Good morning!!!!

[rswyan]

49F and mostly cloudy @ 14:00 ... a little rain north and east of us but it shouldn't hit us.

Late getting up and moving today ... was up in the shop working until about 23:00 last night, then couldn't fall asleep until after 03:00.

All 42 holes drilled in the angle (mg - they are only 3/8" holes, in 3/8" thick steel), and got a 16" section cut off the 12' piece for the box the pivot tube mounts to. Both of those cleaned off with degreaser and cleaned up with a grinder/flap disc and marked them for center and then positioned them for welding which I'll probably do today.

Cleaned up the pivot tube with a flap disc ... have a little welding and grinding to do on that today where he got carried away with the torch when he cut it apart. Then need to cut the new tube that fits into and drill and tap it for a grease fitting before welding it on.

The tines are single hole and only held on with one bolt ... so have been thinking about how to keep them perpendicular to the angle. Probably go ahead and cut some strips of 1" wide x 1/4" flat stock and weld it on the bottom of the angle to keep them straight.

Also need to cut and drill a couple of mounting brackets for the hydraulic cylinder.

 

[rswyan]

... I admire your ambition, RS! I'd love to follow along if you start a build thread on that cab. ...

I'll probably do a thread on it once I actually start.

I still have a few design issues to sort out before I begin.

Probably the biggest one is a deciding on whether to make it sectional and bolt-together ... or weld it up as a single piece.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

If I make it sectional panels (L, R, F, B, T) it would be a lot easier to put on/take off ... at the cost of more material and mebbe less rigidity. Probably easier to prep and paint too.

Welded as one piece it would probably be stronger ... but a lot more difficult to put on and take off.

 

[rswyan]

Happy Birthday Wishes to L4N and David !

Farmer ... good to hear from you. Good luck on finding another helper.

Billy ... Happy Anniversary to you and the Missus !

Rick ... that's my sentiments on TSC as well ...

toppop ... Glad you were able to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. My heart goes out to you and yours for the one that was absent physically, but I am certain she was there in spirit, and will always be. Keep the faith.

 

[Buppies]

Randy Lynn was there in spirit and always will be

RS quite an undertaking I'm sure it will turn out perfect

No pooping problems today very tired though. Went out to blow more leaves and remembered that this past Tuesday trying to help with removal of section of old asphalt and got flipped in the air by piece breaking loose with me on it. Mini ex pretty strong and now left ankle and right hip no functioning properly so leaf blowing on uneven ground almost impossible and painful. Getting old not for sissys

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Welded as one piece it would probably be stronger ... but a lot more difficult to put on and take off.

Heaven forbid you should have to take a cab off, but if you run into any major engine/transmission/drive line issues, that's part of the deal. Unless you have an overhead hoist of some kind, a modular design would minimize the impact of that a LOT. And no, I don't mean a come-along. You might get away with it, but you might also drop something on something or someone else and really regret it.:shocked: It was bad enough having to take the floor off the 3240 to split the chassis, and I did use a come-along, and I felt like I'd cheated death even though the thing only weighed a few hundred pounds.

 

[daugen]

got flipped in the air by piece breaking loose with me on it.

sorry that happened, doesn't sound good at all. Were you too close or operator error? Not that it matters, sorry you got hurt Randy.
I'd like to try being a big sissy for a day...

about to head out for an xmas light check. All the three foot tall candy canes lit up when turned to on, that was good. But need to check on dusk to dawn
setting, make sure it works. With everything led now, xmas lights are cheap to run. More expensive to buy though.
Three strands are solar powered and they didn't get much of a charge this afternoon. Probably should have turned them off and charge another day but there should
be enough to test them tonight. Besides, sunny day tomorrow. Lots of time for those tiny little batteries to charge up.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Was recording the football game, and went out to help my son blow and mow leaves. Then decided to trim the tree at the baxk of the house. One of the limbs i cut broke my TV antenna.

So much for recording the game.

Had a new antenna in my shed i bought yrs ago and never used, so just got it assembled and sitting on the back deck. It's workings. And it is huge, not going to put it up on the roof pole.

 

[Buppies]

Thanks Drew my fault completely

Buckeye glad you had a spare

 

[daugen]

we'll see how long the turtle lasts on Santa.
Hopefully the dastardly turtle napper will not come back for the holidays.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Wanted to get christmas lights up, didn't get it done. I have a bunch of the candy cane lights that no longer work. Haven't put them out for a few yrs.
Kind of sad the boys are heading back to school tomorrow. At least they will be back in 3 weeks.
Have a good night all.

 

[mostly_gas]

Good evening all. 45F at the start, clear, light wind. High temp was 73F, clouded up for a few hours, them sun came back out, wind 12-17 from north. Bike ride this morning, nap. Choir sang Christmas carols at tree lighting ceremony. Will work on front Christmas lights tomorrow.

 

[rswyan]

Looks like we may have a cold front moving in later today ... high is only supposed to be 38F.

Got a few things done today in spite of getting started kinda late.

Cut the 12' drop piece of 4 x 4 x 3/8 angle in half to make it a little easier to handle by myself.

Then I used one of those pieces as a backer when I welded the 16" piece of angle on the tine bar to create a box for the pivot, to act as a heatsink and minimize warping:

After that I cut the tube for the pivot that goes on the 3PH frame, and drilled it and tapped it for a grease fitting. Also ran a cylinder hone through it a few times to remove whatever coating they had on it:

Have slowed the hydraulic feed way down on the bandsaw ... not sure what it's doing for the teeth on the blades, but the saw has stopped throwing the blades off.

Lastly, I pulled out the needle scaler and went to work on the 3PH frame. No sense going to all this effort unless it's gonna get some paint and be made to look all purty, amirite ?

I'm guessing that KK probably does little to nothing in the way of metal prep before they paint their stuff. Why you'd bother to throw paint on something without removing the millscale first I have no idea ...

Anyways, the paint is coming off pretty easily ... let it rust over the winter to get whatever millscale is left on it off and then squirt it next summer.

It needs to go back over to Mike's for a little torch work here shortly ... the plate that the tube for the parking stand is welded into is badly warped and the tube itself is bent forward ... also the right bar on the A-frame is bent ... might as well handle those while we're about it.

The brace from the top link to the rear of the unit was a piece of pipe that had the ends crushed flat (my personal favorite) and welded on ... it was pretty badly pitted up so I cut it off (had to, to make it quick-hitch compatible) ... so it's going in the scrap bucket and will get replaced with some (fresh) 1 1/4 x 3/16 wall square tube.

A few of KK's welds look like they could use a little beef up (although they haven't broke ... at least not yet ... )

 

[rswyan]

... RS quite an undertaking I'm sure it will turn out perfect ...

LOL ... what could possibly go wrong ?

No pooping problems today very tired though.

That kinda thing has a way of taking it out of ya ...

Went out to blow more leaves and remembered that this past Tuesday trying to help with removal of section of old asphalt and got flipped in the air by piece breaking loose with me on it. Mini ex pretty strong and now left ankle and right hip no functioning properly so leaf blowing on uneven ground almost impossible and painful. Getting old not for sissys

No it ain't ...

 

[Buppies]

Were you a steel fabricator in another life, if not you would make a good one now

 

[Buppies]

LOL ... what could possibly go wrong ?


That kinda thing has a way of taking it out of ya ...


No it ain't ...

You are correct my carelessness caused this

 

[rswyan]

Heaven forbid you should have to take a cab off, but if you run into any major engine/transmission/drive line issues, that's part of the deal.

That's a very good point ... thanks for the insight ... :thumbsup:

Given the hours on the tractor (coming up on 2100) it's well worth considering.

Unless you have an overhead hoist of some kind, a modular design would minimize the impact of that a LOT. And no, I don't mean a come-along. You might get away with it, but you might also drop something on something or someone else and really regret it.:shocked:

Yeah ... I've got a chainfall ... I think it's rated for 2000 lbs ... (OTOH, it is a HF unit ... )

But I don't have an gantry or anything to hook it to ... sure wouldn't trust the bottom joist of the trusses in the barn ... at least not without supporting them in the middle.

Could probably enlist the aid of a neighbor ... but I hate to rely on that, or inconvenience them for that matter.

Probably should keep my eyes open on CL for a cheap chunk of H beam ...

It was bad enough having to take the floor off the 3240 to split the chassis, and I did use a come-along, and I felt like I'd cheated death even though the thing only weighed a few hundred pounds.

I'm fortunate ... the floor for the B2910 is in two sections ... a left and a right. I'd guess they probably aren't too heavy.

 

[rswyan]

Were you a steel fabricator in another life, if not you would make a good one now

LOL ... I dunno ... maybe ... I sure do enjoy it.

Wish I had more actual formal technical training ...

Scary thing: Uncle Buck (who is/was a certified welder) has said more than once that I weld better than half the guys he worked with at the last place he was at. Don't know that that is saying all that much though ... :laughing:

I guess maybe part of it is just actually caring about the work you do ... sorta got the impression that the guys he was talking about just really didn't care to do it right ... seems kinda sad to me ... particularly if you have the training and education ... but just can't be bothered.

The reason why it's scary was this place was a structural fab shop ... big stuff ... and the potential for having something fail would be pretty ugly.

 

[rswyan]

You are correct my carelessness caused this

Huh ?

Sure didn't mean to imply that ... so I don't know how I could be correct about it.

But I appreciate the situation ... rarely a day goes by for me, when something ain't hurting ... usually it's multiple somethings

 

[rswyan]

Speaking of welding and fabrication, here's a neat time-lapse video of a guy building a CNC plasma table ... (run time 12:22):

 

[Eric Salop]

Good morning all. It's going to be tempting to stay mostly inside today, I've already had a cold soaking while out and now the weather is kindly showing a pretty rainbow while it decides if the next yellow tinged black cloud is to let loose with rain or snow. Ground is saturated, I'm trying to keep off fields with tractor as it's starting to make trenches in more than just the gateways.