Stuff

apart from building fountains i have invested a considerable amount of time in sorting out all my rubbish. being a hoarder it does not bode well when you have limited space. i needed to get rid of some stuff (because i wanted to get other stuff).

i endeavored to replace the leaking roof on my single garage that i'm using as a workshop for all things with wheels. i had attempted many different things to try and safe the old fibrous cement roof and had just given up. i could stand the damp wetness no longer, everything that was inside this garage was getting destroyed by the leaking roof. so a new roof was going on. one days really hard work paid off. i officially have a dry place to work. i don't have to strategically place everything away from where the leaks where anymore. this was incredibly freeing!

now that it was dry i could go ahead and solve a problem that i have had for ages!

i have always coveted a proper too rack. to keep everything within reach and nicely organised. having some old crates on hand and just having heard of the french cleat system i got cracking to make this space accessible. i started with the garage looking like this:

there was no access and everything was being stored on top of each other and nothing was being packed away because it was too big a mission.

so for my tools i made this:

this was GREAT fun since every little shelf was a project on its own. all the shelves are modular and the entire rack can be re-arranged to suit the need at the time. having worked with it once or twice now, i'm in love... 

the racks look like this from the side:

i also made a shelf to triple the floor space along the back wall, it so worked out that the honda and the bike lift fit into the gap as if it was made for it! and although still full, i can walk in and use the workbench without removing anything from the garage. 

the work bench underneath the tool rack has been relegated to the driveway and the one on the other wall has been given a new back board and a new work top. the  bench vise was mounted on it and it was moved in place. 

the little blue table in the front (it was my childhood desk in my bedroom) will be put on wheels and will become a moving island in the garage that is the perfect height for stripping a DOHC CB750 engine. 

there is still a lot to be done but the place is becoming a much more functional space, adn i did not need to get rid of too much of my junk... 

Cornered

It seems that i'm not very diligent...

since my last post i have had a new addition to the family, a little boy full of life, and life has changed dramatically. for the better, but right now we are MUCH busier. apart from that there has been a couple of things that have happened, everyone has been ill and things are returning to a greater sense of normality. i'm feeling a little more human and it feels like my creative me is rearing his head again and it is feeling fantastic!

for the Honda, i have slowly been gathering more spares to do a complete rebuild on the engine. it is the right thing to do i suppose, these old bikes are great and the are reliable if kept in a proper state. so i thought it good to start with a clean page and take 3 engines that i now have and make one good one. new seals and gaskets EVERYWHERE, etc and so on. and what i don't use might be useful to someone else and could help me get some of my money back...

with all of that happening in the background. i have had this ugly little corner in my garden that has been a thorn in my side for some time. we have attempted to get various different plants to grow there, and it has not been very successful... too little sun and being stingy with municipal water is not a helpful combination. what this area needed was a water feature...

i have a relatively old house and a modern looking thing would be completely out of place. i don't really care for "rock art" so that was out too... decided that i'll design my own.

being in shade most of the time minimizes water loss due to evaporation, and is a great spot for the lilies that we have been trying to propagate. when this was published the new leaves had just made their appearance. this has really made a great difference to my little back yard and the has brought a nice calming feel.

Start again

well so much water under the bridge since the last post... life switches on an indicator and switches to the fast lane and one needs to focus as not to miss the turn off.

the honda has been a nightmare. brakes and all were serviced. and it fired up nice and easily after refitting everything. the bike however did not want to idle normally once it warmed up. narrowed the fault down to the carbs and removed them and cleaned them. replaced some suspect o-rings with what i could get hold off. seemed to be fine. fitted the carbs back to the bike. same problem.

so dad jumps into the picture and buys me a kit to rebuild all four carbs. new jets, new, rubbers, new everything. decided that if i'm going to this, i'll do it propperly and i stripped the entire bank of carbs down to bits. clenaed everything. all the small passages pushed clear using a guitar string. re-assemble. fit the carbs to the bike. same problem. oh the disappointment. incessant head scratching insued. pulled the bank of carbs off again and checked the idle passages again with the guitar string. i remembered that in the kit there were new slow idle jets but the new ones were made for a newer model carburettor which unlike mine screw into the carb body instead of being pressed in. i thought since they are the same size let me see what the jet passage looks like. took the new jet tried the guitar string and noticed it does not fit... ran up to the house opened my guitar case and found one that fitted through the jet. went back the bank of carbs, pushed the guitar string through (this time really through) all the slow idle jets,  refit it. and ther you have it.

there was a lesson in there for me: if you have the wrong strings on your guitar, then your bike will not run!

so now i have a minor problem with an old spring on the brake pedal and i need a new headlamp, then we have a bike that will pass the road worthy test and we will be off! it has been nearly three years and too much money. really close now. still cannot believe that the bike is running. i think i'll go start it agian this afternoon...

Progress

Well the Honda has been standing long enough for the petrol in the tank to start going off (yes fuel also goes off).

I found a bike that is a bit newer that was involved in a crash but the motor made it unscathed, bought it, and started the transplant of the motor from one frame to the other.

The frame that I got had a whole bunch of little things on that are still in very good condition, that mainly makes the projet a little better aesthetically. What a great experience working on something old and having spares right there on hand, little things like a power cable that still has all the little rubber end covers on, handle bar controls that have not been through the war and so on.

I also got my bike lift working and the project bike is now mounted on the lift. this makes it wonderfull working since the bike can easily be moved around the workshop and is a little higher so no more back breaking bending over or sitting on the cold cement floor.

Currently I'm waiting for some spares to service the front brake master cylinder and a new brake light switch for the front brakes. Hopefully everything works and we will have this bike back on the road within the next month or two! hope to keep you posted! 

Play house

A couple of months ago I got given a pile of crates that required a better end than the scrap heap. so i stripped them all into sheets and designed a little playhouse for my 2 year old girl. I bought some 38x38mm batons that were treated for insects and cut slots in them. i then slid the sheets into the slots and made a basic box with holes for windows and a door.

Needless to say this Impressed Emily to no end! she was running screaming with her hands above her head lie the woman that get stuff on the Oprah's favourite things show.

I lined the door and window holes with more slotted batons. making the structure stiffer and stiffer as I went.

No house is complete without a roof, so up went some trusses and i made a little patio outside the front door. i had paint left from  painting my house and covered the entire structure with a couple of coats to seal and cover the wood.



With it being easier to paint a room where you can stand up straight, i decided to get most of the painting done before the roof went on. All the trusses got a coat of Plascons "Carrot Muffin", and i painted the inside of the house the same colour as Emily's bedroom.

Had to putt a tarp over the top since it started raining and the roof was not up yet...

I took some more of the sheets and cut them into strips fr the roof. A friend let me use his nail gun to get the sheets onto the roof. After being very sceptical of the nail gun idea i must say that after having used one, the sincere need to have one in my tool kit settled on me in earnest. Now I just need to convince my wife. the entire roof got coated in a water based bitumen type product and then painted with roof paint.

Things got a bit busy and the house stayed like this for a couple of months. Until last week when my wife reminded me that the house still needs a door. I remembered an old folding desk that we converted into a shelf by removing the desk top. I thought that a solid pine stable door would do the trick and proceeded and cutting up the old desk top. I routed a lip so the doors could hook into each other and made a heart shaped peep hole in the upper door. these then got hung with some cabinet hinges, and it looked pretty cool.

Everything then got taken off, sanded down and varnished. In anticipation of this door i had turned some door handles on my little lathe and made something up so that there would be some way to grip the door.

The handles got mounted on the door with some sliding bolts on the inside to connect the upper and lover door and to "lock" the door into the door frame. I added a little piece of off cut wood to the lower end of the door frame to ensure that the door could not be pushed past closed by an over enthusiastic little one.

Inside of the house needed some touch ups so i repainted the ceilings and the touched up the trusses. the skirtings also got painted. no little cottage under a fig tree is complete without some terracotta tiles so next i taped some masking tape on the floor and painted the floor. .

The end result was pretty pleasing, Emily loves it and all her dolls have had a meal in her "new" house.

Covered in clay

So my mom in law turned 60 a couple of weekends ago and we signed up for a visit to celebrate. The visit turned into an early Christmas because we will not be seeing that part of the family over the actual Christmas time. 

This year moms house was full and we got to stay with my wife's dad on the farm just outside the village. He lives in a house that he literally built with his own hands. 

Cob, a mixture of clay and dry grass, is rolled into balls, slapped in place and shaped with your hands making the wall. This is done in a circular fashion, working your way around the wall until you get back to where you started, by which time the cob should be dry enough to start the next layer.

This process is followed until the desired height s reached. After all this you need to seal the clay from the rain, else it will just become a neatly washed pile of mud. To seal it, it gets plastered with a mix of clay and lime. Then you roof it, floor it, furnish it and move in (in short that is).

What a lovely place. Because of the thick natural walls the temperature is beautifully regulated inside, summer and winter. None of the walls are perfectly straight, giving the house a lovely natural feel.

At night everything settles due to temperature differences, making the house feel alive as it moves at night. A huge porch gives a lovely farmhouse feel and give a great vantage point to enjoy a stunning view over the farm and of the surrounding mountains.

The only thing missing is a line up of motorcycles and some sort of a test track... LOL!! I don't think that dad will bite though... :)

tripple power for the tandem

well. here we go. the family fun ride has become a little cumbersome and required some extra power. so a little (and i mean little) searching brought up a local guy in south africa that imports a little engine for a bicycle and that just seemed right up my ally check it out at www.ecotrax.biz . order placed and took delivery of the kit yesterday.

with this part of the blog i hope to keep up with the progress of the transformation of the bike. will start posting pics as soon as there are some pics to post.

hope you enjoy.