Shop Teacher Bob

Memory Lane

2012-02-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Saw this Corvair photo whilst wasting time on the computer. This one is a cool custom bodied thing from Italy as opposed to the Plain Jane version from the U.S. We went through at least three of these things in our family. My older brother had one that I managed to dent up during a little off road excursion when the back end unloaded on me. The engine in the rear thing just didn't react quite like I expected it to when I came zipping around the corner. Like a pogo stick, actually. Professional auto writer Tom McCahill had the same thing happen to him during a road test of a Corvair. Apparently, it can happen to the best of them, as well as some doofus kid taking his younger brother to guitar lessons. Maybe Ralph Nader was right.

One of the Corvairs we ended up with had belonged to my aunt. She drove it back and forth to work a short distance every day and the thing never warmed up enough to fully lubricate the rockers for the valve train. It quit on her and even though he didn't know what was wrong with it, Dad figured I could fix it, so he bought it from her. A buddy of mine and I retrieved it by dragging it home some twenty miles on the end of a chain, including about fifteen of them on US 41. You could never get away with that today. We were actually pretty good at towing things. We had a set of hand signals worked out so the slack rarely came out of the chain. The driver of the lead car would hold up a clenched fist before hitting his brakes so the guy in the dead vehicle would apply his brakes first and do most of the stopping. Likewise, prior to shifting into second or third, the lead man would throw either two or three fingers into the air and the guy on the end of the chain would tap the brakes a little to keep things tightened up while the shift was made. As much crap as we towed around, we should have just invested in a tow truck.

Photo From Here

I saw this the other day and it reminded me of my old Chevy. The photo below is a '62 Chevy Impala Super Sport. Mine was a little darker red but that's the car. It had a 327 and a 4 speed with the white ball knob on the shifter when I bought it. The shifter and knob was a common part with the Corvair, I think. When going through the gears it was like stirring soup. A Hurst shifter and tee handle replaced the stocker and then things were right with the world.

I probably spent as much time under the thing as I did in the saddle. I changed motors, the clutch and rear-end a couple of times, rebuilt the tranny, and of course just generally tinkered with the thing all the time. I had a big 11" clutch in the thing and the bellcrank broke one night on the way home from work/school, can't remember anymore. I borrowed a vehicle from the parents and went out. When I came home I had just hit the sack when I heard a noise out front. Someone had broken into it and probably would have taken it if the clutch pedal was working. That would have made the second time it was stolen. Probably the same guys who stole my little Sprint. It's good to have nice neighbors. I shoulda' kept this one. It would be worth a few bucks now. Plus a lot of good memories with this baby.

As long as I'm making the trip down memory lane, might as well go the whole enchilada and go with the first car I ever owned:

1948 Chevy Fleetmaster. Mine didn't look as good as the one in the photo but it was the only car I've ever gotten up on two wheels. Not quite like the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show but I used to run her in deep in a ninety degree corner by where I lived and I could get a little chirp off the back tire when she came back down. When I got the car the motor was junk, so I swapped in a 1953 235 CID, replacing the original 216. The car had a vacuum assist shifter, which when new was designed to suck the tranny into to gear when up shifting. Theoretically, little effort was required to change gears but the reality was that if it was cold outside you better have it in the gear you were planning on using next time you drove the car because the condensation in the vacuum can would freeze it up solid and you couldn't shift the damn thing at all until it warmed up. The car had knee action shocks instead of "airplane" shocks, as they were called back then. J.C. Whitney/Warshawsky had kits to fix both the shocks and the shifter but I never got around to fixing either of them.

The car did have a couple of cool features. It had a heater motor under the front set that would blow heat into the back. That was pretty nice. It also had a post in the middle of the back bumper that was spring loaded so you could push the car without damaging anything. The timing mark was a little steel ball pressed into the flywheel. Since the distributor was on the side of the block it made timing the thing pretty easy. It also had torque tube drive. The drive shaft and U-joints were enclosed inside a big tube that ran from the tranny to the differential. You never had to worry about greasing the U-joints because they ran in an oil bath. It ran 16" tires on 6 lug wheels, if I remember correctly. It was a little narrow to put six people in it but you could wear a fedora without worrying about it getting crushed with all the headroom it had.

By the way, Joie Chitwood held the record for driving on two wheels. Over five miles! I saw the Thrill Show at the county fair when I was a kid. Thought it was the coolest thing ever. Saw Frank Sinatra Jr. there as well - preferred Joie Chitwood by a yard.

Happy Valentines Day

2012-02-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Last year at this time I was getting ready to head to Italy. This year I'll just throw a photo of my favorite Italian up here.

Stool Samples

2012-02-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

I graded the foot stools yesterday. I ended up with one real nice one and the remainder somewhere between OK and ass. Not all of the students made the stools, which in retrospect was probably a good thing. More trees would have given their lives in vain. One of the classes was substantially better than the other. It's always amazed me how a class can take on a personality. Sometimes that's real good, sometimes not. One of the guys told me his wasn't too bad for the first time he ever made anything. While that wasn't exactly true, it does say something about how they spend their free time.

The project did accomplish my goals, however. Having never taught woodshop before, I didn't know what to expect from them. I thought the stools would be a fairly simple project for them but I underestimated their abilities and their enthusiasm. Several of them just didn't care about making them, a couple guys worked on other things because they were intimidated by the blueprint. That was fine by me, we're always working on a variety of projects and people are always coming in looking to get something done. It's good to have a couple of guys who can take those projects as they arrive.

The stools offered the students the opportunity to use just about all the tools in the shop. They used the planer, jointer, table saw, miter saw, router, scroll saw, biscuit cutter, and drill press - plus they had to glue, clamp, and screw the things together. The project had the potential to turn out pretty nice. If I had one all put together before they started, that might have helped. I think several of the guys wish they would have put more effort into the project. They realized, also, it could have been pretty nice. All in all, a good learning experience for both them and me.

I'm going to get them started on lathe turning pretty soon. There's only four lathes in the shop, so I'll have to work out some type of schedule that can keep everyone busy and doesn't require too much supervision when I'm helping the guys on the lathe.

Not sure what I'm going to do this weekend. Looks like it's going to be a little more like winter again. I need to get busy on the boat again and I need to get the trolley beam and column painted. I could use about a four to six hour stint at the school without any students around to get those and other things taken care of. I think I'll just wait and see how the weather plays out and then see where I go from there.

Lathe Tools

2012-02-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

I spent some time after school Tuesday night and a couple of prep hours sharpening up the tools for the wood lathes. I've been waiting until I got my new grinding set-up. I ordered a new grinder back in August and was back ordered. First it was September, then October, until they finally said that it was a no-go in January. The one I finally ended up with is a 8" Chinese thing that really looks cheap but it worked long enough to sharpen all the tools. The real secret to success, however, is the OneWay grinding jig and the Vari-Grind attachment. I used this set-up when I took the spindle turning class last summer. I made a little angle gauge from a piece of scrap aluminum so I could set all the angles correctly, roughed the tools in on the big grinder in the Weld Shop, sharpened them all, then shined them up with a Scotch Brite pad and buffed the gouges to remove the wire edge from the grinder, and finally, put a light coating of oil on them. Time consuming, but they look much nicer now and they're real sharp. So now that I've gotten over my fear of letting the boys run the other power tools, I'm going to have to introduce them to the wood lathe.

It looks like I might have a chance to finally get the CNC plasma cutting outfit I've been hoping to get for the last 18 years. I talked to the welding supply salesman yesterday and he's putting a quote together for me. Torchmate makes a little 2x2 machine that would be perfect for the school. The boys would get a chance to run a CNC machine, make some really cool stuff and, if all goes well, I can get a laptop computer with the deal. That would mean I would have a computer that actually works on a regular basis. I got a couple of DVD's from Lincoln Electric at the meeting on Monday, sat down to check them out during lunch on Tuesday and the computer decided to lock up first thing. I farted around for about twenty minutes before I finally gave up and walked down the hall and the guy opened them up and had them running in about two minutes (I would have given up much earlier but I was sitting there eating my lunch anyway). I'm seriously considering smashing the thing with a sledge hammer. If they allowed firearms on school property I could take it out back and put it out of it's misery in real style.

Looks like we might be making some sculpture in the near future. I talked to one of the art teachers and his students are working on some designs. We'll pair up an artist with a weldor and see what we can do. Sounds like fun to me. We've got several things on the burner besides the art work. Looks like it's going to be a pretty busy semester.

Voc Ed/CTE

2012-02-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

Whether you call it Vocational Education or Career/Technical Education, it's simply education designed to prepare students to get and hold a decent job. My personal definition of a decent job is one that is rewarding, both financially and in the warm and fuzzy way. You make a living wage doing something you like and that you are able to take pride in. Pretty simple actually. In years past and currently with all of the educational reforms, those who have the power and authority to make policy keep listening to the wrong people. Doug Stowe at the Wisdom of the Hands put this link up the other day. It's a newspaper article describing the shortage of skilled workers and the effect it's having on manufacturing. It's a very well written article and makes a compelling case for the policy makers and the educational leadership to pull their collective heads out and start doing the right thing by today's young people. You should read it.

I attended my meeting today about the new Career Pathways as well as other issues dealing with teaching CTE. It wasn't really much help when it came to shedding light on what the future will bring with the new pathways approach but I had a real nice time sitting on the Group W bench playing with the pencils.

The more I hear, the more I'm convinced that everyone is going down the wrong path. I also know that I'm not going to be able to change it. But I did see this someplace on the Internet: Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards. From now on, instead of worrying about what the knucklehead politicians and educational leadership are doing to screw up little Johnny's education, I'll just have a cookie. I might end up being 400 lbs. by the time I retire but I can't let it eat me alive. I'll eat the cookie instead.

The weather was pretty nice around here Sat. afternoon and terrific Sunday. I made a grand total of $19.00 at the scrap yard Saturday from my sheet tin and got my feet all muddy in the process. I got some conduit run in the barn afterwards. The bottom is pretty much ready to pull wires. I worked on the top on Sunday until I ran out of supplies, then did some cleaning around the joint. I knocked off a little early due to the Super Bowl. As nice as it was, that was probably a mistake, today was pretty much a turd. I've got nothing urgent pending on the project front for the week, so with my shotgun approach to planning I'll just see where I end up after I pull the trigger.

2012-02-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Made a little progress in the Woodshop this week. I've got a couple of the boys working on the miter saw table for the new barn. They should have it whipped next week. They're going to have to make a base for it as well. We'll make the base out of 2x6's and I'll hang it on the wall and put some legs under it.

The boys working on the tool box got the dovetail fixture pretty well mastered. They made a mistake on one side and put the board in the fixture facing in instead of out, which meant the taper on the dovetail was going the wrong way. They cut the sides down a little and tried it again. The box is a little narrower than the plans call for now, but there's always a learning curve to overcome.

One of the welders had a boo-boo on the grille of the old Caddy he drives around so he made himself a new one from expanded metal. He was talking at first some type of tube grill but I don't keep anything like that in stock. He came across the expanded metal and he was off and running. He needs to make a couple of filler pieces for the sides yet. If he had thought the whole thing through a little better before starting, he could have extended the grill out a little more. The grille he made actually is the same size as the original. The car came with a plastic filler piece around it so he's no different than the designers at Cadillac I guess.

We had a speaker come in this week from the School of Automotive Machinists. It's the first time they've made a presentation here. I'd never heard of the school before but I guess if you're an NHRA or NASCAR team, you have. They offer three classes is all - engine block, cylinder heads and CNC machining. They stress that they're a school of engine builders, not mechanics but they campaign some drag cars that are built and maintained by the students. I felt a little sorry for the presenter. It's a pretty tough sell when many of the guys and girls in the room don't even know what a camshaft is. Hard to get them excited about CNC porting of cylinder heads or producing your own heads from a big block of aluminum if you don't have a clue about an internal combustion engine. However, I'd like to check out the school but it's in Houston. Can't see me heading there in the foreseeable future. I eat that kind of stuff up.

Spent a good part of the week in the Weld Shoppe on maintenance chores. We took all the covers off the welding machines and blew all the dust out of them. I do that every couple of years - probably the last time I'll have to deal with them. The boys got the trolley beam and column all finished. I need to get it painted and then I can bring it home and get it installed in the barn. Speaking of which, I got all the cut-offs from the siding loaded up last night after work, plus I had some other metal at school I'm taking to the scrap yard this morning. I've still got some more cleaning to do but as long as the weather stays decent, it won't take too much longer before I've got things tidied up. It's nice that the days are getting longer. Lot easier to get things done when you've got some daylight to work with.

Enjoy the weekend.

Brainiac

2012-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

There was a nice piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday written by David Deming. The set-up is the BRAINIAC electric brain construction kit his brother received for Christmas in 1960 and what the challenging kit taught the two of them. They also read books and watched a little television but TV during that time "tended to be instructional, not vulgar or degrading".

Now comes the good part:

A modern personal computer has educational potential, too. But unlike the Brainiac, it is used today almost entirely for entertainment. Video games have no educational value whatsoever. they are degrading, addictive and stultifying. The promise of the high technology developed by previous generations has largely been squandered.
Placing a book in the hands of a child is infinitely more beneficial than giving them any type of electronic device. Reading is an active intellectual promise that expands children's intelligence, builds their vocabulary, and increases their command of language and thought. A modern computer is not an educational asset unless its use is closely monitored, restricted and supervised.
And education begins at home. There is little that teachers can do with children who have not been challenged at home but instead have been indulged and entertained with an array of electronic devices.

I was going to just link the article but I never bothered setting up my free digital account with the paper, so that took care of that. I did notice the irony of the article being published on National Digital Learning Day and the fact that I couldn't read it in a digital format but the good old newsprint version worked like it always has for a couple of hundred years.

Changing the subject slightly, several of us met this morning for a meeting about the new Career Pathways program we'll be initiating next school year. It was actually kind of a meeting before the meeting. We got a little info from one of the guidance counselors and we should hear more next week when we meet with the director of the Co-Op we belong to. It looks like the majority of the pathways will involve two or three hour class times instead of one hour. Not sure how that's going to work out, either here or through out the state. Might be tough to keep kids on the pathway if they fail math or English as so often happens. No one seems to know what the licensing requirements for the teachers will be, either. It won't be easy to locate that many people with a vocational license and are they going to run off those who don't have one?

Lots and lots of craziness out there right now. Hope it all works out.

Boat, Bumper and Desks

2012-01-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

Taking it from the top:

Worked on the boat a little bit this weekend. The bottom and transom are ready for some sanding on the interior side and then I can glue and screw them together. I ran a couple of the side planks thru the planer to see what I was going to be up against on that part of the job. It's going to be a little tricky to pull the front in without cracking the planks - looks like I might have to get the steam box out. I have the board clamped up and marked, so after cutting it I'll see what it looks like. I have the set-up for steaming and have done a couple things in the past. The wood bends really easily after it has been steamed for a while. If that's what it takes, OK. On a side note, I went to the non-motorized transportation meeting the other night and they were looking primarily for input on bicycle, jogging and equine paths, as well as canoe trails. They mentioned the Iroquois River and the little light came on. That's close by and would make a nice maiden voyage for the boat. A couple of days on the river could be fun - the Traveling Pirate might want to tag along with her kayak.

Photo two is a bumper one of my students made for his Jeep. He put this one together at the welding shop where he works part-time but wanted to bring it in and show it to me and grind/sand it down a little. The kid does some pretty good work. He and another student are finishing up the big-ass log splitter that's been sitting in the shop for a couple of years. They've only got a couple of more things to tack together then it'll be ready for finish welding and out the door. That's if I can find the guy it belongs to. He hasn't been around for a couple of years.

Photo three is this week's collection of broken desks. I don't mind fixing them but damn, you would think someone might be taking an interest in how they're getting broken. It's deliberate damage. The fools sit in them and push back until the seat back falls off or it will break when someone tries to bend it back.

Photo four is like the elephant graveyard for desks. I need to go in there and scab some screws off a couple of the seat bases so we can repair the broken desktop in photo #3. The desks have screws with a real aggressive thread to hold the seats and tops on. Of course the screws always get lost before they get to me.

Tying in to my last post, The Wall Street Journal had an article in Saturday's paper addressing the underlying cause of much of what I've been seeing. In What's Wrong with the Teenage Mind? they discuss how kids reach puberty earlier but adulthood later. It must be that everybody who's anybody has finally figured out that something is definitely wrong with the young-uns and people are trying to make sense of it all. They describe the result as a lot of teenage weirdness. I'd have to agree with that. The solution? Like the comment Traveling Pirate left on the last post: have them take auto shop. Should start way before that, actually. You never know, we might see the return of Sloyd and Manual Training. We could do a lot worse - just look at what we're doing now.

Supposed to get a little warmer the next few days. I've got some work to get done in my shop at home and I want to start on the electric for the barn. Should be in the high 40's instead of the 5 degree temps we usually get this time of year. Maybe come straight home from work and get some things done. Regardless of the weather, I've got plenty to keep me busy.

Educational Soap Box

2012-01-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

My buddy Kevin, who managed to crawl under the wire and escape last year, sent me a link to a really interesting article in the Indianapolis Star about the state of education in Indiana. Everyone has an opinion about educational reform but the focus of the article is simply that Indiana has it all wrong. As I say, everyone has an opinion, but the speaker they refer to in the article, Pasi Sahlberg, is someone who truly does know what the hell he's talking about. Read the article.

Going along in the same vein, or maybe in vain, I'm currently reading the book Reviving Work Ethic by Eric Chester. My observations I posted the other day about the abilities of the Woodshop boys, he confirms with scientific data. The current generation of high schoolers don't have any type of decent work ethic and he gives a real good explanation as to why that is so. He also explains what employers can do to maximize the production when you hire one of these critters. I'm a little over half way through the book and it's very good - explains a lot and confirmed that what I've been seeing is in fact how it is and not just one old fart bitchin' about the younger generation.

I received my Imprimis from Hillsdale College the other day and this months feature is adapted from a speech by Charles Murray titled: Do We Need the Department of Education? He proceeds to make his case against the DOE from both the constitutionality aspect and the functional aspect. Regardless of which angle you take it from, he maintains the answer is not only no, but hell no. "Probably we are today about where we were in math achievement in the 1960s." "The Department of Education spends about $200 million a year on research intended to improve educational practice. No evidence exists that these expenditures have done any significant good."

In Friday's Wall Street Journal an op-ed piece by Lenore Skenazy addressed the issue of the importance of child's play. The focus of the article is about a study that found preschoolers spend only about 2-3% of their day in vigorous activity. The main reasons are fear of injury and resulting law suits and falling behind educationally. The result: "In striving to make our kids super safe and super smart we have turned them into bored blobs. Fortunately, the remedy is as simple as it is joyful: just see the playground the way kids do. Not as an academic wasteland. Not as a lawsuit waiting to happen. Just the very best place to spend a whole lot of time."

My Man Mitch has proclaimed February 1st as Digital Learning Day in Indiana which coincides with the national day for the same thing. I got some e-mail thing all about it complete with links to see testimonials about how digital learning saved my life (to be honest, not sure what they said. I didn't check them out). While looking at the Wisdom of the Hands blog the other day I checked out a link he had posted that stated some of the geniuses in Silicon Valley who create all the technology send their children to a Waldorf school where the use of technology is limited.

So now I'm going to attempt to tie all of this together: We start by keeping kids off the playground because they need more educational time or we're afraid they're going to get hurt. This of course deprives them of the opportunity to learn how to interact with others, develop their motor skills and fall down gracefully, which means that they will hurt themselves when the inevitable fall does occur.

Next we send them K-12 to a school in Indiana that, according to the man from Finland, is doing everything wrong. In addition to Indiana's misguided reforms, the feds, in spite of spending billions of dollars, can't get the math scores up any higher than what they were in the '60s and have succeeded in making college degrees just about worthless as well. And because they've managed to screw things up as royally as they have, the answer apparently is to have the little darlings sit in front a video screen even more than they do now and have digital learning come to the rescue.

So the end result of all of this is an education that allows a kid to graduate from high school with no real skills, no work ethic, a college degree that's not worth the powder it would take to blow it to hell, but he's got some really nice tattoos and he gets to wear flip-flops instead of real shoes. It's no wonder they can't make a simple footstool in the woodshop.

Dovetails

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

I've got a couple of boys in the woodshop who are making a tool tote. The plans call for dovetails and there was a dovetail fixture in the back room but no instructions. Since I don't know shit from fat meat about cutting dovetails, I did an internet search and found the instructions but after wading threw those, I figured out that we didn't have the proper dovetail bit, straight bit or guide bushing. Those came in yesterday and after once again looking at the instructions and the new pieces, and some serious head scratching, I finally figured out how to work the whole affair. I went down on my lunch and put some scrap in the fixture and gave it a go. I need to adjust the depth stop for the one cutter a little, but other than that, it looks like I might be a woodworker after all. I'm going to have the boys cut some scraps about the same as the sides of the tote and do another run through. If everything looks good, we'll tackle their project.

While they were waiting for the dovetail parts to come in, I made up a fixture for them to drill 50 holes in a block of wood. A former student/gym member is getting into reloading of pistol ammo and mentioned that he needed some boxes to keep the cartridges in. The fixture's pretty simple to use. You put pins in the one set of holes to the left of the block, snug the block up to the first pin, drill the hole, remove a pin, snug the block, drill. When you get the first series of holes drilled, flip the block over and repeat. When you get those done, remove the spacer block on the backstop and repeat the drilling using the other set of holes in the fixture, etc. It's kind of boring but it kept them busy doing something useful for a couple of days. We're going to make a few more of the blocks and then make a little shelf unit/box you can stack the cartridge blocks 4 or 5 high. Maybe put a hinged front or a slide dealie of some sort so you could take them to the range safely.

The rest of the group is still working on making footstools/scrap wood. I'm still amazed that most of these guys have never made anything before. They haven't developed any sort of spatial reasoning or the ability to follow oral instructions even with an included sketch. It's just a real good thing that our school still offers some shop classes. I had a couple of my guys take the entrance exam to get into the Pipefitter's Union about a week ago. I've seen the prep booklet for the test and most of the guys in that woodshop class wouldn't stand a chance. Damn shame, too. Some nice kids but most of them couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.

I picked up the wood for the sides on the boat Tuesday before Open Shop. Might be about all I get done on the thing this week. I had a meeting after school yesterday and I have another this afternoon. I'm planning on leaving the gym early tonight to attend another meeting later in the evening. This one will be at the town hall. The Big Cheese for regional transportation planning will be hosting the meeting. It's scheduled to be about bicycle lanes, paths and such. I want to hear what's what on this stuff. Maybe get my two cents worth in. From what I've read, this guy is pretty bicycle friendly. There is no more efficient means of transportation than a bicycle, other than a fish, that is. It'd be good for all of us to get a few cars off the road and to get some much needed exercise.

I blew the dust off the VW the other night. I'm going to try and get a little bit done on that in the near future. Make it my Open Shop project. Might not get much done but it's a plan. It was pretty busy the other night. I even welded up a couple of little pieces for my buddy so he could mount a Ducati 125 Bronco motor on his engine stand. I'd never even seen one of those motors before. He's got a complete bike he's going to try and get running by May. That's pretty cool - looking forward to seeing that when it's done. Maybe even bum a test ride from him.

Busy, Busy

2012-01-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Scarf Joint

New Interior Wall & Cabinets

Busy weekend. Did some plowing and shoveling Saturday morning. It was cold out but a nice sunny winter day. Sunday was supposed to warm up, and it did, but the sun never came out and it started to rain a little. My old bones are not a fan of the cold and damp. I was going to work in my shop a do a little machine work but took a pass. By the time I got it warmed up it would have been time for football.

I did finish putting up the OSB and the handrail/top cap in the upstairs of the barn. I also hung a couple of cabinets the woodshop boys made. They're nothing fancy but they'll do nicely. We inherited a bunch of cabinet doors, the rest of the stuff is leftovers. I've got a cabinet in my shop that has most of my woodworking hand tools in it that I'll get around to transferring one of these days.

I went over to school and got the two pieces of plywood for the bottom of the boat glued together - did a couple of other little jobs and put some grades in the computer while I was there. I still need to spend a little time sorting and organizing but not sure if there will even be a woodshop program next year. The state is changing everything to Career Pathways which is more vocational. I'm scheduled to go to a meeting about all this in a couple of weeks, so I should know more then. We'll probably be good for next year and that should take care of me.

My screws, glue and copper rivets for the boat came in last week, so I should be able to get the bottom on the boat this week. I'll pick up some wood for the sides and maybe be able to get a couple of boards hung on this week as well. I got my oars, oarlocks and oarlock brackets ordered. I'm fired up about the project now, plus I'm starting to get some real money invested in the thing. No point in sitting on it. I'll be able to go fishing in my Martin skiff this spring.

I put a new link up to the Handverker blog. The guy teaches machining/design/metal working at the college level- puts up some beautiful work of both his students and himself. He seems to be a lot like me. He's into bikes, both with and without motors, VW's and making cool things. Unlike me, he's got one hell of an eye for design and the artistic side of metal working. Lots of stuff made with the latest and greatest CNC. Definitely worth a look.

Have a good week. I'm going to build a boat.

Week End Update

2012-01-20T22:33:00.000-08:00

Welding the Trolley Beam

Boat With Battens

Scarf Joint

The weather has definitely decided it's time for winter. It got cold last night and we've gotten quite a bit of snow this afternoon and evening. I was going to stay after school for a little bit and work on the boat but decided it was a better idea to just head home.

The lower picture shows the scarf joint on one piece of the plywood that's going to become the bottom.I wasn't real sure how to best go about putting the scarf on the sheets but I figured I darn sure wasn't good enough with a hand plane to cut them. I finally settled on making a fixture for using a circular saw. The saw rides on the ledge created by the board clamped on in the photo. I set the angle to give me a scarf about an inch and a half back on the 1/2" plywood and just ran the saw across the end of the sheet. I didn't get the two glued together due to the weather but I'm hoping to get over to school some time this weekend and take care of that.

The middle picture shows the progress on the boat itself. I put some battens on to determine the placement of the side boards/strakes. I got the inner stem glued to the chine logs and those planed so they blend into the stem nicely. I need to fasten the chine logs to the transom yet and then it'll be time to put the bottom on. Again- might be able to get in there this weekend and get that taken care of. If not, next week for sure.

The top photo shows the boys welding up the trolley beam. I need to make a plate for the bottom of it on one end for bolting it to the column and weld that on. And then make the column, of course. Hopefully that'll get done next week. We knocked off a little early today to get things cleaned up real well. I've had them shut down the school early due to the weather with very little warning in the past. Figured today was a good day to do a good cleaning and sweeping and if they sent us home early, the tools would be all picked up and the floor swept at least. I filled in for the department head at a meeting the other night and the boss mentioned getting things cleaned up and spit shined for our up coming visit from the outside inspectors. He didn't mention me specifically but he didn't have to - I got the hint. I was already working on that anyway. Always a good idea to clean house when company's coming.

Have to see how the weather is in the morning and how much snow we ended up with to decide what I work on at home this weekend. We got the 2x4's for the wall caps cut today and I brought them home. I've got a job in the milling machine I want to finish up also. So it'll be one or all of either boatbuilder, machinist or carpenter - after I get done shoveling and plowing, that is.

Stay warm.

Ramblin'

2012-01-17T20:11:00.000-08:00

Photo From Here

A louver press, that's what I need. When I made the little midget thing for the grandson a couple of years ago I could have used one on that project. If I ever pull the rag out and start working on a couple of my car projects, I wouldn't mind throwing a couple of louvers into the mix. I also need a sheet metal brake. We've got a little 24" one at school but a 48" box and pan brake at the shack would be just the ticket. I did get started back up on the wooden boat project today - louvers probably not a good idea there, though. I ordered some screws and the copper rivets to start putting the thing together and did a little fitting on the false stem after school. I need to turn up the jets on that project. I should have the plywood for the bottom scarfed and glued together this week. When the screws come in, I'll be able to see some real progress. We shot the first instructional video today in the Weld Shoppe - setting up the oxy-acetylene torch, lighting and making a cut. We just kind of winged it, no telling how it turned out. We'll be making several more in the future. I want to do one on the TIG welder next. Trolley beam's coming along right smartly - almost done. Next step is to make the column to support it. We've been tearin' it up on the projects.

Wrapped Up

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

I got the aluminum wrapped around the boards on the peak yesterday. I also installed an eye bolt and a pulley, might be kind of hard to see the pulley in the picture though. In spite of the modern doors, it gives it a little "old-timey" look. I took down most of the scaffolding and I'll take back the stuff from school this morning. I need to see if I can get a piece of treated plywood for the scaffold planks in 7/16". The plywood slips inside an aluminum extrusion and 1/2" is too big. I'd like to fix the planks before I return them as a thank you for letting me borrow them. I'll load up the remaining scaffold section and get that back this week as well.

The cheapie drill did much better with a full charge when I screwed in a few of the sheets of OSB. I need to get my circular saw out to trim a couple of the sheets before I can finish that job but after finishing up the flashing, taking down the scaffolding and screwing in the sheets, my hands were cold and it was lunch time so I said good enough.

I need to start thinking electricity so I can get a couple of lights in there and get the automatic garage door opener taken care of for the Missus. One outlet and a couple of lights downstairs should be good enough. Upstairs I'll need a couple of lights and enough power to run the saws and jointer. No hurry on that, but I'd like to start on a floor plan of where everything is going to go, so I can get the conduit run to the right spots. We're making a router table at school that's about done and I want to make a table for the miter saw also. I figure I've got about a year and a half before I no longer have access to the school, so it's not a rush. I also know how I am about procrastinating. Might as well stay busy. I'll see about building the deck off the end this spring and pouring a sidewalk. That and the stairs and it's a done deal.

Have a good week.

Winter's Here

2012-01-14T16:06:00.000-08:00

I had yesterday off due to the snow. We didn't really get a lot but it always drifts out here in the country. I spent about an hour and a half outside shoveling and plowing. Walked the almost 1/4 mile down to the mailbox later in the day and found out that the only mail in the pile that belonged to me was the newspaper it was wrapped in. So I took another walk to give the neighbors their mail - they had a piece of mine by the way - and all of this was after the mail lady dropped off a package at the house. If she comes up the driveway to deliver a package, the mail still goes in the box. So I got almost a mile in of quality walking in the cold and blowing snow. Spent the rest of the day screwing off. However the day before I got some stuff done, by golly.

The photos show the artsy-fartsy piece I made and the beginning of the trolley beam. I made the iron work around the outside of the "art work" piece a couple of years ago at the blacksmith shop. I found the raccoon skull along the railroad tracks a few years back. Figured the two of them should go together so I cut a piece of copper left over from another job and fastened it on with some 8-32 screws. I need to shine up the iron just a little more and then put some linseed oil on it to keep it from rusting. I'm not sure where I'm going to hang it yet, but it's one I can put in the finished column. To the right of the artwork is the clip for my bib overalls. The piece on the bottom broke so I soldered it back together. Now I can wear my flannel lined bibs. We got another desk into the shop but didn't get to it due to the snow. I did fix the popcorn machine, though. It's a curse, I'm telling you.

The trolley beam won't take long to finish up. I'm planning on taking the circular stair into school this week and fixing it. When I get them both done I'll paint them both at the same time. The building inspector came by last week to check out the barn - told me if I didn't here anything from him, all's well. So far I haven't heard anything. I was a little concerned about the couple of sheets in the back that I just stuck back up where the stair hit it. I'm planning on getting those swapped out as soon as weather permits anyway. We'll see if the phone rings next week. I did get my flashing for the peak bent up today. I'm planning on installing that tomorrow and then taking down the scaffolding. My cheapie cordless drill came yesterday when the mail lady came up the lane. While I was outside doing my walkies, I drove a few screws into the OSB for the upstairs wall. It didn't do much but I'm hoping it just needed a charging. I'm planning on hanging a few more sheets up tomorrow after finishing the flashing. I'll pick up some 2x4's and make a railing around the top of the 4' high wall and that'll be good. I'm planning on cutting one edge of the 2x4's at a 45 degree angle so I won't be able to set anything on the railing or hang something from the edge of the sheet. After that, I'd say I'm about 99% done on the barn. I'm ready to move on.

Not Going to End Well

2012-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Photo from here

You can pretty much tell this isn't going to end well, at all. Even the great ones like Geoff Duke sometimes have a bad day at the office.

My day actually went pretty good yesterday. I got the boys in the Woodshop started on building an Arts and Crafts style footstool. It should be made out of oak but were taking the cheaper approach and using pine. The project doesn't take much material and should keep them busy for awhile. Besides, they might actually learn a little somethin'. If I had more time I would have made one up ahead of them like Norm does on the New Yankee Workshop. They'll have to use most of the tools in the shop to complete the project, so it'll be a good experience. It'll be interesting to see how well they do on something a seventh grader would have made 40 years ago. I'm continually amazed by how little these guys know. However, one nice thing about it, it's not too hard to tell if they're learning anything or not. When they get the stools finished up, I'll post a photo and you can be the judge.

I did a little artsy-fartsy work during Open Shop last night. I should have the project completed in a couple of days and I'll post a photo then. Actually it was tying up a loose end rather than starting a new project - so that's a good thing. I'm working on cleaning up the shop at school, doing a little long over due cleaning out of the corners, some maintenance, etc. I've got a couple more little jobs that need to be finished or thrown out as well. I'm actually working my way over to the Volkswagen. I got a little work done on the trolley beam for the barn last night too.

I talked to my colleague who does the video productions and we're going to start making some instructional videos next week. I can post these on my Moodle page (when I finally figure out how to Moodle), so if a kid is absent or needs a refresher, he can check out the video. I've been wanting to do this for a couple of years. I think I'm going to start with oxy-acetylene torch set-up and operation. If that goes well, put a short video together on operating all the rest of the welders and the plasma cutter.

Yep, good day.

All Closed In!

2012-01-08T15:15:00.000-08:00

The barn is finally all closed in. I got the last of the sheet metal hung this afternoon and I celebrated with a big shot of limoncello that I've been saving since I went to Italy this spring. I measured up the pieces on the peak and I've got a piece of flashing large enough to make what I need. I think I can get that bent up and installed this week. The weather man is still forecasting warm temperatures at least until Wednesday. If I get that done I can tear down the scaffold and return it.

Now I'll watch a little football and grade some papers. Boy it feels good to have that wrapped up.

Pert Near

2012-01-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

Another beautiful day for working on the barn and doing just about any other thing outside except winter sports. I'm almost done with hanging sheets. I need to put the trim on the last fly rafter and then cover about nine feet of wall to call it done. Hooray! The weather should be plenty good enough to get that done tomorrow. I still need to trim out the peak but after looking at it, I think I just wrap the 2x6's that stick out and leave the bottom side open - maybe get a hook and pulley up there like the old hay mows would have had. I'll measure the length tomorrow and figure out what I need to finish trimming out the doors downstairs. I'll get some more aluminum and the brake and bend everything I need at one time.

I picked up some OSB the other day to put the walls up on the inside of the upstairs. Next time some extra hands show up I'll have them give me a hand passing them up. I'm going to make a four foot high wall around the perimeter which will give me a 16 x 32' area for my woodshop/he-man women haters club. It won't take long to get those installed - just put them up against the vertical members of the trusses and screw them in. I bought a new cordless drill that should make the job go pretty fast. It should be here Monday. The old one gave it up about two weeks ago. It was just a cheap one from Harbor Freight and I bought another cheapie to replace it with. I was concerned about spending the money for a good one with the lithium-ion battery because I had heard they didn't work very well in the cold. Since I'm about done with most of the heavy construction on the barn, the new cheapie drill should be good enough. I've been using a corded drill to fasten in the sheets and it's not much of an inconvenience. I have to run the extension cord out there to use the nibbler and it's not like you can travel far while you're on the scaffold.

Still have got plenty to do but it should be closed in tomorrow.

South End

2012-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

From This

To This

Pretty good day yesterday. I got the scaffold torn down on the north end and then got everything moved and set up on the south end. I did some work on the inside as well. First thing was to cover up the hole where the stairs go and put up a railing so I wouldn't fall threw the hole while I was working that corner. I then tackled the big doors. They got a little whacked out of shape during the big crunch. I had made up a "wishbone" kind of thing to put over the doors to strengthen and line everything back up, so I got that installed. It took a lot of the shake out of the top of the wall over the doors. The doors open and close pretty well now but I'm going to make up some gussets for the top corners and some plates along the side so nothing will shift back out of square. I'll make those up next week at school. Hung a few purlins and got the one fly rafter wrapped with aluminum. All in all, pretty damn productive day.

The weather was absolutely beautiful for the 4th of January. It got up to about 40 and the sun was shining nicely until about 1:30. Nice working on the south side with the sun shining on my back. It wasn't quite so nice when I was inside working and had to look out but I'm not complaining. Nice of Mother Nature to throw me a bone. The weather is supposed to be decent again today so I'll keep on keeping on.

I'm not sure how I'm going to trim out the peak yet.That might call for a little head scratching. I'll be able to tell a little better once I get the scaffold moved and start the trim up to the peak. Looks like I might be able to get it closed in by Sunday. The peak and the doors will slow the sheeting down some but I'll just take my time and whatever gets done, gets done. I don't want to get in hurry and screw something up or get hurt.

Waitin' for Daylight

2012-01-04T05:05:00.001-08:00

Photo from here
I got a chance to see Agostini and get his autograph a few years back at Mid Ohio. One of the greatest, if not the greatest, road racer until Valentino Rossi came along.

Can't remember where I saw this one - just looking for an excuse to post it.

Photo from here
Exotic MV Agusta. Still came with the crappy Italian electrical switches though.

Killing a little time on the computer this morning while waiting for the sun to come up and burn the frost off the scaffolding. I finished the north side of the barn yesterday - a little cold out but no wind to speak of. Trim and sheeting all installed and looking pretty good. It's the side I can see from the house so it's nice to see it all done. I've got some cleaning up to do yet before it's a real picturesque scene, but it's the picture of progress. I'll post a real picture later. I need to straighten out the big pile of firewood and move some junk but the first item on the menu is to get the scaffold set up on the south end.

The south end still needs a little repair work and the purlins installed before I can start hanging sheet metal. It's going to take a little work setting up the scaffold due to the ground sloping away from the building but I've got concrete blocks and the 2x10's from the lifting cradle. Like everything else, just a matter of time. The weather looks to be good the next few days so I should be able to get quite a bit done. I've got to go to school Friday but hopefully, I should have most everything finished by next Monday. I hope so. I'm getting too old to be climbing up and down scaffolding and ladders all day and the Building Trades class might need the scaffold platforms back. The building will be closed in and fully functional after that. That's going to make me happy. It'll be back to building a boat and motorcycles after that. Yippy-skippy!

Year in Review

2011-12-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

Siding's progressing better than I anticipated

New door all painted up

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Well, not really. Other than the barn crashing down, it was a pretty damn good year. I managed to take the trip of a lifetime when I went to Italy, health is good enough that I can work on the barn, I've got a job, friends and family. All things considered, doing A-Okay.
The barn obviously has taken up a lot of my time and kept me from getting other things done, but I almost made my goal of reading 50 books. I've got 47 - maybe 48- by midnight. Total pages a little over 12,000. That plus a daily newspaper and a host of magazines adds up to a whole lot of reading. The book list was mostly fiction stuff. I read a dozen by Robert Parker, a couple of John Grisham and a couple classics like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. I also skimmed a few woodworking and technical books but didn't add them to the list. So even if I didn't get a lot done, I'm a well read slug anyway.

So the year was full of projects, I'm another year older and closing in on retirement. What's on the agenda for 2012, you ask? Probably more of the same. It's about all I know. Try to get a few more things done, as in finished. I've got quite a few projects I'd like to start but I'm going to try and exercise a little willpower and put them off. The official list of big projects looks like this, however:

Finish the barn
Finish the Rickati
Finish the Kaw 900
Finish the boat

Everything else will be by fits and starts, whatever interests me and whatever I can't postpone. The only resolutions I'm making: drink more water and not eat so much junk in the evenings. It's not that I couldn't come up with a few more or, perhaps, more important ones, but might as well be realistic. I'll close out the year with a quote from book 48 on the list, Stuntman by Hall Needham. Seems custom tailored for a guy like me.

When a job is once begun,
Never leave it 'til it's done.
Be it great
or be it small,
Do it well
Or not at all.

Wishing you all the best for the New Year.

"Gimme a Brake"

2011-12-29T20:50:00.000-08:00

Pile O' Trim

Sheet metal brake, that is.

I got quite a bit of the barn trim bent up today. The weather was breezy but warm - close to 50 this afternoon. Great day to be out working. I got all the pieces made to cover the fly rafters and I made a couple of pieces to trim out the big doors. I used up the 50' roll and since it said not to use the aluminum over the top of treated lumber, it seemed like a good time to quit. The headers over the doors aren't treated so I got those both made and installed. Not sure about covering the treated stuff now, though. The sides of the big door openings have treated lumber to keep them from rotting where they come in contact with the block and floor. I'll check with one of my "sources" and see what they recommend. Other than the man door, I'm hoping I won't have anything to paint once this job is done. Speaking of which, I've got the door primed and one side painted with the top coat. I'll get the other side painted tomorrow and weld the hinge pins in and it'll be ready to hang back up.

Talking decent temperatures again tomorrow but some rain coming in tonight. Supposed to by windy after that. Not really conducive to hanging sheet metal but I'll just take it a day at a time and what gets done, gets done. I've got a couple of other jobs I want to get a little progress on while I'm off, so I might work on one of those if the wind prevents me from hanging sheeting. I've got a machining job I've been wanting to tackle for quite a while. I got it all set up in the mill - just need to get after it.

I've also got rolls of film that need to be developed. I haven't done any darkroom work in a while. It'd be nice to have a chance to get a little bit of that taken care of too. The Missus came across a couple of old negatives she wants prints made from plus I've got a couple of my own I want to print up. Maybe more, depending on how the rolls of film turn out.

Probably should make my list of resolutions for next year. Should be pretty simple - finish the barn, don't start anything else, finish what you do have started. 'Bout the same as last year, except for the barn. Actually was doing pretty good until the barn blew down. Nothing big got finished but if you read this thing on a regular basis, you know I haven't been napping all year. Maybe the next post I'll do the year in review or make my predictions for 2012.

"Wish I Would A"

2011-12-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Can't really complain about mine. A few nice gifts, family at the shack and pecan pie. How you going to complain about that?

Went out to tackle the sheeting on the barn yesterday. Wish I would have given it a little more thought while it was on the ground. I want as little painting to do as possible on the finished product, especially the stuff up high. I could have covered the fly rafters and installed the trim and just had to work off a step ladder. I've made a serious mistake here. Going to be much more difficult than I planned. I farted around and stared at it awhile yesterday morning and then threw in the towel. I'm going with plan B now - actually should be a little easier than what I originally planned and look nicer to boot.

I got the man door installed the other day. I got the hinges mortised and the lockset all taken care of. I wanted to get it fit up in the hole before priming and painting. I figured I'd have to do a little trimming but a couple of swipes with the plane and she fits like a glove. After lunch yesterday I hauled it back to school and primed one side. I'll get the other side primed today and work on the folding wall table a little bit as well. I'd like to get both of those done as well as the sheeting done while I'm vacation. The weather's supposed to be a little crappy this morning - snowing right now - so it'll be a good day for working in the shop and running some errands. Supposed to have some rain at the end of the week as well - maybe start on the trolley beam then. I need to get the big pipe/spreader bar out of the way and tidy up in front a little more before everything is covered with snow and frozen to the ground.

I did park both vehicles in the barn last night. There's progress at least.

Boys and Their Toys

2011-12-23T06:48:00.000-08:00

Beam Bracket

Pool Platform

Barn Door

Truck

Ukelele

Busy week but the right kind of busy - always lots of dead time in between final exams. I managed to get the bracket made for hanging the trolley beam in the barn and got the barn door assembled. The bracket is made from leftover parts of the lifting cradle which explains the splice you can see about three inches from the one end. I need to fit the lock set and the hinges to the door and then I can get it primed, painted and installed. Once I get it hung up I'll saw the two halves apart. Hopefully, I can get that done sometime in the next week or so.

Yesterday the maintenance guys brought in a platform the swimmers use to jump into the pool. The nut in the bottom piece had stripped so the thing wouldn't tighten up in the base. It's made out of stainless steel so I had to use the air carbon arc torch to cut the plate out of the bottom tube and then cut the stripped nut off the plate. After grinding things up a bit, I welded the nut back to the plate and the plate back inside the tube. I put some anti-seize on the threads and there it was. Nothing too tricky as long as you know how to use the Arc-Air and weld stainless. Not the kind of thing the superintendent of schools would normally do. Maybe that's why the lady laughed out loud when I asked for an application for the job yesterday.

Even when she realized I wasn't kidding she was still chuckling. By that time everyone else in the office was laughing too, though. It's good to be able to bring a smile to someone's face. Glad I could help. I did see on the application that I have to include a copy of my superintendent's license or a letter of eligibility. Since I don't have a license, I need to contact the Dept. of Ed. and see what's involved. Since they changed the requirements for the job, I'm not sure what the eligibility requirements will be but a regular license is no longer required, that much I do know. This could be the end of my quest to get an interview. But even if that's the way it works out, at least I made the secretary's day.

The truck and the uke are the grandson's Christmas presents. Both are done and the paint's dry. I know nothing about tuning a ukelele but it doesn't sound too bad even out of tune. I might have to sand the bridge for the strings down a little. The strings are a little high off the frets toward the body. We didn't check the electrics but I'm hoping they work - not that he'll need to make it any louder to irritate Mom and Dad.

We're pretty much set for Christmas here - we meaning me. We've got Surly and his family coming on Christmas day which means the Missus will be real busy cooking and I'll be in charge of eating cookies and fetching and cleaning for her. Pretty good work, actually. The house will be filled with great aromas, the food will be great and I'll spend a little quality time with the Old Girl. Since our parents have passed away, and the families have scattered to the four winds, Christmas is much more relaxed. I miss the people but I don't miss the hustle and bustle that always accompanied it. Seems like it allows you to better remember what this time of the year is all about.

Best wishes to all of you on this Christmas. "May all your days be merry and bright."

Ducati Racer

2011-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

Saw this the other day at Vespamore. It's a blog and photo site for Vespa scooters and photography mostly, but not exclusively, obviously (there's a sentence that'll make an English teacher cringe). This was one of the best Ducati offered back in the 70's. Desmo 750 with the clear stripe in the fiberglass tank to check fuel level while on the race course. This one looks to have been autographed by Paul Smart. Smart won the Imola 200 with just such a machine - maybe this one, didn't really give any details on the blog. If I ever get caught up, which is highly unlikely, I'm going to start hitting the motorcycle work pretty hard.

Didn't get much accomplished this past week. I managed to come down with a pretty good dose of the stomach flu early in the week. Hard to get any work done when you can't be more than about ten seconds away from a bathroom. I did manage to get some work done on the barn this weekend. I was supposed to go to Canada with Jimmy but the other fighter came down sick. I hung some more OSB inside, did some prep work for the beam I'm going to put in to lift things like my welder in and out of the truck. I also got some scaffolding put up to start on the remaining siding. It looks like that's going to be slow going. All the sheets will have to be cut at an angle, some on two different angles, and most of them will have to have some notches in them for the pieces that hold the fly rafters on. It's going to require some help and a thousand trips up and down the scaffold. It'll be a lot easier now that's it cold and snowy, though.

I've got final exams this week. Review Monday and exams, Tuesday - Thursday with Friday off. I need to put the finishing touches on the Christmas presents for the grandsons but I've got until Sunday - paint should be dry. I hope! There's usually lots of free time in between finals since they drag them out over three days. I hope to get the service door for the barn put together this week as well. Maybe even get a coat of paint on it. I'd like to hang it over the break.

Have a good week.

"Not Now Cato"

2011-12-17T05:30:00.000-08:00

Thursday was Bill of Rights day and, coincidentally, the day I watched the Green Hornet on TV. The movie was basically a turd but Cato was the builder of some cool stuff and they used a Dillon/Henrob torch to cut the head off a statue, for whatever that's worth. I'd like to try one of those torches. They're supposed to be the ticket for gas welding thin stuff/aluminum. With the advent of cheap MIG welders, not too many people gas weld anymore but there are certain things where gas welding is better than MIG or TIG. I usually gas weld the exhaust pipes on motorcycles. Unlike MIG welding, you can add just the right amount of filler metal to get things put together without a lot of build-up to grind off later. TIG will give you the same benefit but TIG doesn't give you the annealing effect that gas welding does. The tacks will stretch more with gas welding if you have to fine tune the shape and if you run the pipes long enough, there's less chance of a stress crack forming.

What you ask does this have to do with Bill of Rights day? Not really a damn thing other than the full page ad published in the Wall Street Journal by the CATO Institute that I saw while watching Cato in the movie. The ad lists the ten amendments to the Constitution making up the Bill of Rights, describing them and how they have been subverted from the original intent of the framers of the Constitution. For example:

"THE FOURTH AMENDMENT says that people have the right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures. Government officials, however, insist they can conduct commando style raids on our homes and treat airline travelers like prison inmates by conducting virtual strip searches."

And this is the one that bothers me the most:

"THE TENTH AMENDMENT says that the powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states, or to the people. Government officials, however, insist that they will decide for themselves what powers they possess, and have extended federal control over health care, crime, education, and other matters the Constitution reserves to the states and the people."

The farther away the forces of government are, the less responsive they are. You can go to a city council meeting or a local school board meeting and your voice will be heard. It's not easy being heard at the state level and nigh on impossible at the federal level. Our country is in some very serious financial trouble right now and the government keeps spending more and more money that they don't have. Ultimately, somebody will have to pay the piper. And that will be you and I, or more likely, our children and grandchildren. And it will probably be ugly when it happens. If the politicians would have adhered to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights a little more closely, we wouldn't be in this fix.

With my Libertarian leaning politics, it seems to me we'd all be a whole lot better off with less government in our lives. More government hasn't been working out real well. It's pretty obvious these days that the knuckleheads in Washington can't set their politics aside long enough to do what's right by the country. Might be worth your time and your money to check out the CATO Institute.

Drag Bike

2011-12-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

Here's the old drag bike. I built this in the late 70's when US 30 Dragstrip was still running strong. I used to do a lot of welding work for a guy who sold bike parts and swapped my labor for most of the components. It had a lot of good stuff on it - Ceriani forks, Grimeca brakes, Kosman rear wheel. The frame is all 4130 tubing patterned from a Kosman frame. The motor was a stock 900 Kawasaki but I ran 11:70's first day out. It needed to have the gearing lowered a little but it was real consistent, so I didn't change it.

I built it when I was still teaching at Washington High School and the shop was pretty small, so I assembled it in the basement at my old house. When I got it put together I called my brother up and he came over and gave me a hand dragging it up the stairs. About 5 minutes later it was running and I hit the street to check it out. I ran it down a couple of blocks, did a brake check, turned it around and little it go - took off like a scalded cat. I got it up to about 70 in a 30, then quick pulled it into the garage - I was only 6 blocks from the police station. I'm sure the neighbors used to love me.

I sold it a couple of years after that. The guy who bought it ran it for a couple of years and then put another bike together. He passed away two or three years ago. I'm not sure what happened to the bike but it was fun while I had it. Before I sold it, I took all the components off it and threw them in another frame with a sidecar I built and Surly and I took a trip to Kentucky with that one. I had a picture of that one around here somewhere. If I come across it or the negative, I'll post a photo of that one too.

Parking in The Barn

2011-12-12T06:26:00.000-08:00

I parked in the barn for the first time the other night. Nice being able to jump in and go without scraping off the windows. Now that it's really cold - about 20 Friday night - I have to water the animals in the morning before work, so I'll just start the truck on the way out to the other barn to let it warm up a bit, do my chores and then just drive off to work. Even though I had a big garage at my last house, it was usually full of some project or another so my truck was always outside. I'm going to try and keep this one sacred - just parking for the car, truck and finished motorcycles. We'll have to see how long that lasts.

I didn't get much accomplished on the barn this weekend but a little something is better than nothing. I cut up a couple of pieces of OSB to put up on the inside walls around the man door Friday when I got home from work. I did manage to get those tacked up on Sat. afternoon. I took the scrap from school to the yard and hit the gym in the morning and then we watched the grandkids in the afternoon and over night. Surly gave me a hand putting the floor sheets I had to remove for the lift back on top when he came down to pick up the kids. I wanted to get those back up there before I stepped back and fell through. When I get those screwed back down I can start putting up the side walls on top. I'm going to put a sheet of OSB on the vertical members of the trusses to keep me from dropping anything onto a vehicle parked underneath and breaking the windshield out of the wife's car or something. Plus I won't have to worry about one of the grandkids falling through. I'm going to put a 2x4 handrail along the top edge on a 45 degree angle - that'll keep me from putting anything on top of it. Anything with a flat surface always gets something laid down on it, it seems.

I'll keep picking away at it and I should have most everything done by the end of Christmas vacation. I'll need to get it wired up but no hurry on that. I've got electric on a pole close by but I'll probably wait until the ground thaws to dig a little trench to bury the line. I can put in the panel and run the wiring after I get the inside sheeted. I've got a couple of little windows to put in the back wall if I can figure out how to get those mounted up. They don't have a nailing flange on them, so I'll have to see what I can do. I'm screwing the OSB onto the walls, so it only takes a couple of minutes to pull them down when it's time to tackle the windows. All in good time.

Have a good week and Happy Birthday to Grumpy Unk.

Boat Building

2011-12-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

Water Let-er Outers

Transom Brace

Warpage

Transom

I've been experiencing a little difficulty with wood warpage of late. The 2x6's for the barn door warped every which way. Just about every one of them cupped but a couple of them twisted a bunch as well. So I scrapped that and went to plan B. The top photo shows a couple of test boards for bottom planking on the boat. I cut a 2x6 in half on the table saw, then planed the pieces down to 1/2". I put a lap joint on one side to see how things would look and they looked pretty good until about three days later. As you can see from the photo, they cupped up a bunch. Not sure what to do about all of this. I have no idea what the moisture level is in the wood. My supply of wood is either from the local lumber yard or Menard's. The local yard stores the construction lumber outside under a tarp, so the moisture level is probably higher than Menard's.

I can put plywood on the bottom instead of the traditional planking but the lumber yards don't have any type of marine lumber, just treated. That stuff is pretty ugly and heavy. There's a lumber place east of here a ways that advertises in Wooden Boat that I might call. I can run over and get some decent plywood for the bottom but I'm still in a pickle with the sides. There are a couple of outfits that advertise white cedar planking in the magazine as well but I don't have any idea what it would cost to get it here. And would it be any more dimensionally stable? I need to find someone who knows a little more about this stuff than I do. I might call the guy who used to teach the Woodshop here when I first started. He's a guy who knows his woodworking. I'm sure if I start poking around on the Internet there's probably some kind of forum for wooden boat builders that I could post a question on. I'm anxious to get going on this project and would like to have things on hand to start planking after Christmas vacation. The transom came out looking nice, though. It's made from some hardwood that has been sitting in my back room for about ten years. I'll figure it out.

The top two photos are from an aluminum Jon boat a kid in class is working on. He's replacing the transom and making the boat a little more user friendly for himself. I welded up the cracked transom brace for him as well as some rivet holes that are no longer necessary. When it comes to boat building, that's more in my line of work.

Have a good weekend.

Dragster & Stuff

2011-12-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

Photo From Here

(Not Always Safe For Work)

I saw this at Auto Culture. It's an old school chassis from Rex Rod & Chassis. I used to work with a guy who wrenched on a dragster just about like this one. With that short wheelbase, he said they used to carry the front wheels quite a ways down the track. This is an all new car that a guy could probably get into for a reasonable amount of money. Don't know what the chassis and components would set you back but it could be a real fun toy. I'd like to do a little drag racing again some day. I ran a laydown bike for a couple of years at the old US 30 Dragstrip - "Where the Great Ones Run". If you click on the link, it'll take you to a photo of No Big Thing launching. I remember it leaving so hard one day I was there, all four wheels came off the ground. I think the car is still around and all restored. If you type in a search for US 30 Dragstrip, all kinds of stuff comes up. I need to scan in a picture of my old bike one of these days. It was a pretty nice rig. If I ever get the 900 running, maybe I'll take it out to the strip for old times sake.

I'm working on the rear brake for the Rickati project but won't get much done this week. Lots of other little things going on - worked on my buddy's truck during Open Shop, been doing a little school teaching as well. I did get the transom for the boat cut out last night after school. It's looking pretty good. I threw in the towel on the door for the barn. The wood kept warping beyond what I could tolerate. I've got a new plan, so I'm heading to the lumber yard after school. Hopefully this will work out better.

I do have everything all cleaned up inside the barn now. I swept up after cutting the plates from the lifting cradle apart and felt a little warm and fuzzy about the whole affair. That seems to be the best time after a big job. Put the tools away, get out the broom and take a couple minutes to appreciate what you accomplished. If you're a builder of things, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. I've still got some work to do but getting it to the point I could park a vehicle inside was a big step. I've got to put up a couple of trim pieces before I can start hanging the top sheets, so that and replacing the floor I had to remove to lift it up is next on the agenda.

So as usual I'm taking the scatter gun approach to the projects, but everything is moving in the right direction at least.

Silver Gloves Weekend

2011-12-06T05:16:00.000-08:00

We took four fighters down to the Silver Gloves this past weekend. All the fighters fought really well and we came home with two wins. I usually stay home on these trips and run the gym but there was a mandatory coaches clinic I needed to attend. It was nice getting an opportunity to watch the boys fight for a change and just get away for a couple of days. Of course, it's all waiting for me when I get home but it was worth it.

I did manage to finish getting the lifting cradle taken apart. I just need to load up the steel plates and the concrete blocks and the inside of the barn will be usable. I should be able to get that done this afternoon. It would be a little more usable with some sheetmetal on the ends but that's coming real soon. I stripped the forms from the concrete and got a little more clean up done as well. It's looking like snow coming in tonight so maybe I'll park inside!

Jimmy signed his contract for the fight in Canada so I'll be heading up there before long - looks like I'm going to be real busy 'til the end of the year. That, of course, means some of the things I planned on getting done, won't get done but nothing new there. This week it's just keep pluggin' and try to get something a little closer to completion. Don't really even care what it is and long as I'm closing in on something.

Have a good week and "Say Hey" for Ron Santo making it into the Hall of Fame.

Friday, Finally

2011-12-02T03:47:00.000-08:00

Frame Lug

Exhaust Pipe

"New" Computer

It's been kind of a slow week. Still in recovery mode from the nasty cold - feeling much better, voice is back but not 100%. I did manage to weld up the frame lug on the motorcycle frame for the guy from the gym. Nothing too special here. Just weld a few minutes, let it cool for a while, then come back and build it up some more. Good job for a guy who's not feeling too chipper. Work 5 minutes and then go sit down for 10. Drill and tap after it's cleaned up a little.

The pipe photo is from a dirt bike. I welded the other end of it last year where it mounts to the bike. They slit the end I welded the other day in 4 spots with a hacksaw to make it fit on something, then decided that wasn't going to work so I welded it up. I didn't even ask what they were trying to do or what they were thinking. It's just better not to know sometimes.

The bottom photo is my "new" computer in the shop at school. Previously I had some kind of gizmo connected to the classroom computer so I could have a remote monitor and keyboard in the shop. Since the majority of my time is spent out there, it was real handy to be able to take attendance, receive e-mails, "pop-ups", etc., without leaving the hooligans with power tools alone in the shop while I went into the classroom to check the computer. It hasn't worked all year but the new guy in the IT department said he'd come up with something for me and now I have a new IBM in the shop. I don't know where he drug this old timer up from, but it works and that's all that matters to me. I do like all the dust and junk in the cooling ports that came pre-installed. Fits right in.

I've got some boxing stuff going on this weekend. We're taking four fighters to the Silver Gloves and I have to attend a coaching clinic. Looks like Jimmy will be fighting in Quebec in a couple of weeks, so I'll be traveling to Canada. I've been wanting to go there, so I'll get my chance. Lots going on but I'm still pecking away at the barn job. Next week, it's scaffolding for sure. I did manage to work on dismantling the lifting cradle a little this week. Not much but something.

Have a good weekend.

Lost Weekend

2011-11-28T05:03:00.000-08:00

Apparently I misjudged the cold I came down with. It continued to get worse as the weekend progressed culminating with a fever, laryngitis, hacking cough, headache and every other symptom commonly associated with a severe cold/flu. Other than about an hours worth of work on the barn on Friday, it was pretty much ride the recliner the rest of the long weekend. That's going to set the schedule back a little but something always does, right? Still better than Ron Lyle, though.

Ron Lyle, another of the talented heavyweights from the 70s, passed away the other day. Besides Ali, Lyle was the only man to put big George Foreman on the canvas. In fact, George said Lyle was the toughest guy he ever fought. Probably one of the hardest hitting heavyweights of all time. Ernie Shavers will probably second that. That was a great time for the heavy weight division and he was a great contender. RIP.

Going to try and take it easy for a couple of more days. I've got a little welding job for one of the guys from the gym to do but nothing else really pressing except my own stuff and it's waited this long, what's a couple more days?

Rickati Project

2011-11-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I came down with a cold the other day but the worst had passed by yesterday morning, so I walked the Turkey Trot 5K. I was just going to kind of amble along and then I heard the time for the first mile split was right at 17 minutes. I picked up the pace and shaved two minutes off the next mile - it was just fast enough that my chest and back started hurting but still manageable. Not sure of my finish time but it will be the slowest race I've ever done. I am, however, thankful that I'm still ambulatory. I'm much more fortunate than many either by planning or providence. Congratulations go out to Surly for his Turkey Trot finish. I'm sure he'll have a recap on his fitness blog.

Started working on the Rickati project during Open Shop the other night. I hooked up the front brake. Doesn't sound like much but I had to machine a bushing for the adjuster to fit into the backing plate properly and make a collar for the end of the cable to solder on. So yeah, not much, but progress. I also got the steering stops taken care of, tacked on a bracket to hold the back of the gas tank down and cut out the seat base on Wednesday. The next big step is the rear brake pedal. I also need to order in a couple of things - throttle, cable, hand grips, rear sprocket and chain. My goal is to have everything on the frame done by the end of the year. I can then send the engine out and have my buddy take care of that and I can be working on the 900. When the engine comes back, stick it together, test a little and then send the frame out for powder coating. If I send the frame out before the engine's done, I know I'll have to make some little change and screw up the powder coating.

Still plugging away on the barn. My goal on the barn is the same as the bike - closed in and useable by the end of the year. Doesn't give me a lot of time but it shouldn't take too much.

Here's The Scoop

2011-11-23T04:29:00.000-08:00

The scoop is for the sidewalk salt at the gym. With my Depression era approach to things, I made it out of an old coffee can and a piece I turned in the Woodshop. I suppose I could have gone across the street to the Dollar General and found one, but injected molded plastic things just don't do it for me. Nothing like $50.oo worth of labor for a 99 cent part. I also got a 5 gallon pickle bucket from the cafeteria to put the salt in. I'm going to miss making all this crap on company time when I retire.

Since I finished up the north side of the barn over the weekend, the only thing left to have it closed in is the sheeting on top and make the man door. I don't think it will take too long to hang the sheeting on the top section. It'll be a little tricky cutting the sheets around the bracing for the fly rafters but as long as I'm careful with my measurements, I should be good.

We're still gluing up the door. We had a little trouble with that yesterday. Apparently they didn't quite understand "Move everything out of the way and get all your clamps ready before you start gluing" even though I told them at least four times. I'm hoping to get the second go-round on that today and I'll come in over Thanksgiving break and put the two halves together. Depending on the weather, I might make the crossbucks and bracing. I'm going to rout a vee shaped groove on all the glue joints of the individual pieces so any water that hits the bracing will run through plus it will add a little decorative touch. The cross bucks would be better on the inside from a functional standpoint but will look better on the outside from a decorative standpoint. I'll also weld the hinge pins in since the hinges will be exposed on the outside. I'm going to make some faux straps to match the big doors, paint the door white and the straps black so all the doors will be the same style.

Have a great Thanksgiving. I know I've got plenty to be thankful for.

Misc.

2011-11-21T04:02:00.000-08:00

Photo From Here

It's true. Horizontal stripes do make you look thinner!

Surly sent me this quote the other day: Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. -Lin Yutang, writer and translator (1895-1976)

I've pretty well mastered the noble art of leaving things undone, only as in unfinished. What I have trouble with is the elimination of nonessentials. I've always bounced from one thing to another as my mood or interest has changed. Certain things, like my race bikes, I've tackled and stuck with like a bulldog, sometimes working long hours completely absorbed in the job. Other things I start and once I know I can do it, I lose interest in. I'm at the point now where I have too many things that need my attention and my possessions have become somewhat of a burden. I have been working to get that under control this year and have made some progress even with the barn falling down. One nice thing about this blog is the fact that even though I don't always get as much done as I plan to, I can look back and see all that I have done. Now that the time has changed and the cold weather is here, it's time to start hitting the basement workshop and tackle a few things, plus get busy putting a street bike together for next year.

I did manage to finish up the siding on the North end of the barn around the entry door. I also got the trim put on the corners on that end and a few other chores accomplished. I was going to try and squeeze in a little walk, since I'm doing a 5K on Thanksgiving day, but came in and watched the Bears game instead. It was 3:00 and I hadn't eaten lunch yet, so I left the walk undone. Obviously I'm still having a little trouble sorting out what's essential.

It'll be a short week but I have to pay for it by doing bus duty. With a little luck, I'll be able to stand out there in the cold rain.

Concrete & Boat

2011-11-19T05:07:00.000-08:00

The Building Trades class got my concrete poured Thursday and I moved the pile of rubble away from the front of the building. Looks good out there in front now. I've still got a lot of cleaning up to do but it's good to see the front basically done.

I finally got around to painting the box the boys made for my saw. They're not exactly cabinet makers yet but the box is functional and looks good. So there's another project to put in the finished column.

We got a few pieces cut for the boat building project this week. It's starting to turn into a boat now. The transom is rough cut to shape, the inner stem is made and we got one chine log in place. We're going to soak the chine log with some wet rags over the weekend while it's clamped in place to release some of the pressure on it. We'll do the same thing for the other side on Monday.

We're also ready to glue up the door for the barn. Hopefully most of the warp in the boards will disappear after we get it glued up. We're doing it half and half to make the process a little more manageable. As long as it's fairly flat after we glue it, I think the crossbucks and stiffeners will take care if the rest of it. Plus we're going to cut it in half later on to make a Dutch/stable door out of it, so that might help.

The fleet of trucks are Christmas presents (the wrecker isn't quite done yet). One will be for the grandson, not sure about the others. We might make a few more and give those away to some little tykes in need. It's always tough at Christmas for many families but this year is probably going to be worse than normal.

This weekend I'm planning on finishing up the door jamb, trim and siding around the door opening. The only siding left then will be on the ends on top. I'll get the scaffold and tackle that soon. I still need to get the lifting cradle out of there but I started taking that apart the other night. That'll take a little time but nothing too difficult - just get it all unbolted and then take the torch and cut the 1/4" plates into 10' sections so I can handle them by myself. We can cut those up into practice material for the boys in the Weld Shop.

We're knocking them dead now, by golly.

Washers

2011-11-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

I machined up a couple of parts for the Rickati project the other night at Open Shop. The two larger pieces are for the swingarm pivot bolt, the smaller are for holding the gas tank in place. Basically just big washers but sexy looking. There really isn't too much more to fab up on that project: make the rear brake pedal, mount the skid plate and fix the back wheel, which might take a little doing, but if I get busy I should be able to get it ready for powder coating before too much longer.

While I'm waiting for the frame and engine to get finished up on the Rickati, I can be working on my 900. That too wouldn't take much to finish up, of course, neither would my Honda. The Honda needs a valve job and a couple little things but the 900 needs some fab work, an engine overhaul and the purchasing of some expensive parts. The Honda would be the easier of the two to get on the street but it's all put together. In my quest to finish projects, I'd like to have the 900 all put together instead of having parts in boxes and strewn about the shop. I'm thinking this is the one that I'll be riding in the spring. Pretty bold prediction from a guy who bounces from one job to the next and has basically no free time, but I've got to get things done and I want to ride. Simple as that.

I finished up the prep for the concrete apron on the barn last night. The Building Trades boys should be pouring the concrete today. That'll be good to have checked off the list. I got a light put up inside the barn and got a couple pieces of wood for the service door cut for that job as well. We've got a fight at the gym on Friday, so I won't get much else done until the weekend but it's coming together. The barn has turned out to be a pretty big project for basically a one man band but the end of that project is coming closer and closer.

We knocked out some little projects at the school this week, as always, but my little digital camera quit working - so I might not have too many of the blurry pictures to post for a while. Even though the photo quality is often crap, they do add some value. Have to see what I can work out in the way of a new camera.

Looking Sexy

2011-11-14T05:04:00.000-08:00

I was going to work on the lifting cradle yesterday but an extra pair of hands showed up, so I got the track for the overhead door squared up. I finished installing the rest of the pieces and it goes up and down now. I still have to put the handles on it but the spring I repaired works just fine. I think the next step is to get some temporary lighting in and the lifting cradle out. It needs to go and I can't replace the flooring upstairs until it does. I've got a couple of big halogen lights I can mount up and then I can work a little later in the evening.

I got a couple other little jobs knocked out also, so it was a pretty good day in spite of the 40 mph winds.

Have a good week.

Bike Stuff

2011-11-13T04:47:00.000-08:00

Photo From Here

Which means I really need to get busy on a couple of mine.

Photo From Here

Moto Guzzi has updated their 750 motor. More horsepower and torque. Maybe that lottery ticket will hit and I'll go to Italy and pick one up.

Busy day yesterday. Finished busting up the concrete in front of the barn and mowed the backyard before going to the gym. Came home and got the rest of the front covered in sheet metal. I would have posted a photo but it was getting dark about the time I finished up. You'll just have to take my word for the fact that it's looking pretty sexy.

It's supposed to be windy and rainy today but I'm going to try and get some work done on taking the lifting cradle apart. I need one of the 2"x12"s for the boat project and it needs to get it apart sometime. It takes up just about the whole floor area inside. I'm going to see about hanging some temporary lights inside there as well. We started on the man door in the Woodshop the other day. The boards wanted to warp up a little so have to see how that works when it's time to glue everything together. As long as the boards cooperate, it shouldn't take long to finish.

Progress, brothers and sisters, progress.

Friday Again

2011-11-11T05:18:00.000-08:00

Bolt Repair

Uke Knob

Deck Bracket

Spoiler Bits

Been a busy week for projects at school - not so much at home.

I was gone much of last weekend and the weather has been crap the rest of the time, so not much done on the barn. I've still got a section of the old concrete to remove before the apron can be poured. I drilled a bunch of holes no more than an 1-1/2" apart along the cut line thinking I could whack it with the sledge and it would break off. No such luck. Might take me a little while longer but just like the Mounties, I always get my man.

School jobs have been going well. The volume knob for the uke has a 1/4" hole and the potentiometer it slips onto is about 5/32" so I had to machine up a bushing. Actually two, we're putting together another one. I also finished up machining the tool rests for the wood lathes. I'm still waiting for a grinder that's been back ordered before I start grinding up all of the tools for the lathes. We've got plenty going down there right now anyway. I did sharpen up all the small drill bits in the Weld Shop the other day.

The photo of the bolt in the fixture is from the new hand grinder. One of the little darlings knocked the grinder off the table and broke the handle. The new handle has a large metric bolt inside it and the old ones had a small standard thread. I had a couple of the old ones around so I welded the bottom of the new one to the top of the old one and was back in business.

I finished up a couple of brackets for hanging plants on the deck at home. I made the hook part this summer at the blacksmith shop and finally got around to picking up a couple of thumbscrews to finish the job.

The spoiler parts will get TIG welded today. A former student brought those in and they were covered in JB Weld. I really hate that crap. It never seems to hold what's intended but it always is a pain to get clean enough to weld.

We managed to repair another couple of desks this week. We might be on record pace for desk repair this year. They might be better off putting carpet down and getting rid of all the desks. Just let the teacher sit on the floor in the middle of all the hooligans like a campfire circle. It gives my guys something to do though.

I need to make a move at getting a couple of long term projects done. The VW didn't get touched all of last year and the Rickati project needs to get finished up. I'm also tired of waltzing around the big log splitter that's in the shop. I'm going to start staying after school a few extra minutes every day. If I do a little something every day, I'll start to see some progress. It's amazing how much a few minutes here and a few minutes there adds up after awhile. That VW will look good parked in the superintendent's spot next year.

Busy weekend lined up - got a few chores around the house and the barn job. Looks like the weather will allow for a little outside work. It was snowing today, so I need to get after it.

And last but not least, it's Veteran's Day. Thanks to all that served and have given so much.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Bolt/Stud Removal

2011-11-09T04:20:00.000-08:00

Click to Enlarge

I took this out of a serpentine belt tensioner the other day. A former student brought it in and asked if I had any left handed drill bits to see if he could drill the broken bolt out. Instead of drilling it out, I welded a piece of rod to it and it backed right out. Most of the time they come out pretty easy. The tough ones are when someone has over-tightened a bolt that is too long into a blind hole or one that has rusted badly. Here's the procedure:

Grind a taper on a piece of round stock that's about the same diameter as the broken bolt. Make the rod long enough to serve as a handle.

Put the tapered end right next to the bolt and MIG weld the rod to the bolt. I usually start up on the rod and run down onto the bolt. An auto-darkening helmet helps to keep the rod from moving while tacking but I always keep my helmet adjusted so all I have to do is just nod my head and the helmet swings down into position easily. Either way, you have to use two hands. One for holding and one for welding. Most welding machines have a capacitor that keeps a little juice in the wire so I usually pull the trigger and feed out a little wire then snip it off. This helps get a nice start without the wire popping when you tack. Because I start the weld on the rod. I usually hook my ground clamp directly to the rod.

Spray some penetrating oil on the weld while it's still hot. This shrinks the metal and allows the oil to penetrate better. It also makes a lot of smoke so keep your head back.

Give the top of the weld a couple of cracks with a hammer. This also allows the oil to work it's way down in.

Twist the rod to back it out. Usually you have to wiggle it both counter-clockwise and clockwise. If you move it back and forth a few times, that too gets the oil down in the threads. Once it starts to move, it will usually come right out. If it feels a little rough, give it some more oil and a few more wiggles. Patience is the key.

In the worst case scenario, the rod will break off and you have to repeat the process a couple of times. The one I took out the other day was in an aluminum housing. They usually come out fairly easily because the aluminum will expand with the heat and the weld won't stick to it. Really rusty bolts like in an exhaust manifold may require some heat around the outside of the bolt to get the expansion necessary to break the rust bond. You can usually get anything from 1/4" diameter and up out this way. 3/8" and larger you can often weld a nut on top of the bolt rather than a rod as long as it's broken off flush or slightly above. Use plain steel nuts rather than galvanized, if possible. For the real tuffies, weld the rod on it, spray it, whack it and then wait for the oil to soak in. Repeat the spray and whack steps, even letting it sit over night if time allows. Patience is the key, don't forget. It took me about five minutes to get the one in the photo out. That includes dragging all the tools out and rummaging around under the bench for a piece of scrap rod.

When they come out easy like this one did you look like a genius and you don't have to worry about a hole drilled off center or breaking a tap off getting the rest of the metal out. Or worse yet, getting the easy-out out of the hole after you manage to break that off in a hole that's been drilled off center.

There you go. A shop tip from Shop Teacher Bob.

Smokin' Joe

2011-11-08T03:55:00.002-08:00

One of my favorite fighters of all time passed away - Joe Frazier. He had one of the best left hooks in the business and was heavyweight champion at a time when there were a lot of great fighters in that division, including Ali. I was in a restaurant a couple of years ago and they had the television tuned to ESPN Classics. They were showing the third Ali - Frazier fight. I had forgotten what a war that was. I watched all of those fights back in the 70's. There were some great ones. Frazier was small in stature for a heavyweight, but he had the heart of a giant.

Breaking Rocks

2011-11-06T06:18:00.000-08:00

I came home from work Friday and the Building Trades instructor was pounding away on the concrete in front of the barn with a hammer and chisel. He had rented a saw to put some control cuts in his concrete and then stopped by my place to cut a line to layout for the approach to the barn. I sent him on home and took over the job. After about four hours I got most of the old concrete removed up to the line. There's still a chunk in the middle and one corner that needs to be finished but the middle is about 8" deep and reinforced with wire. I'm going to have to cut it deeper or drill a series of holes along the line before I start beating on that anymore. As soon as I get that taken care of he can get my concrete poured.

I'm going to try and get the rest of the sheets hung on the front today and then I'll pick up a masonry blade for the circular saw to finish up the concrete. I need to get on it. It was a little frosty yesterday out there.

Don't Fret The Small Stuff

2011-11-03T04:45:00.000-07:00

Ukulele Neck

Blade Wrench

Slide Show

Saw Box

We've been hitting things in all directions lately. The top photo shows the neck of the cigar box ukulele with the fret wire installed. Next step is installing the tuning pegs. I've got a couple guys designing another one. They decided to make the body octagon shaped. It should look cool but they're having a little trouble getting the pieces cut equally all around. It's early though. They're using 1/4" lauan plywood, so it's cheap enough to make some mistakes with and it should resonate well when it's done.

The blade wrench is for the new mower. I needed to get the blades off to sharpen them up but the blades are only 16" long so I couldn't hold them to get the bolt out. I had a similar wrench I made up for my old Cub Cadet about ten years ago to hold those to tighten them (I could block them with a piece of wood to get them off) so I drug that out of the corner of the shop and told a couple of the guys to duplicate it but put the tabs on the opposite sides so it would hold it to take the blades off. It's just made out of junk but it works slick as hell. Just slip it over the blade, get the blades in the slots, hold on tight and crank on the breaker bar. To re-install them, reverse the process with the other wrench. I don't have to lift the mower way up in the air to get an impact wrench on the bolts - just slide the floor jack under the mower and lift it up about 6" and bingo. Taking the three blades off takes less than 5 minutes now.

The slide show is from my newly installed projector. I received a set of welding CD's from Lincoln Electric a few years back but I couldn't show them due to a lack of an LCD projector. I requested one 3-1/2 years ago and it finally got installed and operational last week. Our crack IT department is such a blessing.

The saw box is for my new saw. I keep most of my power tools in a cabinet and it's always a tangle of cords and the one I'm looking for is always on the bottom of the pile. I figured a new saw deserved a box and since the cabinet is already over flowing, might as well put a couple of the Woodshop boys on the job. It's about ready for a coat of paint. It's already too late for the plastic handle that goes on the blade guard, however. I managed to break that off about a month ago. Maybe this winter I'll make one out of aluminum. Of course I managed to break it right after I ordered a couple of parts from Sears for the router at school. Seems like that's always the way.

I should be picking up my barn sheeting and trim pieces tonight. I started taking the lifting cradle apart last night and I've got my scaffolding lined up, so it's still on track. If the weather's decent Friday, I should be able to finish the sheets across the front. That'll make me happy.

It looks like we've got a job putting in a new floor on a dump truck lined up. Plus we keep fixing broken desks. Maybe when I retire I should open a desk fixing shop.

That's it for now.

More of the Same

2011-10-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

Busy Weekend.

I worked on a little drywall project in the house along with a few other odd jobs, and the barn, of course. As you can see, I got some sheets on the front. A couple hours more and the front should be closed in. I got a few purlins put up on top and I worked on the track for the second bay door. I got the braces clamped for the rear of the track - just need to square it up and put some lag screws in then I can see if the repaired spring is going to work. A couple more hours and that too will be done.

I checked out the big doors on top while I was hanging the purlins. I need to pull the jamb, brickmold and the studs on one side back in about 3/8" on the top. If I cut the nails holding the studs loose from the header, I might be able to either clamp it or bang it back together. I can re-nail and put a gusset on it later. I need to get that squared away before I can start hanging purlins on that end. That's going to be about all I'll be able to do on top until I get some scaffolding and line up some help. The Building Trades class is using their scaffolding now. I'll have to check to see when I can borrow it.

I still need to dismantle the lifting cradle. I might get started on that this week. I don't usually have much time after school with the gym and other chores going on but I need it out of there and I think I can cut down one of the long boards to use for my chine logs on the boat project.

I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about the man door. I'm thinking more and more about making one. The photo above is the door on my shop. It's a little overkill for the old building it's in but I wanted to make something cool, so with the help of the old Woodshop teacher, I did. The new one would be more in keeping with the style of traditional barn. I'm thinking a Dutch door with crossbucks for bracing. Make up some strap hinges to match the fake ones on the big doors, paint it white and there I'll be. I need to get started pretty soon because it's going to get cold and I can't finish the siding on that end until I get a door. I just need a little "think time".

Have a good week.

School Work

2011-10-29T03:03:00.000-07:00

Marathon Girl

Tool Rest Fixture

Tripod

Cigar Box Ukelele

Pencil Box

I've been working on fixing up the tool rests in the Woodshop. They're pretty worn in the middle, which means you can't hardly turn a straight piece. As the gouge follows along the tool rest, it drops down into the belly on the tool rest and changes the diameter of the part. Plus, there are some rough spots which causes the gouge to hang up. To remedy this, I made a fixture for the milling machine to hold them in place so I can machine them up after I build them up with braze welding. I've got a couple of them done and they look pretty good. I'm not sure how well the brass will hold up compared to the cast iron but they'll be easy to build back up and remachine in the future. I still need to sharpen all the tools for the lathes and then we'll be able to start using them.

I fixed up a tripod for the big video camera the other day. They broke off the handle by dropping the thing, I would guess. I got lucky and the threaded part came out easily (you can see it still stuck in the slot in the photo), then I turned the OD on the handle and rethreaded it. They're going to miss me when I'm gone.

We're building a couple of cigar box ukeleles in the Woodshop along with a variety of other projects. I'm thinking one will be a Christmas present for the older grandson. We're also building a little truck for the younger one. The parts came in for both projects on Thursday, so those should be finished next week. The uke will be electric, by the way.

The little pencil box was put together out of some scrap wood. The design came from a book I bought about making things from scrap wood, coincidentally. I figured we'd make a couple of different items just to see what the boys were capable of and to get the feel for the tools. It's a little rough but the kid cut some dovetails, made some slots, used the planer, table and miter saws. I think he surprised himself a little by actually making the thing. Mission accomplished there.

The boss came in and took a look around yesterday. He's a sailor and he wanted to check out the boat. It's nice being able to talk a little shop with the boss - something besides educational mumbo-jumbo, that is. I'm sure he'll be stopping in and checking on our progress on a regular basis.

This will once again be a weekend of working on the barn plus some work on the shack. I'll get some purlins up and maybe a few sheets across the front of the building. I need to start taking the lifting cradle apart to get that out of there. That won't be fun but I can get the plates on the trailer and bring them to school when I bring the spiral staircase in. I'm just going to chop up the 1/4" plates into 10' sections to make them easy to handle and we can cut them up later at school for practice material.

Congratulations to Annie from Belfast - she's the young lady who ran with Jimmy when we were out there. She finished her first marathon last weekend.

Update

2011-10-26T04:12:00.000-07:00

Josh & Justin

Welding Contestants

Barn Under Roof

Boat Framing

Harbor Freight Trailer

With New Sides

KIA Ready For

Safari

The boys did fairly well at the welding contest Saturday morning. All contestants received a tee shirt, certificate and their choice of welding caps or gloves. There were 40 competitors total. This was the first year so I would look for a much bigger group in the future. The Training Center has 114 welding booths, so they definitely have room. The facility is just amazing. All of us were given a guided tour of the place and the guide did more than just show us around. He gave a lot of good advice to the young men and women that were there. You hear a lot of this:

"We are always looking for young men/women that want to work and can weld a little. Teaching welding is the easy part, good work ethics and attitude is the hard part."

That's a quote from the guy who was in charge of the contest. It always comes down to hard work and attitude. Thanks to Pipefitter's Local 597 - it was a real good experience for the boys and myself.

I had a good weekend for working on the barn. I got the sheets on the roof replaced that I had to take off to lift it up so I'm done up there now. The Missus was a little concerned so she called Surly and he came down to keep an eye on me. I had myself tied off with a real deal safety harness so it was about as safe as it could be. Good to have a safety man just the same. I put the rest of the roof sheets on the lower part even though they were bent up a little. I got all of the new metal ordered so when that comes in I'll swap them out, but at least the building is all under roof except for the gable ends. I put some OSB up on the inside around the front doors as well. I worked on getting the front wall straightened up after work yesterday. That's pretty well set now so I can put the last purlins up and start hanging the sheeting.

The boat's coming along. We've still got a couple of the station molds to add but with the battens on you can see the shape it will be. I need to figure out where to get some lumber that I'll need. The local lumber yard isn't exactly the best place for boat building lumber but there is a place close by that sells rough lumber. I think he can order in whatever I need. I found a place that advertises in Wooden Boat magazine that probably has what I need but it's a ways from here. If worst comes to worst, I'll take a day off and run over there and get it.

All in all we're making progress on all fronts. The Woodshop boys are all working on things. It's one step forward and two steps back most of the time but they're learning something anyway.

Looks like rain the next couple of days so I might not get much done on the barn. I bought the lumber for the rest of the purlins up on top so I should be able to work on that this weekend. I'll need to set up some scaffolding to hang the sheeting but I can get most of the purlins done without it as long as I'm careful. It should be closed in before the winter weather gets here.

The little KIA and trailer belong to the art teacher. He made the brush guard in the welding class he took this summer. The boys helped him install it and put the trailer frame together for him. I need a student teacher like he has now so I can work on some of my projects. It'd be nice to have a couple of weeks to work on things and get a check for it. Probably shouldn't complain though. I do plenty of my stuff on company time.

Roger and out.

More Guzzi

2011-10-24T04:58:00.000-07:00

I saw this at Moto Art Journal by way of Italian Motor. It's the only hard tail Guzzi I've ever seen. It's also one of the nicest bobbers I've seen lately. I'm not so sure that a hard tail is the way to go, especially with that seat, but you have to admire the craftsmanship and the design. If you click on the link you can see a few more photos and they're a little larger as well. I'd like to get a copy of the Italian Motor magazine to check out but I get almost too many to keep up with as it is. Looks like a real nice mag for those of us into Italian bikes.

This is more my cup of tea. Clip-on's, rearsets, solo saddle, plus those look like Conti's on the exhaust. That's what's on my old Ducati. No baffles in them. They just have the end of the pipe folded back in on itself to restrict things a little. Loud in a good way. This was at Rocket Garage. Always lots of nice bikes there. As soon as the barn's closed in, I need to be working on a bike!

2011-10-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young." - Henry Ford

I saw that quote at Ross Training. Surly put up a link at his new fitness blog. This guy's an absolute monster when it comes to working out. He's got some real good boxing stuff as well as general fitness info. He's also got a link on the sidebar titled Age Related for all of us old geezers. I'm probably in as good or better shape than most guys my age but I look like a real piker compared to some of these people. If you're looking for a little inspiration to get up off the couch, regardless of your age, check it out.

The above quote addresses the mental aspect more than the physical but you really need to do both. Keep exercising your body and your mind and you'll function better on all fronts.

Enough preaching. I'm going to try and get the last couple of sheets of siding hung on the back wall this afternoon and then start on the front. I'm taking a couple of guys to a welding contest in the morning at the Pipefitters' Local 597 Training Center. It's a little early in the year for them to be at their best but it should be a good experience for them and I've been wanting to get over there and check the place out anyway. If the weather's decent when we get back home I'll try to get a little more siding on or hang some OSB on the inside walls. Eventually, I'll have the whole thing closed in both inside and out, at least on the bottom. The Missus had a good idea about building a couple of tables into the walls. I've seen the same thing before with model train layouts where you just fold out the board and some legs drop down. I'm going to build one and see how it works. Shouldn't cost too much more - just a couple of hinges and some extra 2x4's. I can probably even have the Woodshop boys fab it up at school and then just bring it home and throw it in the hole.

Enjoy the weekend.

2011-10-19T05:17:00.000-07:00

New Hitch

New Siding

The long weekend about did me in - have to go back to work to rest up!

I got the spring for the overhead door put back together. It looks like it will work OK. If not, Menard's has them in stock for $43.00. They also had the track bolts I was short and I also bought a lock. In fact they had just about everything for those doors except the bracket I'm missing. I'll see if the Building Trades guy knows anything about it. If not, Menard's can order one, I would assume.

I started hanging the siding on the back wall yesterday. I had to take about a 1/4" off the bottom chord of the trusses in order for things to line up but the old Sawz-All made short work of that. While I had it out I also cut off the anchor bolts from the old barn foundation. If I'm going to fall off the roof, I'd rather not impale myself. Some of the anchors were railroad spikes set in the concrete with about 4" of pointed steel showing. I've been meaning to get around to that anyway. Plus I cleaned some of the crap up out there. Been meaning to get around to that as well.

Picked up my welding machine on Monday while I was out and about. Haven't had a chance to see if it works, but I'm assuming it does or they wouldn't have called me. I was going to check it out at Open Shop last night but I wanted to finish my aunt's car and then some former students showed up, so I just shot the breeze for an hour instead. They're all doing well, so there must be something to that vocational education stuff.

Put the hitch on my new mower the other day that one of the "little darlins" made for me. I've got a small trailer I made from the last junk lawnmower I had that I need to measure up. If it looks like it will fit, I'll put the welder on the trailer and I can tow it around the place or pull it up close to the house when the power goes out to keep the pump and the heater running. It's got a 4500 watt generator besides the 150 amp welder. It'll live in the new barn once that's completely under roof and secure.

Surly dropped off a little job the other night so we'll tackle that today. I've got to finish my grades for the nine weeks but that won't take long. Other than that, not much happening in the Ye Olde Weld Shoppe right now. Looks like it's time to finish a couple of things or pull the spiral staircase in and finish that up.

Only three days and another weekend. I don't know how people with real jobs get anything done.

Doors, Saws and the Wall Street Journal

2011-10-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

New Doors

Saw After

Saw Before

I got out yesterday morning even though it was raining a little to work on the barn doors. The door on the left side of the photo is finished. It goes up and down and everything. The one on the right still has some work to do on it. I did manage to get the torsion spring apart and straighten out the plastic tube inside it. I took the heat gun to it and it came back pretty close to being right. It's not perfect but it spins on the pipe it goes over, so that should work. I need to cut the spring off a little, however. The piece that fits inside and couples to the spring winder was a little hard to get off and I sprung the spring, so to speak. I can cut off a couple of coils and shorten the plastic tube a like amount and I should be all set to finish the door, as long as I can find the bracket I'm missing. I'll check with the Building Trades instructor Wednesday, maybe he's got it in his trailer or tool box.

The saw in the photos came from school. We teach a traditional woodshop type of class and a construction class. Usually the same guy teaches both so the tools migrate from one shop to another. This year that's not the case. I've been sorting out the woodshop tools from the construction tools so I can keep track of my stuff and the tools won't get boogered up. As you can see from the photo, the cross cut saw was in pretty bad shape. We tried to cut something the other day and it was like rubbing two sticks together. I cleaned it up and sharpened it up a little while I was waiting for the Bear's game to come on last night. It looks a whole lot better and it's a lot sharper. I just filed it by hand but I've done a few of them over the years and I can usually get them so they at least cut. I don't have a saw set to reset the teeth but it'll cut the little bit we'll need it for.

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal there was an article by Rupert Murdch about the Steve Jobs' educational model. In the article he describes the lousy job that schools have been doing and what the role of technology - meaning electronic stuff - should be in schools. It's worth a look but I still believe that traditional shop classes would help the situation tremendously. Colleges continue to turn out technology/engineering educators or whatever they call it and most of them wouldn't know a cross cut saw if they got swatted on the ass with one. Granted, not many people earn their living with a hand saw anymore, but the importance of putting tools in the hands of the students can't be over emphasized. While I'm not a big fan of all the latest and greatest electronic gizmos, I'm not a complete Luddite, either. There's a place for some of the stuff but there needs to be a place where you can learn to use hand tools properly and to have the proper respect for them. Of course if the instructor lets all of the saws rust up and allows the students to cut into nails and who knows what else, how will a kid know any better.

I wish I could somehow prove what I know instinctively to be true about all of this. Whether it was Sloyd, Manual Training, Industrial Arts - you pick a version - there is just so much more to be learned than just the craft skills in "shop class". If you've got 7,000 people per day dropping out of high school, you're doing something wrong. They throw more money and more computers at the problem but the kids aren't any smarter and they still quit school. We started a new committee at school addressing some of this but I doubt seriously if much will come out of it. The committees never have the authority to make the necessary changes so even if we come up with the cure for all the educational woes known to man, someone in authority will say no. The reasons they say no are varied but they always say no. Buddy, when I get to be king, there's going to be some changes made.

Surly's birthday today, by the way. Happy birthday, Sonny.

B & B

2011-10-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Barn and Boat, that is.

We got a little done on the boat this week - starting to put some of the station molds on the strongback. We need to modify the strong back a little before we can finish putting the rest of the station molds in place but you can tell we're building a boat now. We've got a short week next week due to having Monday and Tuesday off but we should be able to finish that part up by Friday.

The barn is progressing nicely. I assembled the one bay door that was in the hole before the barn fell down and stuck it in the opening. It was damaged slightly so I wanted to see if I could fix things or if I needed to order some parts. The bottom panel has a dent in it but it's not real noticeable. Both tracks had some wrinkles in them but they straightened out nicely so I'm good there. I am missing a couple of the track bolts, one bracket and the torsion spring inner liner is bent. I can probably make do on the bolts and the bracket but I might have to get a new spring. As long as I've got the door in the hole, I'll keep going on getting the rest of the track hooked up. I'll borrow the parts from the other door for right now and finish the one door up. I'm going to put an opener on the side the Missus will be using but I'll worry about that later when I get some electricity run.

I still need to order the replacement sheets but I need to get the remaining purlins put up and straighten up the doors on top. I was fortunate not to have the doors on top break but the frame shifted some. You can see a big gap on the top corner of the brickmold on one side. I also need to finish aligning the front wall and trim the ends of the trusses a little. All of that should keep me busy while I'm waiting for the remaining sheet metal stuff to come in. A student brought me a safety harness to wear while I'm replacing the roof sheets so I feel a little better about tackling that job. As long as the weather stays decent, I should get quite a bit done over the next few days.

As soon as I finish the aunt's car I'm going to try and start on the VW or one of the motorcycle projects. I need to get the staircase for the barn back into the shop and finish that but it's already on the trailer and ready to transport. It won't take long to fix that. The Building Trades boys should be able to help me set it back in the hole. So now things are pretty well back to normal. A million things to do but I'm making headway.

Enjoy the weekend.

Getting Things Done

2011-10-13T04:25:00.000-07:00

Photo From Here:

(NSFW)

Busy week again, as always. One of the art teachers took a welding course at IVY Tech this summer and made himself a brush guard and a trailer hitch for his little KIA. He's got a student teacher so he came down and we gave him a hand installing those. Some girl backed into something with her car so a couple of the boys popped the dent out. It's plastic, so they pushed it out and threw a little heat on it so it would stay. I pulled the aunt's car in the shop Tuesday during Open Shop. I was just going to check it out but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be so I started working on it. The frame rusted by the front mount for the lower control arm. I got the job about 80% finished. I need to finish weld the patch pieces and add one more little piece and that'll be done. We also modified some cutting blades for the snowplows here at the school. The normal ones wear out real quickly, so they brought in some that are about twice as thick. We cut them to length and drilled the mounting holes. I also brazed up a gas tank for a pickup truck. It was a brand new tank but the cab settled down on top of it and put a couple of cracks in it. Also fixed a couple of desks - hardly a week goes by without a desk in the shop.

I gave a little presentation Wednesday after school along with one of the English teachers and the Building Trades instructor about the Lilly grants we've received. The Eli Lilly foundation gives monetary grants to teachers for the purpose of "personal renewal and intellectual growth". It's a sweet deal - $8,000 to do something that you ordinarily wouldn't be able to do. God bless 'em for that.

In the Woodshop we made a couple of wooden boxes up out of scrap. One's for the bag gloves at the gym and the other is for the welding gloves here at school. I think I'm finally starting to make some progress in the Woodshop. The boys are to the point that they realize they actually need to know how to do fractions and that just slapping things together isn't the best approach. We had a tool identification quiz, so now they at least know the difference between a combination square and a wooden mallet. We've still got a long way to go but I've got all year. We're making a little progress on the stations for the wooden boat. If it takes a couple of months just to get the strongback and the station molds together, it might be a little bit before we have a boat but I've got time.

I've been making some progress on the barn but I need to order in some things before I can finish the sheeting. The south side on the bottom is covered and all of the north side except for around the service door. I need to get a door before that will happen but I'm pleased with how things are looking. They're calling for rain the next few days so I'll get my order put together and called in. If I can get it ordered this week it should be here next week.

As my old pal Joey B. used to say, things are progressing steady by jerks. The barn should be closed in by the time cold weather gets here and the Woodshop boys will be able to do some fractions this year. It could be worse.

One Way or the Other

2011-10-09T17:28:00.000-07:00

Photo From Here:

Photo From Here:

Photo From Here:

The weather has been great this last week. I love this time of year. I'd really like to take off and just go. Nowhere in particular, just take off and know you're there when you get there kind of trip. Any of the above means of transportation would do - bike, bus or vardo - wouldn't really matter. I know I don't have anything to belly ache about. I've been on trips to Virginia, Italy, Oklahoma, and New York this year but I still got the itch. I always do when the weather starts to turn. Like the birds, I guess. I need to finish up the barn and then me and the Missus will maybe do a little road trippin'.

I did manage to get a little work done on the barn this weekend. I got the south wall straitened out - top plates aligned, more screws installed and some hurricane clips installed for added insurance - and that wall has most of the sheeting on it. I also got the trim pieces put up around one of the bay doors. Between the gym, grandkids and some visitors, I didn't spend much time out there but visible progress was made. That's always the best kind. It's nice when you can see you accomplished something.

The sparring matches/fund raiser at the gym went well. We had a nice crowd and some really good bouts. We'll be taking some fighters to the Silver Gloves in December, so we need to get a few dollars in the coffer to pay for the trip. The old Dodge "Shaggin' Wagon" is not the most economical vehicle on the road plus it's an over-nighter. Have to pay for a couple of hotel rooms as well.

My cousin stopped by Saturday morning and dropped off his mom's car for me to check out. It's got some frame rust that needs to be repaired. I need to crawl under that in the next few days to see if I can do anything with it. I didn't really need another project but as long as I've got the car, she's not driving it. I've you live around here, you should thank me.

Busy week ahead but only three days next week. I'll keep plugging away at the barn and enjoying the weather while it lasts. Looks like rain coming in about Tuesday or Wednesday but we could use a little. It won't be too much longer and it'll be snowing. That means I should probably see about fixing the snowblower pretty soon.

Ford Tri-Motor

2011-10-05T17:02:00.001-07:00

1929 Ford
Tri-Motor

450 hp.

Pratt & Whitney

Cabin & Corrugated

Aluminum Sheet

Casts a Nice Shadow

Siding At Last

Man what a great day! I took a half day off today to go check out the 1929 Ford Tri-Motor at the Valparaiso airport. Sure glad I did. It was a beautiful day for a plane ride and I took advantage of it. The ride was about 15-20 minutes long. Not a long time in the air but enough to get the feel for flying in the oldest commercial passenger plane still flying. It was an Eastern Airlines plane long ago and while it's a far cry from any commercial plane of today, it was state of the art 80 years ago.

The engines sound like they should be in a pro stock dragster at idle. As soon as they throttle up they smooth out and sound really cool. It didn't take much runway to get airborne, either. With about 1300 horsepower, I don't suppose it should. We flew at about 90 miles per hour, I think. It was loud and your feet could feel the vibration the whole time but man was it a gas. The inside is all nicely done, everyone had a window seat - mine was right next to the engine on the left side of the plane - and everyone left with a smile on their face.

I hit Menard's for some supplies while I was up that way and then came home and went to work on the barn. As you can see from the photo, I got some siding hung. It goes pretty quick. I should be able to get everything on the bottom without any extra hands but I'll need some scaffolding and a helper when it's time for the second story. That shouldn't be too bad other than the height and all the angles and trimming. As long as I take my time I should be able to get it looking good without too many mistakes.

I need to see if my long extension ladder will get me up on the roof to replace the panels I took off for the lift. I need to practice my knots before I get up there, though. I'm going to tie myself off for that job. Park the truck or the tractor on one side and throw the rope over the top, do one side then the other. Not taking any chances.

Don't know how much I'll be able to get done in the next few days. I think the Missus and I are going to be watching the grandkids over the weekend. Plus, we've got an in-house show at the gym Saturday night. I'd like to hit the barn project pretty hard while the weather's nice but the grandkids trump everything else.

Back to normal tomorrow. Ain't it a shame.

3,2,1, Lift-Off

2011-10-03T16:50:00.001-07:00

Photos by the Missus

Got the lid put on this afternoon! The weather the last few days has been exceptionally windy but today it was just about perfect. It was a little breezy but things calmed down just about the time we got everything hooked up. The job went smooth as silk. It took a little while to rig the job but when he took the slack out of the straps it came right up without even so much as a groan. Once he got it in the air he backed up a little and let it down right in place. I had tag lines on the corners already and some blocks with a taper cut on them fastened to the walls so it just slipped right into place. They changed the rigging and then I cut the lifting cradle loose and they lowered that down onto some blocks. After they left I ran some screws into the holes I had pre-drilled into the top plate and there it was. Just like I had planned it!

The job took about two hours which was what I had figured. They were here at 2:00 and the big truck pulled out a little before 4:00. So even with travel time, I'm in under three hours. I'm not sure what the bill's going to be but I'm sure they'll treat me right. They said stop in in the next few days to square up so I'll swing by tomorrow after work and take care of that.

I'm going to start putting the base piece for the outside sheets on tomorrow and get the last purlin on the side facing the house. I'm thinking about taking a half day on Wednesday so I can get a good run at the sheeting and finish nailing the top plate down before we have any more big winds. The back wall needs a little adjustment but I think I can put a big clamp on it and get the plates to line up that way. If not I can rig something up and dog it in. I'm going to put a few more sheets of OSB inside as well. Eventually I want the inside on the bottom all closed in. Don't know if I want to insulate the whole thing but if I screw the sheets of OSB on, it'll be easy enough to take them off later on. With sheets of OSB on the inside and the sheet metal on the outside, it'll be hell for strong. I can paint the inside white later on and it'll be nice and bright in there. I do have a couple little windows I might put in the back wall. I can frame those out later.

So now it's back to work. Winters coming and I want it all closed in before it gets too cold. We've got a long weekend coming up. I wanted to get away with the Missus for a couple of days but if the weathers good, I'd like to get some progress made on the barn. She told me today she's planning on flying to Houston to see a friend next month, so she's going to get a little vacation. The Building Trades instructor can get my concrete poured now, so as soon as I get some sheet metal on and the lifting cradle dismantled, she'll be able to park out of the weather. There was frost on the truck windows the other morning so the cold weather's not too far off.

All in all, it was a very good day.

Wrecker

2011-09-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

This is the one.

The wrecker guys came out to scout out the barn Wednesday afternoon. They were all for picking it up on Thursday but the weatherman was forecasting some rain and wind gusts up to 50 mph. I didn't think that would be too prudent so we're shooting for Saturday. I'll double check with them after school today and as long as they don't have a bunch of car wrecks by all the drunks around here on Friday night, we should be on for tomorrow.

As you can see in the photo, it's a big wrecker. They've got about 40 plus feet with the boom fully extended. We need about 24 to go from the top of the barn to ground level. That should leave plenty for the spreader bar and the cables/straps to the hook. I've got some tag lines tied off on the corners already. They'll have to pick it up and then back up about 12-15 feet so we can't get it swinging too much. I got underneath the lid and swept the area with a magnet the other day to make sure there weren't any nails under there. About all I have to do now is worry.

Chiseling

2011-09-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

"3 Bevel" Sharpening Job

I found a set of chisels in the Woodshop but they look like they were sharpened by throwing them at the grinder (the photo is the before image, just so you know). I got them looking pretty good and a kid wanted to use one the same afternoon. After explaining to him how to hold the piece in the vise and how to keep his hands out of the way, he came back about three minutes later looking for a band-aid. I know they're sharp enough to cut skin anyhow. This got me to thinking about who teaches sharpening skills anymore.

No school around here wants a kid carrying a knife to school. We're lucky to still have a traditional woodshop type course that uses edged tools but that may change next year with the new Career Pathways program. I remember being taught how to sharpen things in ag class when I was in school. Of course if no one is using edged tools, no reason to worry about anything being sharp. If you take classes now to teach Tech Ed, it's all different than it was back in my time. Now the focus is on Project Lead the Way and pre-engineering. The Purdue Engineering/Technology Education degree doesn't teach much in the way of skills, so an instructor will never have been taught how to do any sharpening or any real manual skills. It used to be that degree had you take a class in small engines, electricity, woods, drafting, etc. You weren't an expert in anything but you had a little knowledge in a lot of things. Plus the program appealed to people who had probably grown up around tools. Going back a couple of posts, it's no wonder your teenager can't use a hammer. I'm simply amazed every day at what these guys can't do - even more amazed that I was doing some of this stuff in 7th and 8th grade. It won't be long and all skills will have to be picked up from a Saturday morning workshop at the Home Depot or watching a You Tube video. Can't really blame the kids for all of it, though. Hard to learn things you've never been exposed to.

I did get a new catalog from Lindsay Publications and they list a book called Back to Shop Class Metal Working. I couldn't find it on the Lindsay site but the link will take you to it on Amazon (if you read this blog with any regularity, you definitely need a Lindsay catalog). Apparently someone has seen an opportunity to give people what they used to get in shop class.

All you grandpas and grandmas out there need to be teaching the young-uns some practical skills, because you're about their only hope. Every kid needs to know how to sharpen a pocket knife and with all the cooking shows on television, who's sharpening all the kitchen knives? My mom used to buy iron-on patches for the holes in the knees of my blue jeans but grandma did a real nice job of sewing a patch on. Mom said it was iron-on or do it yourself so I got grandma to show me how. Great resource that older generation.

So I'm going to try and teach some basic skills in the Woodshop and try to instill in them the pride of being a craftsman. Hopefully by the end of the year they'll all be able to cut to a line and know which saw should be used for what. Maybe they'll even be able to use fractions. I can only hope. It's going to be a challenge but so far it's looking doable. Just have to keep my fingers crossed.

Note: The link to the Purdue page has been changed. It will now take you to the plan of study for the Tech Ed degree - should make a little more sense now. Thanks Kevin for the correction.

The Egg and I

2011-09-26T05:40:00.000-07:00

Finally reaping the rewards of having a big flock of chickens around the place - I've got two of the Golden Comets and one old Black Java rooster. As you may remember, the rest of the Golden Comets were the victims of the attack of the killer mink. The remaining two are doing well. They aren't much bigger than a Bantam but the egg is a decent size. I need to finish up securing the perimeter before next season so I can get a few more. Financially speaking, they're not too practical but I like chickens, so that's reason enough to keep a few.

As I approach retirement, I'm trying to get myself positioned to be somewhat self-sufficient. I'm planning on expanding the garden a little. This year it just went to hell but I did manage to eat a few tomatoes, peppers and cukes. The apples and the peaches didn't do much and I didn't do much with what I did have. I picked an apple from out in Belfast when we were there and saved the seeds. I'm going to try and get a tree going from that. I planted one from a apple along the ditch bank close to the house a couple of years ago. I know that apples don't always come true to seed but if Johnny Appleseed could plant them, why can't I? I've got some cherry trees planted that should do something in a couple of years. I do have persimmons on the trees out back. They should be ready to pick soon. The Missus makes great persimmon bread. Same with the rhubarb.

So the plan next year, barring any repeat of the 100 mph wind, is to get a little more planted and do a better job of tending, eating and preserving it. The weather will be closing in before too much longer and I'm planning on dragging out a couple of the old books on small farming, curling up in front of the fireplace and doing a little advance planning. The way the economy is looking, both here and abroad, might be a good idea for all of us to be working the plan.

Have a good week.

Ready For Lift-Off

2011-09-24T15:58:00.002-07:00

Spreader Bar

Roof Panels Are Off

Lifting Lugs Ready to Go

The weather looked a little shaky for barn work today but I got everything done, plus made it to the gym this morning. I didn't want to crawl up on the roof if was wet but it dried out nicely this afternoon and I got that taken care of. I'm not all that crazy about getting up there at all, to be honest, but it didn't take long and the roof has got a pretty gentle pitch on the top section. It'll be a little scarier putting them back on when it's about nine feet higher but I'll worry about that when the time comes.

Bringing the spreader bar home was a piece of cake. I had it up on pipe jacks at school, so I just backed underneath it as far as I could then slid it the rest of the way in. I've got a bicycle rack across the front of the truck bed so I clamped the front down to it and put a strap around the back and off we went. I bought a set of towing lights at Harbor Freight for ten bucks just for the barn job - money well spent . When I got it home I pulled it out a ways and then drove out from under it. No muss, no fuss.

Other than a little cleaning up and drilling some holes in the top plate of the walls, I should be ready for lift-off. I'll check with the wrecker company and the weather man and hopefully the lid will be back where it belongs next week. Been a long time coming but as long as the lift goes alright, the rest should be pretty easy. Surly says he can help me sheet the walls, so that should go pretty fast. I'm planning on putting a little deck on the end with the big doors, so I need to check with the Building Trades guy about that. When he pours the approach ramps he can pour a couple of footers for the deck at the same time. I'll be able to set my telescope up out there and I'll be able to watch the 4th of July fireworks from there as well.

If the rain holds off tomorrow, I'll try to get most of the clean up done. If not, I think I'm going to relax and watch some football. I think I deserve a little rest.

Power Tool Repairman

2011-09-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

In the never ending battle for truth, justice and a functioning woodshop, I did a little work on the router the other day. In order to make fine adjustments to the depth of cut, you loosen the clamp as seen on the left and then turn the non-existent knob on the black shaft running vertically in the photo. According to the manual it's supposed to have some kind of graduated dial on the shaft as well so you can make accurate adjustments. I ordered the knob and the screw that holds it on but the other business is no longer available - figures. If you push the black button on the right side it releases the fine adjustment so you can run it up and down easily. Except it didn't do that. I took it apart and found a burr on the shaft that was causing it to hang up and polished that out. Also the body of the router itself was kind of galled up in a few spots so I polished things up a little and now it all seems to be working as designed. The knob will be in on October 3rd, so I should have that problem fixed pretty soon.

I also had to take my hand grinder apart the other day. It's a B&D Wildcat. Without a doubt, no finer grinder for any money. I've been using them ever since I started teaching and they're like a Timex - take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. There used to be a service center for Black & Decker close by so it was easy getting parts but they closed up. Every thing is Internet now. The one I worked on the other day is 17 years old and has seen a lot of use. I need to order in a couple of parts and it'll be back up to snuff. I've always maintained that shop teachers should have a class in college on repairing and maintaining equipment. That would be a lot more helpful than a lot of that pedagogy stuff they throw at you.

Homecoming football game tonight. It's been a pretty quiet week so far but they'll be buzzed this afternoon. I'm thinking maybe show a video to the aspiring woodworkers. Might be a bad day to put them in harm's way.

If the rain holds off, the barn should be ready for lift off this weekend. 'Bout all that's left is to take the roof sheets off and bring the spreader bar home. I've been pretty nervous about the lift but now that everything's in place I'm feeling a little more comfortable. Find out as soon as they take the slack out.

Enjoy the weekend.

Guzzi Anniversary

2011-09-21T05:42:00.000-07:00

Moto Guzzi is celebrating their 90th anniversary. This photo came from Rocket Garage. It was posted Monday along with several others. The captions are all in Italian and you'll have to scroll down past the Aermacchi photos. Neither of which is necessarily a bad thing. Italian Motor magazine blog also has a couple of shots of the Guzzi anniversary thing. Every thing's in English there. If you're into Italian motorcycles - check it out. If not, we'll all just have to wonder where Momma went wrong.

Two of My Favorite Things

2011-09-20T18:51:00.003-07:00

Two of my favorite things

plus Guy LeFleur

We had a two hour delay this morning due to heavy fog so I got up and turned on the TV to see about watching an old black and white movie before heading out. Nothing good on but I noticed that there were several starring Sophia Loren scheduled for the day - thought about calling off. I could finish the lifting cradle and reward myself with a couple of Sofia Loren movies. Cancelled that idea and went to work instead. On my way in I heard that it was Sophia's birthday and Guy LeFleur's as well. My favorite actress and one of my favorite hockey players. She's 77 and he's 60.

I didn't get to see LeFleur play too much for much of his career with the Canadiens. I watched the Blackhawks quite a bit when they were on Channel 9 but when they went to pay-fer, that was it. I did get the Madison Square Garden channel right after I got cable many years back and they had the Rangers' games on. He wasn't what he used to be but he was still one helluva hockey player. Phil Esposito was the coach with the Rangers at that time as well, if memory serves. Another of my all time favorites.

By the way, Surly started a fitness blog to track his new fitness program. I'm assuming it won't be quite like Jack LaLanne but it's good to see him working out. We all should. You can hit the link to see what he's doing and watch the amazing results. You can also rag his ass if he doesn't stay with it.

Business as Usual

2011-09-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Chop Saw Repair

Bookcase

I got rained out on Sunday, so I didn't get the lifting cradle all finished. I don't have too much more to do though. I should be able to get it done in the next couple of days and then I can get the top reunited with the walls. I'll be glad when that's over with. Really looking forward to getting the sheets on the sides so it looks like a barn. It'll be even better when the Missus can park her car in there.

I'm still working on getting things serviceable in the Woodshop. The miter saw had a piece broken on the back fence from someone over tightening the top extension piece. I pulled it back in place and welded it up, then got the saw aligned with the rest of the table so we can make nice, square cuts. We did put together a little bookshelf for me. It's nothing fancy - just something to organize a few of my books and close in the end of my train board. I want to get going on my HO layout one of these days. Now the train board is just a catch-all for junk. Sometimes I wonder how I ever became such a slob.

I've got lots of things I want to make in the Woodshop this year. I need to outfit the upstairs of the barn, of course, but lots of other things as well. I bought a new worm drive saw for the barn job and I want to make a case for it. I'd like to try a little furniture just because. Surly posted that he'd like to design and build some modern design furniture. Maybe we can build a piece of his design. I would like to get better on the wood lathe so in addition to the Indian clubs, I want to try a couple of bowls and some other chuck and face plate work.

Weather is supposed to be good the next few days so I'll work on the barn and enjoy the nice weather while it's here. I'd suggest you try to get outside and enjoy the nice weather too.

Bicycle & Barn

2011-09-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

Photo From Here:

Big sprocket there. Motor pacing started with "Mile a Minute" Murphy. He managed to go 60 mph behind a train on sheets of plywood between the rails. The current motor paced speed record is 167 mph, set by Fred Rompelberg. Before that, the record was 152 set by John Howard in 1985. I don't know much about Fred Rompelberg, but John Howard is nothing but a stud. He did the Race Across America, competed on three Olympic teams and won the Ironman. Pretty impressive resume, that. It's amazing what the human body can accomplish given good genes and an all consuming desire to excel.

That's not me. But I did get some work done on the barn yesterday. I got one of the beams lifted up into position and the stretchers lifted up and fastened into place. I didn't get quite as much done as I wanted but the chest was starting to get sore so I figured I ought to quit. Lots of crawling over and under to get the 2x12 stretchers lifted up and screwed into the bottom of the trusses. I'm putting five of them in to space the lifting beams apart and to keep them from wanting to shift or roll over when the crane picks thing up. Plus, they'll keep the beams up tight against the floor after the top gets set down on the walls. I'm going to put some clips on the beams also to help hold them tight as well. I'll need to be able to cut the crane loose with out them coming down after the lift or else they'll need another 8-9 foot of cable/chain when they make the lift so they can unhook. Depending on the weather, they're calling for rain today, I'd like to get the beams finished up. I need to police up the area and get everything off the floor and then take the roof sheets off.

Getting real close to lift-off.

2011-09-16T05:21:00.000-07:00

Photo From Here:

I need to finish about a dozen projects so I can get me one of these.

I did finish up the spreader bar the other night at Open Shop. It's 17 feet long, so now I need to figure out how to get it home. I could bring the trailer with the spiral stair on it back to school and then load up the spreader bar. I need to get that into school anyway. I wanted to get a couple of other things out of there first, however. I could throw it in the back of my truck. With the tailgate down the bed's about 9.5 feet long. I've got my bicycle rack in there so I'd have something to tie it off to. Just hang a red flag on the end hanging out and take the back roads home. Probably the way I'll go. Maybe today, even.

I'm looking into turning some Indian clubs from the big elm that came down along with the barn this summer. I need to get a little more info on turning green wood so they don't split after I get them done. I know they sell some stuff to paint the ends of the piece with to slow down the drying process but I don't know much more about it than that. I need some practice turning things, so even if they split, it wouldn't be a total loss. I've got a grinder and sharpening set-up coming for the Woodshop. As soon as that comes in and I get the lathe tools sharpened up, I want to get the boys working on some spindle projects. My sister-in-law gave me some wood turning magazines to look through. Like every other skilled trade, so much to learn and so little time to do it.

I'm hoping to have the lifting beams in place this weekend. It will depend on the weather and the back/chest thing. I was doing real well and then I over did it last weekend and have been real sore all week. I have to get the barn job going again regardless. It's been a month since I've done anything. If I get it done, I would have a nice place to park the Moto Guzzi. I'm sure it would look good in there.

Ramping Up

2011-09-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

A Rose is a Rose

Spreader Bar

Things are starting to come along in the Woodshop. I got the fence on the jointer set to 90 degrees. It was set on about 80 and the adjusting mechanism wasn't allowing it to move. I took it all apart and got things unstuck but it still needs a little TLC. At least we can use it and the edges of the board are square to the face. The router is now functional but it too needs a little more work. One of the previous teachers made a really nice cabinet/table for it but after he left it got knocked around a bit. I need to order a replacement knob and screw for the router to be able to adjust the depth of cut like you're supposed to be able to. We got one of the sleds for the table saw finished up as well.

We're starting on making a few things but I can see that anything requiring math is going to be a struggle. I'm not sure what happened with how they teach mathematics but a lot of these guys can't do simple arithmetic. Most shop math is pretty simple arithmetic with a little geometry thrown in once in a while, at least on our level. I did a little exercise to have them compute the length of material required to make a picture frame and some of them really had a hard time. Makes you wonder what they've been doing for the last ten years. But if 13 year olds can't tie their own shoes or button their shirts, why expect 15 year olds to do 4th grade arithmetic? Regardless, I see a wooden boat project in our future.

We're working on the spreader bar for the barn project in the Weldshop. I need to get back on that project post haste. The Building Trades instructor will pour the concrete for the ramps this fall for me, so I need to get the top put back on the bottom. Money wise, I'll need to pay the tab on the big wrecker, buy a new man door and a few replacement sheets of siding and the concrete but the insurance settlement was pretty generous, so I'm good there.

I'm working on some designs for a router and miter saw table for in there after I get the siding on. The boys in the Woodshop should be able to build those. I can then get my table saw and bandsaw out of the basement along with the jointer I bought from my sister-in-law up on top and I'll have my very own wood butcherie. I might buy myself a planer sometime down the road. I'd like to have a wood lathe as well. I'll have to see where my interests and finances take me.

I got an e-mail from my buddy Kevin yesterday - Kevin is the one who had the good sense to get out of the classroom last spring and start on his PhD. The e-mail contained an link to Children's Technology and Engineering journal for those teaching at the elementary level. I'll admit I didn't even know such a journal existed until he sent this along. This issue of the journal deals mainly with integrating art with engineering and technology careers and the importance of this, especially at the elementary level. It's a very interesting concept and one that has been over looked for way too long. That's why I threw the picture of the rose in there. Man does not live by fabrications alone. Kevin co-wrote the article on page four, by the way. I'll be glad when he gets to be king.

An all education post and nothing too negative. Sometimes things actually work like they're supposed to.

Can't Use a Hammer

2011-09-10T05:10:00.000-07:00

Grumpy Unk sent this along to me: "Why Your Teenager Can't Use a Hammer". It's a real good little article, won't take but a minute or so to read it, so be sure you do. One line I find especially interesting:

“We see 13-year-olds who can’t do up buttons or tie laces,” she says. “Parents just avoid it by buying Velcro and T-shirts.” Items that—not incidentally—chimpanzees could put on.

You'd think a kid 13 years old would be embarrassed enough by the fact that a friggin' chimpanzee can tie his own shoes but he can't that he might want to spend ten minutes mastering the skill.

The article also points out the role the hands play in the development of the mind. The same thing Doug Stowe is always preaching about in his Wisdom of the Hands blog. Interesting article, sad, but interesting.

So button up your shirt, tie your shoes and get outside and enjoy the weekend.

Belfast #3

2011-09-09T05:10:00.000-07:00

Tommy and the Two Tones

These were the guys playing at Pollywogg Holler. Real good musicians. Played a nice assortment of stuff - all of which I liked. I got a chance to talk to the lead man, I'm assuming that was Tommy. He said some of them have been playing together since high school. I put a link up in the first Belfast post if you're interested in buying a CD of their music. I think I might, it's good stuff.

Jimmy and Jen Getting Some Licks In

Tommy and the Two Tones were kind enough to let Jimmy and his sister play a number. They did the Georgia Satellites' Keep Your Hands to Yourself. Nice job - crowd loved it. Jimmy won over even more fans there.

Cabin Steps

All the buildings at Pollywogg Holler were some type of cabin. All nicely done. There's no outside electricity there. The musicians were being powered by batteries charged from solar panels. I also noticed a pump that was powered by a weed whacker. I'd like to be a little more self-sufficient like that. Maybe a dual power set-up with batteries for backup or for most of the lighting. Just use the grid for appliances. Most people out there don't have AC but that's a must at my house. That would take a huge investment to be able to get enough wind and solar to keep everything running like it is now. Still, something is better than nothing.

New Cabin

Along with the regular cabins, there were a couple of three sided things you could stay in. I would imagine they had a tarp or something they pulled across the front at night or if it was raining. Just a really cool place.

Original Sign

This was the sign capitalizing on the fact that John L. Sullivan trained in Belfast with William Muldoon. Muldoon was no light weight either. He was the Greaco-Roman wrestling champ, an innovator in the field of physical training and culture, and an actor. He later owned a big health clinic in White Plains New York. He only had 6 weeks to get Sullivan into shape for his fight with Kilrain and Sullivan arrived on crutches, he was in such bad health. The story of Sullivan's training and fight is very interesting. The fight itself, even though it lasted over two hours, was kind of anti-climatic. Kilrain stayed away from Sullivan as much as possible and went to the ground whenever he could, as well. He still took a hell of a beating and his seconds poured so much alcohol into him he was drunk by the time the fight was stopped. I'm about three quarters of the way through the book I got at the book signing about Sullivan's training and the fight. The fight was illegal and as such everyone got on a train and left New Orleans for an undisclosed location. Sullivan was the first athlete to earn over a million dollars and long johns are named after him.

Checker Marathon with Landau Roof
Bitchin!

This old rust bucket was sitting across the street from the barns. It's not often you see a Checker Marathon anymore, they don't even use them for taxi's now, probably because they quit making them in 1982. I've known a couple of people who actually had these things as a family car but this is the only one I've ever seen with the landau bars on the roof. Gotta wonder what they were thinking.

100 Years Old Exercise Stuff

Here's three pieces of equipment that still haven't gone out of style for boxers. The dumbbell is the one pound version but there were some other, heavier ones there. There were some 25 pounders that had the round balls on the end like you used to see in the cartoons. The item on the right is a hand/grip strengthener. Instead of the new style with the hairpin spring, this one had compression springs. I suppose you could change the springs to increase or decrease the force required to compress it. The big guy in the middle is a chest expander. You can pull on it a couple of different ways to work your arms and chest. It would be pretty simple to make one and it's effective.

Indian Clubs

These things are the berries. I don't know why they fell out of favor, they're an extremely effective way of working the muscles of the upper body. They come in a variety of weights - the ones in the photo run from one pound to six. I worked out a few days while I was there and I incorporated them into my routine. Good way to tone and stretch the arms and back. I'm going to see about making some in the woodshop this year. I did a little checking on the internet and found some for sale and it appears they may in fact be making a comeback. I'd like to have a couple of three or four pounders. I'm going to start looking for some stock - good practice for me on the lathe.

The Barns

Here are the famous barns. They were moved to this site a few years ago from a spot about 1/2 mile away. They've been painted up and restored and if you know anything at all about boxing, you know they are sacred. The statue out front is John L. himself, of course. There is no electricity and no one wants to burn the place down with candles, so it's dark in there come night time when the ghosts come out to play.

The second night we were there, Scott had a fire outside and we all sat around and yakked and even played a little music. Right after we hit the sack, I'm upstairs in the rubdown room and I here voices downstairs. I figure someone came in and is talking to Jimmy. I put my boots on, grab the flashlight and head downstairs. Not a soul around! The last night, Matt is sleeping upstairs and he hears voices. He comes down, shines the light around, everyone's sound asleep. The same thing I experienced. The night before I hear a thump, three times in a row like the noise my boot would make if I dropped it on the floor at about a two second interval. Later that night I hear the same thing again. I asked Jimmy in the morning if he'd heard anything in the night and he described exactly the same thing I heard. The night previous to that I wake up when I heard someone calling my name. I heard something I can't quite decipher from Jimmy's end of the barn and figure he's just dreaming. He tells me in the morning he had this terrible nightmare, and he never has nightmares, and in the nightmare he's calling my name and he can't talk because it's like he had a stroke. He was trying to call for help because some big square with light all around it was coming at him.

We're all convinced now that the barns are spooked. Whether it's the ghost of John L. or William Muldoon, I don't know, but something's going on in there. Regardless, I want to go back. It was a great trip, I met some nice people and I had a lot of fun. If you're ever in the western part of New York, you need to stop and check out Belfast and the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame.

Belfast #2

2011-09-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

Spike's Roses

Jimmy at the Anvil

Spike Looking On

Tough Guys

Press Conference

Jimmy in Tights

Jimmy & Annie

As stated previously, we had a great time in Belfast. I took a lot of pictures and Jimmy's wife and sister were video taping everything to put a documentary of some sort together. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone got a picture of the coolest looking tattoo I've ever seen. This young guy showed up there with John L. Sullivan's picture on the top of his arm with St. Pat's church spire in the background and Belfast written along the bottom of it. I'm not all that big on tattoos but I really liked that one.

Matt, one of our fighters, came out to spar with Jimmy. His dad brought him out on Friday after leaving about midnight, took a 30 minute tour of the place and then turned around and headed home. Nothing like a father's love - not many of them would do that.

The sparring sessions were the highlight of the day normally. We usually had a few people checking things out even though it was a work day. We got quite a few old farts who used to do a little boxing back when Hector was a pup. Once it's in your blood you just can't shake it.

The local press gave us a lot of coverage. We had several newspaper articles and Jimmy and Scott did a live radio spot that was really nice. This is quite the labor of love for Scott. He's got a lot of time and money invested in this operation and hopefully he'll get some kind of return on his investment one of these days.

I'll post the final installment in a couple of days. You'll get a few more photos and the ghost stories. Pretty scary!

Belfast

2011-09-05T15:44:00.000-07:00

Made it home from Belfast today about 4:00. Great week we had. Met a lot of nice people. Did some interesting things and got woke up by the spooks inside the barns a couple of nights. Spent my birthday at Pollywogg Holler listening to Tommy and the Two Tones, went to Spike Jones' house to do some blacksmithing, helped Jimmy while he was splitting wood, and got everyone set up on the sparring sessions. I'll be posting some pictures and adding more about the events of the last week in the next few days but the guys from Enchanted Mountain Martial Arts Academy warrant special mention.

Scott, the owner of the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame, somehow connected with these guys to come up and spar with Jimmy. A bunch of young guys, most with some type of military background it seemed, and I personally am real glad they're on our side. Nice guys, all of them. Extremely polite, very pleasant to talk to and be around, but real tough guys. I don't mean guys that are real tough but guys who are the real deal tough. Physically and mentally tough. The kind of guys who are so tough they are nice because they have nothing to prove to anyone and know themselves well. Master Barry I'm thinking is cut from the same cloth as well. I'm proud to have met all of them and really glad they came out to spar.

Enough for now.

Sparring Partners

2011-08-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Photos from here:

Most of them don't look like this. Jimmy's been sparring everyday at 3:30. A local martial arts studio has been bringing guys in. Tough guys but not great boxers. Two of them have come the first two days - they were huffing and puffing pretty good after a couple of rounds but mostly from not relaxing. It's tough getting in with a pro fighter and not knowing what to expect. They were a little more relaxed the second day and the sparring went pretty well. Jimmy's been working pretty hard. He did a ten mile run yesterday morning and the owner of the Bare Knuckle Hall of Fame arranged for a local lady to run with Jimmy on the old rail bed of the Erie. She's a nice gal, pretty too, who's training for a marathon. They're doing a four miler after Jimmy spars today. Jimmy split some wood as part of his training this morning. First time he's ever done that. I had to coach him a little but he got the hang of it pretty quickly and got a couple of blisters to show for his time.

The barns we're staying in are really cool. This was the spot John L. Sullivan trained for the last bare knuckle championship fight and Jimmy is the first guy to train here for over 100 years. No electricity in the barns, so it's early to bed and early to rise. It was raining this morning so I let Jimmy sleep in a little. We did get our walk in right after breakfast, however. I brought an old army style cot with me to sleep on - the thing is probably 40 years old. The canvas ripped this morning when I leaned over to shut the alarm off so I'll be sleeping on the work-out mat this evening. At least I didn't fall through the thing last night. I about froze the first night. It was pretty warm when I went up to bed and as the night cooled off I kept waking up cold, adding another layer off clothing and going back to sleep. I did that about three times before it was time to get up.

We had John L. Sullivan wings last night for dinner at the Belfast Hotel - real tasty. Pretty cool old place and the people here have just been wonderful to all of us. We had a press conference when we got in on Tuesday that was well attended by the local press. A couple of really nice articles in the paper and a radio spot to boot. Other than the rain last night and the little bit this morning, the weather has been great.

I'm typing this up at the local library and the hours are pretty spotty, especially with Jimmy's busy schedule. I'll try and get up another post in a couple of days.

Alternate Power Initiative

2011-08-28T07:17:00.000-07:00

I went to the Alternate Power Initiative with my buddy yesterday. If you've been reading here for a while you might recall earlier posts about the Initiative and the steam engine I started constructing. Had I completed it, this would have been the contest. As it was, there were only three real entrants, an air powered tricycle, an air powered car, and a steam car.

The tricycle entrant didn't get too far but farther than his entry last year, which was an air powered go-kart. It wasn't too sophisticated but the guy was having some fun. He came home with a couple of bucks and he'll probably get his picture in the paper again, so how can you beat that?

The little air powered car was a real slick little piece of craftsmanship. It's powered by four air tanks connected to an impact wrench. It went 3.1 miles of the 5 mile course. It was very well finished and you could tell a lot of thought and work went into the construction.

The steam powered car I'm sure went the distance but we didn't stick around for the finish. It complied with the letter of the rules but not really the spirit. It looked like this thing has been around for a while and he just brought it down to compete to make a couple of bucks prize money or, more probably, to show it off and drum up some support for the Steam Automobile Club of America. Nothing wrong with that. If I had a steam car, I would have done the same.

It just so happens that the guy with the title of Event Promoter for the City of Whiting, or something like that, is a guy I know from my old days of working up that way. I had a chance to talk with him for a time and he wants to have the street lined up with cars next year, especially teams from schools. I've got my buddy thinking now, so we'll see what happens. Technically, this wouldn't be starting another project but completing one. After seeing it, it looks like it would be fun and a nice challenge. Definitely need some help in the engineering department, though. I don't have enough "think time" as it is right now.

Rollfast

2011-08-26T17:23:00.001-07:00

1964 Rollfast.

The Missus had me get her old bicycle out for her, which I was more than happy to do. I washed it up and put the new handlebars on and she took it out for a little spin. I put some new tires on it and cleaned up the chrome on the wheels this spring, so it's ready to go. She got the bike for her 8th grade graduation, so it's been around awhile, but it's everything a middleweight coaster brake equipped bike should be. It weighs a ton but once moving, rides really nice. I think the Missus is planning on getting a little exercise which I'm glad to see. She's got some health issues that would probably benefit from a little bicycle time on a regular basis but I'm of the opinion that any of us that are going to be sitting on our asses (not just the Missus, mind you), would be a lot better off if there's a bicycle under it when we do. So unless your in the path of the hurricane, get out this weekend and ride that bike.

School News

2011-08-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm already into my second week of the school year and no one's got hurt in the Woodshop. Pretty happy about that. I found a place that sells hardwood and we're getting all our fixtures made up. Pretty happy about that as well. And keeping with the theme, our superintendent quit - you can fill in the rest. He was quoted in the paper as saying: "I'ts so negative here. I don't want to work here anymore". I'm sure a lot of other people feel exactly the same way.

So I'm thinking of throwing my hat in the ring for the superintendent's job. The State of Indiana changed the requirements to be a teacher and a superintendent. To be a teacher, about all you have to do now is take a test for the specific area you want to teach, pass it and you're in. For the superintendents's job, even less is required, if I remember correctly, at least for a couple of years. Normally they give the superintendent a three year contract, so my plan is to get the job, totally screw things up, and they'll buy out the remaining two years of my contract. I get a couple hundred thousand for touring Italy on my Moto Guzzi or sitting around the shack pickin' shit with the chickens. You may laugh at the idea but I read in the paper the other day they bought out the contract for the superintendent of the Philadelphia schools for something like 900 large. I could tour all of Europe for that kind of money.

We've started working in the Weldshop already - made a mailbox post for the new school, fixed a couple of desks, I welded up a flange on an exhaust pipe for a big truck and I welded up a mount on a radiator for a 600 Suzuki today. Not a bad start to the school year, really. I hope to get some work done on a couple of my projects this year but I'm not making any predictions on any thing. Every time I get ready to hit a couple of licks on one of my long term projects, something else comes in the door. I'm just going to continue on the "let's finish some of this crap up before we start on anything else" path.

Soft as Pudding

2011-08-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

I saw this in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal:

Young adults born in the 1980s and early 1990s leaped out of nicotine- and alcohol-free wombs to be deemed geniuses every time they passed a test, awarded trophies every time they caught a ball and tucked into comfy car seats on the victory ride over to their favorite sushi palace. They took groovy public-service internships at an age when their grandfathers were sweating on assembly lines or being shot at by Nazis, lived with their parents until they were 28, then proceeded directly to their shrinks for marathon weeping sessions every time they messed up a project at work. They're as soft as pudding, and they know it. The Greatest Generation didn't need triathlons or X-treme skateboarding.

"Soft as pudding", pretty funny that. Might help to explain why it's hard to find guys willing to tough it out in the boxing gym. It might also help to explain the state of education.

And speaking of education, I signed my new contract the other day but the courts have declared it illegal. Seems that you can't actually have a contract stating we can change your hours or working conditions as we see fit, and you're still going to get the same money, regardless.

Weekend's here. Cut the grass, go to the gym, build a barn, repeat.

Enjoy.

Training Like it's 1889

2011-08-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

That's the headline in the Olean, New York newspaper about Jimmy's upcoming training session in Belfast. I went to the paper's web site but I couldn't read the whole article because you need to sign in and all that jazz but I did read the article in it's entirety at the gym last night in a real live paper edition and it's a darn good article. We're supposed to show up there August 30th and train using the Muldoon method, which will include Jimmy plowing behind a horse, blacksmithing, horseback riding, tossing the medicine ball, walking, running, sparring and who knows what else. The best thing that I can see from what I've read of the training is that they had a Bass Ale every night with dinner.

It mentions in the article that Jimmy will be wearing some period correct tights while sparring. In the spirit of things I'm thinking of shaving off the full beard and going with some mutton chops and a handlebar mustache for the week. I haven't shaved the beard off in at least twenty years, I would guess. Might be nice to see a little more of the old face for a few days. I can't see me shaving every day, though. The beards not really a fashion statement, I'm just too lazy to get up every morning and shave.

On a completely different note, I got a little work in on the barn this week. I worked on the lifting beams. Depending on the weather, I'm planning on getting a little more done this weekend. Of course, I'll probably have to cut the grass again. I mow the front one day, the back the next day, wait a day and start over again. Between that and the gym, it's really hard to get anything else done now that I'm back in school. Shouldn't whine too loud though, still better than a real job.

The weekend's about here - enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

Back to School

2011-08-18T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm back in the saddle again. Starting year 36 and it looks like it might actually be a good one. My schedule is just about perfect. I start the day off with my vocational welding class, two beginning welding classes and then two wood shop classes. Of course these aren't the real course titles. The real ones are some type of "systems" or "processes" but that's OK. It looks like I've got a real good bunch of guys except for a couple of knuckleheads in one of the wood shop classes. If I've only got a couple, it should be a good year.

Finally got my computer running on Monday. My remote terminal in the shop still isn't working but that's not urgent. Just real convenient to have. We've been putting together some new lockers for the Weld Shop the last couple of days. According to the instructions, should take two people 30 minutes. We hope to be finished tomorrow after about five hours. They're going to be nice, though. The regular school lockers aren't big enough to fit a welding helmet and a lot of the students bring their own helmets in. They'll be able to keep them under lock and key and not have to drag them around or keep them in my office.

We're working on some things in the wood shop as well. The other guy left kind of a mess for me to straighten out. I don't blame him at all. He got an involuntary transfer and they cut a day from his contract that he could have used to get his stuff moved. Regardless, we're getting it taken care of and getting the opportunity to get things the way I want them. I'm not sure what all I need in there yet but I know we need to make a sled for the table saw and fix the router table. We'll tackle it a day at a time and just see how it goes. If things go as planned, I should be able to sneak the wooden boat I've wanted to build in there someplace. I'm not 100%, but I'm thinking about a Martin skiff. Wooden boat ran a how-to series on this one a few years back and looks pretty much like what I want as well as what I'm capable of building. I just got the new Wooden Boat magazine yesterday and there were several mentions of school boat building programs in there. We might be able to get a little positive press if things go well.

So I'm kind of like the Cub's fan during spring training. Always hopeful as hell that this will be a championship year and then the reality sets in. Well, maybe not that bad. I've had a lot of championship years. Even the Yankees don't make the World Series every year but I'm hoping to once again be a contender. If I can get the computer issues worked out, I should be golden.

Like Pulling Teeth

2011-08-13T04:32:00.000-07:00

I had a wisdom tooth pulled Thursday afternoon - that was a lot of fun. As you can see from the photo, the roots curled quite a bit. And, of course, they curled the wrong direction for an easy extraction. So now a day and a half later, I've got a big hole in the back of my mouth and a sore jaw. It also has necessitated the changing of the diet. I'm suffering from chips and cookies withdrawal but eating oatmeal and yogurt is probably a lot better for me anyway. I'm going to try and lose a few pounds starting next week in the interest of lowering my blood pressure and just feeling better. Weaning myself off of chips and cookies is probably a good way to start.

I had to go in to school yesterday. I planned on getting some things organized, cleaned up and working on the computer. I got the clean-up taken care off. I went down to the Wood Shop to see about getting a little organization to both the shop and what I'm going to be doing. Struck out on the computer, though. I figured I'd sit down and get a start on my Moodle lesson plans but the computer wouldn't work. They were hooking up a projector in there and apparently didn't finish that job, so no computer. I've been asking for a projector for three years, so at least there's one hanging from the ceiling. I probably should have specified that I wanted one that worked. My bad. I did finish welding the lifting brackets while I was in there, so not a total waste of time.

School starts Monday and the little darlings report Tuesday. My 36th start but only one more after this one. Not sure what the heck I'm going to do in the Wood Shop this year but I think there might be a wooden boat in there someplace. With school starting, I'm going to be busy as hell until I finish the barn but they changed the hours, so I'll be getting home a little earlier every afternoon. I should be able to get a little something done every day until it's finished.

Happy birthday to the Missus today. We keep getting older but considering the alternative, that's a good thing.

I'm off to help with the 5K run and walk now. I'm going to be keeping an eye on the race walkers to make sure they don't cheat. Since I'm not competing, might as well help out a little. Hope the rain holds off.

Have a good weekend.

Walls Are Ready

2011-08-11T05:54:00.002-07:00

I finished up the walls yesterday. I got all the purlins installed and put up a few more diagonal braces. Those, in addition to the OSB sheets on the corners, should keep everything together once the lid is back on. The braces are screwed on rather than nailed which should make them a little more storm resistant as well as make them easier to remove when the time comes. I'll probably insulate and cover the inside walls at a later date. Maybe just run some more OSB around it. I've got plenty of time to decide that.

I started pulling the floor up last evening so I could set the lifting beams. Seems the boys glued and nailed the floor panels down. I got one side done before the mosquitoes started to swarm over me. I'm going to work on some odds and ends this morning and get a wisdom tooth pulled this afternoon. I have to go in to work tomorrow, so I probably won't get back to the barn project until Sat. afternoon. I've got stuff going on Sunday as well, so if I'm lucky, I might be able to have the lifting beams ready to go before Monday. Of course, they are forecasting more rain for the weekend.

So it looks like I'm not quite going to be back to where I started the summer on this project. It's taken up most of the summer but it's actually been kind of fun. Lot's of hard work in the miserable heat and humidity but an interesting challenge. If the lifting and setting of the roof goes as planned, then it will be worth a pat on the back and maybe an "Atta Boy". If it doesn't go as planned, well, I don't even want to think about that.

My favorite Ducati of all time - 900 SS. Photo from here.

When the barn gets done, it'll be time to work on the projects again. I'm thinking I really need to get a street bike together. I've got a lot to do at school the first couple of weeks - new class to teach, Moodle thing to master, get my self organized a little - and then I'll be able to tackle a few things. Every time I go out into my shop I hear the 900 Kaw calling my name. If I drug that over to school and spent a few evenings or Saturday afternoons working on it, I'd have it done pretty quick. Not really that much more to do. Be nice to have a bike to ride again. Been a long time now since I had something to ride. That needs to change.

Enough resting. Gotta get a little something done.

Lugs

2011-08-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

Lifting Lugs

Cut Edge

I picked up the pieces for my lifting cradle from Steelcraft Fabricators. Taking my stuff there was a wise move. I could have cut the parts out myself but I can't drill an 1-1/8" hole so I would have had to cut everything by hand, including the hole. By the time I got them done and cleaned up, it just wasn't going to be worth it. If you look at the close up of the cut edge, that's just how the part comes from the torch. No slag to chip off, the edges are square and the dimensions are right on the money. Can't beat that. Good people to do business with. I started welding things together this morning - got the four lifting thingies tacked together and two welded up before lunch. Picked up a few more 2x4s on the way home so I can finish running the purlins around the building. The walls are just about ready for the top to be put back on.

It looks like it's a go for the trip to the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame trip. There was a little write up in the local paper out there about Jimmy coming to train. I'll have to burn most of my personal business days but that's not much of a hardship. It should be a lot of fun and unlike the trip to Oklahoma, I'll be able to do more than just sit around in a hotel room. I'm going to try and work out as much as possible while I'm there. Since I quit running and cycling, both my weight and blood pressure have crept up. I need to keep both of those under control so I can enjoy my upcoming retirement.

The weather is supposed to be just about perfect tomorrow. I'm going to work on the barn, naturally enough, but what I should do is go fishing. The weather this summer has been terrible. It was either hot and humid or storming. I can't remember having more than one of those nice summer showers. It's always thunder, lightning and wind gusts. Kind of like yesterday, actually. Anyway, tomorrow's going to be a good one and that will make two in a row. Enjoy them while we got 'em.

Header's In

2011-08-07T13:47:00.000-07:00

I got some much needed help this morning moving the lifting beams and the header. Since I'm not sure of the company policy, I won't mention who helped, but his service truck with the crane made things real easy. It took about 2-1/2 hours to load the beams, transport them, stick them under the barn roof, set the header and put the spiral staircase on the trailer to take back to school. If it would have taken two hours and 25 minutes, we wouldn't have gotten wet. A damn storm blew in just as we were setting the header. We still got the stair set on the trailer, even though it was like a big lightning rod hanging off the end of the crane, just as the rain started really coming down. We both got soaked, but for me at least, it was well worth it.

It's good to have friends - thanks.

Next step on the walls is to get the plywood on the corners to keep everything together and square, complete the header installation and start nailing up the purlins. Next step on the roof section is to make the spreader bar and lifting what-cha-ma-call-its for the lifting beams. I took some stock over to the place I buy my material Friday and he's going to cut out some pieces for me on his big plasma. Those should be done tomorrow afternoon. Once I get those, I can make the lifting things and slide those on the beams and bolt them in. Then it's jack the beams and cross ties into place and secure all that. After that, take a few roof sections off and call the wrecker. Piece O' Cake.

Mower/Barn

2011-08-06T18:05:00.001-07:00

I got my new mower delivered this morning. I spent a good part of Thursday checking out just about every lawn and garden outfit within a 30 mile radius. I finally settled on a Bad Boy. Because it's a zero turn, I had visions of ramming into and mowing off about everything in sight but I figured it out pretty quick. I managed to mow the front and back prior to heading out to the gym at ten. Looks like I'll be able to mow in just about half the time it took before. Of course, the other mower wouldn't hardly back up anymore, so that slowed things down considerably.

I went over to school in the afternoon and finished bolting together the second lifting beam. I've got some help coming in the morning to get them loaded on the trailer. Since I'm not sure how long it will take to load and deliver them, I'm not sure what else we can get done. It'll be nice if we can get the header spotted inside the barn or up on some scaffolding. I don't want to take too much of his time - he works lots of hours.

I got a little more work done on the walls but got rained out this afternoon. That means the grass is going to continue to grow - good thing I got the mower. Surly gave me a hand moving the last of the appliances back into the kitchen. I got the trim installed in the laundry room but I've still got a couple of pieces to finish in the kitchen. I didn't think of it until now or I would have worked on it earlier today. I need to remember the goal for the year: Finish what you start and don't start anything else until you do. It's been a little trouble finishing anything with the barn job going on but it's been real easy not to start anything else, however.

Won't be long and it'll be time for lift-off. I might be able to schedule the wrecker for the end of the week. I'm getting a wisdom tooth pulled on Thursday plus I've got a few other odds and ends to look after this week. Just might be able to get the lid put back on, though.

We've Got Walls

2011-08-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

The Building Trades Instructor came by today and gave me a hand on the walls of the barn. We got the two I already had built put up and we got the last one pretty much done. I need to line up some muscle to give us a hand lifting the header up onto the plate and while the muscle is here, they can give me a hand putting the lifting beams under the lid. I'm shooting for Monday. I need to finish the one beam first and I've got some computer training on Friday. I also need to go shopping for a lawn mower. It looks like mine isn't going to be able to finish out the season.

The tile guys finished up today - the new floor looks pretty nice. It's a hell of an improvement from the carpet that was in there. Who puts carpet in a kitchen anyway? Must have been someone who didn't cook. I need to let the tile set up a day before I start putting the appliances back and I need to get the baseboard installed after that. Another job for my spare time.

As always, lots to do and little time to get it done. Actually, I would have gotten more done this summer if I wasn't so damn tired at the end of the day. The heat sucks the strength out of me and when I could be getting some other things done inside, I'm rocking back in the recliner nursing a sore chest or back or just trying to recover. One good thing, in a oddball sort of way, is that most of the back issues lately are the standard lower back thing caused by the heavy lifting. I've been nursing that for years - kind of like an old friend come-a-callin' instead of the other crap I've had going on. I'll be able to rest Friday while I'm learning to Moodle. Hard to get too excited about something like that when you're already starting to think of yourself as a short timer. But hey, we got walls!

Venice Morning

2011-08-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

Photo From Here:

(NSFW)

Not exactly a Venice morning (more like a Kersey morning) but I recognized this spot as soon as I saw the photograph. I also was looking at the new Bicycling magazine yesterday morning and there's an article in there about a bike ride in the area around Siena. Proud to say I've been there too.

Looks like another hot day on tap. I told the Missus the other day I can't wait for the knuckleheads on the radio to be forecasting wind chill advisories instead of the damn heat index. They're forecasting some storms for this week. Might have a tough time getting anything done on the barn. I'm going to try and finish up the other lifting beam today and be ready to go on that, at least.

Only two weeks left of my vacation. Didn't get diddly squat done on the list of things I'd hoped to get accomplished, but like the Cubs, there's always next year. The tile guys showed up though, so we'll have a new floor in the kitchen and laundry room. Could be worse, all things considered.

Stay cool.

Walls

2011-07-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

One wall up,

one ready to go.

The walls are going back up, finally. My buddy Kevin came by the other morning and gave me a hand standing up the back wall and moving the freezer for the laundry room job. I got the south wall nailed together today and patched up a spot on the laundry room floor that needed a little attention before the tile guys get here on Monday. Tomorrow I'll try and get the north wall put together, move all the appliances and get the remaining linoleum and carpet up that's under them. I'll see if I can get some people scheduled for next week to give me a hand standing the north and south walls up, as well as building the east wall. It's going to take some muscle to lift up the header over the big doors. Hopefully, I'll have the lifting beams done by then so they can give me a hand sliding those under the top section. I should be able to jack them up into place by myself - maybe need one other pair of hands.

It's been a lot of work to get to this point. We had another big storm the other day and I thought about what would happen if I got to the same point in the construction process and a big storm hit again. I'm going to make sure I've got plenty of bracing on things before the top goes back on. I think I'll take some of the old 2x4 purlins from the first go-round and use those as diagonal braces on the sides. I'll screw them into the top and bottom plates as well as the studs. That should prevent the thing from racking out of shape if we do get a big blow. There's a 2x4 purlin around the bottom plate to fasten the siding to. I think I'm going to replace that with a 2x6, at least on the back wall. The extra width will let me fasten the double bottom plate and the studs together. That will help prevent the studs from pulling off the plate as well. That's what happened last time. When the wind blew, it racked out of shape and pulled the nails out of the end of the studs and down she came. Of course, if the siding would have been on, I probably would have been OK. I'm not taking any chances this time, though. It'll be hell for strong.

Lifting Beam

2011-07-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Lifting Beam

I'm taking a little break before I head to the gym. I got one of the lifting beams finished this morning. Thirty feet long and about 250 -300 lbs. I welded up the splice on the second plate before I came home for lunch so I'm ready to go on that one next time I head over to school. I got the back wall of the barn put together yesterday but it's a little too big for me to stand up by myself. Surly's supposed to drop the grand kids off this evening and maybe give me a little help on things depending on time and weather. It'll only take five minutes to stand the wall up - I've got the braces ready to go and everything. When I get that one up, I'll start on the side walls. I've got the south wall laid out except for a short piece of the top plate. I think I've got just about everything I need now to finish the job except a new service door and the replacement sheet metal. I might have to get some more 2x4's for the purlins but I'm closing in on it. The only other big financial outlay will be the wrecker bill. If that goes as planned, hang the siding before the wind blows it down again.

Started pulling up carpet and linoleum after lunch. That's going to be a real pain in the ass. I got everything up in the laundry room except for what's under the appliances. I'll take care of that Sunday after we get everything washed and dried. Just need to have it ship shape by Monday morning. Depending on the weather and the grandsons, I'll be working on a wall, carpeting, all or none of the above tomorrow.

Plates Are Done

2011-07-26T05:55:00.000-07:00

I was able to borrow a mag drill, so I got my plates drilled for the lifting cradle. It just so happens a former student was kind enough to loan me one. It's good to have friends - thanks Dave. I'm baby sitting again today, so I won't see much progress today but I might be able to get to the lumber yard for some studs and layout the back wall. I've got a dentist appointment later in the day so that will rule out any work this evening. I would like to get at least one wall up this week. I need to get a material list and get the remaining lumber out to the house. I'll have them deliver the long 2x12's for the lifting cradle and then load them up on a trailer and get them over to school to finish the beams for that part of the job. I'm going to need plenty of muscle for the front wall with that big header, so I'd like to have the beams done and on site so I can have some help sliding them under the roof section while I've got the manpower.

I need to get the appliances out of the laundry room and kitchen and the carpet torn out this week to be ready for the tile guys next week. I might see about starting that today. I can do some of that while the boys are here, I think. I'll just play it by ear and do what I can, either inside or out depending on the weather and the grandsons.

Jimmy just got back from the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame. He and I might be going there to do some promotional thing later this year. The Hall of Fame is located where William Muldoon trained John L. Sullivan himself for the last Bare Knuckle Championship.. We'll stay in the barn where they trained and Jimmy will train using some of Muldoon's training methods. Sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Actually it sounds more like a camping trip - not exactly posh living quarters - but fun just the same. One more reason why I need to see some progress on the barn.

Lots to do and summer break is fast slipping away. I'll keep plugging away at the projects and take what I get. I was doing real good on finishing things until the barn crashed. It'll all be worth it once it's done, though.

2011-07-23T05:45:00.001-07:00

Ryan

Mike

Clip Angles

Cradle Plates

I'm officially retired as the County Fair blacksmith. I handed in my key to the shop after finishing up Friday. It's just too much work and too much time, for too few people. I did see a few people on Friday, however. A couple of families with some kids and an individual who stuck around and talked for quite awhile. He's building a replica of Elwood Haynes' first motorcar. He also raises Talapia and sounds like he dabbles in all sorts of alternative energy/recycling projects. Naturally enough, he touched on WTSHTF scenarios - you can't be working on alternative energy and self-sufficiency here in the Midwest without a little bit of the New World Order or Zombies creeping into the conversation. Interesting guy, just the same.

The tractor photos above show a couple of former students lining up for the tractor parade they have every year. A couple of good ones right there. The other photos show the clip angles and plates for the lifting cradle.

The plates will get sandwiched between a couple of 2x12's to make up a pair of beams that will run the length of the building. The clip angles will allow me to bolt cross ties to the beams for spreaders. Unfortunately my magnetic drill quit working and the part to fix it is no longer available. The guy is checking to see if something else will cross reference. If not, instead of an eighty-five dollar part, I'll have to buy a new drill motor for about $600.00. I'm not liking that idea. I called around and none of the rental places have a mag drill and the pieces are too big for me to be man-handling around by myself under the drill press or the iron worker. I'll see what the guy comes up with for parts first. You would think that Milwaukee Electric Tools would make an armature that would fit the thing. I don't know if anyone could rewind it, and if so, what that would cost. I can't see me drilling all those holes with a hand drill, though.

The Missus and I are doing some baby-sitting next week, plus we're getting new tile in the kitchen and laundry room the following week. I can save a few bucks by moving the appliances and ripping out the old carpet myself, so I won't have a lot of time for the barn project between the grandkids and floor prep. I've only got three weeks of vacation left. It's looking like I'll be lucky to have the barn at the same stage it was before summer started. Regardless, it'll get done.

Hopefully, before the snow flies.

Enjoy the weekend, it's supposed to cool down a little here. Lets hope so.

Fair Days

2011-07-20T05:35:00.000-07:00

Working the Blacksmith Shop again. I'm thinking this is going to be my fairwell tour (I know I misspelled farewell, it's a joke). It's too damn hot and too much work for the amount of traffic that goes through there. I saw a grand total of three people on Monday and not much better on Tuesday. I had a couple of friends stop by both days to say hi, but hardly any actual fair traffic. It was pretty slow last year as well.

I did get my pork burger and pork tenderloin sandwiches already, though. The Farm Bureau sells a chocolate shake for two bucks that I got on my way out yesterday. So I've pretty much hit the high spots.

They've got some nice tractors on display again this year. The Allis in the picture is just like the one my brother used to have - WD 45 Diesel. I really enjoyed driving that thing. The Minneapolis-Moline has been fitted with a GMC 4-53 Diesel. They did a nice job of putting that engine in. It looks like it belongs. I'm assuming they pull with it judging by the size of the tires on it.

There's a log cabin a couple of buildings away from the Blacksmith Shop and I went down that way today to eat my tenderloin under the shade tree. I went inside and noticed that they had a fireplace but no tools, so as soon as the fire got going I made them a poker. Nothing fancy but it fits with the log cabin era. I made myself a little knife today as well. I picked up a piece of antler a couple of years ago, figuring I'd get around to making a knife to go with it some day. Yesterday was the day. I haven't been making anything like that because of the little chilluns that come around but since there hasn't been anyone at all coming around, seemed like a good time. It needs some finishing work but it's about 80%. Not sure what I'm going to do today but I've got a few small things to work on. Fortunately the temperature is supposed to stop climbing before it hits 100. With the heat index it should be about like it was in Oklahoma. It was 105 in the corner of the shop away from the forge yesterday. That's with a window fan between it and the heat source. Gotta be 120 when you get up close to the forge.