Today's the Day

There is a whole lot going on today. My school corporation, like every school corporation in Indiana, has had their funding cut. They offered an early retirement incentive and have already sent Reduction in Force (RIF) letters to quite a few people. This all had to be finished up by the end of the day yesterday. Hopefully, the number of retirees will be enough to prevent others from losing their jobs. While I don't agree in the slightest with the way our corporation has handled the short fall (in fact it was just plain cruel), the real culprit is down there in Indianapolis - the same guy who was going to straighten out the time zones in the state.

I'm in the twilight of my career, so the dumb decisions that politicians make will have little immediate effect on me, at least as far as my employment goes. But just once, I would like to see a common sense approach taken with school reform. The schools are required to perform high stakes testing and ensure everyone passes and they cut the state budget in Indiana for education by 300 million. Granted, there has to be some waste and some fluff in any corporation, whether a school or not, so it should be possible to trim a little fat. But to ask every school to decrease spending and increase test results, graduation rates, and attendance rates, offer foreign languages, art, band, tech classes, advanced placement classes, and athletics at the same time, is just not going to happen.

So in the future, before any of you knucklehead politicians decide to pass educational reform laws, I suggest you run it past me first. I'll consult a couple of my people and get right back to you. Before you call, though, just remember this: No unfunded mandates, and I expect you to be at least somewhat in touch with reality.

South Bend Lathe

I got the lathe back together and finished up the part for the high mileage project I was machining when things stopped rotating. The headstock spindle is still a little loose but I needed to get the piece threaded so I'll tackle tightening things up at another time. The lathe came out of a high school machine shop and had seen a lot of service prior to my getting it. I cleaned it up and replaced a few parts before putting it into service but it needs a good going over once again. I've been using it for close to twenty years and I've made a ton of parts with the thing.

I did an internet search for South Bend lathe to see about ordering some parts and came up with the website of the factory. I thought they were about out of business but it looks like they are on an upswing. The website has a history of the company that's pretty interesting. They also have a page of historic photos that is also pretty cool if you're a machinery junkie like myself. It looks like they are going to bring a couple of their small lathes back into production. That would be good to see. I'm pretty well fixed in the lathe department but a small tabletop lathe would be nice to have. Something like an Atlas 6" or a South Bend 7" would be just the ticket. I could put it down the basement and make all kinds of things when it's too cold to go out in the shop. I'm starting to see myself in the future as one of those old geezers who tinkers around making little steam engines and whatever else comes to mind. Not the worst thing that could happen in retirement. In fact, I started building a live steam locomotive when I worked at the other school. I still have a box of parts and the plans. Maybe I can drag those out in about five years.

When I first started teaching school I didn't know much about machining. The instructor there, Ray Pawlowski, took a liking to me and taught me a lot. I had always been making things and when I realized I had a complete machine shop at my disposal, it really opened up the possibilities. Ray really helped me out and I'll never be able to thank him enough. It's been a real blessing to have come across people like Ray and my Uncle Pete. Great craftsmen who were willing to share their knowledge and skills. I'm just glad I had enough sense to pay attention to them.

Break's About Over

Spring break is just about history and as usual I only got about half as much done as I wanted to. I did make it to the dentist, the tax lady, Purdue for my metabolism test, ran a couple of days, made it to the gym a couple of times, went to Indy for the Gloves, went to Terre Haute for the weekend, worked on the van, fixed a couple of things at school and a couple of things around the shack, and I shoveled a little over 7000 lbs of gravel yesterday to patch up the driveway. The only things I still really need to get done are finish putting the lathe back together and fix the lawn mower. Going back to work is starting to look good to me.




































I did have a little time to stop and smell the flowers. These are from one of my magnolia trees. This one is a Biond magnolia and this is the first year it has really blossomed out. We had a frost Friday night and it browned up a few of the blossoms but it still should be pretty for at least another week or so. They have a nice fragrance, as well. Spring is definitely in the air!

Gym Van

The large gaping hole.










The step plate installed.












The rocker panel tacked together.








Almost done.






I spent the last couple of days working on the van for the gym, among other things. The van is a big Dodge and like all of the uni-body vehicles that have spent their days in the Midwest, the bottom 10 inches of the body has suffered some major rust damage as a result of all the road salt that's used in the winter. This one has been repaired once already but what wasn't fixed plus some that was is in need of some major sheet metal work.

I worked on the step and rocker panel on the passenger side. As you can see from the photos, it was pretty much a matter of cutting everything out and starting fresh. The actual step part was a piece of cake. Just cut the old out and make a new panel. A little measuring, cutting and bending and there you go. I also put a couple of beads in the panel to match the factory one. I then made up a couple of small pieces to fill in the door post area.

The rocker panel below the step was the hard part. The piece tapers out about two-thirds of the way back. I made the piece in three parts and then welded them together. The piece has a flange on the back side to fasten the bottom edge to the van. I still have to weld or maybe just rivet the flange in place yet but everything else is welded up and ground down. Lots of work for a vehicle that's not worth much even if it was 100 percent.

I priced paint and patch panels today from the local auto parts store and that wasn't too encouraging. The only replacement rocker that they could find a listing for was for the right side and it's $160.00. The left side is the one that needs it the most, of course. I'll look into it a little deeper but I'll probably just end up buying a sheet of 20 gauge and making everything my self. A little more work maybe, but it will cost less and if I can save us a little money it will be worth it in the long run. Plus, if I make the parts myself, I'll get a chance to improve my skills with the English wheel. That ought to be worth something.

Eames Skateboard

This one's for Surly.






Bitchin' skateboard, don't you think. If you follow the link to the photos, you can find a spot to get your own custom board made up. Lots cheaper than a motorcycle or a hot rod. Of course you have to offset some of the savings with band-aids and the occasional emergency room visit. Most of the guys I see at school who ride these things are always scabbed up. They're usually darn fine athletes, however. Reflexes like a cat, excellent balance. We could use them on our athletic teams but most of them just don't have the team player mentality. There is something to be said for independence, though.

I came across this at Ride the Machine. There are a couple more photos of it here.

Weekend Fun

The Missus and I went to Terre Haute this past weekend to attend the Ring Ceremony at St. Mary of the Woods college. The rings are presented to those finishing their Junior year at the college. It was a lovely day and a lovely ceremony and my congratulations go out to Debbie for all of her hard work and persistence.

While we were in town we also had the chance to go to the Clabber Girl museum. Clabber Girl baking powder is where the Hulman family of Indianapolis made their dough - pun intended. It's a nice little display with no charge to get in, first of all and a nice little restaurant, second of all. If you check out the pictures, you can see the appeal to a guy like me. With food, race cars, bicycles, and beer on display they pretty well covered all the bases.

We spent a couple of nights at the Inn at Turkey Run State Park. It's been a while since the last time I had stayed there. The park has some great hiking trails and beautiful old growth hard wood forest. I didn't have much time to hike around but I did manage to get a little time in on the trails and see a few things, including a Pileated woodpecker. They're big suckers and make a lot of racket when drumming up lunch.

Speaking of racket, Saturday night was probably the loudest night I had ever experienced while staying in a hotel. The Inn is a lovely building, the staff very nice and the food in the restaurant was top notch but quiet, it ain't. The mechanicals are noisy - you can hear toilets flushing and heaters cycling on and off, which wouldn't have been all that bad, but then add in a bunch of college kids who were going out on the fire escape for a smoke and a giggle next to and above our room every five minutes. Every time they went back inside they let the door slam behind them and then proceeded to stomp around in the room above us and down the hallway. If we had been camping at the park, there would have been a 10:00 pm quite time rule in play. Instead, these mopes were still slamming the door at 11:30. Tough to get a good night's sleep that way. If I go back, next time I'll get a cabin or camp.

Lots of things lined up for the week. I'll see how much of it actually gets accomplished. I hope the weather cooperates.

The Joys of Teaching

Now most of you who know me have to be looking for some sarcasm to accompany that title but no, really, here's some of the joy of teaching:

I received a letter from a former student the other day. We've stayed in touch pretty much ever since he graduated 18-20 years ago even though he left the area. Good kid when in school and has done well for himself over the years. He worked as a weldor for many years and has a little sideline hustle still using his skills. He's a police officer now. Really great to hear from him. I also got an e-mail from a former student about a month ago. He graduated in '93 so it's really been awhile since I've last seen him. He too is doing well and is planning on coming down one of these nights for my Open Shop. He's bringing another former student with him as well.

As a teacher, you always wonder what happens to these guys once they leave school. I've always been of the opinion that I can't be a success unless they are. Kind of puts me in tough position, with my fate determined by theirs but it's really the only way to see it. It makes me extremely proud when they go out and make something of themselves. And of course, it's very rewarding to know that I had some small part in it.

The educational system is always in the news for one thing or another and there are lots of things that could be improved. There are some slugs in the classroom just like any other profession and Lord knows I've made my share of mistakes but most of us just keep plugging along trying to do the best we can with whatever comes through the door. It's the guys like the ones I've heard from recently that keep us coming back, though. Thanks fella's.