BX25D. Mod #1 and continued.

[mjncad]

Apparently Acklands Grainger treats Canadians as crappy as Grainger treats Americans.

 

[ultrarunner]

I use Grainger quite a bit... established an account with them back in 1996

They carry a tremendous selection and provide lots of info on just about everything.

MSDS available immediately for every required product.

I can put an order in by noon and just about always have it the next day at no extra charge.

No quibble returns and they have sourced parts for me at no charge.

 

[Scooby074]

Apparently Acklands Grainger treats Canadians as crappy as Grainger treats Americans.

Yup. I guess thats a bit comforting :laughing:

Yes they have TONS of stuff.. but its that pricing that is the killer.

Of course you guys in the states also have Mcmaster who have a huge selection too, but they wont sell to Canadians.. They think were terrorists or something

 

[ultrarunner]

Yup. I guess thats a bit comforting :laughing:

Yes they have TONS of stuff.. but its that pricing that is the killer.

Of course you guys in the states also have Mcmaster who have a huge selection too, but they wont sell to Canadians.. They think were terrorists or something

Strange because ordered things from McMaster when I was working in Germany...

I use Grainger exclusively for lighting products and find very good pricing and excellent service by agreement to be my sole source for these products.

I'm in California and a few times I needed to check availability real time from Grainger all I had to do was call the branch in Hawaii and the same when I needed to speak to someone in the early AM.

They also track everything for me making ordering a snap... even a year or more between orders.

 

[mjncad]

Yup. I guess thats a bit comforting :laughing:

Yes they have TONS of stuff.. but its that pricing that is the killer.

Of course you guys in the states also have Mcmaster who have a huge selection too, but they wont sell to Canadians.. They think were terrorists or something

McMaster-Carr and MSC Direct aren't cheap, and neither are Grainger and Fastenal; but when you want/need something that you won't find elsewhere, these places are a godsend.

Fastenal's selection is paltry compared to the other three, which is why I rarely use them. In the mid-90's I bought a lot from MSC Direct as they had a great web site. I essentially quit buying from MSC Direct due to their improved websites over the years being more cute than useful. Grainger's website is way worse in my opinion than MSC Direct's. As far as I'm concerned McMaster has the best website with a simple search feature that returns targeted and concise results. It's just as good, if not better than thumbing through their paper catalog. Personally I think McMaster's website works much better than most etailers regardless of business type. It may be no frills; but it works great.

If I could improve McMaster-Carr, I'd add/change the following: add brand names to products, though they generally stock quality over crap; add a shipping calculator to their website; make the saved shopping carts function smoother. The last two items are far from deal breakers in my opinion. McMaster-Carr has become my go to site for when I need stuff I can't easily get locally.

I think McMaster quit selling to Canadians is because of the shipping hassles you folks have. Maybe MSC Direct sells to Canada.

I use Grainger exclusively for lighting products and find very good pricing and excellent service by agreement to be my sole source for these products.

Being that you have a sole source agreement with Grainger is probably why you get good service from them. In case they ever change their attitude towards you; I hope you can easily get out of the sole source agreement if you have to.

 

[4shorts]

Geez I hate when work gets in the way of my projects :laughing:

Anyway I'm starting the ROPS lighting stage of the BX mods. I got (Yes you guessed it) LED lighting to go on the ROPS. The Forward LED 20" single light bar came from my friends at LEDstroes on Ebay. Good people to get great LED lights and pricing from. They also supplied the two 3" LED lights for the back hoe boom install.
The other light is really a tactical LED strobe light. I used the same light on the ROPS of my Kubota ZG222Z mower and it's a very good quality light. It's has multiple flash patterns and I ordered one side amber and the other white.

My objective here is to house both lights in one module to give it a cleaner look. I'm also remaining cautious about the height and depth of the housing. I'm going to try and keep it as low on the ROPS as I can and not interfere with me using the back hoe. In other words, I don't want something there that I'm going to beat my head off of getting on the off the machine.

I'm also going to hide as much of the hardware such as u bolts, lights,,,,, as I can. The materiel of choice on this mod with be 1/4 aluminum plate and 1/8th aluminum plate. This mod will fall more in the category of practicality more than eye appeal so I hope your not disappointed .

I'm hoping to have it completed this evening other than the wiring. I plan on doing the wiring all the one time.

I'd also like to add that with this project I stepped outside to pick up some items for the BX from a few other BX vendors and was very pleased with both items immensely.

I ordered and received a Hydraulic System Pressure Test kit from BXpanded. When the kit arrived I was pleasantly surprised at how well the kit was put together and at a great price. It was well packaged and even the instructions were included. It's a well thought out kit that's well worth the money so to BXpanded :Good stuff"! :thumbsup:

The other vendor I purchased from was from Bro-Tek and their wheel spacers. I actually had the pleasure of talking to Richard who owns the company and he is as nice as the products he sells. The wheel spacers machining are as good as anything I've ever seen. I've machined my own spacers in the past but Bro-Teks pricing was so good on the BX spacers I was saving money by purchasing them from him. So to Richard at Bro-Tek. Good Stuff! :thumbsup:

LEDlights. Good pricing,Duty free to Canada and they stand behind their products. To LEDlights. good Stuff! :thumbsup:


Here's are some more photo's to bore you with

I try and show a weld or two in my posts. Not the best Tig I've done but I did this on hour 14th of the day :confused2:

 

[ultrarunner]

Agreement is renewed on an annual basis... so not really long term for either side.

I needed to a compressor and drier at work and was given a budget... called my Grainger rep and told her what I have to work with and she made it happen...

Grainger parts is kind of quirky... they have sourced old relays and components doing all leg work.

Last year I put in a new high efficiency gas furnace at Mom's house... my local dealers were not being very helpful on pricing a residential model... bought at Grainger and very pleased.

I'm starting to think I need my own Iron Worker...

 

[4shorts]

Just completed the ROPS lights. Had to paint parts of it and will show it tomorrow. One of our TBN members (Belarus Bulldog) seen it in person today and liked it so that's a good first impression. It's very different than any of the ROPS lighting I've seen so stay tuned :thumbsup:


Here's a little look.

 

[J F]

Does your beloved use Adobe Illustrator/or Corel Draw?

 

[3v0]

Does your beloved use Adobe Illustrator/or Corel Draw?

I would be more interested in if she is cutting vinyl or creating decals with something like the Pulsar Pro FX system.

 

[J F]

:laughing: Either way, it's interesting to know what the artist uses, no?

 

[4shorts]

The decals she as done for me up to this point aren't digital. They are layered vinyl. She uses a number of programs such as Adobe illustrator. She started out doing scrap booking and kind of slid into the graphics so she's got software related to the scrap booking as well that she works with.
This is very far from my expertise. I just basically ask her to do a type of design and she spends hours tweaking it. I'm happy with the way it turns out.

 

[J F]

Like spittin' nails, no? :laughing: She does some :thumbsup: work. (just like someone else we know...I almost hate you :laughing

 

[fordmantpw]

4shorts, I wish you weren't so far away. I would let you borrow my tractor when you run out of things to mod on yours!

 

[3v0]

Did she start with a cricut ?

 

[4shorts]

Like spittin' nails, no? :laughing: She does some :thumbsup: work. (just like someone else we know...I almost hate you :laughing

Thanks. She's only been doing the decals since Later December. Great hobby that works for her and me
Oh man I'm glad you said "almost" :shocked:

4shorts, I wish you weren't so far away. I would let you borrow my tractor when you run out of things to mod on yours!

Hey don't let distance get in the way. Just do up a list of things you'd like done then ship it up and as I do each mod I'll post it here and you'll see your tractor change before your eyes

Did she start with a cricut ?

She sure did! She still uses that thing for her scrap booking along with the Gypsy. She's doing so well with the designing on the decals I'm going to get her some new commercial equipment to do the digital stuff.
I believe If you see the interest and the talent you need to supply the tools to keep it all going. We have two grown sons. One loves playing guitar. Growing up I always told him that if he kept practicing and kept getting better I'd keep buying him better gear. He got so good at playing at the age of 15 we bought him a new custom Fender Strat. His a master at his instrument today with a collection of 17 guitars including that Strat and even to this day still loves to play and makes some good coin playing.

His younger brother also loves to play but also builds guitars on a commercial basis. Over the years we bought him the majority of tools to continue his craft and its payed off for him as well.
Both sons are military men and now they both got something to fall back on when they retire from their jobs.

 

[kiotiken]

Thanks. She's only been doing the decals since Later December. Great hobby that works for her and me
Oh man I'm glad you said "almost" :shocked:

Hey don't let distance get in the way. Just do up a list of things you'd like done then ship it up and as I do each mod I'll post it here and you'll see your tractor change before your eyes



She sure did! She still uses that thing for her scrap booking along with the Gypsy.

Wait a minute, a cricut? I just bought one of those things for my wife for Christmas. Wait till she hear's that once again, her present was really for me

 

[3v0]

My first cricut was given to me by a friend of my wife's. She was having problems with her hands a gave up scrap booking. That was a 6 incher. I latter picked up an expression that does 12"x24". I did a few stencils but never got around to buying the vinyl.

I did use it for teaching. We started in sketchup to make 3D objects and exported to inkscape to get the 2d faces and add tabs. We then cut the objects and glued them into real 3d objects. Fun stuff.

I use a program called "make the cut" which lets you import the designs you make on the PC. But ProvoCraft sued the maker and he had to drop support for the PC so you can only use versions of MTC up to MTC 3.2.1. I can understand ProvoCraft, they make the cricut, wanting to sell cartridges but I did not buy the circut to do scrapbooking. I guess that is why the court brokered agreement lets us use the older version of MTC.

The first program I purchased to work the the cricut was "Sure cuts a lot" but they got sued too and no longer support ProvCraft curcuts.

 

[4shorts]

Wait a minute, a cricut? I just bought one of those things for my wife for Christmas. Wait till she hear's that once again, her present was really for me

These weren't done on a Cricut. With Cricut you can only use images on their cartridges and there's not much there is anything tractor related



Well here's my ROPS lighting. My goal was to keep it as close to the ROPS as possible. U bolted from the inside with no welding, no cutting and no modding of the ROPS. Except for the nuts, bolts,washers it's all aluminum. The front light is a 20" LED single light bar and the rear is a multi pattern Tactical LED strobe with have being amber and the other half is white. I was looking for the tidiest package I could come up with and this works for me :thumbsup:

 

[RaydaKub]

Not good enough yet, Paul. Gotta see the night shots. :cool2: