I'm sure some of you will be surprised that I'm into yoga. If I'm honest I'm not THAT into yoga but from time to time I'll get the mat out and move around some. It helps my back immensely.
I'm also sure that some of you will be surprised that I'd like to start jogging. I've talked about wanting to lose weight in the past and frankly I've hit a wall. I beat the 210 pound barrier but the 205 pound wall is one I've been struggling with for 6 months now. I can get slightly under it but not for long. This is an important line for me because I remember getting my first hunting license at age 13 and I already weighed 205. In retrospect I was quite porky at 13 but I was nearly full grown at that point, I don't think my inseam has changed since then.
So anyway for Christmas I asked Angie for a pair of yoga pants. I haven't done any yoga in the house all winter since it was too cold to do it in shorts. The pair she got me are nice but they're long, like you can't see my feet at all when I wear them. Today I was thinking I'd like to get going on the jogging thing. I read an article last night about the 20X training plan and while I certainly don't want to work out like a navy seal I realize that if I'm ever going to get under 200 pounds I need to move a lot more and I need to burn a lot more calories when I'm moving which means I need to move faster.
Off to Amazon to search for yoga pants and its just as Angie explained, shorter yoga pants seem to be in short supply. I can find shorts and pants so long they'll get under my heels but nothing in between, with one exception. The exception is skin tight and frankly guys my size either don't want to be seen in something skin tight or SHOULDN'T be seen in something skin tight...
So there are my choices, mid thigh or dragging on the floor. I don't understand this, how can I do yoga if every time I try to put my foot down I have to pull the pants out from under my feet? Don't people get frustrated with this? Does nobody else do yoga in a house thats too cold for shorts?
First world problems right?
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Friday, April 18, 2014
AGM goodness
Some months ago Fred picked up an AGM lantern for me. I forget the price but it came with a Coleman 220 which I thought was an F but looks to be an E transition, its got an F collar and vent but is stamped E. More on that later, I'm not really a fan of the 220, I think the 228 has a better look, I wanted the pair for the AGM.
Looking at Terry Marsh's site: http://tgmarsh.faculty.noctrl.edu/ under early AGM I found the 4614 which AGM made for Sears in the early '30s. Dates are tough on AGMs since they aren't stamped. Anyhow I'd been off lanterns for the winter but lately have been getting back. I've got a couple Colemans I've been working on that were giving me a rough time so I decided to give the AGM a little attention. Its got an integral pump/gas cap arrangement with the typical hard/cracked gasket and dried out pump leather. The leather softened right up in neats-foot oil and I've got some o-rings to replace the gasket. With the pump working the lantern held pressure and flowed air through what looks to be a Coleman R55 generator. It also came with the filthiest Coleman rising sun globe I've ever seen. After quite a bit of work with some Simple Green the globe is nice. It doesn't belong on this lantern since you can't access the generator or light the thing with it in place. I've contacted Fred Kuntz about a proper mica chimney.
Anyway since the lantern held pressure I figured it was worth trying to fire up. With fuel in place and some mantles tied on it fired up with little trouble, I had to crank the cleaning knob a bunch but it was otherwise pretty straight forward.
The thing was it didn't burn right, it'd get real dim, almost go out even, then brighten back up. It seemed like if it was dim and I fiddled with the knob it'd brighten back up again sometimes but sometimes it wouldn't. Overall I knew something was up.
Taking the lantern apart was surprisingly easy, its very similar to a Coleman 220 which of course shouldn't be a big surprise. Even the valve came out easily, considering how clean the tank is that wasn't a real surprise. The lantern was very dirty, I think it must have sat in somebody's wood shop for awhile, it had a lot of sawdust in it.
With the valve out I was presented with the standard AGM bottom end with what appeared to be a dirty screen. Many AGM lanterns have a fine screen on the bottom of the fuel pickup, usually the assembly comes off with a twist. To my surprise when I twisted this one the whole tube twisted.
That explains the poor running, there must have been a crack in the tube and I was occasionally getting a slug of air instead of fuel. I bet if I'd played with it for awhile I'd have found that the lantern ran better on low pressure than high.
The fix is actually pretty easy, I cut apart a Coleman fuel/air tube from a 200A (the bad one from my original 200A) and found that the tube slid nicely over the AGM tube. I cut out the bad part of the tube out which meant cutting off the end and then cutting the bad part back. Before I did that I measured the length of the tube so I could get it back together the same. I don't want the pickup pushing on the bottom of the fount.
Then I reassembled it all with JB Weld. In initially I tried to solder but I couldn't get a consistent solder joint while keeping everything in alignment.
Foam meat trays make excellent frames for something like this since its easy to adjust and get everything in proper alignment. You can see the transition from the very thin AGM tube to the thicker Coleman. Also if you look closely you can see the nub of the AGM air tube, it looks like this should be an instant light lantern.
The downside of JB weld is that it takes a long time to dry, I had to put the end on, then let that dry overnight, then put the tube on and let that dry overnight. Later today I'll polish up the AGM fount, then put it all back together and give it a shot.
Looking at Terry Marsh's site: http://tgmarsh.faculty.noctrl.edu/ under early AGM I found the 4614 which AGM made for Sears in the early '30s. Dates are tough on AGMs since they aren't stamped. Anyhow I'd been off lanterns for the winter but lately have been getting back. I've got a couple Colemans I've been working on that were giving me a rough time so I decided to give the AGM a little attention. Its got an integral pump/gas cap arrangement with the typical hard/cracked gasket and dried out pump leather. The leather softened right up in neats-foot oil and I've got some o-rings to replace the gasket. With the pump working the lantern held pressure and flowed air through what looks to be a Coleman R55 generator. It also came with the filthiest Coleman rising sun globe I've ever seen. After quite a bit of work with some Simple Green the globe is nice. It doesn't belong on this lantern since you can't access the generator or light the thing with it in place. I've contacted Fred Kuntz about a proper mica chimney.
Anyway since the lantern held pressure I figured it was worth trying to fire up. With fuel in place and some mantles tied on it fired up with little trouble, I had to crank the cleaning knob a bunch but it was otherwise pretty straight forward.
The thing was it didn't burn right, it'd get real dim, almost go out even, then brighten back up. It seemed like if it was dim and I fiddled with the knob it'd brighten back up again sometimes but sometimes it wouldn't. Overall I knew something was up.
Taking the lantern apart was surprisingly easy, its very similar to a Coleman 220 which of course shouldn't be a big surprise. Even the valve came out easily, considering how clean the tank is that wasn't a real surprise. The lantern was very dirty, I think it must have sat in somebody's wood shop for awhile, it had a lot of sawdust in it.
With the valve out I was presented with the standard AGM bottom end with what appeared to be a dirty screen. Many AGM lanterns have a fine screen on the bottom of the fuel pickup, usually the assembly comes off with a twist. To my surprise when I twisted this one the whole tube twisted.
That explains the poor running, there must have been a crack in the tube and I was occasionally getting a slug of air instead of fuel. I bet if I'd played with it for awhile I'd have found that the lantern ran better on low pressure than high.
The fix is actually pretty easy, I cut apart a Coleman fuel/air tube from a 200A (the bad one from my original 200A) and found that the tube slid nicely over the AGM tube. I cut out the bad part of the tube out which meant cutting off the end and then cutting the bad part back. Before I did that I measured the length of the tube so I could get it back together the same. I don't want the pickup pushing on the bottom of the fount.
Then I reassembled it all with JB Weld. In initially I tried to solder but I couldn't get a consistent solder joint while keeping everything in alignment.
Foam meat trays make excellent frames for something like this since its easy to adjust and get everything in proper alignment. You can see the transition from the very thin AGM tube to the thicker Coleman. Also if you look closely you can see the nub of the AGM air tube, it looks like this should be an instant light lantern.
The downside of JB weld is that it takes a long time to dry, I had to put the end on, then let that dry overnight, then put the tube on and let that dry overnight. Later today I'll polish up the AGM fount, then put it all back together and give it a shot.
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