Done Spraying Paint

Today I finished spray painting my house. I masked and painted the back of my house with the power painter today. The front is finished, and I've replaced two outdoor light fixtures and the doorbell. I now need to paint the trim and soffits on the other three sides of the house and replace one more light fixture. I also found an outlet that is not working; I'll be troubleshooting that sometime soon.

I used the Wagner Power Painter Pro with the Wide Shot tip to paint my house, but I killed the tool. When I had finished painting my small house (three bedroom single story), everything about the power painter except the motor was worn out. I wore out the Wide shot nozzle; it sprayed paint in large globs instead of a fine mist. I wore out two swirl valves; these break the paint into a fine mist be imparting rotational motion to the liquid spray, i.e. they spin the paint to make droplets. I wore out the pump housing; even off, the pump now leaks. If I am to ever use this tool for another project, and there are other projects, I will have to replace all of its moving parts that contact the paint. I'm wondering if it would be cheaper to buy a new power sprayer... We'll see. A contributing factor to the wear on my painter was the type of paint I used, masonry paint (I was painting stucco). This paint is very thick, like primer, and I did not thin it since the power sprayer was able to handle it.

I'll leave you with a picture of story time from tonight.

The Joy of Motorcycle Maintenance

There are many joys to owning a used motorcycle. The bike cost me fewer pesos than a new one. It's got a little bit of "character" already, so I don't worry about where I park it. It feels really good to keep up with someone on a shiny new bike when I'm on my 9 year old machine. I'm not afraid to take it completely apart, figure out how it works, and put it back together again. Keeping an old machine running well is a source of pride. But...the true joy of an old bike is the maintenance.

There is always something that needs doing on an older machine. I had a fuel line leak about 2 weeks ago. A fuel line swelled and did not seal on the hose barb; that needs to be replaced. My front brake rotor looked noticeably worn; Checking it revealed that it was worn well beyond the service limit. I'll be replacing that. Lately, I've been noticing that my clutch is slipping. When I accelerate quickly, try to maintain or increase my speed against a strong wind, or when i engine brake, I can feel the bike oscillating between catching and slipping. I just took my clutch apart this evening, and my friction plates are all worn to the minimum service limit. More telling is that every friction plate is glass-smooth. They will need to be replaced, too.

I've got to order a few parts for my bike, but I'll be replacing everything when all the parts come in. It's about 700 miles early, but I might as well do an oil change while everything is apart. I had to drain the oil to take apart my wet clutch anyway.

No pics tonight; I'll post something when it all goes back together.

Finished the front trim

The front of the house is presentable. Saturday evening, I finished up the trim on the front of the house. The house numbers are freshly painted, and a new porch light is up, too. I've yet to clean up the detritus on the walk from removing the gutters in this picture, but you get the idea.

There are many days of painting left (back of the house, and three more sides worth of trim...), but at least I'm not a neighborhood eyesore.

First picture of the new house color

I'm a few days behind on my posts, but here's a quick picture of my new house color. Previously the house was a medium tan, and there were water stains on the columns where the sprinklers had gotten the house wet. I've completed painting 3 sides of my house with the main color (not the back), and I'm starting on the trim. The gutters are off the house in this picture. I will be replacing them later this summer. (I won't see rain till fall, so there's no hurry.) I will paint the gutters to match the trim before I install them on the house.

TTFN