Throw Back Sunday

Continuing with the theme... Going through Mrs. Punch's old flickr account has been pretty fun.  Tons of great memories, of which I will continue posting each Sunday. 

Here's another of my favorites.  She did some background editing to this one and I love the effect.  I think I need to blow this one up and hang it on a wall (or at least in the garage if she won't let me hang it in the house). 

Bonus points if you can identify the tractor.  Hint: the paint aint John Deere Greene.

Custom Hot Wheels - Lickety Split #6

Back to the drag races.  Couple of fin attempts. Took several tries, made out of a thick aluminum foil.



Interior with the shell.



So I really didn't like how the paint turned out but I didn't have time to strip and repaint. Wet sanded a bit and got this:



Still not great but okay. Next I applied several coats of turtle wax with a q-tip, really scrubbing in and then polishing the extra stuff off with a shop towel.



Came out nice, but you can see the orange peel still...

Added some chrome stripes made out of aluminum tape, then clear coated the entire thing.





Those pics were before the clear coat.  Getting closer!

dorkpunch engines #2- Cylinder and Head.

Back to our home built hit and miss engine model.  Here's what we're starting with:




Ordered all of these on ebay.  Need to check and see what the alloy is, but whatever it is its darn soft and machine very easily.

Makin' chips.



This is a shakedown run- testing how much I've forgotten since college and seeing how sucky this lathe really is. Turns out I don't remember much...   It also turns out that my lathe needed some tweaking but I didn't figure that out until later.  *sigh*

Machined it down, lazily marked a few spots and drilled some holes.



Countersunk.



Parting off the head. Took FOREVER. Need to align the tool- sits too low.



Head and cylinder.


Tapped the holes.



Teensy plug I'll be using:



Fits together quite nicely!





Plan is to use some soft copper sheet I have as a gasket. Now the hard part begins- figuring out how to get the piston and valves in there.

So far this is LOTSA fun- many things are starting to come back to me.  Really enjoying being able to make chips fly, but I've got a loonnngggg ways to go before its up to par.

Custom Hot Wheels- Rusty Rig.

I have been going through withdrawals- been a month since I've played with any Hot Wheels. Went digging through the scrap pile and pulled this guy out.



Figured I could spend an hour goofing off so here's what came out of it. First things first- gotta take it apart!



Next step- scuff up the "paint" to make it look oxidized. This is one cool looking casting, but unfortunately its PLASTIC. Makes it really hard to work with although this IS the same one I built Santa's Heavy Hauler out of.




Here's where the fun begins. Trying some rust patina, shake and bake style. The marinade is leftover from my 3rd? build- the Army bRat. I found a recipe to speed rust steel using Hydrogen Peroxide, Vinegar, and Salt. I mixed some with a bunch of metal filings in this bag and it sat so long it dried out into a really fine rust powder.

Here's a link to the instructable with the directions on how to rust stuff: http://www.instructables.com/id/Prod...nd-Steel-Safe/





Meh. Looks more dusty than rusty. Lets take 2. Start by crazy gluing a bunch of steel shavings in spots that look like the may be prone to rust anyways.





Apply the rust sauce,





And wait. Re-apply the marinade every 10 minutes or so...

I tried the shake and bake again with it wet still... Little bit overboard.



Eventually, with the aid of a blow dryer it starts to look like this.





Slap it all together and viola!







Fun quick build.  I ended up rubbing a bit more of the lighter stuff off and think it looks better still.  

Throw Back Sunday

From the vaults of Mrs. Punch's Flickr account, one of my all time favorites. This was taken by my at the time 3 yr old son. The world from his point of view!

More to come, but you can see everything else here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarah_turner/

Busy much?

Stumbled across these two articles the other day.

Why psychologist say you should ban busy from your vocabulary.

and

Busy is a sickness.

If I had to pick one word to describe me, it would be busy.  When asked how I am, or whats been going on- my response:  Busy.

Very interesting read because the last couple of months I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that goes on in life, and it seems like I keep throwing fuel on the fire trying to sneak in a few extra projects here and there.

Just recently, for the first time in a long time (ever?), I turned away some "extra" work.  I still feel bad about having to say no but on the other hand it sure feels nice to not have my To Do list expanding at 5 times the speed that I can check things off.  Since then, I've been able to bring myself to tell a few more people I just can't handle more projects right now.

Has it helped?  We'll see.  Still feel light years behind in trying to get our house sold, and have customer projects left over from last year, but I'm making headway.  The play ends this week and that will open up a lot of time to catch up on everything I feel behind in which will be nice.

The key here I think is to "just keep swimming".  It's like trying to fill a can with rocks, gravel, and sand.  If you put the sand in first, the rocks won't fit.  Stuff the rocks in first, then let the gravel and sand fill in the gaps and everything fits.  Spend time with the family, have some time to do things that keep you sane (i.e.- ride a motorcycle or build a Hot Wheel), and here's the tricky one because it seems so backwards- donate some of your time to help others, and THEN all of those required jobs and responsibilities seem to fit right in.

Is life BUSY?  No.  Its just... Full.  And that's a good thing!

Custom Hot Wheels - Lickety Split #5

I might have gone a little overboard on engine details.  See this? (note the toothpick for size reference) That's the distributor. The shaft is 1/8" aluminum tubing stuck in another piece of bronze tubing with slots filed into for looks.



Engine coming together.  I think the final count was 23 pieces in just the engine.





The belt was made from a small strip cut from vinyl sticker material.  Was hoping to have the belt actually spin but ran out of time.

I'm good at making messes... While I was building this car I also built myself a mobile workshop to replace all the loose bits and boxes I was carrying back and forth.  You can see a few details about it HERE.  I have some more info on how I stocked it, will need to write a post about that too!



Paint on the wheels.



Paint OFF of the body...  I love stripping them down to the bare metal like this.



Working on the interior.  Seat was made by crushing a piece of aluminum tubing, then bending and filing it into the shape I wanted.


Transmission tunnel, even though the trans is behind the engine...  Had to have something to hold the shifter!  The long strip is the gas and brake pedals, still needed to be trimmed down.



More details. Fin mounts:



Getting there!

Spring Riding in Idaho...

The morning commute was great. Mid to high 50's. No wind.  Little overcast but sunny. This afternoon, however, not so great...

Getting ready to leave:




Doesn't look like much until you look out at the field and see all the snow swirling around there in the wind.

Finally made it home.  Fair bit of build up on the front but the roads were just wet and the bridges oddly enough were almost bone dry.





The snow wasn't the bad part- the 30 mph winds + gusts made it less than desirable. It's not even that cold- only about 36 degrees but just a yucky trip home. Apparently, we need to get some longer pants for my 11 yr old son who was with me- his left ankle "was so cold it's about to fall off" by the time we got home.