Good morning

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

My wife is having a hen party today, and so I’m going to bail out and try to work on my bicycle.

A little.

I did an awful lot of cleanup work outdoors yesterday, and I am kind of burnt.

There are nine days left in the rat bike build off competition. That’s probably just enough time to finish the jig and do the welding and painting and reassemble the bike.

In truth, it’s probably only about 15 hours work but somehow I have to squeeze that in between the normal life disasters. It seems like it should be plenty but somehow I feel that it isn’t.

Well at least today I won’t have to cook, because there will be plenty of leftover food from the party.

Have a nice Saturday you guys.

 

[meanstreak]

Good morning to yous. Beauty of a day in the far northeast reaches of Oklahoma. Mid to low 90s and fair skies today. Tomorrow promises more of the same.

Ya'll have a great day .

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

So you know how it goes: Two equals one and one equals none.

I had a nice ride on the bicycle with Judy today, and I have missed 3 days, because my favorite bicycle’s been torn apart for four days now. Instead I rode my backup bicycle. D’oh!!!

Every day I have been working in the boat yard to get it cleaned up.

Today I went out there after my ride, and pruned a bunch of offending shrubbery, cleaned up the mess, and put up another tarp over my workspace.

I sorted out my tools a little bit and by that time it was almost 90° and I was tired and hungry.
I will go out there later and get my contest bicycle set up on the rack.

There is only about 10 more days left to finish the bike. It has only taken this long because everything was such a mess in my work areas.

Finally I have all my clamps back!

That’s not all of them but that’s all the ones that were holding my rack together while I welded it.

 

[meanstreak]

Good morning Mossbergers. We are still in the 90s and it still feels good.

Cadd, that is a nice looking bike. Very purposeful and businesslike.

You all have a great day.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossbergers. We are still in the 90s and it still feels good.

Cadd, that is a nice looking bike. Very purposeful and businesslike.

You all have a great day.

Thanks Meanie!

Considering that it was a junker when I got it, she turned out to be a very speedy and sturdy bicycle.

I’ve ridden it many times, and I’ve been really happy with the Sturmey Archer coaster brake arrangement.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.
The weather here has been a little cooler & California beautiful. I was able to work outside until about four yesterday so it did get over 100°Eventually.

I got the Mongoose bicycle all stripped down and ready to bolt up on the weld fixture.

That jig, however, is not there yet.

I have spent a lot of time & effort trying to preserve some things that I have saved for future projects, and cleaning up my cluttered junkyard/ boatyard/ welding yard/rat nest, and now I can finally work out there more comfortably.

 

[CaddmannQ]

OK, it is clamped, cut and bent.



Now I have to make some parts & weld it back together.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners. Things are going so well in the boat yard that I’m kind of slacking off.

What I’m really trying to do is design some filler pieces for my frame. The steel is 6 mm which is almost a quarter inch.


This this looks funny it’s because I didn’t flip the frame yet. I only flipped the photograph.

I was so happy to get the frame set up successfully on a jig, and squared away, and cut, and nearly ready to weld.

But it was exhausting and instead of cooking I wanted to celebrate, so I took my wife out for beer and burgers at the local socialite place.

I’m still trying to recover from that a little bit. Judy was drinking some blonde light beer, but I went for the old Rasputin imperial Russian stout.

I think you make that by taking coffee grounds and stale German beer and running them through a blender. But the stuff is twice as potent as regular beer so one glass was enough. Actually, nowadays one glass of anything is enough.

It’s a beautiful day here in California and perfect welding weather right now. I will not weld this entire frame outdoors however. I’m going to get it tacked up and braced and remove it from the fixture and take it indoors where my argon won’t keep blowing away.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

Yesterday I had some appointments to take care of and some shopping to do so I didn’t get to do any welding.

I did do about six different mock ups on my frame gussets.

I like the first one that I did, which is the one I posted here, the best.

This is my tire painting experiment. I shot this rotten old bicycle tire with a couple applications of white Plasti-dip spray.


I really did not think this would work but I think with three applications on a clean tire it could look pretty good.

I can’t get a white wall tire for the front of my bike. Nobody makes one in that size. But I have a traditional gum wall tire, and if I shoot it, I might get it to look like the yellowed whitewall on the rear of the bike.



It’s quite lovely right now at seven in the morning but temperatures are projected to be around 105 to 111 this week. They say we will break a record but it’s just our normal temperatures for Fresno in August.

I’m probably just going to hang around here today and try to finish my welding. You all have a nice day.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Ready to weld up, but it got too hot in the boatyard.

 

[John A.]

I’m still trying to recover from that a little bit. Judy was drinking some blonde light beer, but I went for the old Rasputin imperial Russian stout.

I think you make that by taking coffee grounds and stale German beer and running them through a blender. But the stuff is twice as potent as regular beer so one glass was enough. Actually, nowadays one glass of anything is enough.

I understand. I'm like that too. I don't drink near as much as I did when I was young. Thing is, I can get a 12 pack and it will last for months now. When I was young, it was gone on Friday night.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

I need to get out there and weld before it gets too hot. I have the filler plates drilled and shaped.

 

[CaddmannQ]

I took a lot of time to fit up the plates and get everything squared away, so I didn’t get everything welded. I did however get 10 good tack welds on it, which was enough for me to take the thing out of the jig and flip it around.

Setting up:


The 10 tacks.


The backside:


Frame flipped.

It’s got to be 110 today, although there was a little bit of breeze. I have to finish welding when it’s cooler and calmer.

Meanwhile I’m trying to mock up some brackets for my sissy bar. I’ll try to get those shaped up tonight so I can weld them tomorrow.

 

[Bobster]

I did however get 10 good tack welds on it, which was enough for me to take the thing out of the jig and flip it around.

Lookin' good, Cadd. Those look "hot" for "tack" welds so I would tone it down a bit. You don't want to lose your temper! (or the temper of the metal! )

PS: I'm basing this on the visible HAZ (Heat-Affected-Zone--the "rainbow") but I'm not there to fully scutinize...

 

[CaddmannQ]

I think I should’ve had the heat up about 10 more amps and went faster. The HAZ looks too large because I did the welding too slow.

Judging by how the drilling went, I think those filler plates are only 36 KSI steel while the bicycle plate is 50 KSI.

I was very anxious to finish the welding and do a test ride assembly, but I am not feeling too spunky right now.

The bicycle contest ends on Sept 6, so I still have a few days to finish up and do some quick paint.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Well I did more grinding snd shaping but no welding yet.




I need to get the paint off of those parts and put some holes on the backside where you won’t see them. It will be much easier to drill them before they’re welded on.

 

[CaddmannQ]

 

[CaddmannQ]

Good morning Mossberg Owners.

Well I got a pretty good night’s sleep last night, and woke up early.

It’s nice out, and I think today I will be able to get all my welding done, and perhaps even paint.

The contest ends Tuesday before lunch, so everything’s gonna be finished and submitted by then. There will not be enough time to do a complete custom paint job.

You guys have a nice day.

 

[CaddmannQ]

Well I was welding a T-shirt and I and wound up with a nice case of sunburn inside my elbows.

This is about the nicest weld I made all day.

I’m not gonna show you the rest of them because I don’t want Bob to wear out his “”keys.

Now I have lots of prep work to do before I can paint. It’s gonna need a little epoxy filler as well.

 

[Scoop]

Cadd, ya gotsa give us a shot of your elbows!