heavy mechanics

[teakwood]

needed to change the boombushings on the 30ton excavator, just some pics to enjoy.  that kind of repairs you can't rush! we go slowly but steady and safety safety safety, i have tremendous respect from those pieces. its a headgame with the tools that i have available, but it sure nice to be able to make that repair at home under a roof and a concrete floor.


  

 

My selfmade heavy duty workbench surely passed the weight test!


  

  

 

and with those temps :-[ :-[. i sweated like a horse!
 

 

[BargeMonkey]

 I like that A-frame 👍 I wondered when you talked about doing the work on that just how you where going to take it down, 330 isn't a toy. Bushings just hammered from the rock ? Volvo is supported down there pretty well ?

[Ianab]

35 deg is OK if you are sipping cocktails on the beach.   :D

Harder if you are actually working  >:(

And I guessing the humidity is WAY up there too.

[nativewolf]

In Costa Rica the humidity almost never gets over 100%, then it rains and is still 30 degrees :D

[Ianab]

In Costa Rica the humidity almost never gets over 100%, then it rains and is still 30 degrees :D

I know that sort of climate  ;D

Get off a plane in the Cook Islands at 1 am, and it's 28 C, Was 10 C when we left NZ.  Luckily we had the beach and drink sipping planned, not overhauling 30 ton excavators.

[teakwood]

Barge: Bushing is worn because of the constant ripper work i do, it's like working with a hammer. Actually they have about 1.5-2mm of play so could have stayed there for some more time, but i just hate to work with a loose unit. The bad news is that the pin is also worn, not to bad but for me it makes no sense to change bushing and then cheap out and not buy the pin. original pin was 1600$ but its obsolete. the guy in the shop has a 100mm pin from a bad cyl laying around, i hope he treat me well and sell mi that piece for 400is $. he also has a hydr press to pull the bushings, will keep you posted. the a frame is excellent but i am not sure how much weight it supports. I buy every volvo part from flaglers in Miami. we have just one volvo dealer in the whole country and the charge double what the parts cost in the US

In Costa Rica the humidity almost never gets over 100%, then it rains and is still 30 degrees :D

:D :D thats correct, now its dry season so humidity is between 60-80%

[snowstorm]

Hydraulic cylinder. Rods don't always make the best pins. Been there and done that. Good luck with it

[teakwood]

Really? Why?  they use that alot here for pins, and they are also freaking expensive.  The owner from the workshop (a old man with tons of experience, i have learned a lot from him) told me that we just turn the latch of the pin 180degrees and the pin is still good to use because the worn crome was just on one side and that the original pin is probably still a lot better than a cyl rod.  The owner is 70 and sometimes very grumpy, so you need the wait for the correct moment to ask for something, today he was happy and called me friend as he welcomed me so i knew that i would get what i want :D. after a 10min sermon of "i'm not in business of lending tools" and "bring the boom here and i charge you to do the work" he finally softend out and gave me the 30t press. Tomorrow i finish the work and bring her back (its 44miles one way) and i will get the bill he also knows how to charge! ;D but he has saved my ass various times

[Oliver05262]

The A-frame looks good until you look closely at the casters.............

[kiko]

Pullin' wrench can defiantly make one grumpy.  Ask me how I know.

[teakwood]

The A-frame looks good until you look closely at the casters.............

:D :D i would have made that a frame different too but i bought it from a guy who needed 150bucks at that moment and until now it served me well

Pullin' wrench can defiantly make one grumpy.  Ask me how I know.

He doesn't wrench anymore, just walk around like a proud cock and overlook his 5 employees :D  But he is the master mind behind the projects they realize! they make waterpumps, candy knead machines, boilers, logtrailers or horsetrailers from scratch, you name it and he gives you a price, mostly a proud one :D but he stands behind his work, i something fails he will repair it for free.

some work he did for me



  

 


  

The rippershank is 3" thick


  

  

  

  

  

 
That was in 2010 and i still use that ripper, a lot! and not a crack, i outlever stones some times with that ripper


 

[kensfarm]

You really get a feel for the size w/ you standing by it.  Almost need a 2nd one to help w/ the maintenance on the first one.  Man... that wheelbarrow has seen far better days.. stay safe! ;D

[thecfarm]

Impression.

[snowstorm]

years ago i had an ih excavator with pins that were too small. so they would break at times. tried some from hyra. cyl. bend or break and made from if i remember it rite 4140? that worked much better. with as much work that you went through to get it apart i wouldnt cut corrners

[nativewolf]

Teakwood,  I actually spent time in SE Asia in teak.  Worked with villages in teak plantations in the north of Thailand and also with tribes in Myanmar.   So I have one question:  what the heck are you ripping?  I mean that is obviously a custom tooth and it and the excavator are obviously key to your business but ...what are you ripping? 

I've enjoyed all your posts, takes me back.

[teakwood]

My mainbusiness were the teakplantations for some years, they are 12 years old but i need to wait until the are 20-25 until a nice return. every other year i do thinnings.  I needed a sidebusiness to earn a living so i started with transports, had a semi with dumptrailer, and a lowboy and then i bought the excavator. and since 4-5years i have enough ocacional work for the excavator to make a living and support the still moneyneeding plantations. since 3 years i try to get the permit for a stone quarry that i have on my land, that has cost me big bucks until now. the mine will defensively be my main business when they finally let me start 

Very interesting, have you fotos from you visits in those plantations? i understood that their teak grows a lot slower than ours and they have clearcut cycles of 50years 

[nativewolf]

Definitely no pictures, to put it mildly a camera was not viewed as a good thing.  Lots of the tribes had conflicts with the governments, I'll leave it at that. 

They had some on long rotations.  It grows much faster down in Indonesia, in northern thailand and myanmar it gets cool in the winter and then really hot and dry so you have very little growth for 6 months a year.  I expect you are going to harvest in 25 years or so? 

Ah, so the tooth is for the mine, that explains that.  Good luck on the permits!

[Dakota]

teakwood,
On a side note:  I just got back from a vacation trip to Costa Rica.  From San Jose, we traveled up to La Fortuna, around Laguna de Arenal to Monteverde and then down to Mal Pais.  Was I near your place?  It was a great 11 days.

[teakwood]

Definitely no pictures, to put it mildly a camera was not viewed as a good thing.  Lots of the tribes had conflicts with the governments, I'll leave it at that. 

They had some on long rotations.  It grows much faster down in Indonesia, in northern thailand and myanmar it gets cool in the winter and then really hot and dry so you have very little growth for 6 months a year. I expect you are going to harvest in 25 years or so? 

Ah, so the tooth is for the mine, that explains that.  Good luck on the permits!

The harvestcycles here are 18years, dbh 14-20". that's normal for the bigger companys. my plantations are between 10-12 years old, 95acres. I think i will not clearcut them with 18years, but make another thinning and let them grow to at least 25-30 years and then they really worth something and i see it like my retirement plan. i will be around 55 by then and can go to my woods and cut 2-3 trees a day with no stress and live from it :D :D. More like a hobby. the forest will contain itself with this system, we will see ;)

teakwood,
On a side note:  I just got back from a vacation trip to Costa Rica.  From San Jose, we traveled up to La Fortuna, around Laguna de Arenal to Monteverde and then down to Mal Pais.  Was I near your place?  It was a great 11 days.

I am way north, in La Cruz, Guanacaste, its 10 miles before the Nicaraguan border. You were like 2-3 hours away, remember costa rica is a small country

[teakwood]

Machine is back together ;)




 

With 30tons of pressure and the old bushing did not move, so i had to cut them a little bit with the torch


 

and in goes the new one
 

  

 

Everything back together


  

  

 

[Dave Shepard]

Running a weld bead on the inside of bushings and raceways will usually shrink them enough so they come out easily.

[nativewolf]

Definitely no pictures, to put it mildly a camera was not viewed as a good thing.  Lots of the tribes had conflicts with the governments, I'll leave it at that. 

They had some on long rotations.  It grows much faster down in Indonesia, in northern thailand and myanmar it gets cool in the winter and then really hot and dry so you have very little growth for 6 months a year. I expect you are going to harvest in 25 years or so? 

Ah, so the tooth is for the mine, that explains that.  Good luck on the permits!

The harvestcycles here are 18years, dbh 14-20". that's normal for the bigger companys. my plantations are between 10-12 years old, 95acres. I think i will not clearcut them with 18years, but make another thinning and let them grow to at least 25-30 years and then they really worth something and i see it like my retirement plan. i will be around 55 by then and can go to my woods and cut 2-3 trees a day with no stress and live from it :D :D. More like a hobby. the forest will contain itself with this system, we will see ;)

teakwood,
On a side note:  I just got back from a vacation trip to Costa Rica.  From San Jose, we traveled up to La Fortuna, around Laguna de Arenal to Monteverde and then down to Mal Pais.  Was I near your place?  It was a great 11 days.

I am way north, in La Cruz, Guanacaste, its 10 miles before the Nicaraguan border. You were like 2-3 hours away, remember costa rica is a small country

Cool, a 25-30 year rotation should have you with some nice logs indeed.  Personally I'd be planting additional land now, if you can get it, but I would do this.  I'd plant 2 species- something in the fabacea family in every other row and space the teak seedling a bit further apart in the teak rows.  Then sell the raintree or whatever you are growing for cattle fodder and fuel wood as the teaks close canopies.  Just remove that entire row of fodder.  The point here being to plant a nitrogen fixing tree you can sacrifice so you don't have to thin out expensive teak saplings.  Really not much wood in the trees you are thinning and it's a lot of work.   It would allow you to get the Teak nice and straight and tall with very good canopy closure but keep your labor lower.  Just an idea.  Seems like a ton of work to hand thin all that Teak for small diameter yields. 

Now that the canopy has closed your trees should really be taking off, no?  Do you let cattle come in and graze?  it can cut competition that springs up after thinnings.

Oh, and nice to see the Volvo back together.

[teakwood]

you thoughts are right but not practical with teak:

I would have loved to buy more land in 2004 but didn't had the money, now it's just too expensive and not interesting from a business standpoint, too much money tied up for too long.
it's better to plant just teak, no other species, teaksaplings are not expensive, the expensive part is all the labor over the first 1-8years. As we plant to much first because of the grow competition they make we have the opportunity to get most of the bad trees  in the first (noncomercial) thinning, and believe me, there are lots of bad trees to cut. So if you plant less than you can select from fewer trees.
the other thing is we don't need firewood so what to do with another species of cheap wood?

i rent my land for very little $ to my neighbor and he puts his cows in sometimes, it helps with the bad weed and i have less laborcosts for mowing

here is a older post from my thinnings, i explain some things there. If you're interested
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,79768.msg1211775.html#msg1211775

[teakwood]

the next repair :.
I already knew that i had to take the pump out because i had a oil leak, but i didn't know that the whole coupling between engine and pump is gone! I am glad i opened that up and can fix the problem before something worse would have happened.  Bought the rear main seal because i thought the engine leaks, result that now its the pump. No big deal, i can get that seal here. ether way i put the new main seal in.



  

  

 

Look at all those plastic parts under the flywheel

  

  

  

 
I am not sure if i should buy a speedy sleeve or a normal seal will be enough, there is a groove, its the smaller inner groove, not the big one. Of course there are no speedy sl for sale in costa rica.

 

New rear seal installed   

 

[Ed_K]

 Why is the shaft inside the pump - flywheel look off center?

[Dave Shepard]

I think it's just the camera angle.