Grizz

Ready to Rock n Roll or curl up and Die. The bolts need plating removed. Not going to try remove the studs.

One more try. Been tossing this idea around in my head since making the Celtic Cross. Today, after helping a mate move some gym equipment (two trips) I came home, and got going with it as Nicola was out shopping. First up, I drew up a rough robot to get placement and size on the block. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/rob1_zps1c346e10.jpg Started by cutting away the excess. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/rob2_zpsbe1262b0.jpg Hand held blade works a treat to get into tight spots. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/rob3_zpsbed5e7fd.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/rob4_zpsd2501da3.jpg Arms made thinner. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/rob5_zps26684abf.jpg About four hours later my wife thinks I am a hero. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/rob6_zps1f744bd3.jpg And in my opinion ...... enough of a reason to spend more than 4 hours in the garage sucking dust. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/rob7_zps7cfe9ae0.jpg Ohhhh, and she still does not have the Celtic Cross.

FFS. Trying to copy and paste from 8 years ago….. some give pics, some don’t, seriously wtf

Carried on tonight, doing the sides. Original plan was to do lattice work sides, but decided to keep it very plain, so as not to detract from the front detail that I finished as well tonight. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross10_zps50315d72.jpg Side details completed. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross11_zps1c20ad4e.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross12_zps8a5ea886.jpg Altogether now. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross13_zpsea1e5e79.jpg Next up will be doing Nicola's birth year in Roman numerals across the back. MCMLXIV Then I need to keep my mouth shut till the 5th Feb. Carried on tonight after work. Roman Numerals for 1964 pencil drawn, but as you can see, freehand left some space, so I just freehand carved over the pencil. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross15_zps37cdfce1.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross16_zps63994539.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross17_zps4192bfc0.jpg Back where we started, a before and after together. http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm90/niknakpix/cross18_zpscd4f9727.jpg Now to wait till the 5th February..... Going to be difficult to keep quiet and not show her.

Long overdue carving. This COVID 19 pandemic has allowed me to take a bit of time to create a Tiki Racer garden ornament. Inspired by Mr Tiki, nd a toy I bought t a boot fair years go. So I went down to my -lie of blocks. Pulled a special one out/ Basic design Excess cut away. Of course cutting this part between the wheels will be interesting Baby steps. Seat cut out. Quick prototype Tiki driver from an off cut. Shaped. And in place. At this point I come inside. Tomorrow the hard part starts, carving and defining the wheels, recessing the drivers cab and seat. Plus getting the front and rear curves just right. Later. .

My kinda thread with the amount of random stuff I get up to. Dry summer. Hot days, relative to monsoon weather, has made the yield of wild fruit less than usual as @kevins and I both realised. So this year my fruit collection was in three different places. Near the vets was good for about 1.5kg and one of Sally, Bonnie and my walks has a few trees, of which only three had any accessible, usable fruit, it gave about 2.5kg as well, so I had 4kg by Saturday afternoon, stashed in the fridge. Perfect dog walking paths. Finding the fruiting trees becomes a game too. Sunday I went looking about 7 miles from home on the isle of grain down the road my electrician lodger goes to,work, I recalled there was fruit when he came here last year…… Booooom as @pauly says. Jackpot. Of course I had to share with this girl, I thought she was a boy…….. Friendly. https://youtu.be/qZoM5jUZAsE About 6 varieties of plums all told in my collection that made up 12kg raw with stones. Back home I cleaned them all, and weighed up the lot. 8kg from the trees in the lane, of course minus what the horses had. So a total of 12kg in fruit. I went to the village and bought 10kg of sugar as I use less than the traditional 1 to 1 mix of fruit, sugar and a cup of water per kilogram. Split the lot into 2 and 4 kilo and cooked them in two pots, with the stones in. MISTAKE. But I got the stones out when halfway through. Will do the second 6kg tonight after work. And will remove all the stones before cooking, another spectacularly shiite job, but has to be done. By 8.00pm I had bottled and cleaned up the kitchen. RESULT.

I used a Vax wet vacuum cleaner to clean the seats. Front seats after the first cleaning relinquished a lot of dirt, settled in the bucket. Yesterday afternoon I got the grinder in, cut wheat was left of the broken bolts off, followed by a slow grinding back with my favourite tool. Need to replace these. Grinding back. So before I get it in the neck, both sides had been threaded in, one into a blind casting, the other, through the casting and into a fixed nut as far as I can see. But I think a couple of long M8 bolts welded in place should do the job. if not, refrigerator time.

There you go. So not a lot of swearing……… YET.

I thought I would ask the question here as there is a lot of knowledge. Based on what I see here it is a phone call away from becoming a double door refrigerator. And making the best decision may not always be the most popular A Small engined manifold attached catalytic converter with a pair of snapped bolt heads……. These are meant to keep a pair of springs in place to absorb the movement of the engine, against the exhaust with a cup and ball design. At 130k miles trying to undo them, the hapless owners managed to have both heads break off with an impact wrench, despite copious amounts of penetrating oil. Now stuck with a pair of studs protruding from the cat, one threaded into the casting, the other seemingly bolted to a nut………. Options seem to be: A) To cut the studs flush, centre punch, drill out and tap new threads, add new bolts To remove the manifold after dismantling half the front end and repeat “A” after snapping half the fasteners along the way, including manifold bolts. C) Clean up the studs well, clean the catalytic converter face, make sleeves to fit over the studs with threaded ends to take new external nuts to hold the downpipe cup and then weld either Mig or Tig in position, these sleeves and return the springs, assemble the downpipe and refit the exhaust. The evidence. This is the general condition down under there. And “work” prior to me seeing it. And NO, I honestly have no idea how that was created.