Shop Time w/T.W. Friends

Our mail lady from where we used to live used to talk about retirement, she’s in her mid 40’s and just found out she’s eat up with cancer.

We have two boys staying the weekend with us that belong to friends of ours, their mom is in her 40’s and has hours left because of cancer.

You never know, one day at a time for me. Each day is a blessing, cherish it.

 

I may have bought a couple things with some of it, but there’s a little still left

 

Crazy and sad how that works...but yep one day at a time.

morning

 

Yes and yes. The 4 wheel steering made it easier to hook up, lol. He has a 2500 he pulls with as well, this was the only one he had for a while to pull his small cattle trailer.

 

Good morning friends, have a wonderful day

 

Got the dingo straight for a guy I know.

 

You’re the one who’s house is paid off

 

@six5crèéd counting money for the prize warehouse...

 

I came across a catfight on my walk this morning.

Spoiler: Dad joke ahead. You've been warned.

 

Post it up on TW & you’ll be loved for double the rub on 37”

 

Good morning everybody, have a great Saturday!

Nice job on the dingo Shane, did you burn through a lot of rods (wire?) welding up that thick stuff?

 

Your skills would’ve been wasted in a pallet factory, just sayin…

 

Patience, young grasshopper.

 

So, I have a minute so I will tell you about a bad life decision I made on Tuesday night.
As you guys know, I work in an office, surrounded by screens and numbers and decisions all day. When I go home, after spending time with my wife, eating dinner, chores and such, I need to go out to my shop and spend an hour or so by myself with no screens or decisions or numbers. Sometimes I do nothing but most of the time I do something, like sharpen, sand or assemble.
Tuesday night, I decided that my 15 yo battery powered hedge trimmer (24 inch) needed all those little blades sharpened. Bad decision number one.

I thought just taking those six bolts on the bottom of the blade arm would let me remove the blades so I could sharpen them. Nope. So then I figured there was another bolt inside the housing. I figured I had already removed six bolts, what's another nine screws? Bad decision number two.

So I got the housing removed and found two additional bolts. Took these out and still no joy. So then I looked at the gearbox at the bottom of the motor and saw six more screws. I thought I am this deep, might as well go for it. Bad decision number three.

I opened the gearbox, which had originally been packed with grease and saw it had hardened and decayed over the years. So, i removed another bolt, removed the blade (yay!) and started scraping the grease out of the box. I had to remove the pinion, shims and spur gear. Bad decision number four.

Shims, lots of different shims.

By that time it was past my normal bedtime so I went inside.

Next night, i sharpened the blade. By the way, there are 72 edges that needed filed. Finished it past my bedtime again.

So, Thursday night, i repacked the gearbox and re-assembled everything. I finished at 9pm and was ready to pull the trigger. Did I tell you that the trimmer worked perfectly before? Oh, there were a lot of wires in the housing too. So, I pulled the trigger, the blade did not move, the gearbox tried to turn and I smelled smoke. I let off the trigger and pulled the battery. I cussed. My wife happened to be outside and she came to see whatever happened. I told her and she said to throw the 15 yo trimmer away and go buy a new one.

I said no, this has now gotten personal.

So, I disassembled the trimmer again and sure enough, I pinched a wire going to the motor. I cut out the part that leaked smoke, soldered in a new piece and heat shrunk the joints, paid attention to the wire routing (this time) reassembled it, pulled the trigger and it ran like new. It was 1am Friday morning. I usually go to bed at 11pm at the latest. I had a 7am meeting with Germany.
I probably have 10 hours of labor in that thing.

Did I tell you it worked just fine before?
Thanks for reading.

 

We do not miss our pine trees!

 

The well known Tacoma sagging suspension glitch

 

It’s a serious do, die battle!

 

You learn much when it gets personal…

 

That will do!

Yes. But.....

 

Been out of shop for a couple days, I'm not even going to try to catch up With yall. Too many pages. Here's where the family an I went..