My New Square

I had this old carpenter's square for a long time.  I'm not too sure where I got it - - I think perhaps this was my Grandpa's from Iowa, but I'm not positive.

While it is square, I've never really used it beyond that attribute because I couldn't read the numbers.

It's so heavily corroded, you can't see the scale or markings on the edge.  It's not normal corrosion - it's like chalky, half baked paint with a little grease thrown in.

I took a few minutes on this past rainy Saturday, and took it to my wire wheel on my bench grinder.  I was amazed to see how nice it was underneath all that crud. 

I think I'll be able to use it in a better capacity now. 

Raingutter Regatta

Ooh - Look who got 2nd place in his 

Wolf Den at the Raingutter Regatta.  

The name of his boat is "Angry Fish".

Good job, Kiddo #3!

The Purdue 5K

Last Saturday, my wife plus Kiddo #3 ran the 5K around the campus.  Kiddo #3 recently told us that he won the 1/2 mile race in his 2nd grade class, so he was anxious to try out this 5K.  He did really good.

The story goes that he spent the first half of the race holding back and staying back with my wife.  He would run backwards, or wait on the sidelines, and then run again when she caught up.  About halfway through, he decided to just zip on ahead and finish.  And he finished about 9 minutes ahead of my wife - - he finished just under 32 minutes.

I'm proud of them both!

Delta Rockwell Model # 37-290 4" Jointer

A good handful of years ago, I came across an old jointer on Craigslist.  I was in the market for an electric motor.  I found the electric motor - it just happened to come with this cool little vintage 4" jointer.  I bought it all for $50.  

It's been in a corner of my barn, but I found that I had a need to use it for a home project.  I pulled it out, and tuned it up, and ran my couple of projects through it.  While it was out, I thought I would give it a nice little paint job. 

I disassembled it into its main pieces.  It only took about 20 minutes.

There's not alot to this little jointer.  

But old greasy dust is in every nook and cranny.

The fence on the rear is able to be tilted +/- 45 degrees.  It was all frozen up, so I will work on freeing it to make it usable.

Cleaning and painting is pretty straight-forward.  I degrease all the parts with an engine cleaner and a wire brush.  I don't worry about getting all the old paint off if it is in uniform condition.  Then I mask off all the areas not to be painted.

A quick shot of primer

A double shot of paint.  In this case, I chose Dark Machine Gray.

Then peel off my masking tape.  Viola.

Do this for all parts, and then reassemble.  That's the topic of next post.

The Atlas Model 64 Drill Press

I visited my Aunt and Uncle in Peoria recently.  They are moving out of their condo soon, and are downsizing tremendously.  Thus, I was blessed to obtain a new tool - the Atlas model 64 benchtop drill press.  From a little research, it appears it is a mid/late 1940s vintage.  It is solid, and very heavy, and is in very good condition.

 Researching more, I found it had the optional "low speed" pulley setup - that is the middle set of pulleys that further reduce the speed down.  That's probably more suitable for metal work, I would presume.  

The motor is huge.  The name plate is beautiful.

It is in excellent mechanical condition thru and thru.

I checked the run-out with a dial indicator, and it is still very tight.  At the most, I found just 0.004 to 0.005 inches of slop.  Not bad for a machine that is 75 ish years old.

My plans, you ask?  Well, I think I'll give it a little tune-up, and find a neighbor to help me lift it up onto a tabletop, and simply use it for now.  I can see down the road tearing it apart and replacing bearings, and giving it a fresh paint job, but I don't think I'll do that for awhile.  I've got a few other projects in the barrel to finish up before this occurs.

Thanks Aunt Ginny and Uncle Jerry!

Chain O Lakes Adventures

We were invited by friends to spend a weekend camping at Chain O Lakes.  We took our new canoe trailer and loaded up for the weekend.

We entered the channels connecting the lakes not knowing what to expect.  What we found was a nice and peaceful passageway with lots of twists and turns.  A fun challenge for a 18.5 foot long canoe.

We took a break in the middle of a bigger lake and enjoyed the views.

Some lakes had alot of algae and skum.  It was kind of pretty in its own way, but it had alot of drag.  Someone said it was like paddling through carpet.

Here are our friends in their rented canoe making their way through.

To balance out the canoe weight, I had my #3 kiddo sit way in the tippy tip of the front.  He was the "figurehead" as on a pirate ship.

In the evening, we met up with our friends (8 campsites worth), and we all shared in a taco bar for suppertime.  The highlight was a Dutch Oven dessert.  I learned the mysterious ways of stacking Dutch Ovens with each other, and baking the entire stack at once.  

The results were:

1.  Cherry cobbler

2.  Apple cobbler

3.  Blackberry cobbler

Peeking through the netting of the window of the tent, kids slept well overnight.  They slept in pretty well til mid-morning.

It was a great park, and I hope we can go back in a few years.

Canoe Trailer - My Last Update?

Oh man, I'm so close to finishing my custom canoe trailer, I just had to pull things out to get a few pictures of how it's all going to work out.

So here's the trailer in its entirety.  The cargo box is painted.  The crossbars are mounted.  The canoe saddles are on.  The only thing missing are my little fenders (that are on the bench at the moment).

I took the canoes out of the barn and loaded them up on the trailer to see how it all fits.  It worked out just as I envisioned. 

This is a little better picture where you can see the dimensions of things.  The cargo box is 8 feet long, and since my longest canoe is just over 18 feet, that leaves 5 feet hanging off the front, and 5 feet hanging off the back.

I can easily access the front and the rear doors of the cargo box.  You can also see my awesome LED tail lights and my little button license plate lights. 

I haven't pulled it down the road yet, but it's fully legal and ready to go.  I'm excited to plan a big canoe camping trip in a land far away.  But since school starts in a week, that adventure will have to wait until next summer.

I think I'll reclassify this project as finished (since I am just that close, you know).  This is highly unusual for me.  I know I have difficulties finishing projects, but I feel good about this useful one.  I can cross it off my list!

Summer Vacation - Part 5

I promise this will be the last installment.  There has just been too many good pictures to share!

After 2 nights in the Yurt, and 2 nights at Section 17, we moved onto our last rustic cabin called "Speaker's Cabin".  It sits right at the mouth of a stream dumping into Lake Superior.

It's another small, rustic cabin without running water or electricity, but the sound of the waves of the lake more than make up for it.

The views to the west were pretty nice, too.

 We tried some new cooking, and baked biscuits over the campfire in a cast iron skillet that was provided with the cabin.  They turned out very nice, except we did burn the bottoms.

The inside of the cabin was about what we expected - a table and 4 chairs, and 4 beds.  There was also a small wood-burning stove and kitchen counter area.

Up the hill was our outhouse.  If you propped the door open while doing your business, you had a great 40 mile view to the far horizon of Superior.

Kids enjoyed the mud...

...and throwing stones...

...and we all enjoyed the sunsets.

It was a great location, and a great way to end our wilderness adventure.