a lot of air

I finished the sandblaster. It was lost of fun to make in that it satisfied two favorite criteria: free form and low cost.

I took a large old propane tank I got at the junk yard for 5 bucks and, after filling it with water to be safe, modified it with the torch to meet my needs. Then I rummaged around in my shop for ells, tees, valves, hoses and gauges to plumb it up into a functional sandblaster. The great thing was that all the parts I needed were right there under my shop roof. It's not the money I saved doing that, it's that it vindicates me from all the "pack rat" accusations I endure over the years! Check out the cool cart Imounted it on so that I can roll it to the work site http://seamule.blogspot.com/2009/03/de-cart-gets-its-bearings.html

Yesterday I hooked it up to my air compressor, a 100 cfm brute mounted on a trailer. I trust my welding skills, but I gotta admit that, when I powered it up for the first time, I hid behind the air compressor. Hey, 120 lbs of air pressure in an old tank just makes me a bit nervous. It held air fine, but one hose section blew, which really was my fault as I had used heater hose. I changed that over to some very stout stuff and now it works fine.

Well, to be accurate, it holds air fine. I gotta go get some sacks of sandblasting sand--I'm thinking 30 grit masonry sand--and then we'll really see how it performs.

Once I have it working well, it's time to start stripping paint and rust off the boat hull.

Smooth sailing

Some days feel like I get nowhere; others, like today, I gallop. Here's what all got accomplished:

I started out by getting the 80 amp breaker wired into the panel for the welder. Couldn't afford (or didn't want to afford) a price for a new breaker, so I found one on Ebay for 15 bucks. The welder, a behemouth of a thing, pulls 80 amps at 240 VAC. So, I'm that much closer to welding on the hull.

I got the wiring figured out and fixed on my big trailer air compressor. Since it's designed to be used by guys in the construction trade who, no offense, just wanna gettr done and won't be keeping an eye on engine gauges, this thing many fail safes. The engine will shut down if there's low oil pressure, or if the manifold temp gets too high or if the compressor pressure gets to high or if the engine overspeeds. When any of those things happen, it cuts of power to the coil AND shuts off fuel to the carb.

Fine. But what was throwing me was the fact that I couldn't get voltage thru the sensors and to the coil. Seems like the problem was in some missing circuitry...Turns out that they had installed a starter button that you hold in to bypass all the sensors and energize the system so you can start the engine. When everything is running, then you let go of the button.
Well. Yeah, now I know this! The button said "Push to start" so I just thought it was a starter button to crank the starter motor. Their lack of specificity and my assumptions added up to 4 hours of wire-tracing and head-scratchin'. But, it now runs great.

And, finally, I got a fuel system rigged up for the Wisconsin/Hobart gas welder. A friend gave me an Evinrude gas tank from his old outboard motor. Well, actually he gave me two and I told him I'd sell the other one on Ebay for him in return. I hooked the hose up to the fuel pump on the Wisconsin engine and that'll work just fine. I can even use the pressurizing pump on the tank to prime the system after it's sat for a prolonged period of time.

So I got the shop welder hooked up to do hull repairs, got the air compressor running to power my sandblaster, and got the fuel system running for my gas welder which I'll use to weld up the tracks on Millie the crane out in the field where she's far away from electricity and my shop. Millie is crucial to this project because she does all the heavy lifting of boat hulls and related equipment.

And all this after church and before supper. Yep, I'd call it a galloping day.

no reason to doubt

My friend Terry Sanderson asked if he could come up and help me work on some equipment. An unusual request since, as Holden Village's mechanic, all he does is work on equipment. Regardless, I wouldn't turn down the offer.



That's Terry on the right next to the 1948 Sterling Petrel engine we pulled out of an old mine pump house...but, that's a whole nuther story.


Terry is a great guy to have a round. When there's a problem that I can't figure out, I just let Terry at it. I know he's crunching the data when he's got his hand rubbing his chin and no words being spoken. He's from the farm lands of South Dakota, a place of few words. Finally the word that I wait to hear: "Huhmn." That's right, just a "Huhmn." And then he'll say something that I hadn't thought of and probably would never thing of. But it'll be elegant, creative, and get the job done.

Since he was the guest, I gave him the choice.
"Would you like to get the Sullair compressor woken up or breathe new life into the old Wisconsin engine/Hobart welder?"
He chose the compressor. Good, because since purchasing this thing 2 weeks ago and towing it home from Seattle, I had been having doubts about whether this was one of those too good to be true deals.

Well, with two seasoned mechanics set loose on it, it didn't take long at all to have tools and parts spread out like a garage sale. I drained about a half gallon of gasoline so old it looked like varnish. Terry got the points set and timed it by putting his thumb over spark plug hole number one until he felt the whoosh of air coming out. I fiddled with the carburator, an old up-draft zenith. Not trusting the governor, I disconnected the throttle. Terry couldn't get voltage to the coil, so he jumped from the starter terminal to the ballast resistor. We were ready to start it up. I controlled the starter, the throttle and choke; Terry had the hot ignition lead, and the starting fluid.
Gave it a try. A bunch of pops.
"Wait a minute, Martin...the spark plug wires are connected wrong. Alrighty, now try again!"
And that's all it took. Fired right up, ran smooth. Compressor built up pressure to the regulated 120 lbs. I opened the air line and the throttle kicked right back in. I closed the line and the unloader opened.
Everything as it should be. And, why not? True, most compressor's of this type go for 2 to 4 thousand dollars--not $550. And true, the successive stories I got from the folks that were selling it didn't always add up. But, bottom line: I trusted the guy. He looked me in the eye. My gut said "yes."
And now I have a good compressor that I can use to sand blast the Sea Mule. Well, accept for the fact that, when we shut it down a small geyser of pink, pepto-bismol looking compressor oil shot up and out the air intake. I'll have to figure that out next.

Still, a good day. The sun was out, meadow larks were singing and, for the first time since last fall, I felt the warmth of the sun on my back. Could be Spring is finally decided to come around after all.

air for the sandblaster

Just got back from hauling my new air compressor home. I had to haul it over the Cascade mtns on Stevens Pass with my old, trusty Subaru. Pretty slow pulling up thru the grade but, all in all, she did jsut fine.

It's a older Sollair. Four cylinder GM gas engine driving a 100 cfm compressor. I had been getting depressed looking around for a compressor as everything I found was in the 3 - 5 thousand buck range. I knew that rental charges would kill me, but how could I justify plunking down several grand to by one? Well, I found this one on Craigslist for $550 (I wonder why the 50!?). It even had a fresh rebuild on the engine. The catch? The engine hadn't been run since the rebuild...hmmn. Well, it all looks good--new frost plugs, gaskets, engine painted. The guy--a nice guy whom I trusted right away and ultimately, in my book, that's worth lots--reported that he just is too busy and it is one of those almost-finished projects.

So, I'll drain the gas, squirt a bit of oil, put in a new battery and we'll see what happens.