Good morning!!!!

[KilroyJC]

Good Morning!

God has given us another chance to get it right (or at least not screw up too badly…).

57.2F, going to upper 60s

Received partials delivery of scaffold parts. waiting On the rest so that I can actually use them…

early appointment for Mrs’ vehicle to get oil change and checkup. Then taking mom shopping, stopping at second gravel dealer and confirming tomorrow’s delivery details, and after maybe taking Bailey up to woodlot.

time for coffee and getting butt in gear — I hope everyone has a happy healthy productive safe blessed day!

 

[KilroyJC]

good morning all
boy I'm glad I covered the veggies, 36 degrees out, looked out window and cloth did not blow away overnight so hope it worked.
No frost on garage roof, thought humidity is low so that's not the usual canary in the mine.

got a new set of those Marbain hardened mower blades in for JD. They are pretty massive compared to the blades for my old Gravely, both 50" decks.
will let you know how they hold up. 20 bucks each isn't much more expensive than oem.
I don't have many sticks or rocks so hopefully a while.
67 degrees in sunshine today, should be a very nice day.

I need to reschedule with Verizon, they never showed up.

I know that feeling. . .

 

[daugen]

Ken, please note the spare blades for Gravely. So it would be ok to hit a few rocks...you just have to change the blades.
I can haul a mower down to you today if you wish
this helping others can go both ways...

 

[Buppies]

Happy belated birthday to wngsprd mom

56 degrees going into 70s today bright sunshine light breezes

Prayers for all silent or spoken our Country

 

[m7040]

Good morning, 40 going to 69 today. Not sure that it got down to 32 but the flowers were covered just in case

The list of projects is getting longer. Being somewhat limited from the shoulder injury has slowed things down. And priority is still what wife needs to get around and function.

Will get back to mowing more down in the meadow around tree shelters. Would be nice if I could use the tractor and the brush cutter but access around tree shelters is limited so therefore using the ZD331. It performs well even with 24 inch grass with the setting at 4 or 5 inches cut. Hidden branches down in the grass continue to surface but the mower chews most of them up. Sometimes a rock has surfaced from the winter freeze and can be hard on blades. I want to grease and sharpen blades again.The power to mow goes down significantly with sharpened blades.

 

[m7040]

Sharpening the blades I use the high lift floor jack to jack up the fromt even though the mower has a built in jack system. The built in system is slow and cumbersome. Then use jack stands for safety high enough for easy access. The Milwaukee impact makes short work of getting the blades off. Then sharpen on the jig and balance on the mag hub mount and check run out with the gauge.
Mounting the blades it is important to get them torqued to spec to prevent them going loose and overheating the washers on the spindles. The Milwaukee impact has several torque settings and one of them corresponds to the specified torque needed saving the hassle of blocking the spindles from turning and doing it manual

 

[wngsprd]

49 going to 71...very nice.

m70, sorry you got that zero turn stuck. I did the same thing a couple of years ago, and had to use the tractor FEL to lift it up and put a board under the tire. I'm starting afund raiser to get you a new hat, too.

LS, beautiful job on your landscaping projects.

Thanks for the birthday wishes for my mom. She still lives alone, drives, and is doing great.

My truck turned 7yo last week, so was time for its annual state inspection. The dealer still performs them free (saves $20) and doesn't try to scam you on fixes. Only once have they found anything...windshield wipers...and they were bad...I had already bought replacements but had forgotten to swap them.

Always fun to go so I can check out the new inventory...still not a lot, but they had some new hybrid/V6 twin turbo Tundras...very nice but they were priced in the upper 60s...one was $70.2K. Well over 20K more than my top model Tundra bought 7 years ago.

Saw a couple of their new Crown sedans, and the new all-electric bZ4x...both looked great, but again, sticker shock. They had no new Camry, Corolla, or RAV4s in stock, only one 4Runner, and one Sequoia.

 

[Popgadget]

Good Morning.
33 degrees out there this morning, visible patches of frost on the ground. High of 60 forecast under clear skies. Light winds, might be good for flying RC this afternoon or evening.

Yesterday started with a good breakfast with the professor. As a retired lawyer and constitutional history professor, all the news and political shenanigans kept him pretty animated.

When I got home there was a motorhome in front of my shop, so we got right to work. I think that I managed to check off everything on Drew’s list. Fortunately, he brought a stamped steel socket for the water heater element, as my socket would not get around the Venturi tube for the gas burner. His socket had a hole through it to turn it with a bar, but it didn’t quite clear the edge of the RV, and looked like a knuckle buster. So I welded a plate to the end of it and welded a nut to that plate to turn it with a socket and breaker bar. The Faucet was easy, except the old one had 1/2” MPT connections and the new one was 3/8 compression. A trip to the hardware store got us the required fittings. I think that Drew liked the Prius V.
Because I’m not as flexible as I once was, I removed the cabinet doors and sliding drawers for access, that combined with putting it back together took longer than the plumbing.

We finished up before lunchtime, after lunch I figured I’d give the antique slide hammer nail puller a test on fence staples

It worked great. Infinitely faster than my old way of fence pliers and claw hammer. Between this and the Milwaukee stapler, replacing the fabric on this pasture fence should go pretty fast.

It was so nice outside, I hopped on the Lazer and mowed the fence lines and tight areas, figuring I would mow the open areas today. But I was on a roll, so I took the loader off the tractor, hooked up the Progressive mower and knocked it out.

So this morning wife and I will make a Costco run, and then hopefully I’ll get to the airport to continue putting the little airplane back together. Seems like it takes a month to complete an inspection at my pace.

Also need to get to the Sellersville Theater to pick up two more tickets for the Asleep at the Wheel show in August. As a member of the theater, I get to buy tickets for the front rows before they go on sale to the general public.

 

[daugen]

sharpened blades, I agree Frits
What about the protective paint level on those new extra hard blades of mine?
Do I run them over the grinder lightly to take off the paint and improve the sharpness?
Or leave them well enough alone.
my new blades have quite a taper to them, the dynamics of blade vs grass has been studied a long time.
these new blades are heavier but low air lift, pretty flat. That should conserve power use.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009GLISI0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I have a digital doodad to put on the end of my Makita cordless driver, fairly powerful, has never failed to get bolts loose.
BL brushless motor delivers 520 ft.lbs. of fastening torque and 740 ft.lbs. of nut-busting torque
Digital torque meter consumes about one inch, maybe a little more, and I figure if I watch that while pulling the trigger, I can stop
at the right time. It maxs at 147#
I'm guessing I need 100 to 125...
any guesses?

If my arms and wrists and hands were stronger I could do all the torquing by hand with a long bar.
You have a better feel. And a satisfying click.
Now to look up install torque spec

now taking a picture while operating the impact wrench while lying down, my worst position for my neck,
and watching the little numbers, that almost gets to be too much multitasking for me.
Perhaps it has a memory and playback.
I'm not ready to swap blades yet, ones on there now were just sharpened and working fine.
my thought was these extra hard blades would work well in the late Fall sucking up leaves and small sticks using my
oem JD power bagger. It creates enough suction by itself I don't need gator or high suction blades when I use the bagger.
It's now without the bagger a high lift blade would help with the often damp grass.

no clumps
no clumps
I've learned to mow my rear yard in two sections, blowing grass inwards consistently on both sides, pushing all the grass junk to the edges, which
by then it has all gone away. I never blow anything on my neighbor's property, always aim it back in. Though in dry weather I do mow the common water ditch which is mostly on his property.

I've always enjoyed sharpening knives and blades, find it very satisfying. Have always owned a grinding wheel. Have a medium and extra fine wheel on mine.
then the issue is to you put a real knife edge on your lawn mower blade? An edge so thin it would slice any weed effortlessly, but if you get lazy and don't get down and pick up that hardwood stick, and run over it instead, that's when the heat treating of this blade's edge will earn its pay.
Thankfully I have no surface rocks here.

looks like a beautiful day out but needs to warm up before I venture out
this weather is clearly a gift from the North

 

[Popgadget]

Digital torque meter consumes about one inch, maybe a little more, and I figure if I watch that while pulling the trigger, I can stop
at the right time. It maxs at 147#
I'm guessing I need 100 to 125...
any guesses?

These are a much better way to torque things with an impact gun.

Harbor Freight Tools – Quality Tools at Discount Prices Since 1977

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com