Sally report

Took all day yesterday power washing and cleaning up Sally for painting. Took off the atrociously bent up fenders. Found some locally for less than Northern Tools wanted for just one of them. Ordered the decal package. Did some wet sanding to clean up some scrapes.

I did find lots of sludge in the bottom of the generator in the front. I used bent rods to clean it out, and it was at least a gallon of pieces. Hope it doesn't affect performance. I'm wondering if the rear seal of the engine is leaking, and may have to repair that down the line. Going to get some spray cans of heat paint and start on some motor pieces, waiting on the wind to quit so I can paint the big pieces.

I did learn yesterday that I need to make some cheater pipes. I was breaking loose some simple 3/8" bolts with 9/16" heads that were rusted on there. Sure made my hands sore using ratchets. I wouldn't put a cheater pipe on a ratchet, but would use a breaker bar. It's just that with my weaker hands, I am always needing a cheater for one thing or another. I'll just gather some pipes and make an assortment.

Then, I take coumadin, and at the end of the day, I'm usually bloody. My wife has finally gotten used to it, and knows if it's bad, I'll stop for some first aid. Other than that, sand and sludge usually stop the bleeding as fast as anything.

Anyway, Sally is moving along, and that pretty shiny new black radiator is going to look good in there. For the price, it should. Some new fenders, lights, and tires will top it off.

Steve

Keep an eye on this, and keep it clean.

Save yourself some money, avoid using spray cans in general, and IMHO heat paint is not required for painting motors. IMHE all paint is going to burn off the exhaust manifold but any good quality machinery enamel will give good results on the rest of the engine.

I have had good luck using marine enamel as it seems to be of higher quality than standard machinery enamel but it does dry slower mainly because it is normally thinned with paint thinner rather than zylene which tends to flash off quicker. Because of the slower flash off, marine enamel will tend to run easier on vertical surfaces so thinner coats should be used (particularly in cool weather). Marine enamel seems to have a superior finish and retains gloss better. I prefer plain enamel over automotive paints as they are cheaper and easier to touch up.

I use old style air spray equipment and electric airless sprayers. I understand that there are advantages to the newer HVLP sprayers but have not yet purchased one. I think air spray equipment will give a better finish than electric airless and are better for all position work, but it is hard to beat the convenience and initial cost of the airless. The airless sprayers are cheap but I suggest getting one that will shoot latex paint as they have harder (carbide?) pumps and will last much longer. An airless sprayer is really handy for putting a coat of primer on a small fab or repair job and is one of the little things that will make your work look very professional to your customers. I often do not even bother to clean the sprayer because if you are using it every day the pressure is high enough to blast off the little bit of paint that dries on the nozzle. YMMV I suspect that you can pay for the sprayer with the money you save painting just this welder and trailer. An added benefit of avoiding spray cans is that you can easily have custom colors mixed by your paint supplier.

snip

coumadin, ????????

and at the end of the day, I'm usually bloody. My

Sounds like you need to be wearing gloves. IMHO gloves should be worn for (almost) ALL work. It is largely a matter of practice, with the right kind of gloves (the cheaper the better, (if you are buying them yourself,) IMHO they count as 'consumables') most mechanical work can be done with gloves on and they will really reduce the blood and have the added benefit of reducing skin contact with chemicals and will keep everything cleaner.

On my current industrial jobs, gloves are REQUIRED to be worn at ALL times as this significantly reduces injury and first aid costs. The tool cribs are full of all kinds, the most highly prized are the outside seam all leather riggers gauntlet gloves that come in actual sizes (9-10-11) but are expensive and only issued to the ironworkers who thankfully are willing to trade with the crane operators and welders in exchange for hats and other good stuff we get that they don't. I also like the synthetic winter glove liners as they are thin, dry easily and are washable, but (used alone) are only suitable for fine mechanic work and weld layout.

You should probably also be thinking about mufflers. You will be working around your trailer a lot and an old school unmuffled engine will do nothing to preserve your hearing or your relations with your neighbors. You will need to be wearing hearing protection when grinding and for other work like ArcAir and may not notice how loud it seems for others. There are small round mufflers that will fit inside the case but they are still quite loud and will bother your neighbors. Any old muffler can be temporarily placed over a straight stack above the inside case muffler (remove the rain cap) and will improve your neighbor relations. Neighbors seem to be particularly bothered by the cycling of noise caused by the idle system.

Good luck, work safely.

Dang, once again, you hit on some main issues with only minimal clues. How do you do it? ;-)

I have an air compressor and a new paint pot. I've sprayed a lot of stuff in my time, and will give this a decent spraying without going overboard, as this is probably the last spray this old gal will ever get.

I have a problem working with gloves, although I have had luck lately with Makita and IronMan gloves, but they are rather spendy. Welding gloves are just too bulky to get the feel I like to have when handling the nasty nasty

4 or 4.5 " grinders. Did I say nasty? I'm sorry, I meant to say NASTY. That's that meanest dog in the yard.

I was just looking at the muffler situation the other day thinking about quieting it down. I just got new hearing aids last week ($3400) and am now on a crusade to keep these as long as possible and not wear them in dirty conditions or high noise conditions, etc. But, I did have an unusual experience the other day. I was listening to Rush on earphones while running my grinder, and with the new technology, the hearing aids were filtering out the grinder noise, and allowing me to hear Rush. Please keep comments to a minimum as to which was noise, and which was unwanted sound ............

I called Ace today, and they don't have spray cans in the same color as the quart sized paint. Odd. Just wanted to get into some nooks and crannies and get the hard to reach places. As I said, I'll give her a good squirt and call it good. Probably go tomorrow and just get all the fenders and stuff and have it all here for painting. Laid it out today on my 16' extension ladder for painting. Handy, tho the ladder comes up looking like a Grateful Dead T shirt. May take it up to my work area that has a shade frame where I can hang it with wire and get it all around, and the circulating air helps dry it and the sunshine bakes it.

But, alas, we should have partly cloudy, rainy, windy weather for a few days. So, I'll just get ready. God knows I've got enough projects going with remodeling and new construction. I'm having fun though to dodge off for a couple of hours here and there to work on welding stuff.

Steve

Get a pair of the Tillamn TIG gloves and try them as general work gloves. Once you try them you'll likely be hooked on them. When my welding pair gets a bit grungy I switch them to general work glove duty and put a fresh pair into welding service. They're better and cheaper than the fancy "mecanix" and similar gloves.

"Pete C." wrote

Are you talking about the thin pigskin Tillman TIG gloves? I used them when I was TIGging stainless steel. I like them, and they fit nice and tight.

Steve

Don't recall which skin they are, but they are nice and thin and after the first half hour of use they really fit your hand well. Seem to recall them being a good 1/3 lower cost than the Mecanix gloves too.

Gnaw - the MIG gloves I bought for use at the fireplace. The China made red dyed gloves I was given for Christmas work at the fireplace had some chemicals in it that tried to turn my hands into leather.

The Tillman MIG gloves are so nice. My wife like them better.

Such is life. Now to buy some gloves for the shop - my 750's are biting the dust.

Mart> "Pete C." wrote

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Agreed. Grinding is by far the worst part of metalworking. Like Pvt. said, I wear different gloves for different tasks. The only time I don't wear any is when I'm doing layout.