Wanderings of the RVButterfly

BOY! What a Shine and this is just the first step!

Leland — Wed, 16 May 2012 02:30:00 +0000

While in Vancouver Wa about a month or so ago a motor home pulled up next to us and two guys jumped out and one of them started working on shining with a couple of different 3M compounds. I was at first irritated by his tool’s noise as I was working on my computer. As he progressed I began to see a new motor home emerge as he worked his way along. I went over to find out what I could.

This is the guys stuff. I photographed their stuff and I took notes.

Tom’s comment reminded me that I am not showing what I actually used so here they are. The 3M compounds are from NAPA Auto parts. The tool is from Harbor Freight Tools. The orbital polishing tools will not do the job this tool does. With the amount of torque I get using this I imagine the other tools would be next to useless.

This afternoon I went to work on my old ‘93 Chevy Diesel pickup. We call it Baby Blue.

I’ll let you see the results. You can click on a picture and see it larger. This is step one. I buff with a terry cloth pad and an aggressive rubbing compound. I am 3/4 done. Next step is going over it again with the tool and a 3M foam pad using a swirl remover which is a finer finish rubbing compound and the final stage will be a good wax job. I am already so amazed.

At Last, A Starry Night!

Leland — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:15:03 +0000

We finally got a clear, starry night last night. Man oh man was it good to see the stars again! I rushed out the telescope and pointed up Venus off to the west. That nice shiny round point of light, when focused was a crescent shape much like the moon. If you think about it, why not phases like the moon. It’s a planet and the light we see is the Sun’s reflected light just like the moon. Cool.

This is my photo through the lens of Venus. Not good. But I’ll be working on the whole process. The next photo is of the moon but it didn’t turn out either. I was so tickled to get to look at things I didn’t spend too much time trying to photograph them. Time for that later.

Playing with the telescope

Leland — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:13:00 +0000

Between rain showers I got out and played with the telescope. With the complete overcast there was no sky to watch but the mountains were beautiful. I got my finder scope aligned using the mountains.

Then I tried a little photography. I just put my camera on the eye piece and clicked. Not too bad. The photo is of those rocks and snow fields on the mountains. Pretty close up huh.

I found the problem with my motor drive. I blew out a mosfet. See the holes in the chip at the top left. Parts on order.

The Latest Toy, my new telescope.

Leland — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 20:54:42 +0000

Looky looky! I got a telescope. A buddy of mine has lent it to me and I am loving it. I now have it about rigged up and am learning about how to work it. There may be a break in these Western Oregon/Washington clouds this weekend. WooooHoooooo!

Down to San Diego–for work of course.

Leland — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Saturday we left Yuma for San Diego. I have been working on a contract for several weeks and need to go to the company office. Being mobile, not a big deal – we just move.

We checked into the Mission Bay RV Park. We got a site on the “Beach view” side. The problem as you can see above on the left is that the beach is way out there across a parking lot full of big utility trailers. Barely visible. On Sunday we moved to the “Bay View” side. Now it’s much closer to the water and the view is much better. Now if only we could get rid of that chain link fence. They call it security.

We do get some pretty nice sunsets from this site. The bay is beautiful.

And just to show I am working, here is our vehicle at the office. It’s been productive. Now back to the water……