Job Done

 

I finished the lead pot yesterday. It's a bit larger than what it needs to be for making lead soldiers, but I think the hammer mold is still over at the high school and I'd like to make a couple more. Plus, I might get ambitious and see about making some ammo for my muzzle loader - certainly not a priority since I haven't shot it in at least 10 years. However, since Surly was talking about a job, we've got everything we need now.

After cleaning up the shop I did a "walk-a-bout" to see what's what around here. I've got lots of half-finished things around here - need to get busy and see if I can complete a few of them. 

Mini-Bike

 

Surly bought himself a mini-bike recently. He and a couple of his buddies have decided to fool around with these things and see who will be the first one to break a wrist or a collar bone. I picked one up years ago when he was a pup, fixed it up to give it to him for Christmas. I ran it down the sidewalk and figured it was an accident waiting to happen, so I got rid of it.

The one in the photo is a Ruttman Spyder, or was originally. It has been modified some and we modified it more yesterday. Actually, what we did was more on the order of getting things straightened out, both functionally and cosmetically.

The original braking was with a drum brake in the rear wheel. Someone added a scrub brake on the rear wheel that was somewhat functional but butt-ugly. We made a new lever, added a better set-up for the return spring and added a stop bolt to adjust the resting position of the lever. I cut a couple of brackets off and extended the kick stand. That should be all of the fabricating.

Surly will have a nice little rig when he gets it all done. I had a great time working in the shop with him yesterday - it's been a while since we've worked on a project together.

Lead Pot

 

When Surly came down the other day he mentioned he wanted to pour some lead for a job and found the ladle, the army man molds and the little electric heater, but not the big lead pot I made years ago. I took a look around later and I couldn't find it, either. I think I might have loaned it to the high school instructor, but rather than checking with him, I decided to make another one. Not much to it - a piece of pipe, plate on the bottom, a little tab to grip with a pair of vise grips, and a pour spout made from a short piece of angle. In this case, the pipe had a cut-out where the spout was going, so I had to make filler pieces. I've still got to make feet and a bail, and clean up the welds on the inside of the spout - maybe today. 

Blues for a Friday

 

The Blues ain't a thing around here - life's pretty good these days, all things considered. Eye sight's not all that good, same with my hearing, cardiac patient and have more than a few aches and pains, but still kicking and haven't lost my marbles yet, so I'll just ride this train as far as it'll take me. 

The weather's been good the last couple of days - just like spring should be. My new insurance policy on the bikes takes effect today, so I need to get a plate for the Sportster and take it out once in a while. Time to get the bicycle out as well. I haven't got my fitness plan finalized for the summer but I'm going to be setting aside time every morning for riding the bike and/or some Tai-Chi work and get caught up on some yard work and shop time. Looking forward to a productive summer in spite of what's going on with world and national events. The Empire as we know it is sinking fast. Since there's nothing I can do to fix it, I'll just count my blessings and enjoy my time on this earth. 

Rhubarb Bread

 

I made a couple of loaves of rhubarb bread yesterday morning. Not the most attractive photo, but I can assure you they tasted better than they looked. Bad lighting, and the dark color makes the bread look burnt, but such is not the case. The Missus gave me a new recipe and it called for sprinkling a mixture of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon over the top of the batter prior to baking. Didn't help with the appearance but did enhance the taste. One loaf for eating, one loaf for freezing.

Afterward cleaning up the kitchen, took the dog to the vet, weed whacked his poop park, and then mowed the back yard. Fairly productive day. Haircut and mowing the front yard on tap this morning. Nothing definite planned for later.  

Fine Day at the Shack

 

Surly came down yesterday to give me a hand turning the garden over. By giving me a hand I mean doing all the work. I'll need to finish up some things but the strip on the left was sod, so the help was greatly appreciated. The lower right spot has some strawberries. I'm going to put some type of edging around them. The green spot in the middle has asparagus plants there. I'll clean that up with a hand trowel and get the edge next to the rhubarb cleaned up as well.

While Surly was here I had him help me load my "T" argon cylinder in my pickup. In this case I actually did my share. A full tank weighs about 130 lbs. I used to hump those things around solo, but as Clint said, a man has to know his limitations. The big cylinder holds twice the gas as the "S" cylinder I just refilled. Since my torch is no longer leaking, I just might have a lifetime supply now.

It was cold Sunday night. The water in the birdbath was frozen yesterday morning. I gave a quick glance at the fruit trees, and they didn't seem to be hurt but I'll know more in a couple of days. Lots of work to do, both inside and out, but I'm looking forward to knocking out a few jobs on the "honey-do" list. 

Corvettes

I was looking through Market Place the other day, primarily to find a used rototiller cheap and close to home, and a couple of early eighties Corvettes popped up. I'm not in the market for any automobile presently but I was surprised at the prices - $5,000 or $6,000. I always thought a Corvette would be a good investment and would appreciate in value. I knew they were slugs as far as performance went. They were no longer "the only American sportscar" as they were once marketed but became cars old men with deep pockets bought. 

I looked up the specs on these dogs and it's pretty easy to understand why they're selling so cheap on the used market. A 350 CID engine making 200 horsepower with an automatic trans behind it. If you were to compare the specs of a 1962 Corvette, you could get a 327 with the solid lifter cam that was making 340 horses and a 4-speed trans.

I had a '62 Impala like this one. It also had a 327 and a 4-speed. There were several engine options, including the 327 in two different states of tune - 250 hp or a 300 hp version. The straight six with the 3-speed had about the same performance as the '82 'Vette.

So going forward twenty years, it appears the Corvette went backwards in performance, rather than forwards. I realize much of this was due to federal smog requirements, but it seems like GM decided the answer was to shave the lumps off the camshafts, lean out the engines and make sure you couldn't adjust the carburetors. 

Fortunately, Corvette went back to its roots and decided to build real sportscars again. The bottom of the current line will run you about $70,000 but you can go up to over 1,000 horsepower if you're willing to part with $200,000. Personally, if I was going to consider buying a sportscar that would be fun to drive and wouldn't break the bank with selling price, sales tax and insurance, I'd look hard at a Honda Civic Type R.  315 horsepower, 6-speed transmission and less than $50,000. I'm thinking the fun factor would be right in my wheelhouse.