Coffee 2-8-14

Yup, a slow day in the coffee house.... that just means we are all busy. That's a good thing!

Batteries, batteries, batteries.... Had to put a new one in the '07 Honda CRV this Fall, but my 1997 Ford van is still running on it's original battery! I swear, I've never even removed the clamps to clean them. Anyone is welcome to come inspect it! A close inspection will show the clamps have never been off. Now THAT's one tough battery! I spoke with the Ford dealer last year. They said that same battery is still available.

LsFarm wrote: the front, center and rear main bearings are each 3" long.

Holy crap!

21 degrees here this morning up to 30 today. Burned through a lot more coal the last 30 days than I had anticipated. It's been friggin' cold the last month! Going to have to bite the bullet and order 2 more tons before winter is over. I could probably get by with 1 more ton but if you're going to order one, you might as well get two. I'll use it eventually.supposed to go go down to the single digits,....again,......next week I know this has been the coldest winter in the last 20 years here, I wonder if it will be the coldest on record? The Degree Days will tell the story.

Carbon12 wrote:21 degrees here this morning up to 30 today. Burned through a lot more coal the last 30 days than I had anticipated. It's been friggin' cold the last month! Going to have to bite the bullet and order 2 more tons before winter is over. I could probably get by with 1 more ton but if you're going to order one, you might as well get two. I'll use it eventually.supposed to go go down to the single digits,....again,......next week I know this has been the coldest winter in the last 20 years here, I wonder if it will be the coldest on record? The Degree Days will tell the story.

How much coal are you burning per HDD? It looks like your area gets historically on average about 5,200 annual HDD's. And probably 5,100 of those occur during the months when you are actually heating the home.

Yep, chilly here C12 -8 Nice weather for inside tinkerin:) Got a real pretty RED SUN this AM, we'll see where that goes. I'm glad I picked up that ton & 1/2 last week:)It's weird Larry, I seem to be burnin as much as I put in the old HITZER????? Up to 60 lb per from 40. HDD, hmmmm??? Harley Davidson DynaGlide???????????????

freetown fred wrote:Yep, chilly here C12 -8 Nice weather for inside tinkerin:) Got a real pretty RED SUN this AM, we'll see where that goes. I'm glad I picked up that ton & 1/2 last week:)It's weird Larry, I seem to be burnin as much as I put in the old HITZER????? Up to 60 lb per from 40. HDD, hmmmm??? Harley Davidson Dyna???????????????

Fred, are you actually going to burn more coal this year than you usually do? I'm shocked.

The only thing I can figure is that it's a hell of a lot colder--that's just according to MY calculations

freetown fred wrote:The only thing I can figure is that it's a hell of a lot colder--that's just according to MY calculations

Pretty good calculations!

freetown fred wrote:it's a hell of a lot colder--that's just according to MY calculations

degree days.... schmegree days.......I knew it was unusually cold when the holes in Freds old skivvies were letting in too much draft causing him to buy new ones this week!!

I'm burning between 2.3 and 2.5 pounds per Degree day, inclusive of DHW.

Morning all.

I see we warmed up this morning. Only -3 here. Feels right balmy compared to yesterday's -20.

Sure has been one of the coldest winters since I moved here. First time I remember it going below zero in November. And it just gets colder - just got my highest ever monthly utility bill for my electric plenum heater. And it's barely keeping up. Used 20 gallons of fuel oil last month to boost the temps during the worst of it. At that rate, I'm gonna need to buy more fuel oil in about 10 years - sheeesh !

Sealing up the air leaks in the kitchen range has helped it crank out more heat, but this monstrous old place needs more than that little firebox range can put out. Gotta finish restoring the Oak 118 parlor stove.

Fred, congrats on the new undies ! I wondered why the whistling sound from the west of here stopped this week.

Paul

LsFarm wrote:Good morning! It was WARM overnight!! only about 0*, maybe +1*.. a big improvement!!

My coal pile definitely is shrinking faster this year than normal.. But, that's what it's for. To keep the house and shop WARM !

I think it's time to shovel the snow drift off the back deck.. I don't want that snow-melt water against basement walls. not that they leak, just would prefer the water, when it finally melts to water [June? ] to not be under the deck.

I've been working in the shop, pulling down a '25 Pierce engine.. It will get the cylinders bored oversize, new forged pistons with modern rings, a good valve job with new exhaust valves. And a few other items it needs..
This car and engine will get probably 1000 miles on it this year,, no, it might even get 3000 miles.. I've got several meets and tours planned.

We had some sunshine yesterday, and I had cleaned off most of the solar panels. so I made some KWH's.. December and January were so cloudy and snowy, that I've used up my stored credits and will have an electrical bill again..

Well time to get to work..

Greg L

Greg,
That's one tired motor !!!!!

Just a heads-up. The Egge 3.5 bore Pierce-Arrow pistons are the same that we use in the 30 and later Franklin's. If you go with them, they'll seize up at Egge's recommended clearance. They need to have .0030 -.0035 at least. In your water-cooled Piece you could probably get away with the .0030, but the extra half-thousandth won't be any noisier and won't seize going up a long hill.

Here's pix of the last set of the Egge Pierce pistons I had seize.

Paul

Morning all,
We are in a break before the storm - or so they tell us. It's only 28* out and the stoves are running at 150* and producing 75* inside temps. I wasn't feeling so well so I hit the bed early and DK took care of the stoves last night. I almost freaked out to find them set at less than a half turn this morning when I went to refresh them but they were exactly right. The blue ladies were up and dancing - can't ask for more than that.
We are looking for a couple of inches of fluffy stuff this morning and then again on Wednesday. I’m tired of it all.

Yesterday my daughter and I made the trip to Jefferson, MD and picked up another full ton of coal. The price is so much better if you buy a pallet full. I spent the same $330 for the ton that I had paid for 30 bags on the last trip. This time that $330 included the rental trailer but I got 20 more bags. That works for me. DK almost has me convinced to buy an F-250 so we can haul all the coal without a trailer. Maybe it’s time....

Oh yeah, I was able to go into the hive on Friday. I wanted to check out the food supply for the rest of the winter. Once inside, I decided to slide an empty Top Bar to the back and put the new feeder Top Bar next to the cluster bee. The girls were feisty and not happy I was messing with them. Ingrates. I ended up with several bees getting entangled in my hair and stinging me before I could squish them. Sometimes that’s all you can do.

Anyway, it was entirely my fault because I know better; I should have never gotten so close to the cluster without putting on my veil and gloves especially so given the weather. On the other hand, the girls’ defensiveness is a good sign that the hive is strong going into the rest of the winter. A weak hive would have just accepted the intrusion. I have hope the hive will make through to spring. We’ll see; the queen should have or will restart laying anytime now. Those bees will hatch sometime in Mid-March ready for the spring honey flow.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Take care, Lisa

Just make sure you don't buy a new one (F-250) Lisa ... unless you can trade it in every 4 years or so ... I have more confidence in Ford than GM these days, but not enough confidence to buy a new one.

Wow what a mess Sunny! Looks expensive! I run my 2-stroke RD at .002" clearance, but the bore is only 64.5mm ( a little over 2.5" ). Stock actually calls for .0016", & I would've preferred that .. but the machine shop just went with .002" . One cylinder is just a touch noisy, and the other is silent - I'm guessing it's because they didn't label the pistons left & right ... so I have no idea which one was measured for what cylinder. Hindsight is always 20/20 ... but the bike runs VERY STRONG so I can't complain one bit.

Knock on wood, I've never seized an engine before in my life. Spun bearings ... but never seized. (I'd better shut up!)

WOW Greg - I guess that engine has seen some serious run time over the decades with that kind of wear! Too bad it didn't have an hour meter from the factory - that would be interesting. Probably pretty close to the wear on my original Blazer 4.3. When I removed the heads, there was a giant ridge at the top! Not only could I feel it, but you could SEE it. Never measured it, but I could tell it was gigantic - like 1/8th inch at LEAST. It's a wonder it even started in the morning! That engine burned a quart of 20W-50 in 15° temps every 50 MILES!! What a smokeshow when the wife left for work in the morning!

Here's a pic of the exhaust when she started it up near some snow ..... check this out!! Just a few revs of the engine here ...

SMITTY wrote:Just make sure you don't buy a new one (F-250) Lisa ... unless you can trade it in every 4 years or so ... I have more confidence in Ford than GM these days, but not enough confidence to buy a new one.

Hi Smitty,

Thanks for the advice on the F-250. We never buy our cars new because here in Virginia we have something called the personal property tax. It adds $4.57 on every $100 of a new car’s value. Even a modest priced car has a big tax bill right off the lot. The personal property tax is due yearly and decreases as the car’s value goes down. It kills me to have to pay a tax on a personal item that I worked my butt off for to be able to afford. This is still America at least for a while longer.

So we never buy new cars and the used ones we get we drive until they start nickel and diming us to death. I like to say “our plan is that we will drive a car until the state pays us to get rid of it.” The closest we’ve come to that is a 1987 Toyota Tercel wagon that we owed $50 bucks personal property tax on the year we sold it. That car had over 250K miles on it and almost no maintenance beyond oil changes. It’s why we always look at Toyotas when considering getting a new used car. It’s the reason we have two Toyotas now - and a F-150.

lowfog01 wrote:in Virginia we have something called the personal property tax.

In Maine they call it "excise tax". On a brand new car it's 2.4%, so on a $35,000 vehicle it'd be $840. It goes down each year, but it hit's "minimum" after 6 years.... my 1997 Ford Van is $108 minimum. After you pay the excise tax, then you can pay for the title and registration. Of course that all happens after you paid sales tax at the dealer. OH! And, the excise tax is based on MSRP....NOT what you paid for it!!!

Then.... if you have a truck that is a wrecker, a well driller, a big tank.... whatever you mount ON the truck, THAT get's hit with personal property tax.

<edit> I just realized Lisa.... Your $4.57 per hundred is about double our 2.4%!!