TBY may put me in the doghouse.......

HC-80 · Jul 15, 2007

TBN may put me in the doghouse.........

I've been lurking around these forums for a couple of months, and the result of the lurking has been.....

Reading the tractor purchasing forums, which led to buying a new JD 5303 with FEL.....(wife said okay, I was surprised but pleased.)

Then I read the customization forums and since I had no welder, but a bunch of scrap computer hard drives, I made myself a Chalkey Cup. Has about twenty miles on it now, and it hasn't fallen off yet.

That got me to reading this forum, and I convinced the wife that I needed to learn to weld. So, she let me buy a welder. (She is so wonderful.)

I then had a friend who knows his way around a welder give me some pointers . Then when I went looking for scrap pieces of metal to stick together, I began to wonder what I could do with all the rusty equipment that had become overgrown in the twenty or thirty years that have passed since her grandfather had parked them. So to get to it, I took the tractor down to the fields behind the house, spent several days cutting down a lot of overgrown brush. Then, looking at the piles of brush, I decided I needed to have a set of FORKS, but I knew the wife would look sideways if I asked to buy a set of those. I'm not rich and it would mean having the forks and hungry kids, or.....again I got to reading this forum and all the FORK projects so, I hauled in a bunch of scrap metal to town and got enough to buy a cheap chop saw. I told the wife that with all the old rusting farm equipment in the fields, I had to have a chop saw to be able to put some of it to use.
So today, I went down to the old New Holland baler with a rusting Wisconsin engine, and salvaged parts to build a welding table. The welding table will allow me to begin getting creative with the other metal laying around the farm. Perhaps, I will be able to find something in the trees to build a set of forks out of......BUT, I believe that I may have developed an addiction to the welding and to reading the forums on TBN. Wish me luck, I may end up in th e doghouse very soon, and thanks for sharing all the great projects, they are indeed awesome.

Defective · Jul 15, 2007

As long as you have a laptop with a wireless card...nothin' wrong with the doghouse...

bigdad · Jul 16, 2007

HC-80,

You're hooked....no doubt about it. One thing, though your wife might look sideways at you, she will always know where you are and what you are doing. Arc, bang, grind etc. And when you are looking into that monitor screen, she will know what you are looking at. My wife calls it tractor ****.

Lucky guy with a bunch of scrap to play with. I'm envious!

Thomas · Jul 16, 2007

Morn HC-80.

Well if you should get toss in the dog house don't worry,for there many of us still there and we'll just slide on over...Keep on puttering.

SkunkWerX · Jul 16, 2007

HC-80,

Same here. I'm hooked. I had been "working solo" for years with my old tractor and spare parts/scrap metal. Then it all changed when I found this little corner of the internet. I've built a toothbar, set of bucket forks, and the biggest project, the grapple, will be done soon.

Learned more about hydraulics, maintenance, and found some good retail suppliers too.

I've learned a lot here, just in several months, and I look at the "built items" as nothing but "pure investment" in labor saving devices.
The forks, for example, were such a pleasure to move 5 foot logs and dump in a pile where they will be further cut and split. I was done in 1/4 the time it would normally take.

Thanks to all the knowledgeable folks here who are so willing to share their experiences, plans, and projects!

I gotta find a good supply of cheap steel, my pile is getting smaller and smaller!

Welcome aboard.

sandman2234 · Jul 16, 2007

I was just wondering if there are any forklift shops or forklift junkyards anywhere around you. I acquired a used set of forks in case I ever decided to build a 3ph fork setup to move stuff around. You guys with fel are just too lucky!
David from jax

VABlue · Jul 16, 2007

I agree, the stuff here is addictive... My wife calls me a tractor nerd and laughs at me reading this site! I'm working on the welder (she thinks I'll burn the house down), it would be incredibly useful.

3RRL · Jul 16, 2007

Hey HC80,
Congratulations! You done good.
Now you are just like the rest of us. This site has inspired us all to make our tractor lives better. And it is fun too.
About the dog house ... no worry there.
Now you can build a better one.

HC-80 · Jul 16, 2007

I've got a buddy of mine trying to locate a set of forks. Busy with the 4-H fair this week, but perhaps when it is over he will have a set for me to work with. I have copied all the pictures of the ones people have built. Many great ideas, and I may have to build a set that builds on the best of all of them.

Tractor nerd and tractor ****. Two new terms for me to share with the wife so she keeps in good spirits. She did think I was nuts working on the Chalkey Cup. Once it was done, she showed it to her dad, and now, he wants one too.

Maybe I'll wire up the doghouse with 220, and as long as the wireless stays connected, I think I could be content.