Warm enough to work on bikes

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The middle of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
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11 degrees Fahrenheit, I can finally work outside on bikes for about 15 minutes with gloves snow boots and a heavy jacket.
My yard yesterday during a lull in the blizzard.
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My summer work bench today.
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My current work bench today.
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Finally able to work outside on a bike. Finally not in my cabin bedroom and bathroom.
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It stayed above freezing for the first time last night. It's going back to below freezing at night though. Enough of this, I retired my wood hauling sled for the winter. I'll haul wood in my arms. I filed the sled with vinegar so I can soak a frame. My shop still has ice in it, you can see where I am chipping away at it. My storage unit door is still frozen shut but I did chip all the ice away from the front of it yesterday.
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It was 85 today in KS, supposed to be in twenties Thursday morning. Snow in forecast for parts of state.


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Are you using weed killer, 20% vinegar?
100% cleaning vinegar. As it evaporates I bring the level back up. I don't want weed killer in my shop as I have to dispose of the vinegar and I don't want the weed killer woking on the disposal site. It turns the ground black and causes iron poisoning as it is. I jug it back up to use again later until it looses it's effectiveness. I really dissolves some stuff. Takes some of the copper out of the brazing, causes deep pits in soft steel like a lucky seven and made my skip tooth chain fall apart. I left the skip tooth chain in there just to see what would happen and it disappeared. It's so cold in the shop that the vinegar works slow. I scrub the frame daily. It's almost ready.
 
I have 90% of the ice chipped out of my shop floor. What is helping it melt is that yesterday I was able to chip away a lot of the wooden storage boxes and stuff piled on top of them. I moved these to the dry spots in the shop and now the warmer air can get to the frozen areas. I'll have super mess to clean up when the snow melts. Still snow up past the hood of my truck along the highway and in my yard but I have some bare spots in the yard. The poor robins, sandhill cranes and redwing blackbirds are having a hard time finding food. They came back too early this year. I have a lot of bike projects on the burner, 8 wheels to build, a Colson, a Westfield, a 1920s track bike, a 1938 Schwinn New World and worst of all a three wheeler. I must be getting reputation, a local event company has booked their 3 wheel bicycles out and when they took them out of storage one was broken. None of the local bike shops will work on them, said the parts are oversized, can't get the parts and that they are toys, not bicycles. They called me yesterday and asked if I could help. I have never had any interest in these bikes and know nothing about them but I said to send me pictures and describe what is broken. I will go look at them when I am in town in a few weeks. I really don't want this project but I feel sorry for them so I guess I'll try and fix them. I may be posting for help advice on the three wheeler. I always get help on RRB, great site, the only one I belong to.
 
Here it is April 18 and my shop still has ice on the floor. I keep chipping it up and tossing it outside. I have been working in there on the spots I cleared out but I have a huge mess to clean up when it dries out. Two days ago I chipped all the ice off my work bench which is outside. The snow around it is now only knee deep. Last fall I pushed it against a tree for storage and it's frozen to the ground so I can't use the vice yet. It's going to be in the 40sF starting tomorrow so that will help. We hardly ever have sun here all year and if it gets sunny even at 40F then we would get some melting. I went to town on Tuesday and the snow on the highway shoulders was halfway up my truck windows. I'm doing mechanical work but paint is still a long way off. Barley warm enough to work on bikes, 36F. Two hundred to 300+ (depends where you live up here) inches of annual snowfall takes a long time to melt when it stays cool like it has this year. I'll have so much work fixing the snow damage and cleaning the brush that the snow brought down that I don't think I'll be able to do the build off. Wah wah.
 
She has an uncanny knack for spotting anything dodgy that I do so that wouldn't work. No sanding, welding or painting on bikes allowed in the house.
Convert the garage? Cars can all park outside.
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Convert the garage? Cars can all park outside.
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My shop is my garage. Wife gets half for her SUV and I get half for motorcycles and bicycles. We had so much snow that he base was above the garage floor and then it rained and I had 3 inches of ice on the floor. You couldn't even walk in there.
 

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