Nice day yesterday - sunny and about 45 degrees. Rather windy but a good day to be out in the shop.
I welded and painted the boot scraper, machined a slot in the angle for the combination square bracket and then tackled the cable repair on the TIG welder. It took a little fooling around but I got it working again. I didn't try putting the cover back on the hose and power fitting. Instead, I just wrapped it with electrical tape. Now that I know it's repaired, I'll see if I can get it back on over the clamp I used.
I checked the Everlast website and priced out the 25 foot torch. - the one I want is $159.00. Not cheap, but probably worth the investment.
The weather warmed up a bit so I spent a little time in the shop over the weekend. When I went out there Saturday morning I noticed a coffee can of fittings had been knocked off the shelf, meaning once again a raccoon was in there. I caught one about two months ago, which was kind of a surprise. In the past, they always showed up late spring. Anyway, I set the trap Saturday and there was a raccoon in it on Sunday. I'll set the trap again today. I still can't figure out how they're getting in, however.
I had a little job I wanted to use my air-acetylene torch for but once again, I couldn't get the bottle turned on. I don't know what they use to tighten the valves at the plant when they refill them, but the last one I tried to open up, the stem broke when I tightened up the vise grips on it. Not wanting to do that again, I drilled a hole in a piece of flat stock and filed it square with a nice snug fit so I wouldn't round it off. It worked, but that valve was tight.
Once upon a time, in a land far away, I made a couple of pieces that were the start of a boot scraper. They've been gathering dust with my smithing tools for quite a while, but if I'm ever going to get things organized around here, need to get rid of the half-finished projects - either finish them or scrap them. I know someone who could use this, so as soon as I get it welded and painted, down the road it goes.
However, while trying to tack the thing together with the TIG, I once again had trouble with the gas flow on the welder. I decided not to go any further until I finally figured out what the hell the problem is. Come to find out, there's a break in the hose allowing the gas to escape before it makes it to the torch. The power cable has a braided covering over the power cable which runs inside the gas hose. I found the spot where the hose had ruptured but it was hidden by the braided covering. Since it's close to the fitting that goes into the machine, I might be able to shorten the hose up and get it fixed. If not, I'll buy a new torch lead. I should have bought the longer one when I bought the machine anyway.
Gypsy Jazz is still alive and well, as it should be. Django Reinhardt is the originator of much of this sound. His unique method of playing was a result of having been severely burned and losing the use of two fingers on his left hand. One of these days I'm going to make a CD of Gypsy Jazz. Either that or buy another MP3 player and record a bunch of it.
My new combination square from Fireball Tools showed up yesterday. It wasn't cheap and I don't know how much use I'll get out of it at this point in my life, but I'm sure the grandson will be able to get a lot of use out of it when I move on to the big fab shop in the sky. The square is 2" wide and offers a lot of room to clamp it down during use. It also is tapped along the edges to fasten small plates to hold parts in alignment. I could have used something like this 100s of times over the years. If you're a young guy, stop spending your money on cigarettes and beer and invest in good tools that will last you a lifetime. This would be a good place to start.
I went to Coach Jen's place Wednesday evening to help out. I worked mitts with the boxers - worked on form, footwork, combinations and speed. No chest pain afterwards, just a little arm weary. I really enjoy my time in the gym - good for both my physical and mental health.
Sandhill Cranes circling in the cold sunshine. If I could fly, I would head south rather than flying around here when the weather's zero or below.
Whenever it's this cold my paranoia flares up and I get a little concerned about the furnace quitting, the power going out, or some other issue that's going to have me freezing to death. It used to be the big worry during one of these cold snaps was making sure the vehicle was going to start in the morning. Unless you were able to park in a heated garage, you'd put a light under the hood with a blanket over it to trap the heat, or a dipstick heater, or go out in the cold a couple of times during the night and start it up. I finally bought block heaters for the last couple of my daily drivers. Set the heater controls to defrost and in the morning the windshield would be clear of frost and within about 10 seconds the heater was blowing warm air. And when I got to work I'd run an extension cord outside and plug the vehicle in so it would be warm when it was time to go home. That was a real blessing when I was driving the big Econoline.
The new fuel injected vehicles start right up, regardless of the temperature. No pumping the accelerator, no setting the choke on the fast idle cam and then tapping the throttle a few minutes later to bring the revs down to a reasonable level. My Hyundai had a remote start and heated seats. Cuzzin Ricky's pickup even has a heated steering wheel. Definitely something to be said for technology.
One of the greatest middleweights of all time, matching step for step with one of the greatest dancers of all time. Fast forward to about1:30 for when the fun begins.
Cold, cold day yesterday. It was 1.4 degrees at 2:00 in the afternoon according to my cheapie Chinese thermometer. I spent the majority of the day working on keeping the house warm. The furnace is on a programmable thermostat and I keep it set on 60 degrees at night. It bumps up to 66 daytime, bumps up to 68 about the time the sun goes down, and then goes to 60 again later. Normally, wearing a sweater during the day is comfortable enough. The exceptions are when the wind is blowing hard or the temperature falls down to single digits and negative numbers. The furnace had a hard time pulling the temps up off the nighttime setting with those negative early morning numbers.
When I got up I started a fire in the fireplace right away, put the tea kettle on the stove to generate a little heat and humidity, baked some rolls to get some oven heat, and topped off the water trays I made that sit on top of the fin tubes - having some humidity in the house helps with the comfort level. It took a little bit, but it was nice and warm by the time the Missus got up. It's supposed to warm up the next couple of days - into the twenties at least. I can deal with that easily enough.
Now that Trump is back in office, I'm cautiously optimistic about the future. I don't know how much cooperation he'll get now from the Deep State, but he's already revoked security clearances from 50 of those mopes who signed off on the laptop letter. Got the J6 "insurrectionists" released from jail, and he started getting rid of people who aren't supporters. From my point of view, that's a good start. However, my biggest concern is the budget. He ran up a substantial deficit last time he was in there. That has to stop. 36 trillion in debt along with the unfunded liabilities is going to kill this country. That has to get turned around, and soon. Best of luck, Mr. President.
I finished my prep book from the ARRL for the General license on Saturday and now I'm working my way through the one above. I bought this one first, but I wasn't totally pleased with the format. There's a lot of new material to absorb and this one, while giving me all the correct answers, didn't seem like it would give me the understanding of the different topics. However, having read the other book, I don't think I'm going to be able to understand much of the material anyway. Now my focus is to just pass the test regardless of how much I understand the material. I'll read this one and then start taking practice tests. The 35 test questions will be drawn from a pool of 432, and I need to get 26 correct to pass. It's going to take some studying but it's too soon to start worrying.
Cold weather's definitely here - high of 11 yesterday and negative numbers last night. Today's going to be about the same. I made a big pot of 3 bean chili yesterday - hit the spot.
The air bubble in my eye disappeared yesterday. The eyesight out of that eye is brighter since the surgery, but the lines that should be straight are still wavy. The doctor told me it'll be a while before it gets completely healed.
Cuzzin Ricky and I are going to pay our respects this morning for one of our cousins that passed away recently. Lovely lady - may she rest in peace.
We've had a rough start to the new year so far. Hope things go well at the inauguration and in the future.
Nice day yesterday - temps up to about 40 and plenty of sunshine. With the subzero temperatures on the way, I filled up the tanks on the car and the truck, picked up a few groceries, put some tools away and hunted up some stock I need for a lathe job in the shop, cut some kindling and hauled in some firewood and checked on the chickens. Nothing too strenuous but it felt good to get out in the sunlight and move around a bit.
When I got done fartin' around with all that I came in the house and one of Elvis's early movies was on - King Creole. The movie was made in 1958 and Elvis was doin' what Elvis did that made him famous. Looks kind of corny now days but it sure didn't slow down his march to the top.
While I was looking up the Elvis clip Roy Orbison came up. Since he was one of Elvis's contemporaries, I threw him in here as well. Since I'm not going to have any project work to report for a few days, might as well listen to one of the great voices of Rock & Roll.
