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.