How'd it go today?

[treebilly]

@stikine that would be my guess except it’s a brand new long block. Everything should work properly. The whole ignition system was custom and then customized from that. I deduced it down to a broken wire. Not sure where. I pulled the ignition switch out and plugged it into the wiring harness on the engine block. Fires right up. I just need to get an extension pig tail

 

[stikine]

Gosh, I am way out of my league on this one. Wish you the best on troubleshooting!

 

[BeerGeek]

Finished up a 12hr day moving snow. Son came along and was productive. Plow on the truck is okay (older blade that doesn't backblade well); a bit of an issue when doing driveways. Truck handled it like a champ.

 

[lxskllr]

Are you using that new Dodge Brian? Plowing's pretty tough on trucks. Smaller guys around here usually get a junker to plow with so they don't beat up their main rigs.

 

[cory]

If they are smaller, they probably don't have a back up rig?

 

[lxskllr]

My only experience is with smaller guys, and it's only through casual conversation. I assume bigger outfits have the trucks to spare if one gets a tweaked frame or something. The guys I talked to are basically one main truck the primary business runs in, and a beater for plowing, so yea, no real backup rig.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Anyone have any experience breaking up old oil burners? I'm on the tail end of recovering from my heating nightmare and trying to get rid of the scrap metal. This sob plans on fighting until the very end. I cut the tie rods and beat on it with a sledge hammer, but it isn't showing any signs of yielding. I really don't want to have to smash any cast iron, that sucks.

 

[cory]

Hol up! I've seen your skills! You can fix it!

 

[lxskllr]

Are the sections epoxied together? Maybe try working a chisel between them.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I chiseled. It just broke the edges.

 

[BeerGeek]

Are you using that new Dodge Brian? Plowing's pretty tough on trucks. Smaller guys around here usually get a junker to plow with so they don't beat up their main rigs.

My Ram is a2500 series HD w/the snow commander package (it's made for plowing). Truck's standing weight is 8k, sits high up off the ground, and the frame looks like something you'd build a giant tower with. It's diesel to boot, so no worries there. My brother has a 2014 with almost identical specs, and he has a plow on every winter; no major issues so far.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

After one month since the first expected delivery day, the seller wrote me that the replacement engine for my chipper is "officially" lost by the transporter.
Sure.
Just two days before, I looked at the transporter's office in my vicinity, found the adress in the telephon anuary and went there to see by myself. Well, it's an appartments building, nothing to do with a warehouse or even just an administrative office.

I ordered an other engine at an other site (this size seems rare and half of them are in back order). Fast sending in about 3 days total, cool.
But friday I waited for nothing, just to get an info on the tracking site of the transporter (not the same), like the delivery is canceled because the end warehouse near me didn't receive all the parcells !
That's right, two is way too many to take care of.
I don't know which one is missing, the engine or its muffler. Or both.

That's only the last occurence. In november I ordered a big come-along for heavy pulling. I finally got it in three different deliveries, by coincidence for two, just four days before the job which has been already reported two times to wait for it.
I'm really fed up with all these shitty transporters who can't or don't want to do their job properly.

 

[lxskllr]

Is that what shipping's like over there, or are these isolated problems? I'd be pissed.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

The majority of the deliveries comes reasonably well (beside some parcells thrown over the fence under the rain). The recent wrong doing is more than just an"isolated" problem. From the memes and vids, it seems that it's worse in the US, but it looks like ours are trying to more and more challenge yours here.

I chiseled. It just broke the edges.

My old boiler was made for burning coal in the 1930's, then converted to fuel in the 1950's. Not young. I dismantled it when we got the gaz in town in 1998 I think
All elements are in cast iron bolted together with 4 long rods, like your's. That's the easy part. They are held too at the main water ways (center top and center bottom) by a serie of conical coupling sleeves (like an interrupted pipe). Some thin mastic ensures the etancheity between the couplings and the elements. But add the rust and lime into that and its like sealed by concrete. Better than concrete.
It's very heavy, so it's not willing to move much when you hit it. You can try the steel splitting wedges. Small tapper, wider bearing surface than the chisel. One up on a corner, an other down, put progressively some compression. If that begins to move, it comes apart right away, not like a radiator in cast iron where the couplings are screwed by the inside (right and left threads). At least, that's what I saw around me.

If that doesn't want to move, go in full bull mode and wreck it ! (hears and eyes protection mandatory).

 

[stig]

I like seeing girls/women doing "man's" work. No reason they can't except for saying "I can't", and I don't like that answer. That's great Stephen :^)

That is one reason I enjoy Fiona's posts so much.
Tiny lil' woman and she is better at this work than most of us.

 

[Bermy]

Ha! I embrace my tiny 😁
Moving to Tasmania gave me a dose of humble when it comes to trees though, they Big here, I know when to pass and stick to my niche.

 

[cory]

Why are they so big there, is it the perfect micro climate, like the redwoods have in N CA?

 

[Bermy]

The Eucalyptus regnans in the southern temperate rainforest are epic. A native tree in its perfect habitat.
The tallest flowering trees are in Tasmania, along with some of the most massive (volume wise)
But more generally, coming from a tiny sub tropical Atlantic island...yeah moving to a temperate island many orders of magnitude larger, everything is bigger!
Except palm trees...and avocados, yeah, so.

 

[cory]

Are there still a lot of them left?

Do they regrow/regenerate fast?

 

[flushcut]

More oak trimming.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Good news, I got the engine for my chipper. Finally. The two cartbox boxes were tied together on a pallet '("one is missing", how that can be? seriously), for once in a very good shape.
Bad news, my estimation of a one bolt-on afternoon was grossly underestimated. As way over underestimated.
It's a different brand (honda /kohler) so I expected to have one or two tweakings to do for the mounting. That's it, one or two.
In fact, absolutly nothing matches on the chipper. Mounting holes on the base, mounting holes around the shaft, size of the bolts and the threads. I knew that the shaft's diameter was a tad smaller by 1/8", but its length is smaller than advertised too. The engine's boddy is about the same size, but the control box on the right widens it and interfers with the hydraulic tank's cap and the side of the chippihg chamber. On the left, it's open, but the part holding the oil filter protrudes too and is in the way of both the hydraulic pump and its mounting plate (intended to be bolted on the engine's carter).
Soooo...
I have some metal work to do, need to relocate the control box and the hydraulic pump, adapt the bunch of electrical wires of the engine, purchase other bolts, belts and perhaps hydraulic hoses...
One afternoon ! Easy!

 

[lxskllr]

Deadwooded and devined another pine. Didn't take pictures. Looked about like the other ones. Since it was one of the farthest from the house, my A game was on board. Hit my tie in first shot, with no issues getting the line set. It went over an animal nest, which I felt bad about, but there wasn't any other way around it. Hit my line with my Silky twice. No real damage aside from some plucked fibers, but it pisses me off that it happened. Also had a faceshield mount knocked off my helmet. Amazngly, I found it without much difficulty after descending. Used my new knee ascender...



It's ghettotastic! :^D

This was just proof of concept. It worked pretty well aside from a couple anticipated issues. I'll get those tweaked over time. First is getting the bungie straight.

A question...

This tree had a moderate lean, and I set it up so I was climbing the lean side. That was in anticipation of traversing to another tree, but I didn't feel like doing that today. I lanyarded into the stem, and ropewalked up, bringing the lanyard with me. A bit of a hassle, but no huge deal. The bigger deal was trying to cut on the opposite side of the stem. Best I could come up with is drawing my lanyard fairly close, grabbing the side I wanted to circle to, then yanking myself around, and thighlocking the stem. Ok, we're there, and in position... Now the saw... and that's when I lose my placement, cause I didn't get my saw ready to go. I ended up strapping it to my leg so it was more convenient, at least from the right side. First I climbed like that, and I think I like it. At least doing stuff like this.

Anyway... Is there a better way of getting to the backside of the tree when you're working against the lean?

 

[stikine]

Looks like you were well into that first bottle of whiskey.

 

[lxskllr]

That's pretty typical of my work. I try to make a minimally functioning product with minimal effort, and iterate from there. Saves a lot of wasted time coming up with a great idea, putting the time in to make it happen, then saying "Oh..." when an issue comes to light that wasn't foreseen. I think I spent 1hr on it, including turning the ascender over in my hand, and pondering possibilities.

 

[pantheraba]

Thinking and pondering are way underrated. Sometimes action is overrated. I've heard it said that a wise person often appears as someone that does not care or is too tired to get involved, but I think that means they're simply thinking about things rather than doing things.