Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

was finishing off a few bits and shifting me steel pile last Friday .....



had just finished and was parking her up, having spent a good hour chopsing to a mate who'd turned up, and who I hadn't seen in a while .... just stretched her out and Simon was heading my way when the crowd ram's aux. tap off split its guts and gave us all a fountain of Plantohyd, with the serious wind blowing straight at me in the cab ..... covered bloody everything ..... what a mucking fess !!!





bloody wind even managed to cover the rear of the tail weight
this was 5 o'clock ..... we were going out at 6.30, to the local theatre to see Buddy Holly - and the Cricketers who were actually bloody excellent .....



Hell couldn't they play ....... and sing

Frantic spray session with a spray bottle full of TFR and a bloody good hosing down, 'fore we went, to try and 'get on top of' the worst of it!!
It was bloody everywhere

the offending hose had to wait 'til the morning and a rapid removal for a trip to the hyd boys in Raglan, 'fore they shut on Saturday lunchtime.



(before anyone comments on the 'tape' wrap on it ..... trying to keep the weather out of a nasty bit of scarfing on the outer rubber, from the previous owner )


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[Nobody]

Sorry for the very late congratulations, but CONGRATULATIONS! :D

[v8druid]

Sorry for the very late congratulations, but CONGRATULATIONS! :D

Cheers Boyo ...... actually down to see the lad this weekend ....... he's 'latched on' to his mum as I type

been having lots of cuddles all weekend ..... back home tomorrow for me 'hamster juice' !!

[v8druid]

so ........ following on with the hose saga ........ got the old one off sat. morning,



blanked the port off with an ali disc and G clamp and



shot off to get some made up.......



wanted a pair.... t'other side was the same age and probably equally as fragile ....... but they only had the one flat flange fitting in stock ... was gonna be a Tuesday job



went on sweet as ..........

fittings were late arriving Tuesday so I went out Wednesday morning and took my QH tails with me, as what was on her were also looking a bit 'suspect'.
Did not want any more Plantohyd dramas thank you



second crowd tail went on sweet as too



and the Qh tails went on with some slight cursing ........


bit tight for space and getting 'em done up on the cylinder called for a large selection of spanners to get the various angles to pinch 'em up in a very confined area




these turned up wed. afternoon too ........




ready for fitting to the Countax ....... had a bit of a blowout last time I used it ..... just as I was putting her away fortunately ..... tyres were 'well to the woods', so time for some new ones

little bar stewards took some wrestling off .......



especially as some handy @w@t had used a bottle of puncy repair on the one ..... even though it wasn't tubeless and glued the bloody tube to the tyre inside it



said tyre claimed a bit of skin getting the bugger apart



even with it firmly bolted to the planet

rim took a bit of cleaning up, but got there eventually, ready for the new one to go on .....




......and that's as far as I can take you this evening ...... not at me usual PC and have had to resort to bucket again tonight ..... it would appear that i've forgotten to load any more pix ...... so ...... more anon ..... when I get home

[v8druid]

so .... wrestled the first one on ...



and got it seated and inflated properly .... with a bit more wind than than was recommended, to seat it ... and let it back out quick



and back on't mower



followed by a front ...









and another front ..... glad I have me 'deflater' to get the wind out and collapse the tube inside the tyre .... would have taken some shifting off the bead without it



second new front on ... followed by the second new rear



and she was ready for a few more seasons ..... they've done well really .. seven years in my tender care and three more before I had her so can't grumble at tyre life



these were completely banjaxed ..... amazed they lasted the season really, looking at the state of 'em, off the rims



our lovely weather hasn't permitted a test drive at all last week and not been here all weekend to even see what said weather has been up to ......

been down to Plymouth to see this lil fella .....



proud Granny, or what



he's now doing fine and dandy ... after such a traumatic start

Could've done without this this morning though .....



permit parking only outside the kids' house .... 10-11 a.m. each day .... designed to stop people parking there all day ... forgot to move the car this morning, for an hour ........ the kids do have visitor permits, but have had so many lately they'd run out of tickets 35 quid for three days parking's a bit excessive ..... but barely worth the effort of contesting ... won't forget it again

[v8druid]

Forgot to mention, the other night, that at some point it time over the last couple of weeks, we also found time to relocate the first half of the oak tree that bit the dust last year, from where it's been drying nicely in me cage baskets .....



to where it needs to be for the winter ....



tucked up keeping dry, ready for an 'encounter' with our Morso

Plus ..... the shed next to the baskets has been in dire need of a re-roof, for some time ....



so that got a new 'waterproof' for the coming winter ....... and hopefully ... way beyond



just needs a few new trim strips around it, as although I stuck the originals back on, they'm looking a tad second hand

Was probably the bestest and warmest day we've had of late ..... and I spent it doing that .... needs must .... felt was nice and pliable though



Been a loooooong Clara day today and thought she'd gone quiet, late this afternoon ...... have to watch her like a hawk now as she is into everything ..... including my poor ol' 'puter, if I don't watch her

Sure enough, she's sat on my desk 'flashy mouse' (IR cordless) in hand, looking guilty ..... with my glasses in the other hand .... in bits



trip to town in't morning .... can't see the bloody 'puter screen without 'em and they keep falling off my nose this evening

Kids ..... don't yer just love 'em

[v8druid]

managed a couple of hours faff ing about yesterday morning, with a n other lil' job for Alex, that he's been waiting for .....


slight mods to some pick ups .... that didn't wanna fit the given criteria ...





Delbuoy's (a CEF Member) ol' saw getting a bit of exercise ..... quite a lot in fact !!




coarser blade would've helped too


it was a lump I used to use in the lathe for rolling up rings on .... wanted some 76mm discs to fill the existing holes in the cheeks, on that bucket and thought I'd knock out some boss blanks, whilst I could hold it to cut it, rather than just hack off the 85 odd mil that was 80 mm dia.





It was better/faster (obviously) on my lump of thick wall tube I use for bossing me 70 mm holes with.


I'd guess on std, lighter sections it'd be pretty reasonable .... it's better than now't, but that saw I picked up for Metod (Traktorist), earlier this year would've been more my choice (and prob.s 5-6 times the price new)
Met had a bargain!!


For the odd bit, it's OK, but I keep my eyes open for summat 'proper' on Fleabay and will buy the first thing that comes up, at a sensible price and not the other side of the country .... I miss my big Bauer .... lots


No need to boss it when the pins are getting welded into the cheeks .... and it's only a temporary job anyway .... S type to go on here ultimately.





been nice if the cheeks were long enough for the required centres ... extensions required !!
cheeks aren't particularly square to each other .. or the bucket ... !!! not far out ... but not right either !!!!!!





An appointment with the opticians put paid to any further progress yesterday ... With Clara all day today, it's gonna be Friday 'fore I can get it all welded up, pin holes bored and some pins fitted, ready for a 'fit' to a hitch .....assuming I can find where I put my bar of 45mm ??????
Damned if I could find it today and don't recall using it all ????


New windscreens for the eyeballs next week ... with better / optimised clarity .... be nice to be able to differentiate between the mm graduations again, more easily ...... some serious precision tech in play this afternoon, measuring 'the fit' .... if they're as good as the set up today I will be very happy.

[maffume]

Always enjoy this sorta stuff, Im not mechanically skilled, but stuff like that often gets passed down and I didnt get none of that mechanically.
I can fix something very basic, usually second time round after making it worse the first.
Really enjoy a good adaptation and garage engineering.

Just thought I would put that out there to show some appreciation to you and anyone else whom makes and adapts things on here, Muz's boom welding included, although thats more a repair.

[v8druid]

Always enjoy this sorta stuff, Im not mechanically skilled, but stuff like that often gets passed down and I didnt get none of that mechanically.
I can fix something very basic, usually second time round after making it worse the first.
Really enjoy a good adaptation and garage engineering.

Just thought I would put that out there to show some appreciation to you and anyone else whom makes and adapts things on here, Muz's boom welding included, although thats more a repair.

Thank you Maff ... it's appreciated to know that we're not just driveling on to empty 'ether' ... got more done to it Friday ... I'll stick it up later

[v8druid]

so ......... guess what I was up to Friday ..... after I'd cleared the patch, of the carpet of leaves, the oaks had very kindly dropped for me Thursday night ..


lovely morning ... sunny and still .... a rare thing up here, hence the carpet of oak leaves ...
wind usually blows 'em into piles around the edges.


An hour with the newly acquired leaf blower/vac. and they were all in a pile at the burning bin, ready to be 'dealt with' !


Got the gear out and got yon cheek extensions set up ...





discs in and welded, extensions stitched and braced ....





ready for a turn over and t'other side....





welded up and time for some holes ... wouldn't want to be any tighter to the bucket's body !!!!








and had to do summat I've not needed to in a long time ....












swap the handles around on the mag drill ... three times !!





an essential feature on all mag drills ..... if you're buying one .. make sure it will and that they'll each unscrew out of their hub for those really tight spots!!


Job did ..... but beaten by the curse of the winter-ish months ..... ran out of light .... and could not find me bar of 45 mm EN8 ... deffo here some where???





'Twere job for the following morning ... find it, cut some lengths and get 'em welded in .... if that pin'd been long enough (for two) it'd have bitten the dust.


Disaster earlier in the day ...... had a blow out .... managed to 'hold it', or could've had a nasty 'off' ...





my favorite, most comfortable, boots !!!
Out with the evostick job, in the evening .... they're gonna have to be beyond redemption, before I surrender this pair to the scrap heap ... takes forever to 'break in' a new pair .. been trying for months, but always come back to these !!!!!!


... But not for much longer perhaps

this is how still it's been Friday and Saturday ..... bonfire smoke heading N.East ..... at low altitude



very slooooooowly

[RedLiner]

Very professional work You must have a plasma cutter too?

I was given an electric hacksaw a couple of years ago that has been a Godsend when cutting 40Ømm. stainless steel bar to make anchors for my boat.
Hack1.jpg Hack2.jpg

I can get a similar saw that the Druid shows for free the next time I drive over to the UK (Long story)

Druid, don't bother with spectacles, I had my minces done a few years ago with inter ocular lens implants. The eye surgeon corrected the new implanted lenses to 20/20 so now I can clearly see all of the f**k ups that I made in the past Really it is the way to go, no more struggling to see and no more "Where did I put my glasses"

James.

[v8druid]

Very professional work You must have a plasma cutter too?

I was given an electric hacksaw a couple of years ago that has been a Godsend when cutting 40Ømm. stainless steel bar to make anchors for my boat.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]3978[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]3979[/ATTACH]

I can get a similar saw that the Druid shows for free the next time I drive over to the UK (Long story)

Druid, don't bother with spectacles, I had my minces done a few years ago with inter ocular lens implants. The eye surgeon corrected the new implanted lenses to 20/20 so now I can clearly see all of the f**k ups that I made in the past Really it is the way to go, no more struggling to see and no more "Where did I put my glasses"

James.

Thanks James ..... tha's the dinkiest lil' donkey saw I've ever seen what make is that

No plasma any more mate .... used to have a 130A unit in my workshop .... but it went ... 3 ph

Interesting idea on the eyes, but not keen on having someone cut me eyeballs open

[v8druid]

Managed to cut a couple of pins for yon bucket and knocked 'em in ......



fired Jakie up this afters and got said bucket off the bench ....



wanted to check that it'd fit on a Jake QH



It did... I knew the centres and 'cheek edge' to pin centres were fine .... but ...



...was a bit concerned that there was going to be enough clearance at the front pin and the front 'beam' .... not a lot of distance between the pins' undersides and the back edge of 'it' ..



but there was plenty enough !!

back on the floor ... slotted an eye bolt in the 'very convenient' hole in the sides and slung it round closer to me box .... and Esab ...





bit of 'hot stick ...



pick and turn it ..



a bit more hot stick and back on the quickie








looked aaaalright

Nice geometry on a jake too .... could've been made for it ..... apart from those cheeks





'curled' sweet as ...... happy days



sat real nice too




On another note ............Anyone tell me WTF this is ? ........





Looks to me like a breather vent .... but exuding a little oil and dripping on the floor, enough to form a small 'deposit'


it's located above and between the boom foot pivot, on the king post and I assume it's a breather for the slew box ?


difficult to get a pic to show it's location ..... thought it might've been a pipe about to let go with the boom up, but stretched out, could see just where the drip was coming from.....













Anyone confirm my thoughts ????
I'd assume that any leakage from the slew rams is going to find it's way into the slew box and raise the levels in there ???


First time I've run him in a few weeks ... and operated him in a few months ... not evident the last time I used Jakie and he's been parked with the boom 'hung' on its parking post lug .

Nothing dripped 'til I started to use it today

[v8druid]

well Alex collected it yesterday and I was greeted with a PM on FB last night ..... followed by a few pix

apparently it does a relatively decent job


certainly sorts out the shite alright





and leaves some respectable looking fines in neat lil' piles









I also have it on good authority ... (little bird told me) that there is likely to be a new arrival any day soon ..... and she looks cool as ......

I feel his pain in the delays he's had to tolerate !!!



be well worth the wait and effort though IMHDO

all the toys and lots of trick bits too

[ianoz]

I would say the seals in the slew ram are leaking and filling slew pinion area and then it is coming out the vent .
Was operating a mates 1CX for him ,in the middle of nowhere Last job on the list ,Needed to clean out the inlet and outlets of a pipe under the road so we could clean the pipe out . Contractors we were on hire to were on rostered weekend off , and had forgotten to do the job . So with trusty 300mm teaspoon bucket set about trying to expose the end of the pipe . Got about 6 buckfulls out when the plastic cap on the vent went flying ,followed by a steam of hydraulic oil . Got off and checked hoses , nope all ok . pulled the slew lever and a fountain of oil came out the vent hole .
Load it all up and back 500 Ks to civilisation .