Daily Chainsaw Rehab

This slide show has been hanging fire for a long time, but I finally got around to writing the titles. These are the steps you should go through every day after you have used your saw, but I did not include sharpening or carburetor adjustment. Carburetors seldom need adjusting on today's saws, and I may cover that in a future post. I like to sharpen after every tank of gas, and my chain is never dull. I touch up the depth gauges after several filings. I will definitely do a post about sharpening; probably next fall.

Old Cars At Evansville

Antique Cars At Evansville's SIAM Club Show
Uploaded by TrueBlueSam. - Car, truck, and motorcycle videos.

YouTube was down for maintenance, so I uploaded a slide and video show to DailyMotion to see how it performs. These old cars are pretty neat, and my big disappointment in taking photos was the blue Model T with the Frontenac head. I ran out of space on my SD card as he pulled up to the line to make a run, so I don't have video of the neatest hot-rod at the show. Other cars were making the run at about 28 to 30 miles per hour, but the Frontenac T came across the line at 40. Pretty Impressive. I read about this Model T conversion 40 some years ago, but this is the first one I have seen. The black, bare-frame T was recently assembled. The owner of that car found a set of solid Chevy wheels and had the machine work done to use Model T hubs with them. He will probably have a body on this car for next year's show.

UPDATE: This video is also available on YouTube now; Click Here.

Speedster Teaser: More To Come

Here is a taste of the cars we saw at Evansville last month. I will be putting some photos and videos together for your enjoyment. This one sure does sound sweet.

Not My Victrola

Our fellow YouTuber, Pax41 has posted another great Marion Harris song, this one from 1924. It's a nice slow Fox-Trot to help you wind down after a holiday weekend.

The Party's Over!

Back To The Old Grind!

Weekend Steam

This week we have a photo from the Burlington, Iowa waterfront, probably shot sometime prior to 1920. My Aunt Bessye was born in 1892, and I always enjoy seeing what she saw in the Burlington area when she was a young woman. I am also getting to meet relatives I have heard about, but never met. I Googled this boat, but had no luck finding information about it on the Internet. If anyone knows some history on the Excursion Queen out of St. Paul, please write in the comments.

Crankin' It Up On The Fourth Of July

Crankin' It Up

We have been pulling out these old Columbias for the past few weeks, and it is a bit amazing that we had these great early Twentieth Century violinists on record, and have never listened to them. Do a search for Frank Gittelson and you will wonder why you never heard of him. He studied in Berlin, debuted in New York in 1913, and had a long and successful career. He had some great instruments, too, but many people tend to put more emphasis on the violin maker than the person playing it. We have more violinists, but we will be uploading some more popular music for the Fox-Trot and Charleston fans.

Is One Of These In Your Future?

There's no telling what we will be driving in a few years, given the upheaval in the auto industry. These little putt-putts were motoring around at Evansville last month. I especially like the auxilary gas tank option on the first machine; he's ready to go touring.

Is This A Problem?

Small trees don't have much room for error when making your cuts, and they can be troublesome to novices who are learning how to use a saw. The front cut came out nicely for this student, who was working from the good (tensioned) side of the tree.

The potential problem came up as he finished his bore cut to establish the hinge. He didn't get off the throttle quickly enough, and the top of his bar cut out half of the hinge. Everything came to a screeching halt so the class could evaluate the situation and to make contingency plans.

Luckily, the missing hinge wood came from the heavy side of the tree. If it had been cut from the tensioned side, the hinge would certainly fail when the tree was cut loose. Because the mis-cut was on the heavy side, a wedge was pounded in to provide support, and the tree fell with the hinge when the back strap was cut.

Remember that the bar likes to pull toward the top when you are making a bore cut, especially in soft woods like this red maple. It is always safer to make your bore cut with extra wood for the hinge, and then carefully reduce the hinge to the proper thickness.

If you blow out the hinge on the tensioned side, the tree is almost certainly going to fall with the lean of the tree, and not the remains of your hinge. Stop and think through your cuts so you don't trap your saw under the heavy side of the tree, and so you can cut the tree loose and make a safe getaway. You may have to clear a new escape path for the new falling direction. Click Here to review your planning procedure for dropping a tree.