Comments Off on The Friday that was

By Dave, August 7, 2004 12:08 am

The morning started off with unloading the Toyota. That involved moving the Case which had to move to get the trailer made of the Toyota's bed out from where it was and moved to the spot vacated by Bill's Toyota project. That involved removing the tarp and bungies and replacing the exhaust stack. It started first try and I moved it out of the way. Trailer has a 17/8 hitch and the ball on the truck is a 2 inch but after jumping up and down on it it seated enough to move empty anyway. Got it to it's new location and spent 20 minutes or so moving the short steel shelf pieces from truck to trailer. Then back to the Qhut. Ate a banana and got some water and out the door to Marvin's Building Materials for plywood and electrical stuff.

Get there and find where the CDX is and they had 6 sheets left of the 19/32's that I wanted for decking the front loft. Cat and I loaded them into the truck and after parking it went in to get the electrical stuff.

Got the wire first, 12-2 w/g 250 foot roll. Then got 6 plastic ceiling boxes and 6 ceramic keyless lamp fixtures, 3 light switches, 6 plastic receptacle boxes, 10 pack of duplex receptacles and 10 pack of covers, box of insulated wire staples, and forgot the wire nuts… Paid and went to the truck. Loaded the stuff in the back on top of the strapped down plywood after tying the bag tops and go to the gate.

The prick on duty takes the ticket and goes and plays his little bs power game looking at the plywood. Which is strapped down really tight and is all even and he can't see well enough to see what thickness it is. so takes him a while on one side then he goes to the other side and then back to the guard shack to look something up on a sheet on the wall and then back to the back of the truck to look some more. Then comes to the window and mutters something about though it was 3/4's and throws me the receipt. I suggest he engage in self flagellation and that he have relations with his ancestors also and depart fuming…

Get home and Rob had called. Returned his call and arranged to go to his house after we had lunch to work on his car.

I went to the barn to get the battery that was charging or supposed to be but the ground clip was not connected any more. Got it anyway and put it in the Lincoln which Cat had brought down.

Then back to the Qhut and I got a quick shower, dressed and we departed for the Village Inn for fish and hushpuppies it being a Friday. Got there, devoured a couple of very well prepared catfish, sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, turnip greens with hot sauce, and several hush puppies, all washed down with several glasses of ice tea.

Then to Anniston to Rob's dads house where the BMW is located. After much fumbling, cussing, sweating, and getting much greasier than I had wanted to I discovered that you have to jack the engine up and remove the drivers side motor mount to get the starter out of the hole it's hidden in. Got it out finely and after pulling it apart and looking at what there was to see, put it back together and one stage at a time tested it. First the motor, which ran fine. Then the solenoid which needed the secondary or starter side connection cleaned. Did that and tried it again with success this time. Put it back on the starter and tried it all together and it worked. Tried it several times and no failure at any time. Put it back on, hooked the battery terminals to the battery and hooked the ground to the shock tower. No start. Moved it to one of the intake manifold studs and it worked fine. No engine to body ground! Will do more on the car later but Rob is going to take from here and use it as a project car. Good luck!

Went in and after cleaning up, looked at a tv he wants me to work on, or help him with. Bad filter caps I think. 18 year old Toshiba so it should have bad caps.

Also looked quickly at an ice maker that I will go back and spend more time on later. Same on the tv…

Then looked at some stuff in the back yard that needs a tractor and blade to clear out. Will go back and do that later too I suspect.

Walmart was the next stop. 6 energy saver light bulbs, cat food, Cat's sodas, and milk since we were there and the dairy was already closed. Ran into an old friend, another computer repair geek. Talked for a long time. I was hurting pretty good by the time we left. Came home and unloaded and put up. Sat down and checked email and such.

Bill came up about dark and after talking a bit, helped me put 3 of the sheets of plywood upstairs. He went home and after Cat and I had a sandwich, I went back out front and started running wiring.

Got the switch box mounted and the feed from the breaker box loose stapled. Then took a break from hammering for a bit. Cut the 4 pieces of 2×4 that finished the edge and seam runs and brought the last full length piece in and put it all in place. Started screwing the belt rails in but the drill ran down on me after about 10 screws. Been using it hard and failed to charge it last night… Ran the first light wire but need the driver to go any further.

So I am done for the day (and night as it's 1 am Saturday morning now). Say goodnight gracie…

Comments Off on Bookwriter software

By Dave, August 6, 2004 7:38 pm

http://www.bookwritersoftware.com/bwweb/home.htm

Actually it's bookseller software but that's just picking nits… They have some good ideas but not sure about needing another program on top of HomeBase. They do have a valid point about needing each book on its own page but I wonder if this is the way to go about doing it. I still think I can use blosxom and a template and build the whole thing with applescript. But is it worth going that route or is it simpler to let the program do it and buil

Comments Off on easy barcode reader site

By Dave, August 6, 2004 7:36 pm

http://www.easybarcodetech.com/index.html

These will work with any mac or pc with no additional software. They immulate the keyboard and just type in the output of the barcode into the

Comments Off on i

By Dave, August 6, 2004 7:35 pm

http://www.ibdozing.com/

Comments Off on bookseller software

By Dave, August 6, 2004 7:33 pm

http://www.onlinebookselling.net/software.htm

Comments Off on Data entry by voice

By Dave, August 5, 2004 12:48 pm

Well, so far it's only taken me an hour or so to get a simple sentence done. As with all of the programs I have used in the past there's some words that I can't seem to pronounce. One of the phrases that I'm getting really tired of to the is "Scratch That". Think I am going to do some more of the voice training.

Okay, another round of the training done. Damn, this thing is actually starting the work pretty well! Guess I'll do another round or two of the training and see just how well it will do.

Did one more training session and it certainly appears to be working better. Better and better.

From what it's looking like right now I think I may be able to actually work with this.

The last two sentences were written without any corrections and only one on this line. Now all I have to do is figure out some interesting things to say.

Comments Off on iListen shipping update

By Dave, August 5, 2004 9:06 am

According to the email I got this morning from Apple the iListen is on the way. Checked the FedEx Tracking site and it's left Birmingham already, so it should be in Gadsden soon if not already…

Actually Eastaboga from the tracking info.

Should be here by 4:30 pm from the info they give…

Hope it works even close to as well as advertised. My hands are better today but are hurting even from this little bit of typing.

Comments Off on Mac Speech

By Dave, August 4, 2004 11:14 am

http://www.macspeech.com/products/iListen.html

This is the product I decided to go with. Looked around but this one seems to be the one for Mac users. Will see. Ordered it from the Apple Store last night. Sprung for the overnight shipping but don't know when it will go out. Site says could be August 9 before it goes out. If so I will be pissed! They had them in stock at Mac Mall and the cost wouldn't have been but a couple of dollars more and that for the shipping. Ah well… such is life

Comments Off on See in 4 spatial dimensions?

By Dave, August 4, 2004 11:13 am

http://128.143.168.25/classes/200R/Projects/fall_1999/fourdim/how.html

Comments Off on Benno on Hollywood

By Dave, August 4, 2004 11:09 am

http://www.futurismic.com/fiction/benno.html

Fiction. Interesting!

Comments Off on Tractor Manuals

By Dave, August 4, 2004 11:08 am

http://www.ytmag.com/cgi-bin/store/mansrch.pl

Comments Off on Tubesville

By Dave, August 4, 2004 11:07 am

http://www.tubesville.com/products.htm

Comments Off on Virtual farmers?

By Dave, August 4, 2004 11:05 am

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1638&u_sid=1162732

Comments Off on about your mac

By Dave, August 4, 2004 11:03 am

http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

Haven't tried it yet. My iBook is being contrary about showing about this mac… got to restart I guess.

Comments Off on Voice Recognition

By Dave, August 3, 2004 10:34 am

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/03/voice_recognition/

Interesting article. I am forced more and more to look to other input devices as my hands get worse. After yesterday (and the day or two before) I want to try voice recognition again. This numbness and tingling doesn't seem to be going away, instead it's getting worse. After I use my hands for a short time now I start getting the fingers swell like my arms have been doing for several years now. Guess it's progressive. Ah well, better today a bit. Of course I didn't do anything yesterday but sit or lie around and read or type a small amount. The typing now is causing my hands and arms to start hurting again though. Time to look at the different setups again. I hope something is available for the Mac…

Comments Off on bits of the weekend

By Dave, August 2, 2004 11:39 pm

Put the radiator in place, bolted it down, got the hoses connected and filled the cooling system. No leaks!

Put the trickle charger on last night and by this morning the battery was charged enough to try to start it. Surprisingly after a cough or two it started and ran fairly well. Got the blade raised so I could run a tap through a nut I welded on the cowl mount with a little too much heat and rod. Got the nut cleaned out and the front cowl bolted on. Upper radiator support arms bolted into place with only one foot required for alignment.

Drilled out the broken off exhaust pipe bolt in the exhaust manifold and retaped both of them. Bolted the adapter that they were using back on after cleaning both surfaces good. Reinstalled the exhaust pipe.

Starting it back up didn't go as smoothly with a long spell of just spinning and no attempt at starting. Fiddled with the throttle and it finely took off running. Pulled it out and into some brush and it quit. Started back up and pushed some privit over. Then took it to the top of the garden to a pile of brush that was too near an apple tree and blueberry bush to burn. Started pushing the brush pile and it died again. Pulled the coil wire and turned it over and had a good 1/2 inch of blue spark. Pulled a plug wire and had a 1/8 inch weak red spark. Took distributor cap off and inside was covered with moisture. I had cleaned it out last night but I guess this had condensed in there overnight, or was left over from some of the rain we have had and had evaporated from down in the bottom of the distributor as the engine warmed up. After wiping it out with a rag I then sprayed it out with WD-40, wiped the excess off and let it air dry for a few minutes for the volatiles to get out, then reinstalled it and tried the starter and it fired right up!

Pushed at the brush pile until hornets started buzzing around then went and pushed some logs up into another pile. The Case seems to be running fairly well. Going to have to work on a governor or move the throttle or both. The control that is there now is a lever welded onto the dash and I have to lean forward a bit more than is comfortable to adjust the speed. If it had a working governor the need to adjust the speed wouldn't be as much of a problem. The machine (or cab at least) once had a foot throttle control but when it was converted from diesel to gas engine the hand throttle was installed. After trying to run this machine with 4 controls that need hand attention I don't think I am going to leave the dash throttle. The right foot doesn't come into play much as it only has to push the brake which the hand controls also do if both are pulled back.

And so went Sunday. Monday came and I realized that I have over done it bigtime! All weekend and the last part of last week too. Today I paid. Will probably be down tomorrow too the way I am feeling right now. Got to quit doing this. Knew it as I was going full tilt yesterday but wanted to get that machine running. Took a break or two but the heat is a killer with me now. I was soaking wet 2 or 3 times. Had to change my shirt twice and pants once. Just gonna have to stay inside for a day or two and then take it easier. Small bites eat the elephant. But damn that sucker seems to keep growing…

Comments Off on friday redux

By Dave, July 31, 2004 10:22 am

After a slow start, Mark H came by with a commercial ice maker that he needed help soldering the compressor back into. While we were working on it Rob J came by for a chat. Finely got the last connection made and it seeming like it would hold and loaded it up. Rob and I chat for a bit and wander around looking at assorted stuff till he needs to leave. Suspect it was lack of ac in all the out doors type places we were but maybe not.

Then I get back to work on the Case. Got the front cowling right side bracket welded back on. Then put bolts up through the the radiator mount holes in the frame. Get the magnet and weld them in place. Try to mount the radiator and after bending the bolts just welded get it to fit. Weld nuts on the cowl mount brackets and manage to only flow weld into one thread area. So now have to start the dozer and raise the blade so the cylinder that is covering access to that nut is out of the way so I can get a tap into the area and clear the threads. But the battery is dead. And there may be rain overnight so wait till this morning to get it hooked up. Get the radiator mounted and try the engine one more time and it turns but the blades scrape the radiator lower tank. Back off with the radiator and the fan blades. Reshape them somewhat and back on. When taking the tank back off I noticed the top hose connection was cracked at the very top. So back to the barn and torch. Find the solder and fluid. Then the brush. Solder the connection back up. And back to the Case and put the radiator back on. Try again and 2 of the blades still make contact. So get the big channel lock pliers and re-arc the blades with everything in place. We got clearance!

And a storm coming in so close up and put all the tools up and call it a night.

Went back down this morning and after a short detour into the barn for wasp spray and then killing the nest hiding in the back of the battery box, I got the charger hooked up and battery is now charging. Tried the engine but don't have enough speed or fire or something. Guess I need to pull the distributor cap and see if water has gotten into the points. Coil looks really bad. Will need to replace it soon if for no other reason than to make sure that isn't one of the problems with it cranking and running.

Last day to get the shelving metal from the merc. So have backed Bertha up to a bank out front by the small saw mill to unload the building. Got down to the barn to get the tractor and the rain started, so I came back in for a bit. Cat went to get some groceries for the weekend, should be back soon.

Comments Off on friday

By Dave, July 30, 2004 9:55 am

still feeling the need for rest. going to try to go and change the plugs and oil on the tractor. then put the hood, front cowling and side rails back on. Need to get the trailer and carry it over to my dads for a bit but that may have to wait till tomorrow or sunday.

Comments Off on one of those weeks

By Dave, July 29, 2004 3:10 pm

been a week so far. one I would rather not repeat. Don't know that it was all bad but there have been some low points.

Got the radiator out of the Case and it wasn't as bad as it looked at first. I removed some of the cooling fins and got the tubes straightened out as much as I could. Took a refrigerator and used duct tape to cover the holes and with it lying on its back added about 30 gallons of water. Took a pressure regulator and added a hose on the outlet with a fitting and 3/8 npt to 1 1/4 npt ell which fit one of the hoses on the radiator. Put a air fitting on the inlet side and used a pvc 1 1/4 plug on the other hose and hooked the air up to the regulator. Put the radiator in the water and turned up the air till bubbles came out. everywhere that it had been hit. So with my trusty leatherman pocket needle nose-pliers, some flux and solder I proceeded to use the smallest tip on the acetylene torch and soldered the tubes up. One hole at a time. Lost count but after a bit the only leak was the cap at 10 lbs and just more leaking from the cap at 20 lbs. So I am calling it fixed. For now at least. I can always cut the damaged tubes out and solder the crimped ends if necessary so…

Went to the Merc and got the toyota pu loaded down with a bed full of steel shelving brackets from 12 inches to 6 feet long. over a thousand pounds of the stuff. Got about 3 to 4 times that amount of long stuff in the 10 and 12 foot and longer pieces. Gonna try to go and get that tomorrow.

The trip above was yesterday july 28. Today I haven't done much but sit or try to say still. To much activity the last 3 or 4 days. Hands and arms are giving me fits. Legs and feet not too far behind. Think I will make it a somewhat early night tonight.

Cat and I went to The China Star in Jacksonville for lunch. They had my favorite on the bar — Egg foo yang! Pork, but you can't have everything, I guess. Was good anyway. Ate too much but what the hell. Leaving out saw Steve as he was coming in. Would have stopped and talked but I was not having a real good time right then and wanted to get things over with. Sorry, Steve.

Anyway went to PCH and Bob came out to the car and we talked a minute. Wasn' t up to walking at that point. Went to the dairy and had to let Cat go in and get the milk. Then back by the folks house but they weren't there so back here. I crashed on the couch for a hour and had enough energy to go back out to the folks and talked for a couple of hours then back here and the couch… Tiredness rules today…

So read and made a trip or two to look at the dozers but by the time I got there had to come back and lie down again. Really pissing me off… I know I need to slow down but when I get to feeling like working there is so much to do that I crash from over doing… Gotta quit it. Even the load out somehow. right…

And now goodnight.

Comments Off on sundays and some days

By Dave, July 25, 2004 12:46 pm

This has been a week. One to live over another way. But so far we have made it through. The greenhouse is about 2 inches deep in water right now. Water coming in the front room in 3 or 4 places. I am sure that there is water running through the barn too. Still coming down but not quite as hard. Worst is over I think. Or in this wave anyway.

Bought a Case 310 dozer last Friday. And within minutes of getting it off the trailer took the radiator out as the cab and front end were not firmly affixed to the frame and motor so when I backed up and went over a hump and came down the cab and front hood shifted back and down as the frame and motor moved up and forward. The fan won.

Fast forward to Sat morning at an equipment auction in Oxford. There is this old freshly painted dozer sitting there. John Deere 440 with blade and ripper. It runs and has fair hydrolics. Control is a bit hinky but that can be fixed or compensated for. Clutches feel good. Bidding comes up and I get it. Paid more than I wanted to but not much. Get it home.

Unload it and drive it down in the field. Push a bit of dirt around. Its a lot stronger than the Case was before the mishap. Stop and check radiator and its low. Go to check the oil and the dipstick isn't there. Bad feeling coming on… Pour water in the radiator. None runs out anywhere that we can see anyway. Pour more water in. and more… about 4 gallons later I notice it running out the dipstick hole. Real BAD feeling is here…

Get the hood off the John Deere this morning. Took a few pictures of things as they sat. Then started taking it apart. Got the valve cover off and there is water everywhere. Oil is white. Seems REAL clean now… But it still runs good! I am going to have to get the big tools out. Head is coming off next. After the rain quits. Probably tomorrow. Or the next day.

Got the hood off the Case as it was in some shade. Had gotten too hot working on the JD. Gonna have to get the torch on a couple of the bolts to get the front cowling off. I think that a few nuts welded at the frame and some reshaping of the cowling I can put a toyota radiator in place of the one in there now. The thing is a frankinstein already so I have no qualms about going further. I am going to burn holes in the cab and frame and add several bolts to the 2 on each side that are currently there. It may not ever win any beauty contests but it will NOT be loose when I get through!

Went back to looking at the JD and the final drive gear on the left side (sitting on it) is totally worn out. The bearings are gone and the shaft has bad wear groves all around it. Guess the only thing to do is to take it out and see how bad it actually is. If its not too bad I may try to rig a welder up on the lathe and build it back up and then turn it back down. Or just try it by hand. Should be able to get the weld smooth enough with a high current and slow rotation on the lathe.

And the cable is out. Or the modem. Either way we are unconnected. Trees are coming down as soon as I can get one or the other of the dozers running. Trailer is coming in and we are moving in!

Still raining. Talked to mom a few minutes ago and she said that another storm is on the way. Or another wave of this one. Hope its not a electrically active as the last one.

Tis the next morn and still no cable…

But at least the iBook is still kicking ass!

davesMac:~ dave$ uptime
7:46 up 23 days, 9:02, 2 users, load averages: 0.38 1.00 1.20

And the rain is still coming down.

9:30 and still waiting for the cable guy… Still raining a bit. Overcast and cool. After this cuppa I am going to go out and see what other damage we have. Bill noticed that lightning had hit the big pine at the end of Brock's and our common fence down by the creek. That's most likely when the cable went out. It blew a spiral our of the bark all the way from top to bottom. So that's another one that is going to have to come down.