Todays shop time.

[dieselcrawler]

I repaired a gauge wheel on the BX today. Wife hit a stump a week or so ago, told me about it but I forgot. Guess thats why the yard was so streaked last mowing.



I tryed straitening the original bolt/axle but it wasnt going to be right. I was able to use a 1/2" bolt with a piece of 1/2" copper water pipe sleeved over it. Will work for now. No picture of that.

I also worked on the back screen of a brush cage I'm building for my 3005.

 

[4570Man]

Here's my shop time for the last couple days. I cleaned up and painted my MMM, I made some spacers so I can run the same blades on the MMM and my front mower, I tore down my cub cadet and found why its leaking oil, and I built some powder coating stands.

 

[dragoneggs]

Been doing a fair amount of spray painting of relatively small parts for various projects. I need to build a collapsable paint booth for small parts. My shop continues to take a dusting and I'm worried for my tools... I try to keep most covered but there has to be a better way. Maybe I will start a thread on this.

 

[dragoneggs]

Finally decided to retire my old (30yr) craftsman 20gal compressor and brought home a HD Husky 60gal. Got it temp wired and did the break in. Everything seems great except the pressure gauge doesn't move off of zero. :confused3:

Still need to permanently mount, create hard plumbing, filters, regulators, drains, etc. but this thing is a huge upgrade for a modest price of $489. I don't need an industrial grade and hoping this outlasts me.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Not work in the shop for the most part, but plan to remove all the clearance lights from my old motorhome and put on new ones. I have to first go buy some new stainless steel screws to fasten them with and some silicone to seal them. They didn't come with foam gaskets like the old one and my local camper repair shop said just silicone seal them and they will be better than a gasket.
I also need to change out the compressor pressure switch (again). They seem to always develop a leak under the diaphragm (cheap Chinese made crap)

 

[dieselcrawler]

Hasn't been in my shop, but at work. Spent the better part of the past 3 days removing broken and or cut off exhaust manifold bolts. Both sides needed replaced, so a total of 16 bolts. 4 of them came out, after having been soaked in PB Blaster for days before, with the impact gun. All 8 on the driver side were so rusted there was no head left on the bolts, the manifold had to be cut out in chunks with air die grinder cut off disks, hammer, chistle, pliers, etc.



After repeatedly heating with a torch, soaking with PB, welding nuts onto the exposed stub of the bolt, breaking off nut, welding on another, heating, beating, swearing... All while working thru the inner fender area of the truck, smacking my knees on the front axle hub... (Front wheels, inner fender liner removed)

Finally... Success !



All removed, even one that was broken off flush with the head.

 

[CJONE]

Building a standby power system for the house. 4k with 7k surge 120/240v inverter/90amp charger into 24V battery bank, 16 6v batteries with a 24v 25 amp charger that I can run off of my 2k Honda generator that you can hardly hear run. It will also have 500 watts of solar power for the sunny days. The whole unit is built into a steel welding bench that I can move with my tractor, including the batteries. [solar panels excluded!] CJ

 

[Redneck in training]

I added a tank to drain water from my plasma CNC table. If I left the water in and didn't open the shop for few days (due to working out of home) the shop got very humid and there was mold on anything porous. I used a garden pond pump I had laying around to pump the water back.
I also built a garbage burning "barrel" from scrap metal because the actual burning barrel we used for few years just rusted and collapsed. I will post picture tomorrow.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Been doing a fair amount of spray painting of relatively small parts for various projects. I need to build a collapsable paint booth for small parts. My shop continues to take a dusting and I'm worried for my tools... I try to keep most covered but there has to be a better way. Maybe I will start a thread on this.

I have a big cardboard box an appliance came in (Washing machine I think) I keep it folded flat behind some tool boxes. Use it for a paint booth when needed.

gg

 

[aczlan]

I repaired a gauge wheel on the BX today. Wife hit a stump a week or so ago, told me about it but I forgot. Guess thats why the yard was so streaked last mowing.



I tryed straitening the original bolt/axle but it wasnt going to be right. I was able to use a 1/2" bolt with a piece of 1/2" copper water pipe sleeved over it. Will work for now. No picture of that.

Assuming that your BX deck is like the one on our BX2660 (where there is a height adjuster on the floor in front of the seat), you might want to revisit your scalp wheel height. Per the manual, they are supposed to sit 3/4" or 1" above the ground with the deck at mowing height.
I set ours by setting it to 3.5", checking the blade height with a 2x4 andthen checking wheel height.
They are not intended to be in contact with the ground all the time.

Aaron Z

 

[daugen]

this is a great thread, glad to see woodworking projects in addition to metal.

Aaron, interestingly I did exactly what you suggested on my X750 and I found the 62 mower deck, regular JD Edge, would edge scalp too many areas of Bermuda grass where the brown underneath showed and the green was gone. Very obvious. I lowered the wheels so that they will often roll with the grass but not totally on the ground.
That worked. But no matter what, you can catch a wheel on all kinds of lawn IEDs.
The little oopses of life...

I hope to be making some birdhouses in my barn woodshop this winter. And to finally learn how to use my new welder.

thank goodness for mechanical drawing and woodshop in high school. I was the only kid in the academic curriculum in my small PA town
that took woodshop all through high school. Things were a little more flexible back then...

 

[Redneck in training]

I added a tank to drain water from my plasma CNC table. If I left the water in and didn't open the shop for few days (due to working out of home) the shop got very humid and there was mold on anything porous. I used a garden pond pump I had laying around to pump the water back.
I also built a garbage burning "barrel" from scrap metal because the actual burning barrel we used for few years just rusted and collapsed. I will post picture tomorrow.

 

[aczlan]

this is a great thread, glad to see woodworking projects in addition to metal.

Aaron, interestingly I did exactly what you suggested on my X750 and I found the 62 mower deck, regular JD Edge, would edge scalp too many areas of Bermuda grass where the brown underneath showed and the green was gone. Very obvious. I lowered the wheels so that they will often roll with the grass but not totally on the ground.
That worked. But no matter what, you can catch a wheel on all kinds of lawn IEDs.
The little oopses of life...

Yep, our BX2660 is currently missing both front scalp wheels. One had partly broken and was done (was rust in the break) the other found a rock that needs to be removed.
They are holding up better since we switched to the greasable wheels (Kubota has both as an option). Before we went through a set of 4 wheels every season. Now we can get a couple of seasons out of them.

Aaron Z

 

[dieselcrawler]

Aaron Z... Thanks for the gauge wheel info... I was unaware, have basicly just run it as we got it. I have no manuals for it.

 

[aczlan]

Aaron Z... Thanks for the gauge wheel info... I was unaware, have basicly just run it as we got it. I have no manuals for it.

No problem. The key is that when mowing, the wheel shouldn't be spinning all the time. It should just spin from time to time and should only be supporting weight when you hit a high spot with that corner.

Aaron Z

 

[dragoneggs]

Finally got off my arse this evening and built a plywood storage cart... something I have needed for years in my small shop. Don't have all the bells and whistles added to it yet since I don't know exactly what I want but it is turning out to be a great clamp holder as well! The backside with some added supports will end up storing long pieces, metal on the bottom and wood above! Glad to have those out of the way. I don't have a lot of free wall space. :dance1:

 

[daugen]

nicely done and very neat Dragoneggs. I have a partial sheet right now clogging up the floor of my wood shop. Have an overhead flat storage area but kind of a pain getting these heavy sheets up and down. Your idea is much better.

btw, I found this wall wood holder to work very well. Could easily build it myself, but sure cleaned up the odds and ends quickly.
Lumber Storage Rack Portamate PBR-1. Six-Level Wall Mount Wood Organizer Rack that Holds Up to 1 lbs. per Level. Ideal for both Indoor and Outdoor Use. - - Amazon.com

actually, this looks like a better deal, two for much less: Portamate PBR-1 Wood Storage 11 lb Wall Mount Lumber Organizer System, 2-Pack - - Amazon.com

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

nicely done and very neat Dragoneggs. I have a partial sheet right now clogging up the floor of my wood shop. Have an overhead flat storage area but kind of a pain getting these heavy sheets up and down. Your idea is much better.

btw, I found this wall wood holder to work very well. Could easily build it myself, but sure cleaned up the odds and ends quickly.
Lumber Storage Rack Portamate PBR-1. Six-Level Wall Mount Wood Organizer Rack that Holds Up to 1 lbs. per Level. Ideal for both Indoor and Outdoor Use. - - Amazon.com

actually, this looks like a better deal, two for much less: Portamate PBR-1 Wood Storage 11 lb Wall Mount Lumber Organizer System, 2-Pack - - Amazon.com

I use thoes same racks and have been very happy with them FWIW.

 

[Mace Canute]

I bought (on sale even!) several similar wall mount racks and we finally managed to sort and neatly store a bunch of lumber we had out on my buddy's acreage. It freed up a considerable amount of room since we'd just sorta chucked them in a big pile in the center of one shed. I'm more than happy I bought them.

 

[dragoneggs]

Finally got off my arse this evening and built a plywood storage cart... something I have needed for years in my small shop. Don't have all the bells and whistles added to it yet since I don't know exactly what I want but it is turning out to be a great clamp holder as well! The backside with some added supports will end up storing long pieces, metal on the bottom and wood above! Glad to have those out of the way. I don't have a lot of free wall space. :dance1:

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Okay a little update... I added a piece of flat bar along the back bottom side to form a lip to hold various steel/aluminum lengths and stiffen up the 'beam' then loaded it up. It works okay but I am not really happy with the swivel castors. I bought 3in swiveling, non-locking thinking I would regret not having locking wheels. Turns out that isn't the issue at all... it takes a pretty good push to roll it.

First issue, is that the wheels hang up easy driving over small chips, etc. on the shop floor... I think I got to go much bigger and maybe pneumatic. Second issue is when pivoted toward the back, and the backside of the cart is loaded much more than the front, it is a bit tippy... too much weight too close to the wheels. So, new wheels it will be (8in pneumatic), and spread the footprint. I originally tucked the wheels in such that regardless of position, they wouldn't exceed the envelope of the cart so it would 'nestle' better. Oh well, $40 more for the wheel upgrade and add a rod/dowel holder somewhere. Also now thinking with the higher wheels I just created some decent storage space under the deck for more 'longs'.

Jeez... this probably should have been it's own thread... I never expected this to be such an involved project. I was just trying to straighten out my shop! :ashamed: Hope I'm not boring y'all. If I don't get boo'd here I will post another update when the upgrade is finished.