Well, it's been a while

Hey Jim,

Well I will have to say that every day is a Saturday!! Although my daily work load is nothing like yours.............. I must say that you need to find a way to slow down........ a bit!! :-)

My biggest frustration is that my phone won't stop ringing with calls from previous customers. Wanting help with this and that!!! Or to complain that I should have forewarned them that I was quitting the business!! Or that the new guys don't answer or return their calls.

So other than all that stuff, I have managed to get my 92' Honda Goldwing out of my garage, removed the OLD gas, loaded new, and it started up and runs great after I creatively fixed a gas leak from the carburetor. It hasn't be running for maybe 11 years or so. Now I am in negotiations to either convert it into a Trike or trade it in on a Trike. I should have a plan by the end of this week. I would like to take a few road trips just to enjoy the freedom of the ride.

Other than that I have been fixing up things around the house that I have been putting off because I was too busy with business. N-O-W I can spend the time doing those Saturday jobs on any day of the week!!

Then there is the..........................................

BTW I need to ask!! Hey Bob, what is your local temperature and is it too much?? I hope you have your shop with a cooling device that runs!!

Later all,

Les

Get it converted if you aren't comfortable on two anymore. I have had the chance to ride side hacks and trikes. Both have their headaches. Both beat not riding.

I don't really like the heavy weight tourers anymore. I feel like they have gotten so much heavier. I finally sold the '03 Roadglide (my wife's bike) to a cousin a couple years ago, but its 880ish pound curb weight is a freaking lot. I seem to recall my old '97 FLHT (was only in the 660-700 range. Maybe its just remembering how much stronger I used to be. LOL. I don't remember any of my Goldwings being that heavy either. (75 GL1000 x 2 and 84 GL1200). I would mind scoring another old (75 or 76) GL1000, but I probably wouldn't ride it much. I tried to keep riding after my wreck, but... I get antsy after about 30-40 minutes and can't wait to get it back in the garage. Doesn't stop until the kick stand is down and it rocks over. I don't have anything with even remotely current tags now. I think the Vulcan Mean Streak was last tagged in 2015.

Well Bob, I have (frustratingly) made a decision on my Honda Goldwing and Suzuki GS550. I have sold them to a local shop. The decision was a bit challenging but the final deal will happen today and the bikes will be picked up and gone!! Goldwing left yesterday and Suzuki will leave tomorrow.

There are a lot of personal issues that molded the final decision.

I hope somebody's will enjoy their future rides with fun and enjoyment!!

Les

I've been looking at Silverwings (Real ones. Not scooters) on-line lately. I had the father of the Silver wing at one time. The CX500. There are a few GL500s within reasonable driving distance, but I don't see any of the 650. I'm not going to buy one, but I always wanted one before I got into Harleys.

Maybe you should look at one of those VW rail trikes if you can find one at a reasonable price.

Well I gots meself a new plan in the works for future considerations.

I dug my '77 Suzuki GS550 out of the garage. I had to re-inflate the tires since they were very flat, on the 'bottom'. It has not run since

2004 or 2005. I cleaned out the old gas, as much as I could out of the tank. I then put about 1/2 gallon of fresh in the tank. I removed the battery and added some Distilled Water and placed on my charger. Charged it for 24 hours. Checked the voltage and it held at 12.4vdc for a while. Re-installed the battery. Placed the choke to full on, cranked the throttle a couple of times and turned on the key. Lights came on, in neutral, pressed the start button it turned over and within 20 seconds it coughed and sputtered and then started.

WOW!!!

Not sure at this point but I think I am going to work on a different plan for the future. :-)

Later,

Les

Oh, yeah, about the heat... Its been over 110 every single day for about 3 weeks now. I tried to work outside on an old boat a couple days, but even under a popup shade it was pretty miserable. My wife said it was 118 yesterday. Walking out to the mail box for my latest prize scored off ebay has been a real chore. Not worth it for the bills and junk mail.

I don't know exactly what is going on in the back shop. For some reason its not as hot as I remember it in past years with similar outside temperatures. The office and little machine room are air conditioned, but the back shop where the big lathe and big mills are is not. Oh, its hot back there, but not as stifflingly miserable as I recall.

Tomorrow is my day off, so I'm going to try and fit a new sole out of a sheet of aluminum into "Another Boat Project That May Never Get Finished" in the morning, and work on a machine in the shop in the afternoon.

I have not yet decided which which machine. You guys can vote on which one if you like. I may ignore you like a true politician, but you can vote anyway.

1. I've got a 3 phase Taiwanese turret lathe I'd like to get running. Phase converter (VFD), dirt, and some new cover panels. This one may be the easiest to get into running trim. Its also settign on dollies and its small enough I could roll it inside the little machine room where its cooler to work on... after I sweep a path through the chips.
2. Hurco KMB1 with a catastrophic ball screw failure. Went from .001 baklash to .030-.040 backlash in the middle of a job. This would probably be the most profitable to fix.
3. CNC bridge mill/router build... this one will be the most work since have barely started on it. Its also likely to be the most fun (in the end) since I plan to use it for mostly odd projects like license plate plaques (for states that only require one plate in the back) awards plaques, machined labels for stuff in the shop Looks cooler than it sounds), signs and other things that are not part of my regular product line.

I vote for # 3 At this point FUN is more important.

I would have to agree #3!! Just because!! :-)

Well, this is how it went.

Mostly I make molds to order. This means I have a lead time of course. Occasionally I'll make an extra. Sometimes it more efficient to make multiples than to make just one. Sometimes I have some extra stock just the right size. Sometimes I just feel like it. Often I will offer those molds on eBay at a higher price for those people who will not wait for my normal lead times. It works. I make occasional sales that way, and it promotes name recognition in my market. Last night a customer contacted me to ask if I would ship right away because they were going out of town in a few days and didn't want porch pirates to have a shot at their package. Yeah, no problem. I printed a label, gathered up some shipping materials only to discover the mold is not on the shelf. I was in the shop instead, so I could get their mold done before the carrier arrived to pick it up. Of course it uses a stainless steel insert rod and I was out of that size rod so I had to run down to the local metal yard to pick up a piece.

So much for my day off.

Hmmm So ? What wrong with that? Just sounds like a regular bloody day --- to me. I Make a schedule at the beginning of the week. When I look back at my calendar two weeks later, it looks like it chased a fart through a keg of nails. Cross-outs, arrows, write-in's, erasures, write = overs, RE-write=over's, time changes, telephone numbers. But somehow it all makes sense and the work (most of it) gets done. What doesn't get done that week gets done the next or next or - - - - - it's ok though. How else can you tell you're alive and thinking. It's better than sitting on my ass watching re-runs of the Andy Griffith show through drowsy eyes and gaining another pound every day.

Well, I actually took today off. Sorta. No big mistakes made me have to work at my day job anyway. I slept in... an extra hour. Screwed around most of the morning waiting for the other shoe to drop, and finally headed out to the shop to work on me projects.

ITS TO FREAKING HOT to work outside, and its not much better inside the main area of the shop. I've been working on a boat that used to belong to a friend. I sat with him a few hours and held his hand the day he died kind of friend. I need to get his boat river worthy do do something that was among his last wishes. I want to do it for me too since its my boat now. Anyway, I was told that the deed is ready to be done when I am ready to go. I'm not ready to go, but I'm working on it.

I'd had enough of burning my hands on my tools every time I picked one up, so I decided to make some room inside the shop to work on it. My shop is full of stuff for/from past, current, and future projects. One of those projects was a new winch bumper for my Jeep. I bought the jeep in 2017 and I think it was probably early 2018 when I bought the bumper. I thought to myself, that a giant box I can get out of the way if I just get off my tucas and install the damned thing. I can throw the stock bumper out back for metal and plastic recycling. So that's what I worked on today... after I dragged things around and made room to pull the Jeep inside the shop. LOL.

It would be done, but being an after market bumper the bumper mounted fog lights don't just plug into the wiring harness the way the stock ones did. Well, that and while it is better inside the shop than out in the sun... ITS NOT VERY DAMN MUCH BETTER.

P.S. The office and the machine room where the main CNC machines are located is air conditioned so most regular work days I get by just fine.

In any case. I did actually take the day off today.

Saturday and Sunday are when I get the most paying work done in the shop most weeks. Tomorrow I might take the afternoon off and finish that new bumper install. Then cruise down to the tackle store and pose the Jeep with one wheel up on a parking bumper to show off its new bumper.

DAMN SHOWOFF !

So... yesterday when I was cleaning up I tossed a hand coil of wire in the dumpster. When I started to look at extending the pigtails of the lights in the new bumper I realized that hand coil would have been good for the job. No problem. I was sure I had a pull box of that wire on the shelf still. yeah... NOPE! This morning when I carried out the trash from the house I discovered the garbage company hadn't picked up the dumpster yesterday like they are supposed to. There was that hand coil of wire within easy reach. I snatched it out of the dumpster and headed into the shop. I had just sat at my desk to crank out a couple job quotes down when I heard the garbage truck outside.

I just joined the Inside Track club for 30 bucks to save 50 bucks on a Badlands winch which I chose instead of a Warn winch because I noticed recently one of the big off road recovery outfits had Badlands winches on all their rigs and due to low flat rate shipping I am having a

12000lb Badland winch delivered to my shop for less than it would have cost to walk into the local store and buy it without joining and I was wondering if I get a card or if I have to print out my receipt if I do go into the local store for something.

The cost of shipping is less than the cost of gas to drive into the local store to pickup my winch. (Not wench you good balls.)

I don't really need 12000 lbs on such a light weight vehicle, but I'm going to try to set it up so I can relatively easily swap it onto my goose neck trailer if needed. The lighter winch on the goose neck is okay for a rolling load, but its come up short a few times on some jobs.