Bike Repair Stand

 

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do in my garage to make it a shop. And I was lamenting that I didn't have a bike repair stand. I have a bunch of ideas on making one but I don't have the tools set up to do it. I came up with a plan to make one out of a beat up old drill press and a "universal" clamping/vise system. The drill press is a fairly sturdy floor model but is pretty ragged looking, however being sturdy I thought it would make a nice stand. I bought a "universal" clamping/vice system this weekend at a tag sale not knowing exactly what I would use it for. It was a bit expensive at $25 but looked promising for a myriad of tasks, I just didn't know exactly for what, it did have a lot of stuff in the box, and looked to be sturdy enough to be useful. It did have the flexibility to set it up to clamp in almost any orientation, and had a V-block plastic jaw. The pictures pretty much show it all. It works.

Anyway, I have a bike repair stand that will be good enough until I get things set up to make a "real" one. If it works well I may not need to.

The other reason I need a bike stand is that I have a bunch of bargain/free bikes that I need to strip down to salvage usable parts and chop up the frames to recycle the tubes. The tubes will become practice stock for me to learn mig welding tube, and to learn oxy-acetylene fillet brazing. I have done a little mig on tube and I think I can do a structurally sound weld, it is not an attractive weld yet. Once I get those processes learned I will try a minor project of some sort. Maybe a MIG welder cart.

Vacation Day 14 - Friday, Tube Notcher

I received the tube notcher today. I went for the JD Squared TN-100. I ordered it Wednesday night and upgraded the shipping to 3 day delivery, and received it today (Friday). I am really impressed and grateful that Medford Tool handles my order in a professional and timely way.

If the fabrication project I am working on (unicycle frame) goes well I would seriously consider their tube bender. It seems to be well liked from the forum comments I have read. But that is getting way ahead of myself. I need to perfect my mig tube welding skills (welded a practice part that took a hammering) and fillet brazing skills (have not yet tried it)

Vacation Day 6 (recap) Herkimer Diamond Mines

Went to the Herkimer "Diamond Mines" yesterday for a outing. S and N loved it. Basically the place was a big pile of stones and dirt and you smash rocks and dig and find doubly terminated quartz crystals.

 
 


You could miss the sign but it is pretty obvious!















Don't be disappointed when you see a big pile of rock!
















Sweet Corn at $4 a Bakers Dozen. Good deal compared to CT.


 


 

The Corn was excellent!

Vacation Day 4 (recap) It Rained.

I picked up the second free boat. It has a hole in the bottom, but should be a easy patch. Both are heavy and old and incomplete as sailboats, definite contributors to free status.


 

Our friends gave us another load of pavers, they are moving to Maine and their house closing is Monday. It is sad that they are moving but they wouldn't be able to retire in CT with the cost of living here being what it is.

Didn't make so much progress on the Main Project. I got sidetracked with picking up the boat, and the pavers (and visiting), and the wood pile that I unloaded from storage, and the rain.
 
I have a plan on getting back on track today. It doesn't look to good for finishing this up for Monday though.

I decided that I need to get the clean out phase done for Monday. If I can do that I can take a break and do some fun projects in the cleared out space.



Our last corn is coming in. So far our corn has been small and few. It was good though.

 

Vacation Day 3 - Free Boat 1

 

Saturday I saw a free sailboat at a tag sale, I got it today. There is a second one I will go back for tomorrow, I didn't feel good about putting both in the trailer. I should be able to get the second tomorrow. I am really psyched about getting them, it was great timing for some ideas I was spouting off on. I plan on putting bike cranks on it and a paddle wheel. I'll see how it goes. I suggested to S that we could make the Monitor and Merrimack and stage mock battles. She really liked that idea.

The garage task continues, Did a bunch of little stuff. Found a giant set of Allen wrenches and did some tool organizing. Took some pics of the Budweiser Neon Lights and basked for a while in their beautiful magical light. Kidding aside the lights are pretty cool. They really liven up the garage.

 

I set up a temporary stockade fence I can use as a welding screen. I used little eyelets and some salvaged dog chain cut to have hooks in order to hold the fence to some really heavy display stands.

I should be able to have the fence far enough away from the welding that it won't catch on fire, but still work as a screen. There will be a couple fire extinguishers handy though.

 
 

S's monarch butterfly came out of it's chrysalis. She let it go. Later in the day a monarch butterfly came up to me and was hovering around me for about 10 seconds. It seemed improbably that it was the same one, but I can't remember ever having a butterfly hover around me. S also got me around 10 am to go see the hummingbirds, they were really great. There were 3 and for a while they were chasing each other and other birds that were around. I don' know what they were thinking but they sure seemed to feel pretty strongly about it.

 

Started unloading the scrap wood I have in order to organize it and clear out the back of the dodge truck in preparation for chopping it into a trailer. Mostly for the chopping it up part, rather than for the having a trailer part;-) I will have to empty the gas tank and remove it before sparks fly.

Other than that Mom and Tom visited to have lunch and hang out in the afternoon.

Didn't get to do any welding or cutting. S wants me to make a goat weather vane after she had a day(did a demo for her and N yesterday) to mull over what cutting torches are good for I guess. I may try making a goat silhouette on a piece of scrap steel. I told her if she comes up with a good goat silhouette I will cut it.

Overall it was a great day. The weather couldn't be better and got a bunch of stuff done.