I'll just have water

[rontaki]

I wanted to get more use out of some old,

Following this thread intent, I had 6 pair of Levis's 505's still good, but holes in the knees. So I went to the local laundry/seamstress, an asian lady, and asked her to patch up my blown out jeans knees.

Even offered up a pair for the patches, and she replied, it will cost you more for me to patch these than you can buy new. So I asked "how much", she said 30-45 minutes and $40-50 estimate each,

So I bought new ones, but this is not the way we did things when I grew up, it was fix and repair, but those times are gone it seems

I wanted to get more use out of some old, holey Levis for chore and yard work. I certainly am too lazy to sew large patches, so, sacrificing one of the old jeans, I cut some large patches out of it and drizzled hot melt glue on them for attachment. Worked great! Just be sure to glue around the perimeter of the patch, and cover the inside area with lines of glue enough so the patch is going to stay. You don't have to cover every square inch of the patch.
The iron-on patches seem to use a thin layer of hot-melt. Hot melt is a fantastic way to glue fabric, if you don't need the flexibility that sewing would give. So far, these patches will outlive the rest of the old jeans and have been washed several times.I guess that if the jeans catch fire, the patches might come off. I'll try to not be wearing them when that happens, although I came close to doing just that earlier this year. Got lucky, no fire. I was cranking a lawnmower engine with a drill motor to check for spark. It spurted a fair amount of gasoline onto my pants, but the spark coil didn't fire up. That was a lucky fail for me. Lesson learned anyway.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

You go to restaurants? I brown bagged every lunch for my entire working career, and carried a thermos of coffee. I don't drink, not because I am teetotal, but I don't want to spend the money. I go to one movie every five years or so.

I cut and split my own firewood for winter heat, and am pleased that I don't pay a penny of tax on my labor.

I bought my pickup new in 2004, an unsold 2003, for 25% off the sticker price.

I just did off-season maintenance on a 4400 watt Harbor Freight close-out generator that I paid $275 for in 1996. It started on the second pull. I ran it empty, gave it fresh oil, fogged the cylinder and bagged the exhaust. I have a 1957 Winco-Dyna 4000 watt electric start in the shop to be refurbished that I paid $50 for. It has so little runtime on it that the paint has not even cooked off the muffler. It will be mounted next to the well pump, while the Harbor Freight rig will run the water heater. The comfort level of the house does not change without power, but a hot shower is a great goodness. I salvaged an old darkroom auto transformer line stabilizer to clean up the power for the router and TV set.

I'm typing this on a Dell XP laptop with a glorious 17" screen. I replaced the old dog-slow 3600 rpm hard drive with a SSD drive and installed Ubuntu, which perked it right up.

I live on 90 acres with a dark sky site, in a 1700 sf. 1971 ranch style that I bought in 1994 on a 15 year mortgage to save interest. I have updated everything that can be updated. My utility bill last month was $180, pretty high because we had 10 days of 100+ degree heat and I used the AC for comfort, plus pumped a lot of water. I have a gorgeous kitchen. The master bath has been remodeled to be wheelchair accessible. One year here instead of assisted living will pay for the entire remodel. I built a 2160 sf. shop with office and bathroom and a separate 200 amp electrical service. I have a creek in the back yard, and a gazebo overlooking the creek. I have set up a full RV hookup next to the house, with an eye toward offering housing in trade for eldercare. My wife's father was a successful attorney, and she is pleased that our house is nicer than the one she grew up in.

I have been retired for 13 years and, except for RMDs, have not touched retirement savings. I do not feel deprived. Money is a tool. If you squander money, it's the same as throwing your tools in the river. I can pay cash for anything I want, but don't want much.

 

[not2old]

I can no longer find comfortable jeans to fit me. I have one pair I bought when the boss got mad and demanded I buy them. They are an expensive (to me) pair of Levis. The zipper is too short and I have to open my belt and button to lower the pants when using the boy's room If you are old, you know how often that is. My other beef is that they only have five belt loops. Six is passable. Cheap crap shouldn't cost so much and I won't go shopping for jeans with her again. I can't wait until they are worn out and put them on when I have grubby work to do.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

My dad used to burn all of our household trash once a week in a big culvert pipe stood upright with an air hole at the bottom. Anything that wouldn't burn, like metal and cans, he'd save in a couple trash cans and a few times a year we'd go to the dump. While there, he'd poke around appliances and machinery and rip out motors, pumps, weird things, and bring them home and make stuff. He was very proud of his drill-powered drain pump for unclogging the driveway drain. He'd give me the weird stuff to tear apart and see how it worked. Poor man's Erector Set, I guess. Anyhow, I have great memories of our expeditions.

One of my hobbies is refurbishing electric motors. I have a half a dozen 2.5 to 5 hp. single phase motors that I bought for $25 each. I take them apart, clean them up, install roller bearings (some are so old they have brass bearings and oil cups), paint them up, and sell them for $400. Pin money, and something to do with all my spare time.

 

[WinterDeere]

One of my hobbies is refurbishing electric motors. I have a half a dozen 2.5 to 5 hp. single phase motors that I bought for $25 each. I take them apart, clean them up, install roller bearings (some are so old they have brass bearings and oil cups), paint them up, and sell them for $400. Pin money, and something to do with all my spare time.

I also used to own a relatively large fleet of late 19th century and early 20th century motors, more than half of which had recirculating oil bath plain bearings. They work great, and have infinite service life, if always kept oiled and if the owners changed their oil at least a few times over the course of a century.

Actually, that was probably my favorite brand: Century. The prior owner of my 5hp Century motor claims to have weighed it, and wrote the weight on the casing in white chalk. 400# I never verified that, but having moved it many times, I can believe his number. It was 30" diameter x 30" long, although the massive scale of the 1800# saw in this pic makes that behemoth motor look tiny.



(Saw wasn't set up to run in that photo, I think it was snapped on moving day.)

There's a cache of another 4 old motors under the stairs in the background. Bonus points to anyone who can ID the one visible next to the workbench!

 

[Hay Dude]

What I'm always hunting for are those solid-color flannel shirts that are as thick and heavy as cardboard. If you've ever owned one, you know what I mean, they make "regular" flannel shirts feel like a woman's nighty by comparison.

Now what would you know ‘bout wearin a woman’s nighty?

 

[WinterDeere]

Now what would you know ‘bout wearin a woman’s nighty?

As long as I don't misbehave too badly during the day, I get to sleep next to one most nights!

 

[Carl_NH]

There's a cache of another 4 old motors under the stairs in the background. Bonus points to anyone who can ID the one visible next to the workbench!

Baldor 2 or 3 HP?

 

[WinterDeere]

Baldor 2 or 3 HP?

Oh geez! Didn't think anyone would even take me up on that. But I should have known, with this crowd...

You were right on the size! But not the brand. This is a 3 hp repulsion induction (RI) motor from Wagner, being set up on a 32" Crescent bandsaw from the WW1 era.

RI motors are known for incredibly high starting torque, without all of the inrush and exploding capacitor problems of normal cap-start induction motors. The trade-off is a commutator and brushes to maintain, and a fully-exposed brush-lifting mechanism that both clogs with dust and sparks in a shop filled with sawdust.



But germain to Larry's post, it has continuous recirculating oil bath plain bearings:

 

[Carl_NH]

I was looking at the motor in front of that with the blue dot- didn't see the one behind!