blog816

Monday, August 1, 2016

At 6:30 AM there was enough light to see, and I started pulling weeds. At 7:00 AM the sun was peeking over the tops of the trees. At 7:30 AM the direct sunshine was heating up the work and I retired from the field of battle. I'll pull more weeds in the cool of the morning tomorrow. My work in the shop today was replacing that other leaking welch plug. The fix I attempted Saturday, just slathering on some sealant, failed to stop it, so I took out the old plug, used plenty of sealant, and installed a new one. I hope that one holds. I have other things to do.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

At 6:20 AM the front porch thermometer read 80º and I started pulling weeds. When I quit a couple of minutes after eight it had cooled down to 79º, but out in the direct sun the work was getting pretty sweaty. One more morning session should finish up this patch of weeds. After letting the new welch plug in my engine sit overnight so the sealant could set, I refilled the radiator and was happy to find no plug leaks. This was primary day, so I drove the roadster to the city building to vote, then did my errands in town. With the forecast predicting little or no chance of rain for at least the next week, I took down the tarps from the back of the house so I could get back to work on that upstairs wall. I was going to install flashing, but found that all three unopened tubes of sealant had sat for so many years that they were unusable. I'll have to buy new sealant tomorrow when I go to town for groceries. So instead of installing the flashing I made the new casings for the two northeast bedroom windows.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Done. With another early start I finished this week's weed pulling. I started before sunup, at 6:15 AM, finished a little before 7:30, and sprayed herbicide on johnson grass until a little before eight. There was a rainbow to the west, but the rain never reached here. When I started the weeding project Sunday, the soft ground from Friday's rain made it easy work. Three days of hot dry weather put a stop to that. At the end I had to use a spading fork to remove a of of the bigger weeds. After breakfast I drove the roadster to town for shopping, and when I got home I got back to work on the house. By quitting time at five I had all the flashing up, 30# felt in place over the flashing, and most of the first row of shingles nailed up. After dinner I went for a drive in the country and made a little video.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

I didn't take any pictures, so you'll just have to imagine this. After attacking more of the johnson grass and other weeds with the sprayer, I spent most of the rest of the day working on the house. Mostly I nailed up shingles, and by quitting time at five I was over halfway through the third row. These first rows are the slowest because I have to cut a lot of shingles to fit the angles where the upstairs wall meets the roofs below. One other job I did was to mount a piece of lath on the wall. It extends down in front of a window and holds a thermometer, so during the winter I can look out the kitchen window and see what the outside temperature is.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Uh-oh. I gambled and lost. The forecast showed a 20% chance of rain overnight. That's an 80% chance of nothing, so I didn't bother to put anything away and left my tools out. About four AM the rain came down and they got a good soaking, so my first job of the day was drying everything off. The main job was finishing the window framing for the casings to fit. A sideshow was taking a few minutes for a grease job on the roadster, a little chore that comes up every 250 miles. The actual official recommendation from the owner's manual is every 200 miles, but with an oil change coming every 500 miles greasing at 250 miles fits the schedule better. My last outside activity of the day was an evening cruise in the roadster, exploring local roads. I find that a pleasant summer evening pastime.

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Before daylight I was on the road to Goessel. This was the day for the Flatland T's to gather at the Mennonite Heritage Museum to reassemble the museum's old Model TT grain truck and get it running. Here's the video. On the way home I stopped in Wichita to buy more shingles for the house, buy a couple of big jars of kimchi, and tie on the feedbag at Buffet City. Since the folks at Kora's Asian Market in Winfield retired and closed their store, the closest place for kimchi is Wichita, so I got enough to last a few months.

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Not much done today. I spent most of the morning editing and posting the video and photos from yesterday. In the afternoon I drove the roadster to town for celery, and filled the tank. I've been keeping a record of fuel and miles, and it shows mileage of 12 to 14 mpg. On a long trip it would be a little better, but propably still under 20 mpg. At home I took a walk through the woodlot and found that I have some chain saw work to do where a dead tree has fallen across the road. This evening I enjoyed another Model T drive in the country. Sometime I'll shoot a video on this evening's road. It's a scenic route.

Monday, August 8, 2016

Good grief! It seems that Kansas is turning into Hawaii. More rain overnight. I guess it's not raining every day, but it's starting to feel that way. From the storms Friday, Saturday, and this morning, the rain gauge had 3.35" in it. With the outside soaked, I worked in the shop doing a little cleaning and organizing. A fellow from Oxford, over in the next county, stopped by to study Model T wheels and get some ideas for a project he's working on. After the threat of rain passed, I drove the roadster to town for some groceries and filled the tank. I've been keeping a record of fuel, and find that the car gets 12 to 14 mpg. It would be more on a long trip, but probably still under 20 mpg. About 5 PM my visitors from Spain arrived. Antonio del Val López and his son David are touring in the USA, and this is one of their stops. They've been to the old Ford Piquette Avenue plant and Greenfield Village in Detroit, Chicago, Lincoln's home in Springfield, and New Salem, and are following parts of old US 66 to California for more sightseeing there. Antonio has a Model A, but no T (they're scarce in Spain), and had driven a T only once. So I rode along while he took the roadster for a spin. I told David that at 15 he's not legal to drive on a public road, but I have a private road. So again I rode along and he took the roadster for a low-gear drive on one of my brush pile roads.

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

This morning I took Antonio and David for a drive to the Nature Conservancy's Tall Grass Prairie Reserve in Osage County to visit the bison herd. We took Model T roads, but had to go by modern car. The roadster only holds two people, and I don't trust the touring for a trip like that before the engine and transmission are overhauled. The guys were very impressed by the wildlife. The herd is about 2700 critters, and we saw several hundred of them. We got back around noon, and while my visitors were off to Wichita to see Old Cow Town, I worked on the house. I finished up one of the slow parts, cutting and fitting and nailing shingles to fit over the back porch roof. The next slow part will be at the other end of the wall, around the bathroom window. Maybe I can get that done tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Never went off the place today. Except for a break of about an hour at noon, I spent the day nailing up shingles. The slow part was cutting and fitting the ones around the bathroom window, but I got a lot done. I estimate about a fifth of the wall covered now. I'm working on top of an eight-foot scaffold. I'll make another one on top of that when I get to the top part.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Another day of shingling, with a short trip to town when I went to borrow a sheetmetal brake to bend flashing that will go above the windows. It appears that about half the wall is covered now. It's become apparent that I'll have to go to Wichita again and buy more shingles to finish the job. I'm down to my last bundle, and that won't be enough.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Not much work done today. First I went to town and got a new tire to replace one that went bad on the Camry. Then I went to Wichita to buy three more bundles of shingles, then down to the gasino to fill the car. After I got home and unloaded the shingles, I went back to town in the roadster to buy printer ink and cucumbers. All of that ate up my day. After chow I went out for another summer evening runabout cruise. Now that I have the car usable, I'm enjoying it.

Saturday, August 13, 2016

The main job of the day was nailing up more felt and shingles. I'm getting to another slow part, putting in window casings and frames, and shingling above the windows. When that's done I'll add another eight feet on top of the eight-foot scaffold I'm using, and finish the top part of the wall. I hope to have the outside of the house done this month, then start on the inside.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Work on the back wall continued. Today I installed window casings and the aluminum flashing above them. I've now reached the point where I need to put up a scaffold extension to reach the upper part of the roof. I could use a ladder for a lot of it, but it's a lot easier working off a scaffold. Also, the peaked porch roof is not a place to set a ladder. Meanwhile, a mystery has arisen in the Model T department. When I drove the roadster to town for groceries its bike speedometer had quit working. But when I backed the car into the shop, it started working again. Intermittent problems like that are the worst.

Monday, August 15, 2016

In the morning I went to the juco and used one of the lathes to start making my wheel-painting fixture. I got it nearly done, and one more session should finish the hub I'm working on. In the afternoon I started pulling the engine/transmission out of the 1923 touring, and worked on that late into the evening.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Up at 5:00 AM, I finsished removing the engine, loaded it in the Suburban, and headed for Tulsa at 8:15. I arrived at Mike Bender's about 11:00 AM and we spent four hours dismantling everything and deciding what the engine and the transmission will need. That will be a new crankshaft, new rods and pistons, and a lot of other new parts. The new crank will add about a grand more to the total cost than reworking the old one, but will be a lot less likely to break. I want to use this touring car to do some real touring, and hope to have it ready by next spring. The engine/transmission part will probably take about three or four months. I brought several transmission parts home with me, and will work on those while Mike is dealing with the engine.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Today's project was building the scaffold extension for finishing the back wall. After building several scaffolds for working on the house, I finally figured out that instead of nailing them together I should use screws so they'll be easier to take apart when I'm done. Instead of building this one on the ground and struggling to get it in place, I'm building it where I'm going to use it. When I'm finished with it I'll unscrew it right where it sits. Much simpler. I almost finished it today. Tomorrow morning I'll finish it up and start shingling the upper half of the wall.

Thursday, August 18, 2016

At 7:00 AM I was back to building the scaffold, and had it done about ten. Then, except for going to town to buy screws and a sheet of wafer board, I spent the rest of the day nailing up shingles. Tomorrow I hope I can finish the part above the porch, then I'll move the scaffold to do the next section. I hope I can finish that wall before the end of the month. When I have it done I'll take down the scaffolds behind the house.

Friday, August 19, 2016

The rain came about a half hour too early. This morning I finished nailing up shingles above the back porch, all the way up to the upper roof. Then I went to town for shopping. Along with groceries, I bought a five gallon can of water seal. When I got home I sprayed those new shingles on the upper wall with water seal, then set about moving the scaffold off the porch roof and onto the other scaffold beside the kitchen. I was about to set it up about 4:30 when the rain started. I managed to get all the tools inside, but I'll have to set up that upper scaffold later.

Saturday, August 20, 2016

This morning I drove up to Winfield in the roadster and spent most of the day there. The main thing I went for was the gas and steam engine show at the fairgrounds.There was also an auction going on downtown. The auction included a shop vac I wanted to buy, but there would be several hours of junk I didn't want before they got around to it. So I went to the show and stayed there most of the time, but drove back to Main Street a couple of times to see how far along the auction was. Eventually they got to the vacuum and I bought it for $15. That's about a fourth of the retail price. When I headed home I found that my speedometer had quit working. So I stopped at the hardware store and bought a few feet of heavier wire that's less likely to suffer enough damage to disconnect the sensor.

Vinnie wanted a ride, so we drove around the grounds and looked at the tractors.

Steam traction engine, thresher, wagon, baler.

More pictures from the show are in this Facebook album.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Taking a day off from everything else, I worked on the roadster. It took a couple of hours to install a new speedometer wire, then another three to reposition the sensor and magnet until I got the thing working. After that I removed a rear wheel to clean up a little overgreasing mess, took off the carburetor and installed another that works better, replaced a missing firewall bolt and tightened others, and adjusted the rear brakes. The carburetor change makes starting a little easier.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Back to work on the house. I got the upper scaffold set up, and put up shingles until one PM. At that point I quit to go do laundry. I got back about four and spent another hour shingling. It looks like I should have it 3/4 finished tomorrow, and may have it all done this week. This evening I took advantage of another pleasant summer evening and went for a drive exploring some of the local roads.

Nice. I finished the wall above the scaffold all the way to the top. I worked on it until about one, then went to Winfield to pick up the shop vac I bought at the auction Saturday when I was driving the roadster and didn't have room for it. On the way home I stopped at the animal shelter and picked out a new dog. The paperwork wasn't ready, so I'll go back and get her tomorrow. Back at home I finished up that section of wall I've been working on, and sprayed it with water seal. Tomorrow I'll move on to the next section.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

All morning and much of the afternoon I worked on the next section of wall. I got shingles on much of it, and I think I'll finish it this week. But by the time I quit it was obvious I'll need one more bundle of shingles. So in the morning I'll be off to Wichita again. I stopped and put the tools away about four, then went to the pound to pick up the new dog. She's six months old, and still in the running-around puppy stage. She has come when called a couple of times, but is mostly pretty skittish. We'll have to work on that. I suspect she may not have been treated very well.

Thursday, August 25, 2016

A drive to Wichta for another bundle of shingles used up my morning. I got home a little before noon and spent the afternoon nailing up shingles. It looks like one more session should finish that job. With overnight rain in the forecast, I made sure all the tools were inside when I quit. This evening while I was taking a nap on the front porch swing a thunder storm arrived. After one loud clap of thunder I found a little dog on top of me. This is a funny one. She doesn't want to come when I call her, but she wants to be close wherever I am.

Friday, August 26, 2016

Not quite finished, but close. I moved the upper scaffold all the way to the west end of the wall and installed shingles all the way to the top, almost to the end. The last part at the end may be a little slower because I have to cut shingles at angles to fit three different slopes, but I expect to finish up this weekend. I had to quit early to go to the clinic for a PSA test and to do grocery shopping. I also bought a gallon of kerosene for $7.47. People used to run tractors on kerosene to save money, but things have changed. It's a good thing I don't use much of the stuff.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

At 11:20 I nailed up the last shingle at the top of the north wall. A half hour later I nailed the last little short one under the west window. All the shingling on the north wall is done. All that remains to do on that back wall is to caulk the corners and a little more around the windows and install the corner trim. For my next trick I finished the top row of shingles on the west wall which has been waiting a few years for me to get to it. I ended today's session by caulking the top of the west wall. So the shingling is done. I'm leaving the scaffolds up for at least another week. The forecast shows a run of several dry days in about a week. I'm going to let everything get nice and dry, then finish spraying on the water seal. After that the scaffolds can come down.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Today's project was attempting to replace the roadster's front axle with a better one. All was going well until one perch refused to come out of the axle. The twenty ton press moved it about 1/8", then mushroomed it. So now I have to get a replacement perch out of another axle from the parts pile. Fortunately, before this happened Lizzie got her fist Model T ride. After about a mile I ran out of gas, so we went on into town and filled the car and refilled the can.

Monday, August 29, 2016

It was a Model T day. In the morning I went to the machine shop at the juco and worked on the jig I'm making for painting wheels. In the afternoon I started removing a spring perch from a front axle. I'm being careful not to wreck this perch like the one it's replacing. This is slow work and will have to continue tomorrow. I've got the perch to turn a little, but it needs more soaking with penetrant and more persuasion.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

It's out. This morniing I finished removing that spring perch and got it ready for sandblasting. I also ordered some new bushings, which I'll pick up in Ponca City Friday. And I got more work done on the jig I'm making for painting wheels. My other job in the shop was preparing a window frame for blasting. It will go on the roadster to replace the wrong one that's on there. This evening Lizzie and I took a walk down in the woodlot. I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of lightning bugs. They were pretty much done around the house by the end of July, so I'm glad they find the wooded habitat so agreeable that they're still around at the end of August.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Change of plans. The only thing I had ready for blasting was one spring perch and nut, so I skipped setting up the blasting equipment and just wire brushed them. They're now painted and drying in the oven. While I was in the barn I decided I'd had enough of working in dim light, so I got a ladder and replaced nine burned out bulbs. That's one of those jobs where I keep thinking, "I need to do that one of these days." Eventually I get annoyed enough by the situatiion to take the time and do it. My last job of the day was a drive in the country looking for a photo location. I have in mind a picture I want to shoot, and it will require just the right kind of setting. I didn't find the right spot today, so I'll have to scout more locations.