Parts

The cleaning and organizing is proceeding apace. I came across these yesterday - parts and patterns for wheelie bars. If I ever finish a couple of the bike projects currently in the shop, I'll bring the 900 back from storage. I did finish the side car for it, but I want to make some shock struts and a set of wheelie bars so I can go drag racing. I've got some aluminum stock for the struts and someplace I've got the remaining pieces that get welded to the tubing drilled out and ready to cut to shape. 

I finished the head scratching part of the rear brake control on the vintage trials bike. I ordered some clevises from Joes Racing Parts. I had never heard of this outfit, but it came up in an internet search after I struck out with the usual suspects. Two pieces, plus shipping under $15.00. It looks like they specialize in parts for open wheel cars. I've got the spot book-marked for future reference. I need to get a bushing still for the pivot - might be able to get that locally. 

While I was in the shop I figured out a temporary solution for the old welder. I can move a few things around in the back half to make a hole for the old welder and then move the plasma and new welder up front. Moving those two will be easy enough - they're on wheels. It would be better to send the old Miller to a new home, but I think this will be an improvement, anyway.

Looks to be good weather around here for Labor Day and most of next week. It was up to 88 and humid yesterday again. I worked up a pretty good sweat on my bicycle ride in the morning, again when I was working in the shop, and even more when I ran the weed whacker later. It's good to get a sweat up once in a while, though.

Have a safe and healthy Labor Day. It's the day for us working stiffs - enjoy it.

This and That

 

I made the shift lever for the Rickati/vintage trials bike yesterday. Looks like it'll work just fine. The rod is 1/2" in diameter and I was wondering if that was going to be stiff enough, but after bending it, I'm fairly certain it will be. It's a piece of cold rolled that took quite a bit of force to bend, even after heating it up. Now that I've got that taken care of, figure out the brake lever and the fabricating should be about finished - finally! 

In addition to working on the bike, I did a little more on the shop organizing. I need to get rid of my old welder. I thought it was sold but the guy changed his mine. The hole where it's sitting is big enough to hold both my plasma and my "new" welder. I could put the old one in my storage space, but that would involve quite a bit of work due to the size and weight of the machine. And, then of course, it would have to be moved out of there at a later date. 

I pulled the cover off the Sprint that's on the stand in the back of the shop. That's another project that's about 3/4 complete. The seat needs to be reupholstered, new shocks, a few other little things and it could be made to run. The upholstery guy moved a month or so back. I know where he's at but don't know if he's set up to do any work yet. Shocks are easy enough to come by - a credit card will do it. It'll need a set of rings and those might be tough to locate. But the valves have been done and it's got a pop-up piston in it. Should make plenty of power, at least by 1968 standards.

I'll work on completing the vintage trials bike, look up the upholstery guy and maybe order some shocks for the Sprint. As soon as I complete the trials bike I can roll it out of the way and then finish the Sportster. The chest is pretty much healed up - actually kind of snuck up on me. As long as I don't do anything stupid, I should be able to pick up the pace on the projects, and with Surly coming down once in a while to help, should be getting some real progress this fall.  

We're Having a Heat Wave

 

I drive by this place on the way to the grocery store. There're always interesting things in the yard and driveway, but I was surprised to see what appears to be a Jr. Dragster frame and a snow shovel out there the other day - "Now there's something you don't see every day, Chauncy."

Seems appropriate today

The thermometer is in the sun, so it wasn't really over 100 degrees, but rather only 96 on the shady side of the house. However, the feels-like temp was probably pretty close to the number in the photo. Chicago broke the record for the day with 99. 

We were out in the shop for our first lab session at the college Monday night. Due to the construction underway, things are a little challenging, but we got everyone to at least run one decent bead before they left. About half the class has already had an introductory class, the other half total rookies. The smaller rookie group made it much easier to get them started and allowed me to keep a closer eye on them. Looks to be a good group - should be an enjoyable class even with the construction limitations we have to deal with.

Even though it was hot Monday, the lab was actually pretty comfortable. The door to the hallway was open and the exhaust fan was sucking in that cool air. It was the first time in a while I left the house with my steel-toed boots on and my lunch bucket in my hand. Glad I was able to ease back into harness with decent temperatures.   

Shop Update

 

I replaced a fluorescent two bulb light with a 3000 lumen LED over the worktable in the back of the shop. The LED lights are supposed to last 50,000 hours, meaning I'll never have to replace it. Nice bright light that'll last my lifetime for $8.99. How you going to beat that?

Likewise, I replaced the shop radio as well. It's a C. Crane, not cheap but good. This is supposed to be an improved model of the one I had out there. It's got decent sound and it's hooked up to an external FM antenna. Like the LED light, if it lasts as long as the other one did, good for my lifetime.

Surly came down to use my lathe the other day. He had a job to do that wouldn't fit through the spindle bore on his. He commented that one of us needed to have a better lathe. I looked at the selection of lathes at Grizzly and their gunsmithing lathes have relatively large spindle bores for a 13"-14" lathe. My old 13" South Bend has a large bore diameter due to it having bronze bushings on the spindle rather than ball or roller bearings. However, the spindle is a little loose and the bed is worn close to the chuck, so if you try to turn a shaft such as an axle for a motorcycle, you'll get a slight taper. Also, I can't thread metric parts on it. I'm going to have a talk with Surly and get his input on purchasing a new lathe. If I'm going to get a new one, I should act on it before I get too old to do anything with it and before the US dollar becomes totally worthless.  

5K

 

I did the 5K race walk yesterday. Nice morning, but with a 9:00 start is was starting to get warm out on the road. It was a small event, only 61 finishers, including runners and walkers. Yours truly got an age group win, but as was expected it was an age group of one. I was second overall, even though the official standings listed a man and his 5-year-old son as walkers coming in about one minute ahead of me. I put in a fairly decent performance, not great, but definitely good enough to beat a 5-year-old. Actually, I was behind them for quite a while and they would run a little, walk a little, and then do it all again. No biggie.  However, the guy who came in first was scootin' - 33: 37, or about 10 minutes before I crossed the line. There's another 5K locally in a few weeks that has a walking class. I'm going to try and get a time of 40 minutes or under.

I came across this picture recently, coincidentally after thinking about a color for the Jitney. I remember Ford having some green F-100 models back in the early seventies, some solid color, some two-tone. I found some color charts on the internet but I'm not sure how true the color rendition is on those. The one local auto parts store had the paint books, but they closed up recently. I'm a long way from paint, but that's how my mind works. If I see the finished project clearly in my mind, it's easier for me to stay motivated.

This '71 is in Boxwood green - pretty much the color I'm thinking about. There're a few choices for a two-tone arrangement, or maybe just some pinstriping in a contrasting color. That would be more in keeping with a 1930 Champ car.

Vise +

 

Another beautiful day yesterday - we've been having a string of them. I went to the park in the morning for a brisk walk. I've got a 5K tomorrow, so a bit of last-minute training to keep the legs loose. I'm not looking for a PR, but rather, a solid performance that takes into consideration my chest issue. Actually, a good bit of exercise in the sunshine and fresh air is all I'm looking for. That, and another tee shirt.

I cleaned up the mill and bolted down the refurbished vise after sweeping the jaw with the dial indicator to make sure the vise is aligned with the table. 

From Here

I agree with this 100%. They gave one guy 20 years over this deal, and he wasn't even in Washington at the time. Fauci, on the other hand, is living large with his government pension and his patent monies. It's going to take a lot to get things straightened out and there's sure to be plenty of pain involved before it happens. The end of an empire is never pretty.

Blues

 

I'm not currently suffering from the blues and there's no-one I need to put down for a little while. The class at the college got off to a roaring start - waiting to see if we'll be able to get out in the shop next week. If I'm still stuck in the classroom, I'll be singing the blues then. The good thing about all of this is once we have access to the shop, we can be out there all night with classroom sessions not much more than taking attendance and lining them up with the night's assignment.

Surly came down the other night. He's going to try and make it a weekly thing like it used to be at the high school. He's going to give me a hand with some sorely needed cleaning and organizing. We made the first move by bolting together a stock rack. He seems to think being able to see the corners of the shop might not be a bad idea. I'm a pack rat, no doubt about it, but there's a limit to how much crap I should keep because "I might need that someday."

The vise project is officially finished. I straightened out the screw for the moveable jaw and I found some Allen screws that were just about right in my can of oddball Allen heads - stainless no less - to bolt the jaw liner plates in place. That's why I never want to throw anything away. If I'm going to get things cleaned up, however, I'm going to have to be a bit ruthless, however painful that may be.

There was another article in the Epoch Times addressing the issue of "Why Billion-Dollar Warships Were Prematurely Retired and Destroyed." I really liked the part about using many of the ships with years of service life left in them being used for target practice. I went to the grocery store yesterday and a can of whipped cream and a loaf of rye bread cost me $9.58. I'm really glad the Navy is using my tax dollars to create fish attractors in the middle of the ocean while my grocery bill keeps creeping up.

It won't be long and we'll all be singing the blues.