Pedals, Plumbing, Pucks and Pickets

So, as my friend Todd keeps mentioning it's been a while since I've updated this.

I started at least two, if not more, updates but never quite seemed to get enough of them done to bother publishing.

Today I've been working on brackets to replace the pieces of plywood on the big arbor/trellis I built my Mom last year. Gaps are opening up at the bottom of the joints between the sections. I'm guessing that the force of the arch is pushing the posts out allowing the joint to open up. It's not really a structural problem; my nephew was doing chin-ups on one of the cross braces at Easter and he's pretty good sized. I'd guess he weighs around 180 pounds. But it looks bad and it might be a problem in a few years.

To make the brackets I'm cutting a pattern out of 1/16th thick steel plate with a jigsaw for the ones on the outside faces. The ones on the inside of the trellis will be steel strap that has holes every 3/4 of an inch. It's about an inch and a half wide. The entire bracket is a bit over 8 inches long. It's six inches from center of the hole to the center of the other hole.

The black/blue color is from tempering them with a hand-held MAP gas torch (like a propane torch, but a bit hotter). I glued a paper template on them to show where to drill/cut and using the torch was easier than trying to sand off all of the paper. And I like playing with fire.

After I cut them out and filed/ground (most) of the oopses and rough edges off I took a ball-peen hammer and hammered the back of the bracket to make a convex front. It also makes them curve the long way, but a couple of smacks with a rubber mallet flattens them back out. The curve adds both strength and texture to hide the imperfections. (Or at least a little bit of the imperfections).

I finally started riding my bicycle to work. It's about 6 miles one-way. Rode Tuesday through Friday last week but I'm probably going to wimp out tomorrow as the temperature forecast is 35F in the morning. That wouldn't be so bad, but I have a down-hill about 1/4 mile from my house and that's pretty cold when you add a 30 MPH wind-chill on top of it. I've also a part of a program to finish writing before I can leave work tomorrow; so I might be staying a wee bit late. (No headlight on the bicycle.)

Two weekends ago I got the lovely task of replacing a septic line (hence the Plumbing in the title.) I had rescue rooter come out, but they couldn't get the snake to go all the way through. I was pretty sure that it was tree roots in the line. And it was, but the line was also slightly smashed. Which is what let the tree roots in in the first place.

The line sits directly on the gas-main for my road. They didn't fill under the septic line where it went over the gas main and smashed the septic line when they back-filled. The smashed part was too narrow for the head on the snake. So I got to dig it all up (by hand) and replace it and back fill. Luckily it wasn't too far down and a bit less than 25 feet. (I've hand dug about 535 feet of drainage tile on my property so far...I've a60 foot (or so) ditch open right now that I should finish.)

The night before I started digging septic lines was the final playoff for the Hockey team I play on. We finally made it to the finals. The last time we made it that far was nine years ago. I had a good game, but unfortunately the rest of the team didn't.

I also finally got the picket fence I started last year cut out, put together, stained and put in place. The jig I used to make it looked pretty cool. Something about all the repeated elements. The fence has been up since March.