How'd it go today?

I have a couple spools myself, but I can't remember the sizes. My goal was to cover all my saws with two spools. The smallest saws have been verified to work. Dunno about the big saws yet. It's pretty good line.
 
I need a saw that I can leave at the mill for occasional use, and the only real candidate was my old Husky 66, which has never let me down. I had a nearly new 20" bar, and found a decent chain. Ten pulls and it fired up. After at least ten years under the bench. It doesn't have the snap off idle it had when I got it, used, 28 years ago. Might need to tune it for the first time.
 
The old 66 ran very well today. I'm glad I brought it out of retirement. I'd like to find the proper plastic handled brake housing for it. I was given an old metal loop handle when I broke the original, which isn't as nice. It may not have great anti-vibe, and it might not have the greatest power to weight ratio, but it's back to starting in two, or less,:D pulls cold, and cutting very strongly.
 
Based on an image search, it looks like metal was the most common brake. Maybe you could mod that to make it more comfortable.
 
I have a bit of a battery cable obsession, which, as obsessions go, isn't the worst thing. I feel that there should only be one style of battery, the 31S, just in five different sizes. ATV, lawn and garden, automotive, truck, and large earthmover.:lol:

I have been converting everything I own to 31S, which is the stud type large truck style. I'm done with post and clamp type connections. Studs also give you a good place to add jumper cable wires, which I am also adding to most of my sawmill equipment via Anderson connectors. The alarming part is the cost of good wire.

I got some new shrink tubing in the mail today, which is a new product for me. It's a 3:1 shrink ratio, adhesive lined tubing. 4' each of red and black was like $9. You can see the finished product on the end of the cable I started making tonight. Pretty cool, if you are obsessed like me. :/:
I need to find a bigger box to keep all my parts in. I gathered everything together this evening, and there is quite the pile of stuff, at least more than I realized anyway.

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Awkward step out of the log pile to set the saw on the tailgate, over extended and the saw went lean and chain started to run at the saw time IMG_6761.jpeg

Palm is weird

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Made mostly firewood while trying to fulfill an offer I made to @pigwot for mesquite bowl blanks a while back. Not as good at freehand milling as those guys in the jungle and square ground wanders a lot.

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Rebuilt some stairs yesterday nothing exciting.
As it turns out, cutting stringers can be interesting if not exciting. Upon a time ago, I was doing just that for a porch. A single 2x12, I think four steps. That board was pinching so hard that it would stop my worm drive dead. I had to make relief cuts just to get the treads hacked in. Cross cutting was bad enough, but crossing the grain diagonally was near impossible. There was nothing to indicate the contained stresses at all, except that maybe the board was flat, straight and true, with straight, clear grain. It really did look like a perfect board, but it sure didn't cut like one.

I'd have chucked it out and started with a new board, but I was already saving my cousin from his bosses stupidity. That whole porch was as screwed up as a soup sandwich...
 
As it turns out, cutting stringers can be interesting if not exciting. Upon a time ago, I was doing just that for a porch. A single 2x12, I think four steps. That board was pinching so hard that it would stop my worm drive dead. I had to make relief cuts just to get the treads hacked in. Cross cutting was bad enough, but crossing the grain diagonally was near impossible. There was nothing to indicate the contained stresses at all, except that maybe the board was flat, straight and true, with straight, clear grain. It really did look like a perfect board, but it sure didn't cut like one.

I'd have chucked it out and started with a new board, but I was already saving my cousin from his bosses stupidity. That whole porch was as screwed up as a soup sandwich...
Luckily I didn't need to redo the stringers but who ever built the stairs in the first place use nails and they were rotting away loosing their grip on the treads. I replace all 19 treads using nice ceramic coated screws.
 
"Be at my place by 6" he says, "we've got a bid to go do at 7".

It's ten til, no sign of movement. The job we're supposed to be looking at is 45 minutes away. So we're already late, and I got up early, and my toes are cold, and whaaaa whaaa whaaa!

I did kinda make him work late yesterday. Kept goading him about the wind being nasty today, so we've gotta get this nasty one done, its just slash and dash, let's get it on the ground. We didn't finish till after 7pm last night.

I think I broke the young'n.

Tempted to put my harness in the truck and start racing him to the tree...
 
We had a nice visit with our good friends Greg Good (GRCS) of Wisconsin and Dave Nordgaard (Branch Manager and TNT Tree) of Minnesota. They came to town and confiscated Jerry for a trip up north through the redwoods. Always nice to see these two great guys!
 

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I took off work and shortened grass. It's about 75° and muggy, but not a lot of sun. Friday looks like the better day with a high of 68°, but my weather programs are conflicting, and if the one that says it's gonna rain is correct, it means I'd have to do it over the weekend, and that violates my policy of not doing stupid shit on weekends. Still getting to skip large portions, so that's good.
 
That's my main motivation. Just to not look like a total hillbilly since I'm in a subdivision. If I were off by myself somewhere, I'd probably just mow small patches where it's convenient, and let the rest grow up. Maybe knock it down once or twice a year with the brushcutter.
 
We keep about 1/2 acre of our place mowed and knock back another 1 acreish of open ground once a year or so, just to keep the brush and infill of trees in hand. Some with the rider, and some with the DR all-terrain.

I had about 4 passes in front of the house done a couple of days ago when the grass finally dried enough to cut...and then the PTO control cable on the JD rider parted and stopped that project in its tracks :(.

Picked up a replacement in town yesterday, installed it, and the mower is ready to rumble...but the grass is wet as a frog again :).
 
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