Coffee 1-12-113

Socked-in fog this morning. Clearing out now. Guess that stuff covered the entire northeast, sounds like.

Geesh you guys are way outta my league! Computer screens and keyboards on a machine?? My machine tools consist of a vice, an electric drill, a BFH, a 20-ton press, and a bench grinder ... and maybe a bottle of whiskey .. or two. Not big on precision .. just gettin' 'er done.



I've got a 30 year old (or so) ice auger here. Gotta try to get that goin' for the coming cold snap. 2-stroke with no muffler - should drive the yuppies bonkers. It's just a metal cover over the exhaust port. Way it should be. Probably going to have to make one for it, or pulling the recoil will be the same as pushing 911 on your telephone ... at least if it's used anywhere in this state. I'll get some pics of that later.

Hey I just had Folgers myself. Those Jimmy Dean sammitches are good if yer in a hurry in the A.M. I have a good supply of reduced salt Spam that's good fried up with some taters and eggs over easy. My customer gave me some Armenian apricot preserves that's good in there with it.

Got as far as we could with the barn. That's the owner up there, the guy is 75! He is an army vet, conservative all-American just like I like my buddys. He keeps his place in order which is to be admired. He really wants his barn buttoned up, he's got a model A in there and a 57 T-bird he's doing a frame off restoration on.

Everything went well except the ridge cap is not to his liking. Not quite the same as the old one and he doesn't like the fit. Last thing I did was go up to the ridge, we had a rope slung over the barn to scale up to the top! I got some 9" peel-n-stick window flashing, similar to Grace Vycor; and stuck it over the top for the time being. Awkward as heck straddling that ridge and my rump has been sore for two days We'll leave that up there to be covered by whatever ridge cap we end up with.
That barn is 100 years old and used to have cedar shingles on it. We replaced quite a few straps and the old ones were held down with cut nails. Most of the pine straps are still strong. Rafters are oak, and it's cool to see the economy of materials they used to build that barn.
Panels are 15' 4" and that's a 9-12 pitch!

Looks mint! Those are the roofs (rooooooooooves?? ) I stay away from. Me & excessive pitch don't get along so well. I remember climbing a roof that steep at my buddy's house when I was younger. Goin' up wasn't bad .. but coming down I blew the ass right out of my pants! Just like sandpaper ...

Wish I could have done metal on my barn. That's the way to go. Oh well. The way I figure, with no kids to pass the property to, the state will just seize it anyway. Why use building materials that will last? If they're gonna get something for nothing, well, I'm making it a mission to LEAVE NOTHING for them ... except a nice brownfields site.

Nice work Danny. Allot of people are switching to the tin roof stuff around here also. Lasts for a very long time I guess. My house has quite a few large gables on it. You should the pitch in the main part of the house! Like Smitty said, I can get up there ok, it's getting back down that is "awkward" to say the least. Gables all over the old place. Check out the the front in this old pix. Was a Biatch to roof.

Nice barn Dan--they wer built to kep the snow off First full pix I've seen of your house SZ--real nice 15 trs ago, I replaced my roof, took her down to scratch--pricing for metal compared to shingles??? metal was a tad cheaper--I'd bet that's not the case today

Good morning everyone, we had the fog yesterday, thick stuff, you could see the stuff move in the slight breeze. Vis was about 6-800 feet for several hours. NIce and warm though,, so now most of the snow is gone, and the road is MUDDY. Tomorrow is rain.snow mix with 33* high.. and below freezing
all next week.

About the flu, I usually get a flu shot because of being exposed to so many people in my former job.. but this last year I never had a cold until the family gathering for Christmas. one of my great-nephews gave me 'a present' that I didn't want..
On the news last night there was a discussion about the latest flu, Sounds pretty bad, so maybe a flu shot is a good idea still.

About machine work, a little over a year ago, I found and bought a Gorton MasterMill. uses the big NMTB ? 40-taper tooling. it has
an electronic bed location readout.. uses a 3-phase motor and two DC bed and knee motors.. so a huge electrical panel on the side.. I had
to buy an single to three-phase inverter..
I installed the machine at a neighbor's shop, he has room, I also took my big LaBlonde [sp?] lathe there too, I don't have 3phase here.

In a year or two, I plan on adding an addition to the shop, so I can put the cars in the addition, and devote a corner to a machine shop, My
current machine shop is more of a fabrication shop, i do have a smallish lathe, but the corner-shop is mostly welding, grinding, sawing, sandblasting etc.
I'd like the more precision machines to be in a cleaner environment.

Lots of projects here, I'm not getting as much done as I'd like.I spend too much time on the computer.

FFred, I hope that quarter horse is ok,, so you 'feed' a horse gunpowder to 'clean him out?? never heard that.. Are you sure he didn't eat a fender
or seat cushion off the 8N ??

A few days ago I tried to drill a hole for some wiring through the sill-beam in the original part of the house.. thought it was an 8"x8",, I think it must be 12" wide.. I buried the drill's chuck in the beam with an 8" auger bit, and still didn't get through. so I ran a 20" 1/4" bit through to see where it came out outside, and tried to drill from the outside in.. I bent then broke the auger bit.. so I'm going to weld an extension on the bit and give 'er hell. Maybe I'll get those wires through in another day or so. a 30 minute job taking a week..

Today?? who knows.. maybe I'll get more done on the setup of the reloading /gun room. I need to empty the guest bedroom, it's been the 'gun room' since the house demo and rebuild.. so I guess it's time to get it moved and set up.

Overcast and 51* for today.. Maybe I'll take the dog for a walk.

Greg L

Almost all the snow melted this week
was knee deep
mid 40 yesterday
windy now - low 20 tonight

time to catch a cold

Good morning everyone!!! Thanks for the coffee Freddy, I sure need it this morning. It is -2 here in Dickinson, N.D. We dodged the blizzard by a few miles. However, the truck is gelled up and won't start!!! Yeah, I agree. The store bought sausages are good!!!!

SMITTY wrote:Looks mint! I

Ya! Nice job on the roof's. I dunno about the steel roof's though.... in 25 or 35 years they start looking rusty & then just 35 or 40 years after that you need to replace 'em!

I hate steep roofs too. 5/12 is my favorite pitch.... you can walk on it with confidence & if you slip, you can easily stop yourself. I'll go on a 6/12, but you have lost the good confidence & if you slip you may or may not stop yourself without hurting something. I no longer go on anything steeper that that!

Very nice Maine home Steve. I was watching Aerial america last night on the Smithsonian channel; they have aerial views of a lot of states and it was about Maine last night. They have narrative commentary all along. They said in the 1800's lobster was considered a pauper food! A group of indentured servants lobbied successfully to be served lobster twice a week max. They also said so many fishermen lived on islands off the coast that they were always looking back at the "main" land, and that's how Maine got its name.
Hey Smitty, it looks mint because it's from a distance Actually came out pretty good.
Fred, I see how you screwed your panels in, along the seams it looks like. We put up a panel and then marked along the strap with a dot from a sharpie, and then had to punch through the panel with an awl. The supposedly self-tapping screws were just spinning on the panels. They're 1/4" head with a wide part to accommodate the rubber seal washers. We had a ryobi impact drill, but it starts its impact from torque and not downward pressure. Also had a DeWalt and a Makita. I understand the guy's desire to button those panels down tight after Sandy peeled that roof and wove it into a tree 100' away!
My problem is I don't know how to say "no"! ( Also no worky, no eaty)
The other guy is 60, has two artificial hips, hell of a hard worker himself. I like to work by myself, but it was nice to have some commaraderie on the task.

I got sent to woodshop in high school, if I got sent to machine shop, I might have ended up in that trade. A lot of kids had long hair in 1974, one buddy let his hair get caught in a spinning lathe and it yanked out a silver dollar size clump of his hair.

I worked in a tubing machine shop once and almost lost my pinky finger after a day of bending a run of 10,000 brass tubes that were gonna be the nozzle in coffee machines My pinky was feeding into a die and I reached under my own arm and I hit the reverse just in time. ( I'm starting to tell the same stories over and over here uh ohhh)
An old German machinist lived next door for years. His shop was in his garage. He showed me a set of dividers he made for the military once, six pins that would scissor equidistantly- amazing craftsman.

Sting, that looks like Vin Diesel in that pic

Not sure why it didnt work Dann. I have used Craftsman and now I have a Makita and a Millwaukee impact driver. Puts them thru in nothing flat.

Kevin

We went against conventional wisdom here at Ye Ole NoSmoke Abode, and despite having a baby on the way (our 4th) we opted to double up the kids and rip out one of our 4 bedrooms and make for a bigger living room (24X40). That necessitated making some beams to carry the load and wanting the hand hewn look, I thought the best way to do that was to actually chop them out by hand. It is not as bad as you think, I can now make an 8X8 inch beam, 12-16 feet long in about 2 hours and have greatly improved my axemanship skills. Setting them up was a different story as my wife is 5 months pregnant and should not do too much lifting, but we got them in place!

Then last night, with no kids at the house, the Mrs and I went out for dinner, but it ended up being one crazy night...but not like that you dirty minded ole men!

We got all gussied up and went out to dinner, but on the way home she felt sick which is an issue when you are 5 months pregnant, so we went to the emergency room. I admit we looked kind of funny walking into the hospital all dressed up, but they said we looked nice, which was a nice compliment, though my wife felt funny laying on the bed with a hospital gown and nylon stockings on (she cannot wear full nylons because it would ride up on her baby belly too much). It seems she had an infection which caused some contractions and belly pain. That kind of sucked because by the time we got out of the hospital it was late.

But it gets more strange...

As we came out of the hospital, some woman was curled up in the snow, puking her guts out and looking very ill, like she was about to die. So I go running back in and summons help. It takes forever, but then as I am helping this poor woman to the front door, half the hospital staff comes pouring out to help her. I guess they are slow, but when they do arrive, it is with full cavalry!! Now in good care, me and the wife head home, but I had to wonder despite doing a good deed what the woman had, and if I am now infected. I used half a bottle of hand sanitizer on me, but wonder if that is enough?

Yep crazy night! Here is the wife's photo at what she looks like half-way through the pregnancy. We find out tomorrow if we are having a boy or a girl! I am hoping a boy as we already have 3 girls (8,6 and 5).

I'm glad Mama's OK NS

NS, hope she just way to much to drink and not the flu. Not trying to ruin your day but, there were prob. more flu germs INSIDE the hospital.

FF, hows that horse doin? find anything in the pasture?

freetown fred wrote:Nice barn Dan--they wer built to kep the snow off First full pix I've seen of your house SZ--real nice 15 trs ago, I replaced my roof, took her down to scratch--pricing for metal compared to shingles??? metal was a tad cheaper--I'd bet that's not the case today

Cost to buy and cost to use over 30 years are two different things. I wish I could buy some of the metal roofing used on our old freestall barn, that stuff must be 20 gauge galvanized. Installed in 1964 with nails and lead washers...to this day it has never been painted and doesn't have a single rust spot.