Having a blast

So as I mentioned I have several projects in play.  This week I have made a real effort to make something happen, plus, the items I ordered on eBay arrived.   So let's kick this off and will go in order of the project.

A month back or so, I was coming home from the shop and came across a garage sale.    It was late in the afternoon, 4:30 PM or so.  I stopped and went up to take a look.  Not much left to pick from.   Two older Mennonite women were sitting outside and we chatted it up.  Turns out they were selling the parent belongings and  home.  The father had just passed away and the mother had passed before that.

In a small shed out back I spotted a couple of croquet sets, I inquired with the women on the price and she said I could have both for five dollars.  So I paid her the money, loaded them and headed out.

I am not an avid croquet player, but for five bucks it was an easy decision.   So now, what the hell am I going to do with them.   The balls are in decent shape but the mallets are shot.  One of them had a decent stand that I thought I could do something with and I did.

I straitened some of the metal and welded back two pieces that had broke loose.  Then I sand blasted
it to remove all the old paint.  Cleaned it up and then hit it with a coat of primer and blue paint.   It was originally blue when I bought it.  I think it looks pretty good.  Now I am working on making new mallets and you can see the mallet heads I have already cut.  Hopefully this week I can get this completed.   I am looking to give it as a gift for our white elephant game that we play at our holiday party.

I have been interested in steam-punk art and thinking about what I could do with this medium.  I mentioned that I had bought some sprockets and chain online.  Today the first lot of sprockets showed up.  There is twenty five of them and I also received 10 full length motor cycle chains. I am expecting about 30 more sprockets this week.   I am so excited and have a bunch of ideas on what I can do with them.  The chains are used and need some cleaning, so they will need to be de-greased before I can use them.

Since I had the sand blaster out for the croquet set, I have been going to town.  I blasted another radial engine cylinder head and ten of the sprockets that arrived.

I welded two of the sprockets together and the ground down any high spots.  Ran it one more time through the blast cabinet and then blew and wiped it off.  Shot it with some primer and then painted it red, to match the cylinder head that I am using at the office as a door stop.  I thought this would make a nice color matching paper weight to keep on my desk.

Being that I had time, I blasted, primed and painted another cylinder head.  I painted this one black and have been trying to figure out how to incorporate a sprocket or two and gas pipe to make a lamp.  I already have a few ideas and looking forward to seeing what I can come up with.  I am thinking gas pipe, copper tubing, spark plugs and electrical insulators.  I happen to have these items already