Praying Mantis

I got the swing painted yesterday. One coat on the bottom but two on the top. Looks pretty good - almost like a woodworker was in charge rather than a weldor. I'll pick up some hardware this week, get that installed and then mothball it until spring. 

Pretty happy with the swing project, not only because it's done, but because I finally have my own woodshop set up and use-able. Still need to get a couple of items moved upstairs and I'd like to get a drill press, but I'm no longer dependent on having access to the high school shop in order to make/fix things at home.

While I had the paint out I figured I should put another coat on the little park bench that sits by the steps. I pulled it out and found a praying mantis underneath it where some iris had grown up. Not something I see around here too often but that's not all that surprising since they blend in with the greenery well and they don't move very quickly. Bench is painted and no praying mantis was harmed in the process. 

I've got a few things lined up for the week already but hope to get back on the 900 soon. If nothing else, at least get some parts ordered in. I'm kicking around some ideas for a small spray booth. I painted my mailbox the other day and sprayed it outside - took twice as much paint as it should have due to the wind but I don't really have a decent spot to paint without worrying about getting overspray on something or getting a lot of dust in whatever I'm painting. Wouldn't need to be much. Something big enough for a motorcycle tank or fenders. Maybe with a Lazy Susan so I could spin the parts around and a bar across the top to hang parts from. Have to see if I can come up with some type of portable/knockdown item with good lighting and an exhaust fan. It never ends.

Swing

Here's the train station out back from a previous post. The swing looked good then but not so much now. I was going to put a coat of paint on it Friday but after looking it over decided the best thing would be to make a new one. I don't know how old the one pictured is but probably close to 25 years. The guy who made it did a real nice job. It was hanging from the ceiling of my front porch before I moved to the farm and it was protected from the elements there. When I first moved down here I took it down and stored it every winter. If I had continued to do that I probably could have gotten another five years out of it. 

After deciding to make another one, I made a quick sketch of this one, a bill of materials and headed for the lumber yard. Forty-two dollars, about eight hours of labor and I've got a new swing. 

I still need to pick up some eye bolts and maybe some carriage bolts, depending on what I've got around here that I can find, and then slap a coat of paint on it. Pretty quick turn-around for me. 

The side rails and the middle piece are "L" shaped with the back of the swing leaning back at a 12 degree angle. They're held together with a lap joint I made using the router. Might have been a little faster with the table saw but it's still downstairs and everything else is upstairs. All the slats have the corners rounded over with the router, as do the arms. It's a straight forward copy of the old one with one exception. There are blocks in the front corner to give it some additional strength where the eye bolt goes through. I made the blocks longer in order to reach the uprights for the arms. I'm planning on putting some carriage bolts through the arm uprights instead of just screwing them into the "L" frame. They're glued in place right now. I don't know what a 5' swing would cost but if I paid myself $20.00/hr, I'd be a little over $200.00 with material and hardware but no finish. Not too bad a return on my time - not that I plan on making any more of these things. If it lasts as long as the old one, this is the last porch swing I'll ever make.

The 900 has these cast collars to hold the exhaust pipes in place on the cylinder head. They're heavy and kind of ugly. They made some aluminum replacements without the fins but I don't know what model or year. I talked to the machine shop professor the other day about making up some on the CNC mill and he was open to the idea. I measured up the stock part for bolt hole centers and diameters, then made up a quicky sketch. I'm planning on taking the part and the sketch to work this week and see what he thinks. If it's a go, I'll need to see about a better drawing to get accurate numbers where the arcs intersect on the profile - maybe hit Surly up for that. Since I've got all the numbers, probably only take him about ten minutes to knock out a drawing. I think you can load a DXF file directly into the one type of mill we have and it can convert it to a tool path. I'll find out more after talking to the prof. Be cool to actually make something in the lab.

Yogi Berra

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Yogi Berra passed away the other day. Like most guys growing up in the 50's and 60's, I was all about baseball. It truly was the national pastime and love 'em or hate 'em, the Yankees were always contenders back then - Maris, Mantle, Skowron, Howard, Ford, Pepitone, and Berra, my personal hero. By any measure he's probably the greatest catcher of all time - MVP three times, 15 All Star appearances and 10 World Series rings for both his playing and managing. By all accounts he was also a great man. I read the book Driving Mr. Yogi a couple of years back. If you're a baseball fan or a Yogi fan, it's a must read. Rest In Peace, Yogi.

Equinox

Sidecars with steering wheels. That's something you don't see everyday Chauncey. If you check out the link, beware. There's some cool bikes, cars and photography but there's some things not safe for "sensitive viewers" - like your boss for instance.

This came in as part of  Cycle World's weekly e-mail. New engine designed by Dan Gurney and friends. Large bore, short stroke, variable valve timing, counter rotating crankshafts that cancel out the rocking motion of the firing pulses. Pretty clever design. They're looking to have one running later in the year. 

I hope Dan Gurney has better luck with his gear teeth than I do with my mouth teeth. That's half the crown portion of the dental implant I got put in not quite two years ago. The damn thing split pert near right down the middle Sunday morning while eating breakfast. Not real happy about that, nor am I happy about the root canal I had done this week on a tooth that already had a crown and a root canal procedure. Two trips to the dentist this week. The one nice thing about the implant is you can break 'em down the middle and it doesn't hurt a lick. 

And to try and keep the positive spin going, I had to go right by the welding supply while I was out.  I only needed a couple of little items but there's no place close to me or in the town where the college is located that has a regular full service welding supply. There used to be one about five minutes away from the college but they folded up a few years ago. As far as I know no one has moved in to fill the void. When I was at the high school I just ordered what I wanted from our supplier on a cash ticket and paid the driver when he made the rounds. It would seem I'm a trifle spoiled.

I was supposed to meet with the concrete guy but the dentist visit will fill that time slot. That's going to push the concrete back a bit again but there's still no freezing temperatures being forecast.

I did a 36 mile bike ride Saturday. The weather was crappy when we set off - spitting rain and wind in our faces but it cleared up nicely and we finished with a nice tail wind. Surprisingly enough, the legs weren't sore after the ride, either that day or the next. The longest I had ridden at a stretch was 15 miles prior to that. Not too shabby for a guy who just turned 65, even if I do say so myself.

Need to get back on the 900 project but also need to get a few things done around the shack before the weather turns cold. It is the autumnal equinox today, after all. Shame to waste all the beautiful weather we're having at the dentist office.

Under the Covers

I started working on the 900 motor in earnest. Took the alternator cover off and got it cleaned up first. I've got a cover that's been chromed but 70's Superbikes weren't known for their show chrome finish. These things were working horses not show ponies. The Scotch-Brite finish looks plenty shiny enough. I had a kit of Allen head screws that I bought a while back so I've been sticking those back in the proper holes as I take things apart and reinstall them.

Cleaned up the sandcast clutch cover after that so it would be ready to bolt on when I took the stock cover off. Shined up the points cover and the piece behind it a bit first, however.  When I took the clutch cover off I discovered a chunk of a broken friction plate. Upon further inspection, there are a couple of broken plates.

The little piece was laying inside the clutch cover. The larger missing piece is not rattling around in the motor, it fell into the drain pan. The steel plates look like they could be salvageable with a little sanding. I'll see what's available and break out the credit card. I knew the time was coming when I was going to have to start spending some money. Looks like it's arrived.  

Edit: I went to Bike Bandit to see about the clutch discs and just for curiosity sake I checked out the price of the above covers. The alternator cover is roughly $350, the points cover $100 and the clutch cover $150. Holy Horseshit, Batman! Three covers are $600.00. I'd better keep my spares under lock and key.

Post Holes

I got the holes dug and the concrete forms taken care of for the veranda off the new barn. They're square to the building, plumb, level and on center. That's about all I can do other than pour them full of concrete. Didn't take too long. The digging was easy other than a chunk of concrete I hit in one of the holes. The forms are 48" long so the holes are deep but that's a good thing. I still need to tamp the floor in the shop before I pour - planning on getting that done over the weekend. I think I've got enough hose to reach out there. I want to wet it down a couple of times to settle the sand and then tamp it. Things are coming along. 

The Rest of the Story

I posted a photo of the front of this bike recently and mentioned I'd like to see the rest of it. Well, here it is. Surly found it and has a few more photos of it and the links at his place. There's an outfit that specializes in books on all forms of transportation. I should check them out one of these days and see what's available on these racers from the 70's and 80's. Put that on my Christmas list if they've got something good. 

Meanwhile, I had a busy day yesterday. Put in 10 miles on the bicycle, cut the grass in the back yard, and worked on a couple of projects.

I stretched a clutch arm for a Ducati narrow case motor. Not all that tough to do other than trying to keep everything in line. No two pieces are the same diameter and the top is supposed to have a little backward lean to it. Little tough to fixture.

I also turned the O.D. and squared up the ends on this piece of pipe. It started as a piece of 2" extra heavy wall. 2" pipe is actually 2-3/8" O.D. but I need 2" on the money for a weld tester I'm putting together at the college. This will be the bottom of the ram for the guided bend tests on 6" Sch. 80 pipe. I'll weld in a piece of 3/8" on the inside of the pipe to stiffen it up and then weld it to a piece of tubing or pipe. Then it will get welded on to a piece that slips over the ram on the big hydraulic press in the shop. I'll post some photos of the job after completion. 

I laid out the holes for the piers for the veranda/deck off the top of the new barn. I need to get those dug so I can pour them the same time I do the shop floor. While I was out there I checked on my hazelnut tree. It was loaded with nuts when I looked about a week ago but they weren't quite ready to pick. Something cleaned them all off the tree. I'm guessing it was a deer. Not a single nut left on the tree. 

Supposed to continue with the warm weather the next few days. I'll have to get up early to get the holes dug but then I can retire to the shop and get back on the 900 project. The wife is slowly getting her strength back. She's talking about a little get-away trip coming up soon. Good to have her back among the living.