Sunday, November 6, 2011

Riding season's over

The snow's here a few weeks early this year and looks like it's gonna stay.


My garage in winter mode
Click to embiggen

The bike batteries are under the house where it's warm and on a trickle charger. The snowblower is at battle stations.

To get the snowblower ready for its 2d season, I figured it probably needed its valve clearances adjusted. I was right. In the process I took off the spark arrester/snow-keeper-outer (like on a boat, it goes where an air filter would on a car) and a buncha associated tin to ease access for getting the rocker cover off. Valves adjusted, tin back on, it still ran...

The first time I used the machine it ran rich like the choke wasn't coming all the way off. I've been at this long enough to know that since I'd just been working in the area I better check my work and see if after 40 years I'd finally erred (cough). I started in by taking the snow-keeper-outer off and if I hadn'ta been looking right at it I'da missed it - just when I pulled the s-k-o away from its rubber gasket, all the tin I'd had off went 'erk' and moved almost imperceptibly. Just enough to remove the bind on the choke lever that I had inadvertently installed (no extra charge. Heh.). Runs like a scalded dog now.

What, you may well ask, is a bottle of Pine-Sol doing in the picture? There's not enough Pine-Sol in the world to make that garage germ-free.

It's bear repellent. Bears won't go near that stuff, so I put some in a container and put it in the back of the pickup the night before trash pick-up day. With the bed cap unlatched even though our bear figured out how to open it. I'm not relying on her memory if she gets hungry and goes hunting.

I'm sure there'll be more winter-related stuff. Stay warm, my friends.

13 comments:

Fixer said...

Shit, I figgered ya put a chain on the back tire of yer Enfield. Heh ...

Gordon said...

I just need to get rid of the snow. Not the asphalt under it. Heh.

beatleguy55 said...

I've got an arc welder exactly like the one next to your blower.Came my way when my dad passed.I never learned to use it,but I was pretty good with a set of tanks.Would it be worth anything?

Oldfool said...

What is this "snow" of which you speak?

Gordon said...

Not much. $100 - 150 maybe. They weren't very expensive when new. I could be wrong.

I'm better at gas welding too.

Gordon said...

That's not snow. It's cocaine. We grow it here. ;-)

Oldfool said...

you're just messing with me now aren't you?
It that was cocaine you'd be up to your ass in DEA. Or getting rich off the fat cats that use it.

DBK said...

How do you think raccoons feel about Pine Sol? The smart little pests have been figuring out how to get into our compost bin and I'm getting tired of trying to figure out new ways to keep them out.

Gordon said...

Oldfool, ya busted me!

DBK, try it. Lay a bead around the compost heap and let us know how it works. Have you tried bleach? That keeps dogs outta the trash.

BadTux said...

I was up in the Sierras on Saturday right before the snows moved in. There had been a light dusting of snow the previous evening and it was so beautiful. But I knew a real snowstorm was moving in so I reluctantly turned around at the end of the trail and came home, rather than camping in the beauty.

- Badtux the Snow Penguin

BadTux said...

beatleguy55 , the design of those Lincoln arc welders hasn't changed since, well, Lincoln was Preznit (well, not quite, but you get the idea ;). So yeah, it'd be worth something... about as much as any other used arc welder on the market. I.e., not as a collectible. How much that is depends on which one it is and its condition. If it's an AC-225 all beat to crap you can get at least $100 if it still works. Beyond that... (shrug).

Gordon said...

I paid $150 for the welder used maybe 20 years ago. I think they were $175 new then. Needs a 50Amp outlet, of which the only one in my house is for the electric range which luckily is about 3 feet straight up and behind where the welder sits now and so it was easy to run an outlet from there. Let's just say I don't wanta try cooking and welding at the same time.

BadTux said...

They're $300 new nowadays. Just to add a data point to the discussion. So the used price of Beatle's used AC-225 (if that's what it is) would be somewhere between $100 and $250, depending on its condition.

- Badtux the Welding Penguin