Harr Photography

God, I Love Maps

jakeharr — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:25:28 +0000

Neil talked me into bringing a whitewater kayak out to him in Fort Collins which gave me even more incentive to take a northern route. I’m trying to avoid the PA turnpike at all cost. I hate that road with a passion.

What a Find!

jakeharr — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:16:03 +0000

As I was driving over to Combustion Engineering with Chuck the day after my car accident, a gimps of hope came in the form of a freebie trash find. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted what looked to be the perfect size ladder for the bunk bed in the RV. Sure enough, we pulled over in the big ol’ box truck we were driving and there it was: the perfect ladder.

Coming Down The Final Stretch

jakeharr — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:14:49 +0000

With each passing weekend I’ve become more and more panicked facing the new reality of how close I am to the end of this phase my life and a the start of this new beginning. Last week I printed out a monthly calendar for May, June, July, August and September and filled in everything I could think of that was set in stone. When I was done filling in everything that needs to be done before I leave, it was scary how tightly everything fit into the remaining time.

Then, last weekend I got into a bad car accident and destroyed my beloved 1996 Mercedes E300 Diesel. This threw a huge wrench into my ability to get around and get things done efficiently before I leave. But onward we go, there’s not enough time to fret on how much this sucks. A few days after I wrecked the car I put it up for sale on eBay and at the end of the week it sold to a man in Florida for $1350. A great deal for him and not bad for me either.

Last week, on Monday I dropped off the Yamaha Radian I’m trying to sell at a locksmith in Morrisville to have a new key made. On Wednesday I picked up the Motorcycle from the locksmith and I dropped the RV off to have the front end aligned, a brake light wring issue looked at, and the roof/windows re-sealed. Thursday night I actually used the Mercedes to push the Studebaker into the shop to get the torque converter pulled out and replaced. Friday I pulled the torque converter out of the Studebaker with a lot of help from my good friend Chuck at Combustion Engineering in Langhorne. When I got home Friday night I tore apart my entire darkroom and packed it and all of my boxed up stuff into my moms car and my dad and I headed to the shore with the car packed to the brim.

This week coming up is going to be crazy and probably go by very fast. It’s all so surreal. Before I know it, I ‘ll be driving my new home to Colorado and then be on a plane for Alaska.

Getting Everything Done

jakeharr — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:14:29 +0000

Working hard to get everything done in time and I finally mustered up the energy and motivation to start boring out the CT-90 cylinder to fit the new oversize piston. After making a simple jig to hold the cylinder in a vice I began slinging metal laden oil all over my brand new shoes (I never fail to mess up a new pair of shoes quickly). Now that the cylinder is almost done, I can start putting the bike back together this week and hopefully have it running like new in no time.

Amidst all of this work, I managed to find some time to remove the old wrong size 26×1 3/8 ” tires from my 60′s Schwinn and install the new ones that came in the mail. Last year, for the first time ever, I witnessed a bike wheel explode due to the metal being weak from excessive rust. The thought had actually crossed my mind as I was inflating the tire 3 min before it actually blew up. It was actually pretty scary – I thought someone shot a gun at me point blank. Here is a picture of what the wheel looked like after it blew out. Anyway, new tires and a new wheel were clearly in order. I put the new tires and tubes on and serviced both the front and rear wheel bearings while I was at it. This bike hasn’t been this smooth rolling in probably over 30 years.

The last thing to do associated with the motorcycle is to build a platform on the back of the RV to hold it. This week when I get the RV back from the alignment shop I will try to whip the platform together and get that out of the way.

Some Miscellaneous Wood Working

jakeharr — Mon, 20 May 2013 12:01:53 +0000

I had a few jobs to finish up for the farm before I leave and in doing so I was able to get some wood working done for RV at the same time. I took a huge slab of mahogany from the back of an old church pew that they had stored in a barn on the farm and ripped it down and attached a new edge to one side from another piece of the pew to create a beautiful cap for a divider wall in the new kitchen in the main farm house. Below are some photos of the work in progress and the final product.

Ah, A Short Break & Back To Work

jakeharr — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:45:36 +0000

I just got back from a short break in Florida. It was a much needed, short vacation which gave me some time to figure out my future plans. Now that I’m back, it’s back to plugging away at work on the RV. Here are a few photos from Florida and the work ahead of me this week.

Already, the first Monday back to work, my good friend Dave gave me the supplies and schematic for building an 1/8″ stereo to mono RCA cable which will allow me to play my MP3 player through the outrageously cool, vintage Zenith tube radio that came with the RV. I built the cable on Monday and tested it last night – it works great and should provide a lot of enjoyment.

Here is a quick sketch of the rear motorcycle carrier that I’m going to build this week to carry the CT-90.

Past Weeks Work

jakeharr — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 18:23:09 +0000

Re-installing the steering gear after I resealed it was a real bear of a job. The gear box was very heavy and awkward to lift above my head as I was trying to position it to bolt it back in place. In the end it went a lot more smoothly than I expected. Now, this weekend, I just have to fill it with fluid and bleed the air out. While I was trying to save money on this job by resealing the gearbox instead of replacing it with a rebuilt unit, I damaged the pitman arm when removing it from the rest of the steering linkage because I used a pickle fork to break the tapered shaft loose at the joint. The new pitman arms were $40-70 for a cheep Asian part that would last about a year or two or $100+ for a Moog brand pitman arm which are supposed to hold up a lot longer. I almost purchased the Moog pitman arm for $68 on ebay before I decided to look a little more and see if I could get it cheaper… and boy and I glad I did. I found the same brand new Moog pitman arm for $10 + $10 shipping from just around the corner in Nj. What a deal. Here is everything before it went back on the RV.

Early in the sorting process I found this bottle of wine. I’ve decided to save it to celebrate when I make it to Colorado.

Here’s the heart of the CT-90 engine waiting to be bored and fitted with a new piston and rings. I’m excited about how well this thing should run when I’m done with it. And to just have it back on the road in general.

Alaska, Here I Come.

jakeharr — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:15:57 +0000

Just as I thought a job working on a salmon fishing boat in Alaska was falling through, I got an email from my friend who offered me the job asking how I was making out with talking to the captain of the boat. Stupid me was waiting for them and they were waiting for me. So I emailed the captain at 10 am and he said, “welcome aboard” by noon. In the next week I will be buying my plane ticket and everything should be set in stone.

I just got this picture of the guys on the boat from the captain. This will be me in a few months!

Ahhh, Dreaming of The Days to Come

jakeharr — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:19:33 +0000

I keep imagining being in Colorado, snow on the ground all around and the Minnie Winnie’s warm glow at dusk. Visions of wonderful things in the oven, catching up on some long overdue reading, and planning for the future. Here are some images that remind me of what’s to come.

Another Week Picking Away

jakeharr — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:16:02 +0000

Last week I spent most of my weeknights working on the RV. Most of the items I worked on were small projects that all make a big difference in the end. Here are some photos and quick descriptions.

I took and removed the radio that came with the RV and installed a similar one but with an Aux input on the front for hooking up an iPod etc. When I removed the old radio, of course I found that wiring the speakers up on the new one exactly as the old one was caused a severe decrease in audio quality. After 30 min of futsing around with all the wire combinations I could think of, I got a really bright idea. Hummm. Maybe I should get out my ohm meter and see which wires go to which speakers and make sure everything is right. Turns out none of the speakers wires were terminated correctly at the speakers (wire just wrapped around the blade terminals). Also turns out the old wiring at the radio had multiple speakers run in parallel and jumper wires that had no place being there. It’s these kinds of screwy hack jobs that make me wonder what goes through other peoples brains. I crimped on the proper connectors and made sure the polarity was right at the speakers and then wired everything up correctly at the radio. Now the sound is excellent and everything works properly.

This is what the battery looked like when I bought the RV. The battery tray was completely rotted out and the battery was on its side.

So, as I’m on a budget trying to save every penny for the road, I fashioned a new battery tray out of some plywood I had laying around. Not going to last forever but maybe it will surprise me and last longer than one might think. Either way, I can always fix it properly in the future.

When I was done, it looked pretty good. Solved the problem for the time being at least. Less than $10 in materials vs. $90 for the new OEM part.

I didn’t get a key that fit the side door deadbolt so I figured it would be easy to swap out – I’ll just go to the hardware store and get a standard deadbolt. No, it’s some special vintage winnebago special deadbolt – that’s extra long and the spacing of the screws and diameter of the screws that hold the assembly together are all different. So I said the heck with it after destroying one new deadbolt trying to modify it to work. I bought another deadbolt and spent hours modifying the original parts to create a hybrid of the two. It was the most ridiculously involved lock swap I’ve ever done. It involved welding, tapping, grinding, drilling, and lots and lots of patients – which were running very thin.

In the end, the brass finish washers I had to use to cover up the enlarged holes to get the proper alignment, actually look pretty cool.

The finished, repaired hinge arm on the mirror tray assembly in the rear bedroom. I had to re-pop rivet the arm to the metal tray and straighten out the arm that was all bent up and mangled from being disconnected for years.

The completely Frankensteined GPS unit I got from April’s mom. The power/charge connector was ripped clean off the circuit board inside. After seeing it sit on my desk at work for months, the RV gave me the motivation to finally fix it. I finally had a bright idea and decided to take the battery out completely and just cut the connector off the battery and use that to tap the power into the GPS. Now the GPS has to be plugged in at all times to work, but so what. I’m going to mount a small plug on the dash with 12v DC to it to plug the GPS into and I soldered a DC-DC converter that I bought for $12 inline to convert the 12v DC from the vehicle to the 3.7v DC the GPS runs on. Works great! Looks weird!

Here’s the plug on the end of the GPS and the socket that I’m installing in the dash to power it.

I cut a few small brackets out of aluminum to hold the GPS nice and sturdy on the dash. Here is the part cut out. Next, I bent and shaped the metal to the proper fit.

Here’s the final product attached to the GPS.