Shade tree mechanic! Whatcha workin on.

[rusticretreater]

I recently went to a pretty special auction. The owner of the Model A garage, nationally known for his skill and knowledge in restoring Model A Fords, passed on and his entire set up was being sold.  This guy really had it going and folks tell me he could make any part needed.   An entire shop full of great machinery, hardware, bins, parts, supplies.  I got priced out on a lot of stuff, but it was mostly because I had to hang on to the cash for the item I really wanted.

An automotive body dolly with adjustable height, multiple configurations and also mobile.  I am still trying to find out the manufacturer as it had no markings on it whatsoever.  Based on the other dollies I am seeing online, this one is a super deluxe one that I expect would go for over $2000.  I got it for $750.  Soon I will be putting my 70 Chevelle on it as I do the full, off the frame rebuild.

[aigheadish]

@TimW what is the plan with the metal to fix the plastic culvert pipe? I have similar stuff under a bridge on my creek, I don't think I'd ever know it split unless the bridge started getting very wet. 

@rusticretreater Nice score on the dolly! 

[Wlmedley]

Got a few warm days and decided I should start some equipment that has been sitting awhile waiting for spring. My money pit Kubota wouldn't start without hooking up a battery charger so I decided it was time for a new battery. I've found anything with glow plugs needs a good battery so a trip to the parts store lightened my wallet for the tune of $200.Hopefully it will run all summer without any major malfunctions.

[TimW]

@TimW what is the plan with the metal to fix the plastic culvert pipe? I have similar stuff under a bridge on my creek, I don't think I'd ever know it split unless the bridge started getting very wet.

@rusticretreater Nice score on the dolly!

One day I noticed a hole in the dirt over the culvert.  I thought a something sharp had hit the upper ceiling in the culvert during high water run off.  But a few days later saw a slit of dirt missing.  I dug back some dirt and saw that the culvert was split and about a foot area depressed.  Since then, I had painted orange paint over the slit to center up and continue driving over.  I will dig out 2x4 feet of dirt over the slit and lay the steel over it and cover it up.  Really a simple (permanent) fix I hope.

I am confused as to what you have, a bridge or a culvert?

[aigheadish]

Ah! Thanks, that makes sense!

I don't know words very good! I have two 2'x24' corrugated pipes buried under dirt (the bridge) that I use to access the back field. When we moved into the house it was just a crossing with rocks that the creek would flow over. I didn't like driving the mower over that so I got some garbagey pvc pipes to supplement one buried concrete pipe that was much too narrow and buried that. After the first big rain that system was washed out. The creek has a once or twice yearly big flood but is otherwise pretty dry and small, only a foot or two wide, but when it floods it would cover about 150'x200' of the backyard in ankle deep water. I decided to go big and bury the culvert pipes in there, then cover that with as much rock and old leftover cured concrete bags as we could find, then dirt over the top of that. I'm very pleased to have realized, just a couple days ago, that any of the big rains we've had since the big pipes were installed, that we have not had a major yard flood! We'll see if that continues but I also added a mini pond just before the pipes and I think that is helping too.

Originally like this:



Now like this:

[TimW]

I was able to install the repair steel yesterday.  I had a stack of pine on two logs nearby the culvert.  When water overflowed the gully, the logs were redirecting water and causing dirt to wash away from the top of the culvert, thus causing not enough dirt to spread the load.  So I spread 6 or so inches of clay/loam mix over it all.  This is the approach to where I am building my sawmill shed.

[aigheadish]

Goodness, TimW, your work looks much nicer than mine! You've got grading pretty well down with that backhoe. You got secrets to make it that nice? Looks like pretty good dirt, which I'm sure helps.

[barbender]

Back dragging, and a float function on the loader is your friend😊

[aigheadish]

Yeah, I've tried a fair amount of that, but typically on big dirt clods, and I'm not great at it. I did ok on a fresh gravel driveway, but less ok in places where I've removed a lot of scrub and overgrowth. My float function also either doesn't work very well or I suck at engaging it. I've only had my hoe for 5 or 6 years though, so maybe I need more practice!

[TimW]

Goodness, TimW, your work looks much nicer than mine! You've got grading pretty well down with that backhoe. You got secrets to make it that nice? Looks like pretty good dirt, which I'm sure helps.

The right clay/loam helps enormously.  The right moisture content is a must. 
I dump bucket loads where I want to fill in.  Then grade in forward in Low Low, constantly tweeking the cutting edge up and down to get about twice the thickness you want.  Then I back drag it in both directions.  Back dragging first makes in uneven as the tires compress the dirt in little hills and valley.  Then I run the tires over all of it to pack it down, then back drag in both directions again.

Then, if you want to go further, the drag harrow helps.  I seeded the dam with the drag harrow.

[TimW]

Dirt clods, chunks of grass and dirt, and tree limbs and sticks don't go with back dragging.  Get rid of them.

When I am trying to spread out wet clay, I dump it where I want it and run over it with the 2 foot wide tracks of the excavator. This roughs in level grade with no ruts.  Then let is sit until dry, then start back dragging it.

[SwampDonkey]

When I spread the top soil on the yard here, I chained up a pallet with a tire on top and a couple big rocks in the middle, drug with the SxS. Nice smooth job. Fun to. 

[Resonator]

Good rule of thumb the bigger the culvert diameter, the more depth of fill is needed over top of it. This can also vary with soil/road base fill types and how heavy traffic will be over it. Also having heavy broken rock around the culvert ends (especially the inlet end) will protect it in flood conditions. My driveway I battled with for years, and ended up pouring a concrete wall around the end to keep it from eroding.

[TimW]

I bought the culvert as surplus at 4 foot diameter and 16 foot long.  So 4 foot was cut off.  I want to concrete the inlet ends.  I installed treated 2x12 bulkhead on the outlet side about 10 years ago.  Store bought 2x12s at that time.  I had used streaded 4x6s I used as posts and a header for the boards.  The 10 year old treated 2x12s have rotted away.  The 4x6s beams are over 30 years old and are still in place and solid.

When I bought the culvert, I researched the carrying weight and amount of dirt on top needed.  All I remember is at least 6 inches of dirt.

[aigheadish]

I've got some culvert regulation gov't document somewhere that specified weights and depths needed. I don't remember exact details but the top of my bridge is probably a foot or two above the top of the pipe. I need to go out and get a few good scoops of material on either end to clear it out. The bottom side is probably a foot buried or so. 

I'd like to get a harrow, they look very handy. I've got a blade for the tractor that grades better than my loader bucket but it still leaves a bit to be desired. I've got an in-progress rock screener build and I'd imagine I can harvest some decent dirt, rather than buying it, when I need to level stuff out. 

[TimW]

When it rains, it pours.  The telehandler's rear hub seal is seaming.  Yes, the same one I rebuilt last fall.  I just will keep watching it and adding 90 wt.

Now, I have noticed the Mahindra's right front wheel bearings making noise under heavy log loads.  That KMW loader lifts 3900 pounds.  Way more than the tractor can handle over the long term.  So I get to pull another planetary hub apart all over again, on a smaller scale.

[thecfarm]

It's always nice to improve your land.
When I fill a place in I do just a little at a time. Meaning I dump the dirt and then whatever clumps and small rocks I push in front of where I just dumped a load and bury it. Then repeat.

[barbender]

Ooh I don't like to hear that Tim.

Perhaps foolishly, I purchased some old logging equipment this winter. I didn't inspect it critically enough at all, now both pieces are sitting dead on my landing, in my way as I skid around them with the ol reliable Pettibone cable skidder🤦 Nothing fatal, the Ckark skidder has a stuck injector on the old Detroit 453, and the Hydro Ax blew a seal on the loader lift cylinder that was a real bear to get off. The cylinder is at the hydraulic shop getting rebuilt, I'll have to pull the injector off the skidder to get it unfrozen hopefully. 

I had never been inside the valve cover of a Detroit to see the unit injector system, and understand the terminology like "running the rack". And I was completely content with that, and yet here we are😂

BTW, I think the phrase "running the rack" is a poor choice of words for what you are doing to adjust the injectors in a Detroit. What you are really doing is adjusting the control lever on the fuel control shaft to synchronize them. The "rack" in Detroit terminology is the shaft that goes into the injector, it has gear teeth cut on it. So it is a "rack" proper, like a rack and pinion, it turns a gear, inside the injector that turns the fuel plunger to meter the fuel. That's what this shade tree mechanic has learned, whether he wanted to or not🤷😊

[Resonator]

Just so "running the rack" doesn't become: "runaway stuck rack..."  

Guy I watch on You Tube has a circle mill he runs near Pittsburg PA, he uses an old Detroit bus motor to power the mill. Every time he starts it, he has a guy outside the saw cab manually engage the clutch, and set the the throttle RPM. This he does by jamming a nail in a hole drilled through the throttle lever. Gotta love simple tinker-toy technology.

[SwampDonkey]

Sounds like running an old air vac potato harvester. Someone has to engage/disengage the clutch and adjust the rpm at the beginning and ending of every trip across the field. Now adays there is no one at all on the harvesters, just a guy in a tractor cab. That all changed about 15 years ago.

[barbender]

Mine would've been a "runaway" situation, but the "newer" Detroits have a "safety" fuel rod. The fuel control fingers can move independently, so one stuck injector doesn't hang all of the injectors wide open. More things I learned that I had no desire to😁

[rusticretreater]

My spring issues so far are a broken, dead battery in the lawn tractor(fails a load test), kubota fuel tank obstruction for fuel and the upper control arm bushings on my old dodge dakota are done.

Got one side of the bushing replacement done and have a plan for the fuel issue.  Just gotta throw some money at the lawn tractor. 

[beenthere]

Resonator
Is that Shannon at Temple Hill Sawmill ??

[Resonator]

No, Mark Galicic. He's got many, many videos of his mill running. His buddy Eddie Horvath runs the Detroit (and has his own You Tube channel). Eddie's very particular that "the nail" for the throttle gets put back in it's place every time he shuts down.

[caveman]

I was driving the 45 miles home from work a couple of nights ago and I lost power steering, power brakes and the battery light turned on.  I watched the temperature gauge, and it did not get too high, so I kept going.  I got home and popped the hood and noticed the serpentine belt was slack and the tensioner pulley assembly was missing a pulley.

I ordered a new Motorcraft belt and tensioner pulley assembly.  It should arrive tomorrow.  I'll probably spend quite a bit of time on Monday learning how to route the belt and install the new tensioner.  I've been driving my wife's suv the last couple of days-it will spoil a man.  I have a lot of other stuff that needs mechanical attention (I'd starve to death if I relied on my mechanical skills to survive).