Last Ride Of The Year?

 

Instead of working in the shop yesterday, I spent a good part of the day on a bike ride with my running buddy. She moved recently to the next town south, so I loaded up the cycle and drove down to her place. It was nice having a change of scenery. I've been all around my neighborhood more times than I can remember. We went past what appeared to be a trucking company while out and I had to stop and get a photo of the old Mack. Love those old trucks. Nice ride as well. I'm still about 45 miles shy of making 1,000 for the season. We're planning on doing a 5K so I need to do some more walking between now and then but I would like to reach the 1,000 mile mark on the year.

We discussed a few things like always on the ride, including some boxing stuff. Top of the order was Bazooka Joe's fight Saturday night. He went down in the last seconds of the first round. His professional record now is 2-2, all of which have been by knockouts. Two for him, two for them. He's going to have to do better than that. 

There's an amateur fight coming up next weekend and a couple of the guys from the gym here are on the card. It looks like I'll be going to wrap hands and help work the corner. While I'm still trying to avoid crowds, it's time to get back out and do some of the things that make life worth living. 

 

A little teaser for the first installment of Tee Shirt Tuesday. Try to control your excitement.

Memory & Mammary Lane

 

I checked my stats the other day and was amazed at the number of hits here on the old blog the last few days. Friday I had over 5000 views which is about twice the number I get in a normal month. Don't know what prompted the radical increase but it's all good. I scrolled down on the stats page to maybe get a clue as to where all the activity was coming from and while I didn't really come up with an answer, I did take a look at several of my posts from back in time that showed up.

The photo above was when I "raised the roof" on the partially completed new barn that went down in the 80-90 mph straight-line wind storm that came through ten years ago. I've been plying my trade for well over 50 years now and have built and or repaired a little bit of everything. Most of it was just run of the mill stuff that most welders with a bit of machining skill could have done equally as well or better.

However, rebuilding that barn is one of the jobs I'm most proud of. I got a bit of help with some of the muscle work, like raising the new walls and the door header, but engineering the job, moving the roof section out of the way, building the lifting cradle and the spreader bar was all me. And I can guarantee you that that building won't be coming down in my lifetime. A tornado might pull the skin off of it but if one does come, more than likely the barn will spin off the foundation like Auntie Em's house and be set down somewhere in a farmer's field. 

Since I was employed as a high school teacher much of the time while blogging, I never posted much "Rule 5" stuff but I did sneak in a little something every once in a while. Now that I'm no longer employed, I suppose I could post a few more photos of a mature nature. Might help the page count but that's not all that important to me. I do enjoy seeing B&W photos of the classic beauties, though. And Sophia defines the term classic beauty in my book.

This was also in one of the posts that came up in my perusing of the post list. I had forgotten all about this shirt - must have worn it out since it's not around here anymore. Special 79 used to have a blog I enjoyed reading. The blog is gone but he does have a page of merchandise now. The tee shirt is on the page but it's sold out. However, that shirt got me looking in the "tee shirt tub" to check the inventory. Most everything in the tub has never been worn, with a couple of exceptions. Most of them are from a walking, running or cycling event I participated in but I do have some others that should bring top dollar when the grandsons set up the tee shirt stand at my funeral. I'm thinking of running a Tee Shirt Tuesday feature here on the blog. I imagine I can come close to stretching it out at least until next summer, maybe a year. 

I also took the time to read several of the old posts on the topic of education. While I'm still a staunch defender of education in general and technical education in particular, I'm no longer involved so I don't feel qualified to comment on what's going on currently - in spite of the asinine nature of what's actually transpiring that I am aware of. I'm going to get in touch with my buddy Kevin and offer him the opportunity for a guest post occasionally since he's back in the classroom again. I do miss being informed but I don't miss the job. I still have nothing but respect for those that are in the trenches fighting the good battle day in and day out. God bless each and every one of you. 

'Nother Bung

 

Finished machining the bungs for the rear radius rods. Like always, the second one went quicker than the first, even with checking my phone a dozen times. Thursday I must have gotten about 10 phone calls that were from numbers not in my directory. Yesterday that number was more like 20. When the shooting starts, after they clean up Washington, they need to move on to the telemarketers. I went north yesterday and the phone rang four times on my way up. It's against the law to talk on a cell phone while your vehicle is in motion on the highway. I'll be really pissed if I take my phone out of my pocket to check to see who's calling and get a ticket. I normally get maybe 3-4 calls per week, if that. If this keeps up I'll have to figure out how to get them to stop or just turn my phone off and tell the few people who I actually wish to talk to to call at a specific time and I'll turn the phone back on then. 

One of the calls was a text from Fed-Ex about a delivery - be nice if my tires showed up a month ahead of schedule. I'm not holding my breath, however.

It's been chilly and rainy the last couple of days so I got the shop ready for heating. Supposed to have some days at the beginning of next week with the high temps in the forties. Might need to fire it up. I've already broke out the long johns. I'm too old to work in the cold.

Making Bungs & Photos

 

I took the wife to the hospital yesterday for a blood test and a port flush. She didn't have it marked on the big calendar, so it caught me off guard. She said she didn't put it on the calendar because she was planning on going by herself but no reason I couldn't drive her. It was a beautiful fall day and we took the long way home out through the country. 

When I got home I made one of the end pieces for the rear radius rods. In the photo, it's sitting in the threaded end of the 1" pipe I cut off. I don't need the thread as I'm going to weld the bung into the pipe and thread the Ford tie rod end into it just like the front radius rod is. I'll make the second one up today. 

I had to buy a tap to thread the bung. The standard 11/16" fine thread is 16 TPI. The Ford tie rod ends call for 18 TPI. I bought it from Speedway Motors and the price was actually pretty reasonable. At that price I was expecting something made in China but it's a USA made item and it cut the threads slicker than a whistle. I'll probably never use it again after finishing the radius rods but it'll be here if I need it.

I dropped the motorbike off at the storage space yesterday, got a few groceries and loaded the roll of film in the can before taking the Missus to the hospital. Seems that the film is Bergger Pancro 400. I shot the roll in an old twins lens with out any metering device. I'm a little rusty at estimating exposure levels and since after I shot the first couple of frames I could no longer remember what the film speed was, I'm surprised I got any printable negatives at all. This was the first time using this brand of film so it was basically just a trial run. However, if you're going to experiment, you should really control the variables like the film speed. 

I normally mix my own film developer that's similar to Kodak D-23, which has close to the same development times as D-76, one of the most common B&W developers. The times listed inside the film box called for 17 minutes when mixed 1+1 for D-76. That's unusually long but that's what I did. The development seemed to be OK judging by the first few frames on the roll where I actually knew what the film speed was and exposed it accordingly. I might try printing a couple of them just to see how the grain looks when enlarged. I've got another roll of this same film - maybe load it up in my better twin lens and try a few low light shots and a couple of flash photos. 

I want to try making some tintypes one of these days. Freestyle photo, where I usually buy my photographic supplies, sells the Rockland kit. It comes with 4x5 plates and it just so happens I've got two cameras that take 4x5 film. I've got some film holders already loaded with film. I should shoot those up and then see about making some tintypes. It's been awhile since I've done any photography work. Now with the time change coming and the days getting shorter, I can work in my "darkroom" without having to wait until 9:00 at night.  

Sportin' Wood

 

The walnut my brother sent me for the jitney dash arrived yesterday morning. Really good looking pieces of wood. Should look great with the white gauges, especially after a couple of coats of varnish. Maybe use a couple of the drops to make scales for a knife. I've made a few over the years but they never turned out quite as good as I would have liked. Probably shouldn't even think about making something else right now - there's plenty on the plate already. Big thanks to my brother.

I received a text  from UPS as to the day the package would be delivered, nothing new there. However, I received another one yesterday morning that allowed me to follow the drivers route and it gave me a relatively small window as to when the package would be here. Much nicer than the generic e-mail the shippers usually send out stating that it will be there sometime before 7:00 pm.

I got the bracket for the jitney motor sandblasted and painted, finished cleaning up the chopper motorbike and got it loaded in the back of the truck for delivery today. Did a bit more work in the back of the shop so I've got more room to work around the bead roller and the "baby Hossfeld".

I talked to my running buddy and the trip to see Bazooka Joe is officially cancelled out. I don't know how many fights Joe signed to fight with this promoter but I'm hoping to get out there and see one of his fights at least. My buddy tells me there's an amateur fight in Terre Haute coming up. Might be a couple guys from the gym here on the card. If so, I'll probably go down for that one. Wrap some hands, get some pie - always a good day. Especially since I've been mostly home bound for what is fast approaching two years.

Another day of piddlin' around on the schedule. Nothing specific lined up but I'll get out to the shop and tackle something. 

Jitney Stuff

 

Spent a little time in the shop yesterday after going to the boxing gym. Bazooka Joe had called me earlier in the day about my going to his fight Saturday night. I don't think I'm going to make the trip, much as I'd like to. He'll be fighting about 6-1/2 hours away, the hotels that are close by are already full-up, and I'm still trying to avoid crowds. I did go to the gym to watch Joe spar but only because it was just him and his sparring partner. His weight is good, he's always in good shape, the guy he's fighting is shorter than him, so he should be set. If he gets a clean shot at the guy, he'll go down. Joe hits hard.

After coming home I took the gas tank off the motorbike chopper, took a link out of the pedal chain and polished the chrome. I'm going to take it over to my storage space for the winter. 

I also did a little work on the jitney. The bracket in the above photo bolts on the side of the block and to the bellhousing of the transmission. I don't have one with my original engine, so this one will get sandblasted and painted. I'll probably do that today. If I wait much longer it'll be too cold for painting unless I run the heat and I'm not quite ready for that yet.

I managed to loosen up all the nuts on the studs holding the manifolds on. I've been spraying them with Blaster off and on. Seems to have done the trick. I want to separate the intake from the exhaust so I can start toying with how I'm going to make the exhaust header. It's going to be a little tricky dropping the tubes down under the intake runners but there's nothing else in the way after that. I'm planning a 6 into 1 with all the tubes dumping into a single long tube that runs almost the length of the car just below the "door". Not the most efficient as far as gas flow goes but it's the look I want.

The dash wood should be here today - looking forward to seeing what it looks like. I also made a couple of temporary cross pieces to set the seat on to get an idea where I should place it. I moved the cab sheet metal back to give myself some more leg room but I need to be able to sit down and check the fit.

Kind of all over the map yesterday but moved forward a bit just the same.

Energy

 

Old John Prine  song about Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Muhlenberg is southwest from where my people come from. Not a happy subject that strip mining. A lot of the mining property has been reclaimed in the eastern part of the state and is used for recreational purposes. There's a pretty sizeable elk herd over that way now and West Virginia has introduced a herd also. You can hunt them now in Kentucky and I would imagine that will be the story in West Virginia in a few years. Hunting and other recreation uses bring in a lot of money but it can't replace the money the miners were making. Quite a few communities fell on hard times when the mines closed. 

The climate change, green energy issue, whatever you want to call it, won't be resolved easily. Things easily fixed like LED lighting, better insulation, programmable thermostats. and heat pumps can help all of us save money and energy around the house but some of the other solutions are trading one problem for another. Solar fields, windmills and electric vehicles being prime examples. The railroad tracks that run by my place service a coal fired generating station that was scheduled to close soon. Last I heard they're going to delay the closing since there's already a shortage of electricity and the big solar fields that are being built around here are still a couple of years away from coming online. 

I don't have the solution other than trying to keep my usage to a minimum. Mostly because I'm cheap - running the furnace is literally money that just goes up in smoke. I've made some noticeable changes to the old shack since I moved in years ago that have cut down on my energy consumption. I need to replace a few windows next - something I should have done years ago. They would have paid for themselves by now. Of course, since you get no return on money in the bank these days, the pay back schedule on the windows has probably accelerated. 

Since the temperatures are more seasonable than they have been, meaning chilly, time to get the shop ready to go for the winter, get the tractor and the snowblower ready to go and make sure I've got some ice-melt. I'll mow at least once more, maybe twice, and then see about repairing the one spindle, change the oil and have it ready to go for next spring. Regardless of the weather or propane cost, I'm going to have to spend some serious time in the shop this winter if the jitney is going to be a runner next year.

I saw that Wes Cooley passed away a week or so ago. Great motorcycle racer - Superbike champion a couple of times. I had the opportunity to talk with him once. Seemed like a nice guy and very friendly to his fans. I saw him race at Road America where he had to start at the back of the pack. I don't remember if he won the race but he rode that Suzuki like a man possessed. RIP Mr. Cooley.