Engine heads rebuilt

Saturday we drove over to Freedom, New Hampshire to collect the rebuilt heads for the truck.

Its a superb job Marty's friend Mike Kondrat did on them. Found one burned exhaust valve which needed replacing. He reground and reseated all valves, decked the heads level, and ground all valve stems to length and adjusted for proper gaping so the heads are ready to go on just like that. Hopefully I don't have to remove the the cams to get the upper head-bolts in when I reassemble the engine.

In the afternoon went over to the maintenance hangar at KPWM and washed the Bonanza with Clint.

Met Tom White, Gulfstream G3 corporate pilot and the owner of the RV8 parked behind the Bonanza. Perhaps some time I can score a ride in that rocketship.

and poked around a nice new Cirrus Sr22 down for maintenance in the hangar.

 

Finished the railings and....

Thursday among other tasks I finished installing the balusters and made up the opposite side hand rail.

the view from the top

and today I stained and applied the first sealer coat to the treads

not my choice but that's what the client wanted

everything but the treads gets white paint including the handrails.

Handrail work

Tuesday after plugging all the screw holes in the treads I got to the top of the stairs only to find the last rise to the upstairs floor was 1/4 inch more than acceptable so I wasted half a day on a re-do of the last 3 top treads in an attempt to spread the difference between several steps. Today,  I finally got to the fiddly bits of the knee wall cap, skirt trim and the handrail.

handrail is fixed in place and the balusters are only bottom cut

the view form the top

Granite counter tops and appliances went in on Monday

nice undermount sink

Progressing on the stairs

 with the tile guy out of the way.....

I made some headway today

tomorrow to finish the last tread and riser and start on the handrail and balusters.

Nocturnal Visitor....

Helping himself to the birdseed in the patio. Can't be a lot for this little fella to eat out there this time of year. Makes one wonder how they survive these freezing temperatures. Always thought possums were southern climes creatures but apparently they have extended their range in to Maine in the last few years.

A litle bit of shopping

Some new supplies for the reloading bench. A new digital powder scale, a steal at 20$. A few boxes of primers small pistol and large rifle. The last tub of Trail Boss from the powder keg at the local Cabelas. Also from Ebay a couple of bullet molds, a 158 gr tumble lube in .357  and 170 gr flat point in 30-30

Also scored recently from Ebay some handy dandy used Lee Loaders in 12 and 20 gauge as well as a .380 acp and a new .38/.357 to keep the older 30-30 company. The .380 is a hard find as Lee no longer makes them and they rarely come available these days. I have a Lee Classic press but I do enjoy using these little Lee Loaders.

should be enough to keep the zombies at bay for a bit.

Newel post and stairs

Another prep detail that I needed to get done before the tile guy came in was the beginning of the stairs and the newel post. Typically the treads would carry on to the open edge but the outer edge on this one was done in a quick and dirty fashion with a sloping knee wall. The old newel post was really floppy as it was screwed only to the very short end of the knee wall which was only attached with a couple of Ramset nails to the concrete slab. I puled the drywall and re-braced the knee wall with some diagonals attached with 3 inch screws and few more Ramset nails in to the slab. Then after re-drywalling and a fair bit of fiddly trim work to get the first riser tied in tight across the front of the stair stringers and provide a solid side brace for the knee wall, I drilled the concrete slab and put in a half inch thick threaded bolt bedded in epoxy to tie down the base of the newel post.

Spent the greater part of the day on my knees....and I felt it by the end of the day.

here you can see the tie-down bolt that holds the bottom of the newel post secure to the concrete slab. The post does not move one millimeter.

and for Kev here is a shot of my home-made stair tread gauge.