and one big-ass thing. They chopped down the big cottonwood that was near the end of my lane. I measured the trunk and it's 6'-0" in diameter in one direction and 6' - 6" the other way. One big tree. I'm not sure why they chopped it down but when we were on the Cowboy Trail last summer, I don't remember who exactly, but they said they are cutting down a lot of the old cottonwoods because they fail catastrophically. No warning, just down comes a huge branch and crushes whatever's underneath it. So that might be it. I'll miss it being there, I know that.
Top photo has a bracket I had to shorten up a bit for the tool crib job at work. I did four of them the other day but after a slight change of plans, needed one more. Also in the photo are a pair of brackets for mounting my bicycle panniers on my new motorcycle. I'm not sure if I should paint them or get some Plasti-Dip and coat them. If I paint them I'll wrap the tank guard with a chunk of old bicycle inner tube so it doesn't get scratched. Regardless, it looks like it will work just fine so I'll make another pair for the other side of the bike.
We'll be making mechanic's stools in the Fab class at the college so I bent up a piece of flat stock for a bending form. Weld it to the table along with a peg to hold the end of the round stock then bend it cold to shape. I'm going to be gone for a week, so I wanted to get this set up for my substitute. If you look close at the photo you can see a small fitting. That came out of the end of a cutting torch belonging to one of my fellow instructors at the college. One of the students dropped the torch and screwed up the threads. It's a 1/2" or 9/16 -18 left hand thread. Since a die of that size is pretty rare, I worked my magic with a three square file and a thread file. Should be good now.
It made it up to 60 degrees yesterday. Nice working in the shop with the big door open. Cold and rainy again today. I'm thinking it'll be nice in California, however. Looking forward to getting a little bit of sun on my pale skin. I do have my SPF 50 packed - little bit of tan good, melanoma bad.
2 comments:
I'm not a woodworker, but I see that tree and think that SOMETHING should be made out of it. Unless there's something about cottonwood I don't know about. Anyway, I'd rather have a cottonwood take me out instead of a cottonmouth. :-)
The wife and I love our trees; the house is surrounded by them. Makes it a p.i.t.a. job to keep gutters clean and pressure washing the house, but the cool shade in the Summer is worth the price.
I like that mechanic seat. And years ago when I was riding, I made a mount for my saddle bags for my old harley. I had some gloss black rustoleum that I thinned down for the spray gun, heated the steel up a bit, and laid that paint on. I'll swear to this day that it was as durable a finish as powdercoat! I did the same thing to the bed of the farm truck last year. Black, so I just cleaned the bed, and left it out in the sun for a bit. Just about as good as those fancy spray-on bed liners. Much less $.
Warming up here also, with some cold rainy days in between. Actually had some of the shop doors open to warm things up, instead of the propane heater. I bought a donor truck, another Ford F-150. Two years newer than my farm truck, yet rusted to pieces. Because of that, the motor (300 six) and drivetrain are in pretty good shape, so I'm yanking all the good stuff, then might cut the bed off and make a trailer out of it for hauling scrap. Farm truck's differential started heating up around the outer pinion bearing, so trying to decide what direction to take; rebuild the whole thing, or swap in the donor's 4.10 rear, which would get me some more granny gear-like pull.
I made a cradle boat for the first grandson with cottonwood for the sides. https://shopteacherbob.blogspot.com/search?q=cradle+boat
I was looking for some clear pine but none of the local lumberyards had any. I went to a sawmill and the guy said he's cut me some up but when I got there it turned out he didn't have the pine so he milled up some cottonwood. I wasn't real happy initially but it worked out nicely. Nice grain and took stain well.
One of these days I'll check out the stump and see about counting the rings. I lost a big oak right after moving in here. I quit counting the rings when I got to 200. Takes a long time to get those big mature trees. Shame to see them come down and then just chop them up into short pieces.
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