I Fixed My Laptop

Danny's Cedar Urn ( 2 of 2)

Danny's Cedar Urn (1 of 2)

Does The Garden Look Over Watered?

Time to build a dock in the backyard!

Danny's Cedar Box

PVC Tomato Cage

Garden 2011

This years garden is 24'x8'.

What is it about a couple of days of warm weather that makes everyone want to get outside and work in the garden? This same garden that is getting so much attention right now that will be the garden that is almost completely ignored come the hottest days of August.

February Camping

Friday evening was my second camping trip of the year. This time we went to Foster Falls and stayed at Father Adamz campsite. The weather just happened to be perfect - near 70 during the day and low 50s at night. The group consisted of myself, Chad, Robert, and Barry.

More Snow

Camping

On Thursday I received an email from Chad asking me if I wanted to camping this weekend. After checking the forecast, bitterly cold - overnight low in the lower 20's but no precipitation, I commenced to obtaining permission.

Due to the limited notice (less than one day) most of the regular campers didn't make it. Many excuses were heard. The lamest was

"I can't go, I will make up an excuse later." - D.G.

In the end, the search party would have only had two campers to retrieve.

Our destination was Sipsey Wilderness. I believe we stayed in White Oak Hollow. I never can remember the name of the trailhead. We only saw two other campers on the first day. We beat them to the best spot. They were disappointed.

Because our chief fire marshall did not make the trip, I had to wear this hat. We arrived early enough this time that we had time to gather the wood before sunset. (The sun drops fast when your down between two ridges.) Most of the wood in the area was damp so it was a challenge to get the fire to 'take'. We almost lost the patient twice.

The cuisine this trip was BYOF. No steaks. No Jambolaya. No omlets. No Bacon. Yes instant oatmeal. Yes Ramen noodles. No complaints though. As cold as it was, both the evening soup and morning oatmeal were nice and hot and hit the spot.

I told Chad this was my last camping trip ever. I usually say that and mean it. I will get over it in a few days and be ready to start planning the next trip. Despite the complaints about the cold, it wasn't really that bad and I definitely prefer the cold weather camping to the hot weather alternative.

My Brother's 8 Foot Snowman Made the Evening News

White Christmas

The Morris, Home From a Test Drive

SU HS2 Carburetor

A few weeks ago I removed the carburetor from the Morris to rebuild it. Progress has been slow, mostly because I had no idea what I was doing so I didn't want to get in a hurry and mess anything up.

I have been doing a lot of reading and it is starting to pay off. I am beginning to understand how it all works, including why the gas vaporizes in a carburetor. After reading many many different sets of instructions on how to adjust it, and they seem to differ wildly, I hope to get it all figured out soon.

Last night, I successfully got the jet centered. It took several attempts, but once I got it right, it was dead on. Tonight I installed the carburetor back on the manifold. (I haven't hooked the throttle or choke cables yet.) After getting it mounted, I gave it a shot of starter fluid and attempted to turn the motor over. Unfortunately the battery was dead so after hooking up the charger I hit the starter switch again. It cranked up (and ran very smoothly) until all the starter fluid burned off. Two more attempts at cranking it before the bowl finally filled with fuel and the car started running off gasoline. I was fairly impressed with my efforts at this point because it was probably running smoother than I have ever heard it.

Tomorrow I plan to get back out to the garage and adjust the fuel mixture, idle, and fast idle. Hopefully it will all come together without much trouble.

(Dirty carburetor, before cleaning.)

Did you know that the reason fuel atomizes in a carburetor, is that when air passes through a venturi, the air speed increases thus causing the atmospheric pressure to decrease. (This decrease relative to atmospheric pressure is a slight vacuum.) The decrease in air pressure lowers the boiling point of the gasoline. The lower boiling power causes the gas to vaporize. Any extra fuel that does not vaporize at this point, will vapor due to the heat as it flows through the intake manifold.

My daughter would say this was "very interesting." This of course would mean she was not really listening.

Danny is making a box for ashes. Ashes of dead people. What a strange hobby.

Foster Falls

I went camping last weekend at Foster Falls. Sleet was falling from the sky as we were setting up our tents. It was cold, but we all stayed warm with the help of a _huge_ fire. Over all it was a great trip.

"Whitworth" or "A Little Background Reading to Better Understand the Next Post"

The Wikipedia entry for 'British Standard Whitworth' had two interesting bits of info about Whitworth threads.

1) "The Whitworth thread that most people encounter is the quarter-inch thread on the bottom of most cameras for mounting on a tripod..."

2) "British Morris and MG engines from 1919 to 1955 were built in a factory that used metric threads but with bolts and nuts for Whitworth spanners (wrenches) and sockets."

Yes Morris, as in Morris Minor 1000.

SU HS2 Carburetor Rebuild

The SU HS2 carburetor off the Morris Minor has been on hold for a couple of weeks. I had two problems that needed to be solved (without causing any permanent damage).

1) The brass jet was stuck in the jet pilot. This was keeping the jet from moving when the choke handle was pulled. I believe the strongest adhesive in the world is probably varnish made from dried gasoline. After soaking the pieces in carb cleaner for two weeks, they were still stuck. The solution to this problem turned out to be taking a propane torch to the brass for about 10 seconds and then dropping it in a bucket of water. Presto! The parts had separated.

2) The threads for the jet locking nut on the carburetor body had been cross-threaded at some point in the past. This made it impossible to put the nut back on correctly.

It was suggested to me that I could remove the first row of threads using a roto-tool. It would probably work but I was not certain I would improve the situation.

I checked the net for a tap and die set so I could clean up the threads. The problem here is that the nut has 3/8 Whitworth threads. (Three-eights of what? Not metric, not SAE. Whitworth!) I found a set online, but wasn't sure I wanted to throw $40 at the problem. I would if that turned out to be the only viable option, but I continued to search for other options.

I ended up borrowing a 3/8 Whitworth wrench from Lott. Using the wrench I was able to non-forcefully coerce the nut back across the threads. After a few twists back and forth, the threads were clean enough to hand tighten the nut.

The two problems are now behind me. Maybe I will finally get the carburetor put back together in the near future.

Wood Working - Project Box #3

This is my latest WW project. The wood is Purpleheart and yes it is naturally purple. The painters tape is used to keep the wood from splintering while cutting the boards. All six boards were mitered on all four edges.