Druidic exploits of a various nature!!

[v8druid]

view off the top of a box
'Sposed to have been dry again on the saturday and TBF, didn't had a lot last friday, so yon channel got extended some more after I'd found some stone to edge yon lawn extension with, ready to finish that edge off with a bit more soil. ... got a home for anything left over too, so I can get the channel finished off down to join my drainage system just to the left of the black shed ...



a.n.other unusual view of that,.... off a box top

had a gander an' was still top bid, on the miller, with a way to go ...... hmmm! .... interesting ... someone else ran me up pretty swiftly earlier, but well below where I'd go to on it .... and if it went it went .... if it came it'd make a stop gap for now

Ebay really pisses me off ..... looked at the bidding history ... I was top bid and it was the same as a.n.other bidder, but mine was the earlier auto bid, so I was top bid ..... upped the limit a few quid and bugger me ALTHOUGH I am top bid the bastards increased the top bid, which was mine anyway .. did however mean anyone else was gonna have to top that amount ... plus my upper max. ....... then I was out I thought .... 'bout where I valued it, for summat that doesn't really tick all the boxes for me

Well I was out ...... if anyone fancied a tidy bridgeport, I'd eyeballed it and it's tidy with a reasonable tooling cab too .... taper just wasn't what I wanted, at R8 .... drilling much more than 20 mm'll load it significantly ... bloody good miller though

this came up early saturday .... no idea 'who's' it was ... never seen one like it before .... looks to be #3 MT taper, from the extra pix the seller sent me .... 'twas a bit of a beast for 3MT .... old, but SOLID





was In Stafford and a grand to own it ..... hell of a 'ram' on it

looked like a scrappy/recycler's yard ..
Clarkson autolock collet chuck, but no drive keys so not ISO30 ... only leaves MT .... which was a lot more common decades ago .... which is what this looks to be ....
guessing 50s/early 60s looking at it, 'praps older ....... it was bloody solid and could even be 4MT looking at the pic .... never seen a 4 though, usually 2 or 3

as for yon Bridgeport .... of the opinion I was run up about 500+, quid from where I jumped in at 700 quid ....
whoever was doing the running for him, ended up with it, when I left him to it at £1270 .....
I'd either get a phone call saying the bidder has dropped out or he'd relist it ....

watched and bid on too many ebay auctions not to be able to spot when I'm being played/run up ..
and have to admit to having done it a few times myself for friends .... the art is knowing when to stop

so .... back to the 'gardening'
having gotten the soil as far as I could with 4 bucketfuls = 60 barrow loads, I needed some edge retention .... enter one yankee crossing sleeper 10 ft x 12" x 7" ... and bloody heavy .... had to crank up the 'Drema to extricate it from a pile of stuff.

having gotten it onto a sack truck and down the patch ...... I was knackered so recruited the wheel barrow for the final 60% of the journey



was fine 'til i hit these .......



and it made a break for freedom .... only just kept up with it !!!!!

anyway .... wrestled it into place, sussed it for size and then bedded it onto a good stiff mortar mix .....



in anticipation of bucket no 5's contents .....



yon drainage channel was progressing quietly ....



.... takes time to dig it on the angle, get it into the 7 footer, drop the VA-r off ... move said 7 footer down to be emptied ....
barrow it all to spot and then start all over again, once i've gotten the VA-r back on !!! 7 th time that day, on and off ...

no 6 sat waiting it's turn on the patch wed.s afternoon ...

Pam's keep fit/circuits night so she disappeared at 4.30 and i spent an hour re-shuffling a few pallets
... again and a couple of buckets ...
that Hill's jaw gripped and picked this up no sweat ..



then it was time for yet more mowing ....
did the side of the drive Tuesday night - lawn again wed.s night and swept the previous nights mowings from the Dane, off the side of the drive with the Countax's sweeper / collector

finished just as Pam returned in time for a late tea.



lawn extension looking OK ... now to suss the last bit of it

[v8druid]

for the first time ever, yesterday, I had to drop a union off on the VA-r to make a connection to the dipper ... ]mental note to self---- don't leave it parked directly in the midday sun .... no way were the FF QCs gonna budge .... one to remember, ... even though I always drop the pressure off the lines, before disconnecting it, but it was so warm yesterday the VA-r was very hot to the touch, after sitting in the sun for a couple of hours

Bucketful no six went down yesterday .... don't often see one of these out yer kitchen window







less walking, with the barrows, from this point for a.n.other location needing some dirt ..... got the 'lawn extension' topped off with some 'riddled' stuff ....



took me bloody ages, but worth the effort ... all I have to do now is have stern words with the cats .. stop 'em digging it back up


these guys suddenly appeared from behind the treeline in quick succession ..... only just managed to get me phone out to catch the last one as he sped away ...



chasing his mates who'd been over a few seconds earlier



not quite 'nap of the earth', but they weren't far off it and when they passed Pam, up at her cuz's place a few seconds later, up the valley they were heading up, she was above them, looking down on 'em

had two of these Ospreys come over on the same route yesterday, playing 'silly buggers' with the deck - they were bloody low ... too slow with the phone yesterday for a pic

didn't know they folded up like that
have had Chinooks over the house before now, so low you'd think they were gonna land on the lawn ..... seem to use our roof ridge as a reference for NOE flying .. them and the Herc.s

Unusual to see the patch devoid of a big yeller fing



was supposed to be doin' the last twenty feet of me drainage channel today, -- needed to avoid hitting me 70mm cable ducting and two water pipes already in there part way up the patch ... (can just see the duct coil, bottom right, above) ... or I will be PO-ed .... then I'd better get on to me stone man for an eight wheeler's worth and get it filled back up

that was yesterday's plan

didn't happen that way today though .... been a looong day.

Pam's oldest cuz, who's been real unwell for several weeks, following yet more treatment for cancer, has not had a good day.
Although his brother has been doing his best to care for him, together with a lot of input and visits from pam and I ... plus the attentions of the local district nurses and carers from one of the cancer support charities, decided today that he needed to go into a hospice for more intensive care .... and to give his brother, et al some relief from the responsibilities of it all. Sorting that today has been pretty intense, but we managed it and he now has 24/7 care ... and his bro. who is mid 70s can have some rest, physically at least.
TBH I can't see Ken coming home again sadly.

[AndrewMawson]

Druid, I don't declare my hand on eBay until 5 seconds before the end. I use Auction Sniper and have done now for several years, not only do I not get run up like you did on the Bridgeport but I don't get carried away either :)

[v8druid]

Druid, I don't declare my hand on eBay until 5 seconds before the end. I use Auction Sniper and have done now for several years, not only do I not get run up like you did on the Bridgeport but I don't get carried away either :)

TBH Andrew 3 seconds is my usual bid point, with all I'm willing to give ..... have the bid loaded on one page and watch on another .... this time i wasn't overly bothered about whether i got it or not - convenient though it was, it wasn't what I really wanted and was testing the interest, sort of.
Hasn't re-appeared so may well have been a genuine bidder ..... I do not like these private listing auctions.

Like you, normally the first time my 'face' appears on a listing is when I hit the 3 second bid and either win or lose it. I always use an odd figure .... have won a lot of stuff 'cos i'd added the odd 11 or 17p to a bid - like £111.17 or £1002.11
Makes a big difference usually about winning or losing an item .

[v8druid]

Unloaded bucket no 7 today .... just about creased me .... been bloody warm here all day
then proceeded to fill no 8 .....





down as far as the pipes which were originally just lying in a trench ---- 'bout 5 years ago and which had mysteriously back filled itself





then came at 'em from the other end taking the top off in scrapes, which went well 'til I found the duct about 6" higher than the rest , which wasn't helpful to its survival .
... water pipes did though as one of 'em is 'live' and cut the bloody duct off out the way ....
like wrestling giant spaghetti with that roll of 80mm duct .... and has gone quite brittle





ran out of room in the 7 footer for the last little bit .... should've grabbed the 3 foot Geith and filled that ..... but didn't think of it, at the time.
last lil' bit was a hand job to clear around the far end, which i did after tea .
... and dropped the plumbing into spot after clearing all around it to get it low enough ..... bloody ground was hard !!





shit pic .... light was starting to go
got a joiner somewhere for the ducting ... otherwise, if I can't find it .. according to my vernier, down pipe is gonna make a decent fitting joint
need some stone next, after i've gotten that last bit of spoil out the trench ...... and emptied bucket no 8

one to make you smile ....... we can never make the bed here in the mornings ..... 'til these lil' buggers vacate it, around lunchtime




and yes Squeak is actually that big . .... he's a lump of a cat !! just over 17 lb last time I weighed him

[v8druid]

well had the Birthday boy for a celebratory cup o' tea this afternoon big 3-1 .. half my age
.... None other than Ruben himself of the BCEF fame, with his lovely lady ... Lost in the Welsh hills .... again
- Only a few months since they called in last
-- text -- "what's yer post code again mate" .... great to see them both ....

missed Pam, who'd just departed for Plymouth with her daughter and Clara, supposedly to visit Shem and Co.

..... apparently she was a tad confused when Vicki went sailing past the Plymouth turn, at Okehampton
...... heading for a Birthday surprise week of 'pampering' at a secret Cornish location, with her kids and theirs
... shocked was the best description I think .. did tell her to pack more clothes this morning - "never know what the weather's gonna do Pam"

on the phone earlier, when they got there .. "did you know about this??? " ... " who me -- nah "
........ sadly someone's gotta 'hold the fort' , look after the mogs and maybe/almost certainly, take 'that' phone call
.... might get down there for a day or so perhaps ... we'll see
best kept secret, so far, this decade

[v8druid]

was a very long day yesterday .... ended about 04.30 this morning after being called back to the hospice at 18.00 ..... we lost Ken at 02.10
I've been on screen saver all day !!


was relatively quick, painless and peacefully in his sleep .... a shame the same could not be said of the ten year run up to it
it was a relief for them both TBH ..
his bro. did well, to enable him to stay at home for so long, but he was exhausted and Ken's quality of life was not great
he said to Pam last Friday, he'd had enough! .... went from a horse of a guy to a frail shell in days .... just gave in to the inevitable and stopped fighting it.
as the saying goes .... "life's a bitch ....... ....etc."

[v8druid]

it's been 'some' week .... a lot to get sorted and done .... a lot already sorted


in between appointments and phone calls, I've 'relaxed' finishing off the second area that needed some additional soil ... extending a 'flower bed' and raising the ground level a bit here, to channel run off when it pees down, away from our septic, which has been known to get flooded occasionally, when the monsoon style rain we seem to have been subject to now and again, has swamped the field above and our lawn











I'd raised the GL here a while ago, but not far enough 'up' the run of the lawn, so has been an opportunity to increase the area of it.
no sooner gt it all topped off and graded, when Squeak came tearing down the lawn, raced around it all, dug a few holes and legged it with my cursing ringing in his ears lil' bugger!!!


Up at the church yesterday, checking out the 'space' for Ken, next to his sister ... gonna be tight ...... been a while since I was last there and had forgotten just what a 'crooked' old place it is .... built on a bit of a landslip, centuries ago ... and has moved a lot over time ...








the flying buttresses, that have been there as long as I've known it, keep the tower 'put'
pix do not do the lean justice ... has to really be seen to appreciate the degree of lean and of the twist down the entire length of the old place ... the other end leans and twists in the opposite direction .... significantly .. and the whole place bows like it has a broken back .... a testament to the builders, that it still stands at all .... the end in the pix above must've sunk 2-3ft, judging by the size of the very low door way inside into the tower and its cockeyed shape


one of the guys on another forum asked if I was taking the 'Drema up to dig the grave ?? I'd struggle to get the Fleming in to where the hole's gotta be ....





beside from the road up to the church ... the 'Drema'd widen the lane as it went up, ... with the blade down - or up


Les the local grave digger (who incidentally suffers with a very similar genetic blood disorder as me ) runs a 2 t Kub ..... thinking of ringing him to see when he's going up there to dig it ...... I wanna see HTF he gets his Kub in there


the funeral director struggles to get the hearse up there .... and his limo.s are out of the question .... we all choose the smallest cars available to us ... and pile in ...... the P38'll not be in use for sure

[v8druid]

well didn't get to Plantworx again for another 2 years .... had a begging phone call Monday night ... could i please go help with the heated vacuum mixer again at Simon's bro.'s place ... the seal that didn't get replaced last time'd given up the unending struggle with the atmosphere and was in need of some expertise


Now at 200 quid a throw I could sort of understand the reluctance to not change it last time, when we had it apart .... but ....
had it apart and ready to re-asemble just after lunch ... then fought for two hours with this bloody fragile carbon ring seal trying to get it back in to its housing ...










persuading it into those three O rings is some feat .... especially when i discover that the seal is 0.5mm too big ... off the shelf, all they had were these half mil. oversize seals .. 4-6 weeks lead time on one the correct size .... so had a fettle of the old one ....





got it looking half about and it was 18.00 was gonna have to be a tomorrow job .. the day I'd planned to go with Alex to the show
... I was up for a job and knock, but Simon'd got summat planned for the evening and was already running late ... so that was the end of my plans for Wednesday
re-fitted the 'fettled' old one the following morning --- the loss of that half mil made all the difference and it went in a lot sweeter than t'other one that we'd spent two odd hours wrestling with the afternoon before and failing to get past the third O ring quite HTF we'd managed to get the other one in previously, on the last strip down is still a mystery as working the dim.s there physically was not enough room in the recess for all that rubber to be displaced/compressed


anyway .... it all went back together .... eventually and ran the old girl up ..... achieved 75% efficiency -- slight air leak but the vac. pump held its own and is likely to improve with a bit of use .... it'd get 'em out the tish with their production schedule for a week or so, 'praps more.


ordered up a couple of 130 mm lumps of 90 mm dia. carbon rod and lined up a guy locally to machine some new ones to the right diameter, when the stock arrives ... plus a couple of improvement mod.s to the design, (oh for a lathe of me own) ..... so'll probably be back there again next week for round three


Carbon stock arrived yesterday and went off to be machined in the afternoon ... hopefully have some seals back mid week, next week


followed this bloke up to Simon's bro's the other day .... God knows what was keeping half of it on there





and sticking out in either direction left and right ... be surprised if he didn't have half of it off up the lanes !!!

picked up a nice ISO 40 cutter / collet chuck the other day off fleabay for a fiver a piece














the face cutter probably be 150 quid new ..... got 33 DA collets coming shortly ..... for 28 quid .... steal !!

and a few more pix of the Old church up at Cwmyoy for you all .....














crooked is one descriptor















bloody miraculous it's still standing really

[v8druid]

At those prices for that tooling they got to be had ..... already got plenty of ISO 40 stuff, but a shell mill is summat I didn't keep .... Tom Lomax at Exc@v8 had 'em with me miller he bought off me


if it's the right price ... it won't eat or drink and Button B is an ad. away !!


Got a nice Ajax lined up if I can find half a day to go eyeball and pay for it








just a bit busy ATM ... between events and Clara three days a week ...... an' it's Pam's 60th next week



got the last few bits out of the drainage trench the other day














just in time for it to get a good trial ..... has it ever pissed down here recently

managed to get me duct sorted, cut to length and the rest coiled up tidy this afternoon ....











took some wrestling back into a coil after i'd wrestled it into a straight length to tidy up the excess


dropped in an extension for one of the water lines ... the live one ... gravity fed





just as it started to pee down again ..... pulled the stop end off, to find an old style fitting ... so the simple swap I'd anticipated happening turned into a wet swap in all senses
.... combined with the annoying move of filling me one rigger, wresting the end of it trying to get the fitting's insert back out ...
bloody weather .. been dry all day ... even dry enough to get the lawn knocked down


t'other line will be for a pumped/pressurised supply, when I get the storage tank into the black shed, plumbed in and the pump installed, to feed it ..
hence a further need for an electric supply to the shed. ....
it's all about levels here, when it comes to water, plumbing and planning a system. We have a limited 'head' to play with to get it here
must remember to extend that one too
..... after I've lifted it all back out to clean the trench bottom again when it dries up a bit

[v8druid]

had a few decent buys lately ... 30 no., ER32 collets the other day for the start bid of 28 quid .... they'm usually 6-12 quid each ... that was a lucky one





the DV 40DIN collet chuck was a tenner --- can be anywhere between 50 and 200 quid new depending on make .. that's a Laip .. decent enough 'breed'
aaaaand .... 32 DA180 collets, to suit that chuck I had for a fiver, the other day, for 26 quid .... bargain





this has been the best one lately . ..... brand new .... never been used .....





still greased and waxed





well north of 500 quid new ... 42 quid

oh ... and had this last week ... new fill pump for the Hydrema .. 50 l/m ...... 67 quid








complete with non return foot valve for the pick up hose ... god knows what'd be new .... beautifully made


Pam's 60th birthday yesterday .... wednesday was a 'shopping day' and for once there was loads she liked, loads that fitted her well and the best bit ... just about every shop we went into had a better than half price sale on so was a half price day ..... mind you some of the original prices were eye wateringly silly to start


so she had a great day ... my wallet had a bad day .... but she had a big smile on her face though ....... result
she came down to this at the bottom of the stairs yesterday ..





and a few extra lil' surprise prezzies, that went down a storm .... for a change .... what do you buy the woman who has everything


was going to go see that miller this afternoon, 'til I went down to nursery for Clara .... they carried her out with a serious temperature and I whisked her home for some TLC .... put paid to my trip out!! ..... got to get to go see it monday/tuesday and buy it, before someone else does

[Muz]

had a few decent buys lately ... 3

oh ... and had this last week ... new fill pump for the Hydrema .. 50 l/m ...... 67 quid








complete with non return foot valve for the pick up hose ... god knows what'd be new .... beautifully made

Hell Yeah ! went to buy one for one of my eight tonners ... and thought fook it ..... i'll repair the old one

[v8druid]

Hell Yeah ! went to buy one for one of my eight tonners ... and thought fook it ..... i'll repair the old one

need a lathe to repair the one I took off Muz ..... the motor spindle where the seal is has worn and won't seal ... everything else came up fine, but need to build the shaft back up and machine it back to size

that looked an easier/quicker solution for now .... God knows what it cost originally .... it's new and never been used
big old unit too ... probably a third bigger than what came off

[v8druid]

evening all ..... though it was time for a catch up .... been busy


well I got to go to Bristol on the 26th ..... and the 'boss' came for the ride :uupps: .... thought the birthday shopping had finished last week ....
'twas toooooooooooo close to the Cribbs Causeway Mall ... so ended up there afterwards ... was another bloody expensive day .......


but not as wallet slaying as the following day was





my new Ajax AJT1 ... ISO 40 Int. spindle, stepped pulley head





brand new Align variable power drive unit, on the X axis





DRO on the X and Y ... older unit but nice display ... clocked it with the DTI and spot on ... even the hand wheels agreed with it



nice clean tidy machine .... quietest head i've ever heard
only down side was the metric M16 draw bar isn't with it, only the imperial 5/8" x 11 .... and I've got both metric and imperial tooling .... weirdest draw bar i've ever seen .. two piece thing ...... I'll have to make a metric one, 'cos Ajax want 800 quid for one . and I ain't giving 'em the pleasure of shafting me for that


fits the space I prepped for it a treat ..... after we'd juggled the lil' bugger in








it will do for a home for it for now .....








Happy Birthday to me ... for this year

[v8druid]

have n't had a 'decent' Happy Birthday to me prezzie for a while ... think me Goldwing was the last one ... an' no one else is gonna buy you those sort of toys ................
unless you have 'em at gunpoint LOL
gotta get a chassis plug fitted to the elex cabinet and wired in to take a flying lead from the genny.
If it hadn't been threatening rain, I'd have sorted the chassis plug, 'fore it went in there .....
would've been so much easier with it up on me bench, rather than groveling about on my knees


had a good crawl over it and have run it, where it came from, before kicking 'em to death on the price ...
got the distinct impression I had more idea about it than they did


am well pleased with it .... seems to have had an easy, pampered life, is well tight everywhere ... and it's imperial ... the genny wil be running it (for now-it's convenient ) although an inverter'd cope happily with the demand ... they'm thirsty lil' sods for the leccy!!!


this gives me all sorts of capacity, hole/shape-wise and one project that is deffo now an easier proposition, is a new hitch for the VA-r ----
S type with a few druid mod.s .....
it should have a lot more guts/rigidity than a Bridgeport too
..... I'd still have loved that Lion that I missed, with full power everywhere and in mint, barely used condition .. but this babe'll do nicely


been having an issue with one of me G couplers lately as in it was leaking ... been trying to get the damned thing apart, with little joy, to replace the guts of it.
these came up on ebay the other night and thought " give one a try " cheaper than the 'guts kit' too, at £6.69 .....


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Grease-G....72.m2749.l2649





very pleasantly surprised to find it works as well as, if not better than the originals I have








the extra handle makes life a lot easier for attaching/detaching and it has three grippers in the head as opposed to the G's four ....
put a stick and a half into the 'Drema with zero issues at all .... time will tell, but ATM ...very happy with its performance


as for the old G coupler .... had to get the jaws into the vice to undo them .... some one taking the piss on the assembly line ...
stripped it eventually, after extracting the jaws first and then getting hold of the centre mandrel to get it undone ....
all cleaned up, fettled and the grippers reshaped, hopefully it'll be as good as new ....
couldn't be arsed to swap the new Ying Tong back off the gun to try it...as that was performing just fine


I saw the Paris addy thing on the listing and wondered???, but looking at his other items they have a 'french flavour' ... but as far as I recall it was international shipping and had a customs ticket on it ..... didn't look to have had it's origins in Paris


have to say, credit where due ..... it performed real well ...goes on/comes off easier and the extra handle makes handling it a doddle


IMHDO the three grippers instead of four holds it more securely : - bigger grip area over 120 deg.s instead of the 90 degs on the G couplers I have


was well worth the try at 7 quid