Sunday, August 29, 2010

And how was YOUR damn afternoon?

While back broke the decapping pin on my .30-06 sizing die. Nobody but Lee sells that part, and didn't want to order just that(shipping more than the part last I checked). Then yesterday I got the lathe back in order*, and decided today "I'll get a piece of music wire and turn one." Only needed it to deprime, as I've been using the Lyman M die to expand the case mouths for cast bullets.

So get on the bike and off to Ace. Exit Ace, and the bike won't start; barely cranks over.

Bleep.

Tried push-start, no go, acted like the battery just didn't have enough left even for that. So pull the seat, and the cables weren't loose, but weren't really tight either. So pull them, clean the contacts and hook it back up, no good. So.

Walk home. Load ramps in truck just in case, drive to parking lot. Jump-start the bike(first time), rode it home(after shut off tried starting, battery flat). Get bicycle, ride to truck, load bike and drive home, put the bike on the charger and unload the truck. All on a nice 95-degree day.

I think what happened is haven't ridden the bike much lately due to the oil leak, and between that and the cables not being properly tight the battery went down. One of the few bad things about the Vulcan is the charging system is 'just enough', so if the battery gets a bit down it can't really bring it back up, so it keeps getting lower & lower.

Oh, the pin? Turn one that seems just beautiful. Find that I apparently turned the shank that goes into the collet just tiny bit small, so the damn thing won't stay in place under pressure. So cut another piece and turn another that seems to work. And I need to sharpen the bits after the work on that steel.


*Couple of weeks ago Security Staff(Junior) decided to see how the power cord tasted. Discovery caused me to engage in Language Practice, which caused dog to disappear for a while. I finally dug out another cord saved for just such need and hooked it up.

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