Lumberjack & Engineer

 

That is until they decide to misbehave.

The Russian Elm attacked the Big Leaf Magnolia the other evening. Since it was a Russian Elm, I'm inclined to think it was part of a commie plot - maybe one of the sleeper cells they've been talking about on the news lately.

Kind of hard to tell from the photo, but the big branch of the elm came down dead center of the magnolia. Other than one piece, most of the tree has just been bent outward. Hopefully, it'll straighten itself out now that the weight of the elm has been removed

I wasn't looking forward to doing any lumberjacking yesterday, especially with the heat, but a man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do and all that. The chainsaw work was at least in the shade, but I still ended up with a serious case of "swamp ass".  Now I need to get rid of the brush. A chipper would be nice. I'll see if the rental place has one. If not, throw it on the burn pile. I might consider buying a small chipper since I've got a bunch more scrub trees that need to go. 

I've sworn I'm never going to work for wages again, but if I could get that guy's job, I'd jump at it. If you look close below the train number, you can see the engine is a 4-8-8-4, meaning that's a big sucker. Hot in the summer, cold in the winter, just like being a welder on construction. But you don't get to blow the whistle or ring the bell when you've got your hood down.

Miscellany

Just throwing out a few things of differing levels of importance.

First up, an interesting description of our legal system:

Now let’s talk about the legal sleight of hand. Most Americans assume they live under the jurisdiction of the Constitution. But the courts increasingly operate under a hybrid system of statutory and administrative law, often enforced through what is functionally maritime law. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the gold-fringed flag in most courtrooms. That’s not just decoration. It’s a symbol of admiralty jurisdiction, meaning you’re not in a constitutional court. You’re in a corporate tribunal. And speaking of corporations, the United States is defined in 28 U.S. Code § 3002(15)(A) as a federal corporation. You are not a sovereign individual under natural law. You are a legal entity—an asset tracked by a Social Security number and collateralized against the national debt.

I had no idea this was the case, but it does explain a few things. I'm going to have to check with my bailiff friend and see if the local courtroom has the gold-fringed flag. Unfortunately, I forgot where I found this, so I can't credit the source or link to the article. Interesting to say the least.

______________________________________

The current AMA magazine has a couple of articles on Moto Morini motorcycles. Apparently, they are back in business and available here in the US. I always thought the 3-1/2 model from back in the day was a cool bike. Now they have several configurations of bikes using a Chinese built engine that's been powering Kawasaki bikes for a few years, installed in Chinese built bikes that were designed in Italy. The prices are extremely reasonable, and the bikes look good. I especially like the looks of the roadster and scrambler models.

_______________________________________

I had the local paving contactor rework my driveway. It was expensive, but I figured it would be worth it to get the holes filled in, smoothed out and rolled. They came out Monday and did the job while I was taking the Missus to the dentist. When I came home, I was extremely disappointed in the job. They had pushed gravel out into the grass on both sides of the drive, gravel that came off the top of the drive, making the base thinner and making it impossible to mow the strip of grass between the drive and the corn field. I rode my bike over yesterday to pay the bill and voice my displeasure. Fortunately, the boss man who I know was in the office at the time and came by to take a look at the job. He agreed it wasn't their finest effort and said it'll get fixed. I sure hope so. I don't want to even think about me having to take a rake and shovel to 1,000 feet of driveway.

_______________________________________

Ham radio Field Day tomorrow and Sunday. I've definitely cancelled my plan on camping out. I just don't feel like dealing with the heat and humidity. It was up into the nineties again yesterday, rained and then warmed back up again - miserable, to say the least. If I hadn't retired, I think this heat would have convinced me to do so. I sweated a lot of summers in fab shops. I can still handle the heat, but I see no reason to now. It's supposed to be back down to more reasonable mid-eighties soon. I'll be back in the shop next week - unless I'm shoveling gravel!

__________________________________

Now might be a good time to check your preps and the pantry, get off the couch or the barstool and work on a bit of physical conditioning. Even though I've decided it's too hot to work on the yard or the projects, I've still been getting out on the bicycle every morning and putting in 5 miles. Remember, if things go sideways, no one is coming to help you. We all need to take care of ourselves and our loved ones. Remember the Boy Scout motto - Be Prepared!

Have a good weekend!

It's Warm Out There

 

I ordered a light set and some reflective tape for the Go-Go and the carrier. Hopefully, when I get this taken care of, I should be done farting around with this project other than loading and unloading as needed.

We came pretty close to pegging the needle on the thermometer yesterday. The reading came up to 112, but the sun beating down on it jacked the temp up a bit. It was supposed to be a little cooler yesterday according to the Chicago weather, but it sure didn't feel like it. I rode the bike about 5 miles in the morning, and it was plenty soupy. I went out later in the evening about 6:30 and it didn't feel too bad then. I mowed until it was just about dark, since they're still calling for above average temperatures and some spotty rain. 

I drove the Missus to the dentist on Monday and this was posted in the elevator car. It didn't make any unusual noise until it was stopping on the third floor. Regardless of what the sign says, elevators are not supposed to make those kinds of noises. 

I've an appointment with the insurance agent for the annual review this morning after my bike ride, then boxing later in the evening. 

Field Day for the ham radio club this weekend. I was going to drag my little teardrop trailer over there and spend the night, but it's going to be in the nineties again. I've camped in hot humid conditions more than once and I can't say as I've missed it any. There's a presentation on antennas Saturday afternoon I want to be there for, but otherwise, I'll just help with set-up and teardown as needed.

It needs to cool down a bit so I can be a little more productive. Lots of projects and yard work to do.  

Political Science

 

There's just no end to it, is there?

Changing the World

 

 I too would like to change the world, but I don't know what to do either. This week's Epoch Times had an opinion piece about the price paid for declining civility. In the editorial is a quote from Learned Hand: "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it." It might not have died yet, but it sure seems like it's mortally wounded.  

Surly, the boys and I were talking Vise Grip clamps on Father's Day. I was under the impression the original Vise Grips as designed by Petersen, was bought out by Irwin. However, it seems it was actually the other way around with some interaction with holding companies along the way. 

The pipe wrench in the photo is badged with both names, like the last couple pairs of Vise Grips I purchased are. I don't need a pipe wrench; I've got a good selection - from 6" to 36" - but I like the look of the one in the photo. Most of the work that calls for a pipe wrench is normally not too glamorous, but there's nothing wrong with having a good looking and functional tool in your hand (insert joke here). Probably made in China, however. Between the labor costs and the fact most all iron foundries have been shut down, not much chance of it being American made. It's my understanding the Vise Grip pliers are all made in China now. It'll be real interesting if the US and China enter into a trade war, or a shooting war as far as that goes, and you can't buy a pipe wrench.

I made the pieces for the Go-Go carrier stand the other day. I bolted a 2x4 to the top of them yesterday after giving the paint an opportunity to dry. Next time I have to install the carrier on the car, I'll bolt these down to the mover's dolly and things should be much easier to install and remove the carrier from the car and move it out of the way for storage.

I got some more brush trimming done and got out on the bicycle. It's supposed to be hot the next few days, so the brush clearing will be put on hold. I want to start training for a couple of long-distance bike rides, so I'll have to get out early before it heats up too much. Likewise, get out in the shop early in the day, or go out later in the evening. 

Breakfast, Carrier and Rain

 

I went to breakfast with the ham radio group yesterday morning. The group meets once a month at different locations and different times, sometimes breakfast, sometimes dinner. The restaurant was located in a small town about 30 miles south of me and a little off the main highway. On my way into town I passed a yard with a collection of Trackmobiles. There were a few more out of the photo on the right side as well. Kind of surprised me, especially since there's no rail siding there.

After getting home from breakfast, I installed the carrier on the Buick. This time everything fit well and has plenty of ground clearance. However, when the carrier is in the vertical position it blocks the license plate, which has the Missus worried. Moving the carrier around is hard on my chest, so I was of the opinion, just leave it on the car. She's not going to be happy with that, so I'm going to rig up a dolly that's the right height so I can slide the carrier in and out of the receiver easily and roll it out of the way for storage. I've got a Harbor Freight dolly with the four casters on the bottom that I can start with - shouldn't take too much to make it happen.

Shortly after getting the carrier on the car a storm came in like a hurricane - lots of rain and wind gusts. It didn't last long but it was a mean one while it did. We were just about ready to head down the basement when it subsided.

Today's job is to make the carrier dolly and get the old mailbox I drug home recently cleaned up and painted and get the dog sled pieces fixed up as well. 

Fuel Injection Optimizer

 

Heard this one in the early morning hours on Radio Garden's Irish Pub Radio from Dublin. It's not all that unusual for me to fall asleep in the recliner in the evening, and when I wake up and go to bed it takes a while for me to fall asleep again. That's a prime time to read a few pages of something or do a little computer time-wasting with musical accompaniment. With Radio Garden the choices of music are pretty much endless, which is great for a guy like me who likes a great variety of musical genres.

The fuel injection optimizer from Hitchcock's came in the other day. It shouldn't take too long to get it installed on the Himalayan.

I finished up the Go-Go carrier but after loading the scooter up on it, with the soft suspension on the little Buick, it sagged down more than I liked it. I moved the hole location by welding up part of the holes and then put the tongue on the mill and bored a new hole that will have the carrier angled up 5 degrees. I haven't tried it yet due to the wet paint, but I was confident enough to paint it without installing it on the car - mostly because the wife was on the road with the car at the time. If it doesn't work this time, might have to cut the tongue apart and weld in a piece of tubing to raise it up and change the angle. Let's hope that doesn't need to be done. I want to move on from this one. 

Stick Out Your Tongue

 I hope all of you Daddy-Os had a nice Father's Day. I was welding on the Go-Go carrier when Surly and the family showed up bearing a gift. I called time out on the welding and we had a nice visit. 

Tacking all the pieces together on the layout lines. The clamp holding the plate to the tube is the Fireball Mantis clamp I bought not too long ago. Perfect application for this job.

After checking the fit on the car and the carrier, I finish welded the tongue and then added fish plates over the tube joints. Actually, as small as they are, they're more like "minnow" plates rather than fish plates. I broke all the sharp edges and then got some paint on it. 

I'll assemble everything today and then see about getting the scooter on the carrier and figure out the best way to tie it down on to the carrier. When I get it all figured out, maybe load up the old girl and take her and the Go-Go to the park for a shake down run. 

Clean up the shop again and then knock out that job for Jimmy's dog sled.

Flag Day, Pokin' Holes and Boxing News

 

I got my flag out early in the morning for Flag Day, even though since I live almost a quarter of a mile off the road no one saw it besides the Missus and I. I've been pledging allegiance to the flag since I was a pup and even though I'm not pleased with the way things are going in the country currently, I take my pledge seriously. At this point in time I don't know what I can do to make things better other than hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

 

I started on the new tongue for the Go-Go carrier. I used the mag-drill for drilling the 5/8" holes. I drilled the first one in the square tube with a hole saw but it walked off the center line. Fortunately, I hadn't cut the tube to length yet, so I switched ends and drug out the mag-drill. The plates in the photo were tacked together so the holes would be sure to line up. Since the photo was taken, both plates were cleaned up and are ready to weld. Next up is to cut the tube pieces and then weld it all together. Shouldn't take long for that.

Two of the boxers Coach Jen and I've been working with fought today - both guys won. Pretty happy with that.

My old boxing coach passed away a few days ago. He had a good amateur carrer and as a pro he even fought at Madison Square Garden. Nice guy, local legend, helped a lot of young men over the years. Rest in peace, Johnny. And thanks.

Thursday Musical

Another Sly and the Family Stone - only seems fitting since it was a hot one yesterday.

It didn't actually make it to 100 plus, but it did hit 90. You always have to take in account the thermometer is in the direct sun. I was doing some outside stuff and worked up a pretty good sweat all the same. It always takes me a while to get acclimated to the heat and it looks like I'm going to get my chance. They're forecasting temps in the mid to high eighties for the next week or so.

Brian Wilson passed away. Like Sly Stone, he too was 82. I never really gave it any thought as to the age of the musicians of my youth. Both of these guys were only 6 years older than me and I was listening to their music when I was in high school.

The Rooftop Singers were basically a one hit wonder. I hadn't heard this one in quite a while, but I did hear the original 1929 version the other day. I definitely like The Rooftop Singers version better.

Surly came by the house the other night while on a shake-down run after doing some upgrades on the bike. Good looking bike. And, keeping with the theme, this scoot makes some beautiful music. While he was here he got the new toilet out of the truck and into the house for me. Saved me calling someone for help or tackling the job myself and hurting the chest muscles again. Nice to have people.

Boomshakalaka

Sly Stone dead at 82. Not a bad run and left behind a lot of good music. 

I found my anvil the other day. I looked for it when I was cutting up the railroad rail but couldn't remember where I put it during the cleaning frenzy. I cleaned it up with the wire wheel and then primed and painted it. There's some overspray on the top but I'm planning on sanding that off with a fine grit disc and then putting a light coating of grease on it.

The anvil is a Vulcan #4, meaning it's a 40 pounder. Since it's a small anvil, I figured it wasn't worth much. However, a quick internet search turns up ridiculous prices for small anvils. I didn't see a #4 but a #3 has asking prices $200 - $300. Ain't no way I'd pay that kind of money for an anvil of limited usefulness due to its small size.

The cone was kind of rusty, so as long as I was slinging rust dust around, I polished it up and put some primer on it while I was at it. The cone is actually made up of weld metal deposited on a 1" piece of bar stock. That's not the normal procedure, but if you're a welding instructor with access to a machine shop, why not?

Likewise, I'd consider making an anvil from scratch out of steel plate. If I had access to some 1" plate scrap, I could laminate a nice body, cut it to shape and then hardface the top surface with some Ni-Mang rod or something similar. 

One of these antique anvil-vises would be nice for light duty blacksmithing, especially if it was mounted on a post so you could work all around it. I don't have room for anything like that, but I'd be willing to bet an enterprising welder/fabricator could buy a cheap vise and anvil and put one of these together without much trouble. Make some tooling to clamp in the vise jaws or weld a socket to the side of it if the anvil didn't have a hardy hole and that setup would be handy as a pocket on a shirt.

More this & that on the agenda today.

EMP Pulse Prep

 Today's ride your motorcycle to work day - I'm a little late on the notification. Probably should have posted this last week or yesterday at the minimum. Since I'm no longer punching a clock, it doesn't apply to me. However, I did get out on the Himalayan over the weekend. I didn't go far but it was a nice ride.

A snapshot of some of the hitch hardware. The most interesting things are the wires with the spiral wound on one end. You wind the wire on the bolt, insert the wire through the plate, the access hole in the frame and the hole for the bolt. Insert the plate through the access hole, then pull the wire snug and it pulls the plate and the bolt into position. When you lift the hitch into position, you insert the wire into the bolt hole and pull the bolt down. Put the nut on and there you go. Someone was thinking when they came up with those wires. 

I drew the layout for the new tongue on the Go-Go carrier Sunday and picked up the material yesterday. I ran some other errands and cut some grass, so that was as far as I got on that project. 

I'm going to the college today to get a copy of my transcript, even though I'll probably never need it and then going to buy a new toilet. Cut some grass after that. I do lead an exciting life.

I went to the ham radio club meeting last evening. They put on a presentation about a dark sky event. This could be caused by a variety of things - natural or man-made disaster, or an EMP. I think I'm fairly well prepared for most events except an EMP which is capable of knocking out all electronics. I bought a small Faraday bag a couple of years ago for my little transistor radio, but I need to look into EMP preparedness a bit deeper. I imagine my whole house generator will be disabled, so my portable welder will be pressed into service. I keep the battery charged up on that, but I should run it every couple of months or mothball it. I should make sure one of my old motorcycles would be operational as well - something with just points and condenser ignition rather than electronic. Regardless of what happens in the future, I'll probably be better prepared the average guy, but I think I can do a little better without much effort.

One Down, Two More to Go

 

Presented without comment.

I got the hitch installed on the Missus' car with a little help from Surly. I had everything ready to go when he got here, so all I needed was a pair of hands to hold one side of the hitch up while I did the other side, install the nuts and Bob's your uncle. His side had a 12 mm bolt that went into a nut welded inside the frame rail. The threads were rusted but fortunately I have the proper tap and was able to chase the threads so the bolt would spin in with his fingers.

We put the carrier into the hitch and I'm going to have to modify the tongue to raise the carrier up a couple inches. I'm going to measure what I need today and get started on the project Monday.

I went to the boxing gym Friday evening and Jimmy gave me some work to do. I need to make some clips that go on the poles for his dog sled to keep the harness from slipping. Not a big job, just one more thing on the list.

So, I've got a couple of shop jobs and I've still got plenty of yard work to do. The weather should co-operate this coming week. Hopefully the smoke from the Canadian wildfires will subside along with the fluff from the cotton wood trees. I swept the garage floor before starting on the hitch job, but I need to do it again to get rid of the cotton wood fluff that blew in while the door was open.

Hitch in My Fuel Supply

 

Yesterday was Marvin Heemeyer Day. Remember, Hell has no fury like a welder scorned. Photo from here.

The trailer hitch for the Missus' car showed up yesterday. I'm going to see if I can get it installed over the weekend. I'll need a second pair of hands to hoist it up over the muffler and get the nuts started on the bolts coming down through the frame rails. Installation schedule will be determined by my help.

It rained most of the day yesterday, so I piddled around the shack doing some chores.

One of the things I did was order the fuel manage system from Hitchcock for my Royal Enfield. I ordered the Fuel X Lite rather than the Fuel X Pro. The Pro model has a dozen different maps you can choose from, which is about 11 more than I think I'll need. If I change the air induction or exhaust system, the Lite version should be able to adjust for that in addition to making it run better, especially when the engine is cold. 

I'll be back in the shop today. I've got some clean-up work to do and need to get some more work done on the fork legs for the trials bike so I can get the front end back under it. I've got a couple more bikes waiting in the wings. Need to stay busy.

Hat Trick

 

Three of my favorite things - Guzzi cafe, sidecar racer, and flat track racers, with two of the greatest of all time in the saddle, Mark Brelsford and Cal Rayborn, no less. It's been quite a while since I've been to a motorcycle race of any type. I think the last roadrace was the Moto GP at Indy and that's been a while ago. There was also a flat track event at the fairgrounds as part of the racing weekend. I had a chance to see Kenny Roberts that night on a replica TZ 750 powered Yamaha that he made history with back in the day. I also had a chance to see him at Daytona way back when on the road race course. All three photos from here. 

Nothing much to report on the project front. I've been doing a bunch of outside work - cutting brush, planting flowers, getting grass going, and trying not to screw up my chest. There's some rain in the forecast, so I'll be back in the shop as well as taking care of some stuff in the shack.