I found myself a new drill motor like I was looking for. It's got a keyless chuck and I would have preferred one with a key, but this one has a new and improved ratcheting chuck that's supposed to be the hot set-up. It's got an 8 amp motor, comes with a carrying case that's much too nice to use for a drill, and it has a lifetime warranty on parts and service. So if the brushes need replacing or the switch goes bad, I should be able to fix it myself or get it fixed. It also says on the box I can try it out for 90 days and if I don't like it, Ridgid will take it back. And it came at a real good price. Apparently Home Depot isn't going to carry this model anymore. Their loss, my gain.
Cuzzin Ricky donated this to the cause. He's clearing out a shed in preparation for a building project he's looking at - probably figured it would be easier to give it to me than moving it twice. It's a Palmgren like they made a million of, however, this one has a swivel base which you don't see too often. The base isn't marked in degrees however. I'll get it cleaned up and painted and I can use it with my drill press that's going up top of the new barn.
The school house bell is blasted and ready for me to paint and build a base. I measured a few things and drew up a layout on the workbench to see how it would look and to get a material estimate. I'm looking at making the base out of 2" x 2" square tube that will be trapezoidal in shape when looking at it from the side. Not much to it. Just need to get everything cleared by the boss.
Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Midway. There was an editorial recapping the story in the weekend's Wall Street Journal. It mentioned the repair of the USS Yorktown that had "recently returned to Pearl Harbor trailing a 10 mile oil slick. Repair estimates ranged up to three months. Three days, ordered Nimitz. Fourteen hundred welders and shipfitters swarmed aboard. Three days later, the Yorktown sailed for Midway." It's amazing that they could perform the repairs in such a short time but if a similar thing occurred now days would they be able to find 1400 welders and shipfitters to be able to perform a similar repair? From what I've read both the Navy and the Air Force are operating with very few ships and planes if you compare the numbers to historical numbers. No capitol or labor to rebuild the fleet. This could get interesting one of these days.
One of my former students passed away last week. From what I understand, he died in his sleep. I'm guessing that the cause would be drug related but I don't know that for sure and I certainly don't wish to darken his memory if that's not the case. However, I heard on the local radio station last week that the police had three calls for heroin overdoses in the same day. The Chicago news also had a story about heroin overdose in Illinois and I read that a town in Ohio added on to their morgue to deal with the increase in overdose deaths and they're still out of room. Something needs to be done - I don't have the answer but there are too many young people dying senseless deaths. I've had several former students die from an overdose. It's heartbreaking to see all that potential go to waste.
School starts this week and I'll be teaching pipe welding. Going to need pipe welders if they're going to rebuild the fleet. At least I'm doing my part. I just wish I could do something about the drug problem.
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