My 1910 Mitchell "parts car" project

[JV Puleo]

Here is the hub with the key way cut. This was tedious to do in my shop-made press but I'm happy with the way it came out.

 

 

I then drilled and threaded a hole, directly opposite the key way, for a 1/2-20 set screw. This will give the hub a little additional holding power but, more importantly, will hold the hub in place while I drill it for its retaining pin.

 

 

 

There are two operations left. Drilling the pin hole and milling the dog teeth in the end of the hub. Both are a challenge and I've given them quite a bit of thought. I have a plan for the pin hole but still am not sure how I will mill the teeth. I have decided that, rather than try milling the teeth in this part, I should first do the mating dog tooth end of the hand crank. That part is much more easily made so, if my plan doesn't work, I will not have ruined the far more time-consuming hub. With that in mind, I dug the crank out of a box of miscellaneous parts under one of my benches.

 

 

You can readily see the problem created by the use of tapered pins. These are permanently stuck and it is impossible to dismantle this part without removing them. I hadn't the patience for that, especially as this part is heavily worn, slightly bent and I'm making a new one. I resorted to the power hack saw.

 

 

The result was revealing. Another example of Mitchell "quality." Notice that, rather than a bronze bushing, the Mitchell people bushed the hole with Babbit. Babbit is a wonderful bearing material, for spinning shafts in a relatively clean, well lubricated environment. It is not, and never was intended for shafts that move only a short distance, are poorly lubricated and subject to short, intense pressure. This was well known at the time. They can only have used Babbit because it was cheap and, though not a good choice, would probably outlive the working life of the car. In 1910 virtually all mechanics of any sort were familiar with pouring Babbit bearings so, though a cheap choice, it was also cheap to renew.

 

 

This view, from the other end, shows that when this bracket was cast, the core must have slipped. They used it anyway. The crank handle must have protruded from the front, under the radiator, at an angle.

 

 

I probably worked on the hand crank because I didn't want to tackle the pin hole. This is the problem... when it was made, the key way was broached and then the hub and crankshaft were drilled and reamed together for a tapered pin. This is the only way they could have gotten the taper correct for the pin to seat perfectly and it would be the same today. In order to remove the hub, I had to drill the pin out so now I have a reamed 3/8" hole in the crankshaft. This is an extremely inappropriate place for a tapered pin as the hub must be removed to renew the front seal. MY plan is to use a straight pin, secured with cotter pins on either end. That, with the key and the set screw I've added, will be more than strong enough to hold the hub.  Drilling the hole in the hub to perfectly align with the hole in the crank is a the problem.  Based on observation of parts like the hand crank bracket, I cannot even be certain that the hole is perfectly centered in the crank. So, I will use the crank itself as the guide. The idea is to set it up in the mill so that a drill, 1/64th smaller, will pass through the center of the hole without touching the sides. This a tricky thing to set up and I spent two hours on it this afternoon without feeling I had it just right.

 

 

I made the clamps you see bolted to the table to hold the crank while I drilled out the original, bent, tapered pin. They worked perfectly so if I can get the hole aligned with the center of the milling machine spindle, this should actually go quite easily. But, it's another job that takes hours to set up and about 15 minutes to do. Complicating the issue is that, in order to actually drill the hole, I have to raise the table. There is no way to get a "feel" for the job, which would actually, in this case, be the best way to be sure the holes were perfectly aligned. When I finally get this right, I will drill it and hand ream the hub to the finished size.

Edited August 1, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

After several hours of trying to align the hole in the crankshaft with the spindle, and my third attempt at a method, I finally succeeded. To do this I made a 3/4 x 3/8 bushing out of drill rod. I reamed the 3/8 hole about .002 oversize and gripped it in a 3/4 collet in the spindle. This gave me enough clearance so that a piece of 3/8 ground stock pushed through the hole in the crankshaft could be aligned with the collet. Trying to do this with two perfectly reamed 3/8" holes wasn't working... if they were as little as .0005 off, the rod wouldn't move easily between the two points. I put a key in the key way and a socket head cap screw in the set screw hole to keep the hub tight on the crank.

 

 

I then center drilled it and drilled a 1/4" hole. I held the drills in a collet rather than a conventional drill chuck because the collets are more accurate. It only works if you are drilling with a size that fits the collet.

 

 

After which I drilled it 1/64 under 3/8". I had planned to hand ream it but it was coming out so good that I took a chance and reamed it in the mill.

 

 

It was worth the effort. The job came out as good as I could have hoped and better than I feared it might. While doing this it occurred to me that I could make it even more secure by milling a short flat on the crankshaft under the set screw. I'll do that tomorrow... all day to drill one hole has left me pretty tired and, this time, I'll follow my own advice and wait until the morning. You can see from this photo that the hole in the crank was not damaged at all... I must have hit everything very close to dead on.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2017 by JV Puleo
clearer wording / grammar (see edit history)

[Luv2Wrench]

This is brilliant and I need to make sure I understand this correctly as this looks like something that could come up again in the future.  

 

The 3/4 x 3/8 bushing was required because the collet your using is 3/4.  The inside of the bushing, 3/8, is for a rod to go in and it is that rod that then goes into the hole in the crank.  Once in the crank, you only need to position the other end (3/4) in you collet in the mill.  With the hub, crank and mill all locked in position, it was then a simple matter of removing the 3/4 x 3/8 bushing/rod combination and replace it with center drill, 1/4 dill, 3/8 drill (1/64 under) and 3/8 reamer.  Is that how it worked? 

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 2017 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history)

[Laughing Coyote]

Nice work.

[JV Puleo]

1 hour ago, Luv2Wrench said:

This is brilliant and I need to make sure I understand this correctly as this looks like something that could come up again in the future.  

 

The 3/4 x 3/8 bushing was required because the collet your using is 3/4.  The inside of the bushing, 3/8, is for a rod to go in and it is that rod that then goes into the hole in the crank.  Once in the crank, you only need to position the other end (3/4) in you collet in the mill.  With the hub, crank and mill all locked in position, it was then a simple matter of removing the 3/4 x 3/8 bushing/rod combination and replace it with center drill, 1/4 dill, 3/8 drill (1/64 under) and 3/8 reamer.  Is that how it worked? 

 

 

 

 Yes... I think you've got it. Because collets are very accurate, any one would do... it was only 3/4 because that was the size of drill rod I had on the shelf. The 3/8" rod goes through the hole in the crank and into the bushing in the collet. When it passes through easily, under finger pressure, the hole is aligned just about perfectly with the spindle. Then it was just a matter of lowering the table and replacing the collet in the spindle for each of the drilling and reaming steps. I could have lowered the table and put a drill chuck in the spindle... I only used the collets because they worked with the size of the holes I was making. The left/right and in/out movement of the table was locked so that it could only be raised and lowered.

 

Usually, when you want two holes in different pieces to line up perfectly, you drill them together. That is what the factory did in the first place. My problem was that one hole was already there and I had to make the other one match it perfectly.

[Spinneyhill]

I went through that sort of performance recently drilling pin holes in a new water pump shaft to match the impeller and the pulley. Both had been drilled by the factory just to get a hole so were off centre. It was a performance to hold the impeller (or pulley), insert the shaft without moving anything, start the hole with a milling bit, then drill with a drill bit. The set-up took longer than the drilling, as yours did!

[JV Puleo]

The first thing I did this morning was finish the pin by trimming it to length and putting in the holes for the split pins. I made this little fixture for that purpose some time ago. It's very simple but makes the job go quickly and easily. The holes are for the 3/8" and 7/16" pins I used on my rocker arms and allows me to drill a 1/8" hole in the center of the pin.

 

 

 

I then replaced the hub on the crankshaft, with the pin holding it in place,  and centered it under the spindle. For this, I cut the head off a 1/2-20 bolt and put a center hole in it. I used that to align the center of the threaded hole in the hub with the center of the spindle. The bolt is long for a reason... you want the flat to be perpendicular to the hole and it is very difficult to tell if the hole is really at the top of a round piece. With this long bolt screwed in, it is easy to move it until the bolt is straight up and down. This doesn't have to be accurate to the thousandth... but the closer the better.

 

 

 

From this point, it's just remove the hub and mill the flat. I went in about .100 - the depth isn't critical as long as the flat is larger than the face of the set screw. I used a 9/16 end mill, so that there was a small amount of clearance on both sides of the threaded hole, and "flat point" set screws rather than the more conventional "cup point" set screws which would leave a mark on the crankshaft. I am just mimicking the method used to hold an end mill in milling machine tool holders. Here is the hub assembled on the crankshaft. There are still the dog teeth to do but, as I said earlier, I won't do those until I am certain they will come out right.

 

 

 

 

 

[JustDave]

superb work as usual,your starting to hold us all to a higher standard, thanks for showing us,i had a machinist tell me once were only limited by are imagination,your showing us proof of that statement,can hardly wait to see the next post and the one after that,please keep up the great work it tells us all that the impossible just hasn't been thought of yet,     dave

[JV Puleo]

I'm not sure what I'll do next. I have the pistons to finish and the connecting rods to make as well as the clamps that hold the lifters down. My ultimate goal is to have all of the engine parts ready to go before I finish the crankcase so that when that is done, I can assemble it. I don't want it sitting around the shop, open to dust and dirt (although the shop is isn't all that dirty). If there a lesson to be taken from all this, it is that you can do it too. I'm a complete amateur, with no professional experience as a machinist. I've actually only been in one or two machine shops in my life and that was many years ago.  But, I also have a big job, making new windows for my house, that has to be done before the cold weather arrives so while I'm not stopping the machine work, I can't be on it every day either. I think I have worked out most of the con rod problems. I just have to make the tooling... although "just" is a bit misleading. The tooling needs to be more precise than the parts.

 

jp

[JustDave]

by whos standards are you an amateur,ive sent work out in the past to the [ros and found very little quality

[JV Puleo]

Thanks very much for the vote of confidence!

 

I say amateur because I've no formal training and have never made my living in the machine shop trade. I did get my first lathe when I operated a garage that specialized in old cars. (I won't say restoration shop, as that term has come to mean something else.) This was in the 70s and I was in my 20s. At the time, I used a local machine shop to make or fix the things I couldn't. The two gentlemen who owned it encouraged me to buy my own machines and learn how to do the work. I did that, though those machines are long gone. I made some parts in those days, mostly for my 1910 REO. My current big lathe and drill press were bought at a printing auction. they were largely unused for 20 years, at least 10 of which the lathe spent outdoors getting rusty. By the time I was in a position to rescue it, most would have sold it for scrap but, I had no money to buy anything better so I dismantled it and brought it back from the dead. There's a saying in the (name your industry) that people want a job fast, cheap and good... you can pick two – you can't have the third. The best reason I can do reasonably good work is that I'm not in a hurry and don't have to meet a price.

 

Here's the lathe, finally reassembled. This picture was taken the day it ran for the first time in 15 years... about 4 months after I purchased the Mitchell parts car.

 

Edited August 5, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Laughing Coyote]

Nice old lathe. What year and make is it?

[JV Puleo]

It is 15" Sidney, made in Sidney, Ohio. I'm not sure of the date but they only went into business in 1905, originally manufacturing woodworking machines. I think they started making metal working machines during WWI. I was told (but cannot confirm this) that the serial number makes the date of manufacture 1922. However, if that is the case, the design was already pretty old fashioned as it could easily be 15 or 20 years older. In some ways it is more archaic than my tie-bar Hendey, built in 1919.

[Laughing Coyote]

There's been a few for sale around here. I would love to restore an old lathe. Just don't have the floor space for it.

 https://tucson.craigslist.org/tld/d/metal-lathe-16-48/6241570260.html

https://tucson.craigslist.org/tls/d/vintage-heavy-duty-vernon/6167582794.html

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/tls/d/pratt-whitney-metal-lathe/6231140848.html

https://flagstaff.craigslist.org/tls/d/19-leblond-metal-lathe/6233569545.html

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/tls/d/rockford-lathe-must-go-now/6212038803.html

 

[JV Puleo]

Those prices are pretty stiff by New England standards... but I suppose that big machines might not be all that common in Arizona. Of all those, I think the Pratt & Whitney if the best is it has some tooling with it. My first lathe was one of those except that one has a quick change gearbox and mine only had a set of change gears.

Edited August 5, 2017 by JV Puleo
typo (see edit history)

[alsancle]

8 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

Those prices are pretty stiff by New England standards... but I suppose that big machines might not be all that common in Arizona. Of all those, I think the Pratt & Whitney is the best is it has some tooling with it. My first lathe was one of those except that one has a quick change gearbox and mine only had a set of change gears.

 

We have the advantage of all those mill town machine shops that built up over the last 100 years and then closed.   There is a lot of great but very heavy equipment that is not expensive if you can fix it and use it. I have a couple of friends that each "saved" the most ridiculous bridgeports you could imagine.   You need the floor space and thick concrete.

[alsfarms]

Hello Joe,  For some reason I have missed your progress report, on the Mitchell, on this AACA forum.  You are doing a very nice job.  You suggested to me in the past that you probably will not use your generator/timer but will do something else.  Have you determined what that will be?  I also have a soft spot for old machinery.  My last purchase was a 16" Lodge and Shipley geared head lathe from 1926.  It is up and running and I am 1/2 the way through adding a taper attachment to it for a project I have in the works. 

Regards,

Alan

[Laughing Coyote]

I would love to get a better Bridgeport mill. I have a 1962 series 1, but it has sway back pretty bad. The table and saddle gets really tight at the ends of the lead screws. There is a company in Phoenix that can rebuild the ways, re-scrape, and redo the table for around $6 -$7K. If I could find a nice one in good shape back east it may be cheaper even with freight than doing the rebuild. There's not a whole lot of machinery around here. Makes for slimmer pickens. The only good thing is there isn't all the humidity so they dont rust up as bad.

Anyone have a good mill for sale?

[JV Puleo]

I've been looking for a good vertical mill for some time – although I want one that is quite a bit more substantial than a Bridgeport. They aren't cheap here either. I have less money in the Brown & Sharp 2A shown in this thread than a worn out Bridgeport would have cost, and that includes having it delivered from Philadelphia.

[Laughing Coyote]

I bought an old tow motor forklift years ago for $1500. I knew a guy that needed one for his shop. He had the Bridgeport in a corner that he wasn't using. I wanted a mill so we traded. I ended up tearing down the entire head assembly and replaced all the bad and worn parts. The upper part works great. Once I get the other pats re built it will work like new again. It's still usable, I just can't use the full range of the table.

[JV Puleo]

11 hours ago, alsfarms said:

Hello Joe,  For some reason I have missed your progress report, on the Mitchell, on this AACA forum.  You are doing a very nice job.  You suggested to me in the past that you probably will not use your generator/timer but will do something else.  Have you determined what that will be?  I also have a soft spot for old machinery.  My last purchase was a 16" Lodge and Shipley geared head lathe from 1926.  It is up and running and I am 1/2 the way through adding a taper attachment to it for a project I have in the works. 

Regards,

Alan

 

I'm thinking of doing the generator separately... or maybe even an alternator. I have to find one I can disguise as being old and fit it into an aluminum box of some sort. I have the broken remnants of an early accessory generator to copy the general idea from. Then, I'm thinking I will rebuild the generator distributor unit as a distributor only. It would then be the same size as the original magneto and this would open up some space on that side of the engine and simplify installing the water pump (which I also have to make). Its really a matter of having learned so much since I did that job that I now can see how it could be done better. I don't begrudge the extra work, that is the only way I have to learn. It's a sort of self-imposed apprenticeship system.

 

L&S is a damn good machine!

Edited August 6, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I've had a nerve wracking week for reasons having nothing to do with this car but have gotten some shop time in. This photo of the hub from the front illustrates how arbitrarily the retaining hole was drilled and why lining it up with the key way was difficult.

 

 

As mentioned earlier, the last step is the dog teeth. It occurred to me that they have to mate perfectly with the teeth on the end of the hand crank. There is no better way to achieve this than to do them at the same time with the identical set up. I found a piece of Stressproof bar and started on that part.

 

 

This piece of bar is too big and too long but it will be easier to work with if it is trimmed to length after the teeth are cut. After turning the outside dimensions, I counterbored it about 3/8" deep with a boring bar.

 

 

Here is the finished piece. I left the area that will get milled into teeth thicker than the original, thinking that more surface area is better.

 

 

This brought up the problem of alignment. The two pieces should be perfectly in line with each other to minimize the chance of the hand crank slipping off when starting. That would be impossible with the very poorly bored bracket that holds the hand crank to the frame. When a hole is a misaligned as it was (see photo above) it cannot be drilled. Boring is the only good solution. I made a simple fixture out of angle iron and started boring out the Babbitt bushing on the mill with a boring head. This didn't prove to be very satisfactory because the Babbitt busning was so off center that I found it almost impossible to get the hole in the center of the iron casting. I then melted the Babbitt out and made an interesting discovery. While not perfectly straight, the bracket is not as out of line as I had thought. It was the Babbitt job that was really bad. I may have spoken too soon in criticizing the makers... the bushing could easily be a later, poor repair. With the Babbitt gone, the rough hole shows. I want to get this hole absolutely straight and parallel with the front cross member it bolts to. It cannot be shimmed or otherwise receive its final adjustment until after the engine is in place.

 

 

The boring came out reasonably good. Tomorrow I will make a steel bushing for this, to match the bored hole and reduce the ID to 1. Then I will bush that down to 7/8" with bronze.

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by JV Puleo
grammar & typos (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

That was a poor photo. This one shows the bore of the hand crank bracket better. I didn't try to take out all of the casting roughness. The casting itself isn't very straight so my goal was to get to the point where I could sleeve it.

 

 

The sleeve was made from a piece of 1" x 1-1/2" steel tubing. The bore of this tubing is usually slightly undersize so it was a quick job to run a 1" reamer through. It was then pressed on a 1" mandrel and turned to 1.340... the size of the bored hole. In its finished state, it will get 1" OD x .875 ID bushings.

 

 

The sleeve is a press fit, but not a terribly tight one. I was worried about cracking the casting. It will be fine as long as it doesn't move and eventually I'll add a screw in oiler that will permanently secure the casting, liner and bushing. This shows the bracket from the front with the sleeve centered reasonably well. Nevertheless, it probably won't line up with the engine as well as I would like so it is quite possible that I will have to slot the mounting holes and perhaps add some shims to line it up perfectly.

 

 

From the other side, it isn't quite as good but it now is mechanically straight, perpendicular and parallel to the cross member that it is bolted to.

 

 

Like many brass cars, the hand crank was spring loaded with a cross pin in it's shaft that engaged a notch when it wasn't in use. This was to hold it up. Paved roads were uncommon when these cars were built and you did not want the crank hanging down as it was usually lower than the front axle and could easily hit things in the road. I am not certain I'll make use of this. I may make a different type of holder for the crank handle, but it does show the often slipshod manner in which these things could be done. At some point, I'll mill the slot through the sleeve and probably continue it on the other side.

 

[Luv2Wrench]

Nice way to handle the damaged casting.  Thanks for sharing another creating technique!

 

[JV Puleo]

I've been really busy trying to finish making and installing windows in my house before winter and the cold weather hits but I thought I'd share this. After literally years of looking for a vertical mill that I thought well made and that I could afford, I managed to buy one in a Massachusetts scrapyard. It cost as much to transport it as it did to buy but it's 10 times the machine (at one third the price) of a worn out used Bridgeport. This is a Kerney & Trecker 2CH Vertical. It is easily the newest machine I own, having been built in 1960. I almost feel like a traitor to the antique machine world but these were very well thought of machines. Now I'll be able to use my horizontal Brown & Sharp as a true horizontal mill more often while the K&T should be better for boring and similar operations. This machine weighs 4,600 lbs and I had to remove the table in order to get it through the door. I now have only one more "machine goal" - a medium sized shaper. I've actually been promised one for free but we've got to figure out how to extract it from the garage it's stored in.

 

 

 

A good friend once commented that I was a hobbiest with a very unusual idea of what constituted a "hobby" machine shop.

Edited October 9, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[Luv2Wrench]

That's a great find Joe.  The K&T should be able to handle anything you'll ever ask of her.     I can see your friend's point, but Wikipedia defines Hobby as " a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time."   Since there is little enjoyment working with "hobby class" tools, it would see to me that you're doing it the correct way.  Unfortunately, doing things the correct way is becoming a bit unusual so I guess your friend is correct in describing your behavior.
 

[JustDave]

THERES A REASON IT WAYS 4000 LBS ITS MASSIVE COMPARED TO A BRIDGEPORT,I THINK A BRIDGEPORT WOULD WAY IN AT ABOUT HALF OR LESS,THATS A MASSIVE MACHINE IT WILL PROBABLY DO ANYTHING ASKED OF IT AND NEVER STALL,IVE SEEN THE WORK YOU PERFORM AND I THINK THIS WILL BE A GREAT ADDITION TO YOUR SHOP     DAVE

[dep5]

On Sunday, October 08, 2017 at 10:41 PM, JV Puleo said:

 Kerney & Trecker 2CH Vertical.

Do you have the doumentation/manuals? If not, i may have and will donate if I do.

[JV Puleo]

I have printouts I downloaded from a machinery site. They are ok but I'd certainly appreciate the originals as they would be clearer. I generally use the parts book as a guide in disassembly and reassembly and it's sometimes difficult to see what is going on from the printout. It's like using weak photocopies.... it works but not always well.

 

jp

[alsfarms]

Hey Joe,  It looks like you save the unit from being sent to China.  Very robust machine!  Good for you.

Al

[JV Puleo]

That I did. Sadly, all too many great old machines with lots of life left in them have ended that way.

Edited October 24, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

Even though I'm stuck with woodworking right now some progress is being made.

This arrived earlier this week. The grey surface is a result of the nitriding used to harden it. This also allowed us to leave the ends soft in case they still need some work. Since I made the timing gears and my friend made the cams (in Australia) it wasn't possible to fit the gears to the cams as they were being made.

 

 

Unfortunately, I won't know how well it works until the engine is back together but it's another major step toward that goal. I actually had two originals... both in terrible condition. For some reason, the Mitchell company used a flat lifter profile on their later Model T* engines even though the car has roller lifters. They also incorporated an oil pump, which the earlier car didn't have. We chose to make the cam with a roller lifter profile and to add the cam that drives the oil pump. The timing of the cams was taken from a study of Model T Ford camshafts as the nearest we could come to a modern scientific study based on the rpms and breathing characteristics of early engines.

 

I know it is hopelessly confusing now but it probably wasn't so in 1910... the Mitchell 4-cylinder touring car for 1910 and 1911 was designated the "Model T". Their 4-cylinder runabout was the R and their 6-cylinder touring car was the S.

Edited November 1, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[JV Puleo]

I misplaced the router bit I needed for my window project and had to wait two days for a new one... so I took the opportunity to do a little work on the crank bracket. I bushed the hole with thin wall, iron-bearing bronze. This is a material intended for shafts that turn intermittently but under great pressure – ideal for the hand crank. It took 3 bushings, one on top of the other to fill then entire hole and, because they have thin walls (1/16") and are tight, I made a little aluminum plug that fit into the bushing and still passed through the hole. I actually neede my 20 ton press for this. I then drilled and rethreaded the hole for the little Gits oiler and discoverd, NOT to my surprise, that the hole wasn't in the center. This really doesn't make a difference,. All it does is allow you to put a drop of oil on the shaft of the hand crank but it annoyed me so I've fitted a 1/8 pipe plug that I will mill off. Then I'll re-drill and thread the hole so it is in line with the crank handle.

 

 

 

The piece of heavy angle the bracket is bolted to will allow me to machine it without having to rely on grasping the highly irregular casting in the vise.

[alsfarms]

Hello Joe,  Did you get your window project done so you can work full time on the Mitchell?  Nice work on the crank assembly.

Al

[JV Puleo]

Not yet... Thankfully, we're having a mild winter so far. Of course, my notion of too cold and any normal person's are at odds. I've lived with a marginal heating system for so long if the temp gets above 45 I think it's almost hot!

[F&J]

On ‎12‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 4:50 PM, JV Puleo said:

Not yet... Thankfully, we're having a mild winter so far. Of course, my notion of too cold and any normal person's are at odds. I've lived with a marginal heating system for so long if the temp gets above 45 I think it's almost hot!

Mild EH? yea back on that date!! NOW??? lol...hey A LOT went on in my NEW whacky year of rebirth...oh dear. I could write for years!! Hey, I set some subconscious task in my brain back on Jan first...spare the details, but I KNOW it ends on the last second of my Birthday...DEC 31 !!! Ok?  Hey JUST yesterday a FEIRCE NEED to actually "use" an empty middle huge room in our house, with the only huge windows !!! and facing South!! overlooking our shops and land, the train, you name it!! Never MADE the time in the 10m years here!! Wow, a day of balz out frenzy by me..moving SO many things lost in storage boxes for years.. Look at the cool old coffee table (I repainted only it's top at 8pm!) Dried FAST near woodstove!) I added as the last thing late last night!!!   This morning  I put a "few things on it" >> Hey!!!... I am putting ONLY special to Me, and MY son Joe's things in this room...a big couch was nearly the only thing in there...a SLEEEPER couch..we will use this for friends or anyone who "needs" a place to stay, for a day or....who cares!! Hidden stuff in those words!! >>Ok?

[Frank Tate]

Glad to see you back posting Frank.

[JV Puleo]

I agree... but I wrote that on the 12th. We were having a mild winter. It's only since then that everything has gone to hell-in-a-handbasket.

Good to see you back Frank... I'm to busy just surviving in this weather to do much about cars right now.

Edited December 30, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[F&J]

2 hours ago, JV Puleo said:

I agree... but I wrote that on the 12th. We were having a mild winter. It's only since then that everything has gone to hell-in-a-handbasket.

Good to see you back Frank... I'm to busy just surviving in this weather to do much about cars right now.

hey, you asleep today, Joe?  I DID say something about I KNEW it was an OLDER weather report... BUT..hey, since I posted 3 hours ago?  My faithful VW wagon had to get towed home....first EVER time it did not get me home in ten years as my ONLY daily car!!..! Snow not a dusting like was said..My son got a call from my Banks teller, (I don't NEED a cell!! or triple A)..he is Ice fishing in town with other Big boys... they grabbed me to go get our trailer 10 minutes away, snowing good,.. we got her loaded FAST,,,and home...fishtailing the big black 4 door Diesel K3500...we ROCK!   I did want to stay at the bank while they fetched the trailer... oh baby... I sure can chat dem purdy cuties!! We were gonna go tobogganing if customers slacked off from the snow!!! 

[JV Puleo]

Well, not quite asleep but not paying attention. I noticed what you'd written AFTER I typed the response. It's damn cold here and I hadn't started the fire yet or had my first cup of coffee!

 

Cheers,

 

jp

Edited December 30, 2017 by JV Puleo (see edit history)