Hitch in My Get Along

 

I hooked up the pull behind sprayer yesterday to kill some weeds. Things were going quite well until I went to park the mower and sprayer in the barn. I looked back when driving through the door and there was no sprayer behind me. The hitch broke about 50 yards from the barn and that was that. It broke once before when I jackknifed the sprayer when backing up. I didn't do that yesterday, but it broke in the same spot again.

I welded the broken piece back in and then welded a piece of 1/4" steel to reinforce it. I can make the hitch strong enough it'll never break again but I don't want to make it so stout it'll twist the tongue. Hopefully, this will do the trick. 

The forecast called for chilly temps last night so I held off planting anything in the garden. I think I should be safe now to get the veggies and flowers outside. I've been reading a lot about the havoc the Iranian situation is liable to cause this year. In addition to the oil shortage, fertilizer is also going to be in short supply. And even if the ships started sailing through the pinch point today, it'll take quite a while for things to get back to normal - if they ever do. Good time to get your preps in order. No telling how this is all going to shake out.

Let There Be Light.

 

Not the best photo but the bright sunlight outside the window made getting a decent exposure difficult. The phone might have a way to adjust the exposure but I'm more of a point and shoot guy with a cell phone. I did turn on the flash which filled in the shadows a bit, but it would never make National Geographic. Regardless, the point of the photo is the fact I painted the windows on the north end of the shop and washed them. They would look better with a second coat, but this was the first time they've been repainted since I installed them years ago. Definitely brightened up the place.

In the top left of the photo you can see a hole in the ceiling. I cut the insulating board yesterday to replace a 4' square that has suffered some racoon damage. I'm planning on making a scuttle where the existing hole is so I can set traps for both coons and squirrels. Unfortunately, that's going to require a road trip since the lumber yard in town closed down.

The corollary to that of course is if all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. 

The school where I started my teaching career is having a 50-year class reunion around my birthday - meet and greet the first day, reunion the second, and on the third day a picnic at the city park that is only a few blocks from where the high school was. I might go to the picnic just for the heck of it. It was a good job during some interesting times. If you've ever watched the movie Cooley High that'll give you a pretty good idea of what my school was like. Very fortunate to have worked there for my first four years. 
 

The Passing of a Great One

 

Mert Lawill passed away a couple of days ago. He was the AMA Grand National Champion in 1969 and part of the Harley Davidson "Wrecking Crew" back then. He was very successful with bicycles, designing mountain bike suspensions. He was also featured prominently in the movie On Any Sunday. And in my case, one of my personal heroes of the motorcycling fraternity.

Fortunately, I don't have to go back to work ever again. Yesterday was my one-year anniversary of my second, or third, but definitely my last retirement. I'll keep piddling around doing some work for friends and family, but that's because there aren't any welding shops around anymore or they don't do general repair work. Mostly, however, I do them just to keep my hand in. I spent a long time learning the trade and I want to keep my skills sharp, especially since I have so many projects of my own. If you don't use it, you lose it.

VW & a Rabbet, Not a Rabbit

 

I saw this yesterday while I was out. It's a Volkswagen ID-Buzz. According to the VW website it starts at $59,999. That's a lot of money but nothing comes cheap these days. It's a cute thing but I'm not in the market for a van, especially an electric one. If I was still working at the high school, I could recharge it by running an extension cord out back like I did for the block heater with the old Ford van. Of course, someone would complain so the order would come down from on high there would be no charging of vehicles on the company's dime. 

First cut with the new router setup. The angle is a little too steep, but I cut the rabbet pretty shallow to get a look at how it was going to work. Once I got the feel for it, it was easy enough to move along and get a nice cut. I'm going to shim the fixture some to change the angle. When it looks right, I'll machine it to the proper angle. Looks like about a 3-degree change of angle will do it.

Rain and cool temps lately - big storm came through Monday night and a little more rain yesterday. The grass is growing like crazy, so I'll be mowing the next couple of days along with some project time. I did finish the windmills. The pieces had been galvanized and vinyl coated, and the broken cups the bearings fit in were paper thin. Not the easiest things to weld, but just like the Mounties, I always get my man.

Router Fixture

 

Good day yesterday - chilly but productive. I left the house about 7:30 to pick up the flowers for "The Dead Relatives Tour" and it was just a little above freezing. The sun was out and it warmed up rather quickly. I had to pick the flowers up at the fairgrounds, which are only a short hop, skip, and a jump from Coach Jen's house, so we did breakfast. She's got a lot going on these days, so we got caught up on a couple of things, but it doesn't look like her and I will be involved with any boxing training together any time soon.

After I came home, I went to work on some yard work, walked the dog, put the finishing touches on the router fixture and then watched the Kentucky Derby - good race. Surly and I stopped at Churchill Downs when we took the sidecar trip to Eastern Kentucky about 40 years ago. Looking back, I've been really lucky to have done all the things I've done and traveled to all the places I've been to, both home and abroad. I've got a couple of places I'd like to visit this summer, including a Buc-ee's. I'm thinking my life just won't be complete unless I see one of those before I die.

The grandson is scheduled to come down today to help me with some chores. He's a big strong lad - just what I need since I'm not anymore. A couple of days should really help me whittle down the to-do list. 

Poco a Poco

 

Little by little as they say. I want to put the finishing touches on a few jobs that have been lingering in the shadows. So of course, another job shows up on my doorstep. This one is for my wife's sister. The El-cheapo windmills twisted the necks off the fans over the winter. I just glanced at them, but it doesn't look like too difficult a repair. 

 My last year at the high school I started building a wooden boat. I was making good progress, and the students were learning. And then I had the heart attack and that was the end of boat building along with the end of my high school teaching career. The boat got moved into my woodshop and basically has been languishing there ever since. The original plans came from Wooden Boat magazine with the author building the boat step by step with hand tools. 

Since it's a lapstrake boat, the bottom edge of the planks, actually the top edge since the boat is built initially upside down, have a relief cut so the next plank will lay in nicely with a 3/4" overlap. I only got one plank done using a rabbet plane and a chisel. It came out okay but extremely time consuming. Harbor Freight had a trim router at a good price for their club members, so I bought one for the express purpose of cutting the rabbets figuring I could make a piece to bolt on that would allow me to cut a nice even width and at the proper bevel angle. As soon as I finish cutting the corners off the aluminum plate in the photo, that piece should be done. However, I'm going to need some longer screws to fasten it to the router and they seem to be some odd ball thread. They appear to be 4mm diameter, but the standard pitch is .7 and these are .75. This is going to take some looking into.

It's just never easy. 

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.