Welding Job

 

Shop Teacher Bob doing a little TIG with the new welding machine. I need to address the high frequency issue and then spend some time twisting the dials to get comfortable with it. In the photo I'm welding a loop onto a "lat" pull down bar for Surly we made from a piece of heavy-wall pipe that was among the pile of stock that was languishing in a corner because "I might be able to use that for something." And we did!

We've got another piece of equipment to make for his home gym. The plan is to have the grandson do the welding and to be involved in the fabricating end of it as well. I also hope to involve him on a couple of other pieces of training equipment for Coach Jen's new facility. She'll be doing personal training and some boxing coaching that I'll be involved in as well.

Car Show

 Went to the car show on Saturday morning. The Prez asked us to be there at 8:00 but the show didn't actually start until 10:00, so there was some down time after getting things set up. There's a walking trail in the park next to the community center, so I made three laps around during the lull. The weather was looking pretty iffy the whole time, though.

The Missus had a white Mustang similar to the one in the photo when we first got married. We were living in an upstairs apartment and the guy in the downstairs apartment had his company car parked in the street in front of the apartment one night with the Missus parked right behind him. Some drunk came down the street, got up on the sidewalk and then came down just in time to hit her Mustang in the ass end and push it into the car ahead of hers hard enough to wreck both ends with enough force to total it out. It wasn't anything fancy - three speed, six cylinder - but low mileage and dependable. 

Only a few cars showed up Saturday, unfortunately, due to the threat of rain. I did get a few drops at my place after I got home. There were enough club members to see that things went smoothly, and like most all clubs, the core group was there in force. I didn't need to do much, but I did my share at least. The club has been most helpful getting me going in the hobby, glad I can pay that back some. 

I tried welding some aluminum with the new welder when I got home but wasn't having a bit of success. I was talking to Surly about it, he put in a search on his phone and came up with a video within about two minutes dealing with the exact problem. It appears as if the point gap on the high frequency generator needs to be adjusted. The video gives pretty clear instructions on how to adjust it and it looks fairly simple. So that'll be next on the fix-it list. 

Surly came down yesterday morning and we worked in the barn for a couple of hours and then it was off to a birthday party for Cuzzin Ricky. More clean-up on the agenda this week, plus a little fabricating - no aluminum welding until I work on the welder, however. 

Walking the Dog, But Not the Cup

 

I read the manual for the welder and figured out what the problem was. When you set the machine up for TIG welding, the ground cable needs to be positive and the torch lead needs to be negative. On the old welder there was a lever that you moved for either AC, DC+, or DC-. For TIG on steel DC-, or straight polarity, is the necessary setting. Since the new welder doesn't have a polarity lever to change the polarity, it would make sense you would swap out the leads from the stick welding setting of DC+. However, the Miller welders at the college change the polarity automatically when you change from TIG on aluminum, to TIG on steel. Don't know why, but I assumed my machine would be the same. I was on auto-pilot, I guess.

The welds in the photo are on a piece of stainless just to verify that I had things figured out. I made no effort to make things pretty, but rather, to play with the settings and become more familiar with the machine. I'll try some aluminum in the near future. I switch back and forth between metals on a regular basis, so I need to get where I can just turn it on, fiddle with the dials a little, and go to it.

After getting the settings figured out, I bolted on an empty MIG wire spool to wrap the torch and foot pedal cord around. I need to swap places with the plasma cutter to give myself a couple more feet of torch lead. Right now, I can just barely reach the vise on the bench. A couple more feet will help, another ten would be better. I have an extension cord for the incoming power on the machine and it rolls around easily. If I put the argon tank on the cart, I could roll the welder most anywhere I need it in the shop or get a longer argon hose and leave the tank chained to the wall. That would be a cheap and easy solution.

The ham radio club is having a car show today, if it doesn't get rained out, that is. I'll be helping, not sure in what capacity, but it doesn't matter much to me. If you're going to be in an organization, you really should contribute something.

16 Tons

 

I saw Tennessee Ernie in a Randolph Scott cowboy movie the other night. He did a song in the movie but these two are the ones I remember growing up. We played the Old Rugged Cross at my Mom's funeral, per her request.

I got a call from the welding instructor at the high school. He's building another high mileage car, an electric one this time. He needed the bore on these little sprockets opened up from 1/4 inch to 5/16 inch. Easy enough - I put the hub part in a collet on the lathe, drill it out a bit and then run a reamer through it. 

While I was out picking up the sprockets, I got a refill on my argon bottle for the welder. I used the welder the other night for Surly's job and I couldn't make it work correctly. I got the job done, just needed to weld a nut on a stud, but I need to figure out what's what, since that's going to be the welder going forward. I hate to admit it, but I dug the manual out. Need to get familiar with all the knobs and adjustments.

A little more clean-up and then start on a couple jobs for others and finish the rear brake on the vintage trials bike. Steady by jerks as my old pal Joey used to say.

Bikes

 Just a few of the bikes I've built for myself. I've done a ton of work on motorcycles, bicycles and automobiles for other people, as well as most any other thing that needed some welding done.

This is the HD Sprint /Aermacchi I built for AHRMA vintage racing. Modified some frame bits, bridged the swingarm and made the tank and tail section. I also made an aluminum full fairing not pictured.

900 Kawasaki that I salvaged the frame from the scrap yard. Someone ran it into a parked car and bent the steering head and the down tubes out of whack. I machined up a new neck and modified the frame in order to make it useable again. It's got a 2" longer than stock swingarm made from 1x1-3/4 chrome moly tubing. The sidecar is of my own design. The original plan was for my brother and I to go vintage racing with this rig, but unfortunately, he passed away before that could happen.

My first sidecar. I took the engine and wheels from my drag bike and put them in the frame in the above photo. I made all the sheet metal - it's rather crude, but it was a great project to learn on. I didn't get a chance to get it finished completely. It still needed a fender for the sidecar and the two-tone paint. The color scheme was supposed to have a darker red metallic stripe on the tank, fender and sidecar. The paint colors were a Lincoln Continental combination. Surly and I took a trip to Eastern Kentucky with this thing - had a great time. When I got home a guy wanted to buy my drag bike, so I put the drag bike back together and sold it and the sidecar both. 

My first frame build. Rather crude as well, but it went straight and was about all the budget would handle. That's my buddy Steve in the saddle at US 30 Dragstrip: "Where the great ones run!"

The second drag bike build. Much more professional this time around. I was doing welding work for a guy who sold drag bike parts and I would take my payment in bike parts. These were the parts on the sidecar rig. This baby was a hoot! I won money the first day out with it. 

Perimeter frame using aircraft wing strut tubing. The engine and rear wheel were from the AHRMA racer. The front wheel has a hub I constructed myself using a Triumph backing plate The middle section of the hub is a piece of schedule 80 pipe that bolts to an aluminum plate that has 2" round bar welded to it that I bored out for the bearings. The aluminum plate bolts into the steel pipe and I machined everything overall to insure it all was concentric. 

'78 Yamaha SR500. I had this one for a few years and rode it back and forth to work every chance I got. I didn't do any frame work on it but I did paint it myself. I was pretty happy with the flames.

I've posted some photos of this one before. I made this one from a tubeset purchased off of eBay - lugged steel construction. The rack is 3/8 stainless tubing. I've since replaced the saddle with a brown leather one and added a small brown handlebar bag. It's a nice riding, light weight bike that I've been riding since I screwed up my chest.

Vintage trials bike that is slowly nearing completion. I've been doing other things for other people and working on the clean-up. Surly came down last night and instead of working on the clean -up, we did some work on a bike project for him. Nothing too difficult, just easier in my shop than his.

The motorbike chopper that got started at the high school and I finished here after retiring. The students designed the frame and the "look". It's a fun little thing.

No particular reason, other than the birthday a few weeks ago, but taking stock of what I've done over the years and what I want to get finished before my time runs out. Even if I just rolled over, I've done a lot of cool things up to this point. Hopefully, I'll be able to do a few more. I definitely would like to see at least three more bike projects finished and a couple of car projects as well. Having the shop cleaned up will help. Maybe the sense of urgency that comes with old age might push me along as well. Time will definitely tell.

That's the News

 

"Politicians do the talkin', the young men pay the dues"

It just keeps crazier and crazier here in the good ole US of A. I couldn't tell you who's in charge these days. We supposedly have a president but I'm pretty sure he was elected only because of some serious hanky-panky with the vote counting, and now it's common knowledge that he doesn't know if his ass is punched or bored. We have a "Border Czar" that's never been to the border and she's now the candidate to replace Slo-Joe without so much as receiving a single vote or delegate. Dr. Jill Biden is now sitting in on Cabinet meetings, so who actually is running the country? 

The swamp rats haven't been able to deter Trump, in spite of impeachments, lawsuits, criminal charges, and assassination attempts. I admire his tenacity and if he gets elected, I hope he's able to clean house of at least some of the major liars and crooks. However, I don't think there's any one person who can straighten the country out at this point. There's an end to every empire and I think our time has come.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I sent my watch back to Seiko to get it fixed properly. It hasn't worked since I got it back from being "repaired". One year warranty on the repair, however. We'll see how that works out.

I ordered a couple of books from the ARRL using the coupon I received at the local Hamfest. Most importantly is the study guide for my General class license. They should be here in a week or so.

Lots to do around the outside of the shack - need to cut and split some firewood, trim more brush and get some grass growing where the trees were taken down. And the shop and barn cleanup is still ongoing. Ain't no rest for the wicked. 

5K and More

 

5K on Friday night - 1st place in my age group. Actually, the only one in my age group. My archrival was there and he came in a little over a minute ahead of me. He's 85 now and still puts in the work. He always starts at the front of the pack, I always start at the back to stay out of the way of the runners. If we had started at the same place, I probably could've made a pretty good race out of it. Pretty hot and humid for a 6:00 pm start. Nice event for a small town, though. The awards were either gold or silver feathers, depending on your finish. The feathers represent the Sandhill cranes that the annual festival celebrates.

Boxing matches in Indy last night. Several fighters that we know were on the card. One of the ones we wanted to see had to pull out due to an injury, but the rest of them all got wins. A couple of knockouts, and a couple that went to the cards. Small crowd, though. I'd like to see more fights but it won't happen unless they can fill the seats. This same promoter will be having another fight May 17th of next year. I ran into one of the referees on the way out. He worked several of Jimmy's fights back when. We had a nice chat getting caught up. 

The cleanup on the shop and barn continues. Surly came down Thursday evening and worked on cleaning off the benchtops. He got started on the welding bench and I did a little more Friday. It's supposed to cool off and be a bit more seasonable the upcoming week. That 90-degree stuff when it's usually mid-seventies this time of year, takes a lot of the fun out of project work - it gets to be like a real job. I'm going to keep on the clean-up at least until I/we get a couple more corners cleaned out.

I did get the Himalayan out the other day so I could ride over to give my "expert opinion" on a repair job on an enclosed trailer. The trailer belongs to the president of the ham radio club and after coming up with the plan for the trailer, talk turned to radios. Seems he has a brand new in the box radio like I've been considering. He shot me an excellent price. It needs a power supply and he's going to a ham-fest this weekend. If he comes across a deal, he'll get it for me and then I'll have most everything I need for when I upgrade my license. I plan on studying for the test once the weather gets cold. I bought a study guide but I like the format of the one I used for my Technician license. I'll get that one ordered soon.