Another Old Tool Followed Me Home

Today, an old and dusty lathe followed me home.  I bought this old dude from a friend, and I think we both had a fair deal.  This is an old Craftsman lathe (model 101.07403).  I'm guessing it's a mid-1950s model, but I'll be able to find that out the deeper I dig into the guts of the machine.  

  I learned that Atlas made the lathe, 

and Craftsman put their name on it.  

All the shields seem to be in place.

Inside those shields is an array of belts, pulleys, and a crazy amount of gears.

A wee little 1/3HP motor

It came with a 3 jaw chuck (installed here), and also a 4 jaw chuck.

And a whole bunch of other stuff.  

It all came from a climate controlled lab at the nearby university, so everything is in pretty fair condition.  I thought I might have to restore it, but I might simply start with cleaning everything up and see what it can do.  

The Boundary Waters - Our Route for 6 days

For documentation purposes, I thought I should plot our route:


Day 1:  We started at the landing of Sawbill, and traveled north.  We shopped for camp sites as we went along, and found nothing.  We finally ended at camp #917.  We paddled approximately 6 miles.

Day 2:  We left our campsite and swung around the south end of the peninsula, and back up north to our first portage.  This day was 3 portages.  (We skipped 1 by going through the creek of beaver dams).  Cherokee Creek was super nice, and we ended for the day at camp #900.  Rain mid-afternoon and early evening helped cool us down.

Day 3:  We changed camp sites today from #900 on the west to #899 on the east.  This is the super duper awesome rock outcropping camp site.  Later in the day, I took Kiddo #1 on a scenic canoe ride around with the intent to see Sniff Lake.  We went only about 2 miles.

Day 4:  Another layover day.  We did take a little canoe ride over to the portage from Cherokee Lake to Sitka Lake to see the difficulties of hiking over the Laurentian Divide.  It was a fun canoe/hike combo for the day.  This day was only about 2.6 miles of canoeing, and 1 mile of hiking.

Day 5:  We start going back the way we came.  We travel back to Cherokee Creek, and portage and paddle through 4 portages today.  We stop at the first camp site #915.  Today was about 4.2 miles of paddling, and 4.6 miles of portaging (double portaging that is).

Day 6:  The last day, we paddle from our northern campsite on Sawbill all the way south to the landing.  This is only about 4 miles.

The Boundary Waters - Part 5

We pulled out of the Sawbill Lake area around 2pm or so.  Actually, I'm not too sure, but it was mid-afternoon.  We traveled southwest along the Superior Lakeshore, and went to the Split Rock Lighthouse.  

It was real interesting to learn its history on the 15 minute walking tour.  We were able to go up and see the big big Fresnel lens.  

I was impressed.

We took a hike down a trail to get to a long set of steps that takes us down to the cold lake.  Here, the kiddos demonstrate their fake muscles with a low hanging tree.

A bunch of steps to get down to the Lake Superior!

Big boulders and a stiff breeze here.

We were all famished.  I think I was about ready to faint.  We found a great place called Betty's Pies near Two Harbors, MN.  I had the fish sandwich, and the bumbleberry pie - a mix of fruits.  Just what the doctor ordered.

The next day, we traveled to near Appleton Wisconsin (with a side excursion in Eau Claire to pick up a forgotten security blanket for Kiddo #3 at the hotel from a week ago).  We stayed with my ol' college buddy, and his great family.  They showed us a wonderful time, with awesome meals, and it was just perfect.  We left their home on Thursday morning, traveled through some crazy thunderstorms in Milwaukee, toured the Jelly Belly joint near Racine, and home finally around 9pm.  It was a great trip.

The Boundary Waters - Part 4

Well, eventually, we had to leave our very awesome campsite on Cherokee Lake, and make our way back home.  That meant we had to go through the same tough portages as we did on Day #2.  It was easier, slightly, because we knew what to expect.

Floating down the Cherokee Creek to our first portage in the morning.  I found a frog in my canoe, and handed it over to Kiddo #3 in the Blue Canoe eventually.

See that big pack in the front of my canoe - in front of Kiddo #2?  That is a heavy pack to add to the 59 pounds of Kiddo #2.  

I discovered trim is very important in a canoe.

Beaver dam - You gotta get out of the boat, stand on the dam,

and lug the canoe up and over.  

Usually, they are pretty shallow and easy.

Once on the other side, make sure 

everybody is on board before paddling away.

Here's a few pictures of our final campsite - our 5th night.  It was pretty rocky all over.  I think mountain goats would have a tough time traversing this site.  

There were only 2 good tent pads, so we set up my tent on the far outskirts of the lower tent pad.  I was sleeping on a few pretty big rocks for the night.  It wasn't too bad, because when you're tired enough, you can sleep anywhere.

This site did have some great views though.

 And the next day, we worked on paddling out of the wilderness.

Only 5 miles or so to go in the morning, and it was a nice morning with only a little breeze.

Here's the ol' Blue Canoe coming into Sawbill Landing.  By this time, Kiddo #1 up front was pretty tired, so they were slow going.  A well earned rest ahead.

One more trip post to make - the trip home.

The Boundary Waters - Part 3

For part 3, I'll introduce you to our awesome, and most favorite campsite.  The best feature of this site was the big rock outcropping.  From here, we were able to see a 270 degree panorama of the lake.  And it was a great place for star-gazing.

The rock is just one of the many amenities of this site.  There was also a little cove off to the side that let kids swim safely.  

I even took a dip.  My t-shirt could use a washing,

so I simply went swimming with it on.

It was also a great place just to hang out and enjoy the warm afternoon.

 A little ways off the rock was the slightly submerged bolder that was fun to swim out to.   

Camp life was good.  We let the kids swim, and play cards, and run around and do as they please.  We were able to relax in this site.  

Here's the definition of chillin' out.  Kiddo #3 looks like he fell asleep with this snack mix in his cup.

Dusk was a nice time at this camp site.  The loons called as the sun set.  Kiddo #3 wanted his picture taken with the moon in the background.  

Also at dusk time, we read books on the rock.  It was a good way to end the day.

The Boundary Waters - Part 2

We take off to the wilderness!

We have 3 canoes for this adventure.  My canoe is the Mad River Expedition (18 feet 6 inches long,  Kevlar, 55 pounds), and paddling up front is my Kiddo #2.

The rest of my family is in the Blue Canoe, the Swift Winisk at 17 feet long, and about 53 pounds or so.  (I haven't officially weighed it yet.)  Kiddo #1 is up front, Kiddo #3 is duffing in the center, or more accurately, bouncing around in the center, and Lovely Wife is paddling stern: 

Our friends rented a 3 person canoe.  Seated in the center are the two girls side by side.  They could really move out in that outfit.  I tried out their canoe sometime during this trip, and was impressed with how well it handled and its stability.  

I don't have any pictures of our first night's campsite, but suffice it to say, it was a pretty small site.  The picture below is a standard campsite "kitchen" with a fire grate.  We cooked all of our meals over a backpacker stove.  The camp chairs were super nice - it really beats sitting on a wet log.

Kiddo #2 is demonstrating the water filter.  It is a blue bag of lake water that runs through a filter and into a water bottle (via gravity).  Giardia and other water "bugs" are in the water, but can be avoided if you are careful.  Some people take a chance and don't treat their water.  I chose the more conservative path of filtering.  

In the middle of the big Cherokee Lake, we found a couple of big rocks suitable for climbing on.  Later on in the week, we would swim out to these rocks from our awesome campsite that I will show you.

Sometimes, those big rocks are just barely submerged

 and makes for a good "walking on water" picture.

At the end of the day, we were rewarded with a great sunset.  If you look real close, you can see a rock outcropping on the left side of this picture.  That will be our campsite for the next 2 nights.  

Yes - the next day, we decided to switch campsites from our super small site to one with a great rock peninsula to play on.  As a teaser for the upcoming Part 3, here is Kiddo #3 chilling out with lunch on that big rock peninsula the next day.  

More to come....