Day 1254

We woke up about 8:30.  We stayed in bed, surfed, and played with the cats for awhile.  I think it was after 9 when we got up to do the pet stuff and have breakfast.  I wasn't really motivated this morning, so I surfed for awhile before going out to finish the weather vane.

I started by taking off all of the supports that were attached to the pole.  Then I went to the garage to get the vane.  That's when I noticed a problem.  The bearing was tilted in the bearing housing.  The root of the problem was that it was a piece of cheap Chinese shit.  The bearing wobbled all around the housing.  I eventually got it out with a little force from a hammer and screwdriver.

I went inside and spent about an hour looking a Youtube videos and reading about tapping holes.I figured out what I was going to have to do and what I'd need.  Then we left for Lowe's.

Lowe's had the tap I needed, but it didn't have the set screws.  Home Depot had both.  In addition, the tap was of better quality than the one at Lowe's.  It was almost 1 by then, so we stopped at Doc's Backyard for lunch.  We hadn't been there since last Spring.  The last stop was the post office.

When I got home I went back to work.  It was over 90 and I was continually wiping sweat off my face the entire time I was working.  I drilled and tapped four holes in the bearing housing.  That will hold the bearing in place.  I went very carefully following the instructions from the web.  All 4 came out perfect.  I was really proud of myself.

I had a hard time getting the bearing back in the housing.  I tried a vise, a hammer and punch, vise grip pliers and the arbor press.  No luck.  I finally just sat with the two pieces in my hand.  That's when I remembered that the bearing had tilted when it came out.  I turns out that if you insert the bearing at a 90 degree angle to the housing and insert it into two relief cuts it fits into the housing with very little effort.  Basically it was never designed to be a good bearing.  I was just designed to be easy to insert the bearing in the housing.  There was even a small pin on the outside of the bearing to keep the bearing from spinning inside the housing.  CHEAP CHINESE SHIT.

After that I aligned the bearing in the housing and secured it temporarily with two set screws.  I was really hot and tired, plus it was 5.  So I called it quits for the day.  I did do my exercises before going to the house though.

When I got to the house I took a shower and fed the pets.  Dinner was left over sliders from Doc's.

After dinner was TV and surfing.