2021: What are you doing today

[enjenjo]

I'm continuing a never ending effort to get rid of years of hoarded stuff. Today I was taking pictures of things to put on craigslist and noticed this logo on my grandfather's machinist's chest.  It was made in enjenjo's hometown.

In the box is a 1917 edition of the Machinery's Handbook.

Hang on to that machinery's handbook. It's still very useful. After all  an inch is still divided into thousands. There are also a lot of useful formulas in there. The copy I have is from the 30s.

I know several members of the Pilliod family. There were actually two Pilliod companies in Swanton, The Pilliod Machine Company which was a descendent of A D Baker Company. It was renamed when one of the Pilliods married A D Bakers daughter and took over the company. Pilliod Cabinet Company was the other one. It started out as Pilliod Lumber but soon started making tool chests and similar items. It was bought out in 1994 by LADD Furniture Incorporated. It was sold twice more since then but the brand name is still in use for furniture similar to what Sauder makes, also a local company.
Pilliod  machinist's chests are worth  some money if they are in decent shape.


I pulled the check valve out of the compressor today. Guess what I found? No check valve. I suspected this was defected out of stock, and now I m sure of it. I have the check valve coming, it should be here Wednesday.

[kb426]

My copy of the Machinsts Handbook is copyrighted in 1942. It was given to me by my deceased friend, Howard who was cleaning out items left to him by his father. His dad was a machinsts at Walker AFB in WW2. I repeated the spelling from the cover. For those of you who are cleaning out, reality has something to do with this. We keep items looking for "some day" and realize that some day may not happen. I use the 3 year rule a lot because of lack of storage space. I've disposed of many usable items. It's painful for a short while. Than the useful space makes up for that. Being aware that much of that is not valuable to very many people will help make decisions. Since freight is so expensive, selling so much is impractical. My plan is to not leave a mess for some one else to clean up.

[Ohio Blue Tip]

Same thing going on here, don't want to leave to big a mess for others.
I have some copies of  the Machinsts Handbook, my oldest is 1941, I use these books often in the shop.
The older copies have information that has dropped out of the newer.

[phat46]

Finished this one this morning. 16" X 24", now have two motorcycle re commissions to do.

[kb426]

^^^
I wish that M5 was in my back yard. That's really nice.

[chimp koose]

I spent the evening doing something I have not done in many years , machining titanium. A friend is building a 6cyl hemi for a willys jeep project and had some titanium valves laying around from WAY long ago . They are too long so I am shortening them and cutting a retainer groove in them . 11/32 stem so I am using a 3/8 collet with a bronze guide liner inside to hold them . I made a tailstock center adapter to hold the valve head centered while I machine the stem. HSS very slow , parting tool very sharp , Rapid tap ..lots, cutter right on center and do not let up on the cutting pressure. Got the intakes done tonight , the exhaust valves are a different length so I will have more stem to hold on to for them .The last time I cut titanium was in the 80's

[Crosley.In.AZ]

For those of you who are cleaning out, reality has something to do with this. We keep items looking for "some day" and realize that some day may not happen. I use the 3 year rule a lot because of lack of storage space. I've disposed of many usable items. It's painful for a short while. Than the useful space makes up for that. Being aware that much of that is not valuable to very many people will help make decisions. Since freight is so expensive, selling so much is impractical. My plan is to not leave a mess for some one else to clean up.

I have been cleaning  "out" stuff  here n there for a few yrs. My wife says she sees the progress, I do not. This week : I sold off 4 transmission cores. 3 - thm350 and 1 - thm400 .... If I walk around the shop the empty space I gained? I do not see it. LOL

Over the weekend my water trap on my shop air lines sprung a leak. The O ring on the catch bottle had shrunk , plus corrosion had gotten into the groove for the O ring. I looked at it and was sure a C4 Ford forward drum inner O ring would likely fit.  Problem was......?  I had tossed out (cleaned) nearly all my extra transmission kit parts.

In the transmission bizness, you end up with extra parts kits, O rings here, there. You may open a kit to pull out 4 to 6 pieces, put the remainder in a box for backup when you may need one part, you rip a gasket or cut an O ring on installation.

Now I have none of those back up parts.  Dammit  

[purplepickup]

In Michigan doing a brake job in the driveway in January isn't normal. But that's what I did today. It got up to 46 degrees and sunny. Retracting the rear caliper pucks threw me off for a bit but youtube saved the day.

[kb426]

George, that really didn't sound like fun. I bought a cheap ebay caliper retractor kit last fall. All of the newer stuff I work on needs that. This used to be simpler.

[purplepickup]

George, that really didn't sound like fun. )

Actually I was saying that it was warm enough to do it. Not exactly fun but tolerable. January is usually much colder and snowy.

It was a reminder that I need to keep getting rid of stuff in my 3 car shop so I can work on a car in there. It's out of control :(D)

[kb426]

George, there seems to be something of a common thread about us downsizing.

[WZ JUNK]

I had the grandsons tear down a small engine yesterday.  Fun project for all.  I try to have stuff around for them to take apart and see what is inside.  They are better at taking apart than putting back together.

[idrivejunk]

Alls I need's a dumpster, to downsize. Unless one of you guys wants a couple 400 blocks and cranks and half dozen bad iron heads, long tail BOP TH400 core maybe too. Etc! Oh and a car with 400/400 also. Come and get it is all you gotta do. Free piles of old electronics if theres leftover cargo space!

I don't seem to be doing anything today. This week I put another five or seven minutes into a metal picture frame on a lunch break. Revisited a photo colorizing project last week and made progress. Tried drawing my 68 Malibu from memory and couldn't quite. Got to talking art with Mom yesterday and she gave me four art brushes she could do without. Showed me a painting I did dated 1973.

Looks as though next weekend may contain a 2 or 3 hour window of minimum 455-usin' temps. The two outdoor Pontiacs must glare at the garage door every day and resent me anew knowing the tiny space behind it is open. They probably think the indoor Pontiac gets all the love but thats wrong. Been a month easy since the GT ran. Might have had the loud one out once this year, she is weary and can be reluctant but having wintered in the same spot more than twenty times I suspect she may have evolved the ability to hibernate. No need to poke a stick into her den, I'll just scare up some car chases and crank the speakers for V8 ambience as sanity preservation.

[sirstude]

Just got in from the adjuster checking my roofs, all ugly.  We had 75 mph winds the other night, LOTS of trees down and torn up roofs in town.  I should get 2 roofs out of the deal, but possibly only one and a half.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

the water trap re-installed in compressed air lines.  The C4 O ring for the drum fit.  Kind of a  force fit. OK , I used a 3 pound hammer to slip the 2 parts together.  So far no air leaks.

Also:  yes, that is PVC pipe..  Schedule 40 pipe  , 1/2 inch diameter on the left of the trap...  On the right is 3/4 inch PVC pipe. The shop has 3/4 inch pipe around the perimeter at the floor.