Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

Grab is here

http://www.plantandconstruction.co.u...er-Exctraction

Not forgotten this Muz ..... looking for some pix of a few ideas I have for your prob. .... back to you later

[v8druid]

Try refreshing your browser ? The original poster in the dumper post used to be called James1981 or something and he asked me to change it, which I did being the genial host but to get all his posts renamed meant a back end refresh of forum user names



Well I read your use of the name for something and got the notion for it being a mag mount drill perhaps I got that wrong



Oh you know .. those ones that cost £0 .... I'm in dream land

Reloaded Google chrome a couple of days ago Muz as said it was out of date!!

The 'Ying Tong' was in reference to the chinky hole saws Boyo ...... cheap, cheerful ..... and bloody effective/good, for the price of 'em

As for the £0 rotatators ..... there's one in the post to you

[v8druid]

Grab is here

http://www.plantandconstruction.co.u...er-Exctraction

beast of a grab that

on the rotator front there's these ..... 'bout 900 squid IIRC 100_2957.jpg100_2958.jpg

and these

http://www.wee-trading.no/index.cfm?...5&b_id=1584305

http://m.finn.no/b2b/construction/ad...nkode=63894586

and there's also the poor relations, but quite a handy idea ...





http://m.finn.no/b2b/construction/ad...nkode=63859443

[Muz]

Never even knew there was such a device as the poor relation ? ... might have been preferable to the 4 way pick up .. As it stands you have to knock off the grab, spin it and reconnect. Can all be done from cab ofcourse, since with a bit of care, the hoses dont need to be disconnected either, but it will lead to an inevitable burst at some point . Keeping the weight down is a primary consideration. If I can find the cash, I will start a thread on it rather than interrupt this one

[v8druid]

Never even knew there was such a device as the poor relation ? ... might have been preferable to the 4 way pick up .. As it stands you have to knock off the grab, spin it and reconnect. Can all be done from cab ofcourse, since with a bit of care, the hoses dont need to be disconnected either, but it will lead to an inevitable burst at some point . Keeping the weight down is a primary consideration. If I can find the cash, I will start a thread on it rather than interrupt this one

I'd have thought that you could knock up something similar Muz .... only a spigot and cover plate to allow the pick up plate to rotate about the spigot .... could leave it free rotating or multiple notch it ... like a cog, rather than just the N, S, E, W set up they have?
Neat unit though eh and IIRC not that dear

[v8druid]

big catch up

Monday was a total write off ....... either hay fever or something I inadvertently ate Sunday ..... up most of the night, unable to breathe and no better through the day Monday.
Calmed a bit by late evening, so I’m guessing a combination of allergy and hay fever. Have stopped eating all sorts, over the last couple of years as I recognise/identify things that set it off !!


I was grateful to get some sleep Monday night and Pam left me there, in the a.m. whilst she went for her Tuesday ‘stroll’ with her mates and collected Clara afterwards.


Got promoted, in the afternoon, from general dogs body to pack horse/beast of burden !!
She loved it, although it’s really for an older/bigger ‘little un’ .......






nicked the pix off Pam's FB page


Damned sight easier than carrying her and ended up with her there for a couple of hours ... kept her amused !!
Vicki has one that goes on your front too .... told her to bring that one Thursday ... she can sit on me front whilst I can get to sit in the ‘Drema She’ll love it

Fedex arrived with me bits and bobs for the VA-r and a few other items I’m sorting for the potentially imminent job of flail Druidisation !!
Flowfit’s store-man struck again ... these are supposed to be 1” FF male covers !!!





And these are supposed to be ¾” FF male covers ...... (actually 1” female covers... already have some to compare with) !!





At least the Hyd fittings were as ordered .....





And had a bit of a ‘fiddle about’ later Tuesday evening ..... after me hamster juice got poured into me arm!!





....... but got beaten by the light ..... or at least by the ever increasing .... lack of it !!!

[v8druid]

and more

Wednesay was a bitty sort of day .... Pam was out early in the morning, to have her ‘barnet’ attended to and drop off her Veedub at my mate’s place for a service .... for the couple of quid he charges me, it’s easier than grovelling under it and cursing the bloody filter location.
I dropped off another motor at his, for an MOT and a coffee/catch up and had a ride back with Pam.


Running up to Brynmawr, on the A465 Heads of the Valleys road, which is undergoing immense works ATM, I passed amongst loads of other kit, a duck in a layby, [being used as a material stores], with a lovely set of Bandenmarkt boots on it and thought, that looks just like Lister Gerricks tyres.... Nice!!


Wasn’t until we were passing said duck, on the way back down, that I could see Lister’s name on the boom ... so we’ve got a portion of the dream team, down here ATM.


Had a chat on the phone with him, later in the day and he’s gonna pop around for a cuppa and chinwag shortly ..... so look out Ollie, Rob, etc. .... school report time coming up !!!


Also had several conversations with Adam at Flowfit this afters too, having sent ‘em the pix above yesterday afternoon, with a request to please rectify the **** up, A.S.A.P. !!


No disputing the ¾” FFs aren’t what they’re supposed to be and are indeed 1” female covers .... the 1” male covers he tells me are right ... yeh right!!
For 1 ¼” praps !!
Then tried to tell me that their 1” FFs aren’t the same as everyone else’s 1” FFs .... !!
they have their own sizes, despite it being an industry std !!!!!! FFS !!


Anyway, we resolved it eventually after a lot of to-ing, fro-ing, measuring and half a dozen calls!!
Hopefully they were gonna arrive shortly.
After all that .... ‘Twas ‘Drema time and had intended to get shot of a few loads of spoil, as the field had dried out well, these last few rain free days!!


So got meself up on top, tidied up the rubble heap first and got set up to reach over the edge, into ‘the abyss’.
Tim (on T'other - a big advocate of direct mounts and tilty hater/non-lover) would be pleased to hear that the only thing on the Miller was my 3ft Geith and thought I’d have a nibble at a few of the next boulders in line for an outing !!


14 lumps later and a few holes repacked with rubble/spoil and I had a line of ‘em awaiting the attentions of the Cranab





Having run out of space to park any more and fast approaching feeding time, I high-tailed it back down for the day .....





Here’s one specially for all rock lovers to drool over





Getting back in there quietly ......





At the required level

It didn’t take Squeak long to take advantage of the new ‘vantage spot’ .....





Replete with tea, (stuffed in other words) I returned to my bench and the VA-r to try and size up some pipe work to connect up the new tees to the QH valve, with a couple of ‘gash’ ¼” hoses, to suss the routing and lengths .....











Having got the P & T pipes sorted and lengthed up, I turned my attentions to the A & Bs to the Roemheld and as per usual had to whip 3 more off to get my hands down in the bowels to get them attached ..... I have it sussed though !


If I could escape for an hour Thursday .... we have Clara again for the day .... I was gonna nip out to Raglan and get some pipes made up ...... then all I had to do was lay in a new wiring circuit and switch, before I can get the Hill re-mounted and hopefully fully functional on it’s own Hyd circuit and QH valve ..... all at the flick of a switch !!!!!

[v8druid]

this arrived Thursday ...... the second tooth that UK Construction Parts have had on ebay for months. Had it in me watch list since I bought the first one off 'em.





Made the right decision when I bought the first one ... it was the right size for me Akerman bucket ..... it's the one in the front !! ......... and I thought that was a lump when it arrived !!! Been trying to find 3 more ever since !!








Any ways .... this un is way too big for my Akerman bucket's gums ..... but it's going to make a hell of a ripper tooth .... if anyone has any specific thoughts or suggestions on design, I'd be well pleased to hear them .

Spent most of the day Thursday with Pam and Clara, ‘til about 3.30, when I gave Marty a call, out at Raglan, to make sure he had four ¼” banjo ends, before disappearing off out there with my ‘sizing pipes’ to get six new hoses made up for the hitch installation.
Was back by five, with a handful of hoses and fittings .......





and had a few of ‘em in place, by the time the bell tolled (for tea)





Had to partially dismount the QH valve to get the banjos into the back of it for the T & P ports .....





And t’other ends went on to the P & T tees sweet as a nut ...... after tea !!




Then it was Roemheld time .... three hoses to come off first and then a real juggling act to get the A & B pipes onto the rotary .......





Just enough room for a hand with the pipes removed from the tilt ram rotary unions and to route the A/B hoses to the QH valve, under everything else.





And up onto the adapters in the A/B ports

[v8druid]

Then tilt ram hoses back in place......





and solenoid back in spot





Getting a bit crowded in there now!!!!


Then it was time for a spot of wiring ....


Solenoid plug



Spiral wrapped and fed into the loom wrap and then back out ......





....... to follow the route of the 7 core main control lead, up the tilt pipes and out of the VA-r heading for its plug.


Apologies for the poor pix but the light was starting to go, by now.


I did manage to get a new Hella 2 pin plug onto the dipper though and the lead run out and routed back to the cab ...... before running out of lumens properly!

Friday morning’s mission was to route the cable in under the cab floor ..... belly plates off and into my favourite position ..... under the cab on my camping stool, to get it all routed and secured, then eventually up into the cab and the left hand arm rest, where the Miller’s switch is.


Drilled a new hole for the Hill’s switch and replaced the Miller’s switch with a n other new one ... both aircraft type safety covered switches, with warning illumination when activated.


The Miller set up has a buzzer, as required and will have to get another one to piggy-back in with the new Hill switch .... the ‘box of tricks’, that came with the Hill from Mick, was the usual ‘ugly alloy box’ for bolting somewhere in the cab and had two buzzers in it, but didn’t really want to cannibalise that .... might come in handy for something else and fitting one into the new Hill circuit won’t be much of an issue, when I acquire one.


Tidied up all the bits and bobs and then it was time for ....... picking up the VA-r for a shake down ...





.... to start with, checking routing clearances and looking for leaks .... pleased to report there weren’t any ...... amazingly !!


Then it was off with the 70mm cheek plates ....





set up the Hill on the bench .....





....... ready to drop the VA-r’s new pick up gussets onto the Hills receiver plates and bolt it together .......





Had intended to resize the bolt lengths, but I’m going to get some shorter ones, so the ol’ nut trick got deployed for now .... they should be here Tuesday, so can swap ‘em out a couple at a time, when they arrive.


Then it was juggle the Hill’s FF QCs into their new home, in their mates, attached to the underside of the Roemheld .....





.....bit tight ...





But do-able !!


Friay was 100% better than forecast and it was supposed to be wet-ish Saturday, so I wanted to get all those rocks down off the ramp to a point where they’re at least accessible off the hard stand, so I can at least juggle ‘em all into the growing stockpile.


So ....... hoiked the Cranab out from where it was sat, with the rotator still on it,





to get it off and a pick up set back on it.....

[v8druid]

And back under the VA-r .....





Where it belongs !!


Then it was time to frighten a few rocks ......





Last one coming down with me for the night ....






I can now get at ‘em all, from ‘the hard’ ......





The beast at rest ......





It all worked a treat .... and the hitch gets ‘oiled up’ every time I do something/use a motion, plus when I want to open/close it, as before, I have full proportional control over its motion/actuation, with the pedal feeding oil to the VA-r, just that now instead of being fed by the Aux QCs, it has its own dedicated supply, at the flick of a switch, to select open/close and I have my Aux FFs back, to attach the likes of the Cranab, Kins clamshell or block grab, under it.


Druidflow integraloil auto connections next .................................................. ................ kidding !!!
I’m happy enough getting down out the cab for two QCs, now and again !!


One thing’s for sure ...... I will NOTbe tweaking any boulders with the bucket teeth again any time soon !!!!


Normal VA-r service has been resumed!!!!!!


Talking to Frank, my friend in Norway, the other night, telling him what I’d been doing to break it, he reckoned that it would’ve probably have seen off an Engcon too, which was interesting and reasonably ‘comforting’ ...... reckoned he could wreck any tilty in minutes, with ‘the right’ sort of abuse !!!!

[v8druid]

One for reference ......... saw a real cheap source on ebay the other night ...... for new exhausts for Mr Hodna’s lil’ engines and ordered one for my little Fleming Micron walker.


I had to make one many years ago, when the old one literally fell to bits on me one weekend, mid job, but it’s always been a tad on the loud side!!


Said silencer arrived Friday afternoon .....





And very tidy it is for £7.80 !!


The old one is looking very ........um ......... old, now ....



But in fairness ..... it’s done a fine job for a looooong time!








As per usual – for anyone interested/masochistically inclined/needing more pix fix ..... there’re a lot more here of the repairs / re-assembly / modifications job


http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8druid/slideshow/

And that gentlemen, gets me damned near up to date

[v8druid]

Not much of a day here yesterday ..... more like late Autumn than mid July ... cold, damp and miserable ....

Did mange to relocate the various lumps of rock from the ramp to the stockpile though ...







Be able to see this from space shortly !!!!


Today’s been a bit better weather wise ...... on /off. Between the wet stuff !!
Made a start on the flail’s re-configuration ...... with a spot of dismantling and de-oiling.

Had a look at the belt drive, first off .... nice new set sat in the cover, which was plastered in the remnants of previous occupants and old oil.



‘Til it got a bit of a clean out ........



The turned my attentions to pipe removal and draining of mineral oil ......



Plugged the motor’s ports for now to keep the weather out ......




Then stripped the rest of the plumbing off and drained them all out ..... ‘close on 3 gallons out of ‘em all ......



A good selection of very usable pipes and a few ‘interesting fittings’!
Anyone familiar with these? Brass banjos???? Heavy duty items too !



Not a bad valve block .....



which’ll come in handy for Humper Dumper when I get around to putting the finishing touches to it .....

Now ready for some slinging/lifting off of the main lumps tomorrow .......



All the pipes are stood/hanging in a bucket for the night, for a final drain out and I have reasonable ‘plan’ as to what I’m gonna use off here, other than the head and how it’s going to get utilised under the VA-r .... for flexibility on angle of attack!!

The pump/tank/mounting/etc. would make a hell of a good tractor mounted 'power pack' for providing hydraulic power with and may leave that in one piece for now!

Slow old day though between the 'showers'!!!

[v8druid]

Well it came to bits Monday afternoon ....









.....after I’d been up and sorted the neighbours ‘donkey shit’ issues ...... sick of looking at the bloody mess, every time we drive past !!





Had to take the grab with me to deal with a few ‘over-ripe’ ones o’ these ......



Getting a bit PO-ed with the lazy bar steward ‘donkey lovers’ who’re too ****ing idle to walk a few more paces to the edge to tip their barrow loads of horse shit. ......



Not the first time .... and doubt it’ll be the last ... more words exchanged and it’ll be kept tidy ....... for a week !!!



Had just about finished it and the boss was on the phone ..... “how long you gonna be?”

“why?”

“That bloody hornet is back and it’s in the house this time... I’ve locked it in the bathroom ..... can you come and sort it, when you’re back down!!”

There’s a few of ‘em living in the old Oak, that’s coming down, up by me boxes and I’ve been tolerating ‘em for a while .... can hear ‘em flying around like ‘Wellington bombers’ at dusk, but there’s been one taking an unhealthy interest in me tool box, of late and sooner or later we’re going to have a ‘head on’ in the doorway, so he was going to have to have it, at some point.
Now he’d taken an interest in the house, he’d overstepped the mark, especially with the little un about 3 times a week.
Tentatively opened the bathroom door ...... no sign ... expected to be met by one pissed off hornet!??
Lil’ bugger was lying in wait behind the washing basket ...... but I had the bugger!!



Don’t kill anything these days, if I can help it ... guess it’s an age thing, but ‘fraid he had to go !!

[v8druid]

The day hadn’t started the best, when Pam had wanted the little ‘traccy’ ... our old ride on, that I’ve taken the deck off, to use for dragging a trailer about with ...... and as per usual, when it hasn’t been used for months .... bugger wouldn’t start !!!

It’s a known issue for me ... points fir up and have to be ‘gotten at’ to sort ‘em!!





Made a puller for the flywheel, many years ago, so not a ‘serious’ job ..... ‘cept when you have to do it a second time, when the lil bar steward back fire first flick and shears the key in the flywheel !!!!
Then it becomes ‘tedious’ ..... anyway, new key and job sorted !!Pam gets the traccy !

After I’d despatched said ‘Wellington bomber’, and dismembered the Bomford, ‘twas time for an inspection of what needs doing and a suss of how I was gonna mount it.

Already knew that the head needs a few minor repairs ....





Nothing too complex there .....

I will make it a straight forward pick up set, for under a hitch, but also have it in mind to use the existing mount arm, as an alternate, to give me some serious flexibility in the ‘angle of dangle’ stakes .... and a few extra feet of reach. So a strip and clean was in order ......



After scraping off years of accumulation of crap .... I could see what looked like a bit of an issue!!





Well that was an understatement, if ever there was one!!





Major repair required!! That was as far as I got that evening though ..... some one turned the light out !!!

[v8druid]

Following morning was ... dry, as it had been on the Monday too and everything had dried very nicely with the strong breeze we’d had for days, so thought I’d start the day with a....... trip to town .... for a meeting with Vicki and her shop’s landlord, who I’ve known for ‘donkeys’
The one next door, which he also owns has just become vacant and she needs more space ... could I come and have a look at it ......and ‘praps negotiate a deal on the two !!

So, a serious portion of the day later and I was back, in need of a little ‘therapy’!!
I hate going into town these days and market day in Abergavenny is bedlam !
So stuck my favourite ‘sharp edged’ spoon on......



...... and had an hour or so reducing the grade/incline on the ramp.....[that bucket has an edge like a razor and slices through all the buried concrete blocks, like a hot knife through butter].....



.... this should make for easier ‘tramping up/down ... lugging rocks about, .... by which time it was ... ‘bell time’ !




Couple of hours after tea, on the bench ...... cleaning up the last few Bomford bits and de-oiling the now ‘spare’ cylinders.
The one didn’t look quite right and having had a closer look .... deffo wasn’t as good as it might have once been !!!!!



And didn’t look like just the eye either !!





So pulled it to bits ... for a better look !!



Came apart surprisingly easily, considering, but gland and scraper well knacked and the pressure/piston seals were ....... a bit second hand !!



‘least the one was ..... well to the woods !!!
Bore was good though, so I’ll take this in to me mate’s, who bought my presses and straighten the lil’ bugger out, next time I’m in town. Done far worse !!

Stripped out the actuator ram for the head’s mount at the same time and that was fine ... good way of de-oiling it too.
Damned near dark by the time I’d finished re-assembling it.