This kind of neighbor is good to have!

[muddstopper]

I got a neighbor like Sheildarcs. I asked him once if would sell me a piece of his property. It was just a maybe 1/4acre pie shaped corner that extends into my property. I just wanted to straighten up the property lines. At first he seemed ok with the ideal and said he would let me know. Few days later hes telling everyone I am trying to steal a piece of his property. Standing out in his backyard and screaming at me, calling me names, and just being crazy. Called the EPA on me and told them My horses where pooping in the creek. I dont own any horses, never have. Got to calling my house in the middle of the night and hanging up when i would answer the phone. He didnt have enough sense to disable callerId, so I knew it was him. I called him back and asked what he wanted, claimed he didnt call me, kind of changed his tune when I told him I had him on the caller id and had been keeping a record of his calling and hanling up. Its about 900ft from my house to his, My driveway passes thru his property and for another 300ft which is sharded by myself, him and another neighbor. Mine you my dad used to own all the property and my house(dad built before he died) was the first one built in the area. Dad built the road and retained title to it when the other lots where sold. Neighbor claimed he own the driveway (he doesnt even have an easement or rightofway) and he was going to block me from going in and out of my driveway. Said he was going to park his car in the road so I couldnt pass. Boy that went over like a ton of bricks. I owned a small dozer at the time so I told him go ahead and park his car in my road. I would just crush it and push it out of my way. Also told him to check his deed before he did something stupid, if anybody could block that road it would be me and he would have to walk to his house. He must of checked his deed because since then he hasnt talked to me. Turns his head when I meet him in the road, wont even look at me. LOL. I make sure to throw up my hand everytime we meet.

 

[BukitCase]

"I make sure to throw up my hand everytime we meet."

Yeah, but is that with ALL fingers, or ??!? :laughing:

Only laughing WITH you, got one of those "SA" type neighbors myself

Of course, "SA" stands for "Shield Arc" - (yeah, right...) Steve

 

[joshuabardwell]

Despite my list of to-do projects, I couldn't resist tearing into this mower today. After all, it's just a few bolts here and there, right? It's not like I'm going to start welding it up or anything... (I may start welding it up.) As with many things, once I got a better look at it, the situation was a little worse than at first I thought.



The right side foot-rest was concealing a crack that I hadn't noticed before. I removed the foot-rest and the fender to clear space around it. So that's what that C-clamp was doing. I was kind of confused. The crack is in a similar, but not exactly the same, place as the welded-up one on the left side, so my best guess is the frame broke and the torsion from that was what cracked the engine mount. I think I will effect the same repair as on the other side: clean up the crack, groove it out a little, then weld it up, probably with 6011. Looks like I'll get to work on my vertical up! I may also put a piece of bar stock on the bottom, similar to what was done on the other side, as reinforcement. Even a piece of 1/8" would help. The engine mounting bracket is pretty thin--probably 3/32" I would guess. I can't really tell how thick the frame is, but I bet it's not much more.

I think, if I am very lucky, I may be able to slide the engine mounting bracket out of position without having to lift the whole engine off the mower. If I do have to lift the engine, I'm not really sure where the best lift-points are. I guess the mounting holes. Anyway... it should actually not be too hard a repair, unless I get more surprises. Famous last words...

 

[bigballer]

we're fortunate to have great neighbors as well. one of them allows us to keep our horses in his pastures during the summer time, in trade i brushhog the rest of his fields and do other random projects for him. the other neighbor built me a shooting bench because he was building himself one and thought I might like to have one. he lets us makes trails for our horses because then he can also enjoy them. we all talk to each other about things we plan to do on our property in order to collaborate and make it better for all parties, I guess we are lucky to such good folks around us.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Ground clean and tacked.



I went ahead and welded it up but it was too dark by the time I was done to take a picture. Let's just say that vertical up is not my strong suit on a good day, and kneeling, bending over, looking down on the puddle instead of sideways at it... all of this was not a recipe for success. Mad props to those who do in-field repairs on a daily basis and make the welds look good doing it.

As bad as the weld looks, I know for sure it was full penetration, because I chased a keyhole all the way up! So... that's good anyway.

More to come!

 

[RobertBrown]

Gorilla weld?
Strong and ugly?
That's the way I do it.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Strong remains to be seen. I mean, if it's full-penetration, it's probably at least as strong as the base metal, right? Unless it's full of slag or something. I dunno... I took a work light out and got a picture of the weld, before I ground it down.





I think I'm going to put one more bead on there before I call it a day. Maybe something a little smoother-running like 7018, now that it's not got a huge gap to fill up.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Ran one more bead, 6011 downhill at 75 amps, just to finish filling in the crack. Looks a lot better than the first one(s). Don't know if that's because of the switch to downhill or because I wasn't trying to fill up a 3/32" gap anymore.



I also used the rod to build up the bottom of the frame, where a crack is likely to start again, if it starts again. No need to cut a piece of flat stock and weld it on... I can just build up selectively with the rod. Duh.

 

[TomSeller]

Looking real good now.

 

[Shield Arc]

If you have anymore trouble out of it, you could always fish plate it.