Cheap Shot @ USPS

 

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

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

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

Steady by Jerks

 

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

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

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

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

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

Tractor, Trailer & More

 

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

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

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

 

Sunday Recap

 

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

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

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

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

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

Odds & Sods

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

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

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

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

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

 

Great Day to be Outside

 

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

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

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

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

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

Eve of Destruction

 

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

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

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

 __________________________________________

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

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