New Oven

It's been five years since we remodeled the kitchen - at the time we didn't replace the oven. The one we had looked old fashioned, but it was fully functional so we kept it. Even though it has carried on working all this time, it turns out that this may have been a false economy.

Here's why: The old oven was hard wired into a 220 Volt/50 AMP electrical circuit. And, while the new one is also 220 Volt, it comes with a plug and only requires a 20 AMP circuit (i.e. 40 percent of the power of the old oven). We use our oven a lot, so the cost of running an older appliance for five years would probably go a long way towards the cost of a new oven, if not cover it entirely. Oh well...

Converting the hard wired connection to an outlet at the back of the cabinet was straightforward, and I replaced the 50 AMP breaker at the panel with a 20 AMP breaker. This way I don't have to replace the cable between the kitchen and the circuit breaker panel. 

The other difference is that although the new oven has the same interior space, it comes in a much smaller package, which means the opening in the kitchen cabinets needs to be reduced. I started by building some blocks for the oven to stand on - the appliance will be aligned at the top and center of the existing opening:

I have a lot of scrap walnut plywood kicking around in the workshop, so this was a good opportunity to use some:

The next step is to glue supports at the base and sides of the opening to which the new edge pieces can be attached:

Same at both sides:

Next step is to add the sections which will be visible, which were mounted flush with the existing cabinet front:

The next picture is later after the glue has cured, small gaps have been filled with automotive body filler and the the face frame has been sanded to 220 grit.

Rollered on some primer...

...and two layers of top coat:

With new oven installed:

Teething Problems with the '67 F250

I had some super gnarly dental surgery a few days after I got the F250, so it was a couple of weeks before I had a chance to do anything other than look at the truck. Then, on a Saturday morning about three weeks ago, I went out and tried to start the truck....and it was dead! This was unexpected because I had driven it almost 300 miles without any problems and the battery should be fully charged. I had a go at jumping the truck from the RAV4 and it started right up. After letting it run for 20 minutes or so I drained the oil, changed the oil filter, and refilled with new oil. Then I left the battery to charge for a bit and went on to the next thing.

When I came back a few hours later the battery was fully charged and the truck was.....still totally dead! And what's more, this time it obstinately would not start with a jump from the Toyota. Oh dear, oh dear oh dear. 

So, not the battery, but pretty clearly an electrical problem of some kind. Which is not that surprising really, given the electrical system is supposedly 50+ years old and all the visible sections are crusty to say the least. I'd like to say that I traced the problem to a bad starter solenoid and corroded battery cables within a few minutes, but it did take a while longer than that. If you're not familiar, the starter solenoid connects the battery to the starter motor when the ignition key is turned.

the starter solenoid mounts at the left side of the engine bay

I replaced the starter solenoid, and I made two (2) new battery cables because I already had some #2 gauge cable and hardware left over from re-wring the mustang, and I already bought the crimping tool. 

I only had black cable so I wrapped some red electrical tape around the positive section. At some point I will probably replace the entire wiring harness...

I also installed a battery hold down strap, which the truck didn't have when I got it (!) As you can see from the next photo, I am not heading down the classic restoration route with this vehicle. I'm not going to worry about keeping everything looking stock, functionality is the priority. After this was all done, the '67 started up at the first turn of the ignition key! 

I couldn't fix the lock at the passenger door so I decided to change the lock barrels at both doors and at the ignition. I also swapped the miniature air cleaner for one I had at the back of the garage; this one came off the mustang back when it had a six cylinder engine, so I've been storing it for a while. I had to take off the "200 ci" sticker since this truck has a 352 ci V8. 

I also installed the "O" at the front of the hood and added the proper fasteners to the other letters. The previous owner told me he was planning to install the "O" with superglue, but (fortunately) he did not have time...

What's next? Well first of all I need to make a few trips to the city dump. The garage and the back yard are overflowing with crap that I need to get rid off. After that, the radiator/fan shroud needs a serious re-think. I also need to get the turn signals and horn working and do something about the sloppy steering...watch this space!

New Garage Door

We've needed to replace our heavy solid-wood vehicle door since we moved in almost seven (7) years ago. The automatic door opener crapped out a couple of years ago and since then it has been manual operation only. Finally I could stand in no more!

We had to get up early on install day because I needed to get the mustang out of the garage....and it wasn't running at the time. I know from experience that I can't push the car up the hill, so I enlisted Amy Sheep and between us we used the RAV4 and a thick rope to tow the mustang out to the street, and then rolled it in behind the truck. The new door comes flat packed on a big trailer:

First step is to move the new parts into the now empty garage. Then the old door and all the rails were removed and loaded onto the trailer. 

After that I left it to my installer and he did a fantastic job:

The automatic door opener is tucked into the corner of the garage, so there is no central chain or any of that nonsense to bang yer 'ead on.

Guest Room Remodel

I think I mentioned that Quinn Sheep moved out to UCSC. What I didn't mention was that Samuel Sheep took over Q's old bedroom quicker than a fart moves through a vacuum. Which means we've finally got a space we can make into a proper, grown-up guest room. We started with repairing the walls and going through the usual color selection process...there were a LOT of pin holes to fill.

The most interesting part of the makeover was the closet doors. I started with a coat of paint, but what we really wanted to do was change the hardware.

This is a picture of the new door "pull" from the back. I need to cut a recess into each door for the pull to mount into.

The first step it to make a template from plywood. I drew a rectangle and used a 5/8" Forstner bit to drill appropriately radiused holes in each corner; the edge of each hole just touches the perimeter of the rectangle.

Excess material was cut away with a jigsaw...

After minor adjustment with a file the pull is a perfect fit:

The next step is to trim the plywood template so that the hole is precisely in the middle. This is important for avoiding mistakes when aligning the template on the closet door. 

I used the hand held router to gouge out the recess in each door. This wouldn't work very well with anything other than a solid door...

After installation and re-hanging doors....I did the doors at Cameron Sheep's bedroom closet at the same time.

This is how the new guest room came out. We still need to get some artwork hung in here...

Dining Room Cabinets & Bookcase Part 8

It's been quite a few months since I last worked on the bookcase. The deck has taken priority this Summer, and there have been a number of other things going on at the same time as always. As I mentioned last time around, there was a lot of glue residue from the back panel install which needed to be sanded off. That was a bit of a slog. After that, the last thing to do before building the face frame is drilling peg holes for the moveable shelves. I've done this once before with a pegboard template, but the Kreg™ shelf pin jig makes this operation a lot easier, more accurate and a LOT quicker. 

It comes out like this: 

All peg holes drilled....now I just need to make and install the face frame...

I'm building the face frame from the same ¾" x 1½ black walnut that I used for the front-facing edges of the shelves. After very carefully trimming the top, bottom and both sides, the first corner was joined:

I'm using a mixture of wood glue and pocket hole screws to make the connections.

I had to work on top of the bookcase because I don't have a flat table anything close to this size. I left the first connection overnight, and then joined the other three (3) corners the next morning.

The upright dividers were then added using spacers to ensure each opening is the exact same width.

Which gives this:

This was another complex glue-up. Fortunately Amy Sheep was around to help with alignment and wiping off excess glue. 

Took the clamps off the next day after work. I need to do some sanding, apply some wood filler, more sanding etc. and apply the finish. Then we can hoick it upstairs and fill it with books!

New Addition to the Fleet: '67 Ford F250

Samuel Sheep just pointed out that it has been sixteen (16) years since I last bought a vintage vehicle. So, high time for another one, right? I've been looking for a pickup truck for a few months, because I'm fed up using the RAV4 to haul around building materials. We lost Amy Sheep's Honda minivan a few years ago, and never replaced it, what with the high cost of used cars after the pandemic. Now, with Quinn Sheep having done one to UCSC, we don't really need a huge people carrier anymore. Obviously, we could have bought a cheap 90s or early 00's pickup, but where's the fun in that? 

Instead, I wanted something with a high coolness factor that I can take to cruise night or cars and coffee, and also use to move big stuff around and as a backup work vehicle if I need it. I've looked at a lot of trucks on the interwebs, and, as usual, couldn't find anything I wanted and could also afford anywhere nearby. The Mustang came from Tulsa, OK for this exact reason. What I found back in 2008 was that your money goes a LOT further if you shop outside the SF Bay Area.

Sometime last week I found the truck that fitted all my most important criteria:

V8 engine not inline 6.....check!
Manual gearbox not automatic.....check!
No serious rust or body rot....check!
Capable of being driven home from several hundred miles away....check!
Doesn't need a paint job immediately or probably ever under my ownership.....check!
Clean title and current registration....check!
Located in California....check!
And most importantly, budget friendly....check!

Early on Saturday, Amy Sheep and myself saddled up the RAV4 and headed out to Bakersfield. Not a sentence you'll hear very often, since Bako, as it is known, is one of the armpits of California. Supposedly the "Nashville of the West" it's basically Methville these days.

The precise location was actually 271 miles from the Sheep homestead, but thanks to the lack of an (enforced) speed limit on Interstate 5, we were there by midday. An hour later I was heading home in the new-to-me 1967 Ford F250! The truck has a 352 ci V8 engine, 4 speed manual transmission and is two wheel drive.

The ride home was the usual white-knuckle fest, because the truck has the same sloppy steering the Mustang came with. If anything, the truck is worse, and it was a battle to keep it pointing in a straight line. Although I drove most of the way at 65-70 mph, I did have to pass a few big rigs and the change in draft when overtaking was enough to throw the truck offline. Still this time there were no oil leaks, no breakdowns, no overheating, and basically no problems whatsoever. Apart from a few stops for gas/the bathroom we drove straight back in tandem and were home before dark. 

As well as the steering, there are a couple of other things that need to be fixed - the turn signals don't work and there is no way to lock the passenger door, but otherwise it is a proper driver. Stay tuned for developments!

Steering wheel and dash are all original and most of it works

Bumble bee interior in surprising good shape

Bed is also in good shape

The V8 has the world's smallest air cleaner!

I'm not going to, but I reckon I could sell the truck in the Bay Area for at least twice what I paid for it, and it only took a day to go and get it...and some serious $$$ on gas. But it was super fun!