Good Morning! 46F @ 7:00AM. Sunny. High 68F. Winds light and variable.
I'd just get a real hot fire going in that stove. Vulcanize that leather off!
Usually I let the thermometer on the stove top reach its maximum reading before I turn the damper down a bit, so I don't think the stove can safely get any hotter. Yesterday's sunshine left the house warm enough to not need a fire this morning, but with rain coming tomorrow I'll have a chance to see if the Fabreeze wash will work.
Looks like you're having fun playing in the sand, Larro. Shoot some pics when you get it going!
Brilliant trouble shooting, Eric! Any mineral build up in that valve?
That run-in looks real nice, Kev. Were all those horses on your place, or did you get to tag along with the farrier to other ranches?
Congrats on the SS, Roy. You deserve to get some of that money back! :thumbsup:
Drew those top sheets don't appear to be adding any strength to your bridge, and could tear heck out of a tire side wall when they fail. Why not just leave 'em off?
RS, we need pics of that still, preferably with something dribbling out the end of it :laughing: Been replacing the 4' fluorescent tubes in the garage with LEDs. These are a straight swap for the tubes, no rewiring or ballast removal required. The LEDs are MUCH brighter than the old bulbs, which helps justify the $35/pair cost. Haven't checked on energy savings yet, which may not be as great since the ballasts are still in use.
Don, if you were closer we could try building up the parts with weld metal and machining out the bores. Maybe a local shop could do the same for you?
While I was waiting for it to warm up enough to paint yesterday, I popped a cylinder head into the toaster oven and set the temp to 500F. I needed to remove the 32mm intake spigots which I'd installed with red Loctite, and when I'd tried to heat them up with an oxy acetylene torch the Loctite wouldn't budge. Looked it up on line and found it needed 485F to release, and sure enough they came out with just an oven mit and my hand. What a relief, as the jury rig I'd set up with the hydraulic press and 14" pipe wrench was almost guaranteed to damage something. While the heads were still hot on the bench I cleaned up the threads and installed new 40mm spigots, this time with blue Loctite, which has a lower release temperature. Not that they'll ever need to come out again.
By 3 PM it was warm enough to shoot, so I laid on three coats of clear, finishing up just as the sun was going down. The gold leaf does look a little rough on the edges, but the paint is so bright, especially in the sun, it's hard to notice. I'll snap a few pics today when I move the parts into the camper shell to bake. As usual, I've got a few runs to clean up, but that's just par for the course when the lower temperatures keep the catalyst from kicking off quickly.
It was cool enough, and the humidity high enough, to safely light off a camp fire in the pit. It was nice to sit by the warming flames while the tri-tip slowly smoked in the BBQ, and a bit of Bourbon didn't hurt things, either. It was pitch black out by 6 PM, with the Milky Way blazing overhead mixing with the oak sparks from the fire. A Shenandoah Valley Zinfandel was a perfect accompaniment to the thin sliced tri-tip, and with a small baked potato (no fixins) and salad, dinner was delicious. A quintessential California meal, and a perfect end to a productive day.
