Back to rocking forward...

Sooooo happy to have the shop functional again, I decided to get to work and do something simple to begin break in the new space. 

With the paint booth finally ready, I wanted to get moving on Roy and Don's paint as they've been beyond humanly patient.  Into the blaster go the parts, the compressor chugs to a rythmic beat, and I press the pedal to flow some media...phhhht!  Hmmm, that's not right.  Phhhht.  Nope, not right at all. 

Now the blaster has been less than stellar the last couple of months, but I figured some of it was attributed to this...

Time and abrasives had burrowed a hole through the side of my gun, allowing air pressure and media to spew out the handle instead of the nozzle.  True to form, always a bit short on time, I've just been folding up some aluminum foil and duct taping it tightly over the hole to get by...yeah, I know, ghetto.  Today's issues seemed to be a little bit more serious though, as I was getting nada for flow.

A little more investigation showed me why...

The siphon tube had a huge hole worn through it and the gun barb on the other end was equally eaten away.  Gonna have to run to Bad Boy Blasters in Canton to pick up some new parts.

Stymied with my paint prep, I turned my energies to something else. 

I set to mitering, turning and welding together some bars to take along to Nahbs in Austin.  The bars are an integral part of my show, as it is a product that lends it's self to strong after market appeal and yields a fair bit of sales, effectively paying for my attendance costs.  Without the sales of bars, posts, and tee's, I don't know if I could justify the cost of attendance even though I feel very strongly that I must be there to support the growth and progression of the independent hand built bicycle.

I was able to get quite a few steelies done and began prepping for Ti's next, hopefully welding those up on Wednesday if we still have power during the "BIG ICE STORM" the national weather service is projecting.  To be honest, the loss of electricity right now has me very nervous, as I only have 16 build days before the show to get 4 bikes, 22 bars, 10 seatposts, a few cranks, and me ready...ughh.

Say a prayer if ya will, it's gonna be a rough ride

rody