Weekend Plans

Working, have to adjust a coupling scrubber on an ultrasonic plate scanner as the tech is griping about leaks. Techs will gripe about anything so they don't have to work.

Sounds as if we might have plenty to do, offering advice to you (when requested) about access control device upgrades, fuel aerosolization, vector control, and impervious coatings.

Access control has been checked off the list! Only took me a few minutes. Took longer to drive to the store and find the right model!

Already finished?

RATS! I was hoping to offer advice on that one. I could see a big sale for LynDoor Biometric Access Systems in the making.

Sounds a little too advanced for my needs. My only requirements were the color and the distance between the holes for the screws. The door and old hardware are quite old. I wasn't sure if standard hardware would fit, and didn't really want to drill new holes, either! Luckily it worked out.

Finishing a bow, 50 pound draw weight Ladies English Longbow styled like a medieval Warbow.

Bit of light gardening and cat worship... she's just been allowed out after cat flu and a lacerated pad (drivers side front).. she was driving us crazy after 2 weeks indoors.

When the cat's happy we're all happy.

Going to a field shoot at the romantically named Avalon field archery club.

Del

Crawling around under one of my cars to service its catalytic convertors. Crawling around under my riding lawn mower to replace a broken blade due to the fact that I ran over a mostly-buried rock the size of a football . Helping my wife with laundry from all of the dirty clothes from crawling around on the ground. Daughter wants me to go with her to see "San Andreas" at the movies.

Go see it, excellent movie.

Being in Houston, and in an area impacted by the flooding, my weekend projects are recovery-based. We've completed the necessary demo and have had luck with the weather so we were able to complete the drying out process. Finished drywall and roughing last night so this weekend is some new carpet and finish work and... maybe... taking what we salvaged out of storage.

Have you had a hard time getting the materials you need? Has to be huge demand for building materials down your way, and possibly still some logistics problems. Sending best wishes for continued dry weather, or at least no rain since I imagine Houston is pretty humid.

No issues. Being somewhat handy, with a critical thinking background - I did a quick assessment (the bones are good) and the flooding was a steady rise with minimal flow so no apparent erosion.

I decided I'd do all the repairs myself with no insurance claim. So I hit the stores pretty quick and started right away.

Plus, I live on one side of town and work on the other ^{the joys of the Houston commute} and the side I work on didn't have a lot of flooding, so those are the stores I hit.

To-date, I have not had an issue finding what I needed. But, I do feel sorry for those that have to go through the process of claims and waiting for contractors.

Its a toss up.....

• My brother started cutting hay this week, If it doesn't rain I may go up there help chop or bale,.... it depends.
• I have a few rain barrels I made from IBC containers, and one of the cement blocks shifted out from under one of the containers from the winter frost, so I'll drain, and redo the footings.
• I pulled the Alternator from my 1986 Porsche 911 Targa Carrera this week, I was really hoping that the replacement would come, but it wouldn't so I'll just cross this off this weeks to-do list and add it to next weeks.
• But my brake pads did come in for it this week, so I'll change those out.
• I'm designing a Utility Tractor on my personal time for orchard work. I always do a little something on that.
• And I'm sure Sheila has a list for me to do......

If I get two of these accomplished.....

Oh, ya,..... I really should return that door handle I bought from Home Depot 2 months ago to fix our patio door on our deck.... and pick up the correct size this time. 4" inch spacing on the mounting screws....... I think. or was that 3-1/2" spacing,... anyway,... it's the one I don't have that I have to buy......

Sounds like a good assortment of options! I no longer have horses and one of the things I do not miss about that is putting in hay. It always seemed to fall on the hottest day of the summer.

If you have the time to do a write-up and share some photos, I'd love to post your rain barrels or utility tractor on the Workbench Creations blog. I bet other people would be interested in reading about that!

Making hay, I used to spend my vacations helping bale..... at the end of the day, it was a different type of exhaustion, where I could get a good solid nights sleep.

As far as making hay, I love after milking walking in the yard 6 hay wagons lined up to be unloaded, the smell of fresh baled hay,.... was almost ... exhilarating. like a drug.

We had horse also, Mostly Arabians, some Quarter Houses, Grades, even a few Mustangs, oh and a donkey (Jerry). Just before after everyone got out of 4H, Dad bought some draft horses, Belgians at first, some Percherons and Haflinger, used them for logging and raking hay and picking stones....

When I fix the barrel foundation, I'll snap a few pictures.

Mucking stalls on a hot day ain't much fun either

phoenix,

A friend of mine inherited a small homemade "tractor" from his late uncle that was made up of two golf cart rear ends with the inputs facing each other and mounted with pulleys, driven by a single cylinder Wisconsin engine with a multi shiv pulley and an idler belt system for cultch and reverse. It was skid steered using the brakes. It was an amazing machine. My friends uncle was nicknamed "Gizmo".

My design evolved from something similar. I wanted a lower profile where the operator sit low, as well as the machine and keep it wheel base and the tractor itself short yet stable moverable.

Its FWD, Articulating. I started looking at a power unit, and work around that with a Perkins 404C-22 . Diesel, 38kW/51HP.

but with the utilities I wanted, forklift, loader?I may not be large enough, so I also started looking at a Larger power unit about 80 HP. (how did I select these, Grabcad has some excellent quality motors. also 3d Cad Browser

The initial design is evolving..... sometimes in a circle. Right now, its similar to a Half a Skid Steer design like you have, but still Articulating.... drive is hydraulics and I have to keep my options open, because I see comprises I need to do. So, I'm sure it will change again.

That Wisconsin engine, back in '76 or '77 we bought a 4300 Gehl Skid Loader with a 4 cylinder Wisconsin,... that can give you problems at times,..... but we can't complain, we're still using it as a second skid steer , while our primary one is a Case 1845 C.

Does the weed whacker die when you release the throttle, but it runs fine when you are gunning it? If so, you probably just need to unscrew the tamper-resistant low speed screw about a half-turn. You can thank the EPA for your crappy running power tools especially the ethanol that rots your fuel lines and gums up the passages in your carburetors. Depending on your carburetor, you might need to pull of the silly plastic tops they stick on the screw heads that limit movement or you might have those screws with the outside splines. There is a special tool you can buy so you can properly adjust your carburetor.

http://www.amazon.com/Poulan-Weedeater-530035560-Adjusting-Husqvarna/dp/B00K6NEODA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433522367&sr=8-1&keywords=splined+carb+adjustment+tool

This is a kit of a good number of different tamper-resistant heads.

http://www.amazon.com/Cycle-Carburetor-Adjustment-Kit-530035560/dp/B00DQADGUM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1433522367&sr=8-2&keywords=splined+carb+adjustment+tool

If you talk nicely to the fuel guy at your local general aviation airport, buy a five gallon jug of 100LL. Make that the only fuel you use for all your small engine tools like chain saws, lawn mowers, weed whackers and so on. But never put it in a vehicle that has O2 sensors or catalytic converters because it will ruin them. That fuel is very stable and has no ethanol in it.

Good luck with your quest.

P.S. Putting in a cat door down in the cellar window so Del can come in and out as he pleases. But he'll probably still wait by the front door to be served by his minions.

I'm not the primary user, so I can't say for sure. I believe that it starts out ok and then dies in the middle of the job. I would have to confirm that...

If it dies in the middle of the job, then recovers when you loosen the fuel cap, it could be the vent.

My wife would say that you just described me. ;>)

Hah! I'm saving Savvy's whole post.

If it stops raining. Putting in a garden with retaining wall blocks.

Well the last couple of weekends I spent troubleshooting and fixing the AC in my wife's car, so this weekend I plan on:

• Troubleshooting why the radiator fan in my Accord doesn't come on (fan motor or thermal switch?)
• Taking my son to his Webelos crossover tomorrow. Lots of fun...leather working, Frisbee golf, capture the flag, water balloon toss and best of all....lunch
• Taking my son and daughter to a Ray's game (baseball for those of you not familiar with who the Ray's are) on Sunday.

And I just found out....hot dogs for lunch. Hmmmmmmm

I have a quad copter drone I have been afraid to fly because it does not have prop guards and I have not found a place to fly it that would not be a threat or annoyance to others.

When I look at the props, I get flashbacks to when I accidentally stuck my finger in a muffin fan when it was coasting down.

I would have a flashback of when I accidentally stupidly stuck my finger in a muffin fan

When I worked at the shipyard back in the '90's. the local tavern 'The Red Room' (aka "Hoffmann House') It was in a Pabst beer commercial back in the 70's.

They (patrons?) had a game called 'Bonk', it involved a ceiling fan, well it also involved jumping and you can guess the rest how you play...

Ah yes, it was definitely a stupid accident. My white shirt looked like a barber pole. Muffin to laugh about!

I was attempting to make the point that mine was not an accident.

Oops....oh dam....I did it again......

ROFL

I'll be with friends preparing all of the materials we need for 2 upcoming firework displays. Council sponsored event on the 20th then school prom on the 25th. Next one after that is 4th July.

Check YouTube for "Roman candle fight in Chicago". One guy had a trouser fire from a well placed shot.

<...4th July...> Would that be the Bye-Bye Colony Festival? <ducks and covers>

Something for both countries to celebrate.

I am going to take by best friend and sweetheart wife up into the mountains and find a secluded, quite spot to unwind.

Go on some short, slow strolls through the forest and take some photos.

Maybe wet a hook or a fly and see if I can fool a trout or two into coming back home with me for dinner.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Big Lake?

Yep! It was great!

I have come to the conclusion that all of my days away from work are never long enough anymore. HMMMM....

"I am going to take my best friend and sweetheart wife up into the mountains..."

As has been often said, "Three's a crowd." ;-)

Good one! LOL

Got a new toy tool, so I'll be playing working all week-end!

Color me green with envy.

Tom needs that to clear his sidewalk in the winter to lift the bucket up over the snowbanks.

Can I have a go?

Form an orderly queue behind me

Del

BTW. What's the speed of one of your firework rockets? (Feet per second) just for comparison with an arrow...

Around 150f/s but we don't use rockets. The ones that are good enough for big displays have sticks that are about 3/8" x 4ft. We try to plan displays so that the prevailing wind blows from the crowd towards the display & carries away smoke and debris. Unfortunately rockets fly into the wind, towards the crowd.

Cheers, I s'pose it's mostly those big mortars then . Would n't want to be sitting on one of those when it went off.

Del

Yes, lots of mortars but also the single ignition box type fireworks with anything from 20 to 800 shots to give the pretty bit of the display. We do love a big mortar like this one from one of our displays.

That's not a mortar; that's major demolition equipment!

Whoa, that's some serious pyro.

It is a Kubota BX25D - This thing is awesome! It has a quick hitch so I can change between the bucket and grapple in a few minutes. Used the backhoe to till the garden, and moved a bunch of materials around...and my back does not hurt!

Is that a diesel?

Yes, it's a diesel.

Sweet ride!

Now you can spend your weekends pimping it and making/refurbishing attachments for it.

No aircon?

The list of "engineering improvements" is quite long!

Yeah, I don't see any beer can holders... yet

Del

There actually is a "beverage holder" built into the left fender...from the owners manual..."Never operate the machine when consuming alcohol." It's a fun tool, but you could get seriously injured, very quickly. It's great for an engineer, because I have to think about every move and what the consequences will be.

• A day trip to Frinton ["Harwich for the Continent; Frinton for the incontinent"] on Saturday, raiding the excellent Oxfam charity bookshop and the same brand charity music and collectables shop opposite, followed by a walk along the beach wall to Walton-on-Naze and back, a meal in a café in Connaught Avenue, and calling in at a friend's house to drop off a birthday present and a card.
• Sunday, there's two dormer windows to paint, a couple of roof tiles to attend to and the grass to cut.

Well, my weekend plans were to have a pre-moving garage sale. That was a mistake! I should have just taken everything to good will and got a nice tax deduction. Too much work for very little return. Sunday was a beautiful day though.

Not a weekend trip but I'm taking Thursday off work & will be spending the whole day at the Williams Formula One conference & technical centre, should be a good day.

Be sure to share anything interesting from the conference when you get back!

I went and recovered by weed-eater/edger from the local lawn mower repair place after 5 weeks! They still had not started on the work. I took my deposit back, and used it against the price of a new carb (part that is needed).

Have also been doing a considerable amount of machine work on parts for my Tesla turbine build (Stewart Mark I turbine). I am almost done, just working on the bearing supports/housings, to be set up kinematically for adjustment.

Without the bearings, the Mark I did not spin up on air from my smaller compressor. Wish me luck getting rid of resistance, and getting boundary layer effect to work.

It can be tough to find a good repair shop! The same thing happened with our chainsaw. It sat in one shop for a month, so we moved it to another shop. When we finally called to check on it they had forgotten about it. Hence trying to fix the weed wacker ourselves.

I'm sure everyone would love to hear more about your Tesla turbine when you get it going! Feel free to post or contact me about writing a blog post for Workbench Creations.

Sure thing, Mr. SavvyExacta!

I forgot to mention the repair place, caught two repairmen working on their own stuff, when there was a 167 item backlog! They were summarily terminated from employment - I don't know if toes were mowed or not!

The one thing I forgot on my edger/trimmer was the gasket for the new carb, but I suppose the old one may be rubber. If not, I know where to find gasket maker.