Keeping character, or restoring a pond

[jinman]

Harvey, it sounds like you need a good gazinta-gazouta list or diagram to keep everything straight. I know you've got it all detailed out in your brain, but there aren't many/any other brains out there that work like yours.

 

[txdon]

Harvey, it sounds like you need a good gazinta-gazouta list or diagram to keep everything straight. I know you've got it all detailed out in your brain, but there aren't many/any other brains out there that work like yours.

Jim, it is really easy to figure out. First read all the post very carefully twice, then wait till Harvey's project is complete, then reread all the post carefully again and BAM! you get it.

Harvey, the cave idea has me wondering if you will be moving boulders again?

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The water department whupped up some really bad news for me. They're afraid an eight inch main is running underneath the old fence line. It's an old cement/asbestos/gawdknowswhatelse kind of line that is fragile as heck. I did some checking and supposedly you can break it by just digging next to it, it's that bad. The frosting on the cake is the line is supposedly only two feet deep.

We are moving the fence line in a foot for tree reasons. But I don't like the idea of leaving the old concrete from the old fence line in place, not my style. However, I also don't want to pull an old post and have an 8" water main break either.

So...... tomorrow I have lined up a borrow of a Vacutron. That's one of those trick tools you see the utility companies use to locate underground facilities. It's a combo pressure washer/super vacuum machine. Basically you dig down with the pressure wand and suck out all of the debris with the vacuum as you go. The objective is to locate the water line in multiple locations to insure that we don't damage it either pulling the old fence or installing the new. It's pretty hard to cut a utility with a high pressure wand, at least I hope so.

I hate having to go through this much trouble but when I heard that the pipe can be broke with the tap of a shovel and it can be extremely expensive to repair, I called a friend who does utility work for a little help.

Tomorrow should be fun to say the least.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Now Don, didn't that bridge idea work out just like I said it would?

Almost anyway, right?

 

[txdon]

Now Don, didn't that bridge idea work out just like I said it would?

Almost anyway, right?

Exactly as you said. But I doubt many can see how the opposite method used to prevent cave-ins was the design skeleton of the bridge to hold it all together to prevent the opposite: a cave-outs. :scratchchin:

Of course the extras are a source of amazement: steel pegged rocks, the wagon wheel, curved railing, signed protruding State of Texas, and don't forget, the longhorns!
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...tejas-north-texas-project-502811-image012.jpg

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I picked up the Vermeer vacutron from the bud and set it up to operate, read the manual and everything. About that time the boys from the water district showed up and took over. Five minutes max with the Vermeer and they told me to move that thing out of their way and they went to get their own rig. The issue was the Vermeer had a standard high pressure head on the wand and theirs has the turbo tip. The difference is night and day. The turbo tip cuts that hard compacted clay like it's old chocolate cake.

We ended up with a four foot deep and four foot long trench and never found the water line. I got the go ahead to dig my post holes. All of the locates are done and next week the posts ought to be rolling off the line at the powder coater. The fun will begin.

I have a nice video taken of the wand and vacuum in action. I just need to learn how to load it here. Kinda funny about that, used to be it was take a picture, get it developed, scan it into the puter, then post it on tbn. Then it was take the picture, download it onto the puter, downsize it, and then post it on tbn. Now it's download it onto the puter and the picture is the size of a billboard and no down sizing is required. And we want to do video too.

Hear that Ibrahim?

 

[EddieWalker]

Does that mean they don't know where the water line is? and if you do happen to hit it, does that mean they will take responsiblity for the repairs?

Eddie

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Does that mean they don't know where the water line is? and if you do happen to hit it, does that mean they will take responsiblity for the repairs?

Eddie

Yup. Yup.

 

[ScottAR]

Turbo tips should be in everyone's kit that has a power washer over 3k psi. They are amazing.

 

[Lowntown]

Hi Harvey,

Where is the thread on the awesome steel fence you are building, I will read this one when I get the chance. Not enough time to read through 67 pages of texas ********. take care my friend.

P.S. If anyone ever gets the chance to work with Harvey-- do it. You will not regret it, and I have not been the same since.

 

[txdon]

Hi Harvey,

Where is the thread on the awesome steel fence you are building, I will read this one when I get the chance. Not enough time to read through 67 pages of texas ********. take care my friend.

P.S. If anyone ever gets the chance to work with Harvey-- do it. You will not regret it, and I have not been the same since.

Lowntown, The NEW fence project starts on this thread, page 62, post 619. Welcome to TBN. A lot of us here have worked with Harvey and know how you feel!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Don do you have a link to the story on your gate? Mitch teaches a shop class and he would like that thread.

For those that don't know him Mitch is a teacher in WI and our common passion is the welders in Haiti. Mitch teaches them to weld and we both take welding lens of arc helmets to Haiti when we go to give to the street welders. We teach them to make and use cardboard hoods so they can really weld because otherwise they use sun glasses.

 

[txdon]

Don do you have a link to the story on your gate? Mitch teaches a shop class and he would like that thread.

After an intense search I found it.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/111160-other-39.html
starting at post 382

Harvey, you really need to start a new thread for each major part of each project with a name that is easy to search.

Oh, by the way the gate is used several times each day and is still working just fine, it makes me smile every time it opens especially in cold rainy weather. I did replace the battery last year.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

That gate makes me smile when I think about it too. It's the only gate that I've ever made where I had a partner help me do the work and two supervisors who managed to manage and be manageable at the same time. It was a ton of fun to bend a piece of steel and then hold it in place for approval, never done that before.

There are three phases of a project that are just about equal in the fun department. Conception is a kick because it is about finding the edge of the box and then running like crazy when you find it, "free at last!" Building it is all about challenges and overcoming them. The pleasure one gets when whupping butt on a challenge is about as good as it gets. Then there's the appreciation from others when it's done. The last one is great but I have to admit that the first two are better with one caveat. They are harder too share when you work like I do most of the time, by myself.

So when I look at the projects that gave me the most pleasure the ATV bridge and the snake/wagon wheel gate are near the top just because I wasn't alone in the first two phases.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...102939d1211162783-other-dons-entrance-038.jpg For those who are grin impaired and searching for a remedy.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Yesterday at 7:00 a.m. I got the call no one ever wants to get. "Harvey the galvanizing is coming apart in the oven, it's a mess."

We are talking about a major issue with 12,000 lbs of steel that I have a ton of money invested in not doing what it should be doing in the powder coating process. Needless to say I was across town at the powder coaters as soon as possible.

What happened was the workers had grabbed three pieces to be coated as a sample out of a rack I hadn't inspected close. Some of the pieces in that rack are really crappy, they will have to have sections ground down and then the whole piece re-dipped. The workers luckily grabbed three of the worst pieces.

Prior to applying the wood grain they noticed bubbles on the pieces. They picked at the bubbles with a knife and the bubble chipped off, galvanizing left on the original piece and the powder coat too. So it is the galvanizing that is failing.

However, this appears to be just a small sample of the material. The rest of the stuff looks great.

Next week we will cull the bad stuff out and the galvanizer will take it back to make it right. This is one of those "WE have a problem" that isn't as hard on the system "I have a problem".

 

[wroughtn_harv]

The powder coater had a post ready to wood grain but didn't put it in the oven because, this is the stuff I love, they were processing some thin material and it takes a shorter length of time and lower heat than the thicker post would require. So the last thing they did was coat the post and then send me these photos.

 

[Ranger Rick]

Wow that is beautiful. Hard to believe it is steel.

 

[txdon]

Wood peckers and termites are in for a big surprise. Looks good, no maintenance, will outlast all of us, Wow.
I'm anxiously awaiting the construction phase and to see the first section!

 

[forgeblast]

Wood peckers and termites are in for a big surprise...lol no kidding.