Love of lathes.

[pwdrive]

Warm and sun here as well, been processing firewood, almost too hot...

Lawrence.

[AlanBeckett]

Good word 'Processing' as it covers a multitude of Sins.
I did a few hours processing in the Greenhouse, which just about did for me

Alan

[pwdrive]

Yes, processing, what can I say, unloading, sawing, splitting, moving, stacking plus tea breaks, at least three...

Lawrence.

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Big Al; its nice to be missed. You are very nearly right Colin; I've been in the garage today. I was at Morrison's supermarket for when it opened this morning at 8 o'clock and it was pouring with rain and blowing a gale; this persisted until dinner time when it stopped raining but the wind remained so it's upsetting to learn my personal cloud once again won't let me be. I think the wind has finally dropped but now I couldn't care less and hope my black cloud falls out of the sky.

I was in the garage early and have been masking the Lorch parts ready to receive paint; it's amazing just how long this simple job takes but in fairness I also got into a bit of filling and sanding on the cast iron tray.

This afternoon I completed the masking and the first picture is dedicated to Lawrence " What's Alfies secret"? I mentioned in another thread this morning that I have at last found a use for the TV guide and here it is.

Once the masking was completed I spent a while trying to sort out the compressor air/water separator; I had bought this second separator for use with the soda/hard media blaster so now finally got around to playing with it. I looked at my stock of air fittings and with luck have come up with an excellent solution; I've now arranged it so that I can simply plug this filter in series between compressor and hose plugging it directly into the compressor outlet and this also means it is fully mobile together with the compressor; I've not tried it yet but hope it isn't affected by vibration? I can quickly remove it when not needed.

I finished off with a good long hot soak in the bath so once again I'm squeaky clean but only until tomorrow when I think the weather forecast is better for this area but I'll believe it when I see it? I still need to give the brand new LVLP spray-gun a deep clean to remove storage oil then I think I'm ready to start paint spraying; I wonder what's going to crop up to stop me tomorrow?

How come all around me has been a lovely day; what have I ever done wrong to deserve this persistent lousy weather? It's possible my projects would be boring if I didn't have to fight so hard to make the slightest progress.

Kind regards, Col.

               

[pwdrive]

I know what Alfies secret is, he's into sport behind his partner...

Lawrence

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks for that Lawrence; very much appreciated. I only knew it was related to Eastenders because it said so on the page. Bron and I watched some of the first ever episodes of Eastenders and after each one we felt suicidal?

Kind regards, Col.

[Retired]

Hi,

I played around in the garage this morning getting everything set up for undercoating the Lorch items and waiting for the temperature to rise a bit outside. After dinner the fun started; I covered lots of items in the garage with bed sheets and in the garage entrance and onto the drive laid a large tarpaulin.

I also stripped the brand new LVLP (low volume; low pressure) gun to de-grease it taking my time to do a good job. The pot of tea is important.

Once I started spraying the troubles kicked in; the compressor wasn't building up pressure in the tank and by now I was wearing the respirator so investigated and eventually found one of the outlet quick connectors was stuck in the open position; I bet I couldn't get it to do this if I wanted it to? I always nip the gun handle in the big engineering vice when I'm loading with paint and thinners; this tends to mark the gun handle a bit but it's much better than having paint all over the place.

What a truly lousy climate I live in on the valley; I had started to spray one of the leg assemblies so now the gentle breeze turned into a gusty gale rattling the garage doors and flapping the tarpaulin around so I added more bricks to weight the tarpaulin and carried on spraying; still no good; by now the wind had got its breath and was actually blowing the over spray from the tarpaulin onto the new wet paint. In total disgust I stopped spraying and set about moving the heavy legs then folding up the tarpaulin and putting it away. Next I lay another old bed sheet on the floor and weighted this down; now at last I could resume spraying.

I had mixed the paint a bit too thickly but it was going on so I carried on spraying; the new spray gun is excellent and I'm sure with more adjusting I can reduce over-spray even more but as it is it is already a vast improvement over the other guns I own; a novice would like this gun because it doesn't put out a huge amount of paint; I found it very easy to use and as I was using cellulose primer runs were not a problem because this primer holds up well even with a good coat applied.

So far I've used two full guns of primer and still not under-coated the bed; I got fed up of the wind trying to spoil the job so have just knocked off and given the gun a good clean; I'm pleased though to have reached the stage where I'm applying paint rather than removing paint; I know which is the easier of the two to do.

Tomorrow morning I'll inspect the new paintwork and perhaps give it a light flatting then after dinner spray the bed first then apply more primer to the parts already sprayed; hopefully once this is done then I will be able to apply more primer to the bed; this will bring all the parts level regarding primer thickness allowing me to apply the top coats next session?

Strangely as I've come up into the bungalow it appears calm outside? I'm happy though to see this job progressing well.

Kind regards, Col.

               

[camallison]

I can see where you went wrong Col. This afternoon, I wanted to do some work on a wooden planter I have been building and it was just as windy. So, I took a PINT MUG of tea out with me and, knowing I meant business, the wind dropped. Show it that you mean business Col!

Colin

PS - the paint job so far looks brilliant.

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks for the suggestion Colin. Enough is enough though so this morning I was in the garage early with a plan to beat the weather and this plan I must admit is well overdue.

I had tried spraying using a large tarpaulin to protect the floor but this failed due to it being picked up by the wind coming up the valley even though I had weighted it with bricks. I was thinking about this long term problem in bed last night and wondered if I could use the same tarpaulin but this time as a wind break?

I pulled the car out of the garage and parked it safely well away from the action then I got the tarpaulin out together with rope and sections of washing line; I meant business and I didn't care what this lash up looked like. We have a 40' long deck running full length to the front of the bungalow and it extends over the top of the garage doors when the doors are open as the garage is located directly beneath the bungalow. I took advantage of both doors these providing two side of the wind break and I erected the tarpaulin securely tying it to the decking supports at the top; at the bottom I weighted it with bricks; stones and even an old electric motor; this still wasn't good enough though because the tarpaulin was now behaving like a large sail flapping around making quite a bit of noise; I calmed it down by stretching a rope across two deck supports to take most of the fight out of it; it's a calm day for us today but it still managed to move the bricks and heavy motor until I added the rope.

Because the tarpaulin is a dark colour it now blocked out a lot of light so I ended up switching the strip lights on; the compressor was then wheeled out and set up; the old bed sheet was again placed on the floor and at last I had relative peace from the weather in my own little world; it was most annoying having the wind keep billowing the tarpaulin but at least now on my side it was calm at last; all I need to do now is to obtain some heavy gauge clear polythene sheeting and add suitable battens because it worked a treat and I've now undercoated lots of the Lorch big items ready to receive the top coat. After dinner I think the wind finally realized I had won and has mostly gone to pester someone else in fact I think it might now be heading your way Colin; sorry about this.

Yesterday I used my brand new LVLP (low volume; low pressure) spray gun for the first time and it worked well enough giving lots of control but I found it rather uncomfortable to handle unlike my other guns? This morning though I wasn't taking any nonsense and whatever was thrown at me the Lorch parts were going to receive cellulose primer. I pulled out my HVLP (High volume; low pressure) spray gun and loaded it with paint and set to with a vengeance; I knocked off about 2 o'clock and put the kit away after cleaning the gun then I washed the car. I'm just cooling down because I'm not used to warm bright sunshine at such a high 16 degrees which it is today; it makes me feel giddy? Next job is to cut the grass on the mountain which is always a brilliant workout for me assuming the petrol mower will fire up after its long winters sleep?

Whilst in the garage I thought I'd take a picture of a few of my spray guns. Starting from left to right in the picture; LVHP; HVLP; LVLP and a touch up gun I bought but dislike using because the trigger is on top of the handle. I also have another LVHP gun and two air brushes so I think I'm sorted regarding spray guns and hopefully after this mornings success I will be able to spray paint more often in the future?

I've so far had a lovely day. For many years I've always worked around the dire weather now the dire weather can work around me; I should have taken the time to experiment with a wind break long ago but better late than never? You might need your mug of tea Colin if I've deflected the wind in your direction.

Kind regards, Col.

       

[camallison]

Flat calm all day here Col - good enough for me to treat one of our planters to a new coat of preservative - another coat tomorrow. I think the wind was really frightened, because I took a flask of coffee and my insulated mug out with me.

The planter is in the attached pic - castors make it more suited to rolling it around when full. It is normally chained to a stout anchor fixed to the bungalow wall with tamper-proof bolts and similar anchor on the planter itself. The chain I use is anchor chain normally used for mooring small sailing boats, galvanized, and the locks are premium "sold secure" shed padlocks.

As you possibly can guess, we have roaming toe-rags come around "lifting" what they fancy, but NOT my planters.

Colin