Rotary Table

 

The rotary table showed up on Tuesday but I didn't have time to look at it until yesterday. The outside of the table has degree markings around the perimeter and there is a vernier scale that according to the manual should be able to give 10 second readings. I need 28 grooves on the shift levers but there isn't a 28 hole plate for the dividing head so I'll have to figure out all the locations using degrees, minutes and seconds. It's easy enough to come up with a digital degree number, not so much with the minutes and seconds. I haven't done anything like this in a while so I'll need to do some math, but before I do that I'll check the Machinery's Handbook. There's a good chance they'll already have done the math.

Heading to oral surgery this morning. Not sure what the outcome of that's going to be, but I'm guessing it'll be painful whatever it is. 

Shift Lever Beginning

 

I milled the sides of the aluminum pieces yesterday. It wouldn't have been necessary if I had a piece of 3/4 x 1 flat bar, but my supply of aluminum shapes is quite limited and there's no place locally that offers much of a selection, either. Shipping costs on the two places I normally order from off the internet have increased, so I've got about an hour of labor, cutting the parts out, milling the sides, setting up and cleaning the mill when finished. Nothing out of the ordinary when prototyping or making a small qty of an item. I'm never going into production on these, just building myself a bike.

The plates for the dividing head on the rotary table can be seen in the photo. Hopefully the rest of it shows up soon. 

The temperature hit a record high yesterday. 71 degrees.and sunny. Great day to be getting out of the house, running some errands and making some parts with the big shop doors open.

Irish Memories

 

A photo of my Ireland trip came up on my "memories" the other day. It's been five years since I was there. It was a great trip. I've been lucky to have been able to travel to Europe several times, twice with people from work and once solo when I went to Ireland. I was planning on going to Scotland when Covid hit but had to cancel that out and was also wanting to go to Spain. Likewise, Covid also screwed up the plan for the Missus and I going to Hawaii for our 50th wedding anniversary. I doubt I'll ever travel overseas again but I'm still hoping to get to Hawaii. That's the only one of the 50 states I haven't been to - maybe next year.

I ordered a small rotary table for the mill. It also has dividing plates that can be used with it. The dividing plates showed up the other day but no rotary table yet. I'm planning on using it to machine the shift lever for the Rickati vintage trials project. I cut out three pieces of stock yesterday, two for the parts and one for set-up or screw up. I'm going to mill the edges while waiting for the table to get here, even though after machining the spline I'll have to remove some material along the edges. I'll see if I can find the tool I made years ago to see if it'll work for this job. If I can't find it or it won't work, I'll start making a new one. 

I've only got two more sessions to teach at the college - not much more to do there. I've a little more work organizing the tax records so I can call the tax lady and I need to figure out what I can do to exercise without causing myself any pain. Looks like we've got another week of above average temperatures on tap. Good time to get things done, even if I'm on injured reserve.

Have a good week! 

As The Day Went

 

I looked out at the corn field/front yard yesterday morning and saw what I initially thought was a turkey. However, the build didn't look right, so I grabbed the binoculars and saw it was a Bald Eagle out amongst the corn stubble. It took off before I could get a photo of it but it was carrying something in its talons. I'm guessing it was a rabbit - couldn't tell since I was looking into the sun and it was in the shadow of the eagle's body. Pretty impressive bird, though. 

I met up with a former student of mine for breakfast after that. He's a student I had in class 30 years ago. We had a nice chat. Sometimes you forget the impact you have on your students. At least in this case, it was positive. He's done well for himself, glad I was able to help with that in some small way.

He gifted me a cool key chain fob with a real scorpion. That's something you don't see every day, Chauncey.

After breakfast I moseyed on down the road a bit to the jewelry store. I bought a solar powered Seiko watch from them about a dozen years ago and it seemed to be slowing down like it was in need of a new battery. I had checked the instruction booklet and it warned of using a regular battery in it. The instructions said take the watch to a pro for the battery replacement. However, they told me at the jewelry store it doesn't have a battery in it, it has a capacitor and to replace it would cost $150.00 American dollars. The young lady helping me said in a case like this, they put the watch in the window for a week and see what happens. Since the book said it had a replaceable battery and I've got a sunny window, I'll just leave in the bright sunlight for a week and see if it charges up. If not, maybe I'll send a missive off to Seiko and see what the say about a battery replacement. 

I got my MRI scheduled after I got home - took me a few phone calls and the earliest date that was open is three weeks from now, but I'm on the calendar and hopefully it'll show something that can be remedied.

In the meantime, just going to have to take it easy and tinker with little things.

He's Got a Plan

Amen to that. Retirement was great until the Covid hit. Travel plans cancelled, parts and materials unavailable, businesses being forced to shut down, mandatory "vaccine" injections, only to find out the cost of the man-made disease was underwritten with our tax dollars. And now we find out it was all bullshit from day one. Unfortunately, a lot of after-effects from the injections, including death.

Additionally, we now have a government that is a kakistocracy or an idiocracy. Maybe it's both - the worst form of government run by idiots. Other than the few at the top looking out for themselves, they're not doing anyone any good in the short or long term. Now we've got a war mongering banana republic spending money like a drunken sailor. No bueno.

I did decide on the shift and brake arrangement on the vintage trials bike, aka Rickati. The local hardware store had the bushings I needed and I've got a piece of cold rolled shafting to make the crossover set-up. I going to see about making a splined shift lever. I made up a couple of them for the Sprint vintage racer years back on the vertical shaper in the high school machine shop. As always, the instructor coached me through the project and they came out just like they were store bought. I no longer have access to any machine shop other than my own, but I think I've got it worked out without having to buy a broach. I don't want to cut up a stock lever if I can help it. I'm thinking it'll be rather time consuming to get it done but it should be something I'll be able to do even with the chest injury.  

Speaking of which, I had to go to the hardware store yesterday and since the doctor's office is in the same strip mall, I stopped in to see about making an appointment. As it happens, the doctor was in and they were able to work me in while I was there. We discussed a few things and she wrote me an order for an MRI as the next step. I'm calling today to get the appointment at the hospital. I'm hoping for the best.

Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution

 

While browsing the blogs I saw where Tracy Chapman performed on the Grammy Awards. No chance I would ever have seen her, since I never watch any type of awards show, but I do like her music. Other than Fast Car, I can't remember the last time I heard any of her music on the radio. In fact, I can't remember the last time I heard that one either.

I won't be surprised if there's a revolution coming in the near future. I figured I was pretty well set to go on my preparations, but I've run into a couple of snags. The doctor's office called with my test results - not what I expected. The CT scan showed up some small kidney stones but no evidence of anything wrong with the chest. If I can't get to the bottom of this, it's going to really limit what I can do. Tilling the garden and other chores around the shack are going to require some outside help. Hell, I'm not sure I'll even be able to ride the Sportster this spring. To add insult to injury, I've got something going on with my right eye as well. I made an appointment to see the eye doc, but as it is, I might have to learn to shoot a rifle left-handed, especially the one with a peep sight.

I went out into the shop yesterday to start getting something accomplished. I put my "girdle" on to hold everything tight. It's looking like that's going to be SOP from now on. I am planning on going back to the doctor to see what else is available to me for relief. 

On the plus side, I think I got the squirrel out of the shop wall. Between hammering on the wall and a handful of mothballs I threw in there, it might have moved on. Now it's about time for a raccoon to move back in. 

Always Something

 I got my CT scan yesterday - waiting on the results. Should find out later today or tomorrow. Then, depending on what was found, see what the solution is. In addition to the chest ailment, I've got another couple of issues I'm dealing with currently. I'm afraid old age has definitely caught up with me. 

I went out to the shop the other day and discovered a squirrel had taken up residence in the front wall. Discovery was easy since it had chewed a hole through the OSB sheathing on the inside wall. That's what I get for not spending more time out there making noise. I'm not sure the best way to get it out of there but it's definitely got to go. 

I took a couple of photos of the vintage trials bike to study while I'm awaiting the solution to the chest issue. I'm hoping I can figure out the best way to get the shifter and rear brake lever situated. The bike is designed with a right-side shift like most of the old European bikes were. Unfortunately, the rear brake actuating arm is also on the right side. I'm leaning towards moving the shift to the left side which is what all American made bikes have since the early seventies. That would make hooking up the brake relatively easy. I just need a jack shaft to transfer the shifting to the opposite side. Not much to it really, just need to keep everything clear of the kick start lever. These are all small parts I can make without much physical effort. Need to get going on it.

Snow Day

 

It snowed most of the day yesterday. Actually, it was a nice winter day. Not too cold, no breeze to speak of, and the snow won't be an issue. Even though it was cold last night, the snow will be gone by tomorrow. I'm glad I don't have to shovel - it'd be tough on my chest.

I took a break from class preparation and wasted some time on the computer, including taking a look at my Ancestry account I recently renewed. I found what appear to be some new relatives. I'll have to do some research and make sure they are in fact my people and then I'm planning on adding an addendum to my book. 

I want to make a couple of shelf brackets for the shop but I don't feel comfortable dragging out the material, cutting, drilling, bending, and welding the pieces and then trying to fasten them on to the wall. There's nothing to the job, but I think I'd be better off waiting until I find out what's going on with the chest. I'm thinking the fix will require surgery, but if that's what it'll take, bring it on.

In the meantime, work on my taxes, family history and catch up on my reading.

Songs of the Old Folks

The Missus bought me the soundtrack from Ken Burns' Country Music documentary a few years back and it had fallen down between the seats in the truck about six months ago. I was getting ready to go to work the other night and decided I should dig it out so I'd have something a little different to listen to on my commute. The soundtrack is a double CD that's really quite good. I had forgotten all about this Kathy Mattea song but it hits a little harder now as I age. 

And as long as I'm having a minor episode of melancholia, might as well throw this one in as well.

My chest x-ray results came back negative, so now I'm scheduled for a CT scan next week. I'm hoping that will finally diagnose with certainty what the problem is. Assuming that does in fact happen, the next step will be getting it corrected. As it is, I can't do much of anything, except eat. I've already put on 5 pounds while sitting on my ass but I'll be working on reversing that trend in the immediate future. 

Only 3 more weeks of teaching. The class is going well but it still takes up a lot of prep time. I've been getting all of my tax stuff together also. If Texas decides to secede from the Union, I'll be moving. I've got no beef with Indiana, but the federal government has turned into a kakistocracy, unfortunately, with no way out. I really dislike having to work the first four months of every year to pay my "fair share" before I get to keep my actual share. 

So on that happy note, I'll sign off. As my old pal Dobak used to say, save your money!

Prepper

 

There's a lot of concern about "prepping" on the sites I read on the internet. Seems the focus has shifted beyond gardening and canning, to preparing for times that will require a more militant solution. If 7 million people have entered the country illegally, common sense would dictate not all of them are looking to assimilate peacefully and become upstanding citizens. The thing that I've been pondering, if  so many families are living paycheck to paycheck, behind on their rent and car payments, how are they going to stock the pantry with an extra supply of food, batteries, etc.? They haven't been showing the long lines at the food pantries on television for a while, but I doubt seriously the need has disappeared. Throw in the crazy politics of the election year and some crazy weather like the rain in LA, and business is liable to pick up. 

We had part of the "Big Game" on yesterday. We missed the halftime show and didn't really start paying attention until the 4th quarter. I wasn't too impressed with most of the commercials. It looked to me like most of them were for food and drink we shouldn't be consuming or things to entertain us. I'll admit to being surprised by the ones for Jesus and the one for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Hard to disagree with the need for Jesus these days, as well as having a viable third-party presidential candidate, especially after the report on the nice old guy with the bad memory. I was disappointed in Peyton Manning appearing in the Bud Light commercial. Looks to me like he sold his soul for a few pieces of gold. The 4th quarter and the overtime made for a good game, though. 

Tip of the hat to Surly for this one.

 

Xyphoid on the Road to Quoz

 

I saw Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & Papas the other day on a rerun of Murder She Wrote. I don't know how old she would have been at that time, but she was looking good. I always liked the group's music but I'd say Cass Elliot had the better voice. 

The second of the William Least Heat-Moon books I purchased came in yesterday. The book's in good shape, formerly from the library in Sitka, Alaska. It's got a lot of pages, more than I would normally tackle. I stick to my 500 page rule like glue. There are plenty of books I'd like to read less than 500 pages, so that's what I do. However, I think I'll have to make an exception for this one. The Missus suggested I keep this one for our trips to the doctors and dentists. The lay-out of the book looks like it will lend itself to that.

I started on the other Least Heat-Moon book yesterday while I was in the waiting room at the doctor's office and later at the hospital. The doctor visit was the beginning of what I hope will be the resolution of the mysterious chest problem. She sent me to the hospital for an x-ray - so I got my xyphoid process processed. The info at the link describes my symptoms to a tee. This is the 5th doctor I've seen about this and not one of them linked my symptoms to my xyphoid. If nothing shows up on the x-ray, the doc says an MRI is next. I'm going to be pissed if it's something as simple as a damaged xyphoid since I've been plagued with this for about 15 years now. But I'll be real happy if it gets fixed.

Shop Math

I don't know how many schools there are in Illinois, so I don't know what percentage of them are represented by the above chart, but the numbers don't look good, regardless. That's a lot of schools to not have a single student classified as proficient in math. 

My current class is small, so it's not a very valid sampling group, but their math skills aren't too impressive. I really think it would behoove the schools to go back to "track" the students like they used to. The students specialize in business, "shop" or college prep or whatever. These tracks would have math classes catered to the individual curricula. Shop math would cover right triangle geometry, measurements, fractions, etc. No need to figure out any of the classic "if train A leaves the station" type of problems. And for those offended by the usage of the word shop to describe the math class or any of the course offerings, get over it. Nothing degrading about going out to the shop to learn valuable skills that will prepare you for a rewarding career.  

Weld Plate

 

The grandson has one of his classes at the college at the same time as mine. I went down to the shop the other night and talked to his instructor about the young man's progress - got a good report. When the grandson finished up his plate, he asked if he could take it home. The instructor told him he should run upstairs and show me. Impressive job! My students were just leaving but I asked one of them as to the type of weld, since we had just discussed the welding symbol for it earlier. He couldn't give me the answer but the interpreter for the hearing impaired student got it - surfacing weld, in case you were wondering.

I met with my financial guy yesterday. He told me I've got enough money to live the rest of my life, as long as I die next week. Just kidding - that was one my old pal Joey B used to use before he passed away. He did mention a Transfer on Death deed. I'd never heard of that but it allows you to name someone to inherit your property after your death without the property having to go through probate. I'm thinking it would be a good idea to check into that. The attorney who drew up our will is within walking distance of the shack, so no reason not to make an appointment and get her input on the idea. 

Weather's unseasonably warm, so I'm going out to the shop today. I'm hoping my chest won't become an issue. I might try a little bit of exercise also. I've been restricted with what I can do for many years already. I hope it's not going to be worse but I'm afraid that's exactly what its going to be. 

Buying Spree

 

While installing the outside shop light, I decided I needed a new tubing cutter and a couple of other tools. I've got tools in the shop, garage and in the house. I decided to check out all areas and fill in the blanks to save myself having to walk from one spot to the next when working on a project. Save myself some time and shoe leather for a minimum of expense.

I ordered two Least Heat-Moon books, the first one showed up yesterday. It appears to be brand new, but both of them were only ten bucks. It's nice being able to order damn near anything from BezoMart without leaving the house. I could have gotten the tubing cutter and the pliers most anywhere locally, but the not so with the de-burring tool. And with Prime, no delivery fee.

I ordered myself another wool jersey from the same outfit I got the BSA jersey. They aren't cheap, but I might as well splurge and spend some of my first paycheck from the college on myself. The class is a lot more trouble than I had bargained for. Instead of just showing up and answering any questions the students might have, I'm spending a couple of hours of prep time for each night. Spending some of the fiat money before it becomes totally worthless.

Don't know how much cycling I'll be doing this summer, though. When I went to the chiropractor last week, my mysterious chest injury reacted poorly. I felt something tear when he pushed on my spine. I can't do much of anything now without some pain. I have a feeling this is going to require surgery to repair. At least now, it might be able to be properly diagnosed and dealt with.

Light

 

While I'll admit to a bit of paranoia, I haven't gotten to the point where I'm worried about chemtrails yet. However, it's not like our government hasn't done anything like that in the past. And with their impeccable record of honesty, I'm sure we'd all be informed of any hanky-panky. There sure were a lot of them the other morning, though.

I went out to the shop to finish the installation of the outside light. I figured the wiring would be pretty straightforward, but I didn't think about the fact the box I was going to tap into had one end of a three-way switch in it. I pulled out the little red meter and, of course, the battery was dead. It takes a 9V and when I pulled the connector off the top of the battery the one clip broke free of the rivet, so no way of installing a new battery. The meter was only about $10.00 from Harbor Freight, so no great loss. 

I bought the new one on the right to replace it - it was only $20.00. I used to have one just like it but I think I left it at the high school when I retired. This one takes an AA battery and will read AC and DC voltages to 250V, and ohms, which is great for continuity testing on auto and cycle wiring. 

The big meter in the middle is a HealthKit one I assembled many a year ago. It's a great meter except it requires some oddball battery. I don't remember the exact one but I couldn't find a replacement years ago, so I just put it on the shelf. I should dig out the manual, see what the required battery is and then check one of the battery places or do an internet search to see if I could find one. 

And the Lord said let there be light, so we all took a look. Probably should have moved my prop board out of the way before I took the photo, but it was cold out and I wasn't dressed for it. Anyway, that's one off the list.