Mose & Me

 

I'm a big fan of Mose. Surly and I saw him at a club in Chicago a few years back - great show, we both got autographs. I had this CD but it got away along with several others of my favorites in a carrier I had in my car. I think it somehow got traded in when I got my Veloster. I bought a new MP3 player last week. I'm hoping I've got this one on the old computer. I'm going to start loading up the player in the next few days. I'm tired of having to stop what I'm doing to buzz through the ads on my phone when I'm listening to You Tube when I'm working.

Work progress has been slow, but I had an appointment with the money guy yesterday and a heart scan today, both of which were in the middle of the day, so not much time left for working and getting dirty. The money guy said I don't have to reserve a spot under the bridge for my cardboard box, so that's good news. Hopefully I get equally good results on the scan when I see the heart doc next week.

I was looking at the screen while the tech was administering the test but I have no idea what I was looking at. I just know it's cool how they can see inside your body and watch your heart beat and see the valves opening and closing.

I did manage to get the hoses connected to the pump and valve on the trailer job. I need to cut a pass-through hole in the back of the toolbox for the hose to the cylinder, then I can get the last hose I need. After that, get a battery and a switch for the solenoid and things should be operational. 

Lots of things still on the list, but it'll all fit on one sheet of paper now. I just wish the weather would stay like it has been for a while longer - maybe until April and then warm up a bit. I love autumn weather, just don't care for what follows. 

Lathe Progress

 I went out for breakfast with a former student yesterday - one from way in the past when I was at the Career Center. We had a really nice visit talking about the old days as well as what we're up to these days.

After I came home I made the piece for the basement lathe. There can't be more than a couple of thousands slack in it now, versus a 1/16" when I started. Next up will be the screw on the cross slide. It's a left-hand Acme thread which will be a real stretch of my machinist skills if I try to make one. However, Surly found a source for a piece of it and matching brass nuts. The end where the knob and dial fasten on would have to be modified, though. I'm going to take it all apart and come up with a plan. I've got a couple ideas already.

I'm going to a boxing match today, so no shop work. Pretty happy with the progress as of late, however. Definitely need to get the tractor running again - frost warnings last night. 

Happy birthday to Surly today!

Cheap Shot @ USPS

 

The boss from my old gig shot me a text about some more scrap he had, so I went over yesterday morning and picked it up. Cuzzin Ricky bought me lunch the other day for the last loads I brought him. I might be able to talk a breakfast out of him with this load. 

I worked on the trailer a bit yesterday. The floor of the toolbox is made from 1/8" sheet, so I made some backing plates to stiffen the pump and valve area. I got the holes drilled in the floor, but I want to paint the plates before I bolt everything down. I'll get that done today. After that, I need to crawl under the trailer and decide what I need to do to be able to hook up the hose to the cylinder. My neighbor said he'd come over and lift the bed up for me if I needed. In fact, while I was out, I stopped there to take a look at a welding job he needs done. A new aluminum radiator has a leak around the filler neck where it joins the tank. Should be easy enough.

I'm planning on unboxing the radiator for the Allis today and decide my plan of attack on that job. I definitely need to get that done before the snow flies. I got a nasty-gram from the mailman last winter when I didn't have the snow plowed in front of the mailboxes. Normally I'm all over that but it happened when the Allis was down for repairs and I had the heart attack. I figured the mailman could've just driven right by. After all, that's what he did Monday and Tuesday when the sun was shining and it was 88 degrees. After all: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" My ass.

Steady by Jerks

 

'68 Sportster - the one I always wanted. I saw this one on a Facebook group I belong to. The owner must be about the same age as I am - bought one similar in'68, got called up in '69, so sold the bike. Decided he needed one like he had but most of them were chopped or beat to death, finally ended up with this one. You can go home again.

Got a decent start on rigging up the hydraulics on the dump trailer yesterday. I rode my bicycle to the auto parts store for a couple of fittings, then rode over to the plumbing supply and got a couple of pipe fittings and put another mile or so in on my way home. I worked up a pretty good sweat and was thinking I need to get more cardio. Come to find out it was close to 90 degrees and sunny which explained the sweat - still could use some more cardio just the same.

The yellow plug on the valve is the outlet to the cylinder. I've got the fittings for that already. Next up I'll bolt the pump unit and valve in place and then work on getting a hose to that. It's a single acting cylinder, so only one hose required.

I got a coat of varnish on the picture frame yesterday, I'll get a second coat on it Thursday. In the meantime, I'll get the glass for it. 

The radiator for old Allis showed up yesterday. It's supposed to rain today and tomorrow on and off, so I'll work on the trailer and tractor in the big barn. I've also got another load of scrap to pick up at my old gig. I'll get that today, rain permitting. 

Tractor, Trailer & More

 

Checked all the fluids in the Allis the other day and I was surprised the radiator was low. It was topped off after the mechanic finished the cylinder head repair. I had patched the radiator while it was apart, pressure tested it, and the mechanic had run it a bit with no evidence of a leak. But after running it down the lane, it was leaking again. I decided to give up on repairing it, bit the bullet and ordered a new one. The tractor's 74 years old, after all. I ordered online from Steiner yesterday morning and it should be here today. That's what I call service. 

 Making a frame for my vision board. I'd never even heard of such a thing until recently. Coach Jen steered me in that direction after one of our conversations about what I should be doing to get a few more good years. I set my target at 90 - might be a little optimistic, but that's the whole point. In the photo, the frame hadn't been glued together yet, by the way.

I've been doing a little work on my dump trailer also. I built it at the high school, but I didn't get the hydraulics hooked up due to having the heart attack. I need to get some hose fittings and then I can figure out the best placement for the pump and valve. I also need to do something with the cylinder, which has been the hold-up on the operation. I can't get a hose to the inlet, so I need to take the cylinder apart and rotate it 90 degrees or cut away a bit of the frame. I'll crawl underneath there one of these days and take a good look at things and decide what I need to do. 

 

Sunday Recap

 

The weather has been great lately - so nice in fact it's confused the crabapple tree. There are quite a few blossoms on the tree even though most of the leaves have already fallen. It didn't produce any fruit this year, likewise neither did the other apples, and only a few peaches also. The persimmons have some fruit. Hopefully, I'll have enough fruit to make a couple of loaves of persimmon bread.

The shiny gas cap showed up late Friday evening along with the piece of brass for the basement lathe project. I've still got some paint left from painting the gas tank, so I think I'll paint the top of the intake snout. 

The brass rod is about .004" oversize, so I'll have to turn the OD a skootch when I've got it in the lathe. When I get that done, I'm going to try and tackle making a new screw for the cross slide. It's a left-hand Acme thread, something that's going to be a stretch for my ability as a lathe operator. I've cut many a thread before - metric, standard, right-hand, left-hand, and Whitworth, but never an Acme. First time for everything, though.

 And from the what in the hell was I thinking files, I went to the storage space the other day to drop something off, and when I came around the corner to leave, this chair was sitting out in the gravel. I liked the look of it but kept going. Later, when I took the cleaning lady home, we stopped to take a good look at it. All oak, no loose joints and it was originally finished with shellac, which comes right off just by rubbing a piece of sandpaper across it. The cleaning lady said I should take it home, so we loaded it up. I've got no idea what I'm going to do with it, but the cleaning lady and I will get it restored and she can put it in her hope chest if nothing else.

I did a little plumbing job for my sister-in-law yesterday morning, sharpened the spare mower blades, installed them and then cut the front yard in the afternoon. I'm waiting to hear about walking this afternoon. Depending on how that goes, mowing, machining or both.

Odds & Sods

It doesn't look like much more than a small pile of gravel, but it's actually a small scale dry well. Since the reason I replaced the man door on the barn was due to the bottom rusting away, I didn't want the same thing to happen to the new one. Yesterday I dug a hole at the mid-point between the posts and planted a two-gallon bucket in the hole. I drilled some holes in the bottom of the bucket so the water could escape first. I also sloped the dirt so the water would head for the bucket, as well as skimming a couple of inches off the dirt outside the door to create a spot for the gravel. After it gets rained on a few times, I level it out a bit more if needed.

I also painted the gas tank on the Allis yesterday. I put another coat on after the photo so the "Zebra stripes" like you can see on the battery box are gone. And from the lipstick on a pig department, I ordered a shiny new gas cap - should be here tomorrow. I still need to check the fluids and charge the battery, but I should be ready for the first snowfall whenever that comes.

The screw for the compound on the basement lathe. There was a lot of slack when moving the tool post in and out but a 1/4" SAE washer between the handle and the dial took care of most of that. The threads on the brass piece, however, are worn out. The thread size is 1/4-20, and the OD on the part is 1/2", so I ordered a piece of stock - won't take long to make the new piece. I want to get the lathe functional before the weather turns cold. I've got a couple of projects in the basement shop that have been languishing for too long. They're nothing important really, just another loose end I'm trying to tie up. Plus, it beats sitting in the recliner all evening.

Praying Mantis on the inside of the screen the other morning. Depending on how the storm and screen doors are situated, bugs can get between them. I opened the screen door a few inches and closed the storm door and it escaped. Very interesting looking creatures. I see one around here maybe once every couple of years. 

Long list of things to do today - pretty sure the highlight of the day is going to be a tenderloin for lunch.

 

Great Day to be Outside

 

Beautiful day yesterday - in my book I'd call it perfect. I was supposed to go walkies with Coach Jen but her stepson was involved in an accident, and we decided it might be better to call it off - would've been a really good day to put in three or four miles, though. Instead, I primed the gas tank and battery box on the Allis. I've got some paint in the quart I used to paint the radiator shroud and the hood, but I didn't want to mess with the spray gun or paint it with a brush, so I ordered a rattle can of Allis orange. It doesn't have to be a perfect match. As long as it's close it'll be better than rusty orange.

It was also a great day for hanging a barn door. It took a little finagling, but I persevered just like Sgt. Preston of the RCMP - "We always get our man." If you look closely at the gap on the left side of the door, you can see a pretty healthy 1/4" up top and next to nothing on the bottom. The door frame is formed by a pair of 6x6 posts that are wrapped in sheet metal. No way I was going to be able to bump the posts outward, so I did some trimming on the sheet metal down low as well as grinding down some of the wood underneath it. It opens now without any interference even if you can't see any gap along the lower left side. 

The striker plate for the deadbolt lines up but the one for the doorknob is off by about 3/8". I'm going to make a new striker out of some thicker material as well as making it longer in order to get the screws into new wood. 

The gap under the door is the lowest spot around, so water and snow pool there. I'm going to dig out some dirt and replace it with gravel so the water will run down into the dirt rather than rusting the bottom of the door off like the other one and keep me from falling on my keister when the puddle turns to ice in the winter.

The weather's looking good for the rest of the week, so I'll continue spending some time on the outside chores and doing whatever else suits my fancy. 

Eve of Destruction

 

Once again, or maybe still, we're on the eve of destruction. Lots of bad things going on in our country and the world. Lots of talk about nuclear weapons like when I was a young man.  When will they ever learn?

Over the years I've turned into a peacenik it seems. The Prez just sent armed forces to the Middle East and is talking about bombing Iran back into the stone age. I'm beginning to think Trump's just about as nuts as Biden was. 350 million people in this country and all the mopes in Washington can do is go to war on borrowed money. 

However, all is not doom and gloom. The little lilac in back of the house has decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and bloom again. There's also a couple of blossoms on the rose bush out back. Nice little mood elevator.

 __________________________________________

Busy day yesterday. I got a message from my old boss at the part-time gig. Seems he was cleaning out some stuff and had a piece I had fabricated and wanted to know if I could use it. I didn't want it but I told him I'd pick it up and recycle it. When I swung by, he had a small pile of steel for me, so I loaded it up and then took it to Cuzzin Ricky and threw it on his scrap trailer. I also made a stop at the drug store and hardware store while I was out running around. 

Surly came down later and we shot the bull for a bit, he sandblasted a piece and I installed the lockset in the new man door for the barn. I still need to do a little prep on the door frame before hanging the new door, but pretty happy with the progress of late.

File This One .......

 

under Type A, aluminum file. That is, one that's designed for fast removal of aluminum material without loading up. The flat ones cut with a shearing action and give a nice finish as well as the fast removal of material.

When the grandson was here working on the little loader, I handed him my half-round one to use. The teeth are cut a little differently and the half-round shape is more useful if you're only going to have one. I was going to get him one of each, but I could only find a flat one. I don't remember where I got both of mine, but I've had them a long time. I've taken good care of them and never use them on anything other than aluminum or magnesium.

I'll give this one to the grandson next time our paths cross and continue looking for a half-round file for him. 

I was doing some rake and shovel work on the end of the driveway yesterday and the neighbor stopped by. Before he left, he mentioned having a new aluminum radiator that needs a little touch up weld on the filler neck - so I've got that one on the docket. Cleaned the gutters after that. Also completed my Green Level boxing license certification yesterday. It's good until October of '28, so I'll probably keep my credentials up until then at least. 

I bought a new man door for the big barn the other day - need to get that hung up. I did finish the cedar chest - looks pretty sexy. Sanded down the gas tank and battery box on the old Allis - need to get it primed and painted.

Lots to do, but this is my favorite time of year to be outside. Ride the bike, maybe do some hiking, some work on the shack, and then settle in for the winter. 

Prepare!

 

Today's the last day of Preparation month - probably should have addressed this at the beginning of the month, rather than the last day, but that probably says something about my preparations. 

I consider myself fairly well prepared. I've got a backup generator, some food and water set aside, but I bought the two-volume Civil Defense Manual and learned a few things. I've read the first volume and have started working my way through the second. Lots to digest here. One of my take-aways was the importance of forming a group of people if things get real bad. While that makes perfect sense, that would be tough where I live. However, now's the time to think about a solution before the ball drops.

The two-volume set is a little pricey, but it's a lot of information all in one location. There's going to come a time when this info will be extremely valuable. Get the set, read it and prepare!

Cedar Chest #2

 

Cedar chest after a coat of varnish - I think it looks pretty good. It would have been nice if the wood on the outside looked as good as the wood on the inside. The inside doesn't have any of the white stripes, but compared to what I started with, it'll do nicely. I still need to do something with the drawer front, however. I checked the stains available at Menards and they have some reddish colors but nothing specifically red cedar that I found. I was wondering if I could add a little oil base red paint with some brown to get a pretty good color match and then add it to the varnish. Menards does have small cans of stain for less than $10.00. That's probably my best bet. Find something close, stain, varnish and call the project done.

I should look into getting a new man door for the barn while I'm at Menards. The one on there now is a steel door that has the bottom few inches rusted off and the seam on the lock side where they joined the inside and outside sheets has opened up. It's a 36" door that measures a little under that. I'll have to take a tape measure with me and measure a replacement to make sure it'll fit in the opening. I'll probably run up there one day this week - nothing else on the calendar this week for a change. 

Cedar Chest

 

I have several wool bicycle jerseys and a couple of them got attacked by moths. The one is an old timer, so a couple of small moth holes didn't really bother me, but one of the new ones I special ordered all the way from New Zealand ended up with a couple of holes on the front of it. Since I paid good money for it and another one from the same outfit, I don't want any more damage to befall them. The Missus found a cedar chest so I bought it and drug it home.

The above photo shows the results after spending some time stripping all the blue paint off it. It's a Lane chest, so it was well made initially, but someone took a disc sander to it to strip off the initial finish. That left a few divots and a rather uneven surface, but I figured I could get it half-ass decent with some judicious sanding.

Here's the front after running the belt sander on it to level the surface out and then finishing with the random orbit sander, or DA if you're a body & fender guy. It appears the side panels will look similar if I sand the brown finish off them as well, which is the plan now. If you look closely on the front, you can see the faux doors have a brown frame on them. Originally those were raised about 1/4" to decorate the doors. They had been hit with the disc sander in a few places, so I shaved them down with a block plane prior to running the sander over the front. The inlet pieces are walnut that should give a nice contrast to the cedar after a coat of varnish.

Hoping to get the sides sanded down today, as well as plugging the hole where the lock used to be.  

Radio Free Kersey

 

I usually listen to the radio when I'm working in the shop, however, the reception is somewhat limited so I usually listen to one of three stations. The problem is the playlists become pretty monotonous, so I'll pull up You Tube on my phone and play something I don't normally hear on the radio. You Tube will then make a "mix-tape" for me but there's a commercial that jumps in after damn near every song, which means I have to stop what I'm doing or listen to some BS about prostate health, stuck poop or diabetes parasites. 

I really miss my MP3 player since it died a couple years back. I'm going to have to work on finding some type of replacement and load it up.

Rainy Days & Mondays

 

Monday wasn't a total washout, but the previous three were. Lots of rain, which curtailed my outside jobs, but I did get a few things done inside and a wee bit in the shop. Nothing much to write home about but I did get quite a bit of reading done - book reports will be forthcoming. 

I took the dog to the groomer yesterday and stopped for gas on the way home - $4.29 per gallon. That's about a buck more per gallon than it was two weeks ago. I usually just pay at the pump but none of the pumps would allow that. Since I was driving the Missus' new car, I didn't know what it was going to take to fill it up, so I just got $20.00 worth. It got the gauge up over half, but next time out I'll try a different station so I can get it topped off. 

Another restaurant in town closed along with one in the next town south where I get salads when I'm down that way. Gas over $4.00 and restaurants closing, yep, it's getting ugly out there.

 

Happy 92nd Birthday

Constitution Day

 

Ella 's got her basket.

And the Missus has hers - with a new rivet holding the handle on, as seen in the right side of the photo. I don't know what type of rivets were used originally, but I had a shiny steel one in my supplies. I cut it to length, opened up the hole in the handle and the basket just a bit, drove the rivet in, then peened the backside so it wouldn't come out. Another satisfied customer.

However, I threw in the towel on fixing the broken recliner. It was going to be a serious pain in the ass to fix it, and the Missus was still going to have a hard time getting it to recline. "A man's got to know his limitations."

It's Constitution Day today. The Founders did a great job coming up with that document. Unfortunately, seems like the majority of our "leaders" in Washington don't seem to care much about it, especially the Bill of Rights. If they would have been honoring them and balancing the budget, the country would still be great. Instead, it looks like it truly is the end of the empire. As a result, hard times are coming - keep your powder dry.

It's a Very Strange World

 

And this would be exhibit A:

Looks like they used a 5-gallon bucket of hot glue to "decorate" those rigs, but, hey, to each their own.

________________________________________________

I saw something very interesting here, and he got it from here. The second link will take you right there.

It's a fairly long article, at least by my standards, about what you should be doing to prepare for the end of civilization as we currently know it. It's not so much the beans and ammo thing, but what you can expect depending on where you are located as well as advice on deciding if you want to try and go it alone or form an alliance with your neighbors. One of the things mentioned is everyone with a smart phone can now get aerial views to determine a ripe target, and how to get there. Strongly suggest reading the article.

Aluminum Welding

 

The grandson has remained working part-time for the landscaping outfit he worked for prior to getting his full-time gig as a welder. He called me about doing an aluminum welding job on their skid-steer at my place. Since the weather was good and he works for them on Saturday, they delivered the machine Friday afternoon, the grandson showed up 8:00 Saturday morning and we went to work.

The grandson had mentioned more than once he could weld aluminum, but welding on a bench on new, clean aluminum is not the same as welding on greasy, broken pieces buried down inside a machine. I helped him with the prep, mostly because he's not familiar with my tools and equipment. He did all the welding, I was the helper, fire watch and coach. The job came out looking nice, he learned a little bit and he was on the clock while here. Win/win.

Oxy-Acetylene

 

I finished up the oil tank the other day but Blogger was having an issue with inserting pictures. I don't know what I would have to do or what it would cost to own the Shop Teacher Bob domain, but I might look into it. I've been doing this for quite a while and plan on continuing as long as I've got something to say.

While I was finishing up the oil tank I got to thinking about my choice of welding processes for that job. I could have TIG welded everything, or MIG welded it with a small wire. I've got .030" in house but .024" might have been better. But going along with the "prepper" mindset, how are you going to weld anything when the power goes out? I've got a gas drive rig that I could use with a small 6011 rod for the sheet metal and it'll run 5/32" rods for the heavy stuff, at least until the fuel runs out. It puts out enough AC current to run my 110V wire machine, but Oxy-Acetylene welding and cutting is handy to know, and not everyone is going to have a half dozen welding machines as part of their preps. There are still a lot of people out there that don't even have a spare gas can, if looking at the long lines at the gas stations recently is any indication.

I don't know where you would go to get some decent instruction on welding and brazing. We taught cutting at the college but just briefly touched on welding and brazing. You can get a cheap combination torch set at Harbor Freight, Amazon or a big box store. Get a small set of bottles and your all set - if you get some instruction on the safe set-up and operation, that is.

Might be I'm thinking too much like the old guy I am. Nobody fixes things much anymore - toss it out and buy new. However, people with skills are going to be pretty valuable when there aren't any new ones available. 

Almost Done With This One

 

Tank doesn't look too much different from the last photo but this time everything is welded except for the lid and filler neck. I decided to gas weld the sheet metal and braze the bungs. Good choice, actually. At least for me. It's easy for me to see the puddle when both gas welding and brazing. Lot less chance of a leak doing it this way and I didn't get any distortion when I brazed the bungs in.

Next up is to clean out any scale on the inside of the tank, then weld the filler neck and lid on. Planning on doing that today as long as I've got all the tools out. 

Labor Day

 Working man's holiday, and working woman's as well, of course. I going to celebrate by doing a little labor out in the shop.

I got the pieces for the oil tank ready to tack together. I think I'm going to gas weld it together or at least try it and see how it goes. I still haven't decided how I'm going to weld the bungs in. Maybe TIG, maybe braze, maybe silver solder. I ground all the mill scale off the sheets on the edges and where the bungs all go. Regardless, when I get the box and the fittings welded in, I'll put the lid and the filler neck on and call it good.

Enjoy your holiday all you working stiffs. 

Spirit of '76

 

Birthday yesterday - "Another day older and deeper in debt." Actually, doing pretty good financially. Starting on my second million - because I gave up on the first, as the old joke goes. Had a good day - went to lunch with a friend and then came home and mowed the back yard. Can this guy party, or what?

Taking stock of my situation as I normally do on my birthday, my life is damn good right now. After the heart attack in December, I figured I better get back on the program. My weight's down. I need to lose three more pounds and I'll be a middle weight again. I've been doing some Tai-Chi exercises to keep the muscles moving without a lot of pounding or strain on the joints. I've been doing a bit of strength training but my arms still look like toothpicks. I need to add more protein to my diet and cut out more sugar. I'm still a work in progress but all things considered, looking forward to a few more years, God willing. No way I'm going to be able to finish all the projects if I don't have more time. 

Fortunately, the mental game is still good. I've become a little forgetful like a lot of old farts - walk into a room and forget why. Still not bad, though. I've been weaning myself off the news. I like to stay informed but not much I can do to change the world. I did get my paperwork turned in for mail-in voting, mostly to benefit the Missus, but as long as I was at the courthouse I got mine as well. As long as you're over 65 you can get mail-in - beats standing in line.

The temperature is supposed to cool off starting today to something more seasonable. The heat index yesterday was 105 again. I waited until the sun went down behind the tree tops before I mowed, so it wasn't too bad - glad I installed the bottle rack on the mower. Going to mow the front yard today and hit a couple of licks on the oil tank job.

Life is good. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Prepare for the future. Live long and prosper!  

 

"Cool Down Daddy"

 

"Cool down Daddy, don't you blow your top!" Tough to cool down here lately. Temperatures have been in the mid-nineties with heat indices over 100. Pretty hot for most everyone, but elderly cardiac patients especially need to watch it. Just getting out of the sun helps but the humidity is a pisser just the same. Forecast calls for a heat advisory again today, but I've got things going on for most of the day at places that are air conditioned. 

 

The Missus and the "cleaning lady" are making great progress with the cleaning and organizing. The young lady handed off the spoon in the photo to me. It was tarnished to the extent it was almost completely black, so I did some work with the Auto-Sol polish and got it shined up. If you look closely you can see the Holiday Inn imprint on the end of it. The spoon is a souvenir from a trip to Elkhart Lake when the newly married love birds went to the Can-Am races in our brand-new Olds Cutlass in '71. 

I welded up the filler neck for the oil tank yesterday. I had a little trouble seeing what I was doing at first due to my glasses fogging up. I had turned on the AC unit about 45 minutes before I started welding but it was still 88 degrees and humid in the shop. It'll be fine, it's just not as pretty as I'd like.

I finished the trailer jack mount yesterday as well. When I was drilling the holes, I got three of them done and then I ran into a bit of trouble. I was using a 3/16" pilot drill, and when I was lining up the last one I brought the drill down on the center punch mark while I clamped the vise down. It developed a hard spot and I couldn't do anything with it. I turned the pieces over and drilled it from the back side. No big deal but it did indicate the material had some carbon in it. Because of that I stick welded the pipe to the plate with a low hydrogen weld - E-7018. Low hydrogen rods are for high carbon, high sulfur steels, by the way.

I've got the oil tank bottom and sides ready to bend. I used a chassis punch to make the 3/4" holes. The sheet is actually trapezoidal in shape, but it looks a little whacky due to the camera angle. One of the end pieces needs a couple holes punched in it. I'll get that done and then I can start fitting the pieces together. 

 

Jacks and Chairs

 

Went for walkies yesterday with Coach Jen - got 4 miles in - and she said her husband had a small job for me. I stopped by their barn later and he's making a jack mount for his camper. Needs the pipe welded to the piece and holes drilled in both of the flat bars. No biggie - I'll get it knocked out in the next couple of days. 

You'll notice the parts are sitting on the sheet for the oil tank job. I went out to the shop the other day to get started on cutting out the pieces and I saw a woodchuck run past the big door. I quick went outside and saw the bushes moving where he ran along the side of the building. The raspberries have been taken over with scrub brush and weeds, so I stopped work inside and started clearing a spot about two feet wide next to the shop. I didn't find a burrow, but a couple of years ago one actually chewed through the siding of the shop and found its way in. I need to just cut everything down and start over with the berries. Of course, it continues to rain and the mosquitoes are terrible, but I need to make sure the woodchuck isn't burrowing under the shop or coming through the wall again.

Meanwhile in the fun never stops department, the $20.00 recliner I bought not too long ago broke after the Missus body slammed it while forcing it to recline. I think I figured out how to repair it without too much trouble. Not much of an initial investment, but the upholstery is like new and it's American made. It just wasn't designed for the rough and tumble reclining method.  

 Need to mow again because it's only been a day - mow the front, mow the back, wait a day, and repeat. As long as it's dry enough. If not, I end up with big clumps of grass all over the yard. Usually, this time of year everything is brown, mow maybe once every week and a half. Always something.  

Architecture

 

Surly came down the other afternoon and gave me the highlights of his recent motorcycle trip - 1800+ miles into Canada and around the Great Lakes. The photo above is St. Andrew's church in Kingston, Ontario, rebuilt after a fire in 1889. The photo is one I glommed off the internet. The couple Surly showed me were taken at night and were much nicer. Anyway, as per usual, our conversation veered off to an architectural conversation including Brutalism

I was in Lowell, Mass. years ago on a grant from Eli Lily and did a walking tour of the city. Along the way our guide pointed out a building as an example of Brutalism. I had never heard of that style of architecture before and thought at the time that was a pretty cold description of the building. Later I realized Brutalism was a real thing, not just the guide taking a cheap shot at the building's style. Surly sent some links so I could be better informed on Brutalism. The only forms of architecture I'm familiar with are Gothic and the industrial buildings made of red brick, steam power, line shafts and big glass windows and skylights. 

The county courthouse where I went to make arrangements for mail-in ballots for the Missus and I in the upcoming election. This building was made in 1898 - beautiful inside and out. The church, the courthouse, the industrial buildings I'm familiar with, and the old farmhouse I live in were all constructed during the American Industrial Revolution. My house was built along with several others in my little village as a result of the railroad coming through. Would have been a great time to be alive for a guy like me. 

I need to fill in the void in my education on building styles - maybe find myself a book or two to study this winter.

Sad Day

 

Rest in Peace Dolly!

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I made a lay-out of the tank on the 16 ga. sheet I'll be using. I wanted cold rolled but got hot rolled instead, so I'll have to grind off all the surfaces where I'll be welding, especially if I TIG weld the seams and all of the bungs. The layout doesn't have the top as part of it because he had the steel supplier cut that out to size. I don't have a finger brake, so I think I'll bend up the long sides and cut the ends out and weld them individually. 

Assembly procedure as follows:

Cut out all parts and drill holes

Bend sides

Tack weld end pieces and top together

Finish weld sheet metal pieces

Install all bungs and filler pipe. 

I haven't decided if I'm going to TIG weld the sheets or gas weld them. Likewise, I might TIG weld the bungs or braze them in place. Lower heat input with braze welding and I should be able to get a nice, smooth, leakproof fillet all around them.

I might try a couple of practice pieces before committing to either method.

Filler Neck

 

I did a little homeowner work yesterday and then made my first move on the oil tank for TVI. The weld-in bung is pretty short. It was designed to be poked down into the tank until it bottomed out on the flange so it would be only about 1/8" proud of the sheet. However, TVI wants it to be parallel with the bottom of the tank, rather than at the 8-degree angle of the top sheet. I'm going to weld the bung into a tube that I'll cut at the proper angle and then weld the tube to the top sheet.

So how did I arrive at the 8-degree angle, you ask? Let me count the ways. First, I checked the angle with a protractor. Second, I used the trig formula tan A= a/b and looked up the number in the Trig Tables in Machinery's Handbook. Third, just to get a little better with the calculator on my phone, I ran the numbers and figured out how to enter the second function on the tangent. The protractor gave an approximate 8-degree answer, the trig tables gave me the answer in degrees and minutes, and the calculator gave me the answer in a decimal format. Sounds like a lot of work but it only took me about 5 minutes. 

I'm still contemplating my sequence of operations for putting this thing together. There are quite a few fittings that need to be welded into the tank and each one of them will potentially warp the edge of the sheet. I'll give it a little more thought before I jump in.

Oil Tank

 

I think the safety posters only work if people can figure out the message, even at that, no guarantee.

I went to check out the oil tank job yesterday. TVI had purchased all the fittings and the sheet metal a while back, he was just waiting to get his engine back to check the fit of his pattern. We talked over a few other bike things and shot the breeze a bit - nice chat. 

Beautiful day, so when I came home I swapped out the mower blades and then cut the front yard. Did a bit of tinkering as well. Looks like the next few days are going to be nice - be a real blessing for the storm victims. I'm going to try and get some more outside work done while it's dry, myself. Maybe get out on the bike as well.

Buckets O' Fun

 

Real deal Rock & Roll

We've been reorganizing and doing a serious clean around the house. I went to Menards yesterday, bought a set of shelves for the laundry room, some buckets with the Gamma lids and some other items. The shelves are for the cases of water, soda, laundry supplies, etc. The buckets are for pasta and cake mixes. The air-tight lids will keep the pantry moths out of the food stuffs for long term storage. The laundry room will be this week's job when the cleaning lady comes back.

Cut the back yard after getting home - managed to finish up right before it started raining again. I want to cut the front yard today, but it might be too wet. This is usually the time of year when the grass is all brown and dormant. I did sharpen the spare set of blades yesterday, so rain or shine, I'll swap out the blades to be ready when it's dry enough to mow. I also poked around on the Jitney a bit trying to remember where I left off. If it doesn't quit raining soon I'll have to start on an ark.

Going to look at TVI's Harley project today. He sent his engine out to get rebuilt and it finally came back. He wants me to make a new oil tank for sure and maybe more. I'll find out this morning.

My Opinion

I'm not so sure this in an unpopular opinion. I went walkies on Sunday with Coach Jen - 4 miles. Stopped on the way home at CVS to pick up a prescription for Larry Joe Cocker and they had a new sign-in screen gizmo at the counter. I typed in my name and birthdate as required and nothing showed even though they had called and said his script was ready. The screen said if nothing came up go to the drop-off window. So I did but that's like no man's land. One of the ladies finally had pity on me and got me hooked up. I just need to remember to type the dog's name in next time. However, I might just bypass the counter and use the drive-up instead. 

I got my blood draw yesterday that I wasn't able to get last week due to the storm damage. Had to check in at the kiosk there as well. That went pretty smooth because I had already checked in online prior to my first visit. But this is also the place that couldn't do any business because even though they had power, they were dependent on the internet for all transactions.

A couple of side notes: 

All the roundabouts that have been installed up there actually are a plus when the traffic lights are out. So that's a good thing. 

I picked up the spare tire kit for the wife's new car yesterday while I was out and topped off the tank. The station I stopped at usually has donuts, but the bakery is still out of power, which is not a good thing. Not that I need donuts, but since I had to fast for the blood draw a donut was sounding good.

The parts I ordered for the quick-change rear on the Jitney project showed up the other day - oil, gears, gasket and studs for mounting the brake backing plates. Need to get the trials bike buttoned up so I can get it out of the way and then get the car back in the queue. Hard to find the time right now with the mowing and weed control, cutting and splitting wood, doctor's appointments, and all the rest, but I'm doing a little something every day.