. I have some packing material, so I might try wrapping the insert with a little of it and see what happens then. If it's still obnoxiously loud, I'll shop for some mufflers.

I laid out the plates for the skids on the grader blade for the Allis yesterday as well. Again, depending on how things shake out, I'll try to get those cut out today as well. 

Moto Museum

 

Surly was in Dallas over the weekend and went to the Haas Moto Museum - the photo is from his visit. I'd like to hitch up my teardrop and head east to the Wheels Through Time Museum in North Carolina, then head west to the Barber Museum in Alabama, and finally, the Haas Moto Museum in Dallas. And sometime during the trip stop at a Buc-ee's to see what all the hoopla is all about. 

As it stands right now, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving the Missus home alone for that length of time. And if she came along, we would have to put the dog in the kennel and neither of us would want to do that. Last time he was kenneled, it was for only one night and when I went to pick him up he wouldn't take a treat from me or even look at me. When the Missus was in the hospital last week, he spent most all of the time in the bedroom waiting for her to come home.  

I got the ham radio connected to the ground rod the other day and I talked to the guy from the club about getting the antenna up. We're shooting for the end of the week.

I called the closest Fastenal store to see about getting the snap rings for the forks on the trials bike but no luck there. I'll call Grainger. They list a 5 pack. I only need 2, but if they have them, I'll make a trip.

Looks like I'm going to be pretty busy this week. Need to catch up a bit from last week and start making ready for the cold weather.

Gaiters

 

I found some gaiters that fit the forks on the trials bike. I'm thinking these will work better on a dirt bike than the short caps that were on them, especially since there was lots of evidence of water and grit getting inside. The forks are 32mm and aren't near as plentiful as the 35mm ones, meaning I couldn't find the stock Ceriani ones easily, but the gaiters are a good snug fit and should look good on the bike.

I mentioned the other day when I finally got the second fork apart that I couldn't see the holes in the snap ring. Come to find out, that was because there was no snap ring in there. I found them listed with Fastenal and Grainger - just a matter of picking them up. Hopefully things will be OK with the Missus and I can resume getting the trials bike buttoned up. She did come home from the hospital yesterday. Nothing really conclusive as to what happened, but no damage to the heart, fortunately.

I did pick up a ground rod for the ham radio. I'll go through the bin with the wire in it and get the ground wire connected to the radio this week. I'm also hoping to get my help lined up this coming week to shoot the antenna up in the trees as well. 

Project Pause

 

A little psychedelic number for your listening pleasure. 

Nothing project related to report due to a medical emergency on the home front. I had to rush the Missus to the hospital early Wednesday morning due to chest pain. It wasn't a heart attack as typically diagnosed but since the doctors weren't sure exactly what it was, she stayed overnight to run a stress test and then stayed overnight Thursday night so they could run an angiogram today. She's not in any pain now but she has some medical history and insurance, so the doctors are checking things out thoroughly to make sure she's not at risk of having a grabber when she goes home.

One of my favorites and in this day and age it applies to not only your spiritual health, but all phases of your life - physical, financial, security and just plain getting your mind right. Keep the tank topped off, the cupboards full and remember the government is not coming to help you.

It's happened before, and it'll happen again.

Fork Leg

 

After cogitating for a while, I figured if I wanted the piece inside the fork leg to stop spinning while taking the bolt out of the bottom, I needed to put some more pressure on it than what the spring was doing. I thought a piece of dowel rod might do the trick, so off to the lumber yard I went. And as I was about to turn in, I remembered they went out of business recently. Fortunately, the hardware store had what I was looking for. I needed to taper the end of it, though, so I put it in my wood lathe. I got a good start on it and then the belt let go. I finished the taper with a file and sandpaper. I then cut it to length and threaded a hook into the end so I could pull it back out again. I removed the hook, put the dowel into the fork leg and then tightened the cap to exert pressure on the piece in the bottom to prevent it from turning. When I hit it with the impact wrench, the bolt spun right out. I took the cap off, pulled the dowel out and breathed a sigh of relief.

Here's what the top of the fork leg looks like. The snap ring looks even worse than it did on the first one I took apart. You can't even see the holes for the pliers. At some time, and probably for a long time, the forks had water getting in there. I'll get the snap ring and the seals out, clean it up and put the new seals in, then get the front end put back together. A lot of work invested in the front fork assembly. Had I known it was going to be so much work, I probably would have bought a used front end from a dirt bike and been better off, but anyone can do the easy ones.

Monday Stuff

 

Here's the antenna for my ham radio. The actual antenna consists of two long wires that will be shot up into the trees - that's them with the insulators on the end and the balun in between. The rest of the wire is to get the signal from the treetops into the house. The big white gizmo is an isolator, which as I understand it, is like a one-way valve. The club president made everything up for me and is heading south for the winter. He told me he's got a few club members that will come out to the shack so I can get my radio shack up and running. 

I had trouble pressing the new seals into the fork leg, so I made myself a tool. It's more of a machinist's fix rather than a welder's fix, but I like doing that kind of stuff and it might be handy if we get around to working on the small Harleys. 

After getting the first fork leg dialed in, I started on leg number two but didn't get very far. I can't get the bolt out of the bottom in order to take the fork leg off. I'm not sure what my next move will be but I was hoping to have the front end back together over the weekend.

I did get some decent exercise Sunday afternoon. I walked 4 miles with one of the coaches from the boxing club and since he opens the club up Sunday evenings, I took advantage of the opportunity and did some bag work after the walk. 

I dropped off a print for the bell hanger at the steel supply this morning. He's going to cut a couple of plates out for that job. I'll handle the rest. The nice thing about it is the plates he cuts will not need much, if any, grinding. He said he'll have them cut out by the end of the week or first of next week. 

Thoughts on Aging

 

Buon Compleanno to Sophia whose birthday was last Saturday. Since we don't exchange cards, I didn't have her name on the calendar, so I missed her 91st. 

It's a shame the effect aging has on our bodies - especially on someone like her who was blessed with such natural beauty. They say beauty is only skin deep, but it's hard to watch those you love get older and see the changes both to the outward appearance but also the other physical changes - the loss of muscle mass and flexibility, and the illnesses that come along later in life. 

It's not easy getting old, but we do have a certain amount of control over the process. Stay away from the junk food, tobacco products, excessive consumption of alcohol, and get some exercise on a regular basis. I'm doing fairly well for my age. I certainly don't look like I discovered the fountain of youth, but staying active and having a good mental attitude seems to slow the aging process a bit. 

It's going to be interesting to see what effect Florida's putting a halt to mandatory vaccines is going to have on the health of young people when they no longer have to take 24 different ones. Will the link to autism be proven? Why get a vaccine for something that's treatable anyway?

It appears the pendulum is swinging back towards all of us being responsible for our own health rather than relying on big Pharma coming to the rescue. While I don't recommend taking medical advice from a welder, I'm sure we all can agree getting outside in the sunshine and fresh air and going for a bike ride or a walk can't hurt. Do some load bearing exercises as well and your body will thank you by making your daily tasks easier and improving your mental health. If you want to keep moving, you have to keep moving! 

Projects

Dual-engined Triumph at Bonneville. I've only watched the first 15 minutes of the movie, but it looks to be a real good movie.

Lining up some of the projects I need to take care of. The pieces on the left are the shoes from the bottom of the grader blade for the old Allis. I want to get those made before the snow flies. The garden trowel is cracked where the handle attaches. The trowel is stainless, so I'll TIG that. The all-thread is for a tool I need to make to get the oil seals installed in the fork legs. I tried tapping them in using a large socket as a driver but I wasn't having much luck. Mower blades need sharpening. The backpack sprayer has a broken buckle on one of the straps. I got that one fixed shortly after taking the photo. While my welding student was burning rods, I riveted the strap together. 

 I've got my ham radio and power supply in place. The president of the club has my antenna made up for me - we should get it up in trees next week. I went to Menards yesterday to get a ground rod and a couple of other things, but they were all out of the ground rods. I'll check with the hardware store and see if they have one. I'm looking forward to having the radio up and running. Planning on spending more time with the radio and books this winter and less time in front of the television and on the internet.

 

A Million Hits!

 

The visitor counter rolled over 1,000,000 yesterday. I have no idea where all the visitors come from or why - or if they're really people or some type of spy "bots". I used to be able to see what countries the visitors were coming from and any other blog that referred them to my site, but blogger dropped that a while back.  Nevertheless, regardless of where they came from, one million is a lot of hits since I started this blog 17 years ago. And I've kept up my pledge to post at least twice a week, which I'm still planning on as long as I still have something I feel is worth posting. 

Thanks everyone for the continued support.

Rest in Peace Sky

I attended the funeral of my cousin's husband yesterday. The funeral opened with an instrumental version of The Streets of Laredo - surprised me, but probably shouldn't have. Maybe he wasn't the world's most interesting man, but one of the most interesting I've ever known. He had four college degrees, was an avid motorcyclist, he'd traveled to all 50 states, but most importantly he was a good God-fearing family man who was an excellent husband for my cousin. I wish I had known him better. 

Vaya con Dios

Slant Six, With a Side of 5K

 

Here's an interesting video about the Chrysler Slant Six. It's about 30 minutes long, but if you were building a car with a 225 CID Slant Six, like I am, you might find it extremely interesting.

I did a 5K last evening. The run/walk started at 6:00 PM with the temperature at 86 degrees. I haven't been doing any race-walking training, but I wanted to do this one just to gauge what kind of condition I'm in. I was a little tight at the start but after the first mile I had loosened up and I set myself a nice brisk walking pace. They didn't have a separate category for walkers this year, just awards for the age categories. In spite of moving at a rather slow race pace, I was first in my age group - I was also the only one in my age group, I believe.

I "ran" into several people I know that were competing or were cheering on friends or family. Nice small-town event on a Friday evening. I'm planning on doing just one more 5K this year. This is the first time in many years that I haven't done at least a half dozen events by this time of the year, either running or cycling. But then again, I've never been 75 before either. I felt good after finishing - I did a bit of sweating, but I never was breathing hard. I'm in better shape than I thought I was. Now I just need to do enough to maintain that level.

Another tee shirt to add to the collection and the golden feather trophy. I've got two of those now, so I could make the Missus a gaudy pair of earrings or maybe figure out a way to hang them off the end of the handgrips on the Sportster.

Mailbox

 

I finished up the mailbox/bell post. I'm going to plug the tube under the mailbox with one of the extra plugs that was left over from the weight rack. The name on the box was changed to protect the innocent.

I got the oil seals out of the fork leg - they came out hard but done just the same. I cleaned the sludge out of the bottom and I'll press the new seals in today. The order for the other pair will be here sometime in the next week. I need to figure out how much oil they take one of these days soon as well.

A little outside work is on tap for today again and maybe a little on the Sportster. This nice weather has been a real blessing when it comes to getting things done.

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

 

We definitely need more eyes to be smiling these days. Quite a bit of turmoil in the country right now. Way too many people dying, losing their jobs or businesses, or just having trouble making ends meet. I read where 67% of the people in the country are living paycheck to paycheck. However, it doesn't seem like too many of them are staying home. Maybe where I am here in the mid-west things aren't that bad, or maybe these same people just aren't adjusting their lifestyle and living on the credit cards. Whatever the story, as my old pal Dobak used to say, "Save your money."

When we went to Fab Tec last week, there was a Wells Lamont booth that had a display of their product line. I asked the salespeople if they had the Handy Andy Rubberized gloves. Both of them apparently had never heard of these gloves. They said the product line they had was the industrial line and the Handy Andy gloves weren't part of it. Actually, to me it sounded like they had never heard of these gloves and didn't care to know anything more about them. 

I used to wear these all the time when I worked at the welding shop years ago before I started teaching. The rubberized deal made them so-so waterproof, and they kept your hands warm as long as it wasn't real cold out. Anyway, I've looked for them at all the usual vendors as well as online and never found them. Somehow, Surly located some for me, so yes Virginia, you can go home again.

I tinkered around in the shop yesterday on a couple of things and then I took one of the forks apart to install the new seal. However, there are two seals in each leg stacked one on top of the other. I only have two new ones, so I ordered another pair. I'll get the first fork put back together and get the other one done when the next pair comes in. In the meantime, I'll get the electronic ignition and the muffler inserts installed on the Sportster, finish up the mailbox/bell project and see about picking off a couple of little items on the honey-do list.  

Drill Press & Car Show

 

A couple of strong young men showed up Saturday afternoon, so I enlisted them to get the head of the drill press put on the column for me. The guard around the chuck is there just for the photo - that'll get taken off once I start using the drill. I'll take my chances.

I went to the ham radio club's annual car show Saturday morning. It was supposed to start at 10:00 but it was raining hard about that time. A couple of brave souls had shown up then, and as the rain slowed to a trickle, a few more cars trickled in. Small turnout, which is not surprising with the weather, but the ones that showed up were nice. The paint on the Buick was flawless, tri-power GTO was pretty sweet, and the traditional hot rod was a dandy. I stuck around until about noon - they had plenty of help. I did talk to the president of the club about getting my antenna installed prior to leaving, though. He goes south for the winter and he's leaving early this year, but he says we should be able to get it taken care off before he goes.

I had some more help here on Sunday, so I did some lumberjacking. I cut up the big oak limb that came down a while back and the crew hauled all the brush away for me. We then loaded up the logs into the truck and hauled them to the splitter. They also dug the post hole for the mailbox/bell outfit.

The crew set up on the rifle range and shot the .22 rifles after that and I finished polishing the fork legs for the trials bike. Rather a productive weekend. 

Fork Legs +

 

This one seems rather timely. There was a special on the 9/11 attack on television Thursday night. In the 24 years since the towers came down, there seems to be a lot of unanswered questions remaining about what actually caused the towers to come down, including one that wasn't hit by an airplane but came down as slick as can be like it was a controlled demolition. And of course, I'm way past believing anything the government tells me. That's the paranoia Buffalo Springfield refers to in the song.

And now there's been another assassination. I wasn't too familiar with Charlie Kirk, but I've been amazed at the vitriol that's been spewed on the web. How about a bit of compassion for the poor guy's widow and children? One of these days, things are going to kick off between the blue-haired people and the old fat guys and the keyboard warriors are going to regret some of the things they've been posting on social media.

I've got the mailbox mounting bracket primed and painted, ready for installation. I also finished stripping all the paint off the second fork leg. There's still plenty of sanding marks on them, some from me and some from the factory. I ran them on the buffer to see how they'd clean up and they don't look all that bad right now. However, I'm going to go back over them with some 600-grit emery cloth, hit them with the Scotch-Brite pad and then buff them again. They should look plenty good enough after that. I just have to take care not to scratch them when I install the new seals. I've got several things on the calendar for next week, but putting the front end back together is on the agenda, as is the brackets for mounting the school bells for the sister-in-law. 

The ham radio club is hosting their annual car show today. Unfortunately, there's rain in the forecast. Might be a small turnout, like last year. I'm going over to help out and talk to the president about getting my antenna up in the trees while I'm there. I've got a radio and a power supply, an antenna and a ground rod should have me up and running.

The grandson is scheduled to come down tomorrow and give me a hand on some outdoor work and get the head installed on the column of the new drill press. I wish I had a little more room along the wall where the big drill is currently at. It would be nice if I could put the 1/2" drill next to it, rather than in the back of the shop - especially since I don't heat the back part in the winter.

Be safe out there, my friends. Avoid crowds and be kind to your fellow man. 

This & That

 

I was running errands on Monday and came across these. Some country, some easy listening, some Elvis. I have a turntable that will convert the albums to digital bits and bytes that I can use to burn CDs. I'm going to go through the boxes and pick out a few to record - actually, I think I might already have the Eddy Arnold one. I pulled several of the records out of the sleeves and they all looked to be in pretty good shape.

Surly, the grandson and I went to the Fab Tech show on Tuesday. Big, big venue with lots of welding machinery and consumables. I'm not really in the market for much of anything, except an auto-darkening helmet. I normally use a traditional single shade lens in my helmets, but the new auto-darkening helmets have improved technology and better headgear than my helmets. 

The part in the photo was 3D printed with the metal additive process. It looks like a guy could make the thing by just over-laying beads like the printer did, but trying to keep everything on center and getting it shaped properly without a whole lot of grinding would be the real trick. No advantage there.

I welded the mount for the mailbox yesterday. I left the end of the tube open rather than capping it off, because I'm going to put one of the plugs I bought for the weight rack in there. I'll get it primed and painted so it'll be ready to install when the grandson shows up to plant the post in the ground.

I've still got a lot of outside work to do, install the new ignition on the Sportster, finish up the fork legs on the trials bike move on to the BSA, some more work on the Jitney, and some work on the milling machine. Lots to do but having finished a couple of the bikes will be nice.

Nice Weather to be Out

I did a bike ride put together by a local church on Saturday. I used to work with the man in charge at the high school. Nice guy, always hustling to get something going, in this case, a bicycle club. Not a big turnout for his first event, but it was only about 48 degrees at 7:00 AM. There were rides of three different mileages, 10, 15 and 20. Coach Jen and I opted for the 15-mile route. It was mostly an out and back route and one of the roads was pretty hilly - not big hills but big enough I dropped down a couple of cogs when going up them. On my usual route of 6 to 8 miles, it's flat as a pancake. I worked a few different muscles, but I wasn't sore Sunday. 

I'm signed up for a 5K in a couple of weeks. I'm planning on walking it, but if they don't have a separate walking class, I might try doing a little running. I'm going to put the girdle on and run up and down the driveway and see how the chest holds up. I'm signed up in the 75 - 79 age group. Even if I walk in the running class, I'll probably medal. I don't imagine there being too many guys in that age group.

After the bike ride Saturday morning I showered up and renewed my Safe-Sport training. I didn't think it was time to renew yet, but it turns out it was more of a review than the whole training curriculum. That's a real blessing. I've had to take the full course several times now and at this point if I didn't have to sit through the whole presentation and they just gave me the quiz, I'm pretty sure I could pass it.

Sunday, I did some more yard work and painted the old railroad bell. Later in the day, I noticed a couple of spots I missed so I'll have to touch those up. I've another large bell mounted on a stand that needs a repaint. I'm going to try and get that one done this week as long as the weather stays like it has been.

I also cut out some pieces for mounting the old mailbox onto the post the oxygen tank bell will be on. I got that bell and the hanger frame painted over the weekend. The grandson was supposed to come down and plant the post along with a couple other things, but he took ill. You can tell when school's back in session and the kids are all sneezing on one another. Glad I don't have to be exposed to that anymore.

Looks like nice weather on tap all week again. I'm much more motivated when the weather's cooperating.

Get Your Motor Running

 

I wasn't exactly born to be wild, but I did get my motor running and headed towards the highway. I just stopped at the end of the lane, turned around and headed back to the barn. Got her going enough to shift into second gear, and it was pulling strong. I'll get the electronic ignition and the new plugs installed and see how it runs after that - highlight of my 75th birthday.

I should have gotten myself one of these for the shakedown trip down the lane. Way back in the mid-sixties, there was a guy who used to ride by the house on his way home from work on a black Duo-Glide with leather saddle bags, and he wore a cap like this. I had him pegged as the real deal. Probably one of the reasons I ended up as a motorcyclist.

Coach Jen's son came by after school for his first welding lesson yesterday. I'm going to do with him like I did with my grandson - come by one day per week to get him started on a path to become a welder of some sort. He's taking welding at his high school but wants some additional training. This country definitely needs more young people going into the trades, so I'm happy to do my part. Plus, the kid has muscles, so he can help when I need to lift heavy things.

I saw this one on my way to the gym the other night, decided it warranted a look, so I stopped on my way home to check it out. I don't know what model it is, but it's a 2022 with low miles. It looks better up close than it does in the photo. The color is darker. The camera adjusted for the late daylight hour. They're asking $40,000 or OBO, down from $42,000 as seen on the for-sale sign. I've always had a hankerin' for a Jaguar, an E type specifically, but this one would look nice with me behind the wheel. I bought a Power Ball ticket for the billion dollar drawing, but I haven't checked my numbers yet. If I hit, there definitely will be a Jaguar in my future.

 Since there's not much chance of me winning the lottery, I'll just keep on keepin' on until I can't do it any longer. Life's pretty damn good right now. Knock out the last couple of things on the Sportster, get the trials bike finished up and then I want to do some work on my milling machine. I've got a power feed for the table and I want to install digital readouts on the X and Y axis. If I'm going to keep building and re-building things, I need to do some upgrades. 

Bike Stuff

The top photo is the Royal Enfield 450 Guerilla in stock trim. The lower is one that was tricked out as a flat tracker. Royal Enfield has been giving bikes to custom builders to do their thing with them and I'm really liking this one. Obviously not street legal, but that's one sharp looking scooter. Lots of trick parts on a well-thought-out design. Royal Enfield is getting to be quite the big player in the motorcycle arena. They're selling a million motorcycles per year at affordable prices. 

If a guy had a Yamaha SR500, of which I have two, he could put together something similar to the flat tracker or maybe something along the lines of a Super Moto, providing he had some money to throw away and some fabricating skills.

I printed out the installation instructions for the new ignition on the Sportster and had a question. I called the Dyna toll free number to get an answer. I was on hold for about 15 minutes and gave up. However, they have an email form to get answers. I sent them my question and had an answer in just about the same amount of time I was on the phone. Well explained, and quick response. Thank you, Dynatek. Well done. The Sportster's going to be a go real soon.  

Labor Day

 

Happy Labor Day to all you working stiffs out there and enjoy a little working music.  It's getting tougher for all of us in the middle class, but believe you me, the only thing that's going to keep the wheels turning in this country are the hard-working men and women that show up every day willing to do what needs to be done.

Hard times are coming, so enjoy your day but get ready. The country is going to need us.

PS. Check out the oxygen cylinder in the Lee Dorsey video - no cap and not chained to anything. He's liable to end up in the coal mine if that thing's full and it falls over.

Going to Move on Down the Line.

 And it shouldn't be too much longer .......

since the ignition kit showed up in Saturday's mail. I just need to get the installation done before Thursday. Also in the photo is the attachment I made for pulling the muffler inserts out of the drag pipes.

The weight rack is almost done. I need to pick up a piece of angle Tuesday morning in order to finish it but only a little bit of welding and some touch-up with the flap wheel and I can deliver it. Rather than welding caps on the ends of all the tubes, I'm going to see about some plastic caps that push in. Coach Jen can do the painting.

The weather is still holding. Got out on the bike and put in 11 miles this morning. The local church is sponsoring a bike ride next weekend. 10, 15, or 20 miles. No entry fee. According to the website it's for their bicycle club. I don't know anything about the club, but I'm planning on riding either the 15- or 20-mile ride so I can get more info then. 

The church has a really nice recreation center with a walking track. I was thinking while on my bike ride, if I wanted to do the 50-mile challenge, I could do that inside this winter.

Also, there's a 5k coming up locally in about 3 weeks. They have a walking class and I'd probably be the only one in the 75-79 age group, so even though I'm not in any kind of competitive condition, I'd be almost certain to get an age group win. I did this event last year and they had nice tee shirts. It's not like I need a medal or another tee shirt, but this is the first time in a long time I haven't done any running or walking events all year. Maybe it's time to lace up the shoes and go for a brisk walk. 

Keeping Busy

 I've been staying busy the last few days - the nice weather helping my motivation quite a bit. 

I assembled all the parts of the drill press except the head. The base has 4, 10mm threaded holes to fasten the column to but the threads were pretty rough. Fortunately, I have a pretty good selection of metric taps, so I chased the threads and then put a little thread locker on the bolts when I bolted the column down.

My sister-in-law gave me a small refrigerator that her father had in his shop prior to his passing. It was in need of a good cleaning and a place to call home. I cleaned it up inside and out, blew the works out with the air hose and made a shelf for it so I could put it beneath the metal table next to the mill. Seems to work well, but I need to get a power strip to plug it in under there. 

I got the pieces for the weight rack laid out. It was going to be a slow process trying to weld it together with the TIG, so it was time to break out the MIG welder. I haven't used it in years but I had a new roll of wire in a sealed package, so I blew the dust off everything, installed the new roll of wire, plugged it in, and pulled the trigger. Success! Since it had been a while since I had used it, and it had a different size wire on it last time, it took me a couple of times of twisting the knobs to get it dialed in, but it's set to go now.

I also worked on the muffler inserts for the Sportster. They're just a bit too large but the other sizes would be either too large or too small. I worked them over a bit with a hammer and they'll go in now but they're a tap fit. I made a quickie attachment for my slide hammer so I can get them back out again if I so choose. I need to pull the pipes off and drill a hole in them to keep the insert in place and that job will be done.

The electronic ignition was supposed to come yesterday but it was a no show. Hopefully it'll show up today. I want to get it installed and timed so I'll be ready for the birthday shake-down ride.

I've been out on the bicycle for my morning rides again since the weather has been so nice. The swelling has gone down on the wrist from the yellow jacket stings. It was still itching a bit yesterday though. I sprayed what I thought was the nest in the woodpile but I'm planning on doing it again today.

More nice weather on tap for the long weekend. Yippie-skippy!