Almost Done

Tonight I finished my painting and assembly of the clubs for the croquet set.  Hopefully it will warm up enough tomorrow that I can spray them with sealer and I will be done.   I had a lot of fun working on this project and it required several steps.  From blasting, welding, table saw, painting, etc.   This came out looking pretty good and will be a nice display piece.   Just not sure where it will be displayed at.

Maybe I will take it to the office and set it in the corner.  Would be an interesting conversation piece.

It's Just to Cold

Maybe you have caught on to this, but my font is larger.  Only reason being is that I can't read the smaller font, so increasing the size makes it easier on me.

It's just to cold to work over at "The Shop" this evening.  When I left work, the temperature was reading 7 degrees.  I did run by and picked up a couple of items, so that I could work from home.

I brought home my mallet heads, but still need another coat of stain on the handles.   Dug out my painting box and found the colors I needed for the mallets so that they would match the balls.

They are looking good.   Will most likely hit them with another coat or two tomorrow and then spray them with a sealer.  I wish it would warm up, so I can finish the handles.   Once they are done, this project will be finished.

Back at it......

I got a little work done tonight over at the "The Shop".   

Wow, not change subjects, but the weather changed in a a day.   Started out at 60 degrees yesterday and by 5 pm it was 25 degrees. Today it just as cold and we had about 3 inches of snow.   We are expecting it to be colder tomorrow and more snow.  You have to love Colorado.  I think I have said that before.

So tonight I cleaned up a few more wrenches.  I put another coat of stain on the mallets and handles.   They should be ready for paint in a day or two.  I cleaned up a couple more movie canisters and got them in primer and paint.

I have already gotten a few comments about my Star Wars movie canister, so I am looking forward to finishing the other two episodes.

Fun in the Shop

I left work a little bit early this evening, just after 4 PM.    I ran over to the shop and put what kerosene I had into the heater.   I plugged it in and got it started and then drove over to Chief Petroleum and refilled my 6 gallon kerosene tank.  Come to think of it, I have about four different types of gas cans around.  Regular for the mowers, oil and gas mix for the weed eater, blower and chain saw and kerosene for the heater, so only three I guess.

I am lying sideways on the bed while writing this and I can hear a bird chirping out back, he must be cold.  The weather made a major change today. It was in the 50’s this morning and around noon everything changed.   The wind picked up, really gusting and the temperature dropped quickly.   When I left work at 4 PM, it was 25 degrees out.

Right now is snowing and blowing!

When I returned to the shop, it had heated up and I went to work.   I pulled out the table saw and made my mallets and handles for the croquet set.   I already knew what I wanted to do, so it went pretty quick.  I finished up with my cuts and headed home.

Nobody was ready to eat when I got home so we decided we would eat about 7:30 PM.   I headed back over to the shop and proceeded to work on getting my mallets and handles stained.  To see them stained gets me excited about what the finished product is going to look like.  Once I add the primary colors and urethane these, they are going to look awesome.

I dug out all my sprockets and tools and laid them out so I could see what I have.  Wow, I have some cool projects in my future.   I am coming up with all kinds of ideas on things I can create with these.  I talked with my neighbor who is a plumber and he said he could hook me up with all the steel pipe and joints I will need.  Offered up his pipe cutter and pipe threader.

While I was working I took a selfie.

Crank my bolt

As I mentioned earlier, I was given some large Williams wrenches.   Best I can tell this wrench was made between 1947 to 1955.  This is based on the logo and information I found on the J.H Williams site.  All together I think I got about 10 of these wrenches and four of them are the size that is pictured. In looking on eBay they sell for about three to six dollars on eBay.

The picture above on the right is what I started with.  I ran it through the sand blaster to get all the rust removed.   Then I hit it with my wire sander and polished it back up.   It looked good just polished but I have another idea for this piece so I went ahead and painted the handle black.

I am either going to turn this into coat rack or it will be the base for a coffee table that I am getting ready to build.  Either way I will be welding a sprocket to each end and possibly running a chain around the sprockets.     I think it will look pretty cool when I am done.   I placed the wrench on a couple of sprockets trying to get an idea of what it might look like.

Just for fun

I picked up some old film canisters a few weeks back at the auction.  I have been slowly working on one and I finished it up this evening.   I guess I am going to go with a Star Wars theme for this project.  I picked up a Star Wars poster book at a garage sell, thinking I would use it for decoupage and now I have.

I blasted the original canister in the sand blaster and then cleaned it off with some 220 sanding paper. Wiped it down and cleaned it up, hit it with a coat of primer and painted it with chrome paint.  I think this little project cam out pretty decent.   Since I have the poster book and two more canisters I should be able to do the first three Star War movies.  I am planning to hang these in my office and think they will be some good conversation pieces.

Wizard

If you have been keeping up, you know that I am rebuilding an old croquet set that I had found.   I spent some time trying to get a name of the maker and year built from Mother Google.   All I was able to find was a this picture on the right.   I am assuming this must be original and is selling on eBay for $89,99 or BO.

So I guess this won't be a high value restoration, but it has been a good learning process for me.   This little project has required metal working, painting as well as building all new clubs and handles which I still have to get to.

Since I found the picture above with the name on the side, I figured I had better do the same.  Candy dug a stencil set out of our craft drawer, so that is what I used.  It's not original but it looks good.  I did get the handles for the clubs cut and drilled the hole in the club head to attach them.

I need to work on the handles and clubs and do some shaping.   This will require me to dig out the table saw.  Its on the list for later this week.

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