Media blasting

I picked up a media blaster yesterday and 100 pounds of blast media. Basically you can strip the paint right off off a aluminum can without doing any damage to the metal, depending on the blast media you use. I'm using baking soda. It comes in a 50 pound bag. It's bio-degradable, so there is no messy cleanup.

I ran some tests on a rocker panel on the truck which needs replacing anyway. It really works well. I can strip the paint down to bare metal at a rate of about a square foot every few minutes. I could probably strip the entire truck in a weekend.

I ended up media blasting my aluminum rims, which had been chewed up a bit by the mag chloride they use on the roads out here. It worked just fine.

Here is a neat video

Have welder, will travel

I picked up a 200A TIG welder on ebay today. It also does 50A plasma cutting. I had a 10% off coupon which saved me 60 bucks or so.

All I need now is a media blasting setup (140 or so), and a paint sprayer (no clue on that one) and I can start doing bodywork on the truck.

I guess I need a bottle of argon gas for the welder.

Truck

The truck has been running weird lately. Today I changed the plugs, the points, and put in a new valve cover gasket. With the valve cover off you can watch the intake and exhaust valves operate. I wanted to check the #1 cylinder TDC mark on the pump pulley. For some reason, it wasn't right. I re-marked it and set the timing and point gap.

Now it runs just fine. I also changed the oil while I was at it. I run 5-30W in the winter. Spring is close, so now it's 10-30W.

I picked up an air line filter and inline tool oiler. Air tools need some oil to operate correctly. You might as well put it inline with your hose. I also picked up a hose reel with automatic winding mechanism. I'll have to mount all that tomorrow, because I'm tired.

Tomorrow I'll have to find some random bits of hose connections and air manifolds at home depot. Then at least I can run the compressor and do something useful with it.

I'm trying to win a 200 amp tig welder on Ebay. It also is a 50 amp plasma cutter. After I win that, I'll pick up a media blasting setup to blast the paint off the truck. I can cut out the rusted rocker panels and weld in new ones after that. There is a bunch of welders new on ebay, so I'll just have to bid what I want to pay and I think eventually I'll get it. Some previous winning bids run $100 more than others. I'd rather get it for the low end price.

I guess I should teach myself to weld first. I should probably practice on something other than the truck.

I had some computer issues last night after I buggered up the AHCI driver for vista. It didn't want to boot after that. I had an image automatically generated from last Sunday, so it wasn't the end of the world.

Going through the motions

It was a working in the garage kind of weekend. Insulating, wallboarding, anchoring the new air compressor to the concrete, and wiring it up. I ran it for an hour and torqued the head bolts on the air pump as part of the break in process.

I washed the dogs. We went to the dog park. I worked on the truck.

Something is not quite right with the truck. It's running weird and I'm having trouble figuring out the timing/firing relationship. I'll have to figure it out next weekend. I should probably do a compression test too.

I worked out a bit on sunday at it was ok. I didn't make it in today. I have a doc appt today for the knee...and I guess I should ask him what I can get away with, work out wise.

Other than that, I'm basically going through the motions...wake up, try to find some kind of schedule, work, come home. I wonder about work a lot. I'm trying to be more productive but it's difficult. My billing isn't what it should be. In the last month or so I've gone from doing mostly office actions to writing more patents. Patents take longer and I don't have the experience to just crank them out.

Everything feels kind of screwed up now. I'm not into a regular workout yet, which is depressing. At least I've gotten most of the garage work done for now. I'll be glad when that part is done.

I should probably get more social. I haven't spent much time with Jeff, Greg, Tom, or Joe lately. I haven't even been hosting any wine parties or dinner parties. Instead I've spent most of the last two months just doing what has to be done and not much more.

Last week was nice and I rode the motorcycle quite a bit into work. This week doesn't look promising for that.

I think the parents are coming to CO sometime this month. Dad is letting me borrow a shotgun for some bird hunting I want to do this Fall. I haven't done any hunting since I was a kid and I want to give it another try.

I ended up cancelling out of two more snow shoeing hut trips this winter. I didn't think I'd be able to snow shoe in to the huts with a backpack full of food and gear.

Whole lotta nothin'

Jerry the wonder dog has found a new trick: pulling open the bottom drawer on the oven. Obviously those pans are delicious and require much licking.

Last weekend I wired up 2 out of 3 circuits to the main electrical panel without electrocuting myself. I have one more to go, then I can insulate and wallboard that part of the garage and anchor the compressor to the floor.

It's been nice out so I've been riding the motorcycle to work. That goes fine as long as I remember to take some advil for the knee. It's still AFU. I probably will have to drop out of the last two hut trips I wanted to go on this winter.

Work is fine. I may be getting the hang of it.

My workouts are NOT FINE. I did a bit of cardio on Saturday and I can still feel that my knee is worse. I should probably make an appointment to do some of the recommended physical therapy. What a pain in the ass. I'd hate to see how it would have gone with surgery. That would have sucked.

The new portable should be showing up at the office today. Something new to play with I guess.

I need to get off my ass and make plans to go to Vegas in April. I have a friend of mine getting married. I keep forgetting to figure that out.

I supposed I'd better get my dumb ass in the shower and ride to work.