New Tires for the 420

This past week, I bought some new tires for the old 420.  I'm not for certain, but I would venture to guess the old tires are the original tires - circa 1987 or so.  The tire size is 26-12-12.

I measured the tread depth of the old tires, and I measured 0.200 inches - right around 3/16 of an inch. 

The new tires are Carlisle Multi-Trac, and the depth is approximately 0.430 - about 7/16 of an inch.  That is a full 1/4 inch more!  Pretty amazing.

And they look real good mounted on the 420.  I expect much better traction, so I kept my wheel weights off.  That, and all my mole hills are pretty well mashed down anyways.

An Old Tandem Bicycle

Meet Daisy.  This is an early 1960s Huffy tandem bicycle.  If you know the history of our family, you know why Daisy has a special meaning to us.

I bought this dude off Craigslist this past weekend.  It drives real nice, and has been fun for the last couple of days with the kids.  

I hope the kids and I can use it often.  I also hope the kids and their friends use it with each other.  I think it has a certain cool nostalgic flavor.  

Now it isn't named Daisy just for fun.  It's actually painted right on the chain guard! 

  

A Happy Father's Day for Me

As always, the family always make today a super special day...

1. Pancakes for breakfast.
2. Minecraft with all 3 kids
3. Brownies and ice cream
4. Little gifts of candies and cookies.

They always do a great job for me.

A Day at the Shades

We spent a day in Shades State Park in central Indiana this past Friday.  This gem of a state park is less crowded and more rugged than some of the larger neighbors, and it suits us just fine.  We had a good lookin' crew when we started out.

There's a cool log over Sugar Creek.

Lunch is always interesting on the trail.  

This is a favorite trail for obvious reasons.

Hiking is easier with a tiger in your backpack.

By the end of the day, all the kids had their shoes wet.

Sugar Creek was pretty low this time.  You could go out a pretty far ways.

It's a scenic place.

Deep, thick mud is always an inviting resource for these two.

Devil's Punch Bowl was nice and cool amidst the deep rock formations.

Tons of energy to go...

My last picture of the day.  But the fun didn't stop.  Ice cream cones  on the way home were a big hit for all.  It was a very good day for everybody.

Barn Improvements

I have been busy in the barn making work benches and shelves over the last couple of weeks / months.  

It all started with Uncle Jerry's awesome drill press.  The old Atlas drill press needed a permanent location in the shop, and moving it around from place to place by hand was getting a bit crazy.  So I made a smaller work bench specifically for:

1.  Drill press

2.  Band saw

3.  Belt sander

The fourth corner is unpopulated for now, but I can see another old power tool sitting there someday.

And more recently, I've been wanting to play some ping pong with my 14 year old daughter.  The ping pong table in the barn is awesome, but it has also served as a "catch all" over the last year or so.  I made some shelves to house all that junk.

Since we're redoing the garage, I removed all the corner shelves from the garage.  It looks really nice to not have any junk sitting in the corners of the garage, so this new shelf system will also support former garage items like car-care chemicals, gardening tools, and seasonal things.

(Tangent:  How many American garages have 2 cars plus no extra junk in them?)

I also mounted my new planer in a better fashion to be able to use it easier / quicker.  The planer bed is at the same height as my chop saw and work bench, so I can plane down long items and nothing gets in the way.  Likewise, I can put long boards on the chop saw, and use the bed of the planer to support.  

Another project I did a few weeks ago was to make this tool-tote.  I fashioned it after a friend's toolbox from work.  His is much older and has more dents and dings, hence, a lot more character.  He told me all the old ladies at work ask him if they can have it to serve as a planter for flowers.  

Thus, this is my "Old Lady Tool Tote":

The Wabash Heritage Trail

This past weekend, we hiked a section of the Wabash Heritage Trail.  This trail is about 13 miles long, but we hiked just a section - 3.2 miles approximately.

At the north, it starts in Battleground, specifically at the Tippecanoe Battlefield Memorial. 

Our section of hike followed Burnett Creek.  Lots of big trees lined the waterway.

We went under I-65.

And we had some rests along the way.

It was a perfect evening of weather.  Even though it was humid, it wasn't overly hot.  The sun in the evening made for nice splotches of focus.

We crossed the Wabash River on an old bridge.  

Lots of stories and water pass through this way.

We made it to the end of our hike and were happy to be finish.  The boys, who had complained all day long about the upcoming hike, enjoyed it very much.  Give a boy a stick and he will be happy to do anything.

I hope we can continue our section hike and see the whole trail.

John Deere Fender Pan Cracks

My old 420 has been creaking and cracking more and more lately.  One common problem of these old machines is the fender pan likes to crack where the seat springs mount.  I had an extra bad case, and it's only been getting worse as the years roll by.

This past weekend, one of my seat springs bit the dust and cracked right in half.  So, it was a good time to take off the whole fender pan, and attempt a repair.  I'm sure this cracked fender aided in the break of the seat spring.

Here's the entire fender pan removed, and on the welding bench:

The cracks propagate all over the place

I cleaned up the cracks with a wire wheel on both sides.  

It took about an hour of TIG welding time to stitch it all together.  It sure isn't pretty, but it's much better than what it was.  I'll call this "farm grade" welding.

I didn't get any more pictures after this, but I primed and painted the welded area, and put it all back together.  Sitting in the seat, I can tell right away it is much more rigid than what it was before.