Tool Box Locks

 I had been thinking about picking up another tool box for work. The boxes I have now are getting crowded so after giving it some thought I had decided to get another bottom roller from Harbor Freight. These boxes had usually been priced around $369 or maybe $389 but on the day I wanted one they were $429. Screw that. The whole point of buying these is the price. I'd have to wait for them to go on sale.
 Two days later my wife and I were having breakfast at our favorite restaurant when my phone chimed. It was a Black Friday offer from Harbor Freight and among the items on sale was the box I'd been looking at. I showed it to my wife and she said, "I guess I know what you're doing today". That morning I picked up the box on sale for $349. Schweet.

 Having four different locks with four different keys is kinda a drag. I found a set of five locks keyed alike so ordered them from Amazon. Turns out that was $21 shot in the ass because the locks I ordered are physically the right size but are of the style that the key wont come out unless they are locked. Lesson learned, I'll look for the right locks. BTW, Stay tuned for a future post about the hutch I plan to build for the top of this new roller cabinet.

 In other news which isn't really news at all, my truck isn't the greatest but it gets me around for now. Sometimes it seems to have a mind of its own and yesterday while rolling through town the tailgate decided to open. I pulled over to shut the gate and noticed my Greasy Shop Rag sticker on the topper window is looking pretty sad. The ink is bleached from the sun and the edges are rolling up. Time for a new sticker. I have a whole box of them so let me know if you need one too.

 Don't worry Honey. You may be vacationing in Florida right now and left me to finish the plastering in the second bedroom and hallway but I've saved plenty of work for you. I hope you're well rested when you get back because there is a huge mess that needs to be cleaned up :-)

Later.

Shooting Rats

 Just sendin the .177 down range and killin rats. OK, really it was target practice with a co2 bb piston in my garage.

 The rats were just Greasy Shop Rag stickers but it was fun just the same. It reminded me of when I was a kid and we had the lever action bb rifles. We would patrol the yard just looking for an excuse to pull the trigger. Its fun shootin stuff when it can't shoot back. I say that because I remember if one of the neighborhood kids had a welt from taking a round, there was always a second kid with a matching wound. Revenge is sweet.

 A while back we had some birds find their way into our basement. Getting them out was a serious problem. That's when I bought this particular bb piston. It made bird removal just a matter of picking them up and throwing them away. A shot gun would have been a bit much for inside work like this plus clean up would have sucked.

 I didn't ride this week. The weather has been crap with cold, wind and rain. I made it a point to do "truck things", like hauling schtuff too big for the bike, so I wouldn't need the truck next week. We'll see how that works out.
 I did ride the sportster two blocks to the kwiky mart the other night to pick up supplies. Chips, dip, bananas and scratchers if I remember right. Lost on the lottery tickets and lost on the dip too. I forgot to refrigerate after opening and my wife threw it out. Bought some more the next day and forgot to put that one in the fridge too. Funny, I won't buy that dip again but I plan on playing the lottery some more. Anyway the point of mentioning the sportster was to say this. Just when you start thinking "what am I gonna do about this bucket of bolts" you walk out of the store to find a small crowd gathered around your bike leaving their dna all over it. At least someone is happy with the way it looks.

Later.

Rat Sticker

 Something happened the other day that kinda caught me off guard. During my lunch break I had some errands to run and rolled into the hardware store in the city where I work. As I walked across the parking lot I noticed an older couple getting into a newer car. I didn't recognize them but I was very familiar with the decal in their back window. That's right, this elderly couple was sportin a Greasy Shop Rag sticker.
 I had to chuckle. I felt like I finally made the big time. Oh sure I'll hand these things out to anyone that will take one and I make them available at the bike shows, but I'd never seen where a stranger had put one on their vehicle. Too cool. I wonder if they read this drivel or just like displaying a pic of a rat dropping a steaming deuce.
 On that topic I'd like to thank all of you that follow this blog. I don't advertise on the site and there is no monetary gain but knowing people are out there reading this does kinda encourage me to continue. It's nothing special, just me babbling about bikes, making observations about what I see around me, or maybe sharing some technical info. I like to add some witty comments when I can but I've been informed I'm a lot less funny than I think. No problem, I like putting a few thoughts down on "paper" even if no one gets it. Kinda like leaving a diary laying around for anyone to peruse.
 Some people claim blogging is a dying format. I don't know, I got into it late and will continue as long as I can come up with something semi-interesting to say. I imagine at some point this space will be just some ramblings from a grumpy old man. "Those dang nabit neighbor kids were on my lawn again last week..."  or "Well by golly some young whippersnapper on a crotch rocket blew me away on my scooter" might be something you'll see here in the future. In fact if you were to scroll back to older posts you'll notice it started out strictly about bikes and slowly morphed into whatever it is you see here now. I personally like writing about things technical but I get the biggest feedback from the personal posts. The riding season isn't year round in these parts so I'll have to sneak some more of those personal ramblings in here if I'm gonna continue posting twice a week.
 Twice a week for two years now. Every Wednesday and Sunday morning. Huh. I never really had a plan when I started this and I guess I don't have a real plan moving forward.
 So stick around, maybe one of those rare gem posts will pop up here soon. You wouldn't want to miss it. Let me know if you need a sticker and I'll see about making that happen.

It's Official

 The new bike has been accepted as part of the fleet and received its very own GSR sticker.

 I'm getting much more comfortable on the bike. I'm just over the 2000 mile mark. My wife and I have gone on a few short rides together including a "dinner date" Friday night to our favorite mexican joint.
 I ran into a couple at the gas station that were on a '14 Limited. We talked for quite a while about the bike and I told them I just bought one. His question was "then why are you on that sportster?" I told him I thought it was gonna rain that day and the new one was clean and the sporty needed a bath. Hey I like having more than one bike to choose from even if the sporty is slower and handles worse. They're all fun to ride!
 In the pic above you'll notice the long vertical openings on each side of the fender. There are companies that offer lights to fill these up and offer more warning to people behind you. They can be wired as tail/brake/turn or any combination of the three. I may just order a set.
 You may also notice the skid mark on the floor. I came into the garage a little hot the other day. The anti-lock/linked brakes don't kick in under 2 or 3 mph.

 Yesterday my dad, brother and I went down to Iowa to a wood carving show. Dad had a piece in the show.

 It's the swan on this end of the table. I think I posted some pics of it before in the early stages. It really is a nice carving and it did place. I was so impressed with the amount of talent exhibited here. You can see the hours and hours of time it must have taken to finish some of these works of art. If you ever get a chance to go to a wood carving show I suggest you do it.
 Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there. My wife and I are gonna spend the day on the bike. If the weather holds out it should be a fun day.

Harvest Fest Bike Show

 Today is the Harvest Festival Car show in Green Lake, Wi. I understand the show drew around 800 cars last year. Not too shabby. This year there will be their first ever Motorcycle show. Proceeds from the entry fees will help support a local animal shelter and the Town Square.
 I'm taking a bike to the show. Not sure which one yet.

 It really doesn't matter. Neither one of them is a show bike. I ride one or the other to work most days. Right now I'm leaning towards the Rat Turd (on the right).  The main reason is because the sportster has died on my ride home from work twice this past week. On the twenty mile ride home the bike died within 100 feet of the spot it died days before. That's really odd considering I think the problem is just a bad key switch. Maybe there's just a high concentration of gremlins living in that area. I didn't really notice any evidence of gremlins while I was PUSHING the bike to a safe spot to work on it.
 I just got a text from Al. He was asking about registration time for the show. I think he's bringing his Buzz Lightyear bike. The weather should be perfect for a car and bike show.  All the rides will be glistening in the sunshine. Well unless your bike is painted with truck bedliner.

Workshop Wednesday-A Hint of Spring

 I'm in my little workshop trying to get things organized.  A long winter means I will have spent a lot of time in here and there are remnants of projects laying everywhere. Its easy to clean up but its also easy to save crap "just in case" I need it some day. I sometimes feel like I'm one bad decision away from ending up on an episode of Hoarders. I'm not walking around on top of stuff or saving garbage. I just need to tidy up a bit.
 My immediate goal is to clean off this desk. Here's a partial list of what I'm looking at. Stickers, light bulbs for bikes and cars, a tripod I made for taking video with the cell phone, a piece of aluminium for the bike, bushings, assorted pieces of shrink tubing from the tail light project, a screen protector for my phone, 3 flashlights, a hat, safety glasses, body filler, a bottle of Detail Doctor (approved by Danny "The Count" Koker)(I've only seen one episode of his show), a usb disc drive, another flashlight, a compass, mink oil for my boots, a stack of cds, a license plate frame from the sporty, a file, 4 drill bits, a belt from our clothes washer, a couple of bingo ink daubers (that's right, you got a problem with that?), an oil filter and some important looking paperwork.

 *there was a long pause here while I tossed some of this crap in the garbage can which is within arms reach. I also need to up the count on flashlights and drill bits.*

 I need to take my Mityvac brake bleeder to work to fix the brakes on a forklift. I'm looking at the empty box right now but have no idea where the tool is. The pump, hoses and the bottle are all missing. My guess is they are in a leak proof container because I know the bottle will have fluid residue in it and spill. I only kept the box so I could easily find the instructions. Obviously I didn't look everywhere or I would have found it, but I feel I've looked everywhere it should be. The garage isn't such a mess that its hiding under something. Actually the garage is in pretty good shape. This has happened before. A week from now I'll find what I was looking for. I don't know if its the onset of old timers disease or what.

 I have three computers that I need to get rid of...err recycle. They have exceeded the one year rule and the second year rule. That is, I haven't used them in a year so they should go but they are cool so they got a one year extension. I still didn't use them in the second year so bye bye computers. Here's the plan. Remove the circuit boards and give to someone that recycles that stuff. Check the memory to see if it fits anything I'm currently running,  smash the hard drives with a sledge hammer, toss the plastic pieces.

 My goal is to remove any unnecessary items from this room and make it more motorcycle friendly.I want to be able to get my lift table in here without it taking up all the free space. That means I need change the entire layout of the room. This old carpet should go. Heck, I might even slap a coat of paint on the walls.

 The really big news for the week is that I was able to take the rat turd out for a ride on Monday. I was impressed that the battery was still strong enough to fire the bike up and that the fuel wasn't sour. My "winterizing" effort was nothing more than finding a corner to stuff the bike into. The weather has turned to crap again but that short ride I took should hold me till spring actually gets here.

End.

Timing Cover

 Yesterday was to be a shop cleaning day. I did get some cleaning done but what I really wanted to do was work on the sportster. I needed a quick project to fit in between the ritual of returning tools to their home and gathering up scraps of steel that didn't make it on the bike. I wanted to make my own timing cover and that seemed like a quick easy task.

 I started by removing the original cover and tracing its size onto a thin piece of sheet metal.

 Nothing fancy here.

 I took it to the grinder and got it close to the final size.

 The belt/disc sander was used to bring it down to final size. I then marked and drilled the two holes that will be used to rivet the cover to the housing.

 The next step was to bastardize a few "Greasy Shop Rag" stickers so they would form a circle rather than their original oval shape. The piece I applied them to is a magnetic backed vinyl sheet. The only reason I used this stuff is because it was white and I didn't have any white paint but I did have some spray adhesive. Anyway, then it was sprayed with clear coat.

 This sheet was cut to size and glued to the sheet metal piece I created earlier.

 Now I have a one of a kind timing cover, at least until I make one for the Rat Turd.  I've gotten some feedback on the stickers. It seems many of my friends think they're cool but the female fans not so much. I guess guys think poop is funnier than girls think it is.
 Listen, I have a lot of these stickers. If you want some just ask.

Stickers

 I'm new to blogging. I started because it was suggested it would be an easy way for me to share progress on some of my projects. As I started reading other blogs I noticed many people offering stickers promoting their blogs. Cool.
 As it turns out my wife works for a very large promotional products company called 4imprint. She told me they have an art department that could help me design whatever I wanted. I had a rough idea so I searched through the many choices of size and style stickers that they offer. When I found one that would work I drew up a rough sketch and sent them an email of my idea. I included some notes to give them a feel of how I wanted it to look. The next day I had three options in front of me. I selected one to work from. I would make a request, they would make the change and I would approve it or make another suggestion. My new smart phone allowed me to do this while I was at work without missing a beat. After just one day of these exchanges I had a design I was happy with. I was surprised at how easy the whole process was.

 I wanted it simple. Its actually busier than I had originally planned. I had the option of adding more color but again I wanted to keep it simple. It's a scruffy rat. Why? Rats, as in rat bikes, are cool. Home built ingenuity is too. To me a rat most closely portrays that in a lovable little character. This adorable creature is dropping a deuce while reading "the greasy shop rag". Nothing fancy here, just a bunch of crap I put in writing. Plus, poop is funny. A steaming pile of rat crap is even funnier. I added the chain around the outer edge to try to give it a motorcycle feel.
 So, if you want a sticker just click the pic on the right column. Leave me your name and mailing address and I'll send some out. You can also use that link if you have any comments you don't want to share publicly.
 Thanks for the stickers Honey!