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By Dave, January 9, 2008 9:09 pm

After walking around most of the day looking at and in things to see if I could find a piece of spring steel to replace the valve in the compressor, Bill and I were headed toward the camp when Cat hollers and asks if the spring out of an old stapler she had would work. I looked at it and thought it would, took it out and after straightening it out and using the shear to trim it up a bit turns out it would. Used a chain saw file to cut the screw openings. Rounded the end a bit with the grinder. Cut the end off the old spring and then mounted the new one under the old. Put it all back together, added a drop or so of Marvel Magic Mystery Oil through the valves and cranked it up. Added a bit more oil and ran it till it shut off at 140 psi. Good enough repair. Very little coming out of the top, and no more on that side than the other.

So we got air again for various air tools and other uses. Now to go over all the connections and joints and take care of all the small leaks. Before the valve gave out I was loosing about 25 psi a day which isn’t bad but would rather not loose any.

Went and looked at the yard sale trailer a bit today. Should be able to clear out the main room without much trouble. Just got to figure out where/how to move the stuff in it to. Starting to think that the next move needs to be to clear the trailblazer camper out and remove as much of the inside as necessary so it can be used to sleep and cook in and still have room to store and get to our stock. Need to see if Herrington will haul it up there for fuel money. 🙄

Gonna tear down what I had started as the round house. Wrong place and time. Going to set up a concessions stand and picnic area there. 2 10×20 garage portable buildings after a bit of grading and its mostly done for about 200 bucks. We have canvas that will do for walls and ends. Just gotta cut and sew a bit here and there and buy a pile of bungie balls… 😆

Gonna move Tim’s sales hooch over there too.

Looking at putting a bridge over the creek behind the office building for car and truck traffic. The road through the creek is wearing down way too much.

Gotta find the battery charger. Need to charge the battery in Tim’s truck so I can move it to the work area to replace the water pump. Also got some body work on another truck that I gotta get to soon… 🙄 Automotive work just keeps on rolling or dragging in whether I want it or not. 😕

Will look at the Ultimate boot cd. Been quite a while since I have messed with any M$ computer stuff so am out of the loop a bit. 😆

Time and past to call it a night. Hope the storms tomorrow are not as bad as they are predicting. Need the rain just not the wind and tornadoes. Till I type again… 😉

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By Dave, January 8, 2008 7:22 pm

Some bits better and some are worse.

Got the Nissan Pathfinder done today. Or as done as I am gonna get it. Air bleed plug is in and fluid topped off, though not in that order. 😉 Hatch inside cover put back on with new clips, and light switch disconnected. Steering column reassembled. Lights all working. Coil mounted and relays remounted as they were supposed to be. Done, done, and done.

Got a job that requires air pressure in the tank. Last few times I have needed it it would climb to 120 and sit there for quite a time and I have just been cutting it off. Took the head off the compressor this afternoon to see what the problem was and have got a large hole in a spring steel valve. Spent the rest of the daylight looking for a piece to make another one out of. So far no luck. Gonna go to the yard sale trailer and see if I can find anything over there that will work. After that am gonna take a seat belt roll up unit apart and see what kind of spring they have in them. I know something around here will work. Just gotta find it. 🙂

Got Cat a new hard drive today. Now to figure out what process/program(s) to use to copy the old one to the new one. Old is 120 gb new is 250 gb. Think she wants to dual boot too. Guess I need to download the latest and greatest pclos for her to install.

Looks like we are gonna be selling airsoft products and equipment out of the yard sale trailer soon. Tim got the license today, so I’ve got to clear a bunch of stuff out of the main room asap. Also need to get that bathroom torn out and ceiling repaired. And a entry way built. Bit by bit… 😯 🙄 Ought to be an interesting few weeks, months, whatever till things get to the point they are workable.

Got to get a mail box set at that gate too. And move the boat and camper shell. And clear out all the crap in the back parking lot.

When I said tin, I meant galvanized metal roofing, most likely of the 5v style. Did a price comparison a couple of months ago and per square foot it was cheaper by far than the 3 foot wide stuff. Depending on the amount of rain we get or don’t get tonight and tomorrow, I am hoping to get a start on clearing the area to build the work shed on.

Tis early and all but I think I will close and try for an early day tomorrow.

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By Dave, January 7, 2008 7:18 pm

Yes indeed they are. Had a line I needed to plug and had no plug handy. Found an old rusty bolt and after grinding down the hex head to close to round chucked it up the lathe and turned it down to the needed size. Rounded the sides a bit so they wouldn’t cut the hose and clamped it into place. Should work for many teh year. 😉

The screw in the top radiator hose is indeed a air bleed screw. Drilled it out, after removing the fitting from the hoses, and ended up having to use the torch to heat the nylon up and inserted a square shank screwdriver and waited for it to cool and it came right out. Looks like a trip to the Nissan place in Oxford in in my future to get a replacement part as the guy at the local parts house looked at it and laughed at me. 😕

Just got off the phone with the owner of the Pathfinder. He’s fine with the repair and the price. Will go and get the parts and finish it up tomorrow.

Now I been thinking again… 😯 🙄 Looked at the portable carport prices today, and I can get the tin to build a permanent structure for less than the cost of one that will not last more than 5 years on the outside. I think I will go to the building materials center and buy tin instead. True it will not be portable, but it won’t fall to pieces within a couple of years either and we have piles of lumber to build the frame with. Just needs a bit of cleanup to be usable.

Tis early but I am about done in. Till the morrow… 😎

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By Dave, January 6, 2008 6:11 pm

Most likely gonna be short tonight.

Up and out on a warm sunny Sunday morn. Did a walkover of the playing field to pick up crap and lost and found items. Very little today which is a good thing.

Worked on a Nissan Pathfinder for light problems. Had a wire to the old trailer light plug that was shorted to the latch at the back door. That had burned the contacts in the light switch on the steering column. Cleaned the contacts lubed it all and it works fine. Customer wants me to check on price of new switch to determine if it’s cost effective to replace. I think the repair is good but will check. Suspect it’s a dealer only item and most likely high. Also replaced the dome light.

Replaced the mounting bracket on the coil and fixed a large rusted hole in the inner fender well. Coil was fixing to fall out on to the front tire. Bet that would have been fun. 😯

Still got a pipe that I need to seal off and a weird fitting in the middle of the upper radiator hose that is leaking. Otherwise almost done other than putting the column back together.

Hope to get enough ahead with this repair to get a 12×20 portable garage with ends and sides to put up below the barn so I will have somewhere to work under shelter and not have to take the tools and stuff in every night. Want to go to Tractor Supply tomorrow and check prices on them.

Think I am gonna go rest up in anticipation of a hard night of sleep. 😉

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By Dave, January 5, 2008 9:13 pm

Had a good turnout today at the game. Fielded at least 34 for the first part of the game. Lost several at midday break mostly due to broken guns, so I don’t know how many played the whole day. Had quite a few eat at days end. Had sausages and hot dogs, baked beans, slaw, chips, cheese, crackers, pickles, brownies and cookies. Most was consumed… 😯 😆 Gonna have to educate some of these folks about what potluck means as we ended up with the prep and cooking and greatest part of the food expense too. 😕 But it was a good day overall.

Hoping to get out and go to the flea markets on 431 tomorrow (Sunday) morning. Will see what the weather and bodies are like in the am and make the decision then.

Is raining just a tad here right now. Didn’t expect us to have any rain till sometime middle of the week. Guess I missed something. Just looked at the radar and it doesn’t look like it will be much or last long.

Just reloaded the firebox again. GOT to get started on building the new unit. Understand what you are talking about, Steve, but what I am looking at doing isn’t quite the same even though part of it is. The blower and heat transfer pathway is similar but where a radiator or heater core uses the constant water flow to make the transfer, the bells will be where the hot part of the flue gases rise to as the cooler combustion components flow below them and out of the dwelling. Got to get a drawing made of it and scanned in. Will try to do that either later tonight (yea right, I’m ready or past it for bed now) or more likely later tomorrow.

Also had to go back down to the field and get the chronometer and put it back inside when the rain started. Guess it’s another one of those things that needs to have a shelter of it’s own so it can just stay out there. Also has to have an external light source if the sun isn’t shining so a shelter with light would be ideal for any weather. Will have to look at that. As we have talked about putting in a permanent shooting range the addition of the chrono stand to one side wouldn’t be a bad idea. Guess I need to add that to the ever growing list of crap that needs doing. 🙄

Gonna call it a night.

Comments (1)

By Dave, January 4, 2008 8:37 pm

Or something along those lines.

First off though, Steve, you’re on. I’ll post something, be it simple or complex drivel every day that I’m able to get to a computer, and on any days that I can’t I’ll still write stuff down and post it when I can get to one.

Still not got my head together enough to get a real post together so todays is gonna be a disjointed ramble of dis and dat.

Got a airsoft game going tomorrow. Went out and looked over the area today and most of what needs to be done is. Still got a piece or two of plastic and some other building materials on the field but they can walk around or over, cause I ain’t gonna pick it up before game time. 👿

Got the bamboo caution taped off so hopefully they will stay out of there.

Put together 3 barricades for Spook to use in the game tomorrow, then blocked off the building materials area.

Gonna have a potluck supper tomorrow afternoon. Need to get some firewood hauled down to the firepit for the after the game sit around the fire and bs session.

Hope to get up to Collinsville during the coming week to see where on the site we can rent a spot to set up and sell stuff.

Still haven’t made any progress on getting set up on Too Many Books to sell books and stuff. Need to try to spend at least a few hours on getting that set up so we can start listing stuff.

Fire is finally warming the room up a bit. Had let it die down while out and about this afternoon and it’s taken a while to get it back to comfortable.

Got to get working on a heater for this place. Been thinking about building a unit to go on top of the existing woodburner to allow the hot portion of the flue gases to rise and the cooler components flow down and out. I’m thinking if I enclose the bells/pipes/whatever you want to call them, in a metal plenum (?) we should be able to duct from that to the heat/air ducts in the trailer and add another to the qhut. Add a blower and some pipes through the top of the bells and fill around everything with sand/clay/cement for heat storage mass. I suspect I will need to draw this out as it’s in me head but not coming out me fingers too well tonight.

On that somewhat disjointed ramble I will close for the night. More tomorrow… 😎

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By Dave, January 3, 2008 10:50 pm

Just joined blog 365 and now have to spout some form of daily drivel for the next lap around the local star. 🙄

So this is todays post. Will see if I can do a bit better tomorrow… 😕

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By Dave, January 2, 2008 11:37 am

Amazon.co.uk: Bic Crystal ballpoint pen, medium point, black, EACH: Electronics & Photo

Steve pointed me to this link for the reviews of the pen and I must say they are funny as hell! Have yet not made it through all of them but plan to waste a bit more time on this frozen day in Alabama and finish them off. 😆

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By Dave, January 2, 2008 11:22 am

Slashdot | Copyright Cutback Proposed As RIAA Solution
“InfoWeek blogger Alex Wolfe proposes a novel solution to the ongoing spate of RIAA lawsuits over alleged music copying. He suggests legislation which cuts back corporate copyrights from 120 years to 5 years. “We should do what we do to children who misbehave,” he writes. “Take away their privileges.”

Not only YES but HELL YES! This sounds like the best way to handle the insanity that I have seen/heard yet. Legal ramifications non-withstanding, the innovation stifling effects of the longer and longer copyrights is doing massive harm in so many ways. So lets roll em back and screw the RIAA in the process…

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By Dave, January 2, 2008 11:13 am

WordPress › WP Grins « WordPress Plugins

Here’s the link to the WordPress Grins plug-in. Well done and done well. 🙂 Makes it a lot easier to add the annoying little smilies to any post or comment. 🙄 😉

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By Dave, January 1, 2008 10:17 pm

Saw this theme Paalam over at Gordo’s Brain and liked several things about it. Grabbed a copy and with a quick delete or two and some modifying of the image for the header, made it mine. Now to tweak it some more. Cool theme.

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By Dave, January 1, 2008 7:50 pm

The Raw Story | Descendants of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse break away from US

More power to them! Makes me think about moving…

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By Dave, January 1, 2008 7:41 pm

Using Smilies « WordPress Codex
😆

Meant to link to this page in the earlier post but failed to do so and am now correcting that error. This is the site and page that I got the info on using Smilies in WordPress.

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By Dave, January 1, 2008 7:36 pm

Bicycle Design: A bicycle-powered welder

So what do you get when you put a bicycle, a 300 lb steam engine flywheel, a old lathe, and a jack together? These folks made a welder. Kinda sorta. As they say tis about the worst looking weld ever but tis there none the less.

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By Dave, January 1, 2008 4:28 pm

The smiley images and the text that produces them in posts and comments:

And no, you can’t cut and paste. I had to do a screen capture to get this to display. 😈