Chimney Repairs

Once we returned from the Boundary Waters, we had contractors arrive to repair our failing chimneys.  We have two chimneys, and they were both broken down so much that they were irreparable.  Cracks in mortar and brick allowed water to get into the house (into the breezeway).  So the only option was to tear down and rebuild.

Cracks in the crown allowed water to seep into the underlying cracked mortar and brickwork.

This had been going on for quite awhile judging by the amount of caulk.  I hadn't caulked the chimneys, so it must have been the previous owners from more than 14 years ago.  I think the leaks got worse with time, though.

Demolition started.  This chimney pictured below was torn down to the lowest roof level.

And the big chimney on the other side was 2/3 removed.

It was quite an ordeal, and a very extensive scaffold setup.

Forms were placed on the top to pour a new crown.

They both turned out very well, and I was quite pleased with the brickwork.

The brickwork is complete, and now we have to wait multiple weeks on the flashing crew to make us watertight to the roof.  I'm not too pleased with the temporary silver tape, but this company promised to fix whatever they break.  So if water does cause damage, they'll pay for it.

Drill Press Challenge

Now that I own a whopping 3 drill presses, I thought I would see how well they perform in accuracy.  This may be a hotly debated topic, but I think of "runout" when I think of accuracy.  That is, how well centered does a cutting tool travel in relation to the center axis of the quill?  I have a dial indicator, so I can find out.

First up is my most recent acquisition - the Walker Turner drill press with a best estimate date of manufacture in the 1940s:

Find the low spot on a straight and solid shaft, zero the indicator, and then manually rotate the belt to rotate the quill to find the high side.  In this case, I'm showing about 0.0045 (four and a half "thou" as in thousandths of an inch).  Not bad.

Next up is my Atlas drill press given to me by my Uncle in Peoria.  I absolutely love this machine:  It's quiet, and smooth, and it has never let me down.  It also has the speed reduction intermediate pulley set for slowing down rotational speed.  Thus, it is a good metal drilling tool.  I believe this machine is 1950s vintage.

Results for the atlast:  0.0125 - about twelve and a half thou.  This is about 3x worse than the Walker Turner machine.  Hmmm.

Now we go way back in time to the granddaddy:  the "Champion Forge & Blower Company" Post Drill.  This is over a century old by now, and my best guess is this was made 1905-1910.  I have a previous post about restoring this post drill.  Let's the test begin:

This was a bit of a challenge to set up with my indicator.  The table is rather small, and the keyless chuck barely fit my 10mm straight shaft.  (I don't think this manufacturer knew what the metric system was 100 years ago)

Results were a bit crazy.  Runout was 0.170.  The needle on my indicator went all the way around and then alot more!  

I thought it would be cool to put a pencil in the chuck, and rotate it to visualize this runout.  It's easier to see this way.

I've read on some machining forums that the 3 jaw chucks in drill presses can wear after alot of use.  I believe that is the case for the Atlas - things appear to have some wear.  For this last drill press with nearly 3/16 of an inch of runout, I think the chuck itself is not centered in the quill.  I don't use it, so I'm not going to bother repairing it.  It's just a nice show piece.

Catching Up - BWCA Trip

Wow - 2 months went by in a flash, and I haven't posted a single update.  That's just a sign of the busy times we're in.  Lots going on.

A month ago, we were in the Boundary Waters on this day of the month.  It was a good trip, despite some mechanical challenges getting there and back.  Here's just a few pictures.

After 750 miles of travel, we made it to our entry point of "Homer Lake" on an overcast morning.  We had 3 kids, 6 packs, and 2 canoes.  That's all we were able to manage to take.

#1 Kiddo learned how to portage canoes on this trip.  And she did just great.  Below, here she is portaging our 59 pound Kevlar canoe up and over a pass.  I was quite pleased with her abilities.

Here we are at the end of a portage on our rainy day.  We were loading up as the 2 kids held the boats steady.  Kiddo #3 always strikes a pose for the camera, and he convinced the others to do the same.

We had a neat campsite with a sharp rock "pond" behind the main campsite.  It was a large area of these many split-rock splinters.  Kids enjoyed stacking them up just before bedtime.

Our favorite campsite was our last campsite - a small island in the middle of "South Cone Lake".  It had a little landing to easily launch canoes from, and was the only site on the entire island and lake.  We enjoyed the solitude, and also enjoyed a very friendly squirrel who was a bit mischievous.  

On our way home, we had to paddle a mere 4 miles through the large "Lake Brule".  It was a calm morning and the waves were minimal.  

It was a great trip, and we got this trip in right before the National Forest Service shut down the entire BWCA due to wildfires.  Yes, the entire 2100 square miles of Park Area had to be evacuated (and still is at the time of this writing).  Crazy!