Good morning!!!!

[daugen]

morning all, going to be a hot day today.
doing my "wonder what I'll forget this time" list
and about to pack a cooler with some freezer bags.
My friends in DE have grown organic lettuce that I will then take to my sister in Princeton
who will devour it happily. And tomatoes and asparagus too. Yum.

Back Monday night, probably offline but maybe I can get the laptop to cooperate.
Security software ran out, I bought a renewal, it wouldn't load as copy two of three, and I got infected.
Horrible popups, spend all your time killing them like targets in an arcade. Maddening...
Then there was something about Flash Player not working and that freezes the laptop every 15 seconds.
This thing definitely needs some work.

Otherwise I plan on a non rush trip today and hope the traffic doesn't back up too badly on a Sat morning at Portsmouth before the bridge/tunnel. At least the worst of the construction is over there; anyone who has gone through that area in the last few years knows all about it as they were building a large overpass to reroute the traffic. And now it is completed, though the gps still has fits trying to figure out where it is.

Have an enjoyable weekend and careful in the heat.

 

[Eric Salop]

Had a really enjoyable day at the boatyard yesterday. One to one tuition with a friend who is a great welder. He has his own business, cutting the bottom off tired canal boats and then fabricating replacement hull sections so they look like new again.

With the stick welder, at first I was trying to move too fast and with the rod too far away, but it got a little better with time. He also has a very expensive 3 phase Lincoln MIG welder, which is what he uses most of the time and let me loose with it for a few minutes. Very impressive machine, even a novice like me managed to do a weld that passed inspection with it.

It has made me determined to get a welding machine of my own and then get some practice in. I can almost hear my wife groaning now as there are already too few hours in the day without me starting on some welding projects. My barn has a 230V 13A outlet and that looks to be plenty for what I want to do. If I was doing it for a living I would look seriously at MIG. A stick welder should easily meet my needs though, it's just going to take a lot more practice and I think that challenge is part of the fun.


Thanks for tips RNG. I will make a note of those rod types. Not sure of the type I was using, although I did take a "my first weld" pic for future nostalgia and it shows the rod packet for future reference.

 

[bakerg]

Good morning, 59F heading to 75F.

 

[Soggy Bottom Outdoors]

Clear and warm/hot today near 90 with chance of pop up showers. I'll spend the day topdressing N on corn. I'll have another guy trying to catch some Roundup resistant Marestail in a few spots in the beans. Also need the spray the cows for flys and fill up the creep feeders.

 

[KevT]

Good Morning all, it is 70 right now, and headed to 98. Way to hot this early in the summer.

Drew - drive carefully, there are crazies out there
Farmer - Wish you lived closer, that sounds like a heck of a deal on the hay, and perfect size for the goats. and a weeks worth for the horses with less weather waste.
Eric - You will never regret learning to weld. I am no pro at it, and mine may not be all that pretty, but they hold up and that is what counts.

A neighbor/friend hurt his leg and has some downed trees, so I loaded the tractor up on my trailer and will head over there to help his brother and Dad move them to a burn pile. Learned I need a bigger trailer. This is the first time I have taken the new tractor off property.

 

[ronjhall]

Need to get coffee brewing. 57° with cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 73° with chance of some sun in afternoon. Need to get up on roof and clean eavestroughs. Water was pouring over top in couple of places. Then some garden work.
Good Morning All.

 

[sseelhoff]

Good Morning, TBN! Up early this a.m. Horses fed. Waiting for the sun to rise so I can get on the bike and get my ride in. Upon my return, I'll need to hook up the trailer. SWMBO has a training session at noon. Trailering in, lesson, then trailer home. Should be gone about 8 hours. Then I have to clean up and put the trailer back. My day is pretty much shot, doing nothing really by transportation director. Maybe I can get some mowing in this evening if the rain holds off.

 

[300UGUY]

Need to get coffee brewing. 57° with cloudy skies this morning. Heading to 73° with chance of some sun in afternoon. Need to get up on roof and clean eavestroughs. Water was pouring over top in couple of places. Then some garden work.
Good Morning All.

Your day sounds a lot like mine. Except I gotta go help my wife in a bit!

 

[txdon]

Good morning! Saw our first fawn of the season under the Post Oak tree. 73˚ partly cloudy.

 

[dave1949]

Had some nice rain showers last night. Around 80F and dry today & tomorrow.

I need to pick up some garden fertilizer this morning.

Nice fawn pic TXDon.

Safe travels Drew.

 

[farmer2009]

75 this morning and headed to 92 today. We hit 93 yesterday with a heat index of 103. That makes for a hot hayfield. Believe yesterday's hay count was 45. Bringing the total to 133. Will get a final count when hauled in. After we finished bailing dad went with me to move a tree off the fence then we cut up two more that were down in a field. All wild cherry. The two down in the field made logs now just have to get time to get them to the mill. The last log was still over 18" as saw wouldn't reach through it. Have 6-8',1-6',&1-3' log.

Plans for today are to help wife finish adding pea gravel river rock to her flowerbeds. See I knew who would end up doing it. Then put her on mower and let me move some more hay.


Eric. Maybe you'll have better luck with those 6013's but only time I can use them is on new clean and shiny steel.

6011's handle rusty metal the best and are easier to run. With them listen to your arc. If it sounds like bacon frying then it's right. Only time you want it to sound like someone is being electrocuted is if you are using it as a cutting torch. Yes a welder will also cut.

Another easy rod to learn is 7014. Runs good on AC.

7018 is a structural rod and a DC rod. But it's not a beginners rod. But if you don't get an AC/DC machine spend the extra for the 7018AC rod.

Your power must be different over there. Here I'm using 240v 50a for my AC stick welder. And 120v 20a for my 125a flux core wire feeder.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I fixed the things on my van that I could, but the problem is electrical, so I towed it to a shop. They diagnosed it as a pass lock 3 body control module. But I am skeptical, because the symptom is more like a short. I guess we'll find out. $700. Ouch.
Our gator won't start, I'm thinking the $300 ignition box is out on it.
My wife called me to say our washing machine is squealing during the spin cycle yesterday.

When it rains, it pours.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

74F right now, plentiful sunshine the rest of the day. High 99F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

Lookin' good, Eric. Sounds like you had some fun. Before you jump in on a stick machine, at least look at what's available in MIG. They're not that much more and are a whole lot easier to use. And if you end up not using it, what's the point in having it?

Drew, enjoy your time away from the computer. After all, there still is a whole world out there to be enjoyed :laughing: And looking forward to following your construction adventure in your barn thread. I "get" the DIY interior; that's the way I'd do it, too.

David, hope your wife's feeling better.

RS, sounds like you're onto something with the valve cover leak (fingers crossed for ya). Doesn't it feel great when you come out of a big equipment shop having spent just a few dollars, especially considering all the big buck stuff you usually walk out with? :laughing:

Those with older parents that are still active should be happy for them. When they sit around and don't want to do anything is when you have to worry, as that's when their health starts to fail. If I get to that age myself, I hope to be as active as your hay balers and mower runners. Probably not as fast, or as long, but exercise both mental and physical is what keeps ya goin'.

Got the little 15 gallon sprayer mounted on the RTV yesterday morning as planned, and even got it running again after an almost year long slumber in the equipment trailer. But as soon as I started spraying, the pump quit. Back at the garage, I found that all four mounts that hold the pump to the tank were broken, but that wasn't the problem. I thought it was a connector, so crimped it a bit and the pump started going again. But out in the meadow it quit again. Back to the garage, pump off the tank, motor out off the pump, motor won't run wired directly to battery. ???? Put an ohm meter across the leads and the values jump all over the place when I spin the armature. ???? Hook it back to the battery and the motor takes off again. @#$&%???? Call Fimco, and the "tech support" ninny starts going through his script, telling me to check this and disconnect that. After I finally got it through his thick skull that the motor was sitting on the bench with just two wires coming out of it, and it still would run only intermittently, I'm told I have to buy the whole pump assembly, and in a way that implies I shouldn't be taking it apart like that. *&%^$#$%^%$$$$$. Check Tractor Supply and can buy a whole new sprayer for less than they want for just the pump. But I can get the pump for half that on Amazon, and get it delivered by Monday with free two day shipping if I join their Prime program. And Prime comes with a free trial period. All set to do that until I find out that Prime costs a hundred bux a year, and if I cancel during the "free" trial I "may" be liable for any charges incurred during it. *&^%$#$%^&*%$#. Looking back it seems like I go through a similar dance with the electrical bits on this sprayer every year, and I'm wondering if, frustration wise anyway, I'd be better off replacing it with a higher quality, but more expensive, one from a local manufacturer. At least then I'd be able to walk up to a counter and talk to somebody that actually knows something about the product, and the parts just might be in stock.


By the time I'd screwed around enough to figure out that the motor was shot it was time for lunch in the nice air conditioned house. And when I was done the temps were already over a hundred, a good excuse to get more paperwork done.

But they're not open on weekends, and I wouldn't make a special trip anyway, so that'll have to wait 'till Monday. So it's back to swapping stuff around on the motorcycles, at least until it gets too hot out in the garage, then more paperwork in the nice cool office. And yeah, maybe another nice cold beer at the end of the day, too. :drink:

Hope you all have a great weekend!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I fixed the things on my van that I could, but the problem is electrical, so I towed it to a shop. They diagnosed it as a pass lock 3 body control module. But I am skeptical, because the symptom is more like a short. I guess we'll find out. $700. Ouch.
Our gator won't start, I'm thinking the $300 ignition box is out on it.
My wife called me to say our washing machine is squealing during the spin cycle yesterday.

When it rains, it pours.

Yep, wife had a flat this morning on my other Honda. The tires are down to nothing and need new ones, but with the other expenses lately I was trying to hold off a little longer. Got them ordered online with costco. They don't stock this size.
I also need to replace a catalyst on the old honda, to get it past emission test. shop wants $900 for that, part is around $250 online. Waiting for the new fridge to arrive any time now. After that the back field needs mowed, will let the kids mow the yard.

overcast right now, 78*

 

[sodamo]

68°F and only .1 inches rain last 24 hours.

Errands today as prep for upcoming mainland trip. House/Dog sitters got in late last night. They've already expressed joy to escape the Tx weather of later.

Be safe
Have a great day

David Sent from my iPad Air using TractorByNet

 

[rswyan]

75F and mostly cloudy with an occasional peek of sun @ 14:00 ... chance of thunderstorms this afternoon ...

Got that metal plate pulled on the Briggs ... it looks like the gasket between it and the head was the problem ... there was hardly anything left of the lower part of the gasket. I cut a new one and installed it and then put everything back together, except for the heat shield on the muffler.

Cut a couple of small tabs out of sheet metal for that and then welded them on and bent them 90 degrees. Now just have to drill a couple of holes in the muffler and run a couple of sheet metal screws in to secure the end of the heat shield with the tabs.

Spent a lot of time thoroughly cleaning up all the mating surfaces so hopefully there will be no leaks.

That leaves replacing the o-ring on the base end of the cylinder. That shouldn't take all that long ... but the tie rods are pretty rusty ... actually the whole outside of the cylinder needs cleaned up and de-rusted and repainted ... but I'm not sure I really wanna get into that right now. Probably just throw it back together as is for the time being.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend.

 

[scaredychicken]

Good Morning (got that in before noon out here) ... coffee's on, sunny, slight breeze, perfect Sat for yardword, but alas I need to study. cheers all

 

[rswyan]

RS, sounds like you're onto something with the valve cover leak (fingers crossed for ya).

Yeah ... it was pretty stupid on my part ... should have caught it initially ... and if not then, then after the 2nd or 3rd try at getting the valve cover to seal

Sometimes I'm a slow learner. Part of it comes from being in too big of hurry I'm sure.

Doesn't it feel great when you come out of a big equipment shop having spent just a few dollars, especially considering all the big buck stuff you usually walk out with? :laughing:

It's nice to be able to fix something on the cheap ... as opposed to say, having to buy a whole engine.

OTOH, gotta figure the time involved ... sometimes it goes well (quick, easy fix) ... other times not so much.

On your sprayer pump, been there, done that ... think I'm on the third one. I believe the original was replaced under warranty ... after that one failed, I bought a replacement from Tractor Supply with an optional 2 or 3 year TSC warranty ...

Of course, that one then lasted past the warranty period with no issues

Haven't tried to run it this year so I dunno what awaits me. Last time I did run it (last year) the leads got so hot it melted the plastic on the cig accessory plug ... which certainly isn't a good sign.

Clean 'em real good with cleaner (I use Nutra-sol) and put some RV anti-freeze in 'em before they get stored is about all you can do. Of course, none of that is likely to do anything for a bad motor.

I understand the Hy-Pro roller pumps aren't much better - local TBN friend here built his own custom spray rig using a roller pump and went thru several of them before he finally gave up and bought a tow-behind Fimco sprayer with an electric electric pump from TSC. And he was real good about cleaning it (the one he built) after every use.

 

[rswyan]

I fixed the things on my van that I could, but the problem is electrical, so I towed it to a shop. They diagnosed it as a pass lock 3 body control module. But I am skeptical, because the symptom is more like a short. I guess we'll find out. $700. Ouch.
Our gator won't start, I'm thinking the $300 ignition box is out on it.
My wife called me to say our washing machine is squealing during the spin cycle yesterday.
When it rains, it pours.

Don't I know it ...

I feel your pain.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Don't I know it ...

I feel your pain.

Woe is/are we.