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1/24/2010

We lifted off the "unstuck" knee and inspected the ways and they seemed fine. We have not fluxed or died them to see if there are minute cracks....maybe later after I clean it.

Got a few pics of the under the base. Would have been hard to fit that magnetic drill in there.....would have been some die grinding....if we were forced to go that route.....yuk.

Lifted the column onto a railroad cart I had

Now the real grunt work starts. I used a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a stainless steel wire brush and a larger angle grinder with same type brush. The larger angle grinder didn't work near as well as the smaller one. I also put a :hurricane" force fan on me and the work and I was "upwind" of it all so that I didn't have to breathe the dust. Worked quite well except the wind chill factor was down in the teens....brrr!

Clean column....!

Now to the knee and knee screw....

Clean Knee and knee screw...! (except for some hard to get areas.....later work for the Foredom brush).

Last of the big items....the ram and turret (I still haven't separated them). I'm trying to get all this nasty work done before the cold front (and a ton of rain) hit in the next day or so.

Done....except for some small areas....detail work later.

Now to get all this stuff covered up and get ready for the rain and cold weather coming our way.....! I am tired and every joint in my body aches. I hated this part.....but if did not make the effort to refinish it, it would haunt me forever.