night in the park
I needed to get out tonight, so I walked down to the bank and then on the way back decided to stop by the Southside Park. Sat there swinging in the night, listening to "Drowsy Chaperone." No-one around. Can't say I felt like a kid again, exactly, because I didn't feel either care-free or energetic; but if not a step back in time, it was a ... side-slip, I guess, for a little bit.
A sorta cool thing earlier: the new air compressor I'd gotten not too long ago froze up the last time it was used, and I was really unhappy since it was expensive, new, and now useless. I really needed it for attaching trim on these new bookcases I'm building, so I finally decided to try to take it apart and see if I could fix it. Engines and such are not really my thing, but I figured that since it already didn't work, the worst that could happen is that when I was through messing with it, it still wouldn't work.
It was a pain to get the actual compressor motor undone and away from the controls and air tanks, but I finally managed that. Then, there were three screws that held the front of the motor casing onto the rest of the motor, and one of them had the slot where the screwdriver turns the screw stripped so that the driver kept slipping out. I had to get a drill and drill that out then go to the hardware store to look for a replacement screw--which fortunately they had even though it was metric.
Then, I had to go out and look for the right oil, which was really hard to find. I got something pretty close and hoped for the best. Much working with the motor, crankshaft, and piston and fittings later, and much bathing (mostly of the appropriate metal parts, somewhat of me) in oil later, I reassembled the thing and it worked. I was very pleasantly surprised. Put it all back together and it actually worked well enough to charge the air tanks to a usable pressure--twice. Without the motor freezing up again. Hope it works tomorrow when I actually use try it out on the bookcases.
A sorta cool thing earlier: the new air compressor I'd gotten not too long ago froze up the last time it was used, and I was really unhappy since it was expensive, new, and now useless. I really needed it for attaching trim on these new bookcases I'm building, so I finally decided to try to take it apart and see if I could fix it. Engines and such are not really my thing, but I figured that since it already didn't work, the worst that could happen is that when I was through messing with it, it still wouldn't work.
It was a pain to get the actual compressor motor undone and away from the controls and air tanks, but I finally managed that. Then, there were three screws that held the front of the motor casing onto the rest of the motor, and one of them had the slot where the screwdriver turns the screw stripped so that the driver kept slipping out. I had to get a drill and drill that out then go to the hardware store to look for a replacement screw--which fortunately they had even though it was metric.
Then, I had to go out and look for the right oil, which was really hard to find. I got something pretty close and hoped for the best. Much working with the motor, crankshaft, and piston and fittings later, and much bathing (mostly of the appropriate metal parts, somewhat of me) in oil later, I reassembled the thing and it worked. I was very pleasantly surprised. Put it all back together and it actually worked well enough to charge the air tanks to a usable pressure--twice. Without the motor freezing up again. Hope it works tomorrow when I actually use try it out on the bookcases.