Two By the Hag

 

Looks like I'll be teaching in the new year. Classes run eight weeks each, so I'll have the first eight weeks off, and then work for eight weeks teaching Stick II. That means I can get time off for eye surgery and stay home during the worst part of winter. After that, I'll be done for sure. The boss is still really short-handed for instructors - one of the new hires quit already, and he's looking for two full-time instructors. However, regardless of the instructor situation at that time, yours truly is going to pull the pin.

With all that's going on in the country, this is liable to become a theme song for more than a few people. Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I made a box to store the plasma cutter attachment that can be used on a regular transformer - rectifier welding power source. It uses argon as the plasma gas, so it's not cheap to operate, but the specs say it'll cut through 1/2" stainless and aluminum. I'm thinking that's a bit optimistic, but under the right circumstances it could come in handy. It's probably not worth much now that air plasma machines are readily available, so might as well keep it.

Finished box is ready to throw in the back of the shop with the old welder. It's a mouse proof package so it can stay boxed up for quite a while worry free. 

The plasma cutter was manufactured by Airco - Air Reduction Company. They used to be a big name in welding equipment. I've got an Airco constant voltage power source with a spool gun for spraying aluminum. I think Airco's welding equipment was bought out by Miller, and the gas products division was bought by Air Products, but I'm not certain. Seems like it was here and then it wasn't. 

Constitution Day

 

Constitution Day today. One of the greatest documents ever written - especially the Bill of Rights. I'm especially fond of the first, second and tenth amendments. Freedom of speech and the right to bear arms are always under attack, and the tenth is supposed to limit the powers of the Federal government and keep the majority of power residing with the states. If that was only the case. I haven't taken the course myself yet, but Hillsdale College offers a free course on the Constitution, if you're interested. We might be better off if our "betters" in Washington took the course.

We're Rolling Now

 

I finished moving the old welder into place in the back of the shop. It actually wasn't too difficult, just time consuming. When moving it through the doors in the middle of the shop, I had to grab the pipe that rolled out the back and then go out the front door, walk around the shop, come in the back door, and then pull the welder forward - had to do that a couple of times but other than that, it moved right along. It's amazing what you can move with a few pieces of pipe, a pinch bar and a 2x4 fulcrum.

After moving the welder, I moved the small block Chevy motor for the hot rod project next to it, that was easy enough since it's on a stand with rollers, and then I moved the spare Slant-Six in front of the welder. The cabinet with my sheet metal/body and fender tools is now next to the Slant-Six. That cabinet is on wheels and should be the only thing I will need to move but I now have easy access to it where it is. 

Still have more to do but it was 90 degrees again yesterday and after moving the heavy stuff I decided to call it a day. Fortunately, no complaints from the chest. Since I started working out again, I'd like to try doing a couple of pushups - don't know how the chest would react, or if there's enough muscle left in my "pipe cleaner" arms to actually pull that off. Maybe try a couple of the "sissy" pushups with my knees on the floor first. The last thing I want to do is tear anymore muscles. It did feel pretty good being able to move all the stuff around in the shop, though - been a long time coming.

Time After Time

I'm still considering writing in Cyndi Lauper as my candidate for President. After all, she's gathered as many delegates as Harris has. I've looked at the Libertarian candidates, since, politically, that's the way I lean. From the Libertarian website:

Libertarians strongly oppose any government interference in your personal, family, and business decisions. Essentially, we believe all Americans should be free to live their lives and pursue their interests as they see fit as long as they do no harm to another.

Hard to argue with that. Follow the Constitution and keep your hand out of my pocket and I'll be happy. Of course, you need to follow your heart and vote for whomever you think will be the best for the country, in the immediate future and long turn. It's not my place to try and sway you one way or the other.

I stopped for gas at this crazy looking castle yesterday. It was a long time being built, and during construction I wasn't sure what it was going to be, but I never figured it as a gas station. Anyway, the electronic sign out front said $3.15 per gallon for credit, $3.05 cash. The truck was down to a little under a quarter of a tank, so why not save a couple of bucks by paying cash. I went in and paid for $50.00 worth and during the conversation with the cashier, she said the savings was actually 20 cents per gallon. Sure enough, $2.95 per gallon, filled up the truck and got $2.12 back from my $50.00. I drive by there on my way to work now that I'm working again, so it'll be my regular spot from now on.

When I got done running around yesterday, I decided to tackle moving the welder. I had moved the spare Slant-Six out of the way on Friday, so I didn't figure it would take much to move the welder. However, that was not the case. If the crane had at least another foot of length on the boom, it might have been easy, but I couldn't get it up high enough before it was binding up against the legs of the crane. So Egyptian style it had to be. 

I don't know what the welder weighs, but it's a bunch. While it rolls fairly well on the pipe rollers, it would be better if I had one more piece of pipe and if the two short ones were a few inches longer, but it's working. I moved it enough that I could roll the new welder and plasma cutter into the hole. I moved the argon bottle and now I need to rig up a chain to hold it safely in place - a couple of screw eyes will take care of that. I'm going to move it to the back half of the shop today so I can get the front part useable. It'd be nice if it was a little cooler, though. It was bumping up against 90 degrees yesterday. But progress is being made.  

Shelving Unit

 

I heard this on WXRT last evening. I was in the truck and I had the radio down low, but I thought at first it was a James Brown song that I had never heard before. Come to find out, though, it was Charles Bradley, who passed away seven years ago. I don't know how it happened that I never heard of him before, he sounds enough like James Brown to be Soul Brother #2. I'm going to have to look up some more of his music.

I bought another set of shelves for the back of the shop. Next step is to round up and sort some of the project parts and get them into mouse proof containers. The black tote with the orange lid is a Menards' Halloween special. Two of them will fit side by side on a shelf, so three more should take care of most of the loose parts. According to the shelf info, each shelf will hold 800 lbs. if evenly distributed. However, the uprights are pretty thin. I can't imagine loading up the 5 shelves with 2 tons of parts and expect it to stay upright. I have no intention of loading the shelves to capacity - no way I'm going to be humping that kind of weight around. I just need to get things in a central location off the floor.

The next big step will be moving my old Miller Goldstar to the back and moving the new welder and plasma up front. I'll have to use the floor crane to move the spare Slant-Six out of the way and then stick the welder back up against the wall, move a couple of other things around and then move the motor back out of the way.

Lots to do still, but feeling pretty good about the results so far.

Das Boot Und Loco

 

I'm thinking I'm well on my way to getting that accomplished. Externally, the old body doesn't look too bad for a guy who turned 74 last week, but there's definitely some signs of rough treatment that I notice every day - that's what happens when you do your own stunts, I guess.

The "Big Boy" came through on Monday. I wasn't able to go see it due to work commitment, but Cuzzin Ricky went over and got to see it under power and was kind enough to send me a couple of photos. We went to see it a few years back, but it was parked at that time. Over a million pounds on the rail - impressive! 

I welded up a couple of small cracks and some worn or otherwise slightly damaged spots on an aluminum boat yesterday. I would have done it Tuesday, which was the original plan, but the helper the boat owner had lined up was a no-show. Come to find out, the helper hit a deer while on his motorcycle and crashed pretty hard. He posted a photo on social media and his face looked like he was bested by a wildcat. The welding on the boat went smoothly other than I had to work it outside and I ran out of length on my foot pedal and had to do some creative positioning to get in position to weld and still reach the pedal. I also welded up a couple of dings on the skeg on the lower half of the motor.

I got the brake rod finished Tuesday for the vintage trials bike. I need to make one more piece and the brake should be finished. I'm closing in on having that one done. Also getting more organizing done. Surly came down and after helping flip the boat over, installed the brackets for steel storage I made the other day. We also discussed the battle plan for the next stage. I need to go shopping for some shelving, it seems. I'm just following his lead, mostly because he always has good ideas, and because me being in charge is what got me into this mess. 

Sorta Long Post

 

Paul Goldsmith passed away last week at the age of 98 - the only man to win Daytona on a motorcycle and in an automobile. The photo is from my book American Racers, 1940 -1980. I've carried that book all over the country getting autographs - there's several world champions and AMA champions in there. I used to go by the Griffith, Indiana airport, home of G&N aircraft -the G&N standing for Goldsmith and Nichels. One day I decided I should stop and see if I could get Paul Goldsmith's autograph.

I stopped in and ask the receptionist if I could see Mister Goldsmith in order to have him sign my book. She said he wasn't there but she would keep the book and have him sign it when he gets in. She could tell I wasn't real keen on giving up my book, but she promised to lock it up in the safe. I stopped back the next afternoon but Goldsmith still hadn't shown up. But just as I was about to head home he walked in. He was kind enough to sign the book and he thumbed through the book and talked for about a half hour about some of the other racers and races he had been in.

Goldsmith's partner at the airport was none other than Ray Nichels. Any racing fan of my age will recognize that name. He owned Nichels Engineering and was the man behind the development of both Pontiac and Chrysler stock car teams. He also was affiliated with Harley Davidson in the early seventies, but I'm not sure what the deal was. I was working as a welder on a plant expansion project '70, maybe 71 and I was on the roof of a building we were constructing in late January. Nichels was only a short hop, skip and a jump away from where I was working and I heard the unmistakable sound of an XR750 on the road in front of the plant. Someone was doing an engine break-in or last-minute check on a factory bike before heading to Daytona. That thing made some beautiful music.

The Missus worked with Nichels' wife, and they were both on the bowling team for their employer. Nichels and I would both show up to watch the ladies bowl once in a while, so I had the opportunity to talk to him on a couple of occasions. He knew how to make a race car get around a track, both with stock cars and Indy cars. Both he and his wife were both very nice people as well. 

This one goes along with the previous Ford pickup photo in a post not too long ago. This was actually the color combo I remembered from back in the day. I'm still a long way from paint, but now I've got a reference photo. Photo from The Daily Timewaster.

I did a little work on the brake lever. The Vise-Grips on the pivot are just to hold the lever up against the stop. The clevis ends are supposed to arrive today, so I should be able to get the rear brake finished up soon. I've got a boat to work on tomorrow, though. Not sure how much work is going to be involved, but there will be aluminum TIG welding involved.  

Brake Dancing

 

Marty's version is right up there with Gene's.

A couple of parts for the rear brake on the vintage trials bike. The piece on the left will be the part you push down on to actuate the brake, the piece on the right is a bushing that the brake lever will pivot on. However, the bushing is supposed to have an ID of .500", and the OD should be .6875", that is 1/2" and 11/16", but the OD is .001" under. I don't know if I didn't read the fine print when I ordered the bushings, they came two to a package, but they both measure the same .001" under size. I can make another steel boss the bronze bushing is supposed to press into, using an adjustable reamer instead of the 11/16" one I used. Or, I can put some center punch marks on the outside of the bronze bushing and then use some Loctite bearing mount on it and call it good. It's not anything high speed and even if the bushing would spin in the steel boss of the pedal, probably never notice it anyway. Of course, there's always the option of buying another bushing, which is the smartest option. It's never a good idea to make a bunch of non-standard parts on something that's liable to get damaged.

I'm still waiting on the clevis ends but they should be here real soon. I'm looking forward to having this thing completed.  

Truck Driving Song

Now that I've got a new radio, I was twisting the dial to see what I could come up with. There's a local country station that does Throwback Thursdays, apparently. This one was one of the tunes I heard - hadn't heard it in a long time. I'll leave it on that station for a while and see what the playlist is for the other days of the week. It's nice to have a choice again.

I got some brackets made for steel storage in the big barn. I countersunk the holes for deck screws I could install with the cordless drill - which in my opinion is the third greatest invention of all time, right behind moveable type and indoor plumbing.

I got some additional cleaning done. There now is at least one corner of the shop that doesn't have stock piled up there. 

Surly came down last night with a print for a job he wants made. It's not a big job but he and I, and the grandson will all be involved. I'm going to get all the materials rounded up and then get the grandson down here to help with some of the fab work and the welding.

I'm waiting on one more item to finish the brake pedal on the vintage trials bike - should be here soon. In the meantime, cleaning and organizing will continue and I want to get back on the jitney. Progress is slow but steady.

Clean-Up Progress

 

Beautiful day yesterday. Nice blue sky when I closed up the shop and that stripe of brown in the lower right is the sorghum that has ripened up. I don't know much about the economics of growing sorghum compared to corn or beans, but I like the view better when the shadows get long in the afternoon.

I rarely use a Morse taper drill bit under 1/2", instead, I use regular straight shank bits in a Jacobs chuck, both in the lathe and the drill press. However, as you can see from the photo, I've got a bunch of them. They were starting to get rusty, so I cleaned and oiled them and then put them in a sealed container. Sorted and organized the larger ones as well as the adaptor sleeves. 

After getting that done I started on another shelf of the work bench where I have electrical stuff, including a plasma cutting outfit that can be used with a regular welding DC welding machine. It uses argon as the plasma gas, so it's much more expensive to operate than newer machines using compressed air as the plasma gas. It was expensive back in the day but probably not worth much now since plasma cutting machines are much more available and cheaper than when I picked that one up. I don't have the heart to scrap it but don't have any use for it either.

Working on sorting some of my fixtures as well. The aluminum ones in the foreground are for making motorcycle parts when I had access to a CNC years ago. Like the plasma cutter, I'll probably never use them again, but I hate to scrap them. Especially since I still have the programs to make the parts. There're also a couple of other simple plates there, one for altering Sportster clutch and brake levers to be used on a Sprint. The other was for making clip-on bars - no problem scrapping those. The angles on the table are to make some shelf brackets for stock in the big barn. Surly's in charge of the barn organization, and he's off to a good start, but there's a lot of work to be done.   

Labor Day

 

Here's to all the working-class tax serfs that have built this country and keep it going.

Singing the Blues

 

This one came out a while back but it seems like it was written for the times we're living in today. This is a cut on a CD I listen to every once in a while as the mood strikes me.

This one was up at Tacky Raccoons yesterday. Never heard of this group before, but this one is a rocker! And of course, I can relate to the too tired thing - kind of a common theme around here.

I came in the house after mowing the backyard and walking the dog and the Ira Hayes story was on TCM. It was about half over, so I took a pass, but the song became stuck in my head. The Kinky Friedman video is about 10 minutes long, but the song is the first 5. The remainder is an interview that's worth watching. Especially since includes his words of wisdom to all of us: "Find what you like and let it kill you." 

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I've got a couple things coming to finish the rear brake set-up on the trials bike - clevises, bushing and a turnbuckle. Since the brake rod will be only used under tension, I'm planning on making it out of aluminum. Not sure as I write this if I have a piece of stock in-house. Just one of the reasons I should be organizing and inventorying things.