Coming soon.....

a brand new garage!!

I outgrew the old one.. so time for an upgrade.  and all the fun that comes with laying out a new shop.  Stay tuned...

TA - DA

May I present to you the culmination of 1.5 years of woodworking frustration, punctuated of course with many smaller projects

 

This is the John Smith Senior 20 busker organ plans available here.  almost every aspect of this is handmade following some very poorly written instuctions.  If it wasn't for this youtube video series, I might have given up.  Thank you Ronald Walters for bird dogging and documenting your own levels of frustration.

I opted to pass on the mechanical conductor but left room on the left and right for some static figures.  The final artistic paintwork will be by my wife as I do NOT have that talent.

What happened?

The original purpose of this blog was to follow along the resto-mod of a 1969 Bronco.  That task was finished and it now collects dust in the garage as I don't like driving such a nice vehicle.   I am now somewhat relenting and have plans of driving it more this coming summer.

I have determined that I derive more pleasure from the building of something than the use of it... oh well.

As the blog title implies.. this should have morphed beyond the Bronco to whatever else I am doing in my garage.  A ton of things have happened in the intervening years as i reverted back to my passion of woodworking.

My love of mechanical movement has resulted in several more clocks, kinetic sculptures and a hummingbird automata.

My current project is a 20 note busker organ that i refer to as "The Stupid British Thing" because the plans were purchased from a UK site and the instructions are incredibly lacking,  so much so that there is a 3rd party site selling plans to help interpret the original plans.. and I would not have finished this without massive assistance from some youtube videos and busker forums.  Well.. it is almost finished



I will share some photos below of projects that occurred from last posting to now.. I love the clock plans from Clayton Boyer.. and i have 2 more yet to build, but my real intent for this space is to document my next project.  Not yet sure what it will be.

(2013) Flying Pendulum from Clayton Boyer

(2014) Model T Clock from Clayton Boyer

(2015) Zinnia from Clayton Boyer - this about killed me
as i built 5 at the same time as gifts.  I do not have the patience
for production work

(2016) Epicyclic from Clayton Boyer - This one is
from his masochist selection, nailed it!

I built 2 of these dog fences to strategically place in the house
to restrict the location of our Dachshunds.  While excellent at accomplishing
this, they proved too difficult for the humans in the house.  Both had massive
repairs and rebuilds and ultimately 1 of them became un-saveable

Master Bath remodel - ok, i didn't do this.  The remodel stalled for several years
and i built a Bronco as a distraction.  I finally relented to the woman and contracted
to get this done to our collective vision.  I did paint the woodwork though.

(2017) Colibri by Derek Hugger - this was a whole lot simpler
than it looks,  i intend to motorize the action.  Derek was impressed
that i handmade this instead of CNC router

(2017) Merlot by Derek Hugger - I love the motion of this...  far easier than a clock
the gears are very chunky

Houston... we have a problem

So the story goes like this....

When I started the Bronco project, the fuel gauge on the dash would always show empty.  There are two tanks, but there was only ever fuel in the main tank before I tore it all apart.

The gauge cluster got a complete professional refurbishment and all the gauges where checked and certified.  So that leaves the wiring and the fuel sender gauges as possible issues.  I replaced all of the wiring with a new harness.

So... I also bought two new fuel sender gauges - installed them and away we go.  The story should end there.  However... a particular aspect of the new senders bugged me.

As you see below, the throw of the float for the new sender is half what the original is.  meaning the gauge would register FULL until the tank is half empty, then start going down.  This isn't going to work for me.

I found out how to measure OHM's resistance on the sender to find out if they are good... I measured the original and they seemed good.  So I ran the tank empty and reinstalled the original sender.  Off to the Texaco and fill it back up.  I watched the full gauge go up to full.  yay.

5 minutes later.. it shows empty.  What?  There is no fuel on the ground.. Bronco is still running, if I switch to the other tank, the gauge goes up.  I pondered this for a week or so until I realize that there is probably a pin hole in the float and that it simply filled up with gas and sank.  It is 45 years old and spent all it's time in a caustic liquid.  So I run the Bronco for a couple weeks burning up the fuel because the sender is mounted in a hole on the side of the main tank.  I can't simply remove it without a hazard spill.

I finally got it removed and sure enough, the float is full of gas although I can't find a hole.  it's there somewhere.  Well the new floats are the same as the old, and they pop right off, so I simply popped the floats off the new unit and put it on the old unit and I'm back in business... right?

Let me tell you how much of a bugger it is to get the sender unit installed while keeping the O-ring in place while the tank is in the Bronco.  I was pretty sure I got it in.  Back to the Texaco.  I put a few gallons in and peek underneath to see if things are holding together.  All looks good.  So I top it off.  14 Gallons.  I am just finishing up when the guy next to me points under my car - I look and there is a waterfall.  Or rather a gasfall.  Gasoline is pouring out of the seal that I thought was good.

Uhhh.... now what?  quick alert to the gas attendant that I have a fuel spill.  They bring a bucket and some kitty litter.  This is a mini mart gas station, not a full service.  And then they inform me that if 3 gallons hit the pavement, they have to call the fire department.  It's not coming out that fast, but still at a steady pace.  I figured it will take about 8-9 gallons of fuel to get below the sender unit before it stops.

I am pretty much on my own here.  The wife was with me and offered moral assistance, but I needed a plan.

Call the neighbor.  We had just seen them when we left "for lunch".  Had them get our gas cans from the shed and head over.  Now my neighbor is a uniformed cop, and he was just leaving for work.  So, he shows up in uniform in the cop car.  Laughing

Run across the street and buy a siphon, there are no anti siphon devices in the tank, so it should be easy to shove the hose down there, wrong!  To many turns apparently, i'd make a terrible thief, I could not get the hose into the tank.  The mini mart folks at least had a screw driver, so i was able to disconnect the fuel line and connect it to the siphon hose.  got the rest of the gas out of the tank and into the cans.

Good thing there are two gas tanks.  We headed home.

The trick to getting the seal on correctly is to smear some grease on it first, then it sticks in place while you put the sender on.  Lesson learned.

1 year later

Alot has changed in a year - First and foremost.  The Bronco is finished, or as finished as these things ever are.

Runs great, sounds great, turns heads, get's thumb's up whenever I stop.   All good.  Spent most of the winter in the garage so now that the weather is turning, i can start putting some miles on it.

Then this followed me home yesterday...

and now both my modern cars will be in the driveway.

Happy Day

I finished the wiring - well mostly, still tracking down a few gremlins.

I don't yet have the radiator installed - but I desperately wanted to fire up the engine.  The wiring is good to the best of my knowledge, considering the harness is fairly universal to fit every combination of components.  From the different types of alternators to starters.  I of course chose the simplest combo being a 1 wire alternator and 1 wire starter and MSD ignition system.  Took a bit to figure which wires go where and which I didn't need.

moment of truth - turned the key and ..... nothing.  So I went and mowed the lawn to sort it out in my head.  I know the MSD works because we used it at the dyno, then I sent it in for warranty issue, it came back with a clean bill of health.  Since I didn't have any clicks or anything, that meant the starter wasn't engaging.  I had two choices for the ignition wire to the starter solenoid.  And, there was another loop I removed for the neutral starter switch (which my transmission doesn't have).  I checked the starter switch wire and yes, there was momentary power when the key was turned.  I wired them together, pulled the coil wire, and yes - the starter engaged - I did this for a few minutes to prime everything.  Attached the coil wire and VAVOOM!  Started right up.

My new ride

First I wanted a Datsun Roadster like this

These are the original Z cars built in the 60's until 1970.  I can get one of these for under $10K.  The problem is that they are 40+ years old and the ones I looked at need as much work as the Bronco.  One project at a time.

Then I realized that a modern car is needed for a daily driver.

So I next looked at the Ford Raptor like this

In fact - I drove this very one.  LOVED IT.  I just couldn't get the dealership to agree to the price I wanted to pay.  These beasts are very cool, but the gas prices are driving the buyers away.  The dealer saw it otherwise.  I shopped around the country and found a few others for the price I wanted, but either the travel or the shipping would put it back above what I wanted to shell out.

And I am already building a loud, gas guzzling, 4x4.  Don't need 2.

The wife saw this Volvo P1800 at a local vintage car dealer

And although it is very cool in a James Bond kind of way - it's the 40 year old daily driver syndrome again.  Perhaps as my next project when the Bronco is done.

I settled on this 2010 Audi A4 Quattro

4 cylinder 2.0L Turbo.  Practicality won out, but I did it with style.  6 speed manual transmission and a whole lot of torque.