Blue Monday

Builders,

It was a very long weekend of Stromberg carb testing. Sounds interesting and it was, but it also felt like taking a carb on and of the intake 20 times and sitting in a 100 mph breeze for several hours on a chilly day. It was actually nice to be in the heated shop all day.

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I write up the results shortly, but today was Monday, and that meant regular parts production. Winter is ‘slow season’, but we still work every week on regular orders. The winter has a different schedule because Colleges are in the spring and fall and Brodhead and Oshkosh consume the focus of the summer. This leaves large R&D projects and custom work like landing gear until this time of year, but regular parts are make year round.

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Above, we spend most of Monday welding production Zenith and Pietenpol exhausts exhausts, the blue light of Tig welding illuminating the workshop. Although both of us can weld and fabricate, we usually end up with Vern welding all day while I fit the parts and reload the fixtures. This also allows me to cover other tasks at the same time. Today that was machining and riveting distributor plates.  We spent the day cranking old 1980s and 1990s music, and in there was New Order playing ‘Blue Monday’. but Liz Phair was singing ‘Supernova’ when I snapped the picture.

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Wewjr.

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