Wednesday, January 23, 2008

#@#%*&*&(#!

After 5 days I'm am still without the tow vehicle .I wanted to make sure that all the lights are working and to also attach the stabilizer bars to the vehicles .Maybe tomorrow.
I want to take it for a short cruise before "the down hill run" to Florida.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

" somebody up there likes me"

This is not about the old Paul Newman movie.
Today I finally got some help from my son Colin and we installed the new pigtail that will be the umbilical cord between the Globetrotter and the truck. It will enable me to have lights and brakes .Or so I thought!
As I was backing the truck up to make the connection I stepped on the brakes and the pedal went to the floor .Even over the hum of my 24 valve Cummins diesel I could hear a hissing noise. I sprayed brake fluid all over the ground and bottom of the truck.
We never got a chance to see if the lights worked or not .I was off to the local service station to have all the brake lines replaced. It was something that I had in the back of my mind to do eventually but not now.
I don't want to think about what would have happened if this happened on I-95 in 2 weeks pulling the trailer down the highway keeping up with traffic

Friday, January 18, 2008

Ship scraper


My friend David had one of these for years in his work bucket .I think he inherited it from his father .David and I have worked together on and off for the last 30 yrs or so. No matter what we we building or repairing we found ourselves using this little unnamed tool .I remember asking him the name of it .He couldn't remember it's name or where to get one
About a year ago he told me that he had lost it. He had looked high and low for it but to no avail it was gone .He asked the man that used to own the hardware store in town about the tool ."Oh that's a ship scraper .I always had a few at the store"
Well very few people are scraping the bottoms of wooden ships any more and I'm sure that an orbital sander would do the job of this tool from the golden age of shipbuilding in Greenport .I went to the old guys store ( I go there about 4 times per week} and asked the new owner ( he's own the store for about 20 years ) if he had any ship scrapers ."No I don't carry them any more ,no call for them" .Can you get me one ? "No the company went out of business about 20 years ago".
So I went on Google and typed in ship scraper .There were none to be found. I must have looked at 20 web-sites maybe more when I finally stumbled upon a small mention of it.
There was a picture of one but no mention of where to get one .I typed in "pitch scraper ",Boat scraper",one web-site said it was a "racle" ,what every the hell that is .Finally I typed in "ship scraper" as two word not one .I had originally typed in "shipscapper" for some reason .
Wallah there it was .A picture,,a history of the company that went out of business in the 80's and finally a company in Florida that sold them .
I e-mailed David and then tried to order a few for each of us online
The web site was down ,Damn
I saw David a few days later and told him I had no luck ordering them.
He went home and did the "old fashion " thing .He looked up their website and got their phone number and called them .
The photo above is my new "Ship scraper".It may never take barnacles off ship bottoms but I can assure you that it will scape a few shingles straighten out some decking or pry open a window or two

Bluefish Love Them



This morning I was down in the shop looking for something and I came across a couple of plugs I am working on .There are guys out there who have made plug making into an art form .I wouldn't call these art but they do the job .A wooden plug in the bait shop is about $15.00 to #25.00 depending on who made it an how big it s .These little babies weigh in at 4 oz. .they are made from scrap piece from work .I like the 2x10 and 2x12 fir .Those boards tend to be cut from older trees ,they have tight growth rings and very few knots.
To make one cost about $3.00 for hooks, wire and about an hours time .At that rate I'm better off bucking up and buying them ,but what the heck .It gives me something to do in the slow months.
I'll post a few after they have been hit by some blues . They don't last very long!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Headquarters


The military may have the pentagon but this is mission control for me .I can spend hours sitting at that bench working on all sorts of things and finishing nothing . I bought that lathe a few years ago to make my own fishing plugs .I have enough blanks turned for the rest of my life . A lot of guys use all sorts of exotic woods for their plugs .The species that everyone seems to be looking for is Alaskan yellow cedar.I use what ever is left over at a job site .Mostly doug fir and western red cedar. The price is right!
I have always been a frugal sort of a guy but as I get older I would say frugality is becoming an obsession.I find my self pulling wood out of the dumpster as fast as my sons throw it in . That how I got all that Mahogany that I mentioned in an earlier post.
Years ago I was doing some work on a porch for a couple well into their 80's .The husband had been a carpenter in his day and was suffering from Alzheimer's. He didn't say much but he walked around the yard picking up all the nails I had dropped each day .I figured that he had come up at a time when the nails where probably the most expensive commodity on the job.
No he never gave me any of the nails back and I never asked him for them either .I guess there was still a burning ember left in that head of his.

A Tough Day at the Computer

Aidan has had a long day searching the world .Like his Grandfather he is fascinated by maps. He has discovered Google Earth on the computer and puts in long hours studying the world .
After putting a puzzle of the US together with his Aunt Karey ,he told his Aunt to go home and study because she had gotten a few states mixed up.
His mother is checking into any scholarships that Rand McNally is offering for school next year!
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Sunday, January 13, 2008

Watch out Tiger

This is the youngest of my 2 grandsons getting a jump on his golf game.
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Saturday, January 12, 2008

Back in action!


This genius fixed my website... another Jack of all trades, only a different set of trades.

I'll do my best to refrain from calling him "the ugly guy on the left" from now on...
Thanks Larry!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Full Disclosure


Now you will see why I refer to my work area in the negative .It is a dirty garage !
My rational is that it is a workarea. I can't stand pictures of a work space where you can eat of the floor. Some posted pictures on the net make me sick. The pine is for a new closet organizer .
The people that know me will laugh but that boat is almost done .It seems like I have been working on it most of my adult life . One of the many reasons for the heat in the garage is to get that Damn boat out of the garage and into the water before another fishing season passes

The Other Addition to the Shop


I have been talking about it for years .I finally took the plunge and put heat in the shop . Maybe I will get something done during the slow season .Now I will be able to work out there even on the coldest days.
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It took me most of yesterday to get all the necessary wire plugs and plumbing hooked up ,here it is .The New (used ) Compressor that I bought from Bob Aloogah, over at Garage Journal. We took a ride two weeks ago via ferry over to NW CT. It was over in the extreme NW corner ,actually had to follow the road in and out of Mass. to get to his house .The Berkshires were off in the distance.I have never been up that way but it was absolutely beautiful.
Now I will have all the air I need to run tools ,grind sand or whatever comes along . It runs like a dream .It had been in Bob's barn for a few years sitting idle . I'll put it to work !
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new addition to Dirty Garage

It took me most of the day ,but here is the finished project.The big problem was that these failing eyes of mine didn't see the little arrow that tells you which way to in stall that little black thing in the picture .For us not familiar with that little black thing ,its the pressure regulator.
Better start wearing my glasses full time!
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Sunday, January 6, 2008

The decisions been made !

I'm at a point in the resto where I had to decide if it was going to be purely cosmetic or go for the whole magilla .I have decided after looking around here and finding no work space that I'm going to my brother -in laws in Florida to take the body off .If I do anymore work to the trailer It would have to be torn out when the body comes off .
So work has come to a halt and its off to Florida at the end of the month .The only thing that has to be done is to attach a new pig tail for the running and brake lights .Make sure the brakes are working and get a new Reese tow bar .
I'll fill the truck up with tools . there is a welder near by and my brother- in- law has relatives who are car builders .I'll be better off there than at home where everything is a 20 mile drive to get some thing

I also hear that the fishing is pretty good in Feb. in the Gulf of Mexico. I'll have to leave room for a few fly rods !!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Made In America ?






This piece was made from American wood shipped to china ,milled and assembled there and shipped back here .Its for sale for $2700 .I'm going to have a hard time building it for that but I promised my wife I would build her one .Pictures will follow