A Dutchman

 

Surly came down Saturday morning to return my truck and to get a little help removing the bearings from a dirt bike wheel. We were going to put a little heat on the hub, so I fired up the air acetylene torch that I finally was able to open the valve on. The only problem was there was no air, just acetylene with the yellow flame and black soot. I don't know what's going on with it. The torch is about as simple as they come - just one knob to turn it on and off. One more thing to work on, I guess.

Later in the day I finished up the bracket for the combination square. I rolled up a ring to fit the little container with the thumb screws and plates. I painted it up and then installed it yesterday.

After I finished the installation of the combination square, I machined a "Dutchman" for a prototype of a gizmo I'm working on. A tube needs to be stretched by about an inch. Since I've already done some machining and welding on it, I took the easy way out. I'll cut the tube and then slip this in there and weld it in place. Instead of making this out of a piece of solid or a heavy wall pipe, I made it out of two pieces of tube I had in the scrap bin. Now I'll plug weld the inner tube to the outer and then insert it into the other tube to stretch it. If everything else works as designed, when I get all done I might go into production.

Going to see TVI this morning. He's working on his Harley and needs a consult on something. Don't know what he needs. Regardless, I haven't talked to him in a while so it'll be good to catch up a bit.