Freddy's Coffee House 6/30/12

Really good coffee house this week, I see everybody is still at it. You guys all have better toys than I do wahhhhhh.

I worked at an alternator shop in Delray Fla. for a year, way back in 1980. 95 degrees at 9 AM in the summer, we had big three foot fans mounted in the back of the bays! You got used to it.
There's another book I could write. It was in the same lot as Evaul's Auto Repair. Bob Evaul had a great customer relationship; he would SCREAM at his customers. They were mostly elderly condo-dweller retirees from all over the country, those were the days of the Dodge Darts, Chevy Novas, Ford Mavericks. He had a great customer base hahhahahah, he did honest repairs. The guy looked like Rod Serling, we could see his shop caddy corner to us on the same lot. We all thought he would stroke out, it was entertainment to see him stamp across the lot cursing. One day he yelled across the counter at a customer and the guy dropped to the floor in an epileptic seizure!

Anyway, point is, in those days I knew the complete chemical cycle of a lead/acid battery. I could draw you the schematic of a Delco alternator. We carried Interstate batteries, always thought that is a great brand. When the lead plates get sulfated, and recharging can't drive the sulfer back out of the plates into solution, that's it. There was a trick that never really worked, of dumping the electrolyte and refilling a bad battery with pure distilled water. Charge the hell out of it, and there's a slim chance the plates will recover.

Somebody just gave me a Murray mower, I tried to charge the battery, it is a stone dead plastic box, no hope for it.

Is it Monday already! Missed this weekends coffee......too much to do! Sorry about your dad Lisa. He's not suffering anymore and you know he's in a better place. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Got a 5 minute thunderstorm here on Saturday afternoon. All I can say is WOW! Big hail and wind gusts of at least 80 mph. It was crazy! Trees broken or uprooted in a few spots and some roofing tore off a couple of houses. I lost a tree......snapped right in half and landed in the road. Called a couple of friends to help me drag it off the road. One of my friends went back and got his side by side ATV. We hooked the winch to it and within 10 minutes it was off the road and on my lawn. I gotta get me one of them! I just spent 3 hours cutting the tree up and hauling it away. Another friend of mine will stop by this week and grind the stump for me.

Speaking of batteries, yesterday was our annual chicken bbq at the fire station. Always a good time. Once we got the first 200 pieces of chicken on the racks it was time to take the trucks out and set up tables and chairs. When I got in our older pumper.....turned the key and pushed the starter button, there was a huge bang! Everyone jumped and said get out of the truck! I was waaaay ahead of em! At first I thought it was just a backfire then I started to smell something burning, like plastic. I thought to myself what the heck is that? One of the guys came over and said one of the batteries must have blown. Sure enough, one did. Man, the top of it was completly removed. Thank god they were in their own compartment. Scared the *censored* out of me! Heard of it happening before, but never experienced it.

Heading to southern Maine and then to Dover, NH to visit family on Wednesday for a week. Going to see REO Speedwagon, Styx and Ted Nugent on Saturday in Guilford, NH. Should be a great concert! Hope the weather is nice. We haven't taken a vacation away from home since 2005. Have a great holiday week everyone and stay safe with those fireworks!

Beautiful country up there Bob...the grass is sure green in that picture.

Lisa, it is always a blessing when family members pass without pain and suffering. I lost my grandfather real slow to Alzheimers/dementia and I thought it was really unfair to him.

Back to the batteries - here is one for you guys. I work with a guy that is in charge of maintaining about 50 battery powered forklifts and pallet "trucks". Needless to say, he deals with a lot of battery maintenance. He said 30 days is about as long as you should let a battery sit without a small charge, anymore than that and it is a good idea to put a battery tender on to top if off. He also said if you need to charge a battery that is a few years old, it is a good idea to pick it up a few inches and drop it on the bench/floor...the idea is that a few "thumps" helps shake up any lead flakes on the bottom before you start charging the battery. I don't know if it is true or not, but I tried it once and it seemed to make me feel better.

Rob R. wrote:Beautiful country up there Bob...the grass is sure green in that picture.

Thanks Rob........it sure is nice country if you can handle the mosquitos, gnats and horse flies! The grass is very green but there is a lot of weeds. One of these days I'll buy a 3 point hitch sprayer for my tractor and hit it with herbicide once a year. Then I'll have more grass than weeds! Freetown Fred was saying a couple of weeks ago that he already had the first cut of hay done. I never knew there was more than 1 cut! That's all you get around these parts and that's not til late July! I remember carrying those bales.......arms all scratched up! You had to do it on the hottest days cause that's when the bales weighed less. Now, no one does it by hand. The bales are all round, lifted with tractors, and shrinked wrapped with fancy machinery! There is only one farmer around here that still does square bales. He only does it to sell to people that do landscaping and DOT. I think he charges $2.50 per bale.

Bob, there are still some around here that do the bales by hand, I lucked out this year & haven't done any so far but I did get to do a field of round bales for a neighbor up the road a bit. Normally get three cuts here sometimes four, this year maybe only two unless we get some rain. Takes 3 or 4 for the old bales working all day, I did a bigger field of round bales myself in half a day & I never ran the machine before.

Usually three cuts up here...Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day...give or take a few weeks.

Rob R. wrote:Usually three cuts up here...Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day...give or take a few weeks.

We only had 3 last year.... too dry and hot most of the summer.
Really dry again, struggling to get 2nd cut....

009to090 wrote:We only had 3 last year....

You WHAT? THREE cuts? Oh, gosh, you must have corn cobs 4 feet long!

Our corn that is usually waist/breast high by now is lucky to be seeing 12"--16" We seriously need some rain or these dairy/beefer farmers are going to be hurting this coming winter silage wise They tend to go with 2nd or 3rd hay cutting for nutrition value--as always, time will tell---it's all God stuff.

Our 2nd cut is absolutely terrible, but the corn is on track to have a record year. My grandfather always said "knee high on the 4th of July"...some fields near my house are already waste high.

Freddy wrote: Oh, gosh, you must have corn cobs 4 feet long!

Yeah, we use chainsaws and logging trucks to harvest em

Crop is mostly cotton, tobacco, and the grasses in our neighborhood.

Another success story....
I picked up this Campbell Hausfeld vertical air compressor for $300. It was not running. The owner bought it new in 2002, but it only ran for 6 months before it stopped running. Instead of trying to fix it, he went out and bought another one! So , this one sat unused, alongside the working one, for about 10 years.
I moved it to my shop, and tested the pressure switch (good), then pulled the Start Capacitor. Sure enough, it was bad. It did not blow, the problem was one of the contact connectors pulled out of it. I wasn't going to try and solder it back in, since these capacitors are cheap enough. Ordered up a new one, verifying the correct Microfarad range. The old capacitor was only rated up to 230vac, so I got the new one that is rated to 250vac. It oughta last longer than the original.
BUT, when the new capacitor arrived, it was larger than the old one! Soooooo, how do I make a larger capacitor fit in the same 'can' as the old capacitor? Good ol' enginuity! Slice the old 'can' up its back, push the new capacitor in, then RTV the can back together! It almost looks good too! But it works!
Now I got all the compressed air I need for my shop... 10.5 CFM , 7.5HP peak.

Ain't that RTV outstanding--had some seepage on my rear pumpkin cover & skimmed the whole thing this AM--bone dry after a 40 mile trip. Plus it looks pretty from the back---pretty is real important in Freetown also JB welded a hair line crack on the exhaust manifold to the Ford 8N--I'll 2nd coat it tomorrow AM --been sitting all day w/ 1st coat--

nice tractor freetown, are you looking for another? I just might know where there is 1 for sale. Jeff

009to090 wrote: Slice the old 'can' up its back, push the new capacitor in, then RTV the can back together! It almost looks good too!

Yaaa, well, the vote is still out on THAT, but, a perfect repair! You did well!