Long road to home.

grainger12002 · Apr 7, 2014

same here in CT, this winter needs to go

ENG18LT · Apr 20, 2014

Happy Easter to all. This has been a great weekend to spend at the property. Friday afternoon I got four loads of wood burned from the old shop. I spent all day yesterday moving wood from the pile that used to be the old shop to the burn pile. Later in the day my cousin showed up with his mini excavator. He had a new mechanical thumb that needed to be welded on. It's always fun welding, so we got that on. Of course we had to try it out. He went over to the pile and broke apart the last of wall pieces so they would fit into my loader. That thing made pretty quick work of it. I kept hauling loads out to the burn pile while he was breaking up stuff and sorting out metal and non-burnables. We managed to get most of it cleared out and burned.

No work today, just going to in-laws for Easter dinner then back home tonight.

ENG18LT · Apr 26, 2014

A short post about some good news on the personal front. I have been promoted to District Chief at work. So to celebrate I got a new toy, I mean tool!

wmonroe · Apr 26, 2014

Congrats on the promotion and the new toy. What size deere is that? It looks like it's in decent shape.

ENG18LT · Apr 26, 2014

Its a JD 70 from 1987. It weights in at 15,000lbs. So it is comparable to an old CAT E70B or the CAT 307 by today's numbering. It's a solid machine for its age. Mechanically sound, just not pretty. Which is a good thing around me!

Thanks for the congratulations.

brin · Apr 26, 2014

ENG18LT said:
A short post about some good news on the personal front. I have been promoted to District Chief at work. So to celebrate I got a new toy, I mean tool!

View attachment 372504

Holy Cow...congratulations.....you will enjoy your new excavator...be careful...and again congrats..well done !

Scooter78 · Apr 27, 2014

Congrats and great "toy" I mean "tool" addition!

flamom · Apr 28, 2014

ENG18LT said:
A short post about some good news on the personal front. I have been promoted to District Chief at work. So to celebrate I got a new toy, I mean tool!

View attachment 372504

Congrats on your promotion and I hope you enjoy the new tool! Love seeing the progress on your property!

Beltman60 · Apr 28, 2014

Congrats on the promotion
Now you can become a digging fool
I know I would

ENG18LT · Apr 29, 2014

Beltman60 said:
Congrats on the promotion
Now you can become a digging fool
I know I would

You hit the nail on the head with that one! There's so much that needs to be done. Of course there's stuff that would be nice to do, and the ever important stuff you do cause it looks like fun! I wonder which will get done first.

ENG18LT · Apr 29, 2014

flamom said:
Congrats on your promotion and I hope you enjoy the new tool! Love seeing the progress on your property!

Thank you. I am glad you like reading about our journey, feel free to chime in anytime.

ENG18LT · May 6, 2014

The new to me excavator has arrived. I plan on spending today and tomorrow cleaning it up. There is a hydraulic leak from one of the couplings/clamps. The hardest part is just getting to it. You know it's one of those stand on your head to reach it places. I will post some more pictures as I get it cleaned up.

Scooter78 · May 6, 2014

Man that thing looks good sitting in your shop. What's the wife think? You are more than welcome to use my old sayn "that thing I have had it for years guess you just never noticed it".

ENG18LT · May 6, 2014

She just laughs. As long as I make sure her gardens are ready she is happy. So I spent this morning discing the gardens.

ENG18LT · May 6, 2014

I tightened the leaky clamp on the excavator, no pictures though. The bugger was not what one would call accessible. I had to lay on the top of the motor cover, drop my head and shoulders over the edge, use my elbows to keep from sliding head first into a place I didn't want to be, and finally was able to get a socket on the nut. As you can imagine it was not fun, did I mention that everything was covered in hydraulic fluid from the leak. Well once I finished up that and topped off the hydraulic tank it was time to try this baby out. I spent a good six hours cleaning up a seasonal stream bed. There was a long section (150') that had filled in with leaves, branches and sediment over the last few decades. It was good practice to bring back the operating skills to front of my brain and out of the cobwebs. This thing is a strong digger, just the right size.

Green Power · May 6, 2014

Nice work Lee! Do you think you will add a thumb to your excavator? How many hours are on it?

ENG18LT · May 6, 2014

I plan on adding a mechanical thumb at some point. No aux lines for a hydraulic thumb. The motor has 6500 hours and runs like a top. On smoke, no blow by, plenty of power, and smooth as can be.

ENG18LT · May 13, 2014

I got some spring clean up done today. Then I hopped on the excavator and started popping out tree stumps, especially the ones I keep running into with the mower deck. All sounds good right. Well, enter Murphy's law. The right track is a little loose and in need of tightening. I attempted to add grease to the tensioner before using it but it wouldn't budge. So I figured I'll just be careful turning. Guess what happened.

So much for being careful. The good news is that it happened in the driveway to the barn where I was gonna work on it anyway. Having the track off allows me to access the tensioner better. The simplest problem could be that the grease fitting is bad and needs replacing. If the tensioner was stuck in the slides, it has freed up. Worst case the tensioner is bad. That would suck, to say the least. Of course after the tensioning problem is fixed I will need to get the track back on. So for the night the right side is resting on cribbing. I am helping a relative tomorrow with some sheetrock so probably won't have pictures of a solution for a few days.

Scooter78 · May 13, 2014

That really stinks but the best way to learn how to fix a problem is to have one. Well that's what I tell myself to make myself feel better. But I have a great friend who owned a track loader they bought it new in '67. Anyways they made friends with the local service truck and from then on anytime they needed a repair they would just call him and he would swing by after hours. They saved a fortune because they did not have to pay the Cat rates.