Family Fun In The Shop!

Maisy and I were in charge of the kids one evening and this is what we came up with.

No! it's not an industrial crack pipe! It's a marshmallow shooter!

Lindsay showed great technique even with the binky. Just between you an me, I don't think the marshmallow left the barrel. In fact, most of hers were just eaten.

Bradley came up with this fun idea after seeing some of these guns at Weblo camp.

Of course he modified his by adding a longer barrel. That's my boy!!!

Thanks to all the shooting of marshmallows, the dog ate enough so send just about anyone into a diabetic coma.

Lindsay ran out of marshmallows and had to move onto Captain Crunch. All in all it was one fun evening.

I Need A Bigger Garage...

I came across this beauty last fall in one of my work associates apple orchard. I know you're probably thinking...what the heck is it? Well, it's a 70's era International Cub Cadet Harvester.

The story always goes something like this.....It ran when I parked it...

Complete with mower deck, Yummy!

The former owner's son tried tinkering with the carb and gave up. I know this, because it looks like it was left in the dirt for a couple years. For the past two weeks it's been soaking in oil and I have been slowly working all the moving/adjustable parts. It still needs a fuel cup, float, a couple of gaskets, and a stem.

Last night I swapped out the ignition and bolted on the half rebuilt carb. I was itching to crank it over and so with a couple of shots of starting fluid and a quick whiff of ozone, it roared to life. Oh Yeah! I'm currently looking up the needed parts for the carb. I'll keep y'all posted. By the way, the motorized bike works okay for now. I'm looking for the correct belt for the comet torque converter.

Slowly But, Well, Slowly

Well, I know its been a long time since the last up date on this thing but with all the sickness, calling stuff, and getting ready for the Trip I'm taking to China, It's been hard to get stuff done in the garage. I did find some time this week though. So here we go. The twist grip throttle adapted perfectly to the handle bar and I had to freshen up the shifter which now works great.

I ran into a little trouble with the magneto got giving the needed spark.

I had to salvage one (magneto) from a donor motor.

And here she is. (magneto) It was a quick and easy fix and when reassembled the engine ran great.

I totally lucked out and found a belt from my among my treasures that fit perfect. All that's left is adjusting the chain length and some foot pegs and she'll be ready for her maiden voyage. Once the bugs are worked out ( if any) I plan to ride this to work and back once! It should be one fun cop dodging experience. If pulled over I plan on getting off the hook by the cop assuming that I'm mentally challenged. Shouldn't be to hard to see.

Speaking of mental, here's a couple of picks of some bums on the Trax train in Salt Lake City. We took the young men to Temple Square last Saturday. When I took this dudes picture I made sure to turn the flash off but for got that the camera makes a fake click zzzzzz sound. It scared me as I was only 2 feet away from his face. Glad It didn't wake him up.

You know It's spring when the belly shirts start coming out OOOOOH YEAH! This dude was coming back from the ST. Patricks Day parade.

Trash or Treasure?

OK, this one is for all of you that know about my nose for cool finds. This 7 hp 2 stage Jacobsen snow blower was very well kept and even came with the owners manuel. It also came with electric start and tire chains. As you can see there is a little surface rust but that's all I could find wrong with it. I adjusted the govenor and it now throws snow a good 15 feet.

I guess I better tell you that it only costed me $15.00 It has cleaned many driveways and sidewalks. My plan is to freshen it up this summer and make it look the best I can. Something like the lawn tractor. More treasures to come.

Oxymoron

One of the things about winter in Logan is that sometimes cabinfever motivates me to create Frankinstins like this.

I've adapted this 2 hp Briggs and Stratton to this Nishiki 21 speed Mt bike. I had the motor mount bent up by local fab shop and I'm using a syntrifical clutch/torque converter to deliver power to the rear tire.

Pillow blocks hold the jackshaft right where the old crank use to be. I had to adapt/tig a small bicycle sprocket to a keyed colar thats on the jackshaft. (hidden behind pillow block).

A belt will be soon fitted to the torque converter.

I still need to break the chain and shorten it. A neat thing about this contraption is that its not limited to the syntrifical clutch for variable speed. It also has the seven gears on the rear sprocket. I don't plan to be scraping bugs from my teeth due to mach speeds however, I do expect this to clip along and maintain speed on the flat. Lots of work still to do. I'll keep you posted.

Have Deere Will Aerate

I know this isn't breaking news for some of you, but this is one of those projects for the books. I was donated this little bucket of bolts and you couldn't have slapped the smile off my face as I trailered it home. It was October at the time and snowy. I was so excited I pushed it at least 80' through 6'' of snow, up the trailer ramp and drove off before they changed their mind. Don't ask me where the snow went. Over the following couple weeks I resurrected the beast temporarily.

After looking around in the snow and waist high weeds I found the mower deck under the front of a junked van that must to have housed at least 20 generations of ferrel cats. It stunk bad! Being motivated by the stink I summoned super human strength and hefted the stinky mower deck on to my back and dump it into the trailer and off I went.

The restoration project took place in the spring and I eventually dissected the beast down to its frame. It looks like cosmetic surgery gone bad, but it gets better.

Just another shot of the breakdown.

Project Completed. After many hours and a few new parts ( bearings, fuel pump, after market lights, John Deere Green/Yellow paint, JD stickers of course, seat, custom billet nobs, V belts, battery and some electrical wiring.) this lockjaw causing rust bucket is now the cute $35.00 dollar per lawn aeration machine you now see. I kid you not, the whole make over cost me about $80.00. (Lawn aerator not included) In the spring and fall Bradley and I Have a great time aerating lawns. The extra $ makes me feel better every time I go to the gas pump (Dirty buggers) and whats left over goes towards our ski fund.

A funny story... After I completed the restoration I was one day mowing our small to medium sized lawn when a friend/neighbor drove by. She yelled from her drive by "You've got to be the most lazy man on the block!" To which I replied "YEAH, BUT I'M DONE, NOW GO HOME AND PUSH MOW YOURS!"

Good times!

Dads division pinewood derby. Anything goes!

This was the end result of a quick and dirty build. I had to put it together the night before. No real prep on the wheels or spindles was done.... 2 cent tour to follow.

This high speed motor just sizzled. It sounds like a dental drill.

Tire attached to motor.

All the electrical hardware in this build came from one of Bradley's old hover craft toys. It had alot of power and burned out all the way across the finish line. There was at least 4-5 car legnths lead. Fun.

The whole kit and kaboodle. It was a real success and all the kids at the derby took turnes racing it. It was beat to death by the 8th or 9th turn. If you want to see the video of it, just leave comment with your home email and I'll shoot it over to ya!

Bradley's car is finished!

As if there was any doubt. Yes, Bradley took first place. There was no trophy... Dang it! Bradley built this stand at his den meeting.

This was the finished product. Simple but dang fast.

Store bought BSA weights are too thick and may sometimes cause the belly of the car to drag. Fender washers hot glue on quite nice.

We hot glued role pins to the rear. You would be supprised on how much weight you need to add to get to 5oz.

For the last finishing touches, we used elbow macaroni noodles for exaust pipes and a mock engine gladley donated by Becky from one of Bradleys Hot Wheels cars.

Pine Wood Derby 2008

Here's Brad starting the car 1 week before the big race.We Drilled 3/8 holes close to the ends of the pine block to give the car a wider stance and glued hard wood oak dowels in them.

Shot of the oak dowels glued in place.

Here is a shot of the oak dowels that we pressed after we milled off the excess. The hard wood with graphite rubbed in really makes a slick surface for the hub to rub on. This it the result of truing the axle on a lathe and removing the rough spots from the original manufacturing. Also turning the head of the axle and making the inside of the head flat makes all the difference.

This is another tip I snagged off the Internet. Removing material from the tire to create a small high spot = Less drag. More pictures to come of the finished product and race.