Got more stuff done

Got the rest of the shelves hung. Annoyingly, Home Depot sells 8" shelf brackets but no 8" deep shelves. What's up with that? Thankfully I now have a moderately equipped workbench, so I was able to cut 2" off some 10" shelves without much drama. Actually I'm a bit ashamed I'm even buying premade shelves instead of cutting my own from plywood and painting them, but really, I am very very motivated to get the Jetta done (have I mentioned that before?) and it's faster this way.

As you can see, there are shelves above and shelves below. And that's not all the shelves -- those white wire racks you see are going to be additional shelving above the black shelves. And the side wall to the right? It, too, will eventually hold more shelves. Seriously, we have a lot of stuff, and only some of it will go away once I finish this Jetta.

Speaking of the Jetta, I went to assemble my pistons and connecting rods the other night and discovered the rod bolts I ordered years ago were the wrong size... ugh. So it's back to the dealership for me. :( And I used my fancy new work bench to try to adjust the valves on the cylinder head, only to realize I was lacking a ton of shims in my set and had to order a bunch more online. So now I am waiting on two batches of parts!

Anyway, if you looked closely or clicked the pic, you may have noticed the 5 shelves stacked mere inches apart on the far right. These have a kind of rubber non-slip grid on them so they can be used to hold lathe tooling -- as the lathe is on the right side of the bench, the tools will be in easy reach there. The cost of the tooling will easily exceed the cost of the lathe once I get going with it, and will no doubt fill those shelves and then some. A person can spend just as much time making tools to make things, as he does actually making things. Not only that, this cheap lathe has a lot of warts from the factory so there are a bunch of parts to machine for the lathe before it ever starts making actual products! Indeed, I expect to have just as much fun polishing and accessorizing this little lathe as I will making flashlights -- I already have a list of enhancements to make to it as soon as the Jetta is done.

Lesson Learned

I learned a lesson this week. I need to be absolutely clear with my children. I can't beat around the bush. I need to actually make a decision and stick to it. Pushing something to the back of MY mind does not make it go away.

Here is my anecdotal story:

About a week ago, I had this conversation with Katie:

Katie: Mom, I want to make a club with the girls in my class. For the first meeting, I want to make a Christmas present for my teacher. Will you buy a wreath so we can decorate it?

Me: That sounds like a fun idea. When do you want to do it?

Her: Monday, after school.

Me: Ok. Sounds great. I'll buy a wreath for you and supplies to decorate it.

Her: Thanks, mom!


As Friday, nears, I realize things are getting busy for me, and this idea of Katie's sounds like a hassle. And about the same time, our car wouldn't start, and Corwin declared it unfixable-- so I am also without the use of a car, which complicates things drastically.

Me: So, this meeting you're planning? Things are getting kind of crazy. We may have to cancel it or postpone it until later in the week. Maybe Wednesdayish.


(Of course I'm not being very clear or precise because I just want it to go away)

Her: Ok, mom.

So, after this, I think nothing more of this gathering. That is until this conversation Tuesday night, as I'm putting her to bed:

Katie: Logan says he will walk home from school with me tomorrow-- he's the only boy that said he could come. I invited a few boys along with the girls.

Me (surprised): Wait a minute! Why are people coming over? What's going on?

Her: For my party mom! I told everybody it would be until 5:30 (right in the middle of dinnertime). You said we were going to do it on Wednesday. You were going to buy a wreath. You didn't get one?

Me: No, I haven't had a car, and I didn't know you were still planning it. I'll have to figure out if I can get supplies and stuff. Let me think. I may be able to walk to the dollar store tomorrow and get stuff. I don't know. You may have to cancel it altogether. I'll see what I can do and let you know in the morning.


In the end, I was able to get some supplies, I emailed her classmates' parents to make a formal invitation-- late notice though it was (and I really hate to inform people of stuff at the last minute). A few people showed up, we had a nice gathering and a wreath was simply decorated with pony bead bells and pipe cleaner candy canes.


It was rather stressful for me, but it was good for Katie. She had fun, and I think it is important that she be able to invite other kids over once in a while and actually plan things herself. She really is a good planner and a good people person. It is a blessing to me to see my kids develop their many talents. When I am caught up in my day to day, I don't always take the time to notice what my children are good at, help them strengthen their skill set, or just let them have fun-- and when I take the time, sometimes all three happen at once.

Made progress!

Shop light installed, power tool shelves, and vice installed. Ready for work on the Jetta now, I think!

Woot!

I recently took an interest in machining, particularly to turn aluminum and brass on a metal lathe to make flashlights and other interesting items. Unfortunately, I still have my last project taking up space in the garage, so I've been very very motivated to finish it ASAP so I can start making metal chips (that's a little machinist humor; you see, the chips are what you throw away after removing them from your metal bar stock to form your desired shape).

My "last project" is converting a gasoline '88 VW Jetta to diesel. I had the engine block bored out some time ago, so I took it off the shelf and masked it off for paint:


Once painted the factory Volkswagen diesel color, I attempted to use a homemade tool to install the intermediate shaft bearings (the intermediate shaft drives the oil pump and vacuum booster for the brakes):


See that little star pattern? Yeah, that's where my tool broke into pieces shortly after destroying my $30 bearings. So, with another set of bearings in hand, I dropped off the block at a machine shop. If I had my metal lathe up and running, I could have made a proper tool to do it myself, but I had no room to set up the lathe -- and Lemontree wants the Jetta done before the lathe makes chips -- so it was just easier to wave money in someone else's direction until it got done.

...And that's where I hit another snag. I started working on the cylinder head, but I had to use the kitchen table, which was a right pain for both myself and for the owner of the kitchen table (that's Lemontree, of course). The garage was just too cramped and crowded to work in, so I decided I needed a work bench. The previous owners of our house had installed some homebuilt shelving in the garage, but it was a massive 4 feet by 7 feet so there was no way you could reach the back corner. Also, it was under-engineered and the shelves sagged in the middle (especially the one that got water spilled on it... oops). Driven to get the Jetta done, we started ripping out those useless shelves to make room for a work bench. We were in such a hurry we didn't even take any "before" pics, sorry. But here's what it looked like after we removed them and started hanging vertical rails for improved shelving and a horizontal beam to support the back of the work bench.

We used some serious lag screws that claimed they didn't require pre-drilling. Well, maybe if you have a bigger drill than I did, which literally smoked before fully seating them. So, we started predrilling and drove them flush with the ratchet I use for working on cars.

Where the previous owners under-engineered, I over-engineered. The dark bar you see underneath the work surface is just that -- a 1" steel bar. There's a second one just behind it, too. I can sit and bounce all my weight on the front lip of the work bench and it is rigid. I can literally drop an engine on there.

You may be wondering why that left leg is not at the corner. Well, there will be another leg at the corner, and between those two legs will be shelves for power tools.

Here we've hung a few of the new height-adjustable shelves and Tiffany and I are testing out the location of the bench grinder (for sharpening lathe tool bits) and, of course, the lathe itself. B-)

The lathe, if you are interested, is a 7x10 mini-lathe. The '7' means it can theoretically spin a metal bar 7" in diameter, but in reality, it would struggle with much more than 4" (still much larger than any flashlight I intend to machine). The '10' is the length of the bed, or how long of a bar you can work with. 10" is also a little optimistic; while it can indeed turn a 10" bar, in the factory configuration various things get in the way so a little modification is required to take full advantage of the bed length. Despite these shortcomings, it is incredibly cheap, er, inexpensive compared to a "real" lathe, and you already know I'm cheap, er, frugal, so there you are.

Now, since we'll be doing all sorts of dirty/greasy/oily/messy jobs on this workbench, we decided to slap a coat of paint down. I don't really care if the surface gets messed up, because it's just a sheet of cheap plywood and I designed it to be easily replaceable , but I wanted to be able to at least kind of wipe it off from time to time. At the hardware store, we looked at the colors of oil-based enamel available. One was a dark gray that I thought would be too dark, so we went with the lighter gray labeled "aluminum". Imagine our surprise when we opened the can and discovered that "aluminum" is not a shade of gray but is, in fact, a bright silvery metallic aluminum color! Ah well, splash it on!

So here I am typing this out while the paint dries. Work will resume on Monday! Gotta get the Jetta done!!

When sorrows come, they come not as single spies but in whole battalions

Roll call of the battalion:

• Washer breaks
• We attempt to disassemble washer to repair it, and fail
• We research a new washer and drive out to buy it at Lowe's
  
• Washer not in stock, placed on order
• Back home, old washer starts working again but Corwin's computer breaks
  
• Call Lowe's, they say we have to go to store to cancel new washer order
• Corwin drives out and picks up $60 computer part, and then heads to Lowe's with Emily in tow. After standing in line, "Returns" says they need to go to "Appliances"
• Nobody at "Appliances", have to page someone and wait interminably
• "Appliances" sends them back to "Returns"
• Have to do two transactions, one for washer and one for extended warranty. Second transaction requires much head-scratching and button-pressing as Emily dances because she needs to go potty
  
• Halfway home, Corwin's car loses brakes on the steep downhill section of Mountain View drive coming down off the Bench from Goddard to Glenwood/Chinden
  
• While Lemontree drives out to Corwin with tools, Emily bumps head on rearview mirror which then falls off the windshield
  
• Lemontree arrives with tools, whereupon Corwin discovers he has asked for the wrong tools and Lemontree must now go back home for the right ones
• Finally home, Corwin performs digital (as in, "fingers") contortions to replace a too-large power supply in the too-small computer case, but computer still will not power on

The good news is, now that we've gotten all that out of the way, we've filled our stress quota for the month so we should be good to go until December, maybe January.

Don't worry, Corwin/Emily are fine and did not collide with any other cars or stationary objects. Corwin's emergency brake cables broke a couple weeks ago and rather than blow it off, he replaced them... which is just as well because they were used to good effect tonight.

Turns out one of the two bolts that hold the passenger side caliper assembly on the car had inexplicably gone missing -- a rank violation of protocol and a blatant dereliction of duty. The remaining bolt bravely clung to it's threads with it's metaphorical fingernails to keep the entire caliper from bouncing down the road, but sadly was insufficient to the task of actually stopping the car (as evidenced by the loud complaints the driver received when the attempt was made). Nevertheless, the one heroic bolt has received a medal of honor for outstanding service in the line of duty, as well as a new companion bolt, and car was able to get home under it's own power.

And the computer? Power cord came unplugged from the power strip. Now we have a perfectly good, slightly used, extra power supply on hand.

Plug Computer DVR

As some of you may already be aware, we run a homebuilt DVR (Digital Video Recorder) which records TV shows from our rooftop antenna, stores them, and then plays them back on our TV. The name of the software that does this is MythTV, and I used a spare old desktop computer for the MythTV server to run on.

It's an great system, but has a couple of issues. One is power -- that desktop PC sucks a lot of power 24/7 to record our shows. The other is maintenance -- the CPU cooler clogs up with dust and about once a month the overheat alarm beeps and I have to pull the cover and blow out the heat sink with canned air. Annoying.

The solution is a Plug Computer. You know those annoying wall warts or power bricks that every electronic device seems to come with these days? Well, they made one with a computer built right into it. Called a SheevaPlug, it draws about 10 watts (I estimate it to be about 1/10th the power draw of the old desktop server) and has no heatsinks, fans, or other moving parts. Best of all, it was only $100 which is less than you'd spend on a traditional desktop or server.


Here it is installed on my computer desk. The green-arrowed item is the digital tuner, which captures the signals from our antenna and sends the data over the network to the red-arrowed plug computer. This computer saves the data to the purple-arrowed low-power, low-noise, laptop hard drive. When we want to watch TV, we will use our existing set-top box (arrowed red below) to stream the data back off the hard drive via the plug computer, over the network, and display it on our TV:


I only just received the SheevaPlug the other day, so this will be an ongoing project. I installed Linux already, which went remarkably easily, but MythTV has always been a bit of a bear to get installed so it will be some time before it's ready for prime time (pun intentional).

Oh, and in unrelated news, all my gravevines were apparently DOA. Dunno if Home Depot left them outside and they froze, or I did something stupid, but none of them show the least sign of life, even the cutting I brought in and stuck in some water. So... next year. :(

It's OK for guys to wear pink

If it has cool things on it, like Hello Kitty, or a Kalashnikov. Or both!

It's aliiive!

"We can do it. We have the technology. We can build it better than it was before..."

Well there it is. Aside from polishing the engine, it's DONE! Everything we've done:

• De-rusted and painted frame
• De-rusted and painted bracketry (airbox, battery tray, taillight assembly)
• Added blanking plate to close up ugly taillight opening
  
• Replaced shocks and forks
• Painted and modified CB100 side covers to fit this CL100
  
• De-rusted and painted tank
• Painted exhaust and polished heat shield
• De-rusted and polished fenders and chain guard
  
• Recovered seat
• Cleaned the carb
• Lubed and adjusted all operating cables
• Replaced front tire
• Added turn signals, including XOR relays for front running lights and rear triple brake lights.
• Added 7.5V Zener diode to help prevent overcharging the battery
• Replaced rubber centerstand stop to keep the chain (!) from hitting it
• Helicoiled stripped mirror mount and added mirrors
  
• Added a proper Honda tool kit to hidden compartment
  

I took it for a little spin to cure the paint we put on the exhaust, and it's such a ton of fun to ride! I think Lemontree's going to love it! :)

Bike update

Today was Bike Day. In the last week the new fork stanchion pipes came from Thailand and I finished the relay modules mentioned in an earlier post so we were able to make a lot of progress.

If you recall, XOR logic can be built with relays thus:
And here we have the real thing:

You'll see the 'X' shaped cross-connects between relays here, just like in the diagram:
First attempts at soldering the relays "dead bug style", i.e., with the relay placed upside down like a dead bug with it's legs in the air and soldering directly to the pins met with failure. Second attempts with my soldering pencil also met with failure because the teeny little holes were too close together and the solder balls of adjacent connections touched and shorted things. A trip to Rat Shack for a fine soldering iron tip and some teeny .022" solder made soldering a real joy as the solder went right where I wanted it and flowed like water instead of peanut butter. Ok, I'll win no awards for aesthetics but the proof is in the results, and the modules work.
You'll see above I had to make two connections to the Common legs of the center relay, so I just used a long lead and bent it over and soldered it twice on the backside.

Finally, the modules got a little protection in the form of hot glue and electrical tape. With the front end re-assembled, we reinstalled the main wiring harness and added in my modules. Some consternation was experienced when the rear turn/brake lights inexplicably malfunctioned. We checked, checked again, and rechecked our wiring and it was all correct. Based on the pattern of the light display, I suspected a faulty brake/taillight bulb, so I broke out the multimeter and started testing. Bulb was fine but the socket had some very strange results -- zero volts between either bulb contact and ground, but 5.5V between the two contacts! That's not supposed to happen. Finally we pulled the lens off and determined that the ground wire for the bulb holder had fallen off, resulting in the taillight grounding itself through the brake light and confusing the heck out of my relay module and confusing the heck out of us. Ground wire reattached, everything worked as designed. Whew!! I was starting to doubt my electrical engineering and soldering skills for a minute there.

With the day almost spent, we made it look like a real motorcycle again. Lemontree put on the mirrors, tank, and side covers. All that's left now is odds and ends -- clean the carb, adjust the front brake and lube all the cables, polish the engine, and... well, that's about it really.

Bike Beautification

Here is a look at the custom pieces I painted. These will definitely give my bike character. I'm not going to put them on until everything else is finished, because I want them to be the finishing touches. I think it would be too disconcerting to put them on an unfinished bike. So they will have to wait for a while.

I have ambiguous thoughts about what I have done here. I sprinkled glass beads on the white paint for a reflective effect. The point is that as I'm riding I want to be seen. Which brings me to the rub. I hate to be noticed. For anything. I want to quietly reside in the background. Don't get me wrong, I love to make a difference. I love to help others live a more quality life if I can, but I don't want to be recognized in doing so. I don't have any objections to people saying "thanks" or "good job" or whatever, but then I want to be quietly forgotten. So comes my problem here. People will notice my paint job, but it's not really something that can be quietly forgotten. This is very custom. Nobody else has a bike that looks like this. I WILL be noticed, and I'm a little uncomfortable with that.

Grape trellis

Today was a busy day. The other day I attempted to drill holes in our concrete sidewalk so I could secure the trellis fenceposts to it (to keep them from tipping over under the tension of the wire). I used a masonry bit with our regular drill. For those of you currently laughing, you already know that this was a waste of time. Lemontree's father was kind enough to loan us a hammer drill that worked much, much better. I was then able to install lead sleeves in the resulting holes and screw fencepost brackets into the sleeves.

On the far side, there was no sidewalk so I drove rebar into the ground at an angle, then ran wire from the top of the fencepost down at an angle to the rebar at ground level. (The cat is a neighborhood stray.) As you can see below I also set up a soaker hose -- these baby vines need a lot of water because they were transplanted and their roots are small, but in future years they should need very little because they grow some pretty incredible root systems.

Finally I ran the two top wires and tensioned them with turnbolts. I have not yet run the lower set of wires as I'm not quite sure where to place them. From Vines to Wines and other viticultural resources say the lower cordon (horizontal branch of the vine) can be 24 to 36 inches high (or even more), but I do not yet understand which height is best for my situation. Until I learn more, I'm just going to wait. The vines have not yet broke bud (nor should they, as it may still frost this spring, which could be disastrous) so I still have time.

Oh, and while we were at it, we also secured our raspberries to our back fence. They are always falling over onto the grass where they get chopped up when I mow the lawn. Considering many prior failed attempts, this year we got some thick nylon string (almost twine) and then made a critical improvement: we hooked one end of each string with an S-hook so that the string can be unhooked when desired.


This hook allows us to temporarily remove the string to ease in pruning, reposition canes, and more easily slide new canes behind the string in the fall or spring should we have neglected to do so when they first grew that tall during the summer.

We have quite a lot of raspberries, as they have been spreading since we planted transplants a few years ago. This year we dug up two more fence section's worth of bed for more raspberries and there transplanted some shoots that were coming up too close to the grass. Unfortunately, some of the canes are of a different variety that produce a more tart and lighter red berry which tends to fall apart. I tolerated them in years past but this year we're going to let them fruit one last time (so we can identify them) and then rip them out to make room for the canes that grow the sweeter dark red berries. In some ways this reminds me of The Allegory of the Olive Tree, which is kind of cool.

Half a motorcycle, still/again

Lemontree did a whole bunch of work on her bike today and yesterday. She recovered the seat and painted the frame, and then together we reinstalled the swingarm, rear wheel, fender, shocks, chain guard, exhaust, and passenger footpegs.

As you can see, the exhaust is now black. The chrome was too far gone to save, so Lemontree used header paint (1,800°F) to make it black. I think it looks good.

That accomplished, we removed the front wheel and dug in for a fight! The two front forks were seriously rusted in place and it took a sledgehammer -- quite literally, a 2.5lb sledge -- to beat them off. Tip to anyone removing rusted fork stanchion tubes on a CL100, get a M10x1.25 threaded rod a couple of feet long, thread it into the top of the tube, and proceed to whale on it.

So the reason we took the fork apart was a ripped gaiter -- that's the rubber accordion that keeps dirt out of the shock absorber part of the fork -- and leaky fork fluid seal. Sadly, the reason the fork seal leaked was because the fork at some point had been chewed up by rocks etc that were allowed in by the ripped gaiter. Now replacing the seal is useless because the rough fork tube will immediately tear it up. :( So... we will have to either replace the fork tubes or weld up and re-machine the damaged sections. It'll be a few more weeks at least. :(

But, the parts that are done look really good!

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

This is well worth the time to view.

Bud push

It's not nearly time for bud break yet, but I think my baby vines are alive because the buds are starting to "push". Once daily temperatures regularly hit 50°F, and they have been, grapevines start to come out of dormancy. Left is an ultra-closeup of a bud that is enlarged and fuzzy. 5 of the vines look pretty good, which is the good news. The last one, one of the Pinot Noirs, has fewer, and smaller, buds but still shows signs of life so it'll hopefully catch up with a little extra TLC.

While I'm waiting for some exciting mini-vineyard action to happen, I'm reading From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox. No, I won't be making wine, but there's a lot about viticulture as well as dealing with the juice, which I will be doing. I think it would be an interesting read even if you don't intend to grow vines, both because Jeff has an engaging writing style and because wine -- even if you don't personally imbibe -- plays a role in modern as well as ancient society. There are other interesting tidbits, as well: for example, I was not aware that the juice from red grapes comes out nearly clear, so the grapes are first crushed and the skins are allowed to stew with the juice for about a day so that the colors can bleed into the juice. Much of the complex flavors of wine come from the skins as well -- wines from grapes picked and directly pressed without crushing are (at least, according to Jeff, as I have no personal experience in this area) "light" and "clean" tasting, but lacking in depth of flavor. Even white grapes are sometimes often crushed and allowed to sit for 8-16 hours before pressing to enhance flavor, though like apples, white grape juice can actually turn brown from oxidation if left exposed to air for too long. For vintners (winemakers) this is not a problem as the subsequent fermentation by the yeast generally clears it up, but it will be a potential issue I will need to avoid.

In short, this whole business turns out to be a bit more complex than I anticipated, but I'm still looking forward to everything from cultivating to bottling. If anything I now appreciate the high prices for vitis vinifera juice... perhaps they really aren't gouging after all.