blog116

Saturday, January 2, 2016

On a nice warm day in the upper forties I worked outside. I was walking down the lane to the wood lot to check the road for fallen branches when I was distracted by the forest of dead weeds across the road from the house. I spent over an hour pulling them and stacking them to haul off to the brush pile. Then I got back to my original mission, gathering fallen branches out of the road and putting them in little piles to haul away. I didn't get to the hauling part, as the truck's battery was down. I put a charger on it and will do the hauling later.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

More outside work today. I cut up the dead tree that was blocking the road to the brush pile, and hauled the pieces up to stack by the splitter. I guess I'd better get busy making a replacement for that broken part on the splitter.

My last Poulan. The Husqvarna starts right up and keeps working. This thing is hard to start and after awhile it quits. It's too much hassle to suit me.

Rolling the log over to finish the cuts.

What I cut today will be enough wood for at least a couple of weeks.

The road is clear as far as the brush pile now, but there are still several logs blocking the road farther south.

Monday, January 4, 2016

Most of this morning I cleaned magneto parts. They won't be where anyone can see them, but they'll be clean. In the afternoon I unloaded the wood I brought up yesterday, and stacked it beside the splitter. I also tracked down and ordered a replacement for the broken bracket on the splitter. I was thinking of making the new part myself, but it was surprisingly under $7 so I ordered the part from a dealer. I should be back to splitting wood in a few days.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Today I finished cleaning up magneto parts except for the magnets, which are taking an overnight bath in Evaporust. I also started my online search for aluminum to make the mandrels I'll need for balancing transmission drums. I found an online source, but tomorrow I'll do some calling to Wichita. If I can find what I want there it might cost less to go get it than to have something shipped from several states away.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

This morning I got started scanning another box of slides. They included this picture of the house from 2008. Scanning is slow enough work, but several times the scanner got tired and I had to stop and restart the computer to get it working again. I had to quit in the afternoon for a dental appointment and grocery shopping, but in the evening I finished the box. I was surprised this afternoon to find the splitter part I ordered Monday waiting for me on the front porch. I would have been willing to wait another day or two if the shipping had cost less. UPS charged $12.31 to bring me a $6.61 part . Anyway, I'll be glad to get the splitter working again so I can split all that wood I brought up here Sunday.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

I got a little more done on my magneto today. I hunted up three usable twelve volt batteries and put chargers on them. Then I finished cleaning up the magnets and marked the north poles on all of them. Tomorrow I'll give them all a good recharging and start putting the magneto together.

I puttered away the morning in the shop with a little work on the magneto. The afternoon was sunny and warm, with a high of about 40º, so it was a good day to do some outside work. I fired up the chain saw and cleared the woodlot roads. The road south from the brush pile had several big branches across it, as the January 3 pictures show. Some of them were good enough for firewood and some were too rotten to bother with, but I got all of them out of the road. Now it's clear for me to drive to the south end where there's a loop that lets me turn around without having to back up. After that road was clear I did the same for the other loop road through the north end of the woodlot. So now both roads are clear until more branches fall.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

The day's major project was the magneto. On the theory that balancing the flywheel will be easiest if all sixteen magnets weigh the same, I took a box of them to the barn where my grinder is located, and ground the ends of the heavier ones until all sixteen weighed 391 grams. I also hunted up a junk axle shaft I plan to use when I make a set of balancing mandrels.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

On a warm day with a high around 50º, I fired up the splitter and attacked the woodpile behind the shop. In about three hours of splitting I made a pretty good dent in the pile. Over half the stack has been done now, and if I finish all of it I think I'll have enough wood to last the rest of this winter and some to start next season.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

This morning I learned about iTunes. It came with the computer, of course, but I've never taken the time to do much of anything with it. So today I gathered up a pile of CD's by some of my favorite singers and musicians, put them into the library, and took one or two tracks from several albums to make up a playlist of 24 songs, then made a CD of the playlist. In the old days of vinyl, recording a three minute song took three minutes, but this set up does it in about twenty seconds. Mighty handy. In the afternoon I took advantage of another warm day for some outside work without a coat. First I unloaded all the wood I split yesterday and stacked it in the garage to stay dry. Then I drove the truck down to the wood lot where I finished clearing the south road. That didn't amount to much. All I had to do was use the clippers to trim a few small branches, and cut some little trees and poison the stumps. With the road clear, I made a little video showing the truck driving to the south end and making the loop.

Friday, January 15, 2016

Now that I've had a little practice with iTunes, this morning I made up another playlist and recorded a CD of it. Now I'll need to get the player in my car fixed so I can listen to the CD's on trips. I spent most of the afternoon doing laundry, going to the courthouse to renew my trailer registration, and buying 김치 at the Asian market.Putting away the laundry and laying the evening fires finished off the day.

Saturday, January 16, 2016

The main action of the day was an auction in Winfield. For $17.03 I bought a battery charger, a couple of quarts of brake fluid, a gallon of Crossbow herbicide (which costs about $65 online), and four gallons of antifreeze.

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Took the day off from any real work. I made up another playlist and made a CD of it, and finished indexing all my 2015 digital photos. Real winter has descended upon us. I don't think we made it above 25º today. Later in the week we're supposed to warm up to the forties, so maybe I can get outside and split the rest of the wood that's stacked behind the shop.

Monday, January 18, 2015

Another day of real winter. The thermometer outside the kitchen window claimed it was 17º at eight this morning. 22º upstairs when I got up, and 35º in the kitchen. No problem. My electric blanket keeps me warm all night. Today I worked a little more on an ignition switch I'm fixing for a friend. The face plate was rather pitted, so it's had a couple of coats of primer already. I sanded it again and applied another dose of primer. It may be about ready for the finish coats. I'll find out when I use the fine sandpaper on it.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Wow! Talk about sticker shock! The CD player in my eight-year-old Camry has quit working, so this morning I drove down to Ponca City to have a car stereo shop check it out. The guys there estimated a minimum charge of $391 to start, and from there it could go up to over a thousand. No, thanks. I'll use the radio. When I got home I gathered up a couple of boxes of small wood chunks and bits of bark from around the splitter, then, with moisture in the forecast, spread a tarp over what was left. In the shop I worked some more on that ignition switch face plate. I sprayed the finish coats on the plate, but the handle will take at least one more coat of primer and sanding. The notable achievement of the day was finding my missing box of slides from 1954 and 1955. I've been wanting to scan some of them, but had forgotten where I left them. Here's the first one.

Christmas 1954. I'm 13 and Mike is 8.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

At last I got started on making mandrels for balancing transmission drums. Borrowing a lathe at the junior college, I started making the shaft, which will be a junk axle shaft turned down to 7/8". It's over an inch to start with, so cutting it down .030" at a time will take quite a while. I decided that at the next session I'm taking along a chair and something to read while the lathe works. While I was doing my machine work and shopping for groceries, at home a package of bacon was thawing in the kitchen. I'm cleaning out my freezer, and that bacon has been in there forever, so tonight it went into a BLT.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

In the morning I scanned a few more slides until the scanner got tired, then I sprayed the finish coats on that ignition switch handle I've been fixing. I spent most of the afternoon in the juco machine shop working on my balancing mandrel project. It's slow going, so I took along a chair and something to read. I'll be back there tomorrow morning, hoping to finish the shaft and get started on the other parts.

Friday, January 22

I spent the day in the machine shop working on my balancing tools. I didn't finish, so I'll have to go back Monday.

Saturday, January 23, 2016

On the road at the crack of dawn, I was off to the Mid-winter Model T Seminar in Hucthinson, a two hour drive away. As usual it was an enjoyable event. The pictures are here. After the seminar I stopped in Wichita at Harbor Freight to pick up a micrometer, had a tasty dinner at La Carreta, and went to see The Big Short. A movie about stock trading and banking may not sound terribly interesting, but it was entertaining, infuriating, and funny, with fine performances all around by an excellent cast. Special credit to writers Michael Lewis, Charles Randolph, and Adam McKay, and director Adam McKay, for a great script well-delivered.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

In the morning I slaved over a hot computer, posting the pictures of yesterday's seminar on the Model T forum. In the afternoon I fired up the splitter and again attackd that pile of wood behind the shop. I made a pretty good dent in it. Another session should about finish it.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Short & sweet: machine shop, all day. Still working on balancing mandrels. More tomorrow, and maybe Wednesday too. Everything takes longer than you think it will.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

With another day in the machine shop I got two shafts turned and have only to finish the ends, and got started on the hubs. For now I'm going to settle for one flywheel hub and three transmission drum hubs. I'm not sure aluminum was the best choice of material for the hubs, but it will do for now. If the aluminum hubs turn out to be too delicate, I can make steel ones later.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Winter is the driest season, and January is the driest month. The average precipitation here in January is only an inch, and this year it's been only .24". So yesterday and today I took advantage of the non-freezing weather to put out the hose and run a trickle to help some of the young trees and shrubs survive the winter. While the water was trickling I enjoyed a nice day of outdoor work. I cut up some of the small trees I had cut down in the lane to the wood lot. I cut them a couple of years ago and left them to pick up later. Today was later. The larger pieces went to the firewood supply and the trimmings went to the brush pile. I spent most of the afternoon on the road south of the brush pile. I finished clearing it to the turn-around loop, cutting up some fallen trees and trimming some branches to allow a wider loop for the truck to circle around without having to back up, and I got a start on the new road that will extend past the loop and make a circle at the south end of the place. There's a lot of work with the chain saw and the clippers to do on that project, so it may take several weeks or months to complete.

Sunday, January 31, 2016

Another day of outside work began with hauling dead weeds to the brush pile.

On a satellite view of the woodlot I've marked the road entering from the west at the north end and making a loop. The road south from the loop goes by the brush pile and to a turnaround spot at about the middle of the lot. Going south from the turnaround is the new road I cleared today.

Fresh cuts on the trees show where I had to remove branches to clear the road. The white bottle is Tordon. When I cut trees and bushes I poison the stumps with it to kill the roots so they won't come back.

Today I cleared about two hundred feet. The next part will be through thicker growth, so it will be slower going.