Bike & Hike

 

I went "walkies" with Coach Jen and a couple others yesterday. We put in almost 5 miles - Jen and I are planning on getting out on Sundays on a regular basis, as well as putting in some miles on the bicycles. I came home and worked on the bike a bit. I found some Ceriani stickers for the fork legs on Ebay so those are on order. 

I'll do a little more work on the fork legs today, maybe put the back wheel under it.

Good Day for Working

 

I was behind this old rust bucket GMC the other day with a cute little blond behind the wheel and had to smile. With the Hoosier Tire sticker in the back window, the truck could be hers, but she's probably some lucky young man's sweetie. Lawn mower and more in the back, gettin' it done on a nice spring day. My kind of woman.

Beautiful day yesterday. Worked in the shop for a bit and had the big door open. Hopefully I won't be running the heater again until late fall. I knocked out a couple things on the mill. The plate on the left will be two pieces used to mount the quick-change in the jitney. The one on the right is another piece for the lab tech at the college. This should be the last piece needing any machine work. Assembly should be straight forward welding. I'll give him a hand with whatever help he needs with that as well.

I started putting the trials bike back together and didn't get very far before running into a snag. When I finish welded the frame the side plates with the bosses for the swing arm pivots warped quite a bit. The alignment for the pivot bolt was off a little, but the real problem was the distance between them closed up to the point the swingarm no longer fit in the opening. After a little head scratching I decided the easiest fix was to knock the bushings out of the swing arm and face them off in the lathe. Worked,

but it took a little more persuasion to drive the pivot bolt in than I would have liked.

Mowed the front yard after that. The yard's a mess. Between the bare spots that were under the trees I had taken down last year and the mole infestation I'm going to have some work to do. 

Dogs, Welding and Arithmetic

National Pet Day today. I celebrated by taking Larry to the groomer - he showed his appreciation by shaking all the way there and then refusing to look at me on the ride home.

It's National Welding Month - I celebrated by getting a flash burn on my eyes at work the other night. One of the occupational hazards of working with a bunch of rookies. 

And speaking of rookies, many of the students I encounter at the college are stone cold rookies when it comes to being able to do math and/or read at anything close to grade level. I'm placing much of the blame for this on the schools. I taught 36 years at the high school level, 8 years at the community college level and I haven't seen any improvement in the student's abilities to read or do math problems typical of what is required for the trades since I started way back in 1976, but still they graduate from high school.

In Indiana, in order to graduate with the Core 40 diploma, you must take Algebra I & II and Geometry. Integrative Math I, II, and III can be substituted. I'm not familiar with Integrative Math, so I can't speak to that, but requiring two years of Algebra is pointless for the majority of people entering into the trades. It's bad enough they can't do simple math problems associated with a trade, but they don't seem to think it's an issue. And unfortunately, their reading skills aren't any better. However, there is hope for a solution, and it comes from Mississippi of all places. The Magnolia State has shown tremendous growth in their reading and math scores. Let's hope other states do something similar.

It's not just me

Fingering it Out

 

The TIG Finger showed up the other day - could've used it when welding the bike frame, especially since my depth perception still isn't at its best. The screwdriver bits are JIS bits - Japanese Industrial Standard. They look like Phillips bits but are made for the screws that hold Japanese motorbikes together. I got some JIS screwdrivers for Christmas a few years back but the bits will be useful in the drill motor, impact driver and Tee handle. I don't currently need them but I've got a couple of Jap bikes in the shed that if I live long enough may get moved into the shop.

Easing back into the training program. Brunch today was a fried egg sandwich on dark rye with a slice of cheese, and a couple of vegan sausage patties. I've been starting with some Tai-Chi exercises and  dumbbell curls along with doing some work at the boxing gym once a week. I'm starting to feel some improvement but I've got a long way to go before I get the job as the circus strongman. 

I think I might give up the race walking this year. I haven't put much effort into it the last couple of years, but I do want to do a couple of long bike rides - maybe a 50 miler or a metric century (61 miles). Time to get on a regular schedule: exercise first thing in the morning, breakfast, then put in at least four hours daily working on the projects.

Floorboard

 

The sixties pumped out some good music. The Seekers also did Georgie Girl, neither one are normally played on the classic rock station I listen to. If I had my own radio station they'd get some air play.

Busy day of doing nothing yesterday. A trip to the massage parlor in the late morning, doctor's office after that, a bit of household chores, and then out to the shop to top off the day.

Pattern for the floorboard - simple enough design. Two bends on a 45-deg. angle and a hole for the shifter. The pattern I made for the boot and riser is 6" but it looks like 3" would be all I need. Instead of the square to round transition, I'm thinking maybe make the front part round and then half-way back make the sides straight but taper from the 3" height down to nothing on a 45-deg angle. That would give me a flat surface to mount my ignition switch - engine turn that surface, of course. As the dash is laid out currently the tach is mounted in the middle, but if I move the switch, I could move the tach over so it would be easier to read.

I need to make at least one more support under the floorboard and I'll put some reinforcing beads in it.

I'm going to try to continue working back and forth between the bike and the car. As soon as I get the forks cleaned up it won't take long to finish the bike. Then move it out and the BSA in. 

Goodbye Sadness

 

This one's for Rich in Kentucky. It's a good day for a little more Bossa Nova, as are most days in my book, and it's a good day for Goodby Sadness since I finally got paint on the vintage trials bike.

It warmed up to 50 yesterday with little humidity, so I cranked up the heater, wiped down the frame with some thinner and set to work. I got a couple of small runs in the primer, but nothing too noticeable. The green looks good - probably would look better with a better background, but up close and personal it's pretty sexy. I'm going to let it hang for a few days to make sure the paint's fully cured before beginning the re-assembly. It was almost 80 degrees in the shop when I finished painting, so it had a good start. I'll get some help putting the engine back in so I don't throw my back out or scratch the paint too much. I started this project something like 16 years ago - way past time it should be done.

While waiting for the primer to set up, I drilled the holes in the two pieces of pipe for the lab tech at the school. Also, a former student dropped off the trailer from the ham radio club. I need to figure out how to make a ladder rack sort of thing so they can carry antennas on top when they set up remotely. They're talking snow showers today, so that'll have to wait a bit since I'll have to work on it outside. Meanwhile, I'll work on getting the forks shined up and getting the new seals installed, work on the jitney a bit, and whatever else comes to mind.

I looked up the AHRMA website to see about their vintage trials events since that was the original plan. There's an event in August that's not too far away. Be fun to give that a whirl. I should probably concentrate on finishing projects rather than risking injuring myself again, though. 

Working the Projects

 

The seals for the fork tubes on the trials bike arrived yesterday. The layout on the plate underneath them is for the quick-change axle mount on the jitney project. Behind the plate are two pipes I need to drill a hole for a 3/4" bolt to go into. These are for the lab tech at work. He's making a welding positioner for his welding bench at home. Since he does all kinds of work for me cutting material, I told him I'd help him with his project. The weld shop doesn't have a drill press. The machine shop does but I don't know what the situation is like there now. I used to be the lab tech there and was an instructor in the weld shop at the same time, so I was always doing something in one shop or the other.

The shifter boot came Friday - came with a polished stainless ring and hardware to bolt it down. I made a pattern for the riser mount but I might need to modify things a bit. The bottom is 6" square and the top is 5" in diameter and about 6" high. I might just roll up a 5" dia. cylinder and see how that would look. I'll make the floor pattern before deciding on what to do on the boot.

The book in the photo is the 1947 revised edition - the first edition came out in 1941. The author was a professor at Purdue. It's an excellent book that I refer to occasionally. In this case I couldn't remember how to revolve things to get my true length lines for my layout. I took an engineering graphics course at Purdue a long time ago and I've still got that textbook and several other books for helping do layouts and solving the odd-ball problems I come across in my project work. If you don't have a similar book in your library, you should keep your eyes peeled at estate sales or yard sales for one. If you can find one, it'll probably be cheap enough to take home and keep on the shelf. You never know when you might need to make a truncated cone or a square to round transition piece like the one above.

I got the trials bike frame ready for paint. Depending on the weather today, I'm hoping to get it painted. The primer can be recoated after about an hour. If not, you need to wait 48 hours. I'd rather not do that, so I'm planning on firing up the heater and getting the shop good and warm and low in humidity. If I can accomplish that, I'll get some paint on it. While the shop's warming up, see to the other parts above and get those taken care of. Maybe get a little walk in as well.

Bike Frame

 

I finished welding the bike frame yesterday with the exception of the stubs for the footpeg mounts. The weatherman on the radio sent out a bad weather warning and I didn't want to get caught out in the shop, so I went to the house - glad I did, too. A big blow-up came through shortly thereafter and I definitely would have had to ride out the storm in the shop.

The footpeg mounts get welded in today and then I'll do a bit of grinding, sanding and cleaning to get it ready for paint. While doing that I should be able to find any spots I may have overlooked that need welding.

Still waiting on the fork seals but I haven't got the fork legs cleaned and polished yet anyway. The shifter boot for the jitney should be here today or tomorrow. I picked up some poster board the other day to make a couple of patterns for the floorboard. When I went to pick up my fresh argon bottle on Monday, he was out of my size, so he gave me a smaller one. The delivery truck won't be there for another week yet, so I'm going to weld most everything I can in the meantime. That way I'll empty the small one and pick up my regular one, pay him for both and everyone will be happy. Plus, I'll have a lot done on my projects.

I talked to the travel agent the other day about a trip to Hawaii. It's not going to be cheap but it'll allow me to finish my quest to see all 50 states. Actually, it's more like pee, rather than see. By my rules, the only way you can claim to have been in a state is to mark your territory by "taking a leak" there. So when you see the old Johnny Cash song I've Been Everywhere show up on the blog, you'll know I made it. Meanwhile, back to work.

College Mopes and TIG Fingers

 I ran across this the other day: The average college student today - by Hilarius Bookbinder

Pretty much the same thing I've been dealing with lately. The fact that they don't know the basic things that everyone entering college should know is one thing, but the fact they don't seem too concerned about it is what bothers me. I know what a good welder should know and the conditions of the industry now. You try and tell them that it's a jungle out there but they don't seem capable of cranking it up and doing their best to prepare for a career. Oh well, 12 more days and they're on their own as far as I'm concerned.

I ordered one of these the other day - probably should have done it quite a while ago. It protects your pinky finger, or two fingers with the large one, while TIG welding. You need a pretty steady hand to hold the torch while welding and it's a lot easier if you can put a finger down on the material. I was welding on the bike frame yesterday and I was spending way too much time grinding the tungsten after dipping it into the puddle. I'm thinking the TIG finger would be a great help to steady my hand while trying to wrap a weld around round tubes, especially since my depth perception ain't what it used to be. At least I'm getting the bike frame welded up.

I did a little work on the jitney yesterday as well. I'm working on figuring out the floorboard. I made a pattern and I ordered a shifter boot. I figured out what to do about raising the seat up a little, so I can get on that and get the trials bike finished up. Things are moving along nicely now, but lots of yard work in the coming days.

 

The Magnolias are looking good even though we had a hellacious storm come through over the weekend and freezing temperatures last night. They lost some petals and buds in the storm and tinged the edges of some of the blossoms brown, but that seems to happen most years. No damage on the fruit trees, though.