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The dirtwork thread

Started by mike_belben, June 04, 2021, 11:37:41 AM

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SwampDonkey

My cousin was a welder, he welded everywhere except on the moon. But I don't know anything about welding. ;D Dad welded all his stuff at the farm though. Back in his day, a lot of trades like that was taught in high school. I came across one of his textbooks from high school on welding. Now you have to go to community college, yet he went to grade 10 and learned enough to keep stuff fixed on the farm. Had to run the farm by then as grandfather was quite ill between diabetes and tuberculosis. But dad did grow up in a family of teachers, his oldest sister taught in the one room school here in Royalton, like you'd see on TV shows such as 'Little House on the Prairie'. Out house in the back, hand pump for water at the front entrance. No power lines then either. That's not that many years ago my friends. School is still standing to, was used as a WI hall. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

Quote from: ljohnsaw on November 14, 2021, 12:27:38 PM
Quote from: barbender on November 13, 2021, 10:08:27 PMthere isn't much a Lincoln buzzbox and 6011 rods can't burn together.
Ive got about 150' of driveway that is on big rock (1 man up to 10 man rocks) lightly scattered in moon dust.  Turns to pancake batter if you try to traverse it wet.  Then I have 500' of a good slope that, someday, I'd like to be a decent road/great ATV trail.  I could get all the free tires I'd need off of CL - just have to fab up the side wall cutter.
5 feet deep field stone or crushed stone, dressed with screened glacial-fluvial gravel. Will hold a freight train in all kinds of weather. ;D I worked on the wet north coast of BC, the roads were built with crushed/blasted rock and held up in the wettest times of the year. Here they tend to push mud around on private ground and all you get is a mud hole, no ditches, mud berms on the sides so the road is the ditch. On crown land the roads are much more solid if you're working for certain mills. Some mills still haven't learned to build dry roads. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Tacotodd

SD (or anyone else), what is a WI hall?
Trying harder everyday.

SwampDonkey

"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

mike_belben

Dad let me start welding 31 years ago when i was 10.  Ive paid a lot of bills with that since then and have taught many other people since.  In person i can have anyone gluing iron in 15 minutes.  Jesse james the chopper builder said something along the lines of 'hey single mom.. You wanna keep your son out of trouble? Buy him a welder."  And i can attest that to be true.  

 A welder was always in the background of keeping me from going too far down the wrong road with the wrong people, and into an industrial circle of people that help each other.   Industry is a device that pays mortgages and mortgages keep most people from behaving too badly. 

I would probably not be free to tell the world to get out of my face today if i did not learn to weld.  It facilitated everything ive done since i got out of the marines.
Praise The Lord

barbender

Yep Mike, knowing how to weld, and a CDL you'll always be able to find living wage work.
Too many irons in the fire

mike_belben

my problem in the last 20 years is too many choices. anywhere ive ever been employed i could do almost every job there.  a lot of times i did 3 or 4 jobs that really werent mine just because i cant sit still or turn my brain off, which is a curse. then im getting paid 1 guys job and doing a bunch of them and earning unofficial responsibilities because "mike usually does that" and i get disgruntled. i get big headed and think why do i put up with this place and all the stupidity here, or the people or politics or whatever.  aha.. i should be my own boss.

  well, james brown wasnt joking when he sang about the costs to be the boss. youve gotta be real good at managing yourself to make any money and for most of my life i have been terrible at that.  just as i started to get me under control and maybe have a chance to make some money, they overprinted the money and now i have no incentive to run around chasing it. just my luck!  i seriously only work for money when i completely run out of it and then a few hundred bucks is enough to last a few weeks and i go back to being retired and doing whatever i want. but all i wanna do is work. work is like a vacation to me.  
Praise The Lord

snowstorm

The almost impossible steel to weld is on a sander. The salt dose something to it. Grind all you want it just blows up. Even 6011 dose not work good it will do it but not look all that great. Last week was replace the rusted through panels on a m g side dump then on to building a new tailgate. For paint I niddle gun first use Cora seal then dura plate 235 then top coat. After that lots of oil.now it's on to a Everest body to do the same less the tailgate that's almost new. My new truck has a stainless steal body. I like that one a lot less work

Corley5

This project has been on the list for too long.  The pressure tank was still in the well pit with the long defunct rod well.  The rod well was drilled in the same hole that was the original dug well.  Over the years it settled and the tank tipped over.  The original plan was to move the pressure tank into the basement of the house but plans have evolved and instead it's going in the garage.  We just have to make the connections to the well and house and fill it all back in.  Tomorrow's project and it has to be done tomorrow because our window weather will close in the afternoon.  Backfilling with the 544H won't take long  ;) ;D  The excavation was made with the 8N backhoe.  It's no 580 Case but it got the job done well.  Only had minor trouble with cave ins.  Looking forward to crossing this item off my list  8)



 

 

 

 

 

Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

mike_belben

well that looked like a chore
Praise The Lord

trimguy

That looks like red pex, is that to pump hot water to keep the line from freezing ?

barbender

Mike, my curse is that I have no problem sitting still, but that doesn't pay $$$😊
Too many irons in the fire

Corley5

The pex is just in case we have a freeze up.  It's buried deep and there's 4" of pink board over it but it is under a plowed and driven on area.  If it does freeze we can pump boiler fluid through and thaw it out.  That's the theory anyway ;) ;D :)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Corley5

We plugged the old well the best we could.  The wooden rods were still in it and weren't much more than mush.  We were able to get about four feet of them out, tamped the wood mush into the casing as far as possible and filled it with bentonite pellets.  I would liked to have plugged it top to bottom but there was no way.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

mudfarmer

That's a cool backhoe! Good luck getting it all buttoned back up, that's going to feel good

mike_belben

Quote from: Corley5 on November 25, 2021, 07:40:19 AMIf it does freeze we can pump boiler fluid through and thaw it out.  That's the theory anyway ;) ;D :)
I have some experience with this.  If the boiler loop is just water youll have to keep it flowing on the deepest frost events. If the boiler loop freezes itll be useless until a natural thaw.   But with it flowing hot water youll be golden at any temp.  
Ive buried 110v  icemelt cables to solve my freezeups in the problem spots and theyre great for thawing as needed. 
Praise The Lord

Corley5

  Done 8) 8)  It'll get a final grade in the spring.  The post is set to mount the electric panel so we can have a couple plugs and a disconnect for the well and maybe a light.  We also installed a hydrant and we beat the weather :)  This OWB has boiler anti-freeze in it.  Straight up water wouldn't do what I want.  The underground loop filled with anti-freeze and a heat exchanger hooked to a boiler loop is what I'd have done if the boiler had straight up water just like for domestic hot water.  IF the well line freezes I want to be able thaw it out.  It's meant to be a remedy not a prevention :)  




 
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Corley5

Quote from: mudfarmer on November 25, 2021, 09:07:22 AM
That's a cool backhoe! Good luck getting it all buttoned back up, that's going to feel good
It's a 52 8N with a Sherman Power Digger backhoe and Wagner loader.  It's been on this farm longer than I have ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Tom King

Since this is the Dirtwork thread, I finally found a guy who would do a single day's work with a large excavator.  He wanted to work this weekend.

Yesterday, he dug up some large stumps down on our point, and took down a few trees I've been wanting to take down.  That only took three hours.  The rest of the time I had him pile up some of my extraordinary topsoil.

Our place has probably 150 lake lots on two sides.  For forty years, I've been letting those people dump leaves in this spot, and dumped the stuff from the lots I cleared when I was building new houses on the lake.  Also, stall cleanings for 40 years.

It used to be a hillside.  Now, or at least before today, it is flat where I've been pushing it level, to about a 14 foot cliff on the downhill side.

I had him dig a test hole, to see about how deep it was, and he couldn't hit bottom.  I think it probably averages about 8 feet deep, for 3/4 of an acre.  I only need to put a couple of inches on the two acre point.

He started on the cliff edge, and piled it on the uphill side, until he ran out of room to put it.  He didn't dig up 25% of what's there.

It's full of large Earthworms.  I could go in the fishing worm business, if I wanted to.  I intend to spread two, or three inches on our point that I've had a hard time getting grass to grow on the hard, poor ground.

I have a guy coming with a pretty good sized trommel dirt screen.

Not exactly what I wanted to do this weekend, but I was glad to get it done.


 

 

 


mike_belben

Praise The Lord

thecfarm

You might be able to retire early on that income!!
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Tom King

I'll see how far it goes here, first.  I have a lot of grass to cut that I'm going to topdress/level with it, and need to get pretty grass growing on that point.  We're planning to rent it for weddings, as soon as I can get it ready.

That's what I built this drag for.

That little brick house had/is going to have bathrooms in it.  It's the brick house you've always heard about how well built it is.  Already a good septic tank there.  


 

mike_belben

Boy that drag really floats. 

Praise The Lord

Walnut Beast

Guys seem to really like these. They make various models for Skid and 3 point 

 

 

Tom King

I don't want to shape what's there now, and Really don't want to bring any more rocks to the surface.  I have all sorts of grading implements for the tractors.  I have it graded out pretty good, and all the rocks on, and near the surface up.  It has a big crown on it, and after taking all the Pine trees down, we lost most of the good topsoil in the grading after that.  What's left is hard as a rock, and water runs off most of it.

My drag is strictly for topdressing, including over existing growing grass.  I can spread some with the bucket, and level it out with the drag.  It fills in all the low spots, and won't even knock off a Dandelion stem.

I can lighten up with it, and it will leave one, or a few inches.

That drag was made as a test piece, out of 3x3x3/16 angle iron.  It does pretty good, but I may build a bigger one out of 4x4x1/4. It does good if I go over an area multiple times, but I can see where a bit more weight, and taller vertical parts would be better.  I'm afraid if I get too heavy with it, it would move too much, rather than spreading it.

I intend to put in a sprinkler system, pumping water out of the lake.

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