At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Here's my mouse trap. It works very well. I plan to put it outside near the pickup truck tomorrow when temps get above freezing. I may alternate putting by the pickup truck and by the tractor. There is probably no limit to the numbers of mice running around in these woods.

[J F]

What are all the women going to say about how you get rid of 'em?

[Obed]

What are all the women going to say about how you get rid of 'em?

Jay,
My wife had some sympathies for the mice until she heard one of them inside our wall chewing on our house. That's when she let me start using the 5 gallon bucket mouse trap. The mice were gone with 24 hours.

I am quite out numbered. I am living with 3 women/girls.

Obed

[J F]

It's funny how reality kicks in, no?

[clemsonfor]

Back to your saw and chains obed. I saw that M7 linked you to the Northern grinder. I have the HF grinder, think i have mentioned that before, but i paid $30 with a coupon, it pays for itself fast if you pay $5 per chian to sharpen at a shop.

As for the splitting verticle on a log. I may have said bucket or milk crate i know? But i to use a log myself adn in the end it gets spit too!!

[dex3361]

My mother has moved in with us due to some health issues. She has been here for about a month. She has trouble getting out of normal height chairs so I made a platform out of some scraps in order to raise her recliner 4 inches.

Attachment 306238 Attachment 306239 Attachment 306240

I did the same thing for my mom and step dad. They love it.

[Obed]

Back to your saw and chains obed. I saw that M7 linked you to the Northern grinder. I have the HF grinder, think i have mentioned that before, but i paid $30 with a coupon, it pays for itself fast if you pay $5 per chian to sharpen at a shop.

As for the splitting verticle on a log. I may have said bucket or milk crate i know? But i to use a log myself adn in the end it gets spit too!!

clemsonfor,
Yes, I could pay for a $30 sharpener quickly, assuming it doesn't hurt the chain. The hand sharpening kit cost me over $20. Have you had any issues with the cutter angles getting sharpened to the wrong angle because of sharpener precision issues? I've heard that can be an issue with the cheaper sharpeners.

I really liked using the splitter in the vertical position. Unfortunately, I haven't be able to use the splitter much since my mom moved in. Getting her settled has been taking up some time. Hopefully I'll get do some more firewood work soon.

Obed

[Obed]

I just installed a timer for the hall bathroom vent. I got the idea from my BIL. Using a timer will run the fan run a few minutes after you leave the bathroom to give the vent time to remove any remaining oders.

We paid $18 for this mechanical spring timer. The main reason we chose this timer is it can be installed using a standard non-decora face plate.



I have found that the hardest part of wiring stitches and recepticles is mechanical in nature, not electrical. It can be tough to find space for all the wires and devices in the gang box and can be tough to maneuver the stiff wires.



I am convinced that the engineer who designed this timer switch has never wired anything himself. You would think that you could just attach two wires and the ground to the switch and be done. Unforturnately, the device had to be taken completely apart in order to connect the house wires to the terminals located INSIDE the timer switch. After attaching the wires, it was difficult to get all the parts to fit back together due to the unreasonably tight tolerances. In addition, the pictures in the instructions were for a switch that was manufactured differently than the switch in the package.



My wife bought me this electrician's screwdriver while were building the house. This is one of my favorite tools. It has a couple different ratchet mechanisms that really speeds things up. It comes with two phillips head and two straight head drives that are easilly interchanged. You can also use it to twist a wire nut. It is my screwdriver of choice whenever I need a manually operated screwdriver.



I eventually got the switch installed and so far it seems to work fine. We plan to install another timer switch in the master bath. We'll see how we like this timer switch. I already know I don't like the ease of installation.



This timer switch made me wonder how an electrician would charge a customer for installing it. It would likely take him longer to install the device than the electrician would guess. Who would expect to have to take the thing completely apart in order to hook the wires to the terminals?

[clemsonfor]

clemsonfor,
Yes, I could pay for a $30 sharpener quickly, assuming it doesn't hurt the chain. The hand sharpening kit cost me over $20. Have you had any issues with the cutter angles getting sharpened to the wrong angle because of sharpener precision issues? I've heard that can be an issue with the cheaper sharpeners.

I really liked using the splitter in the vertical position. Unfortunately, I haven't be able to use the splitter much since my mom moved in. Getting her settled has been taking up some time. Hopefully I'll get do some more firewood work soon.

Obed

Its definitly not as "precision" as those $100 or $200 units but its as precision as i think you need for what you and i do with a chainsaw!

It will take a trashed chain that has been litteraly run into the ground(think cutting dirt for extended periods), which was not done by me but someone at work on a work saw, and turn it to factory sharp. Now i had to take a good bit of metal off this specific chain due to the abuse that it received adn the roundness and nicks in the cutters but after a good bit of grinding i had it like new. Its motor i think is weaker so when taking a huge bite of cutter you have to go slow but on normal sharpening you just pull it down like a chop saw. It deffinitly has some flex to it but is WAY better than hand fileing as for precision. I thought i was pretty good at hand fileing as i have been doing it for 10+ years now. This showed me how off my cutters were. I did not have a fancy gague but just an angle gauge for hand fileing. This allowed me to have an error in at least one angle.

As for how i work it. I keep about 3 chains, and take at least 2 with me when i cut. It is so fast to use the grinder i dont even hand file anymore unless i am in the woods and i only have one chain and it needs sharpening. Other wise i just swap to the spare chain if i knick a rock or it dulls from HARD wood or dirty wood. But in green oak i can fill 2 full size truck with about 2 tanks of fuel and not much problem out of the chain, if need like i said i swap but i can only drive 1 truck and so can my wood cutting buddy, and we rarely make more than one trip a day so this method works for me.


I think i saw this month in my HF coupon book that it was on sale for maybe $26.99. This is deffinitly not JUNK like some of the HF stuff can be. If you sharpen 6 chains you pay for it if you have been paying $5. I also can just barely kiss the cutters so its not like you hack up your chain with each sharpening. I think i have sharpened a few of them 3-5x each at this point and there not worn out yet, the chains that is.

Ignore the website price of $39.99 unless ordering online. Its onsale all the time for $29.99 with a coupon, which is what i paid. If you are really interested i will dig out one from either field and stream mag add or one of the sale papers i have and send it to you if really interested.

[Coyote machine]

Hand sharpening chains requires a few basic things to make sure it's done right. I start with the bar in a vise protected by magnetic vise jaws, which are made of a hard plastic to keep the vice's jaws from marking the bar's paint. I find the chain's master link and go from there. I sharpen all teeth in one direction and then put the bar in the opposite direction and sharpen that side. Each tooth gets a certain number of strokes and ONLY in the forward direction, NEVER do I pull the file backward across the cutters. The rakers also get a flat file treatment every other sharpening, or when they are protruding beyond where they should be based on a gauge reading. High quality Stihl chain has lines in each tooth to show the angle to file at. I usually move the chain with the brake released so I can file a few teeth sequentially, AFTER having locked the brake to help hold the chain from moving in the bar groove. I almost always remove the chain from the bar and check it for pinched areas of the groove, any bend in the bar, and I ALWAYS clean the bar groove and oiling holes with a bar groove cleaning tool and then blow it all out including the chain sprocket and side cover, etc. I flip the bar every 2nd sharpening to keep it wearing evenly and after going through two chains per bar it is time to replace the bar too. Eventually, depending on how often and how well maintained the chains are it will become necessary to change out the chain sprocket.
Also, I change out the in tank filter on my Stihls at least once a season, or more depending on use, as well as air cleaning the air filter every time I remove the bar and chain for cleaning.
When you start seeing smaller chips or sawdust like particles it's time to sharpen your spare chain(s).