What odd Jobs did you do today?

TIME TO REVIVE THIS TOPIC.


Finally getting around to painting the Mini Hoe. I think I've tested it long enough. have some repair work to do to the front. Got a coat of paint on the side panels though

Got this on Amazon to try out. It worked great BUT I didn't pay attention to the pressure limit.


I'll try again with the little electric pressure washer and see if it lasts longer

Finally getting around to putting it back together. Still gotta do the back end. waiting for warmer weather.

Jim- cut at least one section of pipe or rectangular tubing the length of the chrome section of lift ram rods..then cut one side of it out so it slips over the chrome area of at least one rod..safety prop..I made a set for my loader due to working by myself..the mast(lift arms)could fall and kill you..no lecture from me here, but I take safety seriously

oh THAT'S ONLY FOR THE PICTURE. I've had a hose give out while working on this already. I have one of those tranny jacks for working under a lift I put up under the bucket.


this thing goes up about 8'. still have no idea why it needs to go that high. but OK

good to see you have safety in mind..that gloss orange is lookin good..extra hardener?

No actually the hardener was HARD in the can. been sitting too long and I couldn't find my can of reducer so I used acetone. That's Kubota orange from TS. Something about the acetone made it kick faster without any hardener. Experimental pain job. Needed to get the Mini hoe back together and the parts out of my shop. we'll see how well it holds up. I'm not very good at keeping my equipment pretty. Still need to paint the rest of it. more for preservation than looks....Fork lift too..

Looks like new! I used to paint everything in sight, ---now its lucky to get fuel in it!

Ive never used acetone as reducer with TS paint, never bought into the Majic reducer..only 'paint thinner'..its an alkyd paint,not sure if the chemistry would work there..all in all its a solvent that evaporates after the paint has been sprayed. The hardener keeps OK but as you found out once opened it adsorbs moisture and cures into a block..buy it as you need it

Just what I had handy at the time BUT I can get a gallon of acetone for the cost of a Small can of that hardener and a can of reducer. seems to cure fine. bet it cures even better when its warm out. It dried fast in the shop.. at 69*

A lot of changes over the years. Built the loader 16 years ago. built the new shop 10 years ago added the backhoe to my FEL 8 years ago. She's gone through a series of changes since too. engine upgrade, hydraulic steering & more. now she's getting painted again.



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Got tired of having to put air in the tires on Forklift.. Got the new ones in.

Installed heat wrap on the headers of my maverick. Aluminum heat foiled foam on the plastics and a new bumper







Got to get back in the habit of posting stuff. Even more important got to start building again.

I've been using a 1-1/4"wide fiberglass tape product to heat wrap exhaust pipes and manifolds,its designed for door gaskets on furnaces and works pretty good..lasts for years,very durable,I use stainless tie wire to hold it on after I wrap it

I used this wrap from Amazon. So far so good, it came with some stainless steel clamps but I used hose clamps on the ends. Haven't really run it enough to see if it will hold up. Definitely have to wear gloves with it.

Exhaust Wrap

Got ignition to work, for now, on the Kohler 15 on the wheelbarrow project. Flywheel magnets and coil legs were extreeeemly rusty. Cleaned them and now plug sparks. ---- now for the carb! --- it may be dirty too, I used to use this old unit as a butt buggy, so I know it did run. Sitting not used kills stuff.

Rubbing alcohol works really good for cleaning carburetors it dissolves that lacquer build up crap without damaging the aluminum.

clean enough for now! ---- It makes spark at test light I snapped to the plug.



Heavy rust on this one---usually not this bad.

Drive shaft center support bearing & rear u joint in my 97 Cheyanne ext.cab w 8' bed.

It's nice when the shaking and vibration stops...

10 Miles from Dad's house a deer tried to tackle me... I won but got wounded. My son's are coming up for the funeral and my youngest is supposed to be driving the truck back so repairs are under way. They are bringing the core support, fender grill etc. with them so I'm tearing it down so all we have to do is put it back together
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Want to get the hood off so I can pull off the left fender and pull the left fender today so when the boys get here it's just reassemble.. Sure am glad I carry tools when I travel. Dad didn't have much..

A lot of work to have to do! Damn deer around here are bad too. Sis had a couple hit her ranger and she never drives over 35 or 40 on our road because of deer, even then 2 managed to sneak out in front of her. I hit one with the 350 a mile from here, rolled him off the bumper, got lucky in the fact it was a mid sized one with shorter legs, and I was running 30 at the time.
When I drove for Melton's, I put a full grown one into orbit with the old 94 Kenworth W-900 that I drove. --- Hit that sucker running 69, gross load was 84,000--- deer decided to cross the road at last min. I never even saw it standing in the weeds. and---- well I didn't feel any thing, just saw something fly past the window.
Hope you don't have hidden damage! Hope it goes back together without any major problems!

I was doing a little over 60 when I felt the thud and saw the head. No steam or strange noises so I kept going. figured at THAT speed there wouldn't be any salvageable meat any way ( not that I would Have been able to mess with it here). Ready for the repair parts....




Pile of damaged goods...

Glad it spared the windshield and waterpump...

ME too.

what a job..at least you didnt have a total loss on your hands..keep that old Chevy,you'll be wishing you had it back if you ever let it go..I refuse to let my '85 K30 go.
>one thing I found to work great is to drill a 1/8" hole in each hood hinge where it meets the hood,easy to line it up later with just a 1/8 rivit in the same hole..lines everything up

Bought this truck NEW She's got a 5 speed Std tranny and I put in a lim-slip diff. I'll keep her till she falls apart. I have a dump kit on her too..

These new ones wouldn't hold up to a deer hit like that. ---I still like the older chevy trucks. The 94 GMC 1-ton I had years ago had the 350 in it , great motor. Didn't like auto-trans. -- Don't like these ford auto-trans either. I grew up on clutches in everything and prefer them. I quit Meltons when then went to all autos in their semis. My old W-900 was the last to go, it was a 10 speed, the ones I drove before that all had 13- speed in them. That was real trucking days!

Got her back together... She's on the road again thanks to my boys. Rebel.bilgerat in the picture. I didn't get pics under the hood after we put the fan shroud back in.. She looks like new under the hood.


NEW RADIATOR

Hey! it looks great! Hope the deer stay away from it! That was a lot of work and expense to go to!
Tall cool dude looks happy! Glad you had help!

That's my youngest son. My expense is only at $117 for the radiator & $90 for a new set of LED lights.

sounds like you did pretty good at around $200 after frontal deer contact.

Got a hair up my butt and decided to play with the fork lift.. Just wanted to see if it could

Decided to dig out my French drain not been draining good lately...



Mini Hoe is on steroids' with that new Predator.

doing electrical work today in the shop..found two brand new, but BAD-right out of the box-Square D QO breakers in a row..it must be the apocalypse for sure

that's a pain.. must be a quality control issue with Square D. I've gotten at least two bad breakers in the past three months. Gotten to the point that I buy 3 if I need 1 and take the rest back. It's time & travel for me on a job..

Lookin good! -----Ya the quality of name-brand stuff today is pathetic! Damn chimna crap---mex. made not much better either.

Get what you pay for. if you don't want to spend a lot you're not going to get a lot.

Been fighting the new engine starting hard. Dang ignition switch on the tractor Doesn't supply power to the Light / acc during cranking so the fuel stop solenoid isn't energized. Lost the lock ring for the ignition switch that came on the engine. UGGG

well guess I'll put a momentary on button in for a switch bypass to start it. at least until I find that stinking retainer ring.....

Put the momentary button switch in. Problem solved.. Only need it on cold starts. finally found something to make a new grill too. Kinda classy for my act.




still need to do the headlights. hard to find anything that fits. there's some on Ebay just not sure that I want to spend that much on lights that won't get used too much.

lookin good!

Put My poor mans paint booth up today. It's more to protect the stuff in the shop than the car getting paint...

there's some good purple paint getting ready to fly..hopefully you'll fit right in with today's times wearing a respirator..an exhaust fan will help keep the air moving and cut down on some of that overspray

put new shocks on the front of my 4-wheeler then did a complete maintenance,fluids+filta change..turned it around then replaced both rear CV shafts,changed the rear diff fluid and adjusted the brakes..ready to roll for this season.
Glad I went to Wallymart last week, the virus scare is really ramping up here..it is serious.
Its easy to survive the viral 'shelter in place' orders when you have shop work to do..ok....next?

Here it's business as usual, cept no supplies to be had, damn hoarders! --NOW they tell me garden seeds are being hoarded!!!! --- I have most everything for the little garden, so don't know! I could use some good weather so I can start the garden.
Will probably have to work with 2 of the horse tillers this year and call it good.

went to Ritchie Bros auction to pick up a battery powered scissorlift, it oughta be handy to have for overhead work..waited 3hrs start to finish to get loaded and outta there..very crowded and busy..easy to get yourself run over too;o you'd never had known there was a pandemic around looking at that place..people everywhere

Replaced my outside outlet by the back door for the 3rd or 4th time...this time, I knocked the box off the siding, so I put it back up moved over a smidge (I would have swapped holes, but it only had 2, not 4). For some reason, any time the outlet or wires get moved, they're never quite right after that. It's been tripping about once a day, so I'm hoping the new outlet fixes that.

I picked up a skyjack 3220 10 years ago for $!00. still using it. VERY NICE to have.

is that outlet a GFI, Gly? -they do go bad after some time, I can't get more than 10yrs from one,and that's a P+S industrial grade, not a HD cheapie

It is GFI at the panel, the outlet itself is plain.

found out the platform lift I got from Ritchie Bros was a dud,the control system uses a PC module and a motor controller,both of which are dead..got the service manual and troubleshooted it,found both modules were dead,but they hydraulic pump still works and the solenoid valve banks(2 of them) work...so off into the land of bang-bang control we go with toggle switches and relays direct acting the valves..this oughta be fun..kinda like a roller coaster gone bad


So I tore out the two controllers and mounted a terminal block to directly access the valve signals and add some diodes to control back EMF from the solenoids..across the solenoid hots and a ground in inverse..a lot of interlocked functions to be considered here on this one.I might have to map solenoid valves together with steering diodes to make two valves work together..combining functions.Still probably hold up longer than the PC module and a LOT cheaper.


More to come on this as I get into it..this uses (4) deep cycle 6V batteries..wow at $230.00 each I can see why it got parked when the batteries went bad..thats a chunk of change..so for now I'm using two 12V deep cycle batteries in series..at half the AH of the golf cart batteries that came with it..it'l have to work for now

Good old re-inventing!!---cant beat it! -- Batteries are getting high again too. I need 2 big heavy 12-v jobbers in my 350 diesel and keep putting it off. These have been in it since I bought it 7 years ago and looked to be old ones then, so guess they don't owe me anything. --- not sure I can find any place open around here to get some either, never tried yet, too busy getting stuff done around here and changing diapers! ---IF I don't mind wet legs, I go for 4 to 6 hours, but after 1 or 2 hours its wet..
Trying to get a or some mowers ready to mow with, sitting in shed all winter,--flat tires and dead batteries, you know the usual stuff that happens when stuff is in storage for the winter! LOL!

my sky jack is bang N go by design. would love to temper it with a servo.. too expensive for as often as I use it though.

I use another scissor lift, an MEC 32ft which is battery powered, bang bang control switches and is easy to use once you get the feel for it..the blue one here had a PWM motor controller and a PC card to interpret the input switches and joystick control, probably gave nice smooth control for it..too expensive to replace even with my good brother's wholesale parts discount it wasnt cheap..so I had a bunch of military quality spring to center toggle switches in the parts drawer(found something for once-!!) so after a strong cup of coffee it was the way we went..good so far..will update with pics..either in a ball of fire or working acceptably whichever comes first

I don't mind it much except when I'm trying to move over just a little when I'm up in the air. every now and then it'll hit high speed. Not supposed to do that when it's above a certain height.
I really need to go through it some time and check all the components for proper function.. I have too many irons in the fire and not enough coal to keep them all hot.

yup so got some admin stuff done in the office this morning,then ventured out into the shop to re-address the TM12 platform lift. I got all the control wiring printed out,or otherwise said,what wire does what and what polarity and what leads are paired to work together,etc..then determined that I'd make up working pairs of solenoid valves by steering control voltage thru diodes to make things work together,ie,pump run and wheel brakes both go to the forward/rev drive switch, but brakes stay on while lifting the platform,etc..took some thought-I shoulda taken a minute or two for a cigar inbetween..it helps to think for a bit then move ahead..so made up some pairings and made up one side of the terminal block as control wiring..the other side will get steering diodes to make up working pairs. I ran thru all the solenoid valves and they all work good. I noticed the steering rack comes close to the terminal block,but it does have about 1/2inch space..kinda concerning at first.

The hydraulic pump ran fine with the current 100A DC contactor relay, I have a few 400A ones if this one doesn't last. I'm going to retain the 175amp DC fuse for the battery mains and the fuse mount block,they are in good shape and should be OK. I like the Square D modular terminal blocks,you can mix and match blocks what gauge block,etc as you need..very handy to work with..More to come.

Re-lined a dump truck bed over the last two days. About 1200lbs of steel to do the job. Still have a new door to build for it.
Then someone needed 60- 1" x 2" x 1/4" with a 3/8" hole in one end.
All cut from scrap, while cutting a 5'x10' sheet of 1/4" into fire troughs. Price $2/lbs x 10lbs.
What was left over, I could carry with one hand.

yes Jim there should be a proximity or limit switch that locks out high speed travel when the mast is in the air..this small lift has one as well,from what I can tell it gets wired to a flow divider solenoid valve to dump half the hyd pump flow back to the tank when the mast is raised..thats a definite must have.

yeah I have to download the schematics and see what goes where. I haven't used it in so long I'm sure the batteries are dead.

Finally finished putting the panels in the HF green house. Had the frame put together for about 3 years now. Kathy will plant seeds for the second season plants we'll put plants in the garden now.

Got some flat tires fixed on some of the mowers and one on a tiller. --- Put air in a bunch of low tires that went down over the winter.
Got one of the little gardens tilled after dumping a bunch of compost on it. Ground hard as concrete right now, did get a tad bit of rain this afternoon, s'posed to get more in the next 2 days.
Got the big skidloader out and moved a bunch of dirt. Put the hyd. oil back in the Case skidloader and put a gallon of gas in it, still no start as carb has thick stale gas in it. I know the motor does run, just nasty stuff in carb. Electric fuel pump was choked with stale gas too, but it cleaned out good, and full flow to carb. Got cold and rain started so I quit and came in.--Tomorrow is another day!

Yeah, I pretty much count on a carb clean every spring. If I am lucky, it's just bowl, needle, and seat, and maybe a grass stem through the tiny hole in the bowl nut. Reminds me, I need to get carb cleaner.

Regular rubbing alcohol works excellent for cleaning small engine carbs. Dissolves the laquer quite well without damaging the gaskets & seals.
Might be easier to find carb cleaner these days though.

I know everyone don't have an airport nearby, but I store all my small engines with avgas 100LL..never an issue come spring..just did my springtime 8HP Kohler mower coldstart; avgas in it all winter,just dumped in some street pump gas on top and gave it a go-started right up and ran fine for 3hrs..I swear by avgas.

Bloomington-Normal airport is about 20 miles from here, but have NO idea how to buy gas there or IF they sell to just anybody!--Since I don't fly a plane Not sure how they would handle a request for avgas.

you want a small town airport that has prop planes..most of those still use 100LL Avgas. Very stable and consistent from batch to batch They have to run it because the carbs are certified to use it and to recertify is a major hassle..Break down in mid air its a big deal..no pulling off the side of the road at 3500ft in the air. Its not illegal to sell it to you, for off road use anyone can buy it..just dont put it in your tagged road vehicle. I don't have a plane, I just know the people that run the airport, been buying gas there for 20yrs. I guess if you can't find Avgas, then VP or Cam2 fuel would be the next best thing..I think Jegs.com offers it.

we have a few stations around here that sell non ethanol gas... little cheaper than AVI gas.

We have 1 station that has non-alki gas --its one dollar higher than alki gas.
Finally got 1 front tire fixed on the Sunstar 20 today. Took old tire off and it was full of nasty crap--I assume stop-leak, anyway it had the rim pitted really bad so I cleaned it up the best I could then took a tire off the wheel horse that I don't use anymore and put that tire on the Sunstar rim. Didn't put a tube in it cause I was afraid the residue would eat the tube up so I just cleaned it the best I could and put a new stem in and went back tubeless. Tonight it was still up--will see what it looks like tomorrow!
Also got a little more done on the cub lo-boy 185 that has been down for 2 years due to multiple problems. key switch rusted out,--throttle cable broke, oil light went out so cant tell if it has oil pressure or not, it's mower blades need sharpening, grease everything on it. and a few other things! LOL!! ---ole back killing me tonight!

Cut up an old boat and hauled it off Wed.

Took out the river stone & put crushed stone in my drain trough next to the slab. Hope it won't roll out as easy as the river stone.


My Little sweet heart helped..

Got the flat tire fixed for the explorer, had a big piece of steel razor sharp hardened stuff went thru the bottom of the tread. I took the tire off, patched the little hole and put the tire back on and aired it up,--so far holding, not sure if there are any other small leaks or not ----time will tell.
Started working on the lo-boy 185 and got a lot of the stuff fixed on it before the rains came. Still need new battery for it they I can use it to help mow with.

got my latest forklift project in epoxy primer after a through and through sanding with 80grit..2 part epoxy primer,a short filled gallon can,add pint of activator then 75oz of distilled water,put it on the shaker for 10min..water in paint is very unusual for me,i come from solvent paint era..but the stuff works great,cures hard as nails..was going to wet sand and top coat it yesterday but rain again and in the forecast for the next few days so it'l have to wait.

Been busy haven't updated much. I service drive in restaurants ( primarily SONICS) they have almost doubled business with this corona crap so I have too. Far better than the alternative.
I'm helping out a friend with his 2003 Suzuki 500. Frame was all wacked & broke in a couple places, missing parts in a couple places. started because he was having to replace wheel bearings all the time. Turns out when I pulled the wheel it was missing the spacer that goes between the bearings. Was going to cost more in shipping than the part cost. couple of beers later, I had made one from a NUT.

Close enough. Mics out within a thousandth.

ALSO got lucky and found a hood for the old troy built tiller on EBAY so I got that put on too.

YOU CAN'T REALLY SEE HOW BAD THE OLD ONE IS IN THE PIC. Not much left of it after sitting out in the weather for about 30 years

QUAD FRAME doctor up job. really needs a new frame but too much money if you can find one.

those quad frames take a beating..Ive welded mine up numerous times and beefed it up with 1/8"plate gussets where space allows,the gussets wrap around the frame tubing,giving me more spot weld points-that limits heat input to the frame metal...it survived the last trip to Kentucky where it was beat on for a week in the mountains..the first trip I had it there it broke in half,the only thing holding it together was the aluminum bellypan skidplate..metal fatigue!!
Try ebay for used frames and suspension parts,there's lots of parts for old quads on there.Registered dealers as well parting out old quads that will post an auction just for you if they have the part you need

Okay, technically this is yesterday's project:

Banged out a mulching plate for the 20 year old riding mower. Already had the 3-in-1 blades on it, since I can't find the heavy duty "gator" ones anymore.




Seems to work well. I guess I will need to be a little more careful about not letting the grass over septic get too long...

Looks like a good fit. Only time I take the mulching plug off mine is when I mow out back around the retention pond. It's city property but they only cut it like once a year and the critters come calling when it gets too deep, so I keep it knocked down.

I let mine fly all over! lol! Some of it I rake up and put in the compost pile, but sis takes it for her chickens, so it gets used.

doing a valvetrain adjustment on a 4039T Deere genset engine..easy peasy only 4cyls

Mow and trim yard and orchard, tilled all of the big gardens with my big tiller on a neighbors big tractor! ----These new tractors are confusing to run! --- I did o.k. but still don't like cabs and ac on them!
Also got a few green beans planted.

Took the Mini Hoe over to a friends house and we laid 60' of drain pipe. only took 45 min to dig the trench. too 4 1/2 hour to fill it back in. had to till up the stuff we dug out to make it workable. crap was like bricks..

changed the brake shoes in my 4 wheeler because they didn't feel right.
.
pad material separated from the shoes. explains why the brakes felt like they were sticking.

those 4-wheeler brakes sure are maintenance intensive..seems like everytime I ride mine either the front or rear needs work..and I routinely wash it out and clean it after a big day ride..drum brakes are the worst.

Well I can't complain about these. This is a 2001 and this is the first time I've done them I think they just died of old age.

Well Nice weather and plenty of projects has kept me off the computer. Need to rename this string to what Odd jobs did you do this weekend...... or week..
Made a new attachment for the fork lift.


IT was easier than moving everything so I could get the pontoon boat under the Gantry crane to do a repower. Engine swap is another story.




I CAN SEE THIS ATTACHMENT COMMING IN REAL HANDY DOWN THE ROAD TOO..

Pontoon boat got a motor up grade. Same thing just 11 years newer. I was having issues with the one that was on it not running right. seemed to be leaking oil every where, Pretty sure it needs to be gone through and re gasketed at a minimum. It's an84 Evinrude 88SPL.

I picked this one up on Marketplace for $225. Had no spark Got a New power pack, 4 new coils and a fuel pump from amazon. All and all I'm into it for right around $500. Good price for a GOOD running 90 hp engine. The pic is a video on Flickr.

Sometimes you run into good deals like that. Minor problems prompt a LOT of people to just throw it on the market when it don't go!----I have seen this many times!

Been working on the garden fence for the last few days. The deer had it almost torn down completely. Aluminum wire was not the best choice for the fence.
I replaced all old fence posts, 1/4" round, with 1.25# × 7' tee posts, there are 17 of them as line posts. The corner posts are still wood, I plan on replacing the old wooden posts with PT posts in the future. I am going to expand the garden in the future and add field fence then
Running 17ga galvinized steel wire for now.
Removing the old aluminum wire is a pain in the butt.
Dan.

good to see you back Dan..making any progress on the shop?

Gotta pull the tranny out of the fork lift. It's stuck in first gear.

Didn't have to pull it after all. Some how the shift lver slipped out from in between the forks. only took about 15 min to get back up and running

Trying to haul water to the gardens and hoe weeds. ----no rain here for ages and 90+ temps, hot weather is here for sure!
Neighbor brought his 1,600 gallon tanker by and unhooked it.----been unloading it a hundred gallons at a time with the tote and a sunstar. ---I can drag the tote right close to the rows so I dont have far to carry it 3 gallons at a time.

it was a good hot day here so working on big portable air conditioners was a natural..had (2) 7.5ton packaged A/C units just in surplus, brand new but needed evacuation and charging with R22..10lbs each was an expensive ordeal so we went with a R22 drop-in replacement refrigerant..we had one blowing polar cold air within 30minutes..Evacuation with a vacuum pump took an hour or so..so a cold beer in the shade and wait a while watching the manifold gauge..one turned out good, now for the next one monday

I use 422B on all the rooftop package units here and even on the walk in Coolers. Been using it a few years now haven't had any problems with it and it's cheap compared to others. I personally stay away from that Mo 99 stuff cuz it has had issues.

Jim the 'fridgerant I used is called EcoFreeze EF22A it was a special deal we had a few years back this was one cyl left over I thought might as well use it up..it works great. SUPPOSED to be compatible with all R22 systems, we've used it quite a bit (4 cyls worth) and with no problems. I can get all the 22 we need so probably just go back to 22 in the old package systems we have here. We get in a lot of surplus military HVAC units,most were 22 based and are evacuated before they sell them so we recharge them before resale.

i had two of my units on my house replaced this year. I thought that one unit was still good, so I installed it in my shop with the intention of it being a heat pump/AC for the shop. Well a guy I work with that does AC work, connected them for me and charged it. The first condenser had the compressor running but it wasn't pumping. I took the condenser off and mounted the other one. The guy came back Saturday and tried it but it's compressor wouldn't start at all. I have a new capacitor on order and will try that when it comes in. I'm in $350 on this system with no results.

After all that I was looking on FB marketplace and someone has a package unit that has a gas pack. it's a 3 ton Bryant unit for $200. I am going to go get that tomorrow. So if the capacitor works I will use the unit I have installed working, and keep the other for a future project of sell it. If the cap doesn't work, I will rip that one out and try the package unit. It was supposed to be working when pulled.

I also bought a two post auto lift today for $500. Hopefully I can get it put back together.

I have to stop the impulse spending, but I keep finding deals....

Gator those deals are out there EVERY day.. you just have to want them enuf to go after them..I realized that just landing a deal isn't enuf, it has to really work for me and provide enuf benefit for me to go after it..
I have entirely too much already..but a lift for $500 is tough to pass up..Im really tired of crawling under vehicles.

Cleaned the shop, ground the rust off the old blades from the franfenstein mower, fixed a small floor jack....

Yesterday I got my a central AC working in my shop .....sort of. I have a central unit I installed in the shop, I had replaced two units in my house one had a bad coil and the other I wasn't sure on. I installed the smaller unit first and after it was charged, it wouldn't move refrigerant. It was a 1.5 ton unit. The other is a 3 ton unit. I had that unit installed with the smaller coil. The compressor wouldn't start on it so my AC guy gave up on it. In the mean time I found a four ton package unit that was supposed to run. I gave $200 for it.

I literally took my sawzall out there and was fixing to cut the pipe and I decided to try it again. I had already bought a new capacitor. I took the old one and hooked it up in parallel with the new one. I pushed the starter in with the capacitors doubles and it shuttered and clunked over a few times before stalling. Before it didn't turn at all. I pushed it manually about 10 times each time is clunked a few times more than before. Finally it broke free and started running. I let it run for a few minutes. Now it will fire right up and rin with just the normal capacitor. I let it run friday and it froze up solid. It was charged while not running, hopefully when charged again it will run. I not I have the 4 ton package unit ready to install also. The package unit is a natural gas unit. I may hook it up anyway for winter heat.

Had doctor appt.---basic waste of time, but I went!---still have psa reading----not s'posed to have one at all.
This face cover crap is a joke! I cant breathe thru them rags, so I use a stiff piece of plastic with a string tied to it to hold it on, OR an old welding helmet with the dark glass removed. ---- that gets a stir from the people in the doctors office! LOL!! ----- HEY face is covered!--right?
Getting the freeze-dryer ready to go ----- summer squash harvest has begun!

doing the same thing psa of 0.1

trying to stay cool. this heat wave were having is keeping me up on the roofs fixing A/Cs and walk in coolers and freezers. Finding out the hard way that the people they hired to do the rooftop PMs didn't do them very well, if even at all. Most of my fixes are simply cleaning condenser coils. by the time I get home, too pooped to play with any thing. pools to hot to enjoy (might have to build a chiller unit to cool it down). can't complain too much. I'm still working.. too many people are out of work.

Last Saturday I spent the day fixing a broken sprinkler (in ground system). Haven't needed it for a couple years but been so dry we decided to fire the system up. I didn't even get finished and the Sky dropped almost 2" of rain in an hour. We have had afternoon storms all week. Well good thing it's raining because after all that screwing around to fix the sprinklers.... turn the water back on and the sprinkler's aren't popping up just getting a little bubble out of one of them. couple min later I see water coming up through the expansion joints in my Driveway.. DAMN.... my best shot at capping the line is to cut out a section at the narrowest part of my drive , find the line that goes out front and cap it. what a PAIN

Ugh.

Heat is bad here too---humidity is the real problem for us. 90+ degrees with 80% humidity kinda makes you wilt in a flash.
Today I tried to dig a few tatoes and pick some squash. Also got most of the onions out of the row,--now to put them on pallets in the shed to dry.

Every time I go to start, either something more important pops up or the weather won't cooperate. The shift I am working ruins the day. 2pm to 10pm sucks, plus split days off kind of screws things up also.
Dan

This whole week SUCKED... lost my Dad Monday, My best friends wife passed Tuesday, Another person like a sister to me lost her sister Thursday. enough for that ... So I'm working on the darn sprinkler to keep my mind off the bad stuff (nothing due to covid by the way)
Cut the driveway...
Found the pipe & capped it.
Filled in the trench with gravel until it settles enough to pour.

Turned the pump on and yay only one sprinkler popped on the line. the one I just put in. this one didn't. so I dig it up.

There was a tee on the bottom connected to that black poly laying there so I hook it up to the hose to see where it goes.

WELLL SHIT...Right next to the one I just put in. I totally forgot I did this when the driveway got done because the line out front got tore up. ALL I had to do was fix the one sprinkler that's in the gravel that I broke when I put the new gravel down. I can't believe i didn't hit it digging up where the water was bubbling out of the ground.. well I capped that poly hose and laid it in next to the sprinkler for future use if needed..


Positive note I never have to worry about sending water under the driveway ever again.

POST NOTE... it's rained the last two days 2.3 " worth.. haha

Sorry for your loss Jim!---It's hard losing family and friends.
We are getting a little rain here, not a great amount but it's helping a lot on top. Dug about half of the potatoes yesterday and its still hard and dry down 8 inches.

THANKS
yeah unfortunately the 2" dump ran off not soaked in so I'm glad the sprinklers are back in operation..

Fixed the torn cushion on the pontoon boat.


The material is a different shade of Blue but it's what I had on hand and it's whole again.

I have run 4" Schd 40 PVC under paved sidewalks and driveways as a sleeve to prevent cutting the paved surfsce in the future. The sleeve extends 6 to 12 inches past it to make it easier to find.
Dan.

welded a dumpster gate back up the other day. truck ripped it off the hinges. I use my wire feed powered by my generator. it's just easier for these jobs. ANY way.. was putting the welder back in it's spot & decided to see how much wire I had left. Cut it real close on this one.

Lucked out on that one!!! lol! --- Ya a bit close!

wrestled 4 new glowplugs into an Isuzu diesel forklift..then replaced the starter, only to find out now the battery is bad..put it on charge one last time to see..maintenance free so I can't check spec gravity of the electrolyte..so it goes..

ya, I hate the sealed batteries---dont see an advantage of them. they are like dry cells---dont last long!

well the battery was OK; after getting into it, the glowplug power bar was loose; it's a copper bar that goes across all the glowplug terminals..two screws were loose so she was only getting glow on two engine cyls, no wonder it was hard to start..now it starts like its supposed to..I just replaced two hyd cylinders on the mast, it has one big one,low mounted and two on the upper portion of the mast..the upper two were rusted internally, they never got used before and the outer seals rotted and they got water in them and corroded the bores..very special cylinders, had flow limiters in the bottom end, quoted at $1K for rebuild..NOT! so I sized up some NOS single acting forklift cylinders from Surplus Center at $130/ea, had to cut and weld the old Hyster cylinder ends onto the new cyls..lost about 2" of overall stroke but the tradeoff was worth it..well when putting those all back together on the mast I forgot to finish tighten one of the hardlines to the bottom of one of the new cyls and it leaked about 5gallons of hyd fluid before I noticed it under the lift...whooops I guess we call that dust control around here. had to hillbilly ramp it up on blocks just to get access to the fitting without taking the mast off again..very close to the ground,limited access..safety first, use lots of wood blocks..Ok,on to the next odd job

Loaded up a full trailer load of scrap metal, took the engines out of two go Karts, moved the Komatsu Dozer to the shop, lifted it with my 2 post lift, broke my two post lift cable pulleys, then started building a chicken coop...

Here is how far I got before running out of wood.

always hated it when I ran out of materials in the middle of something! --- you got a good start on it anyway!

Yea he did but it doesn't sound like he did much else. hahaha just kidding. Sounds like you spent the whole day running... I got tired of listening to the clutch fan howl in the motorhome ripping it out so I can put an electric fan in for quiet operation.

Yea he did but it doesn't sound like he did much else. hahaha just kidding. Sounds like you spent the whole day running... I got tired of listening to the clutch fan howl in the motorhome ripping it out so I can put an electric fan in for quiet operation.

Got a handful of projects started but nothing finished.

Trying to get motor out of sunstar 20 so I can replace the ignition module in the Kohler 20 engine ---- module is behind flywheel shroud and nothing will come off with out taking motor out! ---- GREAT design, but gotta see why it dont have spark and have unhooked all wires, so nothing can ground module out and still no spark. Probably why the mower sat for 4 years or so, then was sold as a parts unit. --- I bought 3 of them as 1 lot for parts and it looks like all 3 motors might be good ones. one runs good, one has bad starter but turns over by hand and the third one turns over good but no spark.

still runnin the freeze-dryer and now working on potatoes in it. so far have done onions, summer squash, sweetcorn, and now potatoes in it.
dug a few more spuds, got a couple ladies to come get a lot of greenbeans, squash, cucumbers, etc. so we gaining on the season!

pulled the main lift cylinder from the previously pictured forklift from hell, needs to be repacked,leaking..it's been one thing after another with this machine..at least I'm over the top of the curve now

Finally got an ignition module for the Kohler M-20 motor on the sunstar and installed it-----NOW we got spark! lol --- next big step---put the motor back in! --- also got the starter strap for the Gravelys and neither one has spark---both mags dead I guess ----did I mention that I totally HATE mags!

went to my local compressed gas supplier and exchanged my MIG shield gas cylinder..$47 for a 235cuft..lasts me about a year

Same thing is about 100 here

picked tomatoes and the last of the squash. -----got the sunstar motor in and everything does work, topped off trans. fluid in the hydro and test drove it----now to modify a blade for it.
also have spark in both gravely mags and they will try to start but wont keep running,--YET! gotta rig up electric motor and belt to pull start them.

Way behind here.. Been kind of off the grid for a while. My Mom had Covid-19 was sent to the hospital where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. Was apparently on the upswing already because they released her to a covid care facility until she tested negative. 31/2 weeks at the nursing home she was at then got cleared. 4 days back at the assisted living facility and she broke her hip... back to the hospital for surgery. Drove to Fl straight through got to see her Sunday night. Monday my wife went in to see her. Tuesday I got a call ... She's positive again. Makes me wonder if she ever really was Negative but any way Stuck in Florida until I get my test results back to see if My wife & I are positive or not. Been doing a lot of yard work. House has been empty for a year because of the covid crap....Hopefully well be able to head back to Va this week end so I can get back to work on getting the MG painted.

Sorry to hear that, Jim! --- nuttin worse than health problems to deal with. Hope things start turning up better real soon for you guys! Best wishes to you from us!

so far today unstuck 8 Detroit diesel engine fuel injectors,it's been sitting for 18yrs in storage..so removed all 8 injectors once determined the control rack was stuck,found 6 stuck injectors and 2 good...unstuck the 6 injectors(PB Blaster all over me),checked spray on all 8 and reinstalled. Seems to be OK but surely making for a scary runaway 8V71T for sure,'shake hands with danger'..save that for later..so now onto a leaking forklift hydraulic hose..in search of a -12JIC M reusable hose end, of course with a drawer full of hose adapters and fittings i once AGAIN don't have what I need..neverending aggravation..
Time for a safety break. LOL

Neighbors daughter runs a horse boarding barn and had a lot of manure to get rid of, so neighbor took his bobcat to load with and let me use his big ford 700 diesel dump truck to haul some home for the gardens. I got 12 loads in 10 hours and it was about 10 miles to the barn.
ole ford was a nice truck to drive, cept standard seat! LOL! needed air ride seat but I survived!
Tired puppy after beating around in the truck but got some great compost as it was 5 years old so looked like rich black dirt!
Made out like a bandit on that deal!

That's what I need for my garden.... Not so much though. By the time I come in at night I don't feel like getting on the computer. I'll have to do a catch up story soon.

Cant beat well rotted horse manure! ---chicken will do too--gotta watch how thick you spread it! I put this 6 to 8 inches deep, then subsoil 3 feet deep, then moldboard plow as deep as the plow will go,--usually 12 to 14 inches.
In the spring hit it one time with tiller and plant.

sonny its sounds like you had a shitty day LOL

YUP! ----but turned out great in the end! --- spent the next day spreading it with my skidloader! --- now ready to get neighbors tractor to pull my picker with and pick 14 rows of corn that I planted along the road for a privacy fence this year, then rip and plow!

rewired the utility trailer and put on new lights. Was hauling the scissor lift for a job today & noticed only half of one light was working and nothing else. Replaced the whole harness because the wires were breaking off at the plug. only about 1/3 of the led's were working on the left light so I decided to change them too. didn't get any thing done with the lean-to today. Took the portable carport down and got the one header attached to the building over the week end though. got the lift stuck twice.. the gravel on the side of my shop isn't as compacted as I thought. put a new pump in the Hot tub Friday evening too.

Got two of the post down to workable height . the outside edge of this thing are sitting in crush and run digging down to set the pole is a bit of a b**ch. this litlle bugger works great though.

any little help you can get on diggin holes is a lifesaver! ---Diggin in rocky stuff is a bear!

Made some progress today. ran out of light. maybe tomorrow.

sure you don't need 2x6's for that span Jim? not to be critical of your build

I'm sure. It's only 10' and it's just a frame to support metal panels. don't get enough snow here to worry about any weight from that. if we get an inch the whole place shuts down for two days Hell if there's even a threat of snow they close stuff. I thought about it but my friend up the road has the same thing on his shop at 12' and he only used 2x4s. put his up when I did the one on the back of mine. I somewhat over engineered that one a bit but I have a 50 Merc outboard hanging from the header so I guess it worked out. Wont be hanging any thing on this side just want a cover over the boat and high enough to get the RV under it if I have to. I need to pull the windows out and re-seal them. I see evidence of water around them. guess the weather seals dried up after 32 years

Its done.

scissorlift sure makes it easy..sure beats climbing ladders and dropping tools

it definitely saved me a lot of work and made it a whole lot easier to hang the headers and the rafters. the deck extends to just under 10' long, so I was able to work a whole section at a time without moving the lift. Best $100 dollars I ever spent. cost me more for the batteries than I paid the guy for the lift. it's due for some new ones. I've had the lift for 11 years now and only replaced the batteries once. Had to keep it plugged in to use it the batteries only last a short time.

All snuged in... I had to take the guide-ons off the trailer to get it in though.


Have enough room to get the engine compartment on the cruiser under there too if I need to work on it & the weather is crappy.


Put some shelves in the back to neaten things up a bit..


then ate a pumpkin looking cupcake.

That didnt take long! Looks great! ---cupcake looks great too!! lol!

so the original starter burned up cranking the Isuzu diesel in the above(top of page) Hyster yellow forklift..I knew it wasn't going to last long and I was on borrowed time with it..so I ordered a new one off the internet to replace it..two different models to fit two different versions of the flywheel ring gear..so the new starter gets here and the label on the box is right but the starter inside is the wrong one..so I contact the starter vendor and they say what part number did you order? I tell them an 18449,yep thats what it says on the box but thats not what I recieved..so it gets shipped back to them..wait just another week meanwhile. So they supposedly ship the right one out,I made them check it before they shipped it,yep it's the right one they say...so FedEx shows up today with my brand new forklift starter thats supposed to fit..Ok,so get my tools pulled up to go install and then open the box, yep someone dropped it along the way and with only one strip of small little ittybitty bubblewrap in the box along with the starter it didnt survive..so now it has to get shipped back and start the process all over again..all over some bubblewrap or not enough of it..aggravation...sometimes the internet can be a stressful place.but I promise I will keep forging ahead somehow

Sounds like you have my luck.... I get as much stuff as I can from DB Electrical if I can afford to wait for it.

played with some paint... Honing my skills....
BEFORE


STILL WET BUT WITH PAINT...

I'll let that dry for a day then pull the tape off the reflector. Then I'll do the other cover. I got them off E-bay for the mini hoe. been kicking around too long tome to get them on the tractor.

Hey!----wanna paint my stuff????? LOL! That looks great!
On the wrong and damaged parts----been there and done that too --- NOT fun and very time consuming. Problem is that some of the parts we need cant be found local, so we take a chance with ordering them.---only thing with local is that I make them open the boxes and check the contents against my old parts that I have in hand---cant do that on the internet!

It still looks shiny this morning and it was dry to the touch but I'm going to let it cure few days for even think about putting it on the tractor. We will how the other side comes out.

I'm not going to complain about the finish....



I went ahead and did the other one last night.. If the MG comes out this shinny I'll be ecstatic....

PUT A NEW SIGN UP ON MY SHOP DOOR.....

LOL!!! --- Doubt they can read! Thought about putting something like that at the farm but they steal the signs I do put up!

I have cameras watching I will at least see who it is if they do take it

That will be the fun part!! ---be nice to know who is sneakin around!!

speaking of glue traps..that would be much more fun than cameras..catch thieves with the evidence,in place..that would be hard to argue

HA that sucker was dead in the traps.... little bastard was eating my tomatoes in the greenhous and I get the joy of watching him die over and over. can't get that from glue strips....

enjoy.. Just click on it.

That video shows just how smart those little bastards are

LOL!!! WOW!!-- great video Jim ---Tis the time of the year that they are looking for places to move in for the winter. ---cats here are stackin them up in the yard! --we always have a run after fields next door are harvested! Mice, voles, and possums are the worst! In the last week or so I got a dozen or more possums here by the porch in live traps. ---all have been about the same size, so probably all from the same litter. ---did get 2 big ones down in the machine shed last week.

Moved a mulch pile a little further away from the driveway, so I will have more room to put snow later.

Before:


I got about 1/4 of it moved with the tractor before I got tired of messing with it and just grabbed a shovel.

After:


Carnage:


It keeps throwing the belt to the hydraulic pump. Pretty sure my pulleys aren't all in the same plane, especially the tensioner.
I am thinking the whole thing deserves a rethink so that tension side of the belt goes direct to the pump pulley and then doesn't have to take a turn on the way back to get around the front wheel. That will probably involve relocating the pump, not sure yet where it will end up. Maybe under the console if I move the starter solenoid off to the side. Either that or hanging out front.

you running a inside idler?

Runs motor pulley->tensioner (idler)->pump->flat idler (shiny thing in photo)->motor.

General belt drive rules say it is a bad idea to have an idler between your driving (motor) and driven (pump) pulleys. One strike.

Because the tensioning idler moves, that adds even more instability to the "tight" side of the belt (the flat one on the "slack" side is less of an issue). Strike two.

Also because it moves, there is play in the idler, between the swivel plate and frame, between the swivel plate and tension bolt, and between the idler mounting bolt and swivel plate, and within the idler bearings themselves. Strike three.

One of the gotchas of trying to basically move the pump to where the idler is now is that the drive belt also goes through that space. Pump out in front of the axle would limit the angles of slopes I can scoop material from, I was already pushing material with front frame brace trying to push the pile.

So...shim the pump/jackshaft and get it more parallel with the motor? (the footplate it is bolted onto might not be perfectly even with the engine mounting surface of the frame). Or find a better place to mount the pump?

One advantage of the current setup is I can swap out the engine without disturbing the pump. My ideal would be to find a way to drive the pump off the flywheel and ditch the belt completely. But modifying an older marginal engine to do that doesn't always seem like the best idea, it means you get locked into one engine or have to adapt every one that comes along.

I can relate to that I'm sure you saw my engine upgrade on my rig earlier this year. I understand your issues with the pump out front .. that's where mine is. Horizontal shaft so not much other choice. I really should make a skid plate to protect it . At least it's the back of the pump facing fwd. Could you fix a inside idler in place of the tensioner and add a tensioner or adapt the idler to be a tensioner so it's on the lee side of the pump instead of the power side? it would stabilize the belt better.. much less work to keep the belt from flapping on the slack side. not fighting the torque.

in your mounts things are going to need some perfect alinement. --- it can be done! I have seen some really fancy around the corner runs. --- Space is always a problem on everything for sure.
On your pulleys, have you tried to angle them to guide the belt? I have seen some weird set-ups on mowers that does work.
Also on our old combines they ran belts to the straw spreaders around the corner and turned the belt from horizontal shaft to vertical shaft by the use of 2 pulleys ---- usually 1 flat and one v pulley set on an angle. ---- this is on long belts but might work on short ones too. Just thinkin out loud here!

The drive belt already does that...

The roof of my van needed some love... I pressure washed it and all the paint came off..

it was in rough shape.

just after pressure washing.
Just after wet blasting.

yard before I fired up the pressure washer.

Got some special primer for rusty metal. far as I got today this stuff has to cure 9 HRS. I'll get the white on in in a couple weeks.

went over the lawn with the bagger mower & sucked all that crap up. was too dark for picture though.

Looks like the wash did a great job on the rust! ---- I always had trouble painting flat surfaces! Primer coat looks great!

Good morning....
The lawn looks great for being mowed in the dark..

Look out for my Big killer watch dog. all 3# of her.

Cure time was too long to get the white down but at least I don't have exposed metal

I've been working with mil-surplus primers, 2 gallon kits of two-part polyamide epoxy primer for $50/ea..the guy was from TX and had pics in his ebay listing of pallets of it for sale..I bought two (2)gallon kits and didnt use it for a few months,no big deal but man the stuff really is nice..green and yellow colors but it is primer..cures rock hard,I go back over it with 400grit then top coat..really makes for a nice foundation under a paint coating..I just did the steel roof on the golf cart I have,what a rusty mess,but after grinding it clean I laid two coats of the epoxy on it, man does it have some high build,but wear a respirator,this is the good stuff....I then top coated with Dupont 2-part Centari acrylic enamel..turned out nice. I love to paint. GM had a lot of problems years ago with primer and paint compatibility..Man that van roof has a lot of surface area Jim..and probably gonna be hard to reach out over it to paint as well..maybe tape the paint gun to a long pipe or tube?

Epoxy Primer shortfilled 1gallon Kit-good stuff

I dealt with that crap in the Navy. That's exactly what we paint our submarines with

Ive used it in the past that was solvent based man that stuff really stuck to ANYTHING and was a beotch to clean up afterwards..this is the newer water base vehicle, easy water washup,it really kinda is hard to adjust to after years of solvent based paint..progress i guess you can call it...good to see you got the roof in paint before the rain set in

workin on the snowblowers. Had to clean the flywheel and ignition module on this 10 horse tec. on the big blower,---now the carb has problems --- original carb---NO adjustments, so I ordered a chimna knockoff that IS adjustable.---waiting for it to come.
Little 5 hp had to have new ignition module due to mice invasion a couple years ago. about got it back together ---- this blower is 25 years old and has never had gas or oil put in it. ---- Ran into it in a shed under a bunch of boxes ---- still on original pallet---or what the mice left of it.

I used one of the China -'chimna' as Sonny says it- carbs for a K181 Kohler 8hp engine..the carb shipped quick from New Jersey and fit right,even came with mount gaskets..I noticed it leaks a lot possibly from an internal passage,it was leaking making a spot on the ground..the bowl gasket leaked as well, I had to tighten it up a good bit but seems to be OK now..small assembly problems I guess..

I've had good luck with those cheap carbs. the metal is crap and corrodes really fast with ethanol though. Last longer if you can get non eth gas.

Made a trip to the house in Florida... Had a new roof put on it, still here.. get to see my mother. Her birthday is next Friday will stay here for that..

Jim!---tell mom we said happy birthday!!

The roof looks great....

They had to replace 8 sheets of ply, used 8 2x4s to doctor up some bad spots and 60' of facia. Glad I hired a company to knock it out. carport & front porch are covered with melt down. these guys did it right and kept every thing picked up as they went along.

Awesome!

sure looks good! -- some guys do great work IF you find the right ones.

Setting up for a newer climate control unit.

that looks to be at least a 5ton packaged A/C unit..you'll be workin in comfort..I have two in reserve for the same plan at my next place

3.5 TON GAS PACK,
A buddy of mine brought it by for me to evacuate it so he could scrap it. I asked him what was wrong with it. his customer wanted a new on one because this one was getting old and he didn't want start fixing it all the time. It's a 410 unit so It's newer than the split system I have hooked up now. Told him I would just keep it if he didn't care about the scrap.. He was happy that I took it off his hands.
Control board was not working and the hot surface igniter was broken. I patched up the control board. every thing worked just fine So I ordered an igniter. Been running it on the ground for a couple weeks just to make sure it worked.. No failures Sooo I'm hooking it up permanently. Happy to replace a HEATPUMP with a GAS PACK
Saw this when I pulled the board so I knew there was damage on the back of it.


YEP printed circuit took a hit in a couple of places.


Patch job. new board is $100 bucks

built-in time delay failure point, easier to produce the PC board, justifies a service call later to sell you replacement parts.Years ago there would have been a set of leads out to a contactor or outboard relay. Glad to see you beefed it up-at least you'll know where to look if there is a failure. Is that a horiz discharge unit or downducted thru the roof? Gas pack heat too-nice!! I'd take those red leads all the way to the next terminal,not the copper trace,but thats just me.At least you got it up and running.

I have two 5T ex-military package units ready to go for my next shop,they were brand new surplus,I drove to Ohio to pick them up,man they are built nice,no plastic,no corners cut when they designed them, all 3ph with belt drive blowers that really pump it out..I was planning on putting them on a back room roof very similar to what you have done here in your photo..maybe make a mezzanine for them to sit on and make filter service easier

Once I get the duct work in place it'll sit a lot closer to the back wall and I'll have plenty of room on the deck to stand while servicing. This unit is convertible. is set up for side discharge which is good because that's the way I need it. the red wires are connecting solder points on the board where the terminal penetrates from the other side. I have that Monster diesel unit I got from a military surplus auction about 5 years ago. 120,000 BTU cooks me out of the shop even when I'm pulling the air directly in from outside. I have to leave the door open when I run it. No way to throttle it down either. It's designed for heating those building sized huge tents. My son expressed a desire to have it for his shop when I get the gas pack all hooked up.
I intend to put a TEE on the return side so I can pull air straight in from out side when I need to create a positive pressure in the shop for painting or just venting smoke when I use the welder & plasma cutter.

Got the gas pack all hooked up..

I have more to do with the ducting but it's hooked up and inside the building. Supply is good to go But I haven't even started the return yet. Got a temp filter set up on the inlet. Want to still come up with a way to shift the suction to an exterior inlet.. I'll have to sleep on it. Putting a Tee in between the building and the unit would have set the unit further out from the back wall. I have an idea that'll use the duct from the Diesel heater.

Big difference in duct size between the old H/P And the Gas pack.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kgFvtn]

Finished putting up Christmas Lights.

Got the Shop decorated a bit too.


Set the projector up in the window running Santa's work shop clips.

Looks great Jim!

got some new lights in....

so you are gong to make the unit inlet(return)tee mounted on the INSIDE of the barn with a extension duct to the outside for exterior air if I'm getting this right? sure sounds like it would work..

Yes I'm going to use the duct where the diesel heater fed the shop from outside

my buddy got this little tiller off the side of the road. tines were seized up wouldn't turn. Damn thing is welded shut.

I cut a hole in the gearbox & dumped in a quart of ATF. Let it sit for a while and worked it lose with a 3Lb hammer. Made a cap for the hole. got it running.


want to use it for my compost pile. my troy built is too big and rear tines makes it hard to work down a pile in an enclosed area. with this one I can chew the pile down roll it over and shove it back in the pen until I spread it in the garden. want to get a good jump on it this year

Been hauling horse manure right and left here and got about 20 loads plowed under with another dozen loads spread on top to till in come spring.
Making a good onion patch along the side of the middle lane in the west gardens.
Got quite a few bags of tree leaves donated so mixed them in as well. also have a couple big piles about composted down to dirt.
I have used front enders to loosen up/stir/chop stuff to make hotbed planting mix too!
Your tiller was run out of oil? --- some of these are sealed with no way to add or check oil.

Yeah this one WAS sealed. I don't think it was filled with oil maybe just greased. Looks like some cheap thing you would get at Home Depot or Lowe's. Does a pretty good job though.

always amazing what people throw away..it sure looks like you had an easy time of getting it going..I thought you used a rubber freeze plug to seal the hole until I looked closer at your photo

Farmall F-20, 30, 1020, 2236, etc. design! ---- thats kinda how they did the rad. cap and the bottom of the block so you can get to the rods. --- BIG ole holes with caps that just cover the hole and center wingnut bolt with bar on the underside!
I always liked that idea!

That was actually my intention but I couldn't find one that fit in my junk collection so I made the one I used. Just need to keep dirt out.
I did leave that quart of tranny fluid in there. figured it would help keep the output shaft lubed so it doesn't lock up again. ran it over the garden to turn under the grass that was growing along with the coffee grounds leaves and such. still no sign of any fluid coming back out any where.

I'm not very good at daily posting. think I'll start a....
so what did you do this week string...

my shop fridge stopped cooling,I lost a lot of food that was in the freezer..oh well..one of the copper refrigerant lines dips into the drain pan by design,they rot out right there and the refrigerant leaks out..its R134 so its an easy fix,the PITA was emptying it out so it can be moved to get to the repair..no service fittings so I'll have to braze one in..damn thing is only 5yrs old..I guess one positive thing is my back room of the shop got cleaned out as a side benefit..now I can see the floor again..too much stuff, too many projects, not enough room to operate

Very common problems both the fridge and the lack of space. Just made a new condensate evaporator coil for a under counter freezer for one of the Sonics I service. the grease in a commercial kitchen combined with the condensate water speeds the corrosion process on copper dramatically. I suffer with the .too much stuff, too many projects, not enough room to operate problem as well..


I didn't take an after picture BUT this is on the compressor suction on soft serve ice cream machine. the manufacturer insulates the suction line all the way to the compressor. insulation holds the water from condensation against the steel can and is rusts through around the fitting. I was able to braze this one shut again. those 3 phase compressors run about $1200.00. this is the 4th one I've patched up from this. my patches have out lasted the compressors so far.

I think the manufacturers could improve those coils to make them last longer. ones that have been painted outlast the bare copper ones.

this is one of those LG fridges that has the linear compressor,yes it is still under warrantee but its the second time its gone out no cooling first time it was the evap fan now its the compressor,there is a class action lawsuit against them..takes like 3 or 4 service calls from an LG tech to get it fixed. Stupid microprocessor board controls it with a VFD to run the compressor, Ive done the board reset and it error codes 2 which is compressor piston stroke/error. It was a scratch and dent from Sears surplus store,that was 3yrs ago. I was going to braze on service ports to the system,evac it then recharge with 134 but now it looks as tho Im gonna scrap it after researching all the LG failures with these units. I'm tired of this consumer CRAP.
Probably haul it out back and repair it with the Cat 977L, the fix all of fix alls.. That'l make for an interesting video.
If I had the available ceiling height I'd just go get a True commercial two or three door stainless mechandiser fridge..they last a long time.

Fridges are not made very good now days for sure! --- We had some duds over the last few years,--kinda like micro-waves 5 year life span! sad.
Well I got the big lp weed burner out and went after the Explorer to get the ice off so we can open the doors and then I melted the ice off the windows and mirrors so IF we gotta go somewhere the car is clean!
Hope the ice melts off the trees before anymore of them break off. This afternoon our big magnolia tree went down, it was a 35 foot tall tree, snapped off at the ground.
Pine tree laying on the corner of the house and froze down and wont move til it thaws out a bit. Temps right at or just below 32 so no melting and next week looks like only 34 to 36 for the high---teens at night!
all of our pine trees look like a bomb went off beside them! Probably end up cutting them down after this!

Got this one on Amazon CHEEP. we'll see how good it is....

LG needs to stick to cell phones we have a Samsung fridge in the house much against my desires but so far so good. I'll never understand why they decided they need a damn computer to make stuff cold. I have a 30 year old RV fridge out in the shed. Absorption ammonia system still kicking.. NO DAMN COMPUTER no compressor, just a heating element

The power from my shop is fed from a separate meter. I am charged $32 dollars a month for that meter and a higher rate for the actual power. My house is fed with a 400 amp feeder. I am going to install a new feeder to the shop from the house panel to save that charge. Should take about a year and a half to pay back the cost.

Wednesday I rented a walk behind trencher. I trenched 260' to my shop. Since I had time left I trenched 320' to my kids play house in the woods, and about 175' from my water access box in the yard over to the same play house. Got all that done in 4 hours and back to the rental place, not bad for $112 rental.

I had to cross my feed from the house to the detached open garage (20 amp circuit). The power line should have been 12" deep but I thought I might hit it and since I didn't know where it crossed I turned off the breaker and went to trenching. I didn't notice hitting it, but after all the trenching I tried the breaker and it was dead. I found where I cut the wire and it was only about 5" deep. Anyway I have two freezers running off extension cords for now.

That night I layed the 4/0 wire in the trench and covered it back up with the tractor. I didn't have time to compact it much as it started raining. It ended up raining 2" over 2 days. My trench sunk in about 3" all the way to my shop....anyway I decided to let it dry out before I try to drag the dirt back in the hole. also where I cut the power line, the trench was full of water so I have to wait on that to dry before I can splice it back together.

Since I couldn't work on that I laid a power line out to the shop and installed a GFCI, this is a long run for a circuit but it will only be used for a chicken heat lamp and maybe an occasional power tool. I got that wired up but didn't get the trench filled in.

After that I got the water pipe and a freeze proof spigot. In my yard I had a box that housed two valves coming from the county water feed. One valve goes to the house and the other to the shop. Both at 1" pipes. The box had sunk into the ground by about 6" to the top. I used the back hoe attachment on the loader to dig out the box, and to finish the trench out. I had to cross a underground dog fence wire in 3 places with the trencher and I managed to not hit in any of the 3 places. I spliced into the line feeding my shop adding a Tee and a valve. I then in a new taller yard box. I still had to put bricks in the bottom of the hole to keep the box above grade. I also put gravel under the valves and sealed the edges to hopefully keep the dirt from building up on the valves, they both were buried under about 2" of dirt, making them not usable. The box was also full with about 12" of water from the rain. I used a wet dry vac to suck the water out. After installing the new valve I was able to turn the box 90 degrees to get all 3 valves in the same box. I ran the 3/4 pvc 175' to the play house and installed the freeze proof hydrant. I put gravel under and around it so that it will drain properly. Put plastic on top of the gravel then buried it with dirt. Backfilled that pipe so I don't have to worry about it freezing.

Lots of work over a few days, but now I don't have 200+ ft. of extension cords across the driveway and won't have to haul water nearly as far for the chickens and whatever else needs water out there on the other side of the driveway. I wasn't planning on the power outlet or the water but I had the trencher and one thing let to another.

Still have to back fill the power feed and power outlet trenches. I also have to fix the power line to the garage to get rid of the extension cord after it dries out some.

Here is the yard aftermath after the rain.



Power outlet trench, had to hand dig some of this one.



Sad thing is I have everything I need to make a trencher attachment for my loader. I have the whole front end off of a case trencher, but it was taken apart 7 years ago and I never have gotten around to making it into a attachment.

Ya coulda used my Davis T-66! lol! ---- It's only dug 300' on the complete new chain!

I worked till 10 pm tonight after work with the tractor, a hoe and a shovel to try to get it all cover back up before it rains again.

I have true missippi mud in the winter and it never dries out most winters. It's a goopey mess but I got it better than it was, I may have to plow it up and level it better this summer, but I think I got it good enough for now. Had to drop about 15 times and scrape the mud off my boots 2" thick all the way around

Had to call Kickapoo Drilling Co. to come fix our well. --- woke up to no water and couldnt figure out what was the problem. They found some burned wires and blown cartridge fuses. Power flashing off and on took the fuses out. they were probably getting weak anyway. Took them 2 hours to fix everything and re-set the pressure switches to their specs.

drove 45minutes into Baltimore,MD to pick up two 4x8 sheets of 14ga sheet steel..didnt have to pack heat for that trip,-northside of Balmer-I was in and out in 15minutes and back on the freeway back to safety LOL.this country boy hates the city..damn the price of new metal has gotten expensive. Im not used to paying for new iron,I generally use used steel when I can but if you want something to look nice...gotta pay the price for clean and straight!

Everything has gotten high! --- garden seeds have gone out the roof compared to a couple years ago.
Neither of us like going to town either!
Did drag some more branches out from the pine trees and cut a lot of damaged ones off. that was for the last 2 days.
still lookin for Case 310 parts in between the other work.

Well I went to the Electric office today and told them to turn off the power to my shop. I was thinking that they would turn it off when they came to pull the meter. NOPE, she said alright it's off and we will be out in a few days to pull the meter.

I got home and sure enough it was off. I was thinking I would have this weekend with power, apparently there is a contactor inside the meter.

Anyway I got the power terminated inside the house today, the 4/0 aluminum wire kicked my butt but I finally got it bent around and terminated.



All the wood panels go back on and you can't tell that it was installed. Now I have to terminate it at the shop....until them it's dark and cold in there.

Oh yeah, and the compressor on my shop heat pump went out so I guess I'll be pulling that one out and installing the gas package unit. I don't have NG at the shop so I may see about converting it to propane. Its that or get a new propane meter at the shop. Our gas company won't ley you run plastic pipe under ground, only copper. The trench for that to my meter would be about 600'. The cost of the pipe would be crazy high. The gas company would charge about 300 to install the meter. If I go Propane I have a tank for free but the unit will have to be converted. I have tested the AC on the package unit and it worked this summer. I probably won't have heat the heat of the winter, but I didn't before this year anyway.

Got the house put back together and got the wire terminated in the shop. I had to route the power through back to back LBs and then into the panel. Doing that with 4/0 and 2/0 common in a 2" conduit was very tough. The wire is Triplex direct bury. The breaker in the house is rated for aluminum or copper 2/0 through 350, so the 4/0 fit fine. Here aluminum is allowed for sub panel feeds but not for outlet wiring. Since this is a sub feed it's allowed. The wire runs 3' into the house.

The meter for the shop has a remote operated contactor in it. It was turned off yesterday so the feed was dead. I verified they weren't hot, then I pulled them out and taped the ends.

I left them in the top of the panel for now. The power company will eventually pull the meter, I am not sure what they will do with the wires. I am not sure if I own them or the power company. I think I do. I am going to keep the wires in the top taped up in case I need to put the meter back on.

After wrestling with the cables I was finally able to get them into the meter and into the lugs. I torqued the lugs to spec, which is tighter than what I would have probably done guessing at it. I'll retorque these in a few weeks.

So far so good. I didn't have any issues in the house when I turned on the lathe and the hot water heater kicked in. This should save me about $40/month. It will take me about 21 months to pay back the cost of the installation......maybe not the best idea to do this but I don't like seeing that $32 surcharge on the power bill and the higher rate for the shop. I also have a electric car that I just got about a month ago to go to work in. It has to charge out on the shop power and I don't want to pay the higher rate for that. It only draws 16 amps while charging.

My only issue is that I was only able to run a 3 wire system. My shop panel being a main panel all the commons and grounds are mixed and not
possible to be separated without rewiring everything. I consulted with the electric coop they said this is allowed due to the shop being remote and having grounds in place. I have read quite a lot about this online and it seems that this was once allowed but is now not best practice. If it was before 2008 the way I did it would be the normal way. That said its the only way to do this one. Here is the shop panel.

It's nice to have power back in the shop. Now I have to clean up, I have tracked a lot of mud in digging all the trenches.

Im my area you own the meter can and the wire..the PoCo owns the meter itself and the overhead service drop to your vertical service entrance,if its a URD buried by them they own it..anything else underground is premise owned(you) Local codes or interpretations will sometimes dictate what you can and can't do.'round here they don't allow reduced neutrals..it's all up to the local inspector..you'd play hell trying to burn up a 2/0 neutral anyway..you'll be fine..just pay good attention to neutral integrity and lug torques,and the attachment to the neutral bar. Torquing AA6000 aluminum conductors-clean conductor immediately after stripping it,apply Penetrox/Nolox compound,insert into lug, tighten,wiggle conductor to settle strands of wire without breaking service equipment,then tighten more,wiggle again if you can then final torque..my critique on your panel pictured here-you have way too much romex insulation inside the panelboard..cable should be free of outer jacket insulation inside the panel(yellow #12s and black #6s)..an inspector here would gig you on that..at least you have it up and running..best of luck

went to the welding supply house and bought some AZ61A magnesium filler metal to weld up some broken Stihl chainsaw cases with

wish I could weld lini! we have a couple of good motors that got a hole knocked in them when the rod went out! lol! I still think they can be patched back up enough to hold oil!

Anyway today I got the tubeless stems for the dump trailer tires,---been waitin on postal for over a month for the package! Got a lot of 10--needed 4, others will keep for later use. The trailer rims take the big .058 size not the little car size. I found some of the good metal kind with the nut that screws down on the washer and rubber seal in the hole. Got one put in---hope tomorrow I can get the wheel back on and take the other 3 off and fix them---- all four went leaking at the same time between the rim and stem seal---it has that funky non-adjustable style on it. These are like my truck has and I never had a problem ever with that style!

hey Sonny those 'good metal kind' tubeless stems are good for converting the non-vented gas cans into usable vented gas cans! drill a hole behind the handle of the gas can,get your stem and tape a wire to it then fish it thru the hole and put the washer and nut on it..remove the valve in the metal stem, and with the cap on you can vent the can by loosening the cap on the stem..they work great! FWIW

HOT DAMN!! now there is a million dollar idea!!!! LOL! ---- never thought of that and we have probably 20 of the funky 5-gallon size. most are the red gas ones---4 or 5 yellow diesel ones and 4 or 5 blue K-1 jobbers. The gas and diesel ones are the worst to use.
I ordered a pack of 10 stems----only needed 4 and now thinking maybe order another 10 pack and use them on the cans! Thanks for sharing the idea!!

I'm not responsible for major spills,blow-ups,foul-ups,mis-fueling,overfueling,bleve's or other disasters arising out of the use and implementation of that idea..Greta Thunberg is already pissed off enough.

LOL---ya, I know the feeling of ideas ----- too many stupids out there abuse things that work great and cause redesigns that will never work and just causes grief for the rest of us!

that's how we got got those damn gas spouts that won't let any gas flow unless you can manage to hold the lever up and aim for the hole.. the way the tanks are on all my stuff I can't get the spout in the tank opening so it'll hook the valve lever open. I went and purchased some Old school spouts and tossed the crap that came on the cans.

I bought some generic spouts and then found some snap in vents with a pop top cap. I drilled holes in the handles and installed those in all my cans. I think I got a pack of 25 of the vents for about $5 on amazon several years ago.

TIG welded repair on the top bumper spike mounting boss on a Stihl 044 pro saw, the top anchor point for the bumper spike sure takes some stress over the years..this one broke off..took about an hour start to finish


magnesium case (not aluminum) but the magnesium does weld a lot like aluminum..very sensitive to contamination,good idea to clean your material very well and give the filler metal (AZ61A) a good swipe with an alcohol pad..the mounting point was made with a recess for the mounting bolt,I filled it in with rod when welding it up as to get a good amount of new magnesium fused to the crankcase area for a strong bond..filed it down and re-drilled the recess and mount hole..worked out pretty good. Shot it with some Stihl trim paint afterwards,looks good. The older Stihl saws have some parts that are now not available.This repair saved the whole saw.

Good work there Bunk! that gives that old saw more years of use.

Today I finally got the other 3 tire stems put in the dump trailer, and messed a bit with the chipper---still cant get the starter to engage ----former owner put new starter, alternator, sol. and key switch, plus rewiring the whole thing. He skipped the ammeter for some reason. ---right now trying to figure out the way the wires are s'posed to go. Vermeer is no help as to sending a wiring diagram for the 1600-a chipper with the gas mo-par engine!--- life goes on! LOL!

Sonny don't assume the new starter is the RIGHT one..many different nose configurations to them nowadays,never trust someone else's judgement..it might bolt up and look OK but have wrong nose or pinion option,especially when replaced by others..I went thru that on a diesel forklift starter a while back..took 4 tries to get it right..very trying to the patience..best of luck

I've had that problem with a couple of things. one was the flywheel though. the ring gear didn't run the same place as the original.

Ya, this was starting just fine---now just the sol. clicks once in a while like switch is bad. hard for me to crawl back in there , but from what I can see he made a lot of not needed splices in there.
Guess I need to just put in a push/pull , or toggle switch for ignition and a button for starter ---- never did have any luck with the key switches on heavy equipment for some reason!
These chippers have a lot of vibration in them when you toss a 6" limb 10 feet long in ! lol! --- makes things dance around a lot.

Little weld repair.. I hate to bring work home BUT needed some Aluminum repair. Idiots dragged this grease shuttle around without a wheel for so long they ground one of the brackets down. Thought about pics after I had already started filling in the wore out stuff. Here's some pics of my fun... I built up the worn off ear by clamping a piece of rusty steel to what was left and then just laid pass after pass on the edge until I had enough material built up. sanded it down flush and drilled the holes. Used a piece of high speed steel tooling to cut the hole square.


ALL BACK together.

I'll straighten it out when I deliver it. Didn't realize it was off kilter until I posted the pic. Just need to bend the handle bracket down a little on the right side. they'll have it A.F.U. in a week anyway. Fast food employees don't give a shit about the equipment.

Wasn't looking for pretty just needed to be able to put new wheels and handle on it. These stupid Shuttles run around $600 new before shipping. I'll take the 3.5 hrs labor... happy to take their money instead of them buying a new one.

Maybe this is a special situation, but not too many people can appreciate the level of work that goes into something like that repair..In my book,with your level of competence and ability you should be charging them 5hrs of labor when you include expendables like shield gas, the electric to run everything, filler wire, shop towels and degreaser, etc, etc
I look people straight in the face and tell them $102 an hour..some people grumble,turn and walk away, some say no problem..the latter are the people I want to work for. That way I feel better about putting MY projects on the back burner when repairing someone else's stuff. Maybe that sounds selfish,I don't think so..

3.5 hrs is just shop time. Thers also a travel fee, fuel surcharge and there's a $45.00 fee anytime I strike an arc or light a torch. Rarely do I need to make that fee bigger due to long use of the welder or torch. Most of the time I feel slightly guilty that it's a bit much for what I actually have to do. It more than covers my cost for materials, gasses, etc. I do need to raise my rates again though. It's been a few years. It came out to be just less than a new shuttle BUT they have it now and don't have to wait for the new one. That to them is worth it.. I'M GOOD WITH THAT.

Over the weekend I cleaned up & painted a spare set of rims for my 97 Chevy Cheyanne. Tonight I mounted the tires I got in Dec. for it.
I got all 4 tires for less than $400.00 on Amazon. 31 x 10.5 x 15 .... getting hard to find anymore.
the reviews on these tires were all positive so I decided to give em a shot. If they don't work out I'll just throw the AT's I have on there now back on. best part of having a complete set of spare rims. Used to do that with SNOW tires back when I lived in western NY.

They look good! Spare rims do come in handy. Sometimes there are good deals on the internet.

nice work Jim. Ive had good luck with 'house brand' or no-name tires as well on my trailers..as long as I keep them inflated properly..makes a big difference. National Tire (ebay seller) has good deals on Cooper Tires usually with 'free' shipping..and as my grandma said once-"there's nothing free in this world" but they still have good deals.

I have coopers on my 2003 3500 Express. Got those on a great deal at Pep Boys. buy 3 get the 4th free. Mounted balanced & out the door with road hazard & free rotations for just a hair over $500. I'll put these on the truck this week end and have Pep-boys balance them. Trucks due for inspection may just have them do that too.

Didn't wait for the week end it was beautiful today and it's suppose to rain tomorrow. not sure what Sat is looking like Soooo.... Done. now I can take it and get the tires balanced and front end aligned. That hasn't been done since I got the truck in Jan 98. pulls to the left slightly so what the heck. I replaced the tie rod ends, Idler & pitman arms last year about this time but never got it aligned so it NEEDS to be done. These tires still have a lot of meat on them so If I decide to go play in the mud some where I'll put them back on. only took them off because I'm over the noise they make. New tires make the truck ride quiet & smooth. Just like new.. I love this old truck.

Had to adjust my headlights too. Felt like I was looking for nightcrawlers. Plastic Nuts on the adjuster screws stripped out. Had spares in the glove box. Was thinking that I had just replaced those a little over a year ago. Yep I did what I didn't do was put the new nuts in the core support when I hit that deer a year ago. I still need to paint the left fender to match the rest of the truck.. Going to wait for warmer weather and shoot the whole cab. Hood and roof both are just about Bare.. My only complaint about my GM vehicles. their Paint SUCKS.

Didn't look all that bad BUT Once I got the hood open It was OH SHIT I'll never be able to drive it back to VA from NY like this. so My sons brought me up the parts and I got a new radiator at advance auto and Wha-la

I always had meat eaters on my old trucks! ---Ya, they talked to ya but sure would dig! --- Had to have them to get feed and water to cattle in winter snow and mud. Had them on the 77 F-150 that did good. ( 7:00x 15, 4x4) and on the 72 F-250 hi-boy, 4 x 4 (7:50 x 16) and THAT was a digger!! oh, AND it was a 4-speed with a 300 motor! took out the blown up 390 and went with the old 300!
The 350 diesel has some scratchy tread tires on it that wet grass will stop it dead in its tracks on level ground! lol!

Truck feels like new . computer alignment, got tires balanced.

well brought home a commercial convection oven & hooked it up. seems to work great. going to give powder coating a shot & see if I can do it. supposed to use a convection oven to bake the finish. When I moved the tractor to set the oven up I noticed a leaking cylinder.. OH JOY another one...
I may just swap this one out with one of the out riggers.



and I definitely need to do the bushings on it.. getting sloppy. Actually lasted a long time for for NOT having any

OOPS I didn't read the description very well. HA HA I'll figure some thing out.

got another forklift nightmare dropped off here today, 5000lb Yale propane,solid tires..runs,makes power but has rod knocking sound,not sure if it's the torque converter or engine

Flex plate coming lose? That'll sound bad too. Sounds like a rod gonna fly through the block.

Not quite sure yet Jim, it just came here last night,drove up in driveway off the truck,sounded OK under load driving,but rev it up in neutral it sounds like a rod knocking..snow and ice keeping me inside just for now, the Isuzu generator project coming to a close..even so the forklift is an outside job as I can't get it inside-mast is too tall..for now it sits

That's exactly how a work van I had a few years ago acted when it had a broken flex plate. the center of the plate was still attached to the crank shaft but the rest of it was pretty much free floating around that. It would lock together under a load BUT when there wasn't a load it sounded like a rod trying to exit the engine

Made a t nut for the NEW tool holder for the lathe. Ordered a bigger one.



Going to make one for the little tool holder too....Never know.. might actually use it some times..

hard to imagine using a lathe without the Aloris-style quick change tool post..think of the old-timers that put up with the old style lamppost tooling..I need to catch up to you with the indexable insert cutters,all I need is the tool holder and inserts..maybe thats my next upgrade..got the Aloris,just need the cutter holders,hmmmmm

Been wanting to get one for a long time. Amazon has some good prices. had great reviews.



the first one I got was for a mini lathe wasn't paying attention when I clicked BUY NOW





Need to get the parting tool.
I bought this lathe from a feller up in Guilford Ct. in 1992 when I was stationed in New London. rented a OLD house up in Norwich. had a carriage stable out back. I wish My shop was that big here. 2 levels and a full loft. was big enough to fit 9 full sized cars on one level. any way picked the lathe up for $200. Paid for it's self in the 1st month. I need to upgrade my motor mount. this one has gotten out of alignment and the belt keeps running off . can't run it backwards or the belt tries to run up the next step on the pulley

Well this works....

Hey!---some of them funny inserts came with my lathe! --The wood box that was with it has a bunch of stuff in it. I have no clue what all of it is!---still learnin this stuff. a rotary table also came with it--dont think that would have any use on the lathe, but it was in the lot!
Still wish I could get mine hooked up!

you would be surprised what you can do with a rotary table on a lathe.

found some old school things in my lathe tool drawer tonight.

I might use the drill bit angle guide but I doubt Ill use the other two. At least not to cut any threads.

what I just did today was go out in a major snowstorm, traveled 25 miles and bought a Sioux 622 valve grinding machine with a box of goodies for $125. ---everybody wants 300 to 900 for junk ones with missing parts! This one runs and works---the seller said that he wanted us to see for sure that it did before I paid for it!
My old one still works fairly well but looks like it came over on the Mayflower!
This one dont look like it ever been abused and was always in dry shed.
Anyhoo---- I told my "partner in crime",---(neighbor Mike) about it and next thing we were headed West to get it! lol!

added a couple pix of it.

GOOD DEAL

verified temp acceptable for powder coating

I know it would hold 6 for sure possibly 9 of these tanks.
It's a good sized oven.
Cant wait to try it out. trying to figure out what I'm going to do a test with.

get a section of stainless sheet metal to fit inside and a frozen pizza..they usually bake at 400 degrees..lunchtime!

have a pizza stone for that

Got another adjustable hitch that I fitted with a 1 7/8 ball specifically for my motorcycle trailer. Of course once again I didn't pay attention and the hitch is for a 1" Stud on the ball and the damn multi ball I got is only 3/4". Well so I tried out my new tool post and made a bushing. Press fit into the hitch so there's No play. I should had switched my tooling over a long time ago Sooo much easier to set up and I can take deeper cuts with these tools.

got the sheetmetal out of the barn without too much trouble,not in too bad of shape even after a fall from 8ft all it did was bend a corner slightly,straightened it back out with some sidecutter pliers...made a few cuts with the Milwaukee metal cutting circular saw, man this project has been giving it a workout...good investment so far..glad I got the 120V version, not sure how the battery one would hold up..now the sheetmetal is ready for the shear for the final cuts..the saw does get it plenty straight tho

get that Blodgett oven up and pizza tested yet Jim?

PIZZA???? are we invited??? LOL!!!

a couple of cans of Easy-Off,steel wool and some elbow grease-that unit will be good as new Jim...nice catch

I'm just going to use it for powder coating maybe Oyster Rockefeller every now and then but it could easily do 4 Large pizzas in one shot. I'll clean up the other one and sell it. Was a over under double oven I got from a Texas Road House because they got a new one & just wanted it GONE. I was happy to oblige. Had to put a transformer in one and a contactor in the other. I haven't connected the other one up to gas yet to make sure it actually fires But it goes through all the actions. right up to locking out the gas valve due to not detecting flame.

Fixing the floor in the living room. Have vinyl plank flooring pun in the whole house 4 years ago after we we had a flooding casualty upstairs. got hit by a tornado before we got the house put back together and had file another claim. Any way the jack asses that ServePro brought in on the insurance job didn't make sure all the moisture was eradicated before laying the vinyl plank flooring. There was a big bubble in the floor so I pulled up the vinyl to check it out & this is what We found.

Ripped up the messed up stuff and poured some leveler to fill in the holes.

It's always hard to re-do something! looks like you have it under control. --- We ripped up ALL the carpets here before we moved in --- put down the plank stuff and never looked back! Never did like carpet stuff. In the kitchen I ran into some leveler stuff and had to remove it with the carpet.---never did figure why they poured it in there, floor looked o.k. to me!
Never know what people have done in the past! lol!

Well..... 7" masonry finishing wheel makes a shit load of dust. But I cleaned up all the leveler patches.


Got the floor laid back down.



Got rid of the entertainment center & ordered some shelving. ran the wires in the wall for the flat screen. got a sweet kit at HD for $40.

Looks great! --- Ya,--cant beat them old power tools!! lol!

Long weekend BUT I got the house put back together with a little change up on the living room entertainment wall.

Looks great Jim!

So we had a south west wind the other day. Don't get that very often. IT plucked the 10 x 20 portable car port up and turned it inside out. Sun was out yesterday so I took it apart & took it back to HF. I got a 2 year replacement plan when when I got it. figured I would never use it but I did this time. NO HASSLE replacement. Don't think I was at the store more than 20 min. and that's only because I didn't have it all the way apart and we had to finish taking it apart. Went ahead and gave them another $38.00 for another 2 year replacement plan. I got the original for the pontoon boat but moved it behind the shed to cover my Quads and lawn equipment after I built the lean-to. NOW I need the ambition to put up the new one. Maybe this weekend weather permitting...

Glad they replaced it for you! Ya,---winds here all the time from all directions prevent us from using any portable stuff here! --- Windfarm data is showing winds 92% min. to 98% of the time, day and night in this area.
I wanted to set up my little plastic greenhouse outside but no way it would ever stay up long enough to start plants! lol!
If we lived closer--I'd come help you put it up!

Test run powder coating.. All I have is matt finish powder but I think I like it....



The powder comes off real easy before it's cured.. I touched it hanging it in the oven. it don't come off afterwards though.

Ordered the powder to do these....

I'm liking this powder coating thing. Wish I took a before I blasted the arms in the cabinet picture though.
they looked a lot like these..

After blasting in the cabinet

after curing the powder coat

from what I was told the gas oven isnt the best for powdercoating because of soot and impurities in the gas getting onto the powder before it sets up in the oven? how would one use it to cook and have food in it then? kinda funny when u think about it...i was always told to use an electric oven..looks as though you have proved that wrong and are getting good results..from what I remember it was 400deg for 10minutes..i was going to do powdercoating and bought the eastwood gun and a couple quarts of the powder about 10yrs ago but never got back to it..is there any storage time limit with the unused powder?..it looks good Jim keep it comin

That may be true with a conventional residential gas oven. especially if it's LP not Natural. This oven is a commercial convection oven, Natural Gas. The burners are external to the oven where most residential units the burners are actually in the oven. as for the powder material.... mine is well over 10 years old. probably more like 15 years. I bought this kit at harbor freight when the opened the first store here way back when I was still in my porta hut but never had a oven to cure it so I never tried it. Wife's oven is and has always been off limits to my needs... I just ordered some chrome colored powder to do the rims on the MG with from AMAZON.


I may break down And get a better rig now that I know I can do it and have it turn out good. 400deg for 15 Min is what's in the manual and that's what I've been doing. I need to get some glossy finish stuff to try, all my powders are matt finish. that's all HF has on the shelf. Still looks good to me. Perfect for wiper arms NO reflection from the sun or what ever.

Still playing with powder coating.

No chance of losing that wrench in the grass!! LOL!! looks great!

I'd probably manage to drop it amongst a pile of oak and beech leaves and have it go completely invisible...bright dayglo pink? Swamp maple. Doesn't matter, I'd find a way to lose it.

what a perfect way to recondition auction tools-different colors would make sorting them easy

that's the wrench I use to for the ratchets on my car dolly. I've managed to misplace the damn thing already so the bright yellow didn't help.

been taking jugs of oil to Advance for disposal in the recycling tank. so far I've had to bring two back because they had a lot of water in them so I need to separate the water first. some of these jugs have been sitting out behind the shop for YEARS because I was going to build a waste oil burner to heat the shop with. No need with the Gas heat. ANY way 5 gallon buckets of oil have some how gotten a lot of water in them so I need to separate it before I can dump it so here's the solution.
Cut the bottom out of an empty freon bottle.

Remove this little Bastard from the valve at the bottom... This by the way is why you can no longer use these as air tanks. Check valve prevents flow into the tank. It's screwed into the bottom of the valve from the inside. Makes me want to know how they fill them then.


SO any way I'll just pour the contents of the buckets in here and when I don't get water off the bottom any more pour it off into another bucket. I may only need 1 bucket if what I have left is any thing like the last two were.
Guess this could be used for a fuel separator too. Not burning diesel any more so I won't need it for that though.

Hmmmm, ---- wonder what they did to the freon tank I got! ---it came with an air hose on it and I used it a lot til I got a 20 lp tank cause it holds more air!

Used to be able to do that no problem but the EPA decided to make all the damn cans non-reusable. Hell you used to be able to buy kits to convert Freon cans into air tanks. I think people were over pressurising them and blowing themselves up for some stupid shit do I don't know how the hell you can do that there's a blow out valve in the top of the can.

I think this one had the conversion kit on it. --- ya only takes one stupid with the right crooked lawyer to mess it up for everybody.

I got my IH 340 hauled home today --- just bought it cheep enough to try it on my big tiller. ---needs some work but I have most of the parts to finish it. -- seller put new lights, seat, plugs/wires/ cap and everything inside the dist. cleaned the carb, replaced 3 or 4 hyd. hoses, and it still ran ruff. When we unloaded it, I got the dist. set bolts loose and turned it a quarter turn to retard side and motor smoothed right out. --- might still have slight carb problem. --- looks like tractor sat in fence row for 10 years!

couple tanks of gas thru it Sonny it'l prolly clear right out..i swear by avgas for somethn' like that..its a cleaner as much as a fuel

got to dig into the dropped off Yale 5000lb forklift today, started at 9am working on taking the counterweight off so we could replace the rotted out muffler..took 6hrs non-stop work to remove the overhead guard, remove the LP gas fuel cylinder mounts and remove the 1-3/4" bolts that mount the counterweight,then lifted it off with my other Hyster forklift to get to the muffler and replace it..found out the exhaust pipe had broken in a few places so we had to repair that as well..found a muffler in the barn stock here,amazing that I could find anything amongst the other inventory that has me so choked up..What was almost just as amazing is that it fit the lift truck so well.like it was made to go there under the counterweight..we wrapped the exhaust pipe with thermal wrap,I had some left over from the previous job..just enough,go figure! had to make some new mounting tabs for the muffler,but all in all everything is quiet again with the old Yale..so now onto the rod knock or flywheel noise issue we havent dug into yet..might just put heavier oil into it and see LOL..what a day


so this pic is us removing the 1-3/4"bolts that hold the counterweight on..
140psi air with a 1/2" IR impact wouldnt touch 'em..wound up using 3/4"drive breaker bar with a 4ft section of special 'torque increaser tubing' added..that got em moving.
stubborn old bolts that are difficult to get to,and seldom removed..wanted to get a pic of the muffler replacement but things were moving quick in the afternoon

can't even use a slugging wrench in that situation.

the only real way to access the bolts was with a socket, extension and breaker bar..next step was the torch,but then we'd have to replace the bolts..these old lifts are frequently a PITA.

RV has a leak in the roof some where. don't have time to mess with it right now and I wanted to try & limit the damage so I went & got a HF car port & modified it a bit. ratchet straps & 1/2" bolt should keep it in place. ( I HOPE)


Seems to be plenty of room for me to get up there when the time comes too...

never underestimate the power of mother nature..those small straps are usually good for about 750lbs..IMHO you should be ok..at least it'l be a cool place to repair the roof without burning up the back of your neck from sunburn

The tarp will shread away long before the frame comes lose. The cheap little bungie cords will give out for sure. Got a two year replacement plan on this one too so if it blows away I'll get another. It's also facing inline with the normal wind direction. usually comes from the SW or NE here. guess it's the way it follows all the buildings in the area. I'm not complaining it's rather nice to have it be predictable for stuff like this.

I'm more concerned about keeping the water off than the sun at this point in time.

I was given one of the tarp canopy systems from a co-worker, the cover was shredded from UV sunlight but the poles were OK,but of course some were missing..can't complain too much for free..it wound up needing two poles and I had 1inch EMT conduit which fit perfectly..that and a new HD tarp and I was in business..no replacement plan,tho..thats awesome to have...mine has been sitting for a few years up in the barn in a wooden crate of sorts as the cardboard box was long gone..might use it this summer on a truck rebuild project..keep the sun away

With my %10 off coupon the carport was $109 + $35 for the replacement plan. after uncle same got his share the total came to $152. the poles are the same size as 1 1/4" EMT so I couldn't use that for the the 10 footers. However.... the top rail poll for a chain link fence fits inside the corner bracket perfectly and they were pretty much the same price and just a hair longer. $100 after my military discount at Lowes for 6 of those.
The straps are bolted down to the slab with 1/2-13 x 2 bolts. just needed some thing that would fit over the RV so I didn't have to deal with tarps and ropes like I did when I rebuilt the back wall.

well I wanted to dig some post holes but the auger didn't run so I worked on that. Pulled the carb apart because it would start on choke But that's it. Diaphragm looks rough. gotta do some serious research for this little prick. 2 stroke Tecumseh on a earthquake post hole drill. I've had this thing forever well it's got a Tecumseh that pretty much dates it right there. Made a temp fix by putting a piece of nitrile glove between the cover and the rotten diaphragm. It runs great.... I wonder how long it'll last?

I have a couple of the old, old, old Techs. on my well drill unit! carbs shot---NO parts for that model anymore. These are probably early to mid 80's when I bought them new. also bought a 4" and a 10" post hole auger that fit the gearbox output shaft and dug a bunch of post holes with it in the early years til I got a tractor 3-pt digger.
So far I still never found carb kits for the models I have.

Did get 4 of my rain catch tanks set up and last nights sprinkle put a few gallons of water in them.
I hooked them to the downspouts to catch the water before it goes down next to the basement wall then in. -- It looks like our walls were never coated when the foundation was re-done 60 years ago, so we have 2 unstoppable leaks that I think the tanks outside will take care of.
Also then I can have more water for the gardens. I can pump them over to big storage tanks when they get full.

Got the hotbed extension done and its ready for planting. --- slow process! lol!

I found these so
I'm going to give this a try... Looks right. cooler today but dry going to turn all that mulch We've been dumping in the garden under before it rains again

https://www.jackssmallengines.com/jacks-parts-lookup/part/tecumseh/640257.

got part of the compost spread ----deutz motor in skidloader died -----more problems cause its a damn diesel!
anyway I finally have the 340 running right. --- the guys I bought it from were running a 6-volt coil on 12-volt system. their new points were fried, no resistor in the line, dug deeper and found the weights inside the dist. were worn out and timing was WAY off, barely ran, smoked out crankcase vent tube and muffler , was missing, etc., tach drive gear teeth were gone.
After taking the dist. off, I decided to put the one from my 504 motor on it. ---- worked like a charm ---runs smooth now no blow-by, BUT do have some hydraulic leaks, ---one major one---trans input seal!--ya, split the tractor to put that one in! both outer axle seals leak --- not too hard to change them, and 1 main hyd hose, ---the special IH one! morph fittings on the ends---no new hose available
one guy said he checked on one in 07 and they were $350. for the foot long hose! Not sure how I can go around that hose but some brazing stuff together might do the job.

rain/ice today more trees broke down from the ice! AGAIN!!!

what model Deutz is it Sonny,Ive done some work with those..I have a spare Deutz engine here a 4cyl oil cooled diesel,basically new 14hrs on it -model D2011L04 like 50hp or so..they were in Bobcat 863s

Did some fence work this weekend too. Still waiting on the carb parts for the auger BUT it's still running great with the rubber glove fix for now. Ordered a new cutting edge too. I'll use it as a template to make extras. Felt kinda stupid buying one but I don't know what the original looked like originally. it's pretty round right now.





Still have to do 3 more sections here.. Live in the damn CITY so I have to hide all my country boy toys from street view. When I bought this place in 96 I was outside the city, none of that crap was out there. it was wooded lots and soy fields. Now the city has expanded and swollowed us up. Only plus side is the house has more than tripled in value.
[

Jim---thats kinda what happened to us so we lucked out and found this place.
Bunk., the Deutz is the F3L- 912 in my loader. 3 cylinder jobber. was an excellent engine til now. Found some manuals for it BUT not in english, so kinda useless to me , Virginia kinda made a little bit out of it but dont cover the problem I have.

took a 350 mile road trip with my neighbor to haul his "new" IH H-50 payloader home from half way across MO.! I is tard too! LOL!

Got the cutting edge and a new carb for the auger today, so I put them on. had to fidget a bit with the governor because it's a plastic wind sail type and the shaft was just slightly different but every thing else was perfect.

OLD AND NEW COMPARISON...side by side.


Traced the new one for a template for future use. wow now you can really see how gone the old one was. I had No idea......


buddy of mine gave me this as a gift. Might be a novelty BUT it's the first pocket knife I've ever had that actually holds an edge.

it survived the storms.

Hey that looks great!

Hard to tell from the pictures but the windmill is hurting. Think I'll make the next one.

Finished putting the fence panel up, cleaned up some more leaves & stuff and spread the shred in the garden. cement was still soft so I left a couple braces up over night. Post hole auger is a champ. sure am glad I put that new cutting edge on. cut right through all the little roots from the shrubs. did have to use the mini hoe to dig out a stump from an old cedar tree though.





Looks good from out side too.

got the tato planter ready for tomorrow's planting, ground is ready, onions cultivated, new tines put on one of the older tillers, front tires switched on the 340,----and and I'm beat!

Hey Jim, pix. of the chipper/shredder are on flickr if ya want to see them. --- its and MTD. the orange one is the vertical one ---- dont know brand of it. both have 8 hp Techs. on them but did the job.

today we planted the 150 pounds of spuds at our club showgrounds while Mike planted the field corn.
Virginia and I drove one of Mikes trucks up there, (about 40 miles) and he took his other truck with the big trailer and hauled the H-50 loader up there and will haul his tractor and planter back! ----Virginia and I are beat! LOL!!!

loaded up the scrap hopper with what I could find,clips strips and scrap angle,some plate and scrap plate skeletons and old rusted tubing scrap,the dreaded P.O.S. LG fridge and two old pallet jacks that were unrepairable..went to scrap yard got $100/ton for mixed steel,4400lbs total..came back and pruned some trees, moved an old remote diesel radiator to cutting position for scrapping, pulled up a 5x6ft section of 1"steel plate for my brother to use as a worktable and then put the Cat batteries on charge for an old start/cold start move out of the barn so one of the hydraulic lift cylinders can be extracted and replaced..a good day outside,awesome weather..time for a cigar Im pooped

last week moved an old remote radiator onto the work deck here for scrapping..this was up on the roof of the airport building at the Nashville airport some years back used for cooling a generator..3ft x 4ft wide core is all copper with steel motor mounts and attachments and end tanks,we will break it down and clear it of steel and the motor assembly before taking it in for scrap..it doesnt leak a drop very tight with a 5hp 1150rpm 6pole special slow electric fan motor..tanks and core is bolted construction so it's easy to take apart,just a LOT of 5/16"bolts..sawzalled the rest for easy handling.


pulled the fan motor and front shroud off, the fan brackets were 3/4"solid round stock bent and formed to support the heavy fan motor..got most of it done today but will finish tomorrow if possible..
copper is up in price right now and we don't use this big monster much anymore..plus it takes up a LOT of space here..move it out

Got most of the tree limbs cleaned up out of the yard and burned, still have to finish up cleaning the orchard yet.
Planted a few new plants that Virginia ordered and they came yesterday so in the ground they went! ---- dont like for plants to lay around, so we always plant as soon as they arrive.
Hauled more compost around to the smaller gardens with the sunstar and dump wagon.
Welded up the gearbox mount on the other sunstar deck and got it put back on.

I have a heavy-duty hand truck with a 3/4"axle on it, it gets used to move transformers,motors,safes,refrigerators,etc..for the longest time it has had side play on the axle shaft where the wheels ride,the wheels moving in and out on the shaft,the play was taken up by washers..but not enough,still had some side play enough to drive you crazy while using it-wheels moving side to side,"dunk-dunk-dunk-dunk" while you moved it around..what it needed was a thin shim washer to take up the play,a normal washer was too thick..well it took me about 30minutes of digging crap out of the way today but I used the Gallmeyer surface grinder to grind down a 3/4" flat washer to the proper shim thickness to stop the dunk-dunk noise on the cart..gawd its been years that this has been a when-I-get-to-it fix..
today was the day I had had enough of that!!..check that one off the list

Cleaned 2 years sludge out of the bottom pond in my back yard stream Sunday. Pumped the water into the tank and filled a little pond to keep the fish in during the process.

Yesterday I put a drain system in the front yard so it'll dry up. All the water from the neighbors roof runs into it and we can't mow it for days or weeks when it rains. Rained last night and I think I have a winner... No standing water today.

Still have to do the finish work at the curb. I'll clean it up to match the other side that handles OUR roof runoff.

made a trip out to the L.W.S. to get a 150 Acetylene gas cylinder exchanged for an upcoming scrap job, just another $70.00..plasma has sure become an attractive option for these types of jobs.

Cemented in and trimmed flush with the curb


HAHAHA.... Now I have duel exhaust.

Been working on the issue I have with the mini fork lift hanging up while raised. Figured I would make some rollers to replace the sliders I used due to the taper in the tower rails because they're C-channel. Finding material has been the big issue. I wanted to use some bar stock but couldn't find any thing bigger than 2" I needed like 2.75". I realized I have a bunch of these gears.

I'm making my blanks for the tapered rollers.. The teeth are hardened as I found out the hard way. played with the first one and found a way around it.

Still working on the taper size... I have the shaft chucked up so All I have to do is press the gear on.. I use the tail stock and a deep well socket to get it on and a gear puller to pull the blank.. Only one more to go, then I can tune in the taper. still gotta work out the mounting method. but I have a few good ideas for that too.

Thats one of the reasons I gotta get my lathes up and runnin! --- just WAY too much shit that I could do with them! lol! --- I would say you got the channel iron about licked! Looks good!

Don't know what I would do without it

Got to figure out exactly how I want to set these up now. I need to take just a little more meat off the roller so there's clearance on one side. got to have clearance.... Still gotta finish the taper on the other three but I need to figure out how I'm going to keep every thing centered. May be I'll move the Teflon sliders down just enough to mount the rollers.

Built a upgrade for the limit switch on my 100 ton x 96" brake press.
Now with the 1/2" all thread, I can adjust it by .025" easily.
The fixed scale is by 2/10" and the movable scale has three lines at .2, .1 and .05. Then by going + or - a line, I can go .025.
After I get all the setting wrote down, it will save me 5+ minutes per setup.

Rigged up a power feed for the Compound rest on the lathe so I could make some clean cuts on the tapered rollers I'm fabricating.

I had this old 90 VDC gearmotor that was used on the OLD Nieco Broilers that Burger King used to have. Found it in my warehouse a while ago. with a bridge rectifier, DPDT switch to reverse polarity for reverse and this Old Variac I'm able to to get awesome cuts and speed up progress. The shaft on the compound rest is bent so I can't hard mount the motor but it works great as is. Later down the road I'll make a mount with a flex coupling but for now the piece of 1/2" pvc is working great. it's rigid enough to support the weight of the motor and It's getting me through this phase of my upgrade to the forklift. I also want to make an adapter and mount for the mill.

Just a little clip in action. don't mind the part where I said reverse voltage I meant to say polarity....
https://youtu.be/TdLnUGXE9cc

Got a nice project box off Amazon and cleaned up my mess. Here's the drive motor control now. I'll figure out how I'm going to mount it after I design the motor mount. the speed control knob is ass backwards ( rotate clockwise to slow down) but it works.



20210511_203236 by Jim Crandall, on Flickr

Just about got the rollers done for the fork lift. Still have to adjust the length of the 3/4 X 1" sleeves so they're just a hair longer than the roller& spacer. Had to take some meat off the bolt heads to get every thing to fit in the tower rails. After I get the lengths all where I need them I'll weld the washers to the reduced bolt heads. It's going to be close. I may even have to take a little off the spacer collars.

That looks factory made! Damn,-- you guys do some great work!

had to make a few changes to get it to fit BUT it's in. need to get shorter bolts and drill them out for grease passages. Need to get a couple more washers to shim the rollers out a little more too.

loadbanked two generators today,started early as that's how I roll,got one packaged up for shipment to an private island..gotta pull a deere 4045T engine pack out of one, then start on a Cat lift cylinder replacement..have to get some pics of that job for ya..hoping to take Memorial Day off and do some well deserved lounging by the pool-not mine..maybe put some ribs on the barbie-que

Done all kinds of stuff. SHIT I'm way behind. Put a new deck on the pontoon boat.. New seats and carpet. Looks good for a 32 year old boat.
.

decided to sell the cruiser. never get to take it out. need to clean it up and take fresh pics.

Started digging out the ol MGB tonight. Time to get it done & out of my Shop... 9 years now.

Hey!! Did ya find the little guy! was wondering about him the other day!!! lol!!

yep it's in there

doing a injection pump job on a 60kw generator,John Deere 6068T diesel engine, I have to pull the injection pump off to do a rebuild..had to fab up a puller to pull the gear off the inj pump driveshaft,its tapered and keyed..simple flat plate with two metric screws to hold the gear,one big forcing screw in the middle to push the shaft off the gear-it stays in the engine and in time with the crank.

finished plowing the biggest garden tonight. Got 2 smaller ones to go then I am done for the year in the garden.
Was working on the fork brackets,--- gotta/hadda make new ones to replace th old ones I hacked out and welded on in a hurry 25 or 30 years ago. Broke one side off when I hit a big rock while subsoiling one of the gardens,---ya I know forks are not for subsoiling!!! LOL

I need to get heavier angle for the forks on my little fork lift. The stuff I used bends because it's a little thin for the job. 1/4" should do.

try going to a forklift dealer and see if they have scrap forks you could buy from them, a lot of times they take in old lifts on trade just to make a deal on a new one..they go to scrap..sometimes they pull off the forks,just ask for some old Class 1 forks, they are the smallest,or ask for some old walkie truck forks..all steel is gotten expensive,you'd be surprised what angle costs these days

I got a place that has steel for scrap prices on most of it. He's way cheaper than anyone else around. I pay by the pound not piece. I'm sure he has a chunk that'll work. I need to dig through my pile & see what I have first. I made my forks out of 1x3 C channel. good enough for what I do around here. I will check around for forks too but there's so much industry in this area that not much is considered scrap.

Pulled down the duct from the diesel heater I used to have out back & installed an exhaust fan. Had to build a box to put it in due to the shape of the wall.

I also replaced the fan motor in the Old Reznor heater I have in the shop. Like to keep it working as a backup so if the package unit quits during a freeze, the Reznor will kick in. the heat went out a few years ago during a freeze & the water line to the hand sink froze and flooded the shop when it thawed out. we were in Florida & my son saw water coming out from under the big roll up door when he stopped by to borrow a tool. what a mess that was..

Put a zip line up for My granddaughter Sat. It was one of her Birthday presents...
Click on the pic & it should take you to Flickr so you can play the video.

Got the old Reznor back to operational status.

Started putting my receiver hitch vise together.

Still have to drill the holes for the hitch pin in both the small tube and the largest tube and figure out some pads for the jaws. I think I want to put some teeth in there for pipe too.
I have one of these on my work van & I use it all the time, but I don't want to spend the money for a second one for my truck at home. It was worth the money for the 1st one though.

Added more stuff to round file and gained some more floor space in the shop too.

That would be handy out on the jobsite for sure!!!

Handy to clamp a chainsaw bar in, to quick dress the chain with a file when out cutting too. Not really necessary but makes it easier & faster.

Ya,--holing the saws is ALWAYS a problem in the bush!

Getting there.. still need to figure out the pipe clamp stuff and find a thick enough piece of metal for the anvil. as a simple vice it works great so far. I got the acme threaded rod & nuts from McMaster Carr.

raining like hell here, muddy and wet..so doing a shop bench cleanup, trashing some things and sweeping up and organizing..probably take a month afterwards to find anything again

same here. I'm fighting the urge to go through the pile BUT it's been there so long that nothing in it is worth the trouble. had to quit for the day to regain my it's got to go attitude.

FINALLY got to town to get batteries. put one on the 420 and it turns over good,---now on to the ignition! --- This thing might run yet! lol!

Still cleaning up the shop... Mama came out & said I'm not allowed to buy any more welders or plasma cutters. I don't know why.

I'd say you have it covered Jim..I find if I clean up TOO much it interferes with my organization of 'stuff'

And I thought only I had that problem! LOL!

That's not counting the two welders & 1 plasma cuter at the business warehouse. If 1 quits I can just plug in another. I like having backups...

Need backups!!!! LOL!!

had an electric fuel lift pumps go bad on a customer generator, the original pumps were 24V, with a foot mount, custom made for the generator manufacturer, and out of production, not available...so we had to reverse engineer a pump setup with JIC fittings that would work, and make a support bracket to support the new pumps which are impulse piston shaped in design..no big deal 2hrs work

Trying to re-wire the dump trailer. Damn rodents ate the wires inside the frame and blew fuses in the truck. Finally got the truck end fixed cept 1 tail light is now out and gotta put another one on it.
Cant find a wiring diagram for the Sure-Trac dump trailer and the company wont answer my e-mails or phone messages, so IF you buy ANY Sure-Trac trailer---- be warned you are on your own! The have a design flaw in them as they run the wires INSIDE the damn frame and it dont take a rocket guru to figure out how long before rodents will get in there and destroy the wires!
Anyway I got a bunch of the ate up wire out to see just how bad it was and ya!-- no wonder the fuses blew,--dead short among the bare wires.
I found an inch pvc pipe that I an going to hang outside the frame and put the main wires in that and stuff a rag in the ends with calk to seal it. Then I will run cross wires to the other side to have signal lights/tail/brake lights etc.
A lotta work that could have been prevented if they would have run the wires outside to start with!

Got some of the wires figured out on the trailer and now I need new spring hangers on the truck! Always something! LOL!

I'm one that would just redo it my way any way.. Then, at least you know what you have. My little motorcycle trailer has some stupid 4 pin connector on it so you can pull the tong off to fold it up. Called the company to get a replacement and of course there isn't one offered. SOoooo Make it with regular trailer connectors & use a long extension instead.

I've always used 3/4" EMT conduit to enclose my trailer wiring back from the coupler area to past the front of the bed..then use the black flexible split wiring loom from there,its easy to use and break out wires for side clearance lights..Had a friend once that snapchained his dog to a trailer in his backyard..the dog ripped out and chewed the WHOLE wiring harness of the trailer..Ive heard of groundhogs liking to chew on wiring as well..a little 7.62 FMJ wiill take care of that small irritation

Happy Holidays everyone

I need to do that to all my trailers. tired of the wires hanging down, but I think for just lights 1/2" will be suitable.

I got 4 brake wires inside the frame too. They are probably gone too. dont know cause I blew the controller when I hooked up to the tri-axle General dozer trailer. Dont know what kind of controller would work on 6 brakes as well as 4. For my use I dont need/use trailer brakes anyway but others use my trailers so I gotta keep the back end working so they have brakes with their trucks.
I had the inch pvc so I used it. Looks o.k. also the wires were easy to push thru the 10' long piece. Trailer bed is 14' and I have to run the wires 10' in the pvc and branch off both ways to the sides of the frame then make a loop to go up to the lights which are in the back of the bed itself, not in the frame.--complicated to say the least. Cant wire direct cause bed would tear the wires off if they are not routed the long way around with some flex.
Next problem is to mount the cross wires so they wont get torn off when you dump the bed since bed almost hits the ground,---well it actually does hit when you first dump. empty it has 8" or so under it.
Last problem is to find 2" round marker lights. need 1 amber and 2 or 3 red ones. Another problem is the lights are rubber mounted, just pushed into the rubber gasket to hold them in and if I change that I will have holes in the trailer with nothing in them. Only need to seal them to keep water/salt/etc out.
The saga continues and it rained all day today and I got soaked messin with the wires! LOL!

Sonny sounds like u need to pull that trailer into the barn and leave it till spring! I used to have to rewire trailers on a yearly basis, seems like SOMETHING always goes bad..did an upgrade to LED lights and half the issues went away..I used to build trailers, very handy to have..now I hate working on them with a passion..and I damn sure dont loan 'em out..done with that..I have plenty of cold weather shop jobs to do right now, burning that fuel oil at 5.50/gal..sure feels good to walk into a warm shop in the mornin..vehicles and trailers can wait till spring!

Harbor freight. I got the ones for the golf cart there.

Glad I have natural gas here.. Way less expensive than fuel oil, cleaner burning too.

Sonny, if you can't get them there, I'd be happy to send some to you.

Tested the New dog out to see if she'll be a shop buddy.


Minni Aussie/Maltese a real sweetheart.. 1 brown eye,1 blue the softest fur

Cute little guy!! We only have cats here! Been feedin a wild tom outside. He just showed up , got chased here by the wolves and decided to stay in the greenhouse! He comes to the porch now to get water and food. I have an electric water bowl so water stays unfroze all winter for the cats.

We used to have oil heat but had to go to lp when they stopped selling oil here. We were the last to go to lp, its fake heat, NOT heavy like oil or wood/coal/etc. is. Now we freeze in here at 74 degree setting so wear outside clothes inside all winter! Sucks but you get used to it.

In one week forecast says temps are to be -4 for the high so no more outside work for me here.

On the cluster lights and lic. plate light, they are inside frame wires and all. pulled them out and there are no wires left at all. Totally ate up, so to get everything outside on that area I probably should weld a flat plate over existing holes and cut light holes in plate for lights and run wires in small tube over to main line. I could put them above or below the frame since there would be room. They are hard to see under there anyway so I was thinking to hang them lower. They would still be safe.
The tail lights are mounted way up on the back side of the bed and I think they are open enough to leave them there since the wires in the channels are not ate up. Kinda not a great place for mice to try living in that area! Could also weld a plate over their holes and extend them to the outside if need be.

I have new tail lights on order for the trailer and the truck. S,posed to be that led shit which I despise but everybody else is blinding me with theirs so I will start returning the favor! lol!
Anyway the side lights are round 2" and I could just mount a solid 3 light cluster bar instead of the individual single lights too, ---thats another option.

Was looking at some on e-bay and Amazon. They have some by the bunch on there. 10 and 20 bunch lots. Gotta look close cause they got the 3/4" lights stuck in there too! --they are in packs of 100! Now that is a lot of holes to drill!!! LOL! Might look cool but I will pass on that. I just want whats needed by law!

Some trailer pix. --- open to ideas for light mounting. This is what I have now,----snowing and high winds today and had to quit.
I would have to hang the plate down to mount the round lights and it would be easier to see them that way too. The long ones can go where they already are if I get the wire the right length.
Side lights are good where they are. I already ran cross wires to the front ones and back ones will use the idea so dont have to re mount the lights.
Thats all I got done today!

I have a shitload of rubber grommets for those oval lights too got them for the car dolly when I had it but I sold that 2 years ago

H.F. cycle lift I use for to lift griddles & stuff in food service didn't go high enough. spent two days trying to figure out how to get it higher so I can lift a griddle off the table to work on the table. solution was so simple, I was embarrassed that It took me so long to solve. too much going on in my life right now but any way ..... problem solved..

This is how it's supposed to be..

Max height this way is only 28".

I needed at least 3 more inches in height. .. this will work. 17 1/2" down.

43 1/2" up all the way.
ple

Took the bolts out & welded washers to a couple of hitch pins for quick change over.

just got the new tail lights for the truck and a pack of 6 or 8 for the trailer. still need to order the little round marker lights. Trailer is 2" truck bed takes the next size bigger,--2 1/2" I think,---anyway right now the truck bed lights all work, just need to put the new tail lights on.

Have to go run around and winterize everything today. I'm so not used to having do that anymore. temps expected to hit single digits here this weekend.

Jim, --- right now we got -5 for a low and it went down to -12 last night with 40 mph straight line winds. Dont know why they dont build wind farms here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL!! damn winter!
Short range looks like you could get some below freezing in your area as this sinks further south and east!

Yeah, temps dropping already winds steady at 22mph with 50mph gusts. got all the water hoses unhooked & made sure the well pump has a working heater in the box. Don't have time to drain the tank in the RV so I just stuck a couple small ceramic heaters out there opened all the cabinet doors with plumbing behind them & turned on the electric element for the water heater. should get me through the couple day we expect to have the sub normal temps. Stuck a small heater in the engine compartment on the cabin cruiser too.

Got the heat bulb in the well plugged in. So far the power just flickered last night but stayed on. I drug the biggest generator up closer to the house just in case.
today we woke up to hot water pipe to kitchen froze up in the basement.
High winds all day, ---the 8" of snow turned out to be a dusting! lol! good thing too!
Going down to -9 again tonight and winds are getting stronger now.
Looks like at least 1 more day before this system moves off to the northeast and out to sea!
Next week they say 50 some degrees for high! UNREAL!!!

Finally fot the hot water pipes going to the kitchen thawed out again! ------ put feed/water/milk out on the porch for the wild cat that showed up a while back!

I was LAZY yesterday. All the kids came over for our traditional seafood Christmas dinner. No water in the shop so I anticipate issues when the pipes thaw out. Hopefully the pex will be forgiving enough that nothing broke. I don't know if it froze under the shed floor where the well pump is or in the tube where it comes up out of the ground on the back of the shop and in through the wall above the slab. It's covered and sealed but not heated so, we shall see.

Looked at the wind damage from the last 3 days here. got a LOT of stuff to clean up again. Now I got a damn rabbit invasion again!

rabbit stew for new year's Sonny..with horseradish sauce on the side

They only come out at night making it hard to shoot them. getting a tad bit of snow today. they say we could get 1 or 2 " this time! Dont need that shit but deal with it IF if comes!

Still on Holliday routine. did nothing today.

pulling shop time today,crank the heat up..still waiting on an Deere injection pump to come back from the pump shop in Memphis..so cleaning up under the lathe,putting things away and cleaning up the back room..

still hunkered down from the storm/fridigid temps and got nothing done outside.
Did a little on a couple chainsaws in the house.
replanted some indoor plants and looked at some nekid lady pix on the internet.

got the chip pan on the lathe cleaned out, rotated battery charger AC power amongst generator sets outside, finished up installing LED cargo trailer interior and ramp lights, got flatbed trailer hooked up and teched, ready to go to Ritchie Bros in the AM to pick up my latest purchase..

Auction run! OH NO! --- not you too! -- I hada cut down on auctions for a while. Other expenses coming up!
I did get some more plants repotted in the house today.
440pm 12/27

installed a cable to hold the rail on the upper deck to the house. it just sits on the roof and when I attached the kids zip line to it, it pulled the deck away from the house. hope this works..

yep Ive been contemplating selling my old Cat trackloader and buying into a compact track loader(tracked skid steer)- easier to move and I dont need permits to do so..I hate to let the big Cat go as there's no substitute for tonnage and power..so Ritchie Bros has had a acre of skid steer attachments for sale at the most recent auctions..most are imported off shore manufacture..up close the welding is not as clean and neat as others but a stump bucket doesnt have to look pretty,eh? And if it breaks thats what we have 7018 rod for right? just picked up a 71" skid steer brush cutter,not too bad for 1700 new in the crate..ive heard a lot about them and you have to put 80/90 oil in the gearbox and upgrade the lovejoy coupling between the gearbox and the hydraulic motor..no big deal..Ive got work for it in the spring

Neighbor just got one of the mowers for $1,400 at our last auction along with the little trencher for $1,600, --both in crate and I talked him out of the crates!!! HIGH QUALITY ANGLE IRON!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol!
Them mini exes's were selling for between 5 and 6 thousand at this sale.
Looks like there is a shitload of this stuff nationwide flooding the market! Maybe that will bring the price down a lot!
I was bidding on the orange fork extensions. looks like $100 to $110 average on them. Neighbor got one set for $100. I might should have tried harder but they have a truckload of them so more will be on the next sale on Jan 10'th sale along with the Amerin power company junk stuff!

got 1 new tail light put on the truck. got a wire that I dont know where it goes. could have been the back up lights,--they never have worked so no way to tell and anyway I have tail/turn/stop working on 2 wires so I guess call it good!
Anyway I'm beat working outside in this 30 mph wind and mud!

Finished the zip line repair.... so far so good

decided to do a test run on a piece of scrap to see what the chrome powder coat will look like.

I think it'll be great on the spoked rims for the MGB.

picked up about 120# of leaves and gumballs out of the driveway in front of the shop probably have another 200 pounds worth of crap to pick up. Lots of gumballs this year more than normal.

That would look great on the rims Jim! Its not too flashy annd would go great with the paint color, --- kinda accent each other!
You have gum trees??? Wonder if the seeds would grow?
I think there may be 1 tree in the cemetery where we will be buried. --- gotta try some seeds!

the LAST g#$ damn tree I would ever plant is a sweetgum tree..absolutely useless PITA not even good for pallet wood..doesnt split in a logsplitter,it just explodes to into shards..and those damn gumballs everywhere.
Last tract my brother and I logged had gum ball trees on it,we were after the Oak and Poplar for saw logs..every oak we went after had 10 gum ball trees in the way of it..pulling a white oak up and out to the landing I ran over a gumball tree sapling and took out the hyd steering hose on the tractor..lost a whole day because of that sweetgum tree
friggin gum ball trees..Did I say I hate sweetgum trees Sonny
1204am sunny and bright because theres no friggen gumball trees in the way
12/30/22

WOW! --- I guess most people hate them. I figured 1 growing in the road fenceline wouldnt hurt.

got a bit more done on the trailer wires --- truck's done. trailer is more complicated cause the wires from the frame to the bed gotta be able to move when the bed goes up. Think I got it figured out now.
Damn butt splices are not the greatest thing but I did use a few. MOST of the joints are twisted and soldered then taped.
5:46 pm 12/30

Arrrrgggh gumball trees..
Arrowsmith,IL is where your farm is Sonny? Im gonna find that growing gumball tree via satellite pictures on your fenceline and come out there and put it out of its rooted misery before it reproduces or gets any bigger..maybe the two of us take that flatbed F350 and a chain and see just how deep the roots are on that new gumball tree LOL..course that'll give us a reason to fix whats left of the spring hangers then afterwards laughing and cussing at the same time
Happy New Year All

Good one Bunk!!! LOL! Farm is not hard to find!!
Happy New Year everybody!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish the Oak trees would run over the damn sweet gum trees here. Cleaned out the shed that houses the entertainment stuff today. got the projector fired up beer in the fridge and popcorn for popping. ready to bring in the NEW YEAR.

Been transplanting a row of assorted trees here along the road. got a couple foot tall oakes, some walnut trees, one landscape type tree I have no idea what it is. some of them came in a load of landscape fill dirt and I drug them out and planted a couple.

didnt get much done today. cleaned up a gas grill that came from the auction last summer, got spuds cooking on it right now, and started leveling a place to set up my 2,500 gallon water storage tank.

cleaning out the back shop found a rolled-up heavy duty vinyl 20ft long color banner from the '96 Atlanta Olympics.."Atlanta Welcomes the World"..too bad there were people there that wanted to cause mayhem..What a mess

This little bitch had a plastic oil drain on it. Well, it tipped over and that plastic thing broke.



freaking amazing how big of a mess 1 quart of oil can make.
Had to fix it puppy got into it


had oily paw prints all over the house.

SO.... the wife said, I want a dog door blocker. Had to make one.




used my plastic welder to heat it up to bend over the handle.

Fixed the gate. Vynal folded over backwards with the high winds & wouldn't latch any more. some S/S screws and plastic pipe hanger strap and I was able to get it back up to latching.

WOW Jim, you been busy!
I only got 1 generator running,--the other one now has either fuel pump or carb not working! Did get a couple more blocks laid for the big water storage tank and burned the trash pile in the hole! --- Oh, and make a couple hambergers on the gas grill to test it out

still cleaning out the back shop found a lot of hydraulic motors left over from the small articulated loader build, wow have they ever gone up in price on eBay used to see 'em all the time for $100 now they are pulling $400 for a used hyd.motor! wow talk about inflation..found a whole case of detroit fuel injectors for an 8v71, dont own that engine anymore and they wont fit a 6v53 so off they go..so trashing old stuff after I sort thru it, dig it out let it sit for a day to think about it,maybe then another day, then off to the scrap or trashcan..tired of tripping over things..not to mention losing parts amongst all the inventory...found a whole case of Racor fuel water separators just buried under a few boxes of crap leftover project parts..hate being lost in inventory and getting behind.
OK Sonny get back to work let me catch up to you with all those posts..now 'I' gotta get back to work
800am 1/2/2023

Yeah cleaning out the shop is how that engine got tipped over and puked oil all over but I'm getting there too as far as cleaning out the shop goes

When you guys ge your shops empty, ----- I could use a hand in my garage!!! LOL, actually a big loader might be quicker! lol!
My garage is not tall enough to get much in so gotta do everything outside. The machine shed has dirt floor making it impossible to move shop crane around or line anything up but at least some of my shit is in out of the weather.

Got the oil spill cleaned up. used one of those foaming guns from HF and some Super Clean. let that set a while then blasted it all away with the steam Jenny.

So noticed my sign was crooked in that pic so I straightened it up. Also put a new cord on the hyd pump for my lift so I don't have to use an extension cord any more.
a friend got me the sign.

we all need some of those signs posted down at the Mex border..might havta be in Spanish too

still pluggin along at getting shit squared away so I can roll the MG outside & was all the dust off so I can start laying some paint on it.

4:35 pm --- 1/3/23 burgers, onions, sweet tato and regular tato on the grill sure was good!! LOL!!

Jim I like the way the awning worked out for you on the front of your shop..gives ya a little shady spot for auto work and whatever comes along..I'd do the same thing but aint stayin here much longer

It keeps a lot of water off stuff that I can't get inside too. Allows me to keep the doors open on not so good days Etc. when weather gets too crappy, I just stow it.. I'll probably do the same thing when I get settled in Florida in a couple years.

digging my way into-(and later)-out of- a 20ft sea container full of electrical materials, wire, generator cables, reels, crates, etc..putting some lights up inside in advance for the springtime cleanout.
I'm catching up to your post count Sonny
2:17PM EST
1/4/2023

made it to the mail box in the cold wind. Dont know why the dont build wind farms around here!!!!! LOL!!!! Got another one over on the next mile south went up last summer 100 big boys in it. It might be runnin in a year or so, transformers and lines out are not up yet.--- one 30 miles southwest of us been up for 2 years and still no transformers or lines out on it.

Bunk you got a lot of posting to do to catch up to Sonny. Hell I can't catch up to Sonny he's on a dead run for 1st place.

Cleaned ALL the crap off of and out of the MGB today.. It's time to start moving forward again.

Rigging up a makeshift wrecker attachment for the Polaris. Buddy of mine broke a tie rod end on his quad out in the woods. I hope to be able to wiggle it through the woods & get it back to a warm dry garage to effect the repairs. It's actually a spare tire rack I rigged up for the wife's car. It has no place for a spare because it came from the factory with run flats. I have a winch that will mount on top.

That should work great! --- Beats trying to pull it out by hand!! ---I didnt think I would ever see the MG again!! LOL! lookin good!

I'd rather make posts that mean something and say something other than the check-in thread every day

Jim,ever think of using the Dynamat sound deadening mat material inside that MG? the silver foil coated/bitumen/lead sheet that goes on over your firewall and floor-it adds mass and really works to deaden road noise and vibration..there's some online as well called Noico- we use it on genset housings,man does it work good..

As far as your quad wrecker,Ive thought of the same thing for towing dead quads out of the bush..a lot of the rides we go on are 50miles from no-where up in the mountains of PA..it's a bitch to tow one out and back to the truck when the ONLY way back is the trail. Most of the time we just ratchet strap it up to the bumper on my quad in 4x4 low range and work our way back..the King Quad usually managed to break the tie rod ends so often I upgraded to HD rod ends and CrMo tie rods..It helped it a bit..I have a Canada made HD full-width bumper on mine..lots of places to set straps,lift and tow with..interested to see what you come up with!

I have a winch that mounts on top of that. That's How I get the Harley up on the trailer without the threat of running it up on its own power & losing control. I weigh less than 150 Lb soaking wet & fully dressed, the Glide weighs almost 1000. I'll look into the Dynamat. I was just thinking last night that I needed to replace all the crap that's there now.

Jim we've been using sound deadening mat from Noico, its 80mils thick, foil faced with self adhesive bitumen tar like, you have to burnish it into place with a piece of smooth wood or heavy metal roller, once in place it really does a nice job..its a bit cheaper than Dynamat but from what we've seen just as good..Did all the cab body panels in my Chevy K30,inside the doors,etc,really helps keep it as quiet in the cab as a 350 with headers can be.
The doors when shut felt tinny and light, man put the Noico on the insides of the doors WOW now they shut right and feel really solid.

We've used the GTMat brand as well, the Noico has been the best..on eBay all day long,check Amazon as well.. FWIW,just our experiences with it

Bunk I appreciate it. was looking at Dynamat earlier. I have some time, as I won't need it until I get the paint down.

Need to come up with some kind of pivoting cradle I can bolt on where the spare tire mounts, that the towed vehicle can be strapped into. just use the winch to get it in there. that way there won't be any slam bang shit going on. be like towing a trailer

Jim Ive thought of a swivel bar setup to tow a dead quad with as well,it would keep it from running into the back of my quad..but nothing seems to be versitile enough to really handle everything that comes up..except the HD bumper on my quad,we just ratchet strapped the dead quad to it with some upwards pull and go,just get the front wheels off the ground,with 8-10" of 'leash' so to speak and it just goes..I towed a friend off a mountain in KY-(Evarts,KY-Harlan,KY)-some of the most aggresive territory Ive ever ridden..the quad(Twin Peaks Kawi) held tight and came down off that mountain..we were up so high on the mountain we came down thru the clouds into and thru a rainstorm..what a miserable night..never forget it

Made a bit of progress on the trailer lights today,---AFTER I got pissed off and tore the rest of the front part of the wiring out and,----yup!,---damn bunch of FACTORY splices and all nasty! ---anyway after yanking all of that out I started way up the line towards the truck and worked back from there. Did some temp. hook ups to see if it worked or not and NOW I am on the right track,---got tail lights on both truck and trailer, so now to solder/tape the connections and tie up the wires to the outside of the frame where rodents wont bother them,---gonna look like hell but I am not runnin a show queen!
Not sure on the hidden brake wires,---for now I dont care about that! Brake controller fried when I hooked to the tri axle many years ago! Got froze for the last 2 days messin with it but maybe by spring I can get it finished.

Sonny one thing Ive learned is to make all your connections with good quality pressure connector butt splices and then seal the ends with some RTV silicone sealant..I like to run all my wiring thru the black plastic corrugated flexible wiring loom,it keeps the wiring harness from chafing against the frame and suspension mounts,fuel lines,etc..I have little problems with my wiring because of all that. Best of luck to you

Pulled the carb off the mini hoe yesterday and cleaned it got tired of having to run half choke all the time. started on getting things together for the new loader valve.

Runs great now.. damn I love the ultrasonic cleaner.

Got the wires done on the trailer! Dont look great but I got lights. Had to cut out some of the damn butt connectors that I tried to use,--- totallt HATE them!! NEVER had any luck with them,--anyway I even managed to mount the cluster light under the place that had the 3 big azzed holes cut in the frame at the factory, guess I could stick the lights back in the holes to cover them,---too cold to plug all the holes in the frame right now, so gotta do that later. Even had one tail light wire long enough to reach up along the side to add some side lights on the bed so I taped it up and tied it out of the way til I get more lights to put up there,---dont need them but they would make the trailer easier to see from the side.
Even re-connected the brake wires but there is about 6 feet of them in the frame on one side and the same amount on the other side. Its a different harder coated stuff and only 2 wires in it. Dont know how they feed to the pass side either so I guess if somebody borrows the trailer I have to explain that it SHOULD have brakes but dont count on it and drive accordingly! One guy that uses it dont even plug in the lights!--gotta keep on him to plug the damn thing in and at least be somewhat legal!
I want lights that work and are bright! ---I dont drive fast enough that brakes would do me any good anyway! Automatic transmissions stop you like you hit a brick wall as soon as you let off the throttle ---at least the F-350 does and what little I pull it with the Explorer I never get out of low range.
After another 8 hours in the cold,---I cooked Virginia some chicken legs on the grill while she made noodles in the kitchen, so we pigged out for supper tonight! lol!

take care brother.. this stuff is just bullshit gotta work stuff. mostly just frustrating. It'll all work out. take a step back and relax. it'll all still be there tomorrow.

made a jig to support the rims for the MG so I can powder coat them. It's shinny because I took the pic After I used it.

Powder coated the rim for the spare tire. these are going to look good....

Sonny if you are using one of those flat-metal handle type wire connector crimpers with the screw cutters in the handles then there's where your problem is..they don't offer enough pressure to fully crimp the barrel or butt splices,and/or lug terminals that go on the ends of the wiring..creating a loose or high-resistance connection..Get a pair of ratcheting crimpers or T+B makes a pair of cutter/crimpers (orange/black handles)for wiring work.

These are what I use. Klein... Never had a butt connector pull apart with these.


and these heat shrink connectors. put a squirt of dielectric grease in each one before you crimp the wires and heat shrink. Never had a problem with the connection going bad. This is How I work the wires on my boats.

yup I think everyone makes a version of the famous T+B(Thomas and Betts) crimpers now..they used to be Orange and Black handles,originally made for UN-insulated crimp lugs,but they crimp down onto the insulated ones too..never had a joint fail with these and nylon splices/terminals..30-somethin-years ago I had a lot of harnesses getting cuts and nips in them from the cutter on the end-so on one pair I ground the cutters off the end so they were just crimpers for close harness work..still got 'em

Ya,--- mine are all the chimna flat POS models! I did have one like in your pix. at one time but guess somebody else needed them worse than me,--anyway I cant finsd them.!

I pretty much just use the cutter part for zip ties. Honestly, I pretty much use the space right in front of the one for non-insulated. It just crimps so much better. Don't work too goo on the yellow ones 12ga & up so I do those in the back one. I have the ratcheting ones with a variety of dies too. I just use those for the pin type connectors.

Well I got this adapter for my jack a few years ago and couldn't use it because it didn't fit my jack. Well... Had to replace my jack because I loaned it out & it didn't come back.. Go figure right? any way it fits the newer jack.. think I've had the jack 2 years now & just thought see if this thing fit tonight.. Jacked up the MG pulled the dollies all out & oiled up the wheels, so it'll move easier. works great. more stable platform for a jack..

got some of my hardware shipment today, it's amazing what a bag of screws cost these days..now I know WHY I recover as much hardware,nuts and bolts off of scrap items as possible.

Been doing it for years BUT you gotta keep it organized

Squirted some purple shit on the MG tonight.

all it needs now is a 6.0L Chevy LS crate motor under the hood

I've heard of these things having 6 cyl. engines shoved in them. Gets along pretty good with the 1.8L / 62.5 HP 4 Cyl. I have more money invested in the damn thing than it's worth already.

looks like a fun ride tho

love the color!!! It will be a nice ride when done!!!!
I didnt get much done,---did help sis rake leaves and cut brush at the home place and got a load of leaves for my compost pile! ---trailer lights were still on when I got home this time and a lot brighter than usual,--the factory splices up front were junk for sure!!!

good deal

Worked on the MG some more. was going to lay some more purple on it last night but, there was a big spot on the right front quarter that had a shit load of BONDO on it. Apparently, It got crunched somewhere along the line and it cracked it all to hell, so I ground it all out and re did it with New Bondo with fibers. Whipped some primer on it tonight but was overanxious and started sanding before the primer was cured.....
SHIT!!!! well tomorrow is another day.

Man the price of Bondo filler went UP!! I always try to keep a gallon can of the Rage bondo filler here for shop use but WTF is it liquid gold or what?

It sure has. I usually just buy it by the quart but lately just the pint size works for me and it was about $13. I waste as much as I use by mixing too much and it starts curing. Wish there was a slower acting hardener that would give you a minute or two instead of 30 seconds.

Havent bought/used any for several years here, but I hear its went thru the roof like everything else! I used to use it by the gallons! --Dont have time nowdays to do the body work on the trucks like I used to.

Yeah I'm ready to go buy some chickens. $6.00 a doz. for eggs is CRAZY.

I used a bit too much cream hardener the other night & that shit kicked while I was mixing it. Haven't price it lately it's a can I've had on the shelf for a few years. wasn't even sure it would set because the hardener was funky. I probably should have kneaded the tube better.

I went out back and put a case drain line on the skid steer brush cutter..it came with no case drain provision,but the hyd motor had the case drain fitting plugged off in the top..so me being me I modded a brand new machine and ordered the hose and fittings from SurplusCenter..the hyd motor has a hard to find JIC5 port on it,I had to adapt down in size to JIC4, then right angle out of the hyd motor/gearbox tunnel and hose up to the quick connect that fits to the coupling block on the machine..all this does is relieve the internal blowby case pressure inside the hyd motor back to the machine's internal hydraulic tank. All hyd motors have internal leakage or blowby,if you dont give it a provision to vent back to the tank when running at high pressure it builds up in the motor and blows the shaft seals.
pretty easy to fit all this up but with a cold wet wind blowing,I prefabbed it all in the shop then went out back to install it..success,but enough for one day

planted a sweet potato top in a pot to grow some new plants and its starting out with several sprouts,---kinda early but it was gonna grow anyway so i cut the top off and ate the rest of it. Have grown them this early then planted them out when the right time comes and they produce.
also did a test grow of the lady finger pop corn that I wanted to plant and it came out 99.9%, so guess its good.
moving/sorting some of the last summer boxes from the auction,--- got one flat of a ton of drill bits in it,---MOST of them look new!
Never know what you will find in the misc. boxes/totes/buckets! LOL! Found some snap-on wrenches, craftsman, mac, and top name good quality older stuff. Got 2 full sets of box end stuff put together from the assorted stuff. Now I have a set in the wood shed and dont have to carry tools out there every time I work out there.
Gotta sharpen the planer knives,--mount another chain grinder to the bench, sharpen a few more chains, and finish working on one of the sawmill blades, got it sharp but now gotta round out the gullets on it.

Well didn't get anything done on the MG. Went out to the shop and the heat was barely blowing, so I ended up fixing an issue with the ductwork upstairs. It was nice & warm up there. then I rigged up a small 7 Gal. electric water heater so I can wet sand the car without my fingers freezing off. warm water works better for washing any way. My water supply to the shop is from a well and it has LOTS of Iron. Not really good for washing down the car prior to painting. Have a hose running out there from the house for now But I think I'll break down & run a line out just for stuff that needs pure water. I did burry a 4" PVC pipe as a conduit to handle the air, electric and Eventually water, before I poured the cement. the electric runs straight to the breaker panel in the house but the air has a union where I used to have a Quonset hut and that's where the 4" pipe ends, so I'll either have to cut a trench in my driveway to the house or tunnel under it somehow.

My old deep-rock well drill worked great for tunneling! wish I still had it! --- You couldprobably rig a small pipe with short wings on it and chuck it in a big drill and get under wit it. maybe spray water stream along pipe while turning? Just thinking out loud here!

I could use the Jetter attachment that I have for my pressure washer If I can figure out a way to make sure it doesn't wander. high pressure water stream will follow the path of least resistance. When I pushed a conduit under the slab to run a gas line out to the shop I had the benefit of having a trench to lay the pvc pipe in to send it under the slab. I cut a hole in the slab up next to the house & ran up to it.. In this situation I have a ground box to deal with so I can't aim the conduit like that. This is where the power & air came up into the old quonset hut that used to be my shop. now I park the RV in that spot.

Made a cover for the dog crate. she's figured out how to pull the blanket we were using off from inside. Still need to make a flap for the front. if she can see out when we put her in, she whines. Actually pretty lucky with her. she's pretty well behaved for 13week old pup.

1127Am EST 1/16/23
cleaned out the scrap steel bucket in the shop..clips,strips and chunx, and some old dented driveshafts..transfer to the big scrap tip hopper out back..turn it in once a year

hung shoplight in the woodwork shed, adjusted the used 1055 sharpall I just bought, mounted the Oregon chain grinder,--(nother auction find) and sharpened a chain to see if it worked. Tried the jointer and got it working again, next item is to get the big planer hooked up in this shed. 220 is in and working, just gotta run a longer wire to reach the planer.

Sanded on the MG (wet sanding before spraying the base color) on the front half and sanded some boogers off on the back half in prep for the next coat.

Made a front flap for the dogs' crate cover.

Got the rest of the fittings for the loader valve that I got for the backhoe a long time ago. picked up a couple of new hoses at tractor supply. Just need some decent weather to install it now. AND a big drip pan to catch all the fluid.

worked on a few saw chains/bars getting them straightend out again. gotta squeeze the rails and regrind the top of them once in a while to make them cut straight again. 6 saws ready to go when I go loggin again.

Oh,--the internet auction,---- got a few things,-- got outbid on TONS of stuff! -- must be nice to be rich!! People are always nuts on these Jan. sales,--money to burn I guess. anyway we have the big farm expense to deal with this year. Next year we should be back on track with income from the farm.

sanded on the MG some more. was going to spray some more purple but saw way too many boogers for my analism to accept.

Sprayed purple today. Tomorrow I'll sand some more.

AND THIS IS WHY I HAVE TO SAND IT OFF....



When I squeezed the trigger on the gun ( one I haven't used yet) it shot a solid stream of paint... OH shit Right? Adjust the gun and spray on wait for it to dry and start sanding..

I'll RE-Spray it next week. Need to do some work on the doors & hoods.

I used to paint everything in sight,- but now I never paint anything! Would like to but cost of paint and lack of time keeps me from doing it!

Well this car is for the wifey so it needs to be pretty so I'm painting it

using a 3"exhaust pipe expander, I broke the forcing nut that expands the fingers into the pipe to expand it..cheap Chinese construction to a degree..the lead screw bolt is hardened but the forcing nut isnt..it's a bigger hex than a normal 1/2"-20 fine thread so in keeping with MBN style Im gonna have to make one so it holds up to the abuse(use)

had the same issue with my gimble bearing puller for the boat. I cheated & ordered the replacement stuff from McMaster Carr

Got the Pex pulled from the shop up to the Box by the RV. now I have to figure out how to get it the rest of the way. Probably going to have to cut the concrete.

Finished the Pex pipe pull to the house. Turned out that there was just enough room in the conduit with the wire. Just waiting for my neighbor to bring my Pex cutter back. I'll be able to bring it through the wall right there with the air & electric. One thing about the compressor being 100+ feet away up in the house garage is, the air has No moisture in it by the time it comes out this end. It condenses in the line before it gets here. I blow it down every other day to keep it from building up.

finally got tired of replacing the cheap Chinese pneumatic 10"tires and wheels on both my light handtruck and pressure washer. Got online last week and bought a 4-pack of solid pneumatic tire/wheel combos for them both..never felt so good throwing the old leaking ones in the trash..every year having to disassemble and replace the tubes..what a drill that was. Hopefully this will solve THAT problem..on to the next one!

All done with the water to the shop. even got the water heater hooked up so I no longer have to let my fingers freeze when I wash my hands in the sink.

looks like you didnt have to cut the concrete after all

Nope & I can't tell you how happy I am about that. Had My granddaughter help me run the pex.. She pushed on one end whiole I pulled on the other. 100' roll & I had about 6' left. worked out great because it got used elsewhere. Tied in to the laundry sink in the garage. still need to insulate the line outside from the ground up to the dryer vent but that's it.

Emptied the original can of purple. Got a whole nother gallon to make this thing look good. But not too shabby now either.

dont forget you have the doors inside and out and trunk/hood to paint yet..an easy gallon right there..got reducer/activator?

it's kinda funny what our legislators think they are doing when the US state of Maryland bans the sale of xylene, acetone and paint thinner in home stores, yet I can buy all the activated isocyanate based paint and chemicals to paint with in an auto parts store in town. much less I can drive 20minutes across the state line to purchase all the chems or acetone I need to paint with..

That 1st gallon went a long way. Painted 3 golf carts and what the car has on it now. Have a whole other kit I got because I knew I used too much doing the golf carts. Bottom side of the hood is already done too.


Those aren't temp ranges I got. that's just what pop up on default.

going to have to get some great stuff foam for big gaps and put it in the top of the 4" pipe I ran the water line through. It's raining its ass off and there's water seeping into my shop through the pipe. pumped it out with the little Ryobi pump I got for pumping water out of stuff quick out in the fieldbut that will just reduce how much I get it the shop for now

Got my new used desk in today! It took all day to move shit out then back in,---well SOME of it back in,--a lot of it went out! --- still gotta go thru the papers yet,--most of the passwords I saved/wrote down dont work anymore so they can go in the trash.
sposed to get freezing rain tonight here.

Microsoft did more updates AGAIN in the background and now this thing is w-11 and f****d up as hell! --- gotta hunt for all the functions that were front/center/easy to get and now ya gotta guess how to get to them and instead of 1 click it takes a half dozen!
W-11 hid most everything and its a bitch to find! My resize icons are not only hid but changed the picture you click on to open it. Damn electronic shit!!

11 is a pain in the ass. Have to hit the damn windows key then hunt to find everything. I pinned ALL my daily stuff to the task bar. I've had it for about a year and I'm still not used to it.

Put the foam in the pipe yesterday. Looks like it's doing the job. looks dry in the shop. Supposed to rain all week, so guess it'll get a real test.

Filled in around where the stuff comes up at the house too. Put some super thick commercial refrigerant pipe insulation on the water line first. I need to box it in to protect it all now.

Took inventory of my paint stuff.. I think I have everything I need to finish the car. also have 2 complete kits for the Harley. That's not purple though.

This is the color I have for the Harley.. it's chameleon paint. the color is called Psychotic illusions.

Had to pump out the pipe again. guess I need to try sealing it again. I should have sucked the water out of the box with a wet-vac first, now I have to chip the foam back a bit to get to the pipe again. Thats what I get for trying to cheat.

I was worth a try! -- never know til ya try something!
I need to go get perscription filled today an get a few things at the store.-- gotta put the charger on the car first ---- they run the batts. down if they set for 3 days,--neighbors 2016 f-250 does the same thing! Pain in the ass newer shit! newer aint better! LOL!

well it at least slowed it down for now. pipe still fills up but at least it's not over flowing into the shop.

got decent yesterday afternoon for a few hours, so I got a bit done in the wood shed. Trying to put in a few plug-ins by the bench.
sharpened another sawmill blade. I try to get all of the use I can out of them.--- as I sharpen them I round out the gullets keeping the original shape of the teeth,---takes extra time but makes blades like new again.
Never had one break YET si I will run and sharpen them til they do break.
Sanded the planer bed off again,--I had heavy coat of auto wax on it to keep rust off when it was in the greenhouse.
Little Reddy 55,000 heater wont stay on now, ---tank also started leaking on the bottom! Pin hole from the looks of it. have to clean and solder it. --- I think the eye is either dirty or worn out causing the thing to go off. ---its a really old heater and never had anything done to it. We used it hard over the years too so its time for repairs. I like its size cause its a lot easier to move around than my 110,000 is.

Both my Reddy heaters are propane now. Got tired of fighting the shit fuel here. that and I started getting sick from the fumes all of a sudden. Propane ain't worth a shit when it's real cold because the 20# cylinders freeze up, so I have to make sure the tank gets some of the heat. I get some funny looks when I set the tank in front of the heater to thaw it out. I don't have to worry about spilling fuel either. One is 35,000 BTU the other is 55,000. 1 tank is good for about 8 hrs

I considered the propane jobbers --- didnt know how they worked.

they're great except the cylinder freezing issue. but I just set the cylinder in the front of the heater to keep it from freezing up too much. don't have all the fumes like, diesel & kerosene.

well it was warm yesterday. mid 50's so I dug some of the foam out of the end of the pipe that the air, water & electric run through out to the shop. Got a wet-vac and washed out all the mud & stuff. sucked all the water out of the pipe end and box, dried it out with the wife's hair dryer and re-foamed it. Got tested last night too. it rained pretty good last night, and I didn't see any sign of water on the shop end this morning, so I think that I got it this time.

only got 38* here with N West winds at 34mph so still cold and the only chance of rain is on Thursday. highs in the 40's with possible 50 on sunday. The wind is the killer here! Its blowing off the snow/ice they had out in the West/N West of us.
Trying to get another saw running ---- 6 year old Remington outlaw 4620 --- looks like very low hours on it. --- might have ignition module problems,---still checkin.
Now I gotta take an axle shaft out of sis's ranger and put in a different one. For some reason one back wheel wobbles according to the cop that stopped her! Tire shop checked the wheel/tire on the machine and it's square so I guess she bent the axle shaft on the pothole roads we have here now. -- anyway it's a job and a half getting under there.

got the Remington 4620 running, not sure if the chain oiler works or not.
Put the other 2 tires/wheels on the flat garden wagon, and got 4 electric plug in boxes put up in the wood shed.
Took the gas line off the big generator and got water in the tank for some reason. Took tank off and dumped everything out. -- damn groment in the bottom of the tank fell out! --worn out over the years of vibration and bad gas,----now to find one of them! lol! Had motor on fire trying to start it with the air cleaner off and dumping gas in the carb. It would start/die and the third try it backfired and fire all over! slapped my stocking cap over the carb but no go so grabbed the cats water dish and tossed it on the fire. got it out and course old cap was melted to the top of the carb. Anyway got everything cleaned up and dumped more gas down the carb and got it to run a bit longer so no water got down in the motor.
Might have to just tie a small tank on it and forget about the big one on top.

I just got some for that Generator I put together. Amazon of course

I found 6 on ebay S'POSED to fit ---- 33/64'th and the CLAIM usa and kinda universal fit but did specify Porter-Cable and others so I went with them.
Kinda figured they would be impossible to get but guess not so this time.

now to find chain grinder wheel for my Belsaw 399 chain grinder! --- always sumpin around here! lol!

Still gotta get something done with the vh4d in the Case 1530 skidloader.---- wavy cylinder needs re-bore but might have to just go with 1 new piston and a ring set for all 4 and call it good for now.
Would have good blocks off a parts vh4d thats stuck, --- undecided on trying to clean it up and use it or not ---- knowing it had been using oil by the gallons when last ran!

I used to have an account with these guys. so I was curious if they were still around.

https://www.foley-belsaw-sharpening.com/

https://www.sharpeningsupplies.com/Lapping-Plates-Flattening-Stones-C111.aspx

Years ago I bought the 399 chain grinder, 1055 sharp-all, the 12" planer, and the M-14 sawmill from them. I also got the supplies for the grinders and a few attachments for the 1055. still use them today.
Got the rear end cover off a ranger,---problem now is that I cant get the lock bolt out that holds the pinion shaft in. It feels rounded off and looks like somebody was in there before and I s'pose the damn idiots put locktite on the bolt when the put it back together! --- now I got big problems! lol!

Damn.. if Loctite was used you'll need to use heat to get it to let go.. 6pt socket is your best hope at this point.

6-pt slips too! -- didnt try anything else yet, --- still trying to figure what next! Not a lot of room in there to get a good angle or good bite on it with anything.

Finally found a carb for my Kohler M-8 on one of the Horses, so that will get another one going and the new carb is here for the Tech. hh80 on another Horse.,--- might get several of them going for the garden season! lol!

Got the Porter Cable (Big Guy) running again today! The bottom tank groumets came and ACTUALLY fit! lol! The gas dont leak anymore so that was the problem.
Cut more logs on the sawmill, short vid. in the sawmill section here on the forums.
Looks like I still have carb problems on the Sthil 041, --- it ran for a couple minutes then died out, --- starts and runs a few rounds at low speed and choke on so looks like the needle is set too low in the new carb. The 290 is doing the same thing so gotta try to reset both of them.
Got a 2.0 Craftsman, (poulan 2000) that has bad recoil and cant get it to hold long enough to actually start it, ---- looks to have spark, so a later project concerning it! lol!

Made another big pan of veggie soup too!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!

made a light fixture to get more light on the car so I can see what I'm painting.

started putting the new tank together for my wood splitter. Thought I had two pieces of plate but only had enough to make one end.

cutt logs on the sawmill all day. got a lot done.

Another day cutting logs on the sawmill again today. -- Gotta change blades or sharpen this one before I cut again,---it stayed sharp way longer than normal for some reason this session.
Took the starter off the Echo 650 and trying to figure out how to make the dogs OR fix the worn ones since there are none left on planet earth that I can find!

Sanded on the MG a little bit today. Hope to spray some more purple tomorrow.

Day 3 on the sawmill,----- got rained out about 5:30 pm.
also got the starter cover off one of the evl 650's, ---- trying to figure out how to make starter dogs for them.
Still cant get cross bolt out of the ranger.
put cut lumber in the sheds before rain came. getting cold,--high winds, not lookin good for the next few days here!

Squirted some purple last night.

then turned the car around so the light wall is on the other side. I hope to get the Passenger side sprayed tonight.

Put the hood on and sprayed the trunk lid.

Lookin better all the time! -- That is a wild color for sure! I LOVE it!!

I need to get the doors done & back on the car. then I can shoot the clear coat & start the easy part. Putting the seats & stuff back in. I hope to get it done by the end of March.

movin right along on it! ---- it will be great when you get it done!!

Rain/hail here all night, -- still light rain. About done with the log pile so gotta go get another load then cut more trees down.
cleaning and sharpening chainsaws to get them ready for the next round of cutting.

Well after I welded the one end on the square tube for the splitter tank, I realized that I hadn't put any baffles in. I made an internal return to take the fluid to the other end of the tank. hopefully that will suffice. Still working on getting the axles attached. got to do some good clean up on them so I can weld them to the bottom of the tank. that needs to be done before I can locate the pump suction strainer. want to have it as close to the end as possible to maximize oil rotation for optimal cooling. I'm probably over thinking it as usual considering the fact that the original tank was an old freon bottle.

put the left door on.


and sprayed the back of the right door.

startin to look like a car again!
Yesterday I had to go get a trailer load of stuff from a friend. He was cleaning out his dads sheds so they can sell the place and found some odds and ends he wanted me to have.
Got a TB Horse tiller with snow blade and some furrower attachments with it, and old roof weed mower, ac 7' sickle mower for wc, wd, wd-45 tractor and a belt pulley for one along with a Mustang riding mower!

In one shed I found some "homemade" air planes! 4 of them! -- plus 3 more not finished! --His dad made them and actually flew them!
One had a Rotax motor on it and the "hot" one had half of a vw motor on it! I heard of guys cutting vw motors in half before but never saw one.
Dont know what they will do with the planes, but they sure are neat!

There's a crap load of collectors out there that would love to get ahold of those things.

Got the bolt out of the ranger rear end, --- drove a 5/16" 6 sided impact socket over the rounded off head and used small pipe wrench on that to turn it.---got lucky this time.
Got the key panel mounted and working on the 1835 loader.
did a little on the 340 to get ready for the big tiller and put more boards in the shed out of the weather.
sounds like we could get 5" of damn snow Friday! -- hope they are wrong!

SNOW that's a 4 letter word Sonny. shame on you.

Not been getting much done on the car. Put the cruiser up for sale. Don't get to use it much and I went & got a convertible on a whim, so the boss lady said I had to get rid of one of my toys. I'll miss it but I really don't use it enough to Keep it. I will use the car a lot more than the boat. we use the pontoon boat all summer so I'm not out completely.

, on Flickr

Sonny check out Donner Pass in California, they have about 10ft of snow, yes I said about 10ft of snow..no place to plow it to,
houses buried under it LITERALLY..roads are basically tunnels thru the snow.
couple of recent videos on youtube, "Donner Pass snow chaos" -snowblowers even running out of places to shoot the snow to..unbelievable

"Almost 12 feet of snow has piled up at Donner Pass in California's Sierra Nevada mountains in the past seven days." they just got 48"more in the last 48hrs.

I survived the Blizzard of 77 western NY. we were delivering milk to people for free on snowmobiles. trucks couldn't get to the farms to get it. lot of milk got dumped. cows still hade to be milked.

Ya I seen that report, ---that has always been a mean pass since before it was built! We only getting rain and damn wind here right now, --- 45+ mph.

Wind & rain Here. Put a backup camera in the convertible and an interface so the steering wheel controls will work the aftermarket radio that's in there. It's also the monitor for the backup camera.

yep I remember the 77 blizzard here in MD we got like 2-3ft snow, it was wet snow and single axle dump plow trucks struggled with it..the local state roads crew had a few mid-size Allis-Chalmers wheel loaders running nonstop shifts digging the snow and trucks out of the ditches..all that snow in Californie-Donner Pass looks to be a real problem..just wait for the melt and runoff in the spring..next catastrophe will be the flooding from it all..the Cali gov Newsome will probably take off on vacation during that too

Yeah but they need the water hahaha

just wait that'l be the next Cali crisis..

When 50 feet of snow melts, --- its gonna hurt! lol! MAJOR flooding, mud slides and washed out roads!
People are whining about being snowed in up in the hills,------ well WHY in the hell did they build up there??? Stupid people!
Cali will raise the taxes on other states to get money in the end since they rule the world! Between them and Chicago, we are screwed!

Its beautiful up in the Sierra mountains, Mt.Shasta and into southern Oregon..might be nice to visit and spend a week relaxing but I wouldnt want to live there..Portland started the whole downward slide,Seattle followed soon after and now San Fran is going down too..just watch the unfiltered street videos online of it.. unbelieveable how our country is going down so fast on the west coast..and now Asheville,NC!

So for my odd jobs today I cleaned out the shop fridge..old beer, can't drink it all myself..old frozen food in the freezer-eeeek

Had to order a bearing puller for sis's ranger axle. --Did get a few more blocks laid for one of my big water tanks to sit on. checks out fairly level ,-----for now! Tall upright 2,500 gallon tank needs to be fairly level to work right.

still trying to get that last door for the MG right. these things are cheap & great. makes it so much easier to pour without drips every where.

Think I fixed the rear window on the Solara. the part I circled was totally separated from the fabric. I used Shoe Goo. that stuff is awesome.


even got the fabric on the inside stuck back together.

I also had to solder that connector for the defrost strip back together because I snapped it off when I put the weight on the window to hold it together while the glue set.
The replacement rain trough came today But I'm still waiting on the stainless staples to come so I can put the roof back together.

Put the doors back on the MG.