51F when I awoke this morning, headed for a high of 78F under cloudy skies from an arctic low slowly making it's way south. Sunshine and warmer temperatures return tomorrow, with no rain in the foreseeable future. You know it's dry when the deer come up into the back yard to munch what passes for grass there. I stopped watering about six weeks ago, but it's still greener than the meadows around it.
Drew, you do have a way with bunnies. Hope your trail cam results are equally as cute. But you need to slow down some more. You're STILL makin' the rest of us look bad. :laughing:
Larro, hope the dentist went easy on you.
vtsnowedin, I spend a lot of time farming rocks, too. A five gallon bucket works pretty good once the big ones are all gathered. You can range farther from the loader bucket and spend less time moving the tractor.
wngsprd, you really know how to make a dog happy! Brings back fond memories from my misspent youth of hiking the hills in southeastern Ohio, way down in the hollers :cloud9:
I think you are being too modest, your bushes aren't rough work, they are skilfully machined circumferential textured grooves to hold the grease :thumbsup:
Eric, I like your way of thinking, and can't help but agree.
My only formal training came in the days when boys went to shop class in Jr. and High School, and nobody ever even thought about digital readouts on the machines, let alone the calipers and micrometers. We also ground our own cutter bits instead of using carbide inserts, and walked to school in the snow in our bare feet, too. :laughing: All the rest came from reading books, hanging out with real machinists, and what little practical knowledge I could pick up during my career. That still leaves a lot of room for experimentation and error, but what fun would it be if everything always worked out as planned?:confused2:
And don't get me started on elections: the results are often far worse than the process itself. :stirthepot:
The Ford passed the annual inspection, good for another year. I had it aligned too since I put new tires on a month ago. Sharon's new car fever is waning, not sure what that means. Now that we have new tires and a new radiator, she hates to not get some use out of the expense. I guess that works until the next expense comes along. :laughing:
Brilliant strategy, Dave. More time to decide, and maybe take advantage of the inevitable Memorial Day sales :thumbsup:
Had a little more time to spend on the loader yesterday, and got the bushings pressed into place. Even came up with an easy way to get the holes for the grease fittings and retaining bolts aligned BEFORE the bushings were pressed. The one inch long bushings went in pretty easily, but they provided enough resistance to dash any hope of doing the three inch long ones with a bolt, nut, and a couple of washers. That meant heaving the loader arms back up onto the little hydraulic table again, then balancing them on the slippery top while I got one end positioned under the press head. But it was worth the effort as the bushings pressed in smoothly and undamaged, which after all is the point, isn't it?
Then I jumped back into turning new pins. I'd started that job by driving the stock with a three jaw chuck and supporting the outboard end with a live center, but that made it difficult to check the size by trying it in the bored hole. I have a face plate and dogs for the lathe, but have never used them, so I decided to give that way a try. First thing I found is that the face plate had no slots or holes to engage the tail on the dog. That meant more time on the mill to create one, only to find that the only dog I had big enough to take the shaft had a clamping screw too short to reach it. The thread wasn't SAE, and the metric thread gauge couldn't find a pitch either, so for the moment anyway I'm stumped on that route. I have a dog that is too big, another that is too small, but not one that is just right...
A while back in another thread, a fellow asked advise on purchasing either a used Kubota or a new Kioti tractor. So I thought I'd share my experiences. They were not received well by the Kubota faithful, who rapidly circled the wagons with shouts of "tractor abuse" and other assorted excuses. I never claimed that they all do that, or that my problems were typical, but I was amazed at the reaction in spite of the photos and clear explanations of why I felt the root causes were design and manufacturing related and had nothing to do with abuse. So rather than totally disrupt the poor fella's thread, I signed off this morning with one final warning. That was to consider not only the machine itself, but the reputation of the dealer and factory warranty personnel, as well as the unforeseen and potentially deadly results of equipment failure when both operating as well as selecting a tractor. Here's a link to that message in case you have absolutely nothing else to do...
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...-used-kubota-new-post4129752.html#post4129752
Hang in there, gang. Friday's comin'!
