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On average I get my tractor stuck pretty good at least once a year, I live on the edge of a wetland that I try to mow the reed canary grass but too swampy to get to when it needs attention for real control... In the 9 years I've had my tractor I think I've only skipped one year but have been...

I'm pretty sure it's just for tire clearance, metal is thinner and fine in a small area like that... 2" is 2"...

Yeah, but of all of them Kershaw is the only one that does the factory sales :), above all else I'm a cheap bastage...

I looked harder to get an analog version on Amazon, I think I got the 10L size, no regrets... Depending on what you're doing size matters some, the 6L size like Harbor Freight just started carrying last year is a decent starting point but like said the bigger the better... I like the 10L size I...

Yeah, that... my brother has like 6? of the 3-6 cylinder Ford tractors and there's two heights of injectors, he's only bought 3 replacement injectors though for the 4600 but apparently there's only a few different injectors between the whole range of everything... we put one of those injectors...

If a liner lock fails like that it is not because of the design, it's a fine tuned setup and it was either dirty or shouldn't have passed inspection, Kershaw actually has a pretty good warranty, I work down the street from their Tualatin Oregon facility and they have a factory sale every year...

Yeah, that's water in the trans fluid, probably sat outside and got in from there over the years... would drain and fill with UTF...

If I was retired or something I wouldn't care, but I work for a living and like to do stuff outside in my "me time" so I greatly appreciate my extra time in the evenings! It doesn't really bother me, what's annoying is all the politicians changing when it happens every few years (could have...

Anyone that uses the Bauer 20V tools and uses a Dremel on occasion do yourself a favor and get the Bauer flex shaft rotary tool that takes the 20V batteries, it's fantastic... way more torque than a Dremel and the flex shaft is like 30% more flexible...

I've used the sub $20 soldering iron plastic welder from HFT and it works fine, do NOT press as the copper tip will break at the 6mm threads going into the iron when hot... but I've successfully ran a die down it and it lived again... it comes with some stainless screen material which you can...

sort of, in stick welding the rod size is the size of the steel on the inside, the flux on the outside dictates the other properties. For wire welding the amperage is transferred in the arc like in stick welding but the feed rate of the wire is varied and changes the amount of filler material is...

I don't think the 3 cylinder engines are too picky other than being gas or diesel, not sure if all of the displacement options had the same size valves or not. Likely if you find a 3 cylinder Ford 2000 or 3000 the head will likely work as well

My brother got their 3/4" breaker bar last year to break tractor lugnuts (couldn't find the rest of his kit, but we found the right socket), put a 6' pipe on the thing and it worked fine, I think it was a ratcheting breaker bar or something with course teeth...

I got one a few years ago from Amazon since I have a flexible liner and the cap is clamped to the liner... plus like said above I have a 12/12 roof and until a year ago my overhead power was within arms reach of the only place to put a ladder next to the chimney... when I use it I use the...

Good point, the heat shrink butt connectors designed for that use are pretty serious, a year ago I replaced my well pump after it'd been underwater for around 9 years (lots of silt and a whole bunch of sand when it was first put in so the impeller was shot, took out the valves in the water...

A lot of places use loctite or thread sealant that takes a bit of heat to free, either that or they assemble dry and tighten the snot out of them for no good reason... I looked it up not too long ago, tapered threads aren't about a torque value, it's based on a turns past finger tight like the...

Absolutely nothing in a modern anything is soldered unless it is on a circuit board, everything is crimped or sonic welded... We use those shrink butt connectors at work in marine environments and they work fine. We use the ones from PICO electrical supply which is what NAPA and Summit carry...

I bought the same set you have in the first post and they weren't broken when I got them, been using them with good results for a couple years, if close I would just exchange them... maybe open first before leaving the store... I'm pretty sure I like that style better than their other plastic...

All the welding rods are 6013, I don't think they have the same issue that 7018 has... I agree, the tanks are where the money is but you will have no problems getting your money out of it all if you put it on Ebay or something... might be usable, might not...

Some of the control boards are known to be sketchy, looks like a Seig lathe like the harbor freight and Grizzly units, littlemachineshop.com sells parts for them and are a great place to deal with.

I've bought and used the Husky and Kobalt sets a bunch. For myself I bought both and kept one for a camping and used the other to initially stock the toolbox in the shop since I wanted to start fresh instead of the garbled junk I'd been using... Either's fine, decent stuff in both, the Kobalt...

The one in the pic is an Orchard Rite (red gearhead is a giveaway I'm pretty sure, there's several companies that make them) out of central Washington, been there, my work sold a few engines to them... that box at the base is the engine with a gearhead at the base of the pole and a driveshaft...

The only real thing I pay labor for is tire balancing, some alignments and windshields... I drove 30k or so miles on some tires I got for $60 at an auction that I mounted myself without balancing so I'll skip out on that here and there :) I specifically bought my '97 Ranger because it was...

You're right, many people would take a stab at that themselves, it'd likely cost a bit to take the tractor and that drawing to a fab shop to get made... there's not enough dimensions to make it from just that drawing but it does have some important ones there. It does look like those 3 holes are...

At a local auction I thought it was a great idea to pick up some pallet jacks for cheap... They're both Raymond, one looks like 30 years older than the other... the older one was the one that worked, newer one just needed some tweaking, pump piston was stuck down, release valve was stuck in and...

Since I have a post on this thing, figured I'd update it... In May I worked up part of the front yard next to the shop to help take down the burm from leveling the shop then yesterday I pulled the disc out again and worked up the back area of the property, did two passes perpendicular then took...

Dumb question possibly, but what quality of tap? A good tap bought in a single pack at a hardware store or one of the cheap sets from Harbor Freight or something? I just tried to tap steel to 3/8" fine with one of the taps from the dedicated Standard tap sets from Harbor Freight and it made some...

My brother has a slew of older Ford's but all diesel... I'm not too up on numbers or years of thins but is your 3000 a 3 or 4 cylinder? If 3 cylinder I'm pretty sure you can go up to a 201 no problem as they're pretty much interchangeable from what I've read. He has 3, 4 and 6 cylinder variants...

JB should hold, will likely stick to the shifter harder than the brass but worst case you would still be able to run a die down the threads on the shifter, I don't think it's "that" risky, there's going to be some void where there are threads that don't need to be there on the female side, the...

That was only in February? Seems like forever ago... since then I've rebuilt the transmission in that Ranger, rebuilt the transmission in my F350 then rebuilt the engine in my '00 V8 Explorer... too many projects with deadlines this year! That said having the welding gas has been great, such a...

For that I wouldn't worry about lube, brass is very nice to work with, your plan with JB weld will likely be necessary but should work fine for a shift knob...

Usually I'm more into the fabrication mode or just getting something working mode... I don't go far enough into things to spit shine and paint normally... I got an old Massy Furguson 25 disc at auction for like $200 a few years ago and now that my shop is usable decided to get it working so I...

I laid two identical pallets upside down and used my chain with two slip hooks and hooked the front top board together of both pallets and drag that around with my lawn mower, works great for leveling... as for taking care of the pocket gophers a 20ga shotgun and persistence worked very well...

If you're of the "buy once cry once" mindframe then I'm not the guy you get advise from... Myself I have two of the cheap $10 on sale Harbor Freight drill index sets in my "drill drawer" in the tool box, sure they're not great but it's cheap... as you would expect some of the bits are better...

They hold cans just fine through whatever you want while tractoring, it's the tall 32oz tumblers that are only touching the top ring that are an issue... On the tractor the bottom plate is just above the hydraulic reservoir so if it migrates down it doesn't do anything too dumb... I've still...

I've been using those on the riding mower and tractor for a couple years now, I'm sold... A lot of times I have one of those insulated 32oz tumblers while mowing (make whatever assumption you want, it's not usually water :)) and it works unless I go over just the right bump with a full cup, that...

When I was setting up the tool box for the shop I built I decided I was going to start with better than the random junk I'd acquired that I had in the garage... At christmas time I got one of the $100 Husky sets, they're actually pretty decent and complete other than the wrenches but at the same...

Current standard E10 gasoline "boils" at 135F, even lower at lower than atmospheric pressure like in a suction line while the engine is running. If it runs fine, ignore it and continue on, it's just a thing that happens, if it causes a no start then look deeper into it especially if the filter...

Most people weld iron with nickel rod, for best results degrease, pre heat, weld then post heat and let it cool down slowly

Any break barrel or spring piston (any form, gas ram included) are going to be more hold sensitive and harder to shoot consistently without practice... On the other hand a multi stroke or single stroke pump gun or CO2 is way more consistent shot to shot, CO2 has a downside of not working as well...

Nah, it's not the springs fault, the nut is still on the spindle but the hub is missing, they've neglected to add grease to the wheel bearings for many many miles, the tire exited the situation then they continued to drive for long enough to wear through the backing plate, U bolts and the...

When I built my pole barn (36'x48') I bought a HFT model to put in the nearly 20 pounds of nails that came with the kit... they were plastic collated 28 degree I think, they worked with the harbor freight nailer fine... I ran it on a $20 garage sale compressor that wasn't the most consistent on...

Yeah, there's at least 3 front axle setups on the 4000 tractors... one's like the 3000's, one bigger with shorter spindles, then the high crop setup with tall spindles like a 5000 or bigger...

Oosik, that's the same little guys, they have a huge territory in the north including Oregon and Washington apparently mainly west of the Cascades... I've been in this property for 9 years now and I've seen two... Anymore I leave most things alone with a few exceptions (no need for...

Saturday I mowed the swamp area to get the reed canary grass down for the year (I need something that can mow in water...) and Sunday morning walking around the shop I found something the cat drug in, a little brown and white weasel. I looked it up and apparently it's an Ermine or sometimes...

A friend gave me one of those little Honda 2000 generators too, runs great but I think the stator is bad, I haven't looked at it for a few months ago but apparently it's a thing and about $200 unless anyone has any good deals they know of on the parts... it starts right up but the error light...

I got a Champion 4kw a few years ago, treated it poorly storing outside under a tree in a riding mower trailer... cleaned the carb and put fresh gas in it and it's been a reliable little thing... I need to get some more proper sized pull cord but it starts easy and pretty quiet for a generator I...

I held out on tanks all together until I found a reasonable deal, ended up on an auction and got two big 75/25 tanks (the ones that are 5' tall) and two argon tanks (one tall one and one next size down) for about $125 a piece (bought in two lots). One of the argon bottles was full, one empty...

It's a big old Lincoln (idealarc? guessing '80's vintage) arc welder, don't remember the model off the top of my head but it's a big 3 phase unit with two voltage ranges, fine voltage control and some arc stability settings and a switch to reverse polarity... it's set up with a separate wire...

No, the intercooler project is much less important than the transmission rebuild so I'm working on that :), the intercooler project will likely wait until late July or August timeframe... This giant manual transmission is quite a bit different than the M5OD I rebuilt a few months ago... the...

Now that you mention that, I do have a few pounds of small stainless rods that I forgot about... I really need to get all my rods together and in the shop instead of in a pile in the garage...

Like said above, you're bending it on that bolt in the full lift position, either switch to the slot so it can float on the ground instead of being a fixed angle or move to the further forward hole.

I did think about that just didn't want it rusting but I guess there wouldn't be too much in the air pathway with a straight butt weld... I mean it's an old diesel so there's going to be oil in the air from blowby anyway... trying to expand my options for fabrication anyway... Aluminum would...

I have two of those hitches, they are long but that isn't always a bad thing, used one of the two I have to tow my boat today...

That guy is expensive, looks nice though, being amazon they showed similar items and found THIS GUY, cheap enough I might try it, was just complaining about having to hold the thing on yesterday... I have the harbor freight locking one that doesn't work well...

An update, luckily my back pain was just agonizing for 6 days, it was just dull yesterday so I decided to stack like 1.5 cord of oak firewood then mow for like 4 or so hours... Don't think I even managed to do anything dumb yesterday other than work through pain... well I did bend over a young...

I'm sure no one has done this before, but I was working on something big and awkward for my brother that was taking up room in my shop, finished the project on Sunday and loaded it in the back of my Ranger by myself, this thing is basically a 6' wide 3pt work platform thing that has to weigh...

The early 2.3L's were pretty gutless and in that timeframe they put the dumbest rear end gears in the cars with them... my '90 Ranger came from the factory with 3.08:1 rear gears but 25" tires, at that time they were rated at 90hp, the earlier carbed ones were in the 80hp range I think... the...

See, they forgot to light the road flare in the trunk before they got rear ended, pfft!!! That's what the famous video took to get the outcome they were looking for... My experience is all in Rangers, I've had a '90 since '99 and it's now a turbocharged conglomeration of random stock parts...

Ford's Lima engines (AkA pinto motors) were non interference and they stopped production in the middle of '01...

It's Fourney ER308 so I should be fine

It's been near 90F for most of the last week so projects have been slow... I did have a thought... structure wise and welding wise I think it would probably be a reasonable idea to cut a short sleeve of tubing (say an inch or bit more) to go on the inside of the seams instead of just butt...

Bukit, thanks, that's very interesting and should be helpful, depending on weather and other projects I'll hopefully give it some practice soon. Not an ideal first project but better than aluminum, I don't have the welder for TIG on aluminum anyway, that's why I got the spool gun, that's a whole...

Not really set up for purging, but we'll see what I can do... unfortunately the welder isn't pedal capable either... we'll see about getting some practice in over the next week or two... rebuilding the transmission is way ahead in importance... It's 3" tube so it's not super small diameter...

From what I've heard there's roughly twice what I need in tubing with the kit I got so I have plenty extra... even have some flat plate to practice on first... I wasn't planning on being dumb and jumping in without practice... also not in a hurry, probably jump in around August or in the...

I need to make some intercooler tubing for my F350 so I bought a kit of mandrel bent tubing from Amazon, it's 304 stainless and apparently around 16ga thick... so, which method would you use to weld it? I have a welder (Titanium Unlimited 200) capable of scratch start TIG, MIG and spool gun...

That's set up as a "prerunner", long travel twin beam suspension gets kinda goofy, I agree their camber is a bit off and not how I would have set it up but hey... some of those guys will build custom beams up front to gain a few inches per side so they can get an absurd amount of front...

Whether they are compensating or not there's a lot of people out there with horrible tastes... the guys that take a perfectly good truck and put 8" offset wheels so they stick out near the whole tire width, shorter than stock tires, 8" lift and like 30" wheels with rubber band "mud terrain"...

Yeah, I mix and match, with like 6 welders I have choices... If I'm working on big ugly stuff I jump to the stick welder with 6011 or sometimes 7018, other times flux core and recently since I got a tank solid wire and hopefully soon I'll practice some with scratch start TIG for stainless...

Stopped at the auto parts store tonight and picked up a gallon of Simple Green and Super Clean just to try both... probably try the super clean first... I don't remember if I have anything going on this weekend so maybe I'll work on cleaning it up, might go for a quick drive to get it a little...

I've welded a bunch with my Champion 4kw generator (says 3500 continuous, whatever, I have $100 in it and it works) and Harbor Freight Titanium MIG 170 welder, I've stalled the generator a number of times and blew out a GFI outlet and tripped breakers, hasn't hurt anything so far... although on...

I found a 50' 50A generator lead on Amazon for stupid cheap (was like 50% off for some reason) then put ends on it... The RV idea isn't bad, they're 30A usually which is likely enough.

By pressure washer I mean my harbor freight $80 special electric unit, use it with care and it should be fine, won't be going after things full on with a needle tip (I do have the tip adapter) but yeah, not the average dumb guy just going willy nilly, care will be taken...

My '97 has somewhere around 400k on the chassis(maybe 300k on the engine if I believe the guy I got it from) and it's just a tow rig for me for the most part, I like it but it's gutless on mountain passes towing so I get mad at it sometimes... it needs like $4k of stuff done to it to get where...

My F350 7.3L engine has been leaking diesel worse and worse for a while now (ever since I changed the mechanical lift pump in a rest area a couple years ago) Now it's time to rebuild the transmission that is now also gross, while it's pulled into the shop I will be resealing the pump banjo...

I've run my Harbor Freight Titanium MIG 170 on my Champion 4kw generator with flux core, with what you are running I would imagine you would be fine, I stalled the generator a few times before I found the right setting :)

Haven't added it up yet but: '00 explorer 225hp '98 Explorer 225hp '90 Ranger 220hp '97 Ranger 107hp '97 F350 225hp '03 Camry 170hp Kubota L260 26hp That's 1198hp with just the easy math 4 wheeled stuff... I dyno engines all the time, horsepower is kinda silly to me... personally I don't care...

There were different levels of engines, carbureted and fuel injected although for a new boat carbureted likely wasn't an option in 2012, I don't know what got what but the fuel injection of that time was pretty simple and robust

Do you like your apples red or green? Pretty much the same thing depending on the engine, for the most part they all start as GM bare engines and get the marinizing stuff added, most are about the same and use most of the same parts... Ford marine engines were popular through the mid '90's but...

There's all sorts of stuff around here, are you talking about pole barn style or full metal buildings? My shop was done by Parker Pole Buildings out of Hubbard Oregon, I bought it as a kit but they do have contractors that they work with that will assemble from what I heard. Depending on where...

I have both, and welcome comments :), I have a strong preference to DC with either 6011 or 7018 since I have a good supply of both, along with a couple wire feed welders but they all have uses, thus why I bought another welder in the first place... I have a shop and a garage, both need a stick...

I was using 6011 that I've had for years, decent condition, instant strikes on my DC welder, I only have standard DC 7018 so didn't even try that on the AC welder, it was striking (no matter on what) like it was set at 20A not 110ish, hard to start but after 1/2" of travel on light wall metal...

I ended up with a pet grooming table with electric adjustment, it's like 20" by 40" or something and goes from like 15" on the low side to around 40" on the high side, it's pretty handy when I have it cleared off... Years ago we got a Gorilla cart with 13" tires, it's great for making small...

Oh, I know for sure DC is better, my Century AC/DC hasn't been off of DC in many years, but you see I got this welder at an online auction where the welder was in one lot and the leads were the next lot, I thought for sure no one else would notice but I think I have about $90 or $100 (was sure...

That is very interesting! I will have to give that a try since I'm just using 1/8" 6011 I'm just at around 100A. That would definitely be the easiest fix... I cheaped out on the ground clamp and just used the $7 offering from HFT, they work ok and have a strap going from side to side unlike...

I'll check on the length of the cables, don't think they're any longer than 15', will eventually check on the contacts on the other 3 ends of the cables (since I replaced the ground clamp... :)) That stupid little vise is handy, it's a cheap vise (basically free but was broken when I got it...

last year I picked up a Miller Thunderbolt stick welder: Once it's going it welds fine for an A/C welder, but striking an arc is an exercise in patience... (my other stick welder is a Montgomery Wards branded Century AC/DC unit, I'm not a novice) it was picked up on an online estate auction...

To be more relevant to the thread at hand... Here's my welder cart, it was a $50 auction find, couldn't beat it with a stick so I got it and will modify it to my needs... Obviously the welder is on the top shelf area, the bottom area will get filled in for consumable storage and hopefully I'll...

Vertical is pretty much just for acetylene I believe, since acetylene is dissolved in a substrate... argon and 75/25 are just mixed gasses...

Continuing with things, here's the progress through the rest of the month, got the rest of the sheeting done that I can as well as painted and put together and the new shelf up... won some stuff at a recent local online auction and now have gas tanks for the welder (both argon and 75/25) and...

Lumber prices are down some so I got some OSB to sheet the inside of the walls about a week ago, have two gaps done now, think I'll do 2 more gaps before I paint... lot of rearranging at this point but it'll pay off... I've been working on stuff, some of you have likely seen the thread on my MF...

What I just bought was 7/16, was just over half the price of 15/32" plywood (right around $20 a sheet) which I was going to buy but that's a steep premium just to sheet walls in a shop...

I remember hearing about OSB sheeting being like $65 not long ago, I just bought 36 sheets for $11.10 each, when I got a similar amount around 6 years ago I think it was $9 and change so not bad... need to bite the bullet and get materials to build the shop loft soon...

I'm pretty sure you've never dealt with Flickers or Sap Suckers invading your space on things you actually want to keep nice, and mice are vermin, they need to be controlled, they're looking for a place to call home and destroy for any human use. The mice in my property are not after food, there...

I just use some Dawn in mine, seems to work good enough and I don't feel bad about just dumping it every few uses...

I have a ~3k pound 9.5' camper I use with my '97 F350 crew cab long bed 4x4 diesel and tow my Ranger on a trailer around... I use a ~18" hitch extension with the frame mount hitch modified to be similar to a super hitch with two tubes and a forward support to take the side to side load of the...

Yes the rears are filled, don't remember how much but it's over half, need to keep on the lookout for new to me tires or a good deal on new... If I had a plow I'd plow first but I don't, I think my brother has a 2 bottom I could borrow... my septic drain field is out there so just discing a...

I did get it out of the shop today and tried it, it works but the ground is too wet, just made lines and not enough traction to get anywhere... gotta wait for the ground to get in better shape but it's usable! It'll be a lot nicer to have the 3 point disc instead of the pull type I had before...

Ok, here's the pictures from this weekend... first is one of the cleaner pair of bearing clamshells: Then one of a cleaned bearing on both sides: Then of the last pin I had to make, this one welded in place where they other just pinned in place... The lower spring clamp was the junky...

I forgot to spin the rear gangs before I moved to the front but will do that later... got the pin made for the one missing on the front and got all those bearings cleaned and greased, conveniently I had just enough 45* 1/8" pipe grease zerks since it had 4 straight ones and two of the ones I...

There seems to be a similar amount of play in all the bearings (in the 4 I've had off so far), I'm going to get the things together and try it out before I get too excited, I know I should be able to extend the life and accuracy of the bearings by taking each half to a belt sander (if I had a...

This has metal bearings, at some point I might look into replacement, we'll see what kinda shape the rest are in :)

For the most part using a DC welder (the welding current itself, not what the welder is plugged into) and having the welder ground as close to the weld as possible there is little chance of an issue, If using an AC welder doing similar should be fine but if the tractor engine has a computer it...

Tonight I straightened the adjuster levers so the spring linkages work like they should and cleaned out one more of the bearings, so 5 more bearings to clean and one pin to make... and I might be able to test it next weekend, last I heard was dry the next 10 days so might be about right...

Here's early on in straightening the one arm Here's after I got it as straight as I think it needs to be Here's the one piece I had to make, it was missing the angled piece of 3/8", I'll admit I was kinda winging it at first and the hole ended up needing to be right on the edge so I ground...

I got a cold this week which slowed me down... yesterday I took 30 minutes in the shop to untwist the twisted area on the one ball end, it's a 5/8" by 2.5" bar so wasn't going to do it cold, took the O/A torch and got it hot with the 36" pipe wrench on the link and 2" ratchet straps pulling both...

I see it is set on DC, leave it there, welds much better on pretty much anything unless you get fancy, 6011 and 7018 are my go to's, 1/8" rods at around 100-125A run pretty good, if you were just to have one rod get 6011, 7018 is nicer to run with prettier welds but you have to break the tip...

My little tractor doesn't have a remote or anything but has a couple thousand pounds of 3 point lift ability so 3 point is preferred, I had a drag type disc that was way too big for a while but once I got this I sold the drag disc to a guy that turned it into fountains... lol For good measure...

I got this thing for I think $200 or $250 around 4 years ago at auction but it needed some work, it was missing a couple pins and needed some tinkering, it sat for a while, then I moved it to the driveway hoping it would get me working on it if it was in my way, but nope... then just over a week...

Being fuel rich (as stated above it's sap soaked pine) it lights super easy and is kinda like a candle so it burns for a while with flames so it adds heat and flames to the kindling and firewood. Splitting it up to smaller pieces it lasts me forever, getting I think is a 40 pound box for around...

For light stuff the light duty tie downs at harbor freight are just fine, I think they call them 1/4" or something, they take two 5/16" bolts if I remember right, I put 6 on one of my trailers and they've worked well

When we get frisky we take dryer lint and push it in egg cartons then drip melted wax on the top then cut those up, works GREAT My go to is fat wood, buy it in huge quantity like HERE, they come in big pieces, take a hatchet and split them into pencil size pieces, take say 3 of those and light...

Yeah, some truck campers are just silly, they make some with 3 slide outs (mostly the ones with the door on the side like the one on that Dodge), they get dumb heavy and stupid expensive... my camper is around 2500lb dry I think, I like to stick to the 9' length range so towing works better...

Replacement parts for the Titanium could be an issue but the liner in the whip is "tweeco style" I believe and HFT carries them on the shelf so does every welding store... if it helps here's a link to the coupon. Doesn't look like it comes with any wire (must have been the Unlimited 200 I got...

I just got an email this morning that at Harbor Freight there's a coupon for the Titanium MIG 170 for $520, I have one and have tried to kill it unsuccessfully... I think I mentioned it before but it's 110/220 with included cord, comes with a spool of flux core and solid I believe as well as the...

I've had the harbor freight 1.5 ton folding hoist for like 20 years, it's still going strong, I think it was $125 way back then, not perfect and I don't think it leaks down much, it folds up pretty small, I've used it for all sorts of silly things over the years... In the shop I have an A...

For import stuff look into littlemachineshop.com they spec the best (above the Grizzly spec) for the same machine, most of the Seig lathes are made in the same place with a different color of paint... we have one of their 9x16? lathes at work, it's a pretty nice unit and at $1600 when we got it...

If you are mostly running 1/2" thin wall tubing then yeah, wire feed on 120V is perfectly fine, keep the stick for bigger stuff... if you are used to clean up on stick and don't mind a little bit of spatter then I wouldn't shy away from flux core either, it runs about like 6011, for long beads...

It is kinda handy... have taken a handful of stuff in for warranty, which reminds me, my brother handed me a messed up Leek I need to see if they'll do anything with... it works but has like 2 screws in it total with two different color scales, he put it together with parts from two knives... he...

I try to season what I have 1 to 2 years split and stacked in a shed, right now I have just over 3 cord of wood on hand split and stacked ready, started the season with just under 4 cord which is all I have room for currently, in the coming months I plan to add room for 2 more cord on the end of...

I work down the street from Kershaw, been going to their warehouse sale for like 25 years now so I have MANY Kershaw knives, have my favorites but have stuck to their Misdirect model for the last several years, lost my first one in October, replaced it locally then bought a couple spares at the...

all hooey, just like the Pintos blowing up... fuel tanks are in the rear of dang near everything and were before the pinto... sure shortcuts were made but if you do almost anything wrong enough something stupid will happen...

there are some great videos on youtube too to help you get the hang of welder settings (is it weld.com not sure but that guy has some good stuff), many of the newer welders have a chart on the wire spool door that is actually pretty close... I haven't put gas to my home wire welders just flux...

That's the kit I've used and referenced above, it works fine, has it's limits but is cheap... is set up for HDPE with the filler rod and such... $20 is cheaper than a new top for sure... If thick plastic I've gone as far as going backwards first to V out the crack first to make room and make...

That only works on ABS and PVC like plastics, HDPE is way different and NOTHING sticks to it, and nothing breaks it down, it's basically why they're cracking down on plastic grocery bags... I always test MEK (usually I keep a bottle of Plastruct around, expensive for the size but it's handy as...

I wouldn't worry about it, chances are if it is off any from that it might be a percent or two tops... checking them on a bolt isn't a great way to test as the breakaway torque is harder than the rotational torque unless you have some clutch or something... best to compare against a beam style...

For HDPE the $16 soldering iron style kit from Harbor Freight works ok, it comes with some stainless screen to imbed in the plastic to help strength wise and way more filler material than is usable with the build quality of the unit but I have no regrets buying a couple of the kits... DO NOT...

Project is complete... Pump was set with Sch 80 PVC before which we decided to cut on the way up, was threaded at the junctions but didn't know that when we started... oh well, off to Lowes to get some 160psi rated black poly pipe and clamps and the pliers for that for like $130 more... They...

No pitless in this setup, it's just coming out the top of the casing plug from the looks of it, maybe I'll post the pic I took of the top of the well last weekend later tonight, haven't gotten it off the phone yet... It's at least not a buried well like some of you have, there is no frost line...

My brother and a friend are coming over on Saturday, we'll figure it out one way or another... On the sand, it was pretty bad at first, the well was new just before I bought the house in '14, I used to have to clean the filters every couple weeks, now I just change the fine ones every few...

Oh, my setup is pretty thorough, not saying there isn't an issue with the pipe out of the pump, it does not hold pressure between the pump and the check valve just after the well. Anyway, after the well casing there's a stainless check valve, a flow restrictor, then a centrifugal sand filter...

If it had a high pressure or didn't turn on I'd look there but my system has two gauges that both read 30psi with the pump running constantly so the pump can't make pressure. I'd so much rather it be that little pipe :)

Without going crazy I could only check one leg of the motor with my amp clamp (making reasonable assumptions they "should" be the same...) but it was only 3.6A so it's probably a little low which would make sense with the low pressure... I imagine the motor is fine just the pump is eroded from...

The pressure tank is perfectly fine, I checked and it had like 35psi above the diaphragm and was empty because the pump can't make that pressure... I pulled the tank first because I thought it might have somehow been plugged with junk and it wasn't. Speaking of the tank, I initially thought that...

There's a problem with the pump since the piece of teflon I found in the flow restrictor came from somewhere, so the pump has to come up no matter what... Good to know I should be able to hand pull it, I'm very handy so I'm not too scared but it's still something new...

The water pressure dropped sometime last week so I finally looked into it today and the pressure tank is fine, pressure switch is fine but it would only get to 30psi and the pump was running constant so I went further up the line and found a piece of teflon in the flow restrictor, thought it was...

I found the picture of my method, if it wasn't live edge I would have just used one strap going over the whole thing and skipped the 2x4 or whatever board I used, I think it's a 1x2 thing that is used for strapping metal siding together... but yes the other methods listed above work good too...

For boards like that I would simply put a cheap ratchet strap from the bumper, over the tailgate back to the bumper on the other side, I hauled a stack of rough cut live edge wood that was around 8' long in the back of my '97 Ford Ranger 900 miles down I5 to Bakersfield CA with two straps...

If it stays lit when you keep the button pressed it kinda sounds like a thermocouple. I'd known about thermocouples and how they work through engineering school but didn't realize those were actually thermocouple's... Turns out those valves work by using the electricity generated by the...

Yee, the gun and lead are somewhat consumables really (or should be considered that I'm pretty sure...), they at least now offer replacement liners that aren't too bad, the trigger switch on the 100A deal is cheezy and has shorted out a few times on me causing some issues, even had to make a new...

Husky is Home Depot, Kobalt and Craftsman s Lowes Very true, I'm not saying their welders are the best but I'm not the average user, resale value doesn't enter into my equation anywhere and I'm pretty crafty so scabbing on another lead doesn't scare me too bad... my statements aren't for...

I have several US General boxes and like them a lot, last I looked I think the Husky boxes are the same price or similar and I would probably steer that way, they have some nicer features like soft close drawers... I have a couple friends that got them over US General and I don't blame them...

Their welder prices are silly now, the Titanium welders are a far cry from the blue or black versions of old... when I was broke I made a 100A Chicago Electric flux core welder work and once I figured it out it did just fine but you had to know that welder and ignore normal settings... I ONLY...

For functionality? two benches, a bolt bin, a storage cabinet/bench thing, one mini pallet rack type shelf and that's it other than just junk, IE my '90 Ranger and 21' jet boat are in there along with all the ATV's and such... Oh boy, it has been a while since some pictures, here's some random...

Still working on things on the cheap side but moving along doing stuff... Not long ago I did some non permanent wiring for my $30 garage sale air compressor, 220V 3hp I think 30 gallon... it works great, had to put a new belt on it and fix a couple leaks as you'd expect... Tonight I wired in a...

Since I just cleaned the headlights on my fleet (6 rigs, oof...) this afternoon the cheezy way with 0000 steel wool and soapy water I was reminded what a deal the HFT .5 gallon pump sprayer thing is... I just keep it loaded with soapy water for washing things or finding leaks in tires or...

For informal the cheap stuff is fine, I've not found use for #9 shot yet, I try to stick to #6 to 7.5 (6 is my favorite but it's not as common, for general purpose that is, don't shoot clays very often...). The 7/8 oz shells aren't as common anymore, they work fine just screwing around but more...

Had to do some looking for this post, been a while! I haven't been shopping much lately, not enough spare funds... I picked up one of their 10 piece 10mm socket sets, a decent set for cheap since I used a I think 20% coupon on it? haven't used them but their sockets aren't bad... I've had one...

On my pintle hitch it came with a big cotter pin for some reason, I spread the ends a little so it's springy, works fine, as said that's just a safety since the latch is spring loaded... I haven't found a pin I like so I just keep using the cotter pin...

Shot a couple classic pellet pistols yesterday dinking around in the shop... A Crosman 130 pumper, a Crosman Mark I and a S&W 78G... forgot how anemic the 130 was and how powerful the Mark 1 was, both of the CO2 guns were nice and I put 10 or so pellets each down range. The 78G seems to wander...

looks like it's just the middle lug nut that's loose... :)

The CPHP especially in .22 are a good one to try because they are cheap and the round nose and fair consistency make them fine, sure JSB is better but for 50% more $$... the better barrels are more consistent as many are choked (and have a better crown...) so they are less pellet picky, my .22...

Ooh, the 1701 has the good trigger group like the Marauder pistol if I remember right (or better? dang, it's been a while...), I've been meaning to pick up one of those trigger frames, or just getting a Marauder pistol or one of those... All of my pellet guns are lower end other than those two...

Here's the airgun target board thing I hacked together over the weekend: Don't mind the mess, the shop is still in process, I just wanted a quick project and wanted some winter trigger time... I'll probably grab some of my spare OSB or whatever and put behind it so I don't hurt the wall if...

Possibly, I know on sheet metal stuff going one way and not the other is harder, unless you just poke through and go there (harder to maintain). I usually just remember as I go, when I notice the wheel just going away super quick I adjust my direction or angle or whatever I can... sometimes it...

Besides being hunting season and checking the hunting rifle last weekend and screwing around with a few other things, today I decided to get myself set up for some winter trigger time... In my shop I took some of my reclaimed wood and made a plank with 1x6's in front of 2x4's in about a 3'...

you tow with no tongue weight? When I load tractors and such on trailers I go until I see ~3" of squat in the back of the truck (hard to see from drivers seat though...). I would MUCH rather err on the side of too much tongue weight than too little, BTDT, hauled two AC B tractors about 300 miles...

Ok, didn't realize it'd been this long since I updated this thread... I got the final inspection done last Thursday, so that's over with. It was another few grand to get electrical to the shop but it involved a new transformer for the house/shop service, buried conduit to the new meter panel at...

Rangers and Mazda B series are identical mechanically year to year between '94 and '11, the differences are in interior and exterior trim stuff and option packages...

I don't have many pictures of my stucks with my little tractor, these two weren't too bad, the last few were worse... :). The second one is older but it might not look like much but I was pulling a pull type disc at the time hooked up to the tow point just under the PTO (it's not a drawbar so...

The 4t/2t switch is right on front, easy to hit and they do behave weird... I haven't played with it enough to get used to but for some projects it would likely be a nice feature...

I've had no bad luck with the harbor freight cutoff discs, I've gone through many of them... when they go on sale for $5 for 10 discs I stock up a bit, I'm set for several projects at this point... I saw some were on closeout but it looked like just the 5 packs not the 10 packs... at $.50 a...

Definitely a block heater, the other end is at the back end of the oil cooler on the drivers side of the engine...

small displacement turbo gas engines are rough, lots of cylinder pressure on a light duty engine is asking for cylinder wall or piston ring wear before mandated warranty period... same reason the Chevy and GMC 1500 got the 400hp 6.2L engine starting in 2014 but in a 2500 or 3500 you could only...

Not saying anything that's there is great, I've had hot hydraulic fluid in the face when some old hoses blew, I've replaced like 8 hoses so far, still a few left but hopefully in a couple years I'll put on my nicer more appropriately sized loader once I build a frame for it... Kwik Way back in...

Not to split hairs but Husky is Home Depot and Kobalt is Lowes... :) I plan to build a leanto on one of my sheds and enclose it for the shop air compressor, just to get the noise out further... I stick with oiled compressors for less noise but do what ya gotta do, I understand...

I have an old Kubota L260 with a Kwik Way loader that's undersize for the tractor but works fine... it has an external belt drive pump in the 8gpm range, the ancient loader valve is toast, my right shoe I was wearing while moving some dirt last weekend is NOT gonna rust... I'd rebuild the valve...

The 3.0L is a pretty good engine I doubt I'd worry much about it... I do everything myself so I just deal with things as they come, I'm not one to replace stuff that isn't bad especially now that "new" parts are of questionable quality...

S&W M&P 22 compact, not bad, wish it was a double stack mag, kinda annoying only having 10 rounds, my .40 holds the same in a very similar size...

Yesterday I was mowing the reed canary grass that's been a while (maybe 2' high), had my new .22lr pistol on me so tried my crack at shooting voles from the tractor... of the ~8 I saw and shot at with 13 rounds I think I got one... not gonna complain, it's trigger practice and moving target...

I have both the Unlimited 200 and the MIG 170 or whatever, I got the MIG 170 open box for stupid cheap a few years ago and have been beating it up trying anything sketchy with it just to find it's limits, haven't found them yet... it's killed a GFI outlet, ran on a 4kw generator to the point it...

Getting to the end disc likely isn't fun but taking a disc apart isn't as bad as it looks... take the two clamps off the frame holding the gang on, drop the whole gang (maybe get the end nut off first with the disc on the ground...) then start unstacking the assembly. My brother and I did a 14'...

Todays gun time for me was just shooting a pocket gopher at about 6:30 this morning... the weather has been dumb for the last week so had to get an early start and saw one half out of it's hole... after I got home from the local tractor show thing/swap meet I braved the heat and mowed with the...

Have you looked at prices for what should be "cheap" Jeep's lately? even old squarekee's aren't cheap anymore unless you stumble on someone that hasn't looked on craigslist or facebook marketplace in half a decade... Anymore you have to be in the right place at the right time or know how to fix...

I've been a Ranger fan for a while (yeah, username is that Ranger...), I currently have two Rangers and two Explorers along with the F350 and the wife's Camry... The 3.0 is a good engine, just keep up on the fluids and it'll last a long time. If automatic transmission wouldn't hurt to shift it...

Depending on if you can find one a Chevy/GMC 2500 with a 6.0L "should" be a good cheap truck, the gas mileage will leave some to be desired but the drivetrain is fairly solid (aside from transfer case chain tensioner issues in 4x4's where they wear a hole in the T case and leak out all their...

your red line sketch should work with 3/8" plate, I'd be tempted to leave the original brackets there for structure, and if I'm understanding right you plan on putting a gusset outward, I would gusset from your bracket to the original bracket and add some more plate to the top side otherwise it...

Sounds like a plate in the battery broke off so it has the voltage but not the ampacity... have fought similar, it's annoying...

Today I took a trip to a somewhat local shop... they had things in inventory and I spent too much but got decent deals... Ended up with a S&W M&P .22 Compact in green with threaded barrel and a Kel-Tec Sub2000 in .40 S&W that takes glock 17/22 mags... unfortunately it's not the version with an...

Yeah, I spent many hours with that stupid thing and all I knew is what it took to get it to weld, once I figured out it welded decent with .035" wire I just stayed there and realized what it took to get decent welds, then once I played with actual good welders I realized it was backwards... I've...

I have one of the older "Chicago Electric" flux core welders that's rated at 100A without a fan (newer ones don't have a live gun at all times and have a cooling fan so they rated them at 125A...), I've only hit the thermal overload once, albeit it welds like heck if you apply "normal" wire feed...

When they're eating my cherries before they're ripe and I barely get any I sure do... plus I was bored with junk weather and needed/wanted trigger time... :)

Oh, I know there's a diffrence in warranty and standing behind the product, I got the 200 before I looked deep enough into the Everlast world, the 170 was just too good of a deal to pass on...

Don't remember if I mentioned it a couple weeks ago but the weather was junk and there were a bunch of birds in my cherry trees so I hung out in my back shed next to the trees for a while and got 16 birds in one day with the pellet gun... not a bad haul... There's been a dumb amount of gophers...

Why in the world would you choose to weld on AC if DC is an option unless you are welding aluminum? I have the Century equivalent of a tombstone that's AC/DC and once I went to DC it hasn't been switched back in 15 years... I don't care if it's 7018 or 6011, DC is nice... I'll admit I don't use...

Something in the 140 range should suit what you want and price range... I have some of the Titanium offerings from harbor freight and they're treating me well even though I have the 170 and 200 but still, I've beat the everliving snot out of the 170 since I basically stole it (open box sidewalk...

I have bigger options that would hold wind better but even my .22 Marauder I would have had to pump up unless I didn't miss... which come to think of it I wouldn't have missed as much with that one possibly... oh well :)

Todays trigger time was with my Air Venturi Avenger in .177, I have it tuned all the way down so the regulator is sitting at around 1100psi, I've been pesting with it for a while and it's been a while since I've pumped it up but I've put a BUNCH of pellets through it since I last filled it up...

The modern tiny inverter welders can actually weld pretty good... I've been using and abusing the Harbor Freight Titanium MIG 170 for a few years on flux core with all sorts of inputs (4kw generator on 120V, long extension cords, 220V, etc...) and using the chart on the side cover as a starting...

And all those posts are from the one bad batch a decade ago... I've been running HFT flux core wire for a long time, the cheezy flux core welder (at least mine) doesn't care what wire you feed it as long as it's .035", it will NOT run .030", too hot even on low. The Titanium welder will weld...

A basic two axle flat deck trailer of the length you are talking would be fine, it's easier to find two axle trailers it seems even though a single would probably work fine...

If you don't want something as big and bulky as the TS torches (I have both the fixed and adjustable, they're great...) and have a tractor supply around, pick up one of THESE, I have one and it's a good budget torch and has an igniter...

I have a "Smoke Hollow" brand pellet grill, apparently made by Masterbuilt and they don't make pellet grills anymore from the looks of it... I've had it for around 3 years now and it's been stored outside with just a cheap cloth BBQ cover which isn't perfect, I've had to take it apart twice and...

I have one of the $6X (they move around in price, usually $60-70) Harbor Freight compressors and it's a beast, way quicker than the cheaper ones, the one that's about $30 isn't bad either is just slower... Depends on what you are trying to do, the big HFT compressor has been reliable for me...

I still want a 9mm carbine, but the prices are still dumb... (not to mention I don't need another caliber, doubt there's much out there in .40 S&W in a carbine...) same with a decent .22 pistol that will accept a can... right when the rona shutdowns started I had a S&W M&P .22 with threaded...

I have a US General 4X" box I got a few years ago (I think series II) when they were like $350 or whatever, when I built the new shop and when things were still affordable I took advantage of sales prices and ended up with a 56" bottom and top with two sides, every piece had some discount... The...

Good call :), it was parked there for over a month while I revamped the wood shed floor... it wasn't spilt and wasn't likely the last one opened that day lol

Oh, I understand the engineering behind it (been a while since statics/dynamics classes at this point though...), just didn't know how common it was... once I realized what was going on I thought it was kinda neat for a shortcut... I do see the downside of it though, after whatever abuse it's...

Got a trailer from a friend of a friend for cheap ($1500 all said and done after getting new tires and redoing the wiring at the tongue), it's a car hauler with slide in ramps that are over 6' long, two six lug axles both with brakes, the whole deck is 1/8" diamond plate, in the tire area is...

My shop isn't quite finished with permits so I haven't gotten too far with getting things situated yet... I ended up with a pet grooming table though, it's fairly small at under 2'x4' or thereabouts but it's handy since it can go from like 18" high to around 3' high... it's a 110V linear...