Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[ianoz]

O for high speed internet . 12MPH , it would want to be a bowling green for that sort of speed .

[v8druid]

O for high speed internet . 12MPH , it would want to be a bowling green for that sort of speed .

Oh Yeh !! set it loading at 13.00 - just binned it at 60% ..... couldn't get on the bloody 'net

I'll try again when we don't want access for a good 12 hrs

It's going to have to have a blast up the drive at some point Ian, but keeping it between the verges could be exciting with independent control over each drive wheel - high speed mowing is not what it was bought for - it's bank mowing ability is my main prerequisite for its acquisition!

Doubt yer average bowling club'd be too keen about having you tear around their green at that speed!!

forgot to say there're lots more pix here .... http://s1275.photobucket.com/user/v8...lideshow/scans ..... Pam was taking a few yesterday, for a change

[AndrewMawson]

Lucky you built the shed isn't it

your ramp unloading reminds me of bringing my Thwaites 2 ton dumper home for the first time on my neighbours car trailer. Had to reverse down the ramps and as I hit the bottom the steering wheel came off in my hands! Just a tad unnerving as I was on a public road.

[v8druid]

Been waiting for another lil' summat from the States and thought it had arrived when I see a card in the letter box today ..... but no!! ....... could not resist this when i saw it come up on Fleabay the other night





Brand spanking ...... in original packaging ........ these are over 1200 quid, plus the Vodka, new!! .....
so reckoned at 130 quid, all duties pre-paid, it had to be had .......... either as a spare, or possibly for a .......... MKII 'praps !!








It has actually been dry here this afternoon and I got to get out the house for more than the odd half hour


Horrified to find the state on all the pins in me various att.s, etc. ...... from all the rain we've had
Ordinarily it wouldn't be an issue, but if I wanna be able to pin 'em on, 'til I have alternate arrangements in place, I need to keep 'em all clean, lubed and functional !!


So spent an hour or two cleaning, oiling and greasing what needed doing








and left the pins indoors soaking in oil for now, 'til i want 'em again !!!


Couple left to do, but the ol' light went out again !!

[v8druid]

Lucky you built the shed isn't it

your ramp unloading reminds me of bringing my Thwaites 2 ton dumper home for the first time on my neighbours car trailer. Had to reverse down the ramps and as I hit the bottom the steering wheel came off in my hands! Just a tad unnerving as I was on a public road.

called forward planning Andrew ........ I knew at some point I was going to find a Dane ..... just a case of when .... need to get on and finish off the internal fit in there and get some leccy shoved up the duct and coupled up to make it a bit 'brighter' in there

As for ramps .... not a great lover of 'em, unless they're substantial ..... not keen on bendy ones, where you're waiting for the inevitable lurch sideways, earthward!!

Bet the seat foam took a bit of extracting from the butt cheeks ......... once you'd released your grip on the now free floating wheel !!
Small mercies though ...... you could've been in top giving it a try out

[Wee Jim]

I have used those zero turn mowers and they are great! Can hug them right tight round a tree and leave very little strimming.

[v8druid]

I have used those zero turn mowers and they are great! Can hug them right tight round a tree and leave very little strimming.

'Xactly why I been after one for ages Jim ....... but had to have the stander ....... internal corners are their only shortcoming

[AndrewMawson]

I used to have a Buchner bank mower. Nicely made with a three cylinder Kubota engine, four wheel drive and steering, and a front mounted flail cutter five foot wide. It had three point linkages on both the back and front. Was very good except that the ground clearance was far too small and I kept getting it bogged down in the field.

I reworked the flail which I now use on the back of my Ford 4000 which has adequate ground clearance even on our 'flood plain' !

[v8druid]

I used to have a Buchner bank mower. Nicely made with a three cylinder Kubota engine, four wheel drive and steering, and a front mounted flail cutter five foot wide. It had three point linkages on both the back and front. Was very good except that the ground clearance was far too small and I kept getting it bogged down in the field.

I reworked the flail which I now use on the back of my Ford 4000 which has adequate ground clearance even on our 'flood plain' !

Got to say I am not familiar with that 'breed' of mower Andrew ....... but I think I know the ones you are talking about ..... quite a big lump

I'll have to google 'em





and on a different front ........ guess what arrived today?





all new and shiny, in its original packaging





The new Ebay Global Shipping service appears to be pretty good..... all duties, etc., pre-paid and it just arrives by carrier - job done and none of this 8 quid admin fee from the PO, for collecting the VAT for HMRC bollox


Can't fault it !!

[v8druid]

well this one has made my day


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2621957062...84.m1436.l2649





630 quid ........ plus a clobbering from customs and the VAT man, on arrival in the UK


Still half new price, plus the Vodka, though

[v8druid]

Beautiful day yesterday here, the first in some time, .......but a -8C start !!

Sun had been on this a while when I took this and the ground in the back ground ahd already cleared of the white stuff ...... it never cleared all day ... the bench was some sort of cold!!



The pine end of the shed has taken its fair share of weather recently with the prevailing wind hammering everything it could throw at it, at it !!
Couple of issues, mostly to do with the boarding not being as per spec ordered ..... 300mm x 22mm ordered, 290mm to 310mm x 18mm to 24 mm turned up ,.... very ‘frustrating’ and has caused a few problems with the covering strips on the joints.

Having fitted a partial solution a few weeks back in the shape of some bonded in quadrant, to deal with the worst of the horizontal issues, as it was dry and with the sun warming it to a pretty good temperature, it got the other matters caulked and a.n.other coat of a bit denser coat of bituminous applied.



Next day like yesterday and it’ll get yet another, as the weather really does hammer this end .

Having got that done I returned to the bench hoping it might’ve thawed a bit ..... well it had .... sort of and turned my attention to sorting some material for another little item in the mental list of bits an’ bobs to get done.

Found some suitable materials and spent some time working out how to best nest it and setting it out ....... ‘til the inevitable happened and we got a fair one of these ... which hasn’t been seen here in some time ........



So having run out of ‘brightness’ and after prising my rule off the bench it had by now frozen to ...... again, I thought it was time to call it a day, especially when I picked up my ‘keep it warm’ mug with me squash in for a sip, only to find that that had turned solid too!!



Time to go have a coffee, a warm and some food!
I’ve a digital laboratory thermometer in the tool box .....accurate to two decimal places .... -3.46C was what it said when I locked up !!!!!



Different planet this morning – forecast was rain ..... couldn’t see the ‘Drema from me bedroom window this morning, about 80ft away, for fog!!!!

But ...... it wasn’t raining.

Right bang in the middle of emailing a sketch off to one of my old customers, who is going to turn me up some top hat bosses for my pins.........and the bloody ‘net goes down...with the phone too.
Been temperamental for days, but had given up totally so .... report problem and go out to my bench ...... for some therapy !!!

Much warmer this morning ..... +1.62C LOL .... and felt like a deep freeze in the dank, foggy air ...... but it weren’t precipitating so .... BONUS !!

Finished setting out last night’s bits, set to ‘em with the gas axe, then cleaned ‘em up a bit ready for a full set out of what I was after.



Piloted a few holes ......



Followed by several larger ones .....



Followed by (a) the rapid loss of light (hell it went early and quickly tonight) and (b) some more gas axe action, by flood light.......



Before an extensive tidy up and putting these away in the dry for the night, so’s hopefully I will still be able to see all the marks in the morning.



Some of you may have surmised by now that it’s yet another pick up bracket .... least it will be eventually ..... with a slight difference !!

Been home alone all evening after Pam’s had to dash off down her daughter’s, after a slightly panicky call from her hubby to say ...... help .. pretty please. She’s not well, chucking up and he had to go to work!! Not an easy call with an 8 week old to care for too, so Pam’s disappeared ... ‘til further notice .... it’s been a real peaceful evening !!

[v8druid]

Well it was a bloody sight warmer yesterday, when I eventually got out, ‘bout 2 after the precipitation stopped persisting down !!
13 deg.s C ...... “What a difference a day makes ...... 24 lil’ hours.....”

Hauled the tranny & mag back out ..... plus a recently acquired new weapon – a nice 50mm broach!!



They really are the kiddies for big holes and eat through the material PDQ ....



Good lubrication and cooling is imperative though ....



Most mag.s come with a pissy lil’ coolant bottle to gravity feed the cutter arbor and cutter ........ I prefer the more convenient method ...... old spray pump filled with soluble and plumbed into the spindle port with plenty of pipe and a tap for flow control .... just got to keep the old bottle pumped up occasionally.
These days those little garden pumps are cheap as chips from Aldi and the likes. I’ve had this bad boy a long time and it’s pushed some coolant through some broaches in its time !!

Beauty of the broach is ...... line the pin up with yer centre pop mark and you’re in biz ....



... with some great end results .....



Now’t like a broach hole for perfect!!

Set ‘em up for a try out and it all looked hunky dory .....



Then tapped those two holes that are half under the cheeks, so’s I can get a fixing in ‘em afterwards ...... either a sized length bolt or a stud ... which ever will be easier in its various uses.



..... and that about saw off the daylight supply for the day ....

Today dawned ...... dull, mirky and pissy wet .... for a change and was 1.30 ‘fore I could risk get anything leccy out of its hiding place.!!

10 degs and pretty damned windy had everything dried out pretty quick I must say .... ol’ bench looked like it hadn’t seen rain, real quick!!

Set up the bits, clamped ‘em all up and got a few stitches in place .......



Then firmed it all up progressively .....



Then I needed some pins ...

Had a couple of 50mils that’d cut up nicely .....aside from this issue ....



So had to deal with the notch and the grease-way running round ‘em ....



Before lopping it up to suitable lengths and getting ‘em in spot ....



Can’t remember where these came from or what they were out of ...... but they’re hollow




Pretty damned thick wall, but hollow all the same. Should be more than adequate strength though.

Had to clean out the one tapped hole, ....... after accidentally striking an arc a tad too close to it !!!!!



Then gave a it bit of a trial fit .......



....... on the Hill ..... or what’s let of it at least !!

A good clean up, de-spatter and soften up all the edges .....



And then a look see what it was like for a fit .......



As an ‘alternate’ for the grab and the ......



Block grab for under the Hill equipped VA-r.

Going to add a couple of outer cheeks perhaps for the block grab’s circular mount .... or just use the bigger head ..... with some top hats and 50mm pins, when they get done.

This’ll be fine on the log grab as is though. It will also bolt straight on to the beam too, which is likely to get mod-ed/finally sorted shortly, having spent quite some time thinking about just what I’m going to do with it.

However ..... for anything under the Hill that needs oil, it’s going to have to wait ..... ‘til I get some plumbing installed on’t ‘Drema and a QH valve installed in the VA-r ...... soon hopefully ... weather permitting !! The Hill is currently powered by the Aux. ports under the VA-r !!

[v8druid]

Well Sunday wasn’t the usual quiet/no noise day that it usually is when a neighbour foolishly ventured into the field beside our drive in her Suzi so called 4 x 4 and promptly got herself well stuck!!

No way was I venturing in there with the Thwaites to try an’ drag her out .... way too bloody wet for that, so ......

Having had a suss of the problem, came back to me patch and dropped the VA-r off the ‘Drema and sat it on its new parking pins on the Hill ... fitted and worked a treat .....



Grabbed me forks and a load of slings and headed off down the drive. We’ve a gate off ours, into the field, that I don’t ever recall having opened, so stuck the forks through it and picked it off its hinges, complete with the vegetation that’d been holding the damned thing to the planet and stuck it out the way.
Stretched out a few slings and hauled said Suzi toward the now open gateway.

Would’ve been a simple operation if it weren’t for the 3 foot deep ditch between the Suzi and the gate, so got it as close as I dared, without dropping the front of it in the ditch, put a couple of short slings on the front end, dropped the forks back off and hung said Suzi off the Miller’s lift eye and lifted the front end over the ditch.

Reaching the back end to lift that over the same way was why I’d dropped the VA-r off.
Full stretch, over the side, FOW, I did not want any more weight on than necessary and certainly didn’t want to drop the VA-r and boom on the Suzi’s roof ..... if it got out of hand/shape!!!

Anyway .... got it and the owner out of the tish, stuck the gate back on and went and put the VA-r back on. (Pam might’ve had a few pix, but not had a chance to plug her phone in yet, for a look, so if there’s anything interesting I’ll bang ‘em in here again)

I’d gotten a coat of HBZP, non shiny shite on the bracket earlier .....



......before all the ‘excitement’, so once I’d got the VA-r back on, I gave the bracket a bit of a try on the Hill.

Fitted a treat .....



And then it rained ...... again ... so day over!!

Monday dawned breezy, overcast, damp ..... but not raining ... too much, so set to the previously considered mod for the bracket, having had a good ponder about it.

Set out a couple of ‘slivers’ to suit the requirement and set up a centre to torch ‘em with ..



Set ‘em up ....



.... and got ‘em stitched into position



Followed by a set out for the necessary holes .

Braced it up for firming up and set about a sequential weld up ... stayed nicely flat.

Then set about getting it holed ..... 17mms where it cleared the cheeks and 14mm where it didn’t, so I could tap some M16s into it.



Bit of care later and I had four ˝ holes in the cheeks ......




...... for tapping out



Having got that sorted I humped it up to me beam, sat on the bank and bolted it on. So’s I could lift that down to the bench, ready for a bit of long promised attention.



.... just to remind you all what 60 degs looks like .......



After dropping it on the bench I hauled out a few bits and pieces, that were sat waiting ...



And got beaten by the lack of lumens again .....



So retired indoors to a box to get some paint on the new pick up ...... still sadly lacking in fresh stocks of ‘Druid gold’ it had to be a coat of ‘Bitter choccy’ !!





Today has been wild and pissy wet here and this lot’s been stood there antagonising me



......’til the wet stuff eased off a bit ...... and it got the gas axe treatment, but as usual, beaten by the light, yet again, so you’re gonna have to wait to see what happened !!!!

[v8druid]

Well I stuck it out ‘til mid-afternoon yesterday, when it eased off enough not to get totally drowned and then I had to have some therapy!!

Set out a template for some plates, while I was waiting for it to ease and then got them marked and lopped out, together with giving that lump of 300 x 90 PFC some treatment too. By which time it was lashing down again and I had to beat a retreat. Gas axe spatter and wet gear don’t really make a good mix ..... not for the wet gear anyway !!



Peeing down again this morning, but eventually dried up around lunchtime, so out I went.

I’d already set out the beam before the light went yesterday so I introduced it to the 9” with a 1.8mm thin disc ....



At both ends and got it cleaned up .....



Together with everything else that had had the gas axe the day before.



You can see where this is going?







Usual story though, with yet another ‘afternoon shift’ ..... beaten by the light again .... and the bloody rain yet again !!

Nice clear night ...... now it’s dark !!

I’m hoping for a dry DAY tomorrow to make some proper progress, rather than the odd couple of hours I’ve managed to squeeze in, in between the downpours, daily, for ages!!

Some sun would be a total bonus, but I’ll settle for dry, from brekky onwards !!!

Get this stitched up, then haul out a couple of components for a variation on a Mog special for a roller, to get ‘em lopped up and assembled .

[v8druid]

Well Thursday morning was pretty fair ..... for a while at least .....

Got the base plate and beam cleaned up, vee-ed and tacked, then stitched the gussets in place ... between getting pee-ed on .... regularly !!



Before turning my attention to the end wings and getting them plated up....... between downpours ....





‘til eventually .... ran out of rain ...... and light ....



Lost count of the number of times I had to chuck everything away through the day, but there was more time spent watching it rain than there was ‘doing’, for sure !!!


Friday dawned drier ... again and managed to get the wings stitched into place ..



And rolled it to get a lot more large stitches in place.........



......before getting down to some more substantial welding up ......



Just in time to get pee-ed on.................again!!

Covered the inverter and ..... carried on .... pee-ed off with being pee-ed on and getting no-where .......

Eventually had to concede with only two major runs left across the wing tops to the beam ends ........ but ......



Just couldn’t see well enough, with the lack of lumens and the bloody rain on me mask lens and glasses ....... manyana !!



Today ...... well what can I say ..... sun was out !!!!! For a while anyway, but we have had just about everything going today ...... apart from fog.
Rain, freezing rain, hail and even snow all mixed up with a bloody good hooley of a wind!!!!!

But........ got most of what I wanted to do, done, before a lot of it really kicked off ....

Nailed the wing tops ....



Chucked the new bracket on for a trial fit ... with all 8 bolts – 4 tapped/4 through ... only to find one hole in the beam about a mil out/off centre, so had to rectify that with a broach ....



Fiddled the 4 tapped ones with a pinch nut on an over-length 50mm ..... ‘til I found the M16 x35s I knew I had somewhere ..... and swapped ‘em out !!!

Had a bit of a try of the bearing blocks to just make sure all was in order height wise .. it was .......



I do however have a “cunning plan”, should I want / need any height adjustment !!

Then ...... as it had dried out pretty well, I got the old ‘Fabricator’s Friend’ out and gave it a going over with the ol’ HBZP , just to ‘pretty it up’ a bit !!



Just about covered it and it ....... started to snow!! ...... followed by the rest of the selection mentioned earlier !! What an afternoon !!

By the time it had calmed down it was getting dark .... yet again and I went in search of a couple of volunteers for ‘roller duty’ !!
Took some ‘humping out’ from where I’d foolishly put the buggers, earlier in the year ..... when it was a lot drier and I’d had the ‘Drema, up top, to hoik ‘em in there with!! They’re out though and awaiting their fate ....



I can think of a few grass banks and bits an’ bobs that’ll get the treatment with the back end of this once it’s made up and installed .....



Forecast’s not too bad for tomorrow and 12C ..... so reckon I’ll at least get ‘em set out and a few extra mount flanges profiled out for ‘em ....... but being Sunday..... yet again, I might not get ‘em lopped up ready for assembly ‘til Monday !!