Footpegs Are Done

Flex Rod is Almost

Done

Clutch Hub is Done

Not Even Close

to Done

I spent all day Tuesday at the gym. Jimmy and I painted from 9:00 in the morning until about 7:30 that night. Jimmy put the second coat on the bottom part of the walls Wednesday morning and we both went back that evening to finish things up. Looks good - I'll post a couple of photos at the DeMotte Boxing Club site after we get everything cleaned up.

I spent the better part of Wednesday at school. The kid with the speeder came in and worked on it a little. He's changing motors in the thing and the new motor has a larger output shaft than the original. I brought some tooling in from home and got him lined up on the lathe. He bored the clutch hub out from 1" to 1-1/8". He farted around on a couple other little things as well, mostly getting himself lined up on the game plan.

I fixed a piece for one of the double end bags at the gym, finished filing the footpegs for the Rickati, filed out the holes to fit the flex rod for the steam engine, cut some trim for a job at the shack, and did a couple of little maintenance chores around the shop. Lots of time to think about my New Year's Resolutions while I was tinkering around. I think I need more of a revolution as opposed to resolution. Or maybe, more resolution instead of making resolutions. However it goes, I just need to keep on the path to finishing things. I've been doing pretty good lately - just can't fall off the wagon.

Walter Russell

I received the book The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe by Glenn Clark for Christmas. It's a short little book first published in 1946 describing the life of Walter Russell, who with his wife Lao, founded the University of Science and Philosophy. I breezed threw the book pretty quickly and was pretty impressed with the late Walter Russell. He was an accomplished musician, sculptor, painter, philosopher, teacher, architect, and figure skater. Quite the resume.

While I have only a minimal understanding of Russell's theories and philosophy, in a nutshell, he thought the whole world was basically run on electrical energy - you, me, the whole universe. If you take the gift of God's electrical energy and work with it rather than oppose it, you can accomplish all kinds of things. I don't know for sure but I would guess that the whole New Age thing started with the Russell's. Because his philosophy is of the New Agey sort, statements like: "Very often, sexual repression will reverse ones polarity" might be a little difficult to make sense of but the following quotes give you something to think about:

I believe sincerely that every man has the consummate genius within him. Some appear to have it more than others only because they are more aware of it than others are, and the awareness or unawareness of it is what makes each of them into masters or holds them down to mediocrity. I believe that mediocrity is self-inflicted and that genius is self bestowed. Every successful man I have ever known, and I have known a great many, carries with him the key which unlocks that awareness and lets in the universal power that has made him into a master.

Every successful man or great genius has three particular qualities in common. The most conspicuous of these is that they all produce a prodigious amount of work. The second is that they never fatigue, and the third is that their minds grow more brilliant as they grow older, instead of less brilliant. Great men's lives begin at forty, where the mediocre man's life ends. The genius remains an ever-flowing fountain of creative achievement until the last breath he draws.

Since genius is self bestowed and they all produce a prodigious amount of work, I think I'll hold off on bestowing myself with the title of genius, 'cuz then I'd have to produce. But on the other hand, if mediocrity is self-inflicted, I need to do something. I'm pretty sure this isn't what the Buddha had in mind for the middle path ,though. Maybe I need to sign up for the Russell home study course. Seriously though, some interesting ideas presented by the Russell's. Worth a deeper look.

Harley Cafe Racer

Photo from here:

How sweet is this? My kind of Sportster right there, by golly.

Machine Work

Brake Rod
















Steam Engine Piston














Footpeg Mount Before Machining













After Machining
















Completed Tailstock











I've been busy the last few days doing machine work. It hasn't been too cold so I've been able to go out in the shop and work. My little kerosene heater gets it up to about 40 degrees before my feet get cold, so I can stand in front of the lathe and mill and make chips. The brake rod and the footpeg parts are for the Rickati. I've got a little grinding/filing to do in order to get the pegs to pivot but I'll have them ready to weld onto the bike this week.

The piston is for the steam engine project. I've got both of them done but the cylinder bores are not quite true. The cylinders are copper tubing caps and they're a little smaller in diameter on the bottom. I'll chuck them up in the lathe and "tickle" them a little bit with some emery to see if I can even the bore up from top to bottom. I'm a little behind on the steam engine project but that's nothing new. I need to machine the valve and a block that changes the linear motion into rotary but there's nothing too tricky involved on the block. The valve as shown in the print is something else, though. There doesn't seem to be any seal on the thing to keep steam from leaking out. I'm going to try and rig up a couple of O-rings to cure that. The plans definitely leave a little to be desired.

I finished the tailstock. If you look on the right side you can see the groove turned in the rod and the bolt with the washer used to tension the rod in the end of a part when in use. I need to put a tack weld on the washer to keep it from unscrewing but no biggy there.

I've still got a weeks worth of vacation left, so I should be able to make some more progress on things. A former student bought himself a little Fairmont motor car/speeder and brought it over to school last week. He wants to work on it a couple of days so I'll be at the school working on some things and we're going to paint the gym this week as well. As always, lots to do but as the pictures show, I'm making progress.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday and get a chance to spend time with family and loved ones. There are a lot of people hurting this year, so if you get a chance, drop a couple of bucks in the bucket for the Salvation Army or make a donation to your local food pantry. I'm extremely fortunate to be living such a good life. I'm warm, fed and loved. I wish the same for all of you.

Fireplace Tools

I finished the fireplace tools that I made at the Blacksmith Shop during the fair. Actually, I made the tools two years ago and made the pieces for the stand this year. I need to put some linseed oil on everything still as I write this but that might have to wait a couple days as I seem to have caught something of a sore throat, runny nose kind of thing. No surprise, however. Happens every year at either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Whatever goes through the school, I manage to get to a greater or lesser degree. I do especially like it when it happens while I'm on vacation. If I'm going to be miserable, I'd prefer having the opportunity share that with the little SOB's at work who passed it around in the first place. It is after all the season of giving.

Big Picture Learning

I was talking to Surly the other night at the fights about his photography work (he shot Jimmy's fight and several others) and his new camera. With any new tool there is always a learning curve and trying to master a skill like low light action photography will of course take some time. He mentioned how non-professional photographers have been known to say "I could take that same picture" but of course, they didn't. The old photographers had the saying "f8 and be there", meaning have your camera ready and show up where the action is. I found a similar thing at the Big Picture Learning blog.

In order to learn you needed to hang around the other musicians. You needed to persist. You had to be in the right places and keep your eyes wide open. And you had to develop your ownstyle that translates to personalizing standards. - Jay McShann

If you want to be good at something, you have to devote the time and effort. You have to learn the basics of the trade before you learn the tricks of the trade. If you stroll down on the above link to the entry dated October 30th, you'll see a graph of the attendance rate of New York City schools. It's absolutely pathetic. How are you going to learn if you're not there?

The answers to the problems America is facing with its educational system are out there. Unfortunately, the politicians keep looking in the wrong place. You can't mandate performance. If my pay rate is going to be determined by student test scores, the little darlings had better be showing up on a regular basis with a good breakfast in their little tummies and a good night's sleep under their belt. To find what works, you need to take a page out of the Jay McShann book. Hang out with the other musicians or in this case, check out the Big Picture schools or the one started by Thomas Bloch of H&R Block fame, or look to Finland. Find what works and give the schools and the staff the freedom to implement change.

Indiana public schools are short on money to begin with and, if State Superintendent Tony Bennett has his way, will be looking at some changes that will not improve the situation regardless of how much money they receive. I've seen the proposal for teacher evaluations and no one will be able to be rated at the highest level. There aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that will be required. Schools will also be given a letter grade evaluation now, just like students receive on a quiz. Inter-city schools will still receive poor ratings and places like Munster or Brownsburg will still be at the top. The only way to make things better is to change the culture of the school and the community. Parents need to place a higher value on getting little Johnny to school everyday and the the schools need to be a little less torture chamber and a little more interesting. It could be done.