Finished Project

 

I finished the stitching pony yesterday. Now that it's done, I think I could have omitted the slot for the clamp screw. I saw that design while researching these things and figured there must have been a reason someone thought it was a good idea. The whole shootin'-match was made from material I had laying around. The knob is a bit of overkill but I like making things like that. I decided to forego any finish and went with the "family crest" instead. 

In the photo are "vix bits" from Garrett Wade. These things are the berries when installing hinges. The bits have a taper matching the angle of the countersunk screw holes in the hinges and a pilot drill inside. Just line the bit up over the hole in the hinge, push down and you've got a pilot hole for a screw in the middle of the hole just like it should be. While I've got a set of these, I've only used a couple of them. The one size I've used quite a bit, however. Makes for easy and accurate installations.

Looks like more rain today. Maybe make another pot of soup with the root vegetables. Work in the shop a bit as well.

Stitching Pony

 

I made a bit of design change for this one, so it didn't get finished yesterday. I'm deciding if I should put some type of varnish/sealer on it. If I do, it won't get done today either. Not that big of a deal, just want to finish this one so I can get started on the one for my boss at the side gig. Plus, this is for Surly and he could use it for a project he's working on for me.

I went to Indy last night for the Golden Gloves. I knew it had been a while since I'd been there. I checked the archives and the last time I was there was 2017. I was working nights at the college '18 & '19, and they weren't held '20 & '21, so it's definitely been a while.

There were four guys from our gym scheduled for the night, however, we had one win by walkover, one whose opponent pulled out of the tourney for some unknown reason, one who pulled out because he was eleven pounds over-weight, and one who actually fought for a win by decision. 

The last time I saw him fight was last summer in Terre Haute. He looked a lot better last night. He dominated the fight - still has a lot of room for improvement - but both his mental and physical game have improved. Unfortunately, he has to fight one of our fighters in the finals. 

Good night out. I'll be staying home next week. The finals are usually pretty crowded and I don't want to push my luck with the cooties. 

Egg Knob

 

Looks like Big Halsey has started contributing to the cause. That would be the big-un on top. In the middle is one from the old Rhode Island Red and the bottom one is from one of the Wyandottes. I was waiting to see a blue, pink or green egg, but a whopper of a white one is pretty good. Hopefully Little Faus will be getting with the program soon as well.

Put in 3 miles of walking yesterday morning and started on a new project. Not a big job but the material for a big job came in yesterday. That one's going to take a while - lots of individual pieces, some hole drilling and tapping. I'm going to try and get the new job finished today but I want to get a couple more miles in, pick up my veggies while I'm out, and I've got a couple other things on my plate.

Fuzzy Turkeys & A Moon Shot

 

I went to an advisory committee meeting at the college last evening - nice seeing some of the folks I used to work with. The inflation problem is hitting the welding program hard. Consumables have gone up in price and one of the committee members, who is a sales rep for Lincoln Electric, said they've had eight price increases since last February, with more sure to come.

One of the other members is in charge of training for the boilermakers and he was saying once again about how hard it was to get people who will actually work. He counsels everyone before they fill out the application about the job requirements and what they'll be expected to do on the job - fit through a 12"x16" man way, climb to whatever height is required, work in the heat and the cold and in dirty environments. However, the compensation package is excellent. Many of them still sign up only to quit as soon as they get out on the job. What a helluva wasted opportunity.

Before the breakout session with the individual programs, the general session opened up with the lady in charge putting out a call for instructors, especially in the welding program. My old boss will be retiring at the end of this semester and he has been teaching five classes. He said he might come back in the fall as an adjunct but he won't be teaching five classes. That's going to make the need for instructors even more dire. Most of the classes are two days per week. I might be talked into teaching a day class again. Maybe.

Photo of the turkeys was shot out of the truck window on my way home from the meeting. I rested the phone on the door while the truck was running and zoomed in a bit. I was surprised the shot came out as sharp as it did. The camera's pretty impressive in it's ability to take decent photographs with just the touch of a button.

I shot this one resting my hand on the deck railing - almost too easy.

Tee Shirt Tuesday #26

Number 26 - halfway through the year already and still no shortage of tee shirts. In fact, the one in the photo is brand new. Surly brought this down for me on Sunday.

And just in case you couldn't see the patch clearly enough in the large photo, you want to read it and remember it for safety sake.

Surly also brought an aluminum job for me to weld. I'll have to confess it wasn't my finest effort. My hands were a little shaky and I touched the tungsten into the puddle a few times. I had two pieces to weld - the second looked a lot better.

After Surly left my running buddy picked me up and we headed to the park for our Sunday walkies. Just as we got to the park it started raining, so we headed back home. Just before we got out of town there was a wreck right in front of us. I was sitting in the back seat so I didn't see it while it was occurring, but one of the vehicles ended up in the ditch and the other one was stopped in the road with quite a bit of damage. Fortunately no one was hurt.

I installed a new faucet on the kitchen sink yesterday along with my typical Monday chores. The installation went well - no trip to the hardware store needed and I only had to make two trips out to the shop once I was under way. Once for some silicon sealer and once for a couple of zip ties to keep the hoses from getting tangled up underneath the sink. The new faucet has a pull-down sprayer which will be handy. You can turn the sprayer on while the head is still in place for hands-free spraying while rinsing dishes as well as pulling the sprayer head out. 

While Surly was here, he gave me a hand putting the cylinder head on the jitney motor so I can figure out where to mount the remote oil filter. I've got a bracket tacked in place but after a quick eyeballing, I'm not so sure that's going to work. I might see about putting it on the outside of the frame rail - easy to service and it'll show off the Offenhauser filter cover.  

I got the shock mounts tacked onto the wishbones after my plumbing adventure - not much but every day a little something.

Keeping Tabs On Things

I got the tabs for mounting the dashboard rounded off and welded on yesterday. After bolting the dashboard in, I put the steering wheel on, set the seat in the cab and climbed in to see what the fit will be like. It's kind of hard to tell without the seat bolted down but I think it'll work. It's going to be a bit snug with my long legs and big feet but I'm going to get the seat secured and then see what I've got. 

I spent a few minutes yesterday looking at the old boat trailer Surly drug down a couple of years ago. The original idea was to convert it to a utility trailer with the primary purpose hauling motorcycles around. He's since got another trailer so this is one isn't really needed. However, it needs to either become useable or scrapped. After looking at it, I think it would actually be pretty easy to convert it into a nice little trailer without spending an arm and a leg on it. I'm going to keep thinking about it and maybe after the weather stabilizes a bit, maybe start on the fabrication part of it.

An attachment for an engine stand to hold a boat motor. I no longer have a boat motor so I don't need this currently. I can clean it up and paint it for some future time or I can cut the pipe off the end and scrap the rest. I'm leaning towards scrapping - time to make a more serious effort towards downsizing. Get things finished or get them gone. 

Hammerin' Out The Jobs

Since it turned out to be a nice afternoon yesterday, I decided to just piddle around in the shop a bit working some odds and ends. Went ahead and fit the hammer head to the handle, rather than putting it off to the side somewhere.

I made the tabs for fastening the dashboard of the jitney in place. I still need to round the top corners off a bit. It's about time to get a new 10-24 tap also. While the new phone takes good photos, it doesn't seem to work real well on close-ups. I don't know if there's a macro setting on it or I'm just wiggling when punching the button. Need to look into that.

I bought some leveling feet for the legs I need to make for the boss at the side hustle. They're not very thick, so I needed to adjust my design a little to maintain the required height. I swung by the steel supply and dropped off the material list. The tubing comes in 24' lengths, so the boss is going to pick the material up with his trailer. There'll be some hole drilling and threading of parts, so I'll get those pieces cut to length and bring them to my shop to do that. The rest the boss's son and I can do at his shop. Should be able to knock this one out in a couple of Saturdays

Surly said he might be down this weekend. He's got an aluminum job that needs to be done and he'll give me a hand with a bit of heavy lifting I need help with. 

And from the good news department: Some knucklehead decided to annoy Mike Tyson on an airplane and after Mike decided he'd had enough of it, he proceeded to pound some knots on the dude's head. With all the trouble they've been having on airplanes of late, they should hire Mike and a few other heavyweights to ride along on the planes to deal with unruly passengers. A good ass-whoopin' make you think twice before causing trouble on a public conveyance.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, things are coming along nicely. I'm always a whole lot more ambitious in the springtime - which is a good thing. Plenty to do around the old shack and in the shop.