Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

Jeez we had some rain last night and still at it this morning ‘til bout eleven.
This was the point at which I hung the VA-r on’t ‘Drema’s dipper, plumbed it up and proceeded to wrestle two 70mm pins from the grab into said beast.
I have got to build a quicky for under it – got it on but jeez, what a faff – everything is as it should be – tight, but it all lined up, eventually (can change a Jake bucket in minutes) and I set about the rock pile.

The top level is like defrosted cheesecake this morning, as I found out when I made the mistake of venturing up there – on foot !!!!
So it was gonna be ..... stick ‘em as far as I could reach, which’d make ‘em accessible from one stand up top, to lob ‘em all into the rock pile.

Hard to believe that this lot .......



Came out of this lil’ space ......



Couldn’t believe how many rocks just kept on coming !!

The grab handled ‘em beautifully



And the VA-r handled the grab, sweet as ....





Had to have a pit stop mid way through,



when a Dowty on a banjo decided it wasn’t going to continue to ‘play ball’ and started spewing my precious Plantohyd 40 all over the grab, from under the rotary coupling ..... ‘least it was easily accessible ....... just, without pulling a pin !!
New one on and a quick check for leaks .....



One happy Druid and one drier grab!!

The VA-r, aside from Mr Dowty’s miscreant washer, performed perfectly. Took a bit of getting into initially, as I’ve never really ‘used it in anger’. Lots to remember .... press button(s) to select what yer want to happen before pressing the rotate pedal, which button does what – left/right, rotate/tilt.
The grab buttons, were easy to remember, but my thumb was naturally wanting to use the two spare buttons rather than the grabs !! The yellow ones below



Bottom two are now both blue, which are rotate and the top two are now both red for the grab/aux. function.
I may well have a re-juggle in the wiring dept and use the two yellows for the aux. as they really do fall to hand/thumb, much more naturally, especially when you ain’t looking.
Tilt is on the r/h stick and’s a doddle.
Initially, as I say, remembering to select before ‘pedalling’ took a bit of remembering, but got there in the end and although I say so myself, I was getting fairly adept with it, by the time I was done.

The check valve on the grab also did a great job and once I had a hold, it hung on for grim death and not a single lump escaped at all, unintentionally. It’s also fairly impressive in what it’ll grab and hold.

You certainly know you’ve got 500kgs of VA-r and another 300 kgs of grab on there, as I was on full stretch, picking and dumping, most of the time. All in all though ........ A very successful trial and one very happy Druid.

Stuck the grab on the bench to get it back off .....



Easier than doing it on the floor ..... and the pins came out sweet as..
Stuck the VA-r back on its parking plate and got everything away, just in time for ‘the bell’.

Lots more in’t bucket for those who’re that way inclined ;o)
http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8druid/slideshow/



Got a visit from Mick Proctor (Redash, in t'other place ), at lunchtime today, en route to a footy match in Bristol.
He and I have been ‘doing a bit of biz’ recently.
I’d agreed to buy his old buckets, he'd advertised on 'there' a while back, as I thought they’d be a nice set to go under the VA-r. It’s not likely to be doing any seriously heavy duty digging and it’d give me a really good selection to go under it. The package also included his old Hill double lock hitch, which looked to me that, with a bit of ‘Druidisation’ could be persuaded to become a very useful part of the VA-r !!



Anyway ..... long story short, said package was looking to be a tad on the troublesome side to palletise at Mick’s end, not having any forks for his Komie, so he’d sorted a delivery van out, which turned out to be a bit short notice for both of us, but had to be had. Hence my early start Tuesday morning, earlier this week!!

I’d also been pondering the new Engcon hitch that he’d got, trying to decide whether some more ‘Druidification’ would coerce it to play ball for an alternate VA-r hitch, to suit everything else? Make a hell of a pile of bits, if now’t else, for a DIY Druid built unit.
The hitch/cheeks under the VA-r is plate mounted and bolted under the slew ring, so not a difficult proposition to have a few different units to go under it – a few bolts and two pipes, for the swap over.

Mick had thrown a figure at me that was damned near impossible to resist and having pondered the comprehensive dimensions he’d given me and some drawings I have of ‘em, over the weekend, I’d decided to go ahead.
Unfortunately, by the time I’d contacted Mick to say Yay, said van by that time, unknown to me, was loaded and setting off Monday night for a seven a.m. arrival at Druid central, which it duly did. ‘Twas a well stuffed van when it arrived !!



‘The Boss’ has banned me from even contemplating starting on this ‘project’ ‘til the shed’s finished, so packed ‘em all on a pallet, to put ‘em away, out the way for now!





So........ Mick arrived today with this in his boot!!



Was quite taken aback by the size and build of the beast!! Would virtually go straight on a ‘Drema dipper, with the bosses machined out to 70mm (currently 60 dia, with loads of meat, in ‘em) !!
Mick also told me there’s someone advertising a set of 70 mm bosses that’d bolt straight onto it on Fleabay, currently !!
Damn this man’s presented me with some dilemmas recently !!

Anyway ..... it was great to meet Mick, face to face, his good lady and daughter too. What nice people they are.
Unfortunately ‘a 3 o’clock kick off’ rather restricted the time we had, as he had to get to Bristol and drop off his passengers for a spot of retail therapy, before kick off !!

He’s back down this way in March for another match in Newport and a more leisurely visit is planned for then, with ‘refreshments’ next time !!

Hope they all had a good day and a safe trip home!

http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...deshow/buckets for the punishment gluttons amongst you !!

[v8druid]

Spent some time Sunday, re-fitting the wood-burner flue, as who-ever’d fitted it, before we bought the place, had made a right pig’s guts of the job.
Lifted the burner out from where it lives, cleaned the joints off, stripped the burner and cleaned it all, got it back where it should’ve been in the first place, all lined up and re-sealed ... job done !!

After all the bloody rain Sunday night and yesterday, we now find, that with everything all sealed and right, we’re getting water accumulating and exiting from the flue in said burner !!
There shouldn’t be any in there as the top’s got a supposedly weather proof cowl fitted (which we had to make bird proof a while back), but getting in it, it was, so Pam got her fave job again this morning, to get the bugger down, so’ I could ‘deal’ with the problem !!


Not the greatest of designs and allows for the wet stuff to find it’s way down the pipe from the top, so a lid was required to stop the direct hits from getting down through the cowl.





With a new lid fitted it was time for it to get put back .......



We’d also a couple of slates that could really have done with ‘clipping’, but ‘fraid Pam was really not up for dealing with ‘em today – she’s not the best at heights and just bottled it today – the cowl was enough for the boss for one day!!

I’ve had a bulb out in me floods for a few weeks now and whilst the basket was on, thought I ought to sort it too, but it had to be a ladder job for yours truly...... SWMBO was having none of it, but at least I had something decent to work off once I was up there !!



Could really have done with sticking a bucket on after, to sort what’s dropped out of the bank beside me new ramp last night........



.......hell it’s rained. However, it’ll have to wait ‘til tomorrow, (assuming it don’t rain as forecast – 20+ mil !!!) as tonight was treatment night.

For the first time in the two years, since we’ve been doing it ourselves .... we failed to get a viable line tonight !!! Canulars in, but just would not flow. After a call to the nurses who monitor/advise us, they reckoned I was dehydrated !!!!
So gonna have another go in the morning, after lots of fluids! ....... my arms are like bloody pin cushions tonight and I’m gonna be peeing for Wales ‘tween now and the morning!!

As usual – more for the those interested here -

http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...lideshow/scans

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

[Muz]

Canulars in, but just would not flow. After a call to the nurses who monitor/advise us, they reckoned I was dehydrated !!!!

ooh ... trouble lad ? .. better take it easy for a bit now

Our storm cowl wont seal either at home .. not a big deal as its only in the worst winds .. but .. funny how a chimney in my 120 year old crofthouse elsewhere seems to be water tight after gales and gales ?

[v8druid]

ooh ... trouble lad ? .. better take it easy for a bit now

Our storm cowl wont seal either at home .. not a big deal as its only in the worst winds .. but .. funny how a chimney in my 120 year old crofthouse elsewhere seems to be water tight after gales and gales ?

Usually got awesome veins Muz - dunno WTF the issue was tonight ???? We're going to try a different set of equipment in the a.m. as never had prob.s in over two years we've been doing it, or the 2 years before that with the nurses who used to come to do it
Quality of the gear supplied has gone down hill, IMHDO, in the last 3 months??

As for the bloody cowl - we have had some sort of rain recently and was blowing well, but has only been noticeable since everything got sealed up Sunday. Hopefully the new 'hat' will do the trick
We are pretty exposed, where we are and really cop the South Westerlies, which're the prevailing winds here !!

[v8druid]

Well, this went on a damned sight easier than the grab did!!



First try was to clear up the debris on me ramp, which it did fairly well and trim a few loose bits off, before they fell off too!!



This is going to be a steep learning curve .... just starting to get the hang of it .... sort of and had to dash off into town for a couple of hours, so didn’t help the cause.

Cleared out the corner where the rock pile came out of the other day, ready to bang some of the chunkier planings into



Dropped a few buckets in there and spread ‘em a little, but the light was disappearing fast, so discretion ruled and I parked her up for the night ....... before I did any ‘damage’ !!



I usually drop whatever’s on the hitch off, to lay her out for the night, but too much of a faff with this on, so it stayed on there.

Big old lump .......



.....stretched out.

As far as function went ....... it’ll rotate and tilt simultaneously fine, but tilt and rotate and the rotate’s very slow – all down to flow, I think, with the priority. She’s ok once the rotate has the initial priority over the tilt and the both functions work fine together. However tilting first and then engaging rotate doesn’t perform as well as the reverse.

The rotation circuit on’t Drema is lower pressure at 160 bar and the flow is only 90 ltrs, so may well re-consider using a 6 way diverter in the VA boom plumbing again and using the full pressure/flow supply from the other pedal controlling the VA boom cylinder.

Mick (Redash - On t'other) made a comment to me the other night, that gave me a eureka moment for possibly implementing it as an idea – do all the plumbing at the pedal, rather than at the cylinder and hopefully’ll negate any issues with the load sensing plumbing, hooked into the VA cylinders check valve set up.
I must get the under belly plate off the cab and have a look-see, but from memory of the last time I was under there, it should be reasonably straight forward ...... other than having to run a pipe set all the way down the boom/dipper, from the diverter !!!!

One to think about, but need some more time with it to get a better ‘drop’ on it first.
The extra 680mm between the pins, sure makes for a different geometry and in hind sight (a great teacher), I should’ve ‘inclined’ the pick ups a couple of inches, at the ‘link end’, under it, to get a better crowd on the tilt rams !!
One to remember when hitch building – I’m learning though and there’ll be some very careful measuring and calc.-ing on that phase too.


Finally I’d like to say that ......... I take my hat off to the guys who operate these tiltys day in day out !!

I know they get lots of practice, etc., but ........ anyone who says that a tilty de-skills the job, should have a few hours on one and then tell us it’s not a seriously skilled art form, at a level all of its own!!!!

Producing the work that some of these guys do is amazing.

Anyone who’s not tried it and is an ‘armchair critic’ of the beasts ........ get yer arse in one and then criticise !!

Serious, serious respect !!!!

[ianoz]

Hummm, the side of the ramp looks like a good spot to lose some of those rocks and retain the cut .

[v8druid]

its only temporary Ian and should have put a bit of a batter on it really, but as you've probably noticed, there's all sorts 'poking out' of it - block work, barbed wire,bits o' wood, stone - all sorts - been back filled with crap in this area. The more you do to it, the worse it gets and was trying not to disturb it unless necessary, 'til ready to reduce that too

The stones'd hold it back a bit, but'd need to widen it for them and God knows what'd surface doing that!!

[v8druid]

Got the corner tidied up the following day and some planings spread about the place



Pumped some grease into the ring gear’s races and the tilt pivots........



........ before dropping it off on to it’s plate and tucking it away.



Had a couple of hours today sorting all the ‘Drema’s toys back into the corner, out the way, as they were scattered about ‘the patch’ and spread a couple more buckets of planings about some of the softer/thinner bits !



Could do with putting the roller over ‘em, in the a.m., but didn’t bother with/worry about the corner as it’d only get scuffed about with the gear in and out of there as required.

Nice to have it all tidy, accessible and more space for the gear, without struggling to tuck it all in there.
Can get at anything now without having to shift something else first!!

[Wee Jim]

Awesome stuff!!

Without going back into this thread is there anyone looking for a rotator and grab as I know of one that will be for sale?

[v8druid]

Awesome stuff!!

Without going back into this thread is there anyone looking for a rotator and grab as I know of one that will be for sale?

Thanks Jim !
What sort of size Jim, what is it (any pix) and how much - may well know of a candidate for yer.

[v8druid]

“Good ol’ planings lottery” as James said (on t'other one)!!

Hell they must’ve been digging this lot up and chucking it in with the planer’s spoil !!






Having to lose it ‘at the bottom’ and blind over it.

Months of tracking back and fore over my nicely levelled track has taken its toll and it’s time to have another go at it !!

The ol’ 7 footer can carry some stuff !!



And makes a decent job of levelling it all out and flattening it down with the back edge of the edge, just floating the tip above it!




Job adiddled .......



..... just a few bits this end to tidy up with a shovel ....... getting that bucket to it’s a non starter !!

The annoying scars from lumps surfacing are just that ....... bloody annoying, but’ll fill with the shovel and’ll roll down OK




All in all a reasonable day ......... aside from one casualty !!



As you can see it’s pretty bloody tight in places ...... and no I didn’t hit it !!

I had the bugger with the blind side leg !!

VERY, very annoyed !!!!

The ‘Drema’s control system is very frustrating in the fact that whenever you turn her off and back on, everything defaults to ON !!

I would much prefer that default was everything OFF and select what you want, as you want it !!

I’d stopped her to answer the phone, had a coffee, while I was out, jumped back in started her and went to drop the blade for a bit of stability. Blade and legs are all on the same control.
I’d been using the blade on/off all afternoon, so didn’t have to switch it back to ’ON’, or even think about it and didn’t look/notice the bloody leg was also on. N/s leg is always off as I’ve got an over-ride on it, ‘cos that’s the lil’ bugger that doesn’t co-operate on the dash switch.

Anyway, I gave the lever a handful to get it down to the deck, thought that’s bloody slow, just as I hear this crunching noise and Pam yelling “WOE!!!!!!! You’re killing my trellis!! ”
All stop !!!! Got out for a shufty and fortunately that big old pad had just slid down the face of the brushwood and pushed it all out, stress testing the screws on the way !!!!

Another two feet further forward and I’d have been gutted ........ would’ve killed the post!
Now that would’ve taken some sorting !!!!

All back together, this evening, with some longer screws, having stripped all the originals out the timber they were screwed in to!!

Brush wood looks a little like it’s had a ‘dice with a ‘Drema’, but I dare say it’ll see worse in its lifetime!!

Neighbours have had a bit of a noisy day ........ sod all compared to the roller ...... in the a.m. !!
They’re OK though and we did suffer a year of their builders kicking off at 07.30 of a morning, with the grinder/mixer/2 ton Taki/dumper/you name it....if it made a noise they’d be using it !!

Usual story – more for the punishment gluttons here ....... http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...lideshow/scans


Oh and forgot to say the other day, looks like me an the forks are gonna be busy these coming months – t’other neighbour, who I shift ‘big rounds’ about for usually has had a good crop this year.
They all got hauled off the fields the other day and I couldn’t believe the piles !!!



This is aside from two barn-fulls of small bales as well !!!!

Gonna have to go watch the skip driver try an’ get that bugger out of there!!!!!! LOL
Could be a.n.other ‘Drema job methinks !

[Muz]

The annoying scars from lumps surfacing are just that ....... bloody annoying, but’ll fill with the shovel and’ll roll down OK

Thats when ya tacks come in handy fella Not sold on this 'duck' thing just yet

[v8druid]

you can track it in even more effectively with a duck Muz 8 pressure points/foot prints with 2 tons each - tracks simply spread the loading - LGP !!
Whatever you use yer still got to finish it after !!

[v8druid]

This is the field that's the catchment for our spring, 'least it is, under all these bloody saplings ....... rapidly heading for being a wood!!





All these ******* things have grown in the last two years!!

You can't actually see this field from anywhere around, as it’s surrounded by a wood and a tall hedge on one side.

I was real surprised to see the state of it a couple of weeks ago when investigating why the spring was ‘a bit slow’.
I’d seen them some time ago (‘bout 18 months) and raised the issue with the neighbour who owns the field.
He’s obliged to maintain the water supply’s ‘well being’ and keep the field tidy, to keep our catchment in a decent state (in the deeds, fortunately) !!
He’d said he’d top ‘em off, when they were top-able ........ but hadn’t!!!

So, I’d had a few hours with a 4 foot loppers last Sunday (when I took these pix) giving some of ‘em ‘the treatment’ and had had my session cut short by the psycho young stallion you can also see in the pix too.

Lil’ bar steward realised I was in ‘his field’, after a couple of hours and was hell bent on landing a couple of back hooves on the Druid. Had to fend the sod off with a sapling!!! Was a real struggle to get back out the field, over the barbed fence as he’d got me cornered and taking a hit to my spleen’d be real bad news for me; possibly curtains for the Druid!!

Was contemplating another session with ‘em today and was gonna see if I couldn’t get ‘psycho’ moved this morning !! Don’t much fancy having to keep the bugger at bay and try to get something done too.

‘Charlie the chainsaw’ is gonna have to deal with the chunkier, lower reaches of what’s left of these bloody trees, but wanted to get their water sapping main growth off ‘em PDQ, plus it makes life a lot easier to get ‘Charlie’ at ‘em ....... like a jungle in there in places.

I’ve had a local ag contractor look at ‘em with a view to flailing the buggers, but he wasn’t keen, due to their size and the soggy-ness of said field !!

What it really needs is something like Eddie or Seans mulchers, from t'other one, on the job, for a day. Field’s just too wet/soft, for much else, so if yer’s reading boys and fancy dropping yer weapons by Chez Druid’s anytime soon, if you ain’t using ‘em one weekend, I’ll let you have the post code !!!!
couldn't get the 'Drema anywhere near it if you tried !! Even on big floaties, it’d be ‘well iffy’ !!


Otherwise it’s going to continue to be a hand job, as the local garage, who also hire out lil’ 360s ain’t likely to have a mulcher, or shear in their arsenal of attachments for their fleet.

‘Giving them the bucke’t, is a non starter as I would not want to disturb the ground too much for fear of disturbing the water table and subsequent aquifers/water flow, or we’d have even more issues to deal with, on the water front!!

Anyway, the sun was out yet again, so I gave the neighbours another ½ hours peace, before I cranked up the roller, for an hour or two’s rolling, then was going to do battle with these bloody saplings ........... and psycho again !!

I was gonna be armed with a suitably large, pointed stick this time!!!!!


Well after an early ‘alarm call’ from a friend’s mobile ....... that’d gone off in his pocket this morning, (I was his last call) the lawn got a seeing to for starters, before I wound the ol’ roller over. The neighbours had had enough of a lie in by then!!

Amazingly it started 1^st turn and ran sweet as ........ for about a minute !! Should’ve done it first as last ..... bled the injector pipe of condensation!!

Bled through and wound over, it ran sweet as......and stayed running. The roadway got an hours rolling, but the vibrate kept on coming and going !! Got it looking half about and would have benefited from being a lot wetter, but it’s flatter than it was and can see what needs a bit of extra ‘fines’ now



Had a shufty at yon roller, to decide WTF ailed the vibrate and having tightened the clutch up a bit was improved a bit, but could really do with a new belt, so that’s one for the shopping list, ready to give it some more when it’s had a good wetting, which I doubt’ll be that long in the happening !!

Couldn’t get a hold of the psycho nag’s owner on’t dog ‘n bone so thought, what the hell, go have a look see and do a bit if he’s out of sight, round t’other side of the saplings.
Went over the fence, armed with, the loppers and 15 ft of stick.
Damn me, I had barely climbed over the barbed and he came charging round the corner and I had to fend the bugger off.

That was the end of that idea ........ this lil’ bugger has serious attitude and threatening him with the dog food cannery and even harsher phrases, mostly ending in .... off didn’t work either!!!!!

Neighbour thought the fact I’d been chased out last Sunday was hilarious. Said he was gonna go have a go with ‘Charlie’ Tuesday, so we’ll see how hilarious he finds fending the bugger off then, is !!

Won’t hassle to have him moved ‘til Wednesday !!!!

In case anyone’s wondering what’s happened on the shed build front ...... waiting for roof sheets and cladding to arrive. Typical, nice weather and can’t get on with it!!

[Muz]

you can track it in even more effectively with a duck Muz 8 pressure points/foot prints with 2 tons each - tracks simply spread the loading - LGP !!
Whatever you use yer still got to finish it after !!

Yeah buts they crush break and flatten .. unlike ye rubber wheels that just roll over