Hampton Fly-Market 2016

Saturday was the annual Hampton New Hampshire Fly-Market (aviation boot sale for yous foreigners) . So we went down for the morning to see whats new. Did not find anything that I absolutely needed among the items for sale, so we just checked out the planes and visited with friends and acquaintances .

Saw a perfectly restored Piper J-5 in the hangar

The J-5 is the Cub Cruiser with the wider fuselage and roomier back seat and a 100 hp engine

Looked like the day it was delivered from the factory

Its available for sale  . . . .  and if I hit the Lottery I'd be all over it .

Same mechanic was working on a restoration of a Taylorcraft

He sure does nice work

He had a freshly restored Aeronca Champ available for sale as well.

On the flight line there were the usual suspects, so I won't bore you too much with them all

This one an old Cessna 195

And the yellow mongrel had a new coat of paint

A Grumman Widgeon made an appearance

Straight out of Tales Of The Gold Monkey, except with some new-fangled electronics

Quite roomy and with the back seats out it would make for a nice camper

A classic from the 1940s still flying today

Among the homebuilts was a new Tatcher CX-4

80 mph on a VW boxer engine sipping three gallons an hour. Not bad

And spent a few minutes chatting with Bill Beauvais who was building a Corvair engine for his Fly-Baby and had a few extra bits for sale .

Welfare Bum Eradication Program

Seems the local welfare bums have been getting a bit aggressive lately . They were not content with the bird food on the patio floor but have now taken to crossing the power lines from the pole to the house and attempting to get in to the bird feeders hanging on the soffits of the foyer . So it was time to dig out the old homemade critter trap .

In no time flat Number One found out the free food is never really free .

A day later Number Two learned his lesson and also went for a ride a few miles away , over by the town dump , where he has to cross several roads to make it back this way .

Today I watched Number Three go in and come back out . But he was way too tempted and soon his fate was sealed .

Pretty good for some old chicken wire and an old Coleman stove lid I found by the side of the road .

We've also had this little critter visit on occasion . He is most definitely not a Gray Squirrel, and not a Chipmunk , but he don't look like any red squirrel I have ever seen . And I have never seen any reds around here in 13 years we have lived here .

Here is a profile shot of him . He best look out if he tries any funny business with me he'll be joining the other three trouble makers over by the town dump.

We've also had a pair of Gold Finches visit . Never had them here before .

A pair of Catbirds have been coming around as well .

And most interesting of all a Red Breasted Grosbeak .

He is definitely a new one to us .

Our bird book says he is a cousin to the Cardinal , and he may well be , but they don't really like each other as the Cardinal let him know whose bird feeder it was and chased him away .

Different looking guy for sure .

Kitchen remodel progress

Bought a couple more 6x6 timbers last week .

Ten foot long is just about the limit of what I can handle alone .

Of course since they are rough cut, and the thickness planer only opens up to six inches, they did not want to go though the machine if there was any variation, so I had to hit some stubborn spots with the hand planer when they got stuck.

I should have cut them down to length first so they'd be easier to handle, but I wanted to clean them up first so I could select the better looking part of them .

Not a lot of fun on this part .

Got the new kitchen window trimmed and re-shingled back in .

Did my best to reuse some of the old weathered shingles so it would blend in .

Then it snowed three inches and the welfare bums came for a handout .

By noon the next day the snow was mostly gone .

Cut the timbers to length and cut a shallow tenon on the top end to fit in the mortise I previously made in the beam.

Sanded them and knocked the corners off with the block plane .

Using my floor jack this time, I lifted the beam enough to remove the temporary posts and fitted the permanent posts shimming them up 3/4 of an inch at the bottom so the mortise and tenon would fit together at the top  .

Once the post were in place the island goes back together again . It all seems so much easier in pictures .

And I cut the counter-top to fit around the new post .

Earlier this week I rebuilt all my saw horses as they were all getting a bit wobbly .

Made up some temporary MDF counters in preparation for when I tear in to the sink side wall .

And since I was able to fix my over heating lap top last week , and the desktop computer fan was acting up a bit, I tore in to that one too.

And found the heat sink completely clogged, so got that one cleaned as well.

We interrupt your regular programming . . .

For a V W Jetta brake job . . .

The ABS idiot light on the Jetta came on a couple weeks ago and it is due for its state inspection so I better do something about it . I checked all the usual stuff . Brake fluid and brake lights all OK. Must be brake pads. Checked the front pads and those were almost new . They were done about a year ago , I just forgot about it .

So it had to be the back , hmm !!! no ABS sensor on the back so it can't be them .

But the pads are very worn so I put some new ones on both sides . The OBD code reader does not find a fault code on the ECU . So it going to take some more digging.

Some exploratory surgery on the front brakes proves the driver's side ABS sensor has failed and has no conductivity .

A quick trip to NAPA provided a new one. Hooked up to the multimeter it shows it has some resistance . Replaced the old one and the ABS light on the dash is gone . Good , one project off my to-do list .

Big deal said Pearl  !!!
OK Pearl, how about this one ?
The fan on my Franken-lap-top computer has been running fairly constantly lately and the upper left hand corner of the thing was getting a bit warm . If it keeps up like this it will shut down right when I am watching one of those long you tube videos my friend Marty sends me all the time .

I pull the back cover on the thing , and as I suspected traces of dust on the fan indicate a blocked radiator . Bet you didn't know a computer had a radiator did ya ? It does indeed .

See that big copper pipe on the left of the image ? It takes heat away from the CPU and sends it to that aluminum finned thing at the top of the image so the fan can cool it . Pull the fan away and look at the thick blanket of dust insulating the radiator from the air . It don't work so well when it is insulated .

 That's about 3 months of accumulation . I last cleaned it in January . I cleaned it again today and put it all back together and the fan barely needs to run at all .

Not the least bit impressed , said Pearl
OK Hows about this Pearl ?

I built a temporary quick and dirty kitchen island out of MDF last weekend .

Even polyurethaned the top on it .

And got a couple of new bar stools and new place-mats to go with it .

Now that's more like it . . . at least you didn't break anything this time .