Making it through another year '21-'23

[WDH]

I like it.  You could fabricate a small claw turner operated by the sewing machine pedal.  

[WV Sawmiller]

.54 cal muzzle loader bullet. Except the lead might be bad have to use nontoxic loads...
How about using an old Singer pedal sewing machine  to power the log turner. Might make it about the correct height.

;D

Yeah, yeah. Now you're cooking! Run with that and let me know what you come up with. ;D

I think Tom is pulling our leg here. He probably knows .54 caliber will cut the log right in half and would bury the spores too deep. I think this is called Industrial espionage when he tries to sabotage the competition. :D Then again we may be able to use the .54 to cut the trees down and buck them to length but some customers may not like the jagged edges. :

 I served with a Marine who was a door gunner in Viet nam and they used the .50 MG and he said when they take ground fire he'd open up on the muzzle flash and he said small trees would be falling around the area. I asked him once if ever hit anyone and he said "I don't know but they never shot back after that."

[Old Greenhorn]

No Howard, I am not trying to sabotage you guys. I think you are doing a fine job all by yourselves! :D

 It's against my judgement but as you apparently feel that market and technical research would just muddy up your designs I will throw you one little bone here. The standard drill for making these holes is 12.5mm which in real numbers is .492" or just .008" under 1/2". They have a stop shoulder built into the drill to control hole depth. I am not making this stuff up. You COULD confirm this if you like.

 This 'thing' you are concocting is gonna be so 'all inclusive' that there may be be enough room around it to actually do any work with it. I can't wait to see your advance press releases. This should turn the mushroom world on it's ear.

[WV Sawmiller]

   So you don't think we can just adjust the powder charge to reach the right depth for planting? :D

[Old Greenhorn]

I have no idea. You guys are working well over my head. (Or is it way under my head?)

[Hilltop366]

I was only sorta kidding about the air nailer.

https://www.beck-lignoloc.com/en/lignoloc

[trimguy]

I'm not sure what I think about that, wooden nails. say_what

[Old Greenhorn]

Gee, I wonder if they make them in 1/2" diameter? :D
------
Well I suppose the alternate design group has a good jump on me given the good weather they have. Last night it went down to 5° and it wasn't much warmer the night before. With the frozen and split lines on the lube-mizer and the subsequent troubleshooting and repair I haven't gotten any wood made up to work on this thing yet. I got the split check valve out yesterday and replaced it with a straight nipple and it is working fine (or was when I left it). I wasn't too sure about working in 10° weather given my foot issues, but I tried out a brand new pair of military "Mild to cold weather" combat boots with a quilted booty insert. They are 9.5's and I take an 11 but my foot slipped in with the booty and a thick sock. I meant to throw a spare pair of boots and socks in the truck but I forgot and never needed them anyway. I worked on the mill for 2-3 hours and I was just fine. I could have done without the water on my hands when I was purging the last of the ice out of the lines but otherwise all was good. I didn't do any milling because it was getting late in the sun cycle and I didn't have the toolcat down there anyway to handle slabs.

 So I went up to the shop. Bill has a grinding machine to sharpen his chipper blades but it is grinding at a taper and he has been asking me to do an alignment on it. So I brought my indicators and started cleaning the working surfaces and figuring it out. It took about 4 hours to go over the whole thing and I could only find it out a tiny amount from end to end (3') and could not account for the discrepancy he was seeing. If nothing else I confirmed what is there and got it cleaned up and working, except for the coolant tank. Next time he has a minute we will run it together and see what we have, but I indicated the heck out of it from 3 different angles and the most variation I can find is .010" over 3' of run. That's only .0025 per blade. With all the junk I found in those blade clamps, it could have just been and issue getting them to sit correctly and square to the machine. At least I get paid by the hour for that kind of work, so I made a few sheckles for the week so far, but not a penny on milling thus far.

 It dropped down to 5° here last night and was zooming up to about 12° at dawn. I will wait a little longer than go down and see how much I can knock off. My motivation get get that last log in the deck milled up is high. That's for the mushroom fixture build and with that in hand I can starting making stuff.

 Remember that radio show I did a while back? Well I have been a regular listener of that show for a while and the last 6 weeks or so they have had some interesting discussions. But last week they did a show on 'firewood' and they had both my wife and I talking back at them in 'mild disagreement' over some of their opinions. The next morning I sent them a good natured tongue-in-cheek note calling them out on a few of their statements. All in good fun. A couple days later I got back a note from the main host, Ryan, explaining his stance and qualifying his comments. I wrote back and told him "all good, just having some fun with you guys, but you should give your listeners a 'full view' along with better facts". Yesterday I got a note from the co-host John, with similar comments about the show and what they 'meant'. I sent him back a similar note as I sent Ryan thinking maybe I hurt their feelings or that I was truly mad. I was not, at all. Just having fun. (I have been hanging out with you guys too much.)
 So this morning as I am writing this post, I get another note from Ryan. They want me back on the show in February to talk about firewood in a roundtable format. I guess it's a slow month. :D I had made some comments about how they failed (IMHO) to educate the weekenders and second homeowners who think wood is just a commodity where you call a guy, buy it, and burn it. They don't understand the ages long tradition of firewood as a way of life, making good solid stacks, mixing the wood you burn for desired effects, learning how your stove works best and all the other stuff that goes along with it. I guess that is where they want to go next. What the heck, not much to do on cold February nights anyway. Why not drive an hour and change in the dark to talk on the radio?

 Ah well, I have procrastinated enough, time to feed the shop stove and get moving. We just hit 15° which is over yesterday's high temp. 8)

[aigheadish]

You can be Gary Mead too!

I'm not caught up on From the Forest but I really do love the show, I've listened to the first many, many episodes on their podcast feed, listening from oldest to most recent (other than I skipped ahead for your episode!). I'll be excited to hear you on it again!

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, don't get your hopes up. This is more of a BS session on the air. Gary's a poet, I am not. Gary is a skilled craftsman, I am not. Gary holds seemingly bottomless knowledge, I do not. Gary is Gary. I am what I am. You get what you get. But it's February, what can one expect? :D
 Just heard back, looks like I'll be on for 2/2/22.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Maybe you should send a personal autograph to us FF members now before you become famous then we can show it off and brag how we used to know you back when you were just a regular guy before you became rich and famous. ;) 

[Old Greenhorn]

Why Howard, how could you think I would ever forget the little people who made me what I am? :D  I'd be happy to hook you up anytime, just contact my people and they will have instructions to take care of you. But give me a little time yet, I still need to find out who my people are. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

  Us "little people" really appreciate that. I'll have my people get with your people whenever we get some people. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I figured I would try to get back on track today and I made the best effort I could. I got down there around 10am and the guys were working on my ride, putting new skins on.



 

They are taking the skid steer tires off (still on the rears here) and putting on steel studded tires with classy wheels. Everything is ice now and all the machines are sliding all over. The toolcat is a heavy wet mess on ice and is used for loading sand/salt in the trucks during 'events'. So yeah, the new tires look funky and are a bit lighter in load rating, but they grip pretty well compared to those skid steer tires. If this doesn't work well enough, we will put the old tires back on and add chains.
 So it was 10:30 before I got loaded up and got to the mill. Everything worked well, no lube issues.  I also had no issues with the cold temps and my feet were great with the new boots. However, I had neglected to consider the icing problems. I could barely walk where all the water seep comes out of the ground and I had a few near misses carrying lumber over the glare ice. I threw some sawdust out on the ice and that helped a lot, but not quite enough to give me a warm fuzzy. Also, the slabs were freezing right onto the logs as I milled them and it was really hard to get them off. I had to drive an ax in as a wedge and these slabs were in the 200#+ class. It was a fight to handle them. I got one big log done and I was shot, and the slabs were so big I couldn't take them all up to the OWB in one load (that's a first). I did manage, at the end, to put up some junk wood (odd sizes cast to the side) and make up a small amount of lumber for the mushroom project. Half of it is covered in ice.
 So I cleaned off the mill and headed up, dumped the lumber in my truck and parked the TC by the OWB for the evening filling. The question was asked about the OWB running there and this photo shows it in the background. Gonna take me a while to get used to how those tires look.



 

That 'black thing on top of the OWB is the door (lid) and it opens with 2 hydraulic cylinders. For size, you can see a round cutoff sitting there on the top waiting to get tipped in. That's a 24" round for scale. It's a lousy photo, but the only one I have.

 In spite of the ice issues and my concern about falling, I will give it another shot tomorrow and get at least one more log done. That should have smaller slabs at least and I am going to try a slightly different process in handling. I have been having a lot of trouble and pain in my right wrist which my chiro worked on and told me I need to rest for a week or so. :D It hurts like the dickens at times and carrying boards and cranking up the blade tension on the mill are the biggest problems. I can use my left hand for one of those, but need two hands for the other. Yesterday I fell up by the shop there carrying a 392 and a little j'red sissy limbing saw over to the bucket truck. I landed hard trying to save the saws but bounced up OK. It is SO slick everywhere. But I gotta make lumber and I have 2 logs to do before I can get to the short one for the mushroom project. We have ugly cold snowy weather coming Saturday through Monday. I would love to be in the shop working on warm (unfrozen) lumber by the time that hits.

 Hey, speaking of that radio show @aigheadish , you know you can listen to that live. It's on Wednesday evenings beginning at 6pm Eastern time. Just go to the WIOX web page and they have a 'Listen Live' button. Tonight they are talking about making baseball bats with a plant sales manager, how the wood is selected, slope of grain requirements, drying methods and all that stuff. Pretty interesting and also applies to gun stocks and tool handles if you think about it. I expect in a few months they should have @spike 60 back on also, he is a regular with those guys. I am listening to the show as I type this and they just started talking about making axe handles.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Let's see what that brings.

[Nebraska]

Those little cleats that strap over your work boots for ice fishing will help you with that ice. I can't remember the name : :. I've got some down stairs ok gotta go look, throw some wood in the fire too.

[doc henderson]

Tom if that is the newer style of Mil. boots, be sure to shake those booties first thing in the morning, prior to putting them on.  It was important in the 1970s as well, but mostly in the evening.  

Soul Train Shake Your Booty KC & Sunshine Band - Bing video


8)  

[Nebraska]

 

 

Yak Trax  is what these are called.  Haven't used them a bunch but they work. Slips on the boot pretty easy.

[Old Greenhorn]

Aw geez Doc! ;D

Nebraska, yes, I have a couple of different styles of those but moving back and forth from a concrete slab to ice is tricky. They can be really slick on the concrete or rocks. I'll dig mine out maybe and bring them tomorrow to try out. I was even considering caulk boots, but again moving on the concrete slab could be just as hazardous. I guess I will have to try something. I got lucky with yesterdays fall, no harm. But if I am carrying a heavy slab across my hips and my feet go out, I could be in some trouble. I'm just trying to be careful and get through the season without extra medical bills.
 Yeah, the yax trax, I bought those for my Dad a few years ago but I thought he told me they were tricky on concrete. How do they work for you?

[Nebraska]

I haven't  worn them on much dry concrete,  Just when mother nature turns  our place and the outside pens at the office into a skating rink.   At the office it's asphalt or cement all level.  I don't remember them being trecherous on the cement floor  inside. Just funny feeling. On dry un even  rocks they might be not so good.  I take them off inside the door when I go see something in the office.   I seem to only think of them after I wipe out or nearly wipe when I get out of the truck on those stupid slick days.  Thankfully there is not very many of them,  but snow is coming in this weekend.   

Tom that boiler could eat my little wood furnace for lunch.  Thanks for the picture.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well Nebraska, you got me thinking. The ones I have are heavy spikes designed for hiking on ice and dirt or frozen ground. Very uncomfortable on concrete. Those yaktrax originally came out years ago for city folks who walk on slippery sidewalks, which was why I bought them for my Dad when he was having some mobility issues (he was about 92 at the time). So I went to their website and see that they have expanded their designs and have a 'diamond' version that is heavier duty, more durable, doesn't use those springs, has solid traction grippers, and designed for working folk. I just ordered a pair. 50 bucks is high for an impulse purchase for me, but I figure if it saves one E/D trip, I am more than even.
 Dang, now I am starting to think like an old man. Not too happy about that. No sir.

I'll try to remember to take a photo next time I open that boiler up up to fill it. If it's empty, it take two fork loads to fill. We try not to let it get empty or bill wakes up in the morning and it's 50 degrees in the house and the shop. Sometimes with a bad load of wood it just goes out with half a load left. Maintaining that complex and all the equipment is a full time job for several folks.

[WDH]

I see that those yax thingy's have a handle.  I see it on the left side on the boot  :D :D.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Sorry, I am not following. I don't see any handle. Maybe that's for dragging out the body?

[WDH]

Look again, sticking out on the left side of the sole of the boot  :D.

Foghorn Leghorn, "It's a joke, Boy, it's a Boy."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aWcZShT4cI

[Old Greenhorn]

OH, you are taling about Nebraska's photo. I thought otherwise. Now I get it. ;D Yeah, that is the traction control adjustment lever. :D I was trying to figure out how he got his foot to bend up between his knees like that. Looks painful.

[Nebraska]

Yoga....