Chickens

My dear Annie passed away suddenly last Friday. I knew something was up on Thursday night; when I brought her in Friday she just curled up in my lap and drifted off.

We built an enclosure downstairs for Bertha and Lion so they can be warm during the winter. Put it together from stuff that was lying around! I also put a 'ladder' I made from some tree branches screwed together where I'm standing in the below photo; Bertha loves to have something to climb on.

It took probably half an hour for them to stop playing 'the floor is lava' with the pine shavings but they're pretty comfortable now:

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My wife wants to make something with the lathe, which means I need to fix the spindle. It runs fine but after a few minutes the bearings heat up and slowly seize. I had cleaned and lubricated them as best I could without taking the spindle apart and that didn't quite fix things. The disassembly went pretty easily, although whoever was in there last did not have a pin spanner and really boogered up the holes in the collar for the spanner with a punch.

It has two taper sliding bearings which can seize in their races if there isn't enough running clearance. They both can be adjusted independently, so once I get some shim stock in I can tweak the clearance for both. The bearing surfaces themselves look quite good for being 100 years old, although I may eventually get some lapping compound and try to lap them in a bit.

I'll take some pictures when I put it back together so you all can appreciate how neat the design is.