Weekly Reports & a PSA

Busy day Monday. Started off with a bicycle ride. I got about 2 miles from the house and a gust of wind blew something into my eye. Not sure how it happened since I was wearing wrap-around sunglasses but it must have been some fertilizer or lime from the farm field. Burned like the dickens and the tears were flowing like Niagra Falls. Decided to head home after that. 

The rest of the day went better, however - barber shop, steel supply, drugstore, grocery and bank. Sharpened the spare mower blades, swapped the old ones out, then mowed the front yard. Fed and watered the chickens and called it a day.

Tuesday a little lighter on the chores. I bumped Monday's chores back a day, so did those. Cleaned up the poop park and then "mowed" it with the string trimmer. Went to the new Harbor Freight store by the college for a cheap 1/2" breaker bar. I kept one in the garage just for changing the mower blades but it somehow came up missing. Menards after that to pick up the hardware for the trailer job, Aldi for a couple of things and then went to work. Only three more nights to go now.

I'm planning on working on the trailer job today but I don't know how much I'll get done since they're forecasting rain. If I get rained out, I'll work on the fork legs on the trials bike. I've got another little job I want to finish also. 

I wasn't able to get my air acetylene torch working after getting a fresh bottle, but I swapped out the tip and it works fine. I'm thinking maybe a spider crawled up into the tip and built a home. I'll blow it out with the air compressor next time I turn it on and see if that takes care of it.

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Public Safety Announcement: Lots of slow-moving farm vehicles on the roads now. Take your time and have some patience when you come up on one. They drop dirt and debris when leaving the fields sometimes, so you motorcyclists take it easy on the corners. Also, the homeowners are mowing grass and throwing it out on the roadway too. And let's not forget all the animals that are on the move when the sun goes down.

Be careful out there my friends! 

Shakin' All Over

 

This one came across the airwaves the other day while on my commute. Obviously, I didn't see any cartoon skeletons on the radio but this would have been a good candidate for MTV when it was actually music television. I don't know if MTV is even a thing anymore, and if it still exists, I'd have to wonder why. Just like ESPN used to show sports programming. Now they just talk about sports as far as I know. Television - America's vast wasteland.

I've got all the pieces of the side rails on the ladder rack job done other than drilling the mounting holes. The spacing on the existing screw holes are all a bit different, so I have to drill them one at a time. Not a big deal, but I'll get them taken care of and get some tubing for the cross pieces today.

Rather a sloppy sketch of the layout for mounting the rear axle under the jitney. I'm quite capable of being able to subtract 2-1/2 from 6 in my head, but writing the numbers down helps me organize my thought process and I have a record to go back to if a mistake is made. The trig functions, on the other hand, definitely need to be done with care step by step - figuring out which formula to use and finding the inverse function button on the calculator, or my phone in this case. As a guy who fell on his head and has been knocked out more than once, I definitely need to double check everything and write it down as I go.

The plan is to sweep the shop floor, draw the layout on it, and then tack weld everything together on the pipe axle I made to check and see how it's all going to work before welding anything on the quick change. 

The 22" figure on the bottom of the sketch was derived from the 56" width of the axle, flange to flange and the backspacing of the rear wheels, plus a little extra for clearance. Putting the phony axle under the car will allow me to set the spring height and see how the car's going to look with wheels underneath it. That'll be a big step forward. 

Racing With the Devil

Not really racing with the devil but it sort of feels that way with the night school gig. Only 4 more nights and that's it - never working for wages again.  Sixty years should be enough. Of course, I'll need sixty more to finish all the projects, but I am making some progress these days.

However, prioritizing jobs is still not my strong suit. Surly asked me if I had a specific tool for a job he's working on, which I thought I had. My search was fruitless, but I found a lot of other stuff I forgot I had. I got some of it organized and put away in a labeled container - not done yet but I did make a dent in it. 

I also finished cleaning out the broken bolt in the hitch ball. I started on it a while back thinking it would be easy enough, but not so. The threads on the broken bolt were rusted in solid. That's some of them in the photo. This job was like making the hose barb for the jitney. I could have gotten that one for $8.00, and I probably could've gotten another ball for about the same price. And in this case, I didn't really need the ball anyway. It's going in the body and fender cabinet to be used as a dolly, hence the handle.

The crabapple is lovely this spring. It won't be long and it will be buzzing with bees. I was a little timid the first couple of years when walking by the tree with all those bees, but they seem to be very much single-minded in purpose and never sting anyone.

I made it out on the bicycle the last couple of days. Only two miles Thursday, but six yesterday. My legs were a little rubbery when I finished up, but the real problem was my sore fanny. I put a new saddle on the bike last year, but it's not broken in yet and spending time in the recliner all winter hasn't toughened me up any.

Planning on spending some quality time in the shop today with some work on the trailer and trials bike jobs. 

A Bit Of Progress

 

I took the day off from shop work yesterday - caught up on some reading, walked the dog, and went to the advisory meeting at the college - pretty small turnout this time. They only have two meetings per year, so it's not like they ask people to give up a lot to attend. And they feed you. 

Tuesday, I did get some work done. I got all of the pieces cut out for the trailer ladder rack and machined up the two round bars for the seat mount in the jitney. After getting the seat and the steering wheel in place, I decided I needed to modify the seat mount a bit. The fore and aft placement wasn't bad, but it needs to be higher. This should do it.

Going to a funeral this morning for a friend of mine from way back. We went to high school together, he was in my wedding, and we worked together for a time. One of his younger brothers had four boys, three of which I had as students at the high school, and I used to box with his other brother. Hate to see him go, but as John Wayne said in Hondo: "Everybody gets dead, it was just his turn."

Arbor & Sickles

 

I got a postcard from Janus Motorcycles the other day. I was rather surprised since I hadn't had any dealings with them since my test ride back in June of 2017. The price on the 450 models seems to be rather high. Especially since a new Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 can be had for $6,000.

I read a review on the new Himalayan and everything seems to be new and improved from the 2018 model I have. The engine makes 15 more horses than my 411. That would make a huge difference in acceleration and top speed. I don't know what kind of trade-in I could get on mine, but if I could get $3k for mine, that would be a helluva upgrade for only an additional $3K. However, as little as I ride, I should just concentrate on getting the BSA and Sportster roadworthy.

I made a new arbor for the drill chuck yesterday, cut a couple of pieces for the jitney project, and picked up the material for the brackets for the ladder rack on the trailer. I'll see about drilling and tapping the two rounds for the jitney and cutting out the parts and start welding the brackets.

Threaded Things

 

Another piece for the lab tech's positioner. I ran a tap through the nuts and a hone through the bore. Whenever you weld a nut on, the weld causes the threads to tighten up. Chasing the threads with a tap takes care of that. Likewise, welding the nuts and the plates will cause some distortion on the pipe, the hone took care of that.

After cleaning up the piece for the positioner yesterday, I started making two more brackets for mounting the quick-change under the jitney. I got about halfway through the piece with the hole saw and then the arbor for the drill chuck broke. As you can see from the photo, the broken end is down in the chuck about 1/4" - deep enough I didn't want to risk screwing up the threads welding something on to the stub stuck down in there. I drilled a hole in it with a left-hand bit as the first step, hoping it would catch and back the stub out. Tried an Eazy-Out next. No luck there either. I finally put it back on the mill and very carefully opened up the hole with a milling cutter until there was just a paper-thin wall on the stub left in the hole and then ran a tap down in there and cleaned up the threads. So the chuck is OK, but I need to make another arbor. Not much to that, just another minor setback on the project list. 

Happy Easter!

Captain Hornblower

 

Surly found a horn for the jitney project. It would look pretty cool with the parts in the back painted up nicely and the trumpets brass or chrome. Still a long way to go before I need a horn but that thing is definitely unique.

I think my idea for the ladder rack on the trailer will work out just ducky. I can utilize the existing screws that fasten the sides to the radius piece that joins the sides to the roof, and then I can fasten the other part of the bracket to the top of the radius piece. I'm going to drill a hole through one of the holes in that part and see what's under there. There's a row of screws in line with the holes I drilled in the plate, so I'm hoping there's something solid there. If not, I can use some closed end blind rivets to fasten it down. I can then bolt the cross piece onto the plate. Not sure yet what I'm going to use for the cross piece - I need to see what the local steel supply has in stock. There won't be much weight up there - maybe four aluminum antennas. I'll run over there Monday morning and see what he's got and pick up some more of the 1/8" sheet to finish making the brackets.

My chest has been sore again. I ran a 7" hand grinder at work prepping a test plate and I've been sore for a couple of days. I thought I was over all of that but apparently that's not the case. I'm going to have to take it easy for a few days and hope I heal up. Time to get my girdle out again.

Trailer & Training Plans

 

Proof of concept for the trailer antenna rack. Making it one piece at a time until I know it's going to work, then seven more and the four cross pieces. Pain in the ass - not only trying to figure it all out but having to work on it outside while dealing with the April weather.

Things are starting to pile up now. Finish the trailer and trials bike, yardwork, household chores, school, gym, and start training for a bike ride coming up in about a month. The ride isn't too far off, and they have a 16, 32, and 63-mile ride. I'd like to be able to do the 32 miler. It wouldn't make much sense to drive there to just do the 16 mile ride. I'm going to start hitting the trainer down the basement and see just how out of shape I am and then decide if the 32 miler is feasible. If it doesn't work out, at least I'll be getting my legs and my cardio tuned up.

Getting Close

 

I got the rear wheel under the trials bike yesterday after polishing up the rear fender. The skid plate came in handy to keep the bike stabilized while working on it. When I finish up with the fork legs I can put the front end back on and I'll be ready to drop the engine in, hook up the shift linkage, install the wiring, and put some fuel in the tank. Should run after that.

I went to the ham radio club meeting last night and talked to the big boss man about the trailer project he wants done. I looked at the trailer the other day and I think I've got it figured out what I need to do. He's looking for a "ladder rack" on top to haul antennas when they're operating remotely. The tricky part will be mounting it securely. We'll see. I've got a month to figure it out before he's taking it on the road.

Bike & Hike

 

I went "walkies" with Coach Jen and a couple others yesterday. We put in almost 5 miles - Jen and I are planning on getting out on Sundays on a regular basis, as well as putting in some miles on the bicycles. I came home and worked on the bike a bit. I found some Ceriani stickers for the fork legs on Ebay so those are on order. 

I'll do a little more work on the fork legs today, maybe put the back wheel under it.

Good Day for Working

 

I was behind this old rust bucket GMC the other day with a cute little blond behind the wheel and had to smile. With the Hoosier Tire sticker in the back window, the truck could be hers, but she's probably some lucky young man's sweetie. Lawn mower and more in the back, gettin' it done on a nice spring day. My kind of woman.

Beautiful day yesterday. Worked in the shop for a bit and had the big door open. Hopefully I won't be running the heater again until late fall. I knocked out a couple things on the mill. The plate on the left will be two pieces used to mount the quick-change in the jitney. The one on the right is another piece for the lab tech at the college. This should be the last piece needing any machine work. Assembly should be straight forward welding. I'll give him a hand with whatever help he needs with that as well.

I started putting the trials bike back together and didn't get very far before running into a snag. When I finish welded the frame the side plates with the bosses for the swing arm pivots warped quite a bit. The alignment for the pivot bolt was off a little, but the real problem was the distance between them closed up to the point the swingarm no longer fit in the opening. After a little head scratching I decided the easiest fix was to knock the bushings out of the swing arm and face them off in the lathe. Worked,

but it took a little more persuasion to drive the pivot bolt in than I would have liked.

Mowed the front yard after that. The yard's a mess. Between the bare spots that were under the trees I had taken down last year and the mole infestation I'm going to have some work to do. 

Dogs, Welding and Arithmetic

National Pet Day today. I celebrated by taking Larry to the groomer - he showed his appreciation by shaking all the way there and then refusing to look at me on the ride home.

It's National Welding Month - I celebrated by getting a flash burn on my eyes at work the other night. One of the occupational hazards of working with a bunch of rookies. 

And speaking of rookies, many of the students I encounter at the college are stone cold rookies when it comes to being able to do math and/or read at anything close to grade level. I'm placing much of the blame for this on the schools. I taught 36 years at the high school level, 8 years at the community college level and I haven't seen any improvement in the student's abilities to read or do math problems typical of what is required for the trades since I started way back in 1976, but still they graduate from high school.

In Indiana, in order to graduate with the Core 40 diploma, you must take Algebra I & II and Geometry. Integrative Math I, II, and III can be substituted. I'm not familiar with Integrative Math, so I can't speak to that, but requiring two years of Algebra is pointless for the majority of people entering into the trades. It's bad enough they can't do simple math problems associated with a trade, but they don't seem to think it's an issue. And unfortunately, their reading skills aren't any better. However, there is hope for a solution, and it comes from Mississippi of all places. The Magnolia State has shown tremendous growth in their reading and math scores. Let's hope other states do something similar.

It's not just me

Fingering it Out

 

The TIG Finger showed up the other day - could've used it when welding the bike frame, especially since my depth perception still isn't at its best. The screwdriver bits are JIS bits - Japanese Industrial Standard. They look like Phillips bits but are made for the screws that hold Japanese motorbikes together. I got some JIS screwdrivers for Christmas a few years back but the bits will be useful in the drill motor, impact driver and Tee handle. I don't currently need them but I've got a couple of Jap bikes in the shed that if I live long enough may get moved into the shop.

Easing back into the training program. Brunch today was a fried egg sandwich on dark rye with a slice of cheese, and a couple of vegan sausage patties. I've been starting with some Tai-Chi exercises and  dumbbell curls along with doing some work at the boxing gym once a week. I'm starting to feel some improvement but I've got a long way to go before I get the job as the circus strongman. 

I think I might give up the race walking this year. I haven't put much effort into it the last couple of years, but I do want to do a couple of long bike rides - maybe a 50 miler or a metric century (61 miles). Time to get on a regular schedule: exercise first thing in the morning, breakfast, then put in at least four hours daily working on the projects.

Floorboard

 

The sixties pumped out some good music. The Seekers also did Georgie Girl, neither one are normally played on the classic rock station I listen to. If I had my own radio station they'd get some air play.

Busy day of doing nothing yesterday. A trip to the massage parlor in the late morning, doctor's office after that, a bit of household chores, and then out to the shop to top off the day.

Pattern for the floorboard - simple enough design. Two bends on a 45-deg. angle and a hole for the shifter. The pattern I made for the boot and riser is 6" but it looks like 3" would be all I need. Instead of the square to round transition, I'm thinking maybe make the front part round and then half-way back make the sides straight but taper from the 3" height down to nothing on a 45-deg angle. That would give me a flat surface to mount my ignition switch - engine turn that surface, of course. As the dash is laid out currently the tach is mounted in the middle, but if I move the switch, I could move the tach over so it would be easier to read.

I need to make at least one more support under the floorboard and I'll put some reinforcing beads in it.

I'm going to try to continue working back and forth between the bike and the car. As soon as I get the forks cleaned up it won't take long to finish the bike. Then move it out and the BSA in. 

Goodbye Sadness

 

This one's for Rich in Kentucky. It's a good day for a little more Bossa Nova, as are most days in my book, and it's a good day for Goodby Sadness since I finally got paint on the vintage trials bike.

It warmed up to 50 yesterday with little humidity, so I cranked up the heater, wiped down the frame with some thinner and set to work. I got a couple of small runs in the primer, but nothing too noticeable. The green looks good - probably would look better with a better background, but up close and personal it's pretty sexy. I'm going to let it hang for a few days to make sure the paint's fully cured before beginning the re-assembly. It was almost 80 degrees in the shop when I finished painting, so it had a good start. I'll get some help putting the engine back in so I don't throw my back out or scratch the paint too much. I started this project something like 16 years ago - way past time it should be done.

While waiting for the primer to set up, I drilled the holes in the two pieces of pipe for the lab tech at the school. Also, a former student dropped off the trailer from the ham radio club. I need to figure out how to make a ladder rack sort of thing so they can carry antennas on top when they set up remotely. They're talking snow showers today, so that'll have to wait a bit since I'll have to work on it outside. Meanwhile, I'll work on getting the forks shined up and getting the new seals installed, work on the jitney a bit, and whatever else comes to mind.

I looked up the AHRMA website to see about their vintage trials events since that was the original plan. There's an event in August that's not too far away. Be fun to give that a whirl. I should probably concentrate on finishing projects rather than risking injuring myself again, though. 

Working the Projects

 

The seals for the fork tubes on the trials bike arrived yesterday. The layout on the plate underneath them is for the quick-change axle mount on the jitney project. Behind the plate are two pipes I need to drill a hole for a 3/4" bolt to go into. These are for the lab tech at work. He's making a welding positioner for his welding bench at home. Since he does all kinds of work for me cutting material, I told him I'd help him with his project. The weld shop doesn't have a drill press. The machine shop does but I don't know what the situation is like there now. I used to be the lab tech there and was an instructor in the weld shop at the same time, so I was always doing something in one shop or the other.

The shifter boot came Friday - came with a polished stainless ring and hardware to bolt it down. I made a pattern for the riser mount but I might need to modify things a bit. The bottom is 6" square and the top is 5" in diameter and about 6" high. I might just roll up a 5" dia. cylinder and see how that would look. I'll make the floor pattern before deciding on what to do on the boot.

The book in the photo is the 1947 revised edition - the first edition came out in 1941. The author was a professor at Purdue. It's an excellent book that I refer to occasionally. In this case I couldn't remember how to revolve things to get my true length lines for my layout. I took an engineering graphics course at Purdue a long time ago and I've still got that textbook and several other books for helping do layouts and solving the odd-ball problems I come across in my project work. If you don't have a similar book in your library, you should keep your eyes peeled at estate sales or yard sales for one. If you can find one, it'll probably be cheap enough to take home and keep on the shelf. You never know when you might need to make a truncated cone or a square to round transition piece like the one above.

I got the trials bike frame ready for paint. Depending on the weather today, I'm hoping to get it painted. The primer can be recoated after about an hour. If not, you need to wait 48 hours. I'd rather not do that, so I'm planning on firing up the heater and getting the shop good and warm and low in humidity. If I can accomplish that, I'll get some paint on it. While the shop's warming up, see to the other parts above and get those taken care of. Maybe get a little walk in as well.

Bike Frame

 

I finished welding the bike frame yesterday with the exception of the stubs for the footpeg mounts. The weatherman on the radio sent out a bad weather warning and I didn't want to get caught out in the shop, so I went to the house - glad I did, too. A big blow-up came through shortly thereafter and I definitely would have had to ride out the storm in the shop.

The footpeg mounts get welded in today and then I'll do a bit of grinding, sanding and cleaning to get it ready for paint. While doing that I should be able to find any spots I may have overlooked that need welding.

Still waiting on the fork seals but I haven't got the fork legs cleaned and polished yet anyway. The shifter boot for the jitney should be here today or tomorrow. I picked up some poster board the other day to make a couple of patterns for the floorboard. When I went to pick up my fresh argon bottle on Monday, he was out of my size, so he gave me a smaller one. The delivery truck won't be there for another week yet, so I'm going to weld most everything I can in the meantime. That way I'll empty the small one and pick up my regular one, pay him for both and everyone will be happy. Plus, I'll have a lot done on my projects.

I talked to the travel agent the other day about a trip to Hawaii. It's not going to be cheap but it'll allow me to finish my quest to see all 50 states. Actually, it's more like pee, rather than see. By my rules, the only way you can claim to have been in a state is to mark your territory by "taking a leak" there. So when you see the old Johnny Cash song I've Been Everywhere show up on the blog, you'll know I made it. Meanwhile, back to work.

College Mopes and TIG Fingers

 I ran across this the other day: The average college student today - by Hilarius Bookbinder

Pretty much the same thing I've been dealing with lately. The fact that they don't know the basic things that everyone entering college should know is one thing, but the fact they don't seem too concerned about it is what bothers me. I know what a good welder should know and the conditions of the industry now. You try and tell them that it's a jungle out there but they don't seem capable of cranking it up and doing their best to prepare for a career. Oh well, 12 more days and they're on their own as far as I'm concerned.

I ordered one of these the other day - probably should have done it quite a while ago. It protects your pinky finger, or two fingers with the large one, while TIG welding. You need a pretty steady hand to hold the torch while welding and it's a lot easier if you can put a finger down on the material. I was welding on the bike frame yesterday and I was spending way too much time grinding the tungsten after dipping it into the puddle. I'm thinking the TIG finger would be a great help to steady my hand while trying to wrap a weld around round tubes, especially since my depth perception ain't what it used to be. At least I'm getting the bike frame welded up.

I did a little work on the jitney yesterday as well. I'm working on figuring out the floorboard. I made a pattern and I ordered a shifter boot. I figured out what to do about raising the seat up a little, so I can get on that and get the trials bike finished up. Things are moving along nicely now, but lots of yard work in the coming days.

 

The Magnolias are looking good even though we had a hellacious storm come through over the weekend and freezing temperatures last night. They lost some petals and buds in the storm and tinged the edges of some of the blossoms brown, but that seems to happen most years. No damage on the fruit trees, though.