On This Day

 I received an email from "one drive" yesterday that included photos that occurred on that day in my computer history. 

HD Sprint frame I made about 30 years ago. 350cc power from my race bike. Aircraft strut tubing perimeter frame, aluminum tank and seat. You can't tell from the photo but I made the front wheel hub and drum using a Triumph backing plate. Sort of the same thing I'm trying to do with the jitney project - make it all from scratch.

Sportster I put together from boxes of parts. When I finished it I was planning on leaving it until the following spring and then gassing it up and riding. As it worked out, it went back to the previous owner before I even took it for a ride. Fun project. Didn't make any money on it but didn't really lose any either - unless you count my labor. Lost my ass there but no regrets.

And one of my all time favorite cartoons - not only because I have a thing about how much algebra is stressed in school even though most people will never use it, but also there's nothing finer than a smart-ass teacher who would make a comment like this. In my case the statute of limitations has run out on all of the insults I threw out as a shop teacher but we shop teachers were always able to get away with a little more than most classroom teachers. And most of us appreciated the student who could give as well as take.

I got the action plan worked out on the cylinder head repair. I've got the tools and material all laid out. I've got a dentist appointment this morning but plan on getting after it later today. It's supposed to be hot again but I should be OK as long as I keep the fan going.

I got a phone call from the guy with the Ranger I recently repaired. Seems he needs a cast iron manifold repaired on a big bucket loader. I've got a portable welder but it resides on a skid that I can haul around with my tractor. Loading it on my pickup would be a pain in the ass and it runs AC current and my cast iron rods run on DC electrode negative. I can gas weld cast iron but I checked and couldn't find the flux or the rods. I must have left them at the high school when I retired. I gave him a number to call of a local guy who does field work. Hope that takes care of him. I really don't want to start doing a bunch of outside work. I've got plenty of my own.

Head Repair

 

I removed the bushing from the Ducati cylinder head I brought home the other day. You can see a gouge in the threads in the head, obviously where the leak was coming from. 

I put the head on my surface plate after leveling it up, turned an aluminum bar to a snug fit in the hole, tapped it in and measured the angle - looks to be about 45 degrees. I'm not quite sure of the fix yet but I need to make a cover for the bevel gears to keep a bunch of junk from getting in there. If I work it right I can make a pressed in bushing and then weld around the bottom so it won't leak again. That way I shouldn't have to fixture the head and do any machine work on it but if I do, I know the angle to set the head.

Tee Shirt Tuesday # 35

 

Number 35 was at a Christian High School. I don't remember if I ran it or walked it - probably walked it - but I won a pint glass, which I found somewhat ironic. The school's sports teams are called the Knights, so the pint glass has a picture of a knight and info about the run. The shirt's made from a technical fabric so it doesn't get much use. Hot sparks or chips will melt it to your skin. No bueno.

Cuzzin Ricky brought his trailer over to have some D rings installed. I welded eight of them on. Rick ground the paint off, I welded and we both shot some bull. I should have chipped the slag off before taking the photo but the beads with 6011 electrodes are never very pretty. They're just the thing for this kind of work, however. 

After we finished the trailer job, I finished the barrels for the spring shackles. Pretty easy job here. Face them to length, drill, ream, done.

After that one, I put fresh glass bead in the blaster and cleaned up the clamp plates for the rear spring. The threads on the U-bolts are too far gone, so I won't be able to use them. The threaded section on them is 9/16", not a real common size at a hardware store. Since that's what the clamp plates are designed for, rather than U-bolts, I'll probably make something up just using bolts. Maybe not. I'll see what I come up with for a cross member and then take it from there. The important thing is to keep making pieces and progress.

And in news from the garden, we've got some baby watermelons on the vines. I don't remember what variety these are but I'm hoping it's a nice sweet one.

It's Back Home

 

I picked up the Ducati motor for the vintage trials bike project yesterday. It's been fitted with the heavy brass flywheel and converted to 12 volts. He tells me it's a 5 speed also. He didn't fit the cylinder head but I can handle that easy enough when the time comes. He hooked me up with a shifter lever and a rectifier, so I should be set except for a carburetor. He said he might have something that will work, likewise, I might have something that will work. He likes the Amals, 26 mm is the size he recommends.

He said when I get ready to fire it up, let him know and he'll either come down or I can take the bike back to him for the initial start-up. He'll get the timing set, the carb adjusted, etc. He knows these things, quite literally, inside and out. I want to stay on the jitney project for a while but the plan is to get the bike all assembled, do a little shake-down ride or two and then take it apart this winter and get it painted or powder coated, put it back together and be ready to go for next spring.

While I was there he gave me a job to work on for him. Someone had stripped out the sparkplug threads and did some half-assed repair by installing a plumbing bushing that had been rethreaded internally for a 14mm plug. It works mostly but leaks compression through the threads on the outside of the bushing. I think the factory plug might have been a 12 mm but I'm not sure. I'll pull the plug out of my head and double check and then decide on the action plan. He's in no hurry but I don't want it laying around here. Get it done, get it gone.

Race Results

 

I did the 5K yesterday - good morning for it. The temperature was cool and the sky was overcast - close to perfect conditions. It was a rather small field of runners and an even smaller field of walkers. However, the guy I used to work with at the high school was there. He beat me last Thanksgiving when Surly and I did the walk. I was able to get my revenge yesterday. Actually, we walked side by side for a while, chatting. I picked up the pace with about a mile left and came in as the first male walker. My running buddy ran/walked with a friend of hers. I came in a couple of steps in front of them but only because they were being kind.

I started on the barrels for the spring shackles later in the day and I got a call from my buddy with my Ducati motor. It's done, so I'm going to pick it up today. Got a welding job for Cuzzin Ricky on tap for tomorrow.

Lily & A 5K

I bought this several years ago - someone was selling them as a fundraiser. Every year it has more blooms on it. This year it seems to be even prettier than in years past. 

I worked on the jitney yesterday but don't really have anything to show for my time spent on it. The round stock I ordered came in so I cut the pieces for the "barrels" to mount the rear spring shackles. I also did a bunch of head scratching on mounting the differential, fuel cell and seat. I'm going to move the back of the cab rearward, set the seat back and down and make new filler plates for joining the back of the cab with the dashhood. That'll give me more room for my big feet and keep my legs out of the steering wheel. I'll have to change the rear sheet metal from the original idea of a boattail to a turtle deck it looks like but this way I can get everything where it needs to be. 

I'm doing a 5K this morning. It's only about 5 minutes away, so no good reason not to. I didn't get a tee shirt with my entry, however. I've got plenty!

 

Green Eggs & Ham

First off, Sam is my wife's nickname. Secondly, the two new chickens I picked up not too long ago lay green eggs. And last, but not least, the missus was cooking herself ham and eggs last evening, so we had green eggs and ham, Sam-I-Am. We don't get too many Dr. Suess moments around here, so we cherish them when they come around.

The magazine I couldn't think of the name of the other day is Traditional Rod & Kulture. I found a stack of them and the back issues of Garage magazine on a shelf in the shop. After looking at the back issues of Traditional Rod & Kulture, it's been quite a few years since I had purchased a copy and now I find out they went belly up in 2019. Since I'm building a car and have a couple more on tap, I'd like to find a magazine that caters to home-built, traditional rods and tasteful old school choppers - daily drivers, not trailer queens. However, as long as I got both stacks of magazines off the shelf, I'll peruse them for a little inspiration on the jitney project and the old coupe I hope to get finished before I die.

I finished up the second set of rod ends for the radius rods. No mistakes this time. They came out looking as good or better than the first two, so I'm happy. I ordered the tube I need to finish them and a piece of bar stock to make the "barrels" for the spring shackle mounts as well. I'm not sure what I'll work on while waiting for the steel to come in, but there's no shortage of things to choose from. 

The annular cutters for the new mag drill came in. I made a frame for my bender and sheet metal shear a while back. I'm thinking I could make a plate to bolt on to it for the base of the mag drill to latch on to, and then I'd have a solid platform when using it. Now that I've got cutters, I'll take a few minutes one of these days to see what it would take to make something up.

The weather was about ten degrees cooler yesterday than the day before, so it was a little more pleasant to be out in the shop. We could use some rain, though. I've been toting water for the plants every evening, keeping them going but the grass is getting kind of crunchy when you step on it.