What did you do today?

[gee-dub]

On 4/24/2022 at 6:59 PM, treeslayer said:

I’ve done those on my Leigh @gee-dub and have had the same ah-ha moment, it’s an awesome jig and as long as I’ve had it I don’t think I have done all it is capable of doing yet, more pictures please 

I put a thread here.

[Tom King]

Today, I rented a little stand on, tracked trencher to dig for the waterline going down on our point.  I think I dug about 900 feet of trench about a foot deep. https://www.barretomfg.com/equipment/trenchers/rtk-track-series/

I was also going to dig the trench for the big wire running down there, but the ground was so dry that it was a fight to get the 12" deep trench dug.  The wire needs to be 24", and it would have taken two days in this hard ground.

Also, as you can see by the picture, it was impossible to dig a straight line.  The tracks were pretty worn, and it wanted to slide downhill, so I had to keep stopping, and resetting the direction.  The line ended up pretty scalloped, but I don't think too much for the PVC pipe. 

I don't want the wire trench that crooked though.  That wire is pretty expensive, and it would be too hard to accurately measure in a crooked trench.  I'll just rent a mini excavator when I get ready to dig for the wire.  The trencher today was more fight than I wanted with tree roots, whereas a mini-ex will have little trouble.

I have the water ditch dug all the way to the end of the point, with several branches off to the side for hydrants to water grass with.  We'll just use county water until I get the new dock built.

 

[wtnhighlander]

Tom, those "chainsaw" style trenchers struggle to cut 24" deep, anyway. You will be far better off with an excavator, for sure.

[Mark J]

Yeah, that trench does look a bit... ahhh... "artistic".

(Actually it did make for a great photo).

[drzaius]

I've used walk behind chain trenchers and that is just about the same as purposely getting yourself beat up. Especially if there are any rocks.

[Tom King]

This stand on trencher was a lot better than the walk behinds, but 23 hp can only do so much, and this was about it's limit.

Today, I put 900' of 1" PVC in the ditch.  It flexed around the curves with no trouble.

I've had it so long that I forgot that I bought all they had, and had forgotten the measurements.  I came up a couple of hundred feet short, so will have to pull the trailer to town to get enough to finish.  I like to use 20' sections with the deep bell ends.

When I finished, I was surprised how dead tired I was.  Normally I have helpers, and one will pull it off the trailer while it's glued together at the tail end of the trailer.  Today, I had to do a lot of walking laying out the pieces, and the method I came up with for gluing them together worked well, but was hard on an old man.

There were 45 joints to glue together, plus a couple of branches that I put tee's in for.  To keep the ends out of the dirt while I put the cleaner and glue on them,  I bent over and laid each end across my feet, doped them, and pushed them together as hard as I could.  I told Pam I was surprised how tired I was.  She said it was a normal workout of three sets of 15.  First really hot day at 88 degrees in full Sun while I was doing it too.

[legenddc]

Had a good day today with the kids in the morning and then they went to my parent's house for a while. I was able to mount my "not-so-floating" shelves in my office. I had originally made them with wood supports but they seemed to sag under any real weight. Bought some hidden metal supports from Rockler and tried to install them the other week but couldn't get it. Realized today after hanging them on some heavy duty powder coated L brackets the one shelf must have warped. Oh well, looks straight enough now.

With the shelves up I was finally able to pull all the books out of our basement and toss them on. That made room to move things from the closet behind my shop which in turn made room to clean the stuff out of my shop.

Hopefully tomorrow I can keep the kids busy long enough to install the air filter in my shop and get that off the basement floor. Assuming my wife is out of isolation on Monday she can help me put out the new area rug and return the one bought and didn't like.

Should have the house mostly back together for the first time in a couple of months. Finally.

[JohnG]

Finished putting a fence up around our garden to keep the bunnies out. Made a quick wooden gate from PT 2x4s.

Staked some of the trees in our orchard, and gave them a good watering. 

[Coop]

Whatcha planting in the garden, John? 

[BonPacific]

I bodged together a longer top-rail on our porch railing, to make it a little nicer to use long-term.

Also picked up 24 sheets of t1-11, wallet crying the entire time.

[Coop]

On 4/30/2022 at 9:11 PM, BonPacific said:

I bodged together a longer top-rail on our porch railing, to make it a little nicer to use long-term.

Also picked up 24 sheets of t1-11, wallet crying the entire time.

With the market down more than 900 yesterday and wood prices the way they are, I bet you there were tears! Where will you use that much T1-11? 

[BonPacific]

On 4/30/2022 at 7:17 PM, Coop said:

With the market down more than 900 yesterday and wood prices the way they are, I bet you there were tears! Where will you use that much T1-11? 

It'll be the interior walls for my shop. Or at least the three sides that aren't garage door. Crazilly, the orange store had the best price of anywhere I could find local.

[Tom King]

I priced T-111, and 1x8 boards last week, to redo the doors on my old mechanic shop, and it was going to be some more than $450 to re-skin two 10x10 swinging doors.

Today, I hooked up a couple of hydrants down on the point.  No leaks in 1040' of pipe, and I'm very pleased with the water flow.  I had worried about pressure drop over that distance, but I think being downhill made up for it.

I'm not brand loyal to many things, but Woodford hydrants are on the list.  I use bronze street elbows, and Schedule 80 PVC male threaded adapters.  I don't use female plastic threaded adapters anywhere, unless just temporary.

I've installed them a number of ways over the years, but since I was using a trencher, I just went to max depth where the hydrants were going to be, drove a 5-1/2' piece of 2" galvanized pipe in the ground to strap the hydrant to.  We only have to bury 1' here, so there is a couple of feet of clearance under them to later fill in with round river rocks for drainage.

I'll fill in later, but for now, I have water to use at the little bathroom house for the masonry saw.  Stainless straps later too.  I wanted to test before I tied anything up too permanently.

 

[treeslayer]

Took a day off of woodworking and my wife and I went to the symphony at the Grand Opera House, very cool building built in 1890 and beautifully restored, music was awesome, Beethoven mostly 

[Chet]

On 5/1/2022 at 5:11 PM, treeslayer said:

music was awesome, Beethoven mostly 

I'm Jealous.

[Coop]

I’m impressed at your music selection! Your choice orJan’s?

[treeslayer]

9 hours ago, Coop said:

Your choice orJan’s?

Both, and her nephew is the executive director of the symphony, great guy and great musicians

[Tom King]

Nice theater!  It's a shame it looks like young people don't enjoy it.

[treeslayer]

Yep my wife commented on that as well, at 70 I think we were the youngest people there 

[drzaius]

1 hour ago, Tom King said:

Nice theater!  It's a shame it looks like young people don't enjoy it.

When I go to Calgary Philharmonic concerts or to see Calgary Opera, I'm always a bit surprised to see all ages well represented. And attire is everything from blue jeans to tuxes.

[Tpt life]

I am in what was once the band instrument capitol of the world. I play with any orchestra that will take me, and teach young ones to play. I see a fairly diverse audience here, but most young people would never listen to that kind of music anywhere else. The concert is just an experience. 

[treeslayer]

That’s cool @Tpt life, what instrument do you play ? Young folks could use a course in music appreciation, I like everything about the symphony 

[Tom King]

Our Daughter graduated from NC School of the Arts majoring in violin.  She was 1st chair All State Orchestra when she was 12.  She ended up deciding she didn't want to be tied down to a specific location with an Orchestra for a living, but we've spent Many hours in orchestra performances over the years of raising her.  She's 38 now.  Name and location is not going to be on the internet, so don't ask.  She's had some stalking problems.

The NC Symphony used to have a program where they let students play along with them.  There would be an extra chair beside a number of people in each section.  Our Daughter was 8 when she did that, and ended up sitting beside the Principle Violinist.  He became her teacher immediately after that evening.  She kept her regular teacher, who was teaching at ECU, 115 miles away, and the one with the NC Symphony was in Raleigh.

Pam put 115,000 miles on a Subaru Outback in a couple of years doing that.  She went to NCSA as soon as she was old enough, in High School, and through College.  We didn't pay a dime for any of that education.  Our Son had gone there too, but not for music.

 

[treeslayer]

Wow ! First chair at 12, sounds like quite a talented young lady, and good on mom and dad for supporting her, always a rewarding feeling

[Chet]

On 5/2/2022 at 11:29 AM, treeslayer said:

Young folks could use a course in music appreciation, I like everything about the symphony 

My wife and I have always enjoyed that type of music but when we had a young family we started buying season tickets to San Jose Symphony's Summer Pops series as a way to force us to get a baby sitter and go out on dates.  The summer series was always done with guest conductors from all over the country.  One of the features of the summer series was before starting each piece the conductor would point out certain parts or instruments to listen to or pay particular attention to.  Over time it was like going from AM radio to high end stereo gear with how we learned to listen to music.