What did you work on today ?

[WILMASBOYL78]

I decided to do a refresh on my 25 year old utility trailer. We use it to haul the ATV to the camp, lawn tractor to the shop and junk to the dump. It is the typical 5 x 7...steel mesh unit. It had mini tires from the factory, so that was the first upgrade...bigger wheels/tires. Had to move the fenders up and reweld...lot more rubber on the road.

Next step was the cosmetics....cleaned it top and bottom....rustproofed under the fenders and painted the rest. A friend custom cut some southern yellow pine boards [they were treated]...and I painted them all a nice green. We then drilled holes and used carriage bolts to secure the boards and sides to the steel.

Last step was a nice new LED lighting setup...we are ready for the road now :wink:

[Lynn]

Apologize for the long post, but there is no short way to tell the story.

Had a busy day today.

Have to give you a bit of background. Some of you will remember my post about the Publishing Museum that Sherri and I took on as a project a few years ago.

Posted about it here: https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthre...museum+project


We are still hard at it. We have made about $70,000 worth of improvements to the building. I have an architect that has donated about $25,000 worth of his time and a structural engineer who has donated somewhere around $15,000 of his time. I have the preliminary structural report (should have a final in another month or two). Happy to report we have zero structural issues on this 120 year old building where Statehood was announced for Oklahoma on Nov. 16, 1907. What is amazing is that the 3rd floor windows have been boarded up since sometime BEFORE 1965!!! Even with all the water intrusion, and all the neglect this building has suffered in the last 60 plus years, it stands firm waiting to be restored.

We raised a net $93,000 at our first fundraiser, fighting with Covid all the way. My fundraising chair (a fairly new board member who is a bonafide heavy hitter in the non profit sector) tells me we will raise at least $250k this coming October. She is incredible. Still, we are a LONG way from our current goal of $10 million to bring this building fully into the 21st Century.

So, what does this do with what I did today. Our former Governor, Frank Keating (he was Gov here during the OKC bombing in 1995) and his wife Cathy have been incredibly supportive. Gov. Keating is speaking at our next fundraiser. His son Chip, a great fundraiser in his own right (he has a Foundation that supports families of fallen troopers) has started working on Oklahoma lawmakers trying to get the State of OK to put up some matching funds. Although our local Senator has not expressed much interest in introducing any such legislation, we haven’t given up hope. I have now shown the building to one former Gov, the current Gov, the Lt. Governor (who spoke at our first fundraiser, and is also very supportive) several lobbyists, and 46 different State legislators. They are all blown away by the amazing artifacts we have, and some of the now working machinery we have mechanically restored. After I explained the field trip experience we wanted to create for Middle School kids, he said: “every school child in Oklahoma needs to make a field trip to this historic building before they graduate.” Chip immediately started pitching the idea of State matching funds. Gov. Stitt looked me in the eye and said: “you get these guys to pass it (pointing at several legislators that were present that day) and I will sign it.”

Today, I was able to show our US Representative, the Honorable Stephanie Bice, through the building. We spent an hour looking at the artifacts. I demonstrated one of the presses (it has been in the building since before 1911) and showed her the party favors we printed on that machine. Like everyone else, she was blown away by this significant piece of Oklahoma History and Publishing History. Really neat young lady whose father is a first generation immigrant to the US. We are lucky to have her in Washington.

As soon as she left, I went to work replacing some dilapidated letters on the third floor balcony. The phrase “ESTABLISHED 1889" was prominently displayed on the front of the balcony. Most of those letters were metal. Two had been replaced with wood. As you might expect, the wood swelled up, rotted, and was falling off. The two missing letters were the first “E” and the “L”. I had already replaced the letters on the second floor balcony (also wood) with laser cut aluminum letters anodized silver. Those we were able to get to with my scissor lift. The third floor balcony is 35+ foot high, and my scissor lift was useless. A few months ago one of my neighbors was painting windows on her downtown building. She and her partner had rented an articulating boom lift. She called me and asked if I needed it for an hour or two, as it wasn’t get picked up until the evening. Hell yes. So, I went up and removed the deterioration wooden letters, and also removed the one good “E” that was still up there. It was metal, painted black on the sides and bottom and yellow on the front. I could tell from how some of the tabs that were tucked into the mortar, that it was original to the building. I have since confirmed that, sure enough all the letters left up there were original to the building.

Looking at the back side, it sure looked like galvanized steel. So I bought some galvanized steel sheet metal and hammered out a new “L” and a new “E”. Had to get special low heat solder and flux to solder the pieces together. As soon as I finished I started sanding the front surface of the original “E” which quickly revealed ..... copper. Crap. Made them out of the wrong stuff. Oh well, it was good practice. They weren’t quite dimensionally correct, as I ended up making them about 1/16 inch too wide.

So, bought some copper sheet and made new letters out of copper. Sandblasted them to make sure the paint would stick. Painted the sides and bottom black.

How the hell am I going to get these up there? I had no idea. I was thinking that I may be dangling in a harness from the balcony. Sherri wasn’t crazy about that idea. Then I heard that OG&E had donated a bucket truck to the City of Guthrie. This is where it pays to live in a small town. Two weeks ago I go see the City Manager. I take my new copper letters into his office and tell him we need a way to get them up there. He calls one of his maintenance guys and says: “Hey, I am giving your cell phone number to Lynn. He is going to call you when he needs the bucket truck. We need this done before the 89er day parade, so when he is ready, make sure you have someone at the Museum with the bucket truck.” Doesn’t get much easier than that. Then I ask him if they have any street striping yellow paint we can paint the front of the letters with. He says sure. Also says it takes months to get that stuff because of EPA restrictions.

Bottom line: I show the Congresswoman around for an hour and spend the next hour and a half putting up letters and painting them with the paint the City donated. They look awesome. Yes, the “L” is slightly crooked. But by the time we were done, the wind was coming from my left at 30 mph with 35 mph gusts. All in all a good day.

Enjoy the pics.

OH yeah, and we were still at the office for a 1:00 pm appointment, and worked right up til 5.

[Lynn]

Last two pics. Painting and finished product.

Went down and looked at them this evening. They really show up great with just street lights on because of the reflective quality of the striping paint.

[Too Many Projects]

Dang, Lynn, that is really cool that you are doing that...
Hard to believe the state hasn't pursued this much harder, being the location of the original proclamation of Statehood...

[Too Many Projects]

If it was me, I'd cut that 4x4 under the bench leg back most of the distance to the leg. I would be tripping on that every time I used the vise.

[67since67]

Originally Posted by Too Many Projects

If it was me, I'd cut that 4x4 under the bench leg back most of the distance to the leg. I would be tripping on that every time I used the vise.

It extends only to the front edge of the bench, never tripped on it. Aside from raising the bench height, (I'm 6'2") I had trouble with heavy stuff, like an automatic trans in a trans cradle, trying to tip the bench forward. - Bill W

[Too Many Projects]

OK, it appeared to be even with the front and it sounds like it's been there for some time. You are probably not as clumsy as me either...

[Lynn]

The office and the Museum have been hogging a lot of my time. But did get some work done on my shop today.

Just about finished with my suite of add ons to the warehouse side. I did not want to take up any shop space. Entire suite is only 17 feet long. Mob/broom closet, kitchenette (no sink... but a beer fridge), water closet (just a toilet and a mini deep sink) and a utility room to house the "water heater". Water heater is a point of use design. Just enough hot water to wash up. I had purchased a gas tankless, but didn't need it, as I nixed the plans to include a shower.

Got the granite countertop put in the kitchenette. Was going to do a backsplash, but seeing there is no sink (just the mini fridge and a countertop microwave) decided to just caulk it. Will paint the caulk wall color when it dries.

Used black pipe for the toilet paper and paper towel dispenser. My grandsons asked how I change the paper roll. Showed them that you just unscrew the flange on the end.

Did more sheetrock work today. Still need to trim everything.

[Too Many Projects]

Late March I bought 2 1967 C-10 trucks, 1 in NE Kansas and the other in Wheeless, OK. Look that up, it may as well have been NM. I wanted other parts the seller had and he kept putting off getting them ready for me, so a week ago I said I was coming down for the truck and he said he would have "everything ready". I left home at 8:45 am Monday April 25 and drove thru to Hutchinson KS and had a room for the night. I left there at 3:30 am and was at the location, after some terrible directions, at 10:45 am. NOTHING was ready and we spent the next 5 hours dismantling another truck for the parts I wanted and still didn't have time to get them all. His family runs cattle and he was supposed to be helping them round them up for market that day. As it was, I left at 4 PM and went to Boise City, OK. I was caked in dirt from the wind blowing like the dust bowl days, as they are extremely dry in OK. I bought a shower at the Love's truck stop in Boise, ate some pizza and hit the road at 6PM. I arrived home at 8:15 PM Wednesday. 2,022 rt miles in 60 hours. All that for this prize...

[Lynn]

Sometimes I wonder about the things we put ourselves through in this hobby.

Really getting hard to find a 67 these days. Eventually, you will probably be glad you did it.