Thursday, July 30, 2015

Dad's junk drawer saves the day again!

So when I brought home Caroline... (Have I mentioned that before? The 77's name is 'Caroline'.)  When I brought her home... one thing that was apparent was that the handlebars weren't quite bolted down.

I even cautioned my friends that helped me unload her, the bars were stripped, don't use them for leverage.

Tonight I finally got a chance to look at them. I'd assumed the risers were stripped out but, upon closer inspection, they were just missing nuts.

So what to do now?  Oh yeah, Dad's junk drawer! 

It took some rummaging around... 

Not only did I find the nuts I needed, I found nylock nuts to fit! That's far better spec than I needed but will serve it's purpose well. 

Dammit, thank you Dad. I miss you.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Trying to revive that old spark....

I know it sounded like I made big promises when I made my 'ode' but... I've been busy with a shit ton of other projects. Maybe I'll post about those but... most likely not. You don't need to know about all the things I do.

Anywho... I thought I'd probably get around to fixing the spark with ol' Ginny. If you may recall, my last jaunt involved a late night trip to Autozone and a purchase of a set of plug wires for a Honda.

They were a bit over sized but some zip ties took care of that. They actually worked and I was happy.  I intended to buy the popper cables the next morning but... that hangover sucked.

Tonight I finally got around to it.... Took the previous cables, cut them to size.

With a little help from the Taylor Cable kit... got it all crimped. 

Now... I've got some custom spark plug cables!!! Okay, I'll admit, they do look a bit better than my original job. 




Saturday, July 18, 2015

Date Night at TechShop

Last night I was able to convince Mrs. IE to go with me to the "Date Night" workshop at TechShop. Normally, this isn't her "thing" but I'm glad I was able to convince her to go. I had fun and I think she had a great time working with metal and especially the tools.






Hamming it up with the plasma torch.












Tearing it up with the plasma torch. I think I know what someone is getting for Christmas!











Cutting out the leaves on the Beverly shear (and sporting the Great White Bison t-shirt!).












Showing off her handiwork. That's the beautiful face I married!







And the finished product... I think they came out very good and am pleased with how well we both did. We'll definitely be looking out for the next date night at TechShop.


Friday, July 10, 2015

Ode to Ginny

Ginny, I'm sorry. I know I haven't been there for you lately. I know there are things you need.

I've been busy with... other things. But that's no excuse and I'm ready to make that right.

I'm... I'm ready to give you control.




I want to help you keep clean.




I want to give you that "spark" back that I... no, no WE... both know you've been missing.




I want to give you back things that others have taken from you but you deserve.




 I want to return to you things that we both thought were gone forever but, through great friends were brought back to us both.



But most importantly, Ginny, I want to give to you all the small things you may not have missed but that I know you so desperately need.


Ginny, I... I love...

Ah, shit. I've got a lot of work to do.




Saturday, July 4, 2015

Back from the Show Class Magazine Release party.

So I just got back from the Show Class Magazine release party at the lost well.

I was literally  planning to subscribe last week when I happened to hear about the party.

I'd never been to Lost Well (or even when it was Love Joy's) but I figured what the heck. I put on my standard plaid button up shirt (inside joke) and jumped in the cager. (One of these days I'll stop obsessing over casting and finish the last couple of things on Ginny.)

When I showed up, I wasn't exactly sure I was in the right place.

Granted it was only 3:25pm so I didn't expect the place to be hopping just yet. So, being that it was a bar, I ventured in to at least have a beer while things picked up. Inside I was greeted with several familiar, friendly faces which was a relief.

Outside, in the patio area, I was greeted by several more including the Great White Bison. If you haven't been to his website, you definitely need to check him out.

I hung out for a bit, had a couple of beers, and then headed home for the nights shenanigans. The crowd definitely picked up while I was there.

Anyway, I picked up some pretty cool stuff including the current, Texas issue of SCM as well the previous two issues. You know I couldn't pass up the coozie and t-shirt as well.

I also grabbed a copy of volume one of Bison's book for Mike (I'm told volume two comes out next month!) as well as one of his shirts for Mrs. IE. 

It was a great afternoon. Now it's time to blow some stuff up!  Happy 4th everybody!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

"WARNING - EXPLOSIVE" Those words just warm my heart. And it's not because I just almost set myself on fire.

Ain't America great.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

The Tale of Mr. Blister and the Half Assed Bear

Yeah, I don't know what the title means either. Read on and maybe we'll both figure out.

While I don't quite hate him at the moment, I wouldn't say we're friends.

Still building off my lack of complete failure the last go round, I decided to try the bear once again. I stuck with my method of making the internal portion separately as a "core", however, I decided not to shift the pattern. I still don't have a good solution for how to accomplish (or how to avoid) digging the runners in the cope.

The "core" came out nicely, thanks to a possible over use of parting dust with the exception of the leg (as expected).

The mold came out fairly decent though I did have a bit of separation in the bear's "crotchular" region. (I know that's not a word, but you understood what I meant, didn't you? So now it's a word.)

Placing the "core" back in went smoothly as well. I also was very meticulous about cleaning all of the loose sand. As I mentioned, I think that is the cause of the imperfections in the OF castings.

I had plenty of sand this time (thanks to a recent order that arrived from Mr. Thompson). I also added some additional weight, just to be safe. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the furnace to get to temp.

Quick aside, my neighbor and I took my jet ski to the lake this past weekend. For some dumbass reason, I completely forgot sunscreen and got one of the most heroic sunburns of my life! In similar dumbass fashion, I neglected to think about the infrared radiation as well as the heat from the furnace tonight. This is what it does to fresh skin... through a cotton shirt. Note the abundance of tiny blisters on my already blistered skin. (That's my arm, you perv.)

Anyway, it poured with out incident though I did have a little bit of excess to clean up where the core mates with the pattern. It was easy enough, a few clips with the tin snips but, in the future, I may try to make an additional, sacrificial core just to use to make the molds.

Once that was out of the way, the casting turned out mostly okay. It is by far the best one yet. It seems that some additional sand must've come loose and fallen in the crotchular area, either when I set the mold down or while pouring. I'll need to pay additional attention to this area in the future. This ended up making this casting unusable since the area is incomplete, hence the name "half assed bear".

I still need to clean him up a bit but I think I might keep it, for now, as at least an example piece. 



Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Cope and Drag Version 1.3

I don't know if it's worthy of a revision number but, whatever. If you'll recall in the last version of the flasks I used some fancy brass latches to hold them shut. Turns out, they don't work for shit. They latch alright but as soon as you apply any force, you know like ramming sand into them, the pop open.

Because of this, I've resorted to clamping them shut which is a huge pain. I'd seen several flasks where other people had instead used a second hinge but with a removable pin. I actually thought about doing this in version 1.2 but, when I went to the hardware store, the latches were the same price as the hinges so I thought I'd be fancy. Mistake.

So it was back to the hardware store to get an additional set of hinges.


I decided to use pieces of coat hanger for the pins since they're fairly abundant and, without a doubt, I will lose quite a few.


They also still pop open just as easily as before, only this time it only happens when I want them to.