Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

had a bit of a 'brainwave' Tuesday morning .... Jake is mobile ..... a lot more mobile than a load of pallets of stone .... so wound him up and vacated the space he's been parked in for months .. started first flick .... good ol' 4.236 Perky ... never fails





and slotted a dozen pallets into the spot










creating some serious space to fit a 'Drema into and get some rock ripping finished







Yesterday morning saw that rock bed get reduced by another 6-8" and completely demolished in places, to create a drainage channel to meet the existing one down the centre of the patch ......







then backfilled with a load of crushed stone, etc.





bang on target for the 40mm clean filled 3'x2'channels across the centre of the patch


....


ready for 'the treatment' and a good rolling ....




which it got .....



Belt on the roller was playing up this afters and decided to give it some belt dressing ... which I've had sat about for years .... pressed the nozzle to spray the belt and the damned thing absolutely showered me in dressing ..... like a champagne bottle going off !!!!!


'twere looking better by tea time anyway and Jakie got relocated for now ....








well pleased I decided to rip that last bit of rock bed out ..... looks so much better and will drain now


Loads more pix in the usual place for anyone interested .......


http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...y%20bucket%202












planings and 40mm next ....... and get this end of the bank finished off !!

been a damp ol' day today on/off so little in the way of progress but 'sposed to be dry now for a several days ..... finish the bank, get the last of the crap down the field and get ol' Jakieb down there for a major square up and level off
40 t of planings ordered .... get them down and then get some clean 40mm in to do the edge drainage channels and a few other spots that need topping up
still no word from, or sign of the bloody stone mason

[v8druid]

been a right pissy couple of days .....





... and nights here ... sod all progress ... too soggy


been ing about sussing a template for a cheek change this evening after it'd dried up this afters .... and after I'd been coerced into a spot of brick laying for the boss ...








Yon riddle bucket's going S50





But not before it's had a stint on Jake, down the field ... if it ever stops being pissy wet overnights.
couple of piles of riddled material to top off with'd be well handy !!

[v8druid]

jeeeez have we had some rain last night & today ....








drained well though when it eventually stopped for an hour .....long enough for a certain aspiring op. to get some seat time ....





We also seemed to be 'the destination' for next door's pheasants .... obviously released a hatch yesterday .... 46 of 'em on the lawn !!





they must know it's a safe haven

[v8druid]

well it dried up ............... eventually ... and I set to sorting the last lil' bit of bank and deck/floor .....







ripped this out to bed rock below at about 450mm and then back filled it with all the crushed up rock from the bank that I ripped out .... bout a third of it left here ...


went down pretty well







and looked even better with the old roller over it ....














last bit was a bit of a fiddle .....







once i'd moved the pallets of rock out the way

load 400 went down the rock tip yesterday ..












he got some pile of road stone there now ..... that was his last .... unless SWMBO has a change of heart and I get to rip out a lot more bank .. just not worth the argument ATM ........ job done, apart from black stuff and clean 40mm


been down the field today with Jake ..... trying to spread the soil about a bit ... some of it's like bloody concrete ... been standing some time, some of it and had some serious wettings







went armed with a couple of options







had Clara last night, so not the earliest of kick offs, by the time she'd been collected ...... ran out of time .... and patience by tea time ... it's all a lot flatter, but not to my satisfaction ..... another session required .... and may well be with summat on tracks and circa 5t .... 'tis 'challenging' on wheels down there ... cross slope is 'exciting' !!!!!!!


new 'net tomorrow .... **** off BT ..... have had a serious titsful of them this last 12 months



halved the bill and got shot, all in one hit .... no contract ... not happy? .... move next month .... fixed price for 3 years

BT went up every 3 months for a totally shit service

Clara discovered grand dad's roll of 'emergency plasters' in't jakie Saturday ..... she loves a plaster ... or ten !!

[v8druid]

new internet server went live today ... BT cut me off bang on midnight last night ... plugged in the new one .. spent an hour and a half trying to get my 'puter to talk to it : ... could see the wifi, but not listed and would not communicate .... phone fine ... pam's laptop fine .... having been through every setting in the list, I've concluded my old wifi ain't compatible ... despite the fact that it is the right 'speed'/frequency and the router is only 6 ft away. "No wireless networks found"
Gave up and went to bed


dragged the old girl out this morning for it's 3 monthly blast out with the air line ... routed an ethernet cable and moved yon router even closer to reach the cable.
stuck all the leccyspaghetti back together and hey presto ... nice, new, much faster, BB and no more BT tossers to deal with in Bombay!!


Half the price of the previous crap ... no contract and price fixed for 3 years
should have done this ages ago !!


One to make you smile .... in the gents at The Heath hospital Tuesday .... a complete pictorial set of instructions ........... on how to wash your hands !!!


FFS !!!

[v8druid]

actually managed to find a new vibe drive belt for me roller this week ..... old one's a bit tired and intermittent on the ol' vibe . So managed to put the roller over everything and really get it whacked down ready for the black stuff

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oh and the bloody acorn season has kicked off damned things rain down, in some order, when they get going.
Rolling them under the planings ain't an option...... if you don't want oak trees everywhere

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need to get the black stuff here and spread about PDQ

spent some time yesterday sorting a.n.other lil' job for Alex ...

needed a mount that'd take various cheek sets .... the primary one being one of my S50s I made for him a while back..
the S50s are the same width as the Lloyd mounting centres .... as in EXACTLY ..... those 6 x M20 bolts sit precisely under the S50 cheeks so ..... spacer plate required with all mounts tapped into it

M20s to mount the spacer adapter

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and M16s for the S type

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had to fit the tags to carry the plumbing/valves, as they originally fitted under the M20 bolts holding the tiny head plate it arrived with.

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so we were ready for a trial fit

M20 SHCS,s were a mil. too long so had to grind them off flush ..... other than that

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perfick

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had to tweak the plumbing a bit to get things to sit right ..... but it'll do .............. nicely

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mount hole sets are std kinshoffer 140mm x 140mm ctrs x 4no and 175mm PCD x 6no ...... same as all his other att.s .... keep it standard. ... and guess who else uses those 'standard' mount dim.s on his att.s too

[v8druid]

went off for a trial fit this morning .... see if anything else needs tweaking, but hopefully not. ..... unlikely to be run under the SMP anyway, by the sound of it, as the flow rate is pretty serious

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it may be called a "Nanostar" .... but sod all 'nano' about it

pissed down just after we got it strapped down ...... hence i'm sat here

[v8druid]

have done very little, most of the weekend other than 'net browsing.


Been looking for a turret mill and had found a real tidy Ajax, not far from me, full DRO, ex training school, so light use and very nice.


eventually got some com.s from the seller, only to find he'd blown it and a load of other gear out to a dealer, to clear it all for the new term's start ... well pissed off!!! ..... would've been ideal.
so new saved search entered and see what crops up.
would've preferred this over a Bridgeport .... heavier built all together !!





Gutted !!









Like new, near as ..... I'd have taken all three if I'd only heard from the guy in good time ... other two'd have been well sale-able and a peach for myself

[AndrewMawson]

Get your shed up first, or you'll have a load of rusty toys!

[v8druid]

Get your shed up first, or you'll have a load of rusty toys!

I could've fitted it in a box Andrew ..... just .... with two inches to spare in the height dept. .... could also do with having the facilities it would provide me with ....
academic now unfortunately ... for now, at least

[v8druid]

I keep forgetting to show you guys Alex's truck that we did the bed for a while ago


not the greatest of pix and still bits to be done ... the back end has some under-body tool boxes being made ATM, to come down to the wings and infill the 'void'. They took some measuring up a few weeks ago .... the body guys did a superb job on it including some stunning paintwork. Making flat ali panels that well takes a LOT of doing .... he's since put a full set of up-rated 'susspendies' on it with IIRC +2" of lift and pre-loaded for the additional dead weight.
Gives about 800kg payload, with it all fitted





























he designed it and had it made by some bodybuilders ... it is VERY smart ... I spent some time straightening out the bed for it, that he fabbed up and making the wings, if you recall ...... Need a good bench and some practice to make flat beds and keep 'em flat.


and here's one with the roof rack on the back end .....





He spent a few years in Oz and it's a combination of all the best features he saw on 'utes' out there :thumme: and a few of his own ideas. he tells me that you can buy just a chassis cab out of the dealers out there ..... or spec. exactly what you want on it and it arrives in this sort of spec./flatbed/whatever .... new out the box

His Lloyd went onto the Mec .... without the SMP ..... bit tight with it apparently ....... and won't flow enough oil anyway



face shovel style was easier ... for running / loading it ... does a hell of a job

[v8druid]

lovely day, so spent some time yesterday, juggling firewood about .. been meaning to get this done for a while .... woodshed needs filling for the winter, 'fore it rains properly again and it all gets soaked





slung three down onto the drive and took one down with me ...





then slung the rest down .....





bag lifter is so easy and quick ...and 'Pam friendly' ... POP to use





three and a half bags later ... and two hours of in/out - up/down in that bloody wood shed .... remembering to duck every time - almost!!




get a few more in there yet, I reckon ..... after a bit more of a square up and losing the last half bag already down there ................... and my feet have recovered


losing the bags, from up top, made me some space to relocate some of me pallet pile and the third wood box, which've all been sat on the new flat area





and got this all cleared, ready for some black stuff and 40mm








when it eventually arrives!! .... the black stuff guys are real busy ATM


Also lifted me band saw out into a more usable spot .... got a few jobs for it shortly and had yet another small reshuffle of a few items, while I was at it

[v8druid]

So ..... Saturday saw three more bags down the wood shed ...








and almost finished stuffing it by teatime





also slotted the last three, out of the ten I'd filled, into me trailer for a Sunday morning delivery to the step daughter's in the village ..... gotta keep that lil' girl of theirs warm when the weather turns to sh1t ..





which it has well and truly done yesterday and today howling, horizontal rain ..... lots of it !!!!

got the last of me pallet stack slotted away for now ......





with all the bags gone off the top of the drying cages.


stopped off on me way back from the village for a bit of an inspection to see what the field's looking like ....





was going to give it another once over, ....... 'til the weather turned to sh*t ... be a while 'fore i can get on there again after the last two days rain ... with wheels, anyway !!


Pallex turned up Wednesday morning with me latest acquisition





welcome home to me plasma .... bought it back off the CEF member who bought it from me, back in '14 .....





with 3 phase now on tap ..... 120 Amps of plasma will make for some easy cutting of most things I want to do .... will do 32 clean and more with patience


Needed a bit of a clean, but he'd done an excellent packaging job, for it's trip back from Ireland !

in light of Wednesday afternoon's weather and the forecast for yesterday, we'd planned a day out to go take a look at this .....








new Trago Mills shop in Merthyr ... it's ****ing HUGE


looks like a Disney creation .... God knows how they got planning for it ???


600 metres long in the main 'hall' .... stood at the one end you can't make out the other end clearly - where the floor stops and the roof starts


Been to their other places in Devon and Cornwall years ago and always well priced and stocked with all sorts of interesting stuff .... this one's no different, just on a MASSIVE scale .... picked up a few bits and bobs ... that you'd just not expect to find ... like boxes of M20 nuts, - got a great range of fixings .. huge tool selection .... all sorts of stuff and well priced, as usual.


Nice roast turkey lunch - I love turkey and again very well priced !!


wild old day though .... front sliding doors blew in as I was heading out of 'em ... caused a bit of a panic with the staff !! think they may need a rethink on them .... some screening might be in order outside the entrance or they're gonna be sorting them on a regular basis ..... but if they will build in Merthyr!? ..... LOL

[v8druid]

well we had some bloody rain yesterday ... left an empty cup out .... a good 60mm in it this morning .... wild winds with it too .. bits of tree and bloody acorns everywhere





been 'shopping' down me mates place, this morning .....





been instructed to 'produce' a fire guard, similar to what I had to create, to keep young Clara away from our Morso, for Josh's little un, Shem who's one very soon and becoming more mobile by the day. With 'hot box' season coming on he needs to be kept at a distance from their wood guzzler.


so after unloading me 'spoils' I plugged the band saw in and wound up the genny, as I had a couple of other items to lop up too whilst I was at it .....


apologies for the lousy, flared image





an hour later ..





one fireguard kit

also gave it a try on summat a little larger to see what it was like for square ....... pretty good, so .........





knocked the genny off and set the bandsaw up for mitre-ing some box section ... got a 25' length sat in it and all set to go ...... pushed the go button on the genny and ........ nada ...... other than this warning light ..... WTF are "delayed inputs" and who told 'em to be active ?? weren't me





So .... phone call to me mate the genny man ... a few tricks tried and still ...... Nada!! ....
there are far too many fancy lectrikery gizmos in't control box ...... I am never going to need a modem to communicate with it .... and that is my best guess as to a culprit, ATM ..... we'll see tomorrow, ..... Serge is coming over for a shufty .... if it doesn't piss down, as forecast .... or it starts, if it doesn't rain


ran sweet as a nut for an hour or more and started first flick
so that was the end of my metal lopping for today ..... but was gone six by the time i'd finished faffing about and scratching my head looking for anything obvious in the panel
damned annoying as I'd have had it all lopped by then ..... fire guard, a couple of gates, I have been incessantly nagged about for a looooooong time and a bag lifter for me firewood man

[v8druid]

.... when the rain eventually ceased dropping out the sky, 'bout 12 today, I went and eyeballed yon genny again ...... sod all obvious in the way of re-sets, so re-introduced the battery to the system, with the isolator and up comes said "delayed inputs active" orange light .... bearing in mind that up until Friday, I'd never seen it lit before.
turned the key to manual and pressed the go button ............. and away it went ?? :) ....... AND said light turned green after about 20 seconds of running ..... WTF??





So blessed with 3ph again, .. I got a lead out, plugged in the band saw and cut up a pair of gate frames








then plugged in me belt grinder and sorted all the shaping up on the fire guard kit, sharpened up a few chisels and re-ended a few bars and drifts that were in need re-shaping , before turning yon genny back off.


Probably ran it as long as I had the other day, when it refused to re-start. ..... Started sweet as a nut again ...... and again 10 minutes later, with said light doing the same sequence each time.


I need to get some better info. on the 'nuances' of this old girl


Anyway ...... with the big yeller thing in the sky co-operating, thought I'd get said fire guard assembled


started with the end panels/returns first





framed up, infilled



and consolidated



followed by the main centre run

bloody weather had to have a go, just to remind me how fickle it can be

but didn't last long



the off-stand / distance from the 'hot-box' isn't huge, if I'm reading Josh's dimensioned photos right .... certainly not enough to stop a one year old from reaching it, so the central area had to have some Shem-proofing, with reduced bar spacings being favored over meshing it. ..... hence the gaps reducing by 50%, in't middle section.


got the ends onto it .....



and then spent the rest of the afternoon consolidating it all






although it looks a lot bigger in the pix .... the centre gaps are only 30mm and after discussions with SWMBO the consensus was .... no way is he going to get his arm through them






Way toooooo breezy today for even contemplating MIG, so stick and chip it was ....... tea interrupted the consolidation process and was getting on for dark by the time I'd come back to it, got this all welded up ...... plus a few capping pieces onto a couple of bits of 70mm square, I'd had sat, for a.n.other lil' job as well, whilst the Caddy was whirring.
If the forecast is to believed ... 'sposed to be wall to wall blue sky tomorrow, so an hour or so,s fettling in the a.m. and this can have a coat of not so shiny sh1t (satin black) and get left to dry in peace in a box.
get the 70mm bits fettled as well and assembled, then I can start on 'the boss's much mithered for gates.


These women don't understand the need for seeeeeerious thought processes in creating ..... taken me ages to hit on an idea for hanging these damned gates ... 'tain't gonna be an easy one .... it's got to look right, as I will be looking at it, ad infinitum and now't pisses me off more, than looking at summat and thinking, " if only I'd done ...... " !!