What is coming up next...

I have a few irons in the fire right now, hence not many posts lately.
We just finished March Break, so we had the grand peanuts over a few times and did stuff with them.

Will she get the snow ball or not...

Heh, she started it... :-)

The few times that I have been able to get a gander at my blog stats, I noticed some comments left on my post about the Buck Rogers Push drill.  Someone has a broken one (or jammed) and is having trouble taking it apart.

So I finally rounded one of mine (I have two) and figured,

I'll simply take it apart and take pictures...

 Well sports fans it is apparently not that easy...
I know it can be done, since I took it apart once and shown a pic of it a parade dress..

Pic from earlier post, 2015

 I am going to have to fetch the other one , maybe that was the one I took apart? If so, should be easier. Then I'll figured out a way to crack open the other one without damages.
So in order to answers the few questions he had, I'll take them apart and answer him in a upcoming post. One of a few drafts on the go...

Saturday, on St-Patrick's day, I worked a full shift at the Wood shop on the Wing.
We had a bit of blowing snow but still nothing much. Since my shift was from 1000 to 1600 I brought a few things along to worked on.

.

Rudy wondering where am I going without him...

Wow, look at these signs of Spring...

The Air Cadet's gliders launches are coming out of storage,

and you can see blowing snow from the snow removal in progress on the active runways.

Must be Spring...!!

The first thing I did was to take apart my beam Boring Machine to figured out why the frame is so crooked. And yes, I measured both sides they are exactly the same length.

Stripped apart to check on the frame

I did noticed earlier how these bored holes did not appeared to be flat,

some are obviously on a slant.

Perhaps some of the fibers got compressed after rotting and etc??  So figured I will drilled them flat on the drill press with a Fortsner bit. I only drill deep enough to ensure I had a flat surface all around.

With the pieces loose, I can make it lay flat.

So I'm hoping to get it flat tight by planning only the sides ??

When I was drilling I made sure the piece was as flat as possible on the drill press table. But there is obviously some rocking on the base, it is not flat. I hate to plane off the surfaces to fix it, so Ill try to take off the two bolts that hold the bottom pieces together. They are just mortised and tenon, loose, no glue.

Dome bolt head at one end

Square nut at the other.

Wont fit a modern Hex socket, and then there is the small space around it...

Removed the nut on one of then, see the lose fit around the bolt shaft?

Not anymore on the other end.

It is hard enough to remove the recessed square nut at the end of the dome bolt, 

but even with it removed, the bolt shaft has swelled from rust and wont move.

If I try to force it down, the wood is threatening to split around it, I will not force it...yet. 

Not without some re-enforcement, after some more rust loosening effort.

With one bolt slacked off, there is enough play to see its construction.

Cross piece M&T to side pieces and platform in between held by a rabbeted edge in a groove 

Whatever I do, I must make that surface lay flat, or at the very least coplanar where the uprights (2) bolted on.  Having a closer look at the mortise surface on top where the uprights goes, the one that was crooked, has definitively made a depression on the shoulder. May have to shim it a smidgen to stay straight. All that to say, my BBM is back in pieces... for a while

I then turned my attention to the Boring Till holders, brought my prototype holders, my blank hardwood pieces and a copy of my post that shown how I made my holders. Its been so long, some of my tools selections have changed, need to ensured I got it right before drilling.

That is when I noticed that my templates, which I had to recut to fit my till, were a bit shorter than my blanks..??? Huh??

So decided against drilling them, will have to cross cut to size first. Meanwhile I left the till up on the wall in my shop.

Had to make room on the glue table anyway :-)

I like these new Bessey pipe clamps we got with the built-in feet. Smart

Since I brought a bunch of tools to check on my holder fit, figured may as well take them apart then clean & oil them.

Everything was going fine until I got to my Scottish brace, Mathieson. There is too much play, almost a 1/4 in between the head and the shoulder on the frame. Easy fix, open cover, tighten or add shims to fix, replace cover...

Of course, I did not had any of the special spanner required (with two small pins).

What always works for me is to insert two small finishing nail that fit snugly in the holes, then using the pliers clamped across both, gently turn CCW. I pre-ably soaked the threads with WD40, but if avail would had used liquid wrench.

Brass plug cover removed. The threaded female parts are on the wood,

hence traditionally a hard wood, mostly rosewood etc.

Hum, this one got me temporarily stumped...

The metal ring on top was loose, the one left is round and does not appeared to be threaded on.

So How do I remove or adjust it???

A simple interference fit? If so I'll have to tap it down.

I dunno, this is a Mathieson, should be a good one, what kind of devices were they using to hold the head on, loose enough to turn freely? And be adjustable for the inevitable wear.  The previous ones I seen, used some sort of threads post.

If any of my reader has any idea's please chime in, appreciated

With these and in between helping the members that shows up (7) I managed to cover my shift and stay busy. I liked it that way, time goes faster...

In retrospect, I whish I had brought along my Boring till, which I left hanging on its French cleats in my shop. I could had trimmed my holder pieces to length and get on with it.

Oh, well, there is always tomorrow...

Sunday took a drive to mother in law, visit with her and Rudy's girlfriend Diva.

Rudy loves it there, between him and Diva they pester Mom for treats, they work as a team :-)

Here are the two love bird caught kissing on the couch, at Mom :-)

So coming up next would be the post on the oak 3 tiers plant light stand I'm fixing or the How to take apart the Buck Rogers No 100 push drill, whichever come first.

Then there are the post that still need to go up in my shop, and clean up then attach to it the Post drill, etc, etc...

Oh and almost forgot, I should really put this poor boring till to bed...

I also have to "help" built two small tables for a hallway, for Jean's sister, and Jean is starting to accumulate furniture pieces request, so I should be busy.

A few lectures/demos at the wood hobby shop, and, and

OH, yes my annual RCAF mess dinner on March 28th (RCAF birthday is April 1st 1924)

Yes time can fly pretty fast on retirement :-)

Bob, who is also a gentleman farmer starting vegetable from seed in his basement. Should be another good growing season.

A tale of two Nor Easter winter storms

Around here in the Annapolis valley of Nova Scotia, we haven't seen much of a winter yet. Barely any snow on the ground and when we did had some, it was gone within a few days.
Mind you we do live in a sheltered valley with prime agricultural lands. There is a good reason the Airbase is located here in the valley...

The scene around here on this past Saturday, Mar 3rd.
I was supposed to do a snow shoes marathon, 5kms, but since there was no snow, we walked it...

The Big Chill, in support of the Lawrencetown Education Center

The only official snow shoe marathon of its kind in North America.

There is also a 10, 15 and 30 kms if you are so inclined...

Talking of incline, the first 1.2Kms or so are up an old ski hill.

Its a heart breaking hill, brings back memories :-) 

And about 50 mins later I was done.

It would had been a tad longer on snowshoes...trust me :-)

A good warm up exercise, but I have no intentions of doing more than 5Kms...

I am old enough, no need to rush it...it will come soon enough... :-)

Yap, was supposed to be on snowshoes but...darn!

My 5 Kms loop, good enough for me.

By the way, you can still help me raise money by donating on line on my fund me page.
Most of my contributions have been in cash so far.
The funds raised from the Big Chill sponsorship (donations) goes toward the LEC

After that my girlfriend decided that we should go walking around. So we went to Clairmont Provincial park, mere minutes from our place. Took Rudy along for the walk
These scenes were on Tuesday the 6th of Mar, still no snow in the forest

This tree is sporting numerous mushrooms all along its trunk.

A dead strand of white birch

Guess who came to diner...

Some woodpeckers been munching there for a while.

Then before long it was time to go back.

Rudy just spotted the white dog being walked across the field

Yes, it has been so warm so long the plants life is being tricked...

These are in my gardens

So this was typical of January and February...
This Thursday all the way thru Sunday, we were supposed to be hammered by three different Nor Easters storms, the last one being made of two joining forces...

Did what any Canadians would had done faced with such a possibility... Got stocked up on storm chips (potatoes crisp for my British friends ) and beers, bring it on!

Well, so far we seems to have avoid most of them, will this be the one...???

Thursday 8 Mar, 0715 AM

1015AM, that is starting to look like a storm

It seems to have spun around us, we got the eye passing over us, not much in accumulation...

By 1630 it was long done and starting to melt already

Still thicker for Rudy in places...

So Rudy took the easy path, following tires rut :-)

Oh well, wait for it, another two are combining to give us more taste of winter...
Will this be it..?? Well, if you live up in New Brunswick or Newfoundland then you sure got whammed (as usual),  but here, not so much. Oh I saw a few cars in the ditch , going too fast as usual.
But we also had school bus going off road, never a good thing, but everyone was safe

Near Halifax county, not in the Valley

The scene this morning Sat 10 Mar 0709 AM

More snow overnite, lost power a few times, just long enough to screw up

all the digital clocks in the house it would seems, more than once, sigh!

That poor tree in the backyard is sure bowing under the wet snow load

Talk about reaction wood if you were to cut into it!!!

Blocking the steps, almost touching the BBQ

By noon it was sprung up again. That is about as straight as this poor tree ever gets.

Without asking some nice neighbour plow me out.

That was a nice surprise, thank you 

Meanwhile, the seeds are started in the basement, and after some death defying contortions, that would had given OSHA inspectors and tool collectors alike, heart attacks, the boring till is up on its cleats on the wall. Next would be to finish cutting my tool holders.

Seeds are started, we control, heat, humidity, and light

The boring till got hung on the wall and no one or tool got hurt in the process.

and the storms? Pretty well done for now...

Until the next one...

But don't let my pics fool you, some parts of Nova Scotia got hammered pretty hard, including New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island...
After all that what do I think of this winter??

Bob, who is running low on storm chips and beer, need to get out...