What did you do today?

[Chet]

That is a neat display.  It looks like they just use some sort of pine, is that correct?

[Coop]

On 2/20/2024 at 2:23 PM, Tpt life said:

The introduction of of Starlings and House Sparrows (both invasive cavity dwellers) led to habitat loss. 

Starlings and hawks are the biggest menace to our martins. There’s nothing I can do about the hawks. But I just built this for the starlings. He enters the hole from one side and immediately goes into the black can. It has a counterweight that allows it to drop down and out a hole in the other side, into a pvc elbow and down the chute to a cage. Works pretty good.

[legenddc]

That's a very cool contraption!

Spent some time this weekend, the last few nights and today during a call working on some pull out drawers for our kitchen cabinets. Today I was able to get the plywood bottoms into the grooves of the drawer. Took a little finessing but not too much. 

Tonight I'd like to get the sides/fronts of the drawers cut to length and the rabbet in the front that hides the slide if you're straight ahead. Wouldn't typically do that but I want it to match what's already there.

[pkinneb]

On 2/20/2024 at 6:53 PM, Chet said:

That is a neat display.  It looks like they just use some sort of pine, is that correct?

Yep that's what it looked like to me. The only thing that bothered me was people kept setting their drink glasses on the tops of them my wife was like wow you're really twitching over that aren't you 

[Mark J]

So @Coop, what di you do with the captured starling?  How do you keep the martins from going into your trap?

[Coop]

Mark, as the starlings are an invasive species, they don’t get to live another day to kill the martins. The sparrows are also invasive but not as aggressive and only compete with the martins for the nest and I take them 5 or so miles down the road and release them. They probably beat me back home? 

If a Martin is trapped, I simply release him. Have never had this happen though as they usually arrive in mass later on in the year. 

[legenddc]

Struck out this weekend trying to buy some things. Happened to look on Craigslist and found a Festool Domino for $500. I was #4 in line. Went to Rockler to guy some things that were on sale for their 70th anniversary but they were all out.

Spent a lot of time this weekend sanding.

[Tom King]

BIL and I finished getting the hole bored under the driveway/road to the rental house.  I thought I had a thread about it here, but probably put it in this thread. 

The long drill bit I made worked like a charm.  Using a 3/4" drill that only turns 250 rpm turned out to be the perfect tool for it.  We'd drill in about a foot, and use the lawnmower to pull it back out.  It would load the red clay up tight on the spiral end of the bit that had to be dug off with trowels.  So going about a foot at the time and pulling it back out to clean, we went all the way under this afternoon.

We put a 2" PVC pipe in the hole and ran the 1" PVC water line just before it started raining.

It was quite a workout for two old guys, but we got it done finally.  The red clay had a lot of moisture in it.  I don't think we would have been able to do it last Fall when we started it because the ground was too dry and hard.  Tomorrow I'll dress it up with the tractor and put out some grass seed.

I had bored an 8" hole with the tractor auger on the other side of the road as a target.  We were fully expecting the flexible bit to miss the hole, but I felt it when it broke through.  It came out about half of the drilled hole exposed in one side of the augered hole.  I just dug another hole beside the first one, and we got the pipes through with no trouble.

The picture with the mower shows it moved forward again after pulling the drill bit back out.  The drill is in the starting position again right in front of the mower.  The cardboard was to kneel on so I didn't have to get in the dirt.

The pile of red clay clods under the end of the drill bit is the pile of stuff we pulled back out of the hole.  We went under some yesterday, and had left about 8 feet to finish of the 26 today.

Total cost was next to nothing, but a fair amount of tools and equipment was called on.  I already had enough leftover pieces of pipe that I needed.  Biggest cost was the rebar and drill bit.

The 1800 pound lawnmower was the perfect tool for pulling the drill bit back out with.  We couldn't pull it back by hand.  Using the marine lifting hook I had put on the mower for raising the front end with to change blades let me watch what I was doing by going in reverse, and much less trouble to get on and off of than the tractor.

This waterline will serve two RV hookups and we'll use the septic tank for the little "office" building bathrooms to put a dump station into, so there will be two full RV hookups.  We had been running a water hose across that two lane driveway for BIL's airstream before, but we won't have to do that any more now.  The water line from the county water system runs down behind where the lawnmower is parked to get to the house but the good RV spots to have access to that septic tank are on the other side of that road.

[Tom King]

 

This picture was in my gallery here.  This was the day I welded up the long drill bit.  I think it was around Thanksgiving, but don't really remember.  We were rained out then, and the ground has been too wet all Winter until just recently.  I was a bit worried that the 1/2" rebar would twist itself into a knot, but it did fine. I forget exactly how long it is, but thinking about 28'.  We had to go under 26 feet of road and concrete gutter on the other side.

[Coop]

Well done Tom! Did you add to the length of the rebar as you went or did you start with the full 28’? I’m like you, I would have thought the rebar would have twisted. I’m sure you mentioned somewhere on here but what is the road made of and why didn’t you trench thru it? But hey, I still like your method and stamina! 

[Tom King]

I welded it up in one piece.  I didn't push too hard on it, but by the time the auger was full, the 3/4" drill had done all it could do anyway, which was about a foot or so into the red clay.  It would have been too much of a job for a 1/2" drill.  I bought this one off CL a few years ago when I was working on a tractor for $75.  It has a Really nice chuck on it.  I looked up the chuck today and retail is $471 just for the chuck.  I think the Skil drill is from the 1950's.

I had to jerk on the rope a few times with the mower to get it back out every time.  Everything was maxed out with what it could do, but I didn't push the mower too hard.  I'd back up until it snatched the line but tried to get off the pedal before the wheels would spin. 

Rope is 5/8" Stablebraid.  Doesn't stretch and tests about 16,000 pounds.  Bowline on a bight tied to the eye on the mower could be untied, but I had to cut the one wrapped around the drill off.  Only lost a foot or two off the 165' tree work rope.

The road is asphalt with the pavement about 24 feet wide.  It's been paved twice whenever it was with two 2" layers, one put down on top of the other.  All the traffic going to the rental house goes over it, so I didn't want to cut a slot in it.  The pavement is in good shape, and we really didn't want a bump in the road there.

[legenddc]

Just glued up and installed the first drawer pullout for this cabinet. Previously it was just wasted space. 

3 more ready for glue up but I have to cut out the center stile and make a part to cover the gap. 
 

Thanks @BillyJack for the Lee Valley drawer spacers. Used those for the front and the KV back cabinet part for the rear attachment. 

[Chestnut]

Did some milling. Got the boxelder i cut down a couple weeks ago slabbed and stacked. My cousin came to borrow a pole saw and i told him he should give the saw a run. I told him "its not every day you get to run a 90cc chain saw." He we shocked at the displacement and responded "my first dirt bike was only 50cc and it was a blast." Here is a video and some pictures i took.

[Mark J]

Nice picture of Hazel playing in the "wood snow".

[BillyJack]

Roofing……..

 

[legenddc]

Long weekend. Had family over Friday night for my daughter's birthday and then Saturday she had her first sleepover birthday party at our house.

Sunday got the cabinet drawers installed and cleaned the corrosion off my wife's car battery. Took off the hold down, cleaned it up and spray painted it. 

[treeslayer]

Went to the ski slope just west of here to watch the 11 year old granddaughter do some skiing on the last day they are open before shutting down for the season 

[gee-dub]

@treeslayer - Time with the grandkids is one of our favorite things.

[Chet]

On 3/4/2024 at 10:29 AM, gee-dub said:

@treeslayer - Time with the grandkids is one of our favorite things.

+ 1

[BillyJack]

Hopefully I can have this roofed before it gets hot..

[legenddc]

On 3/4/2024 at 2:36 PM, BillyJack said:

Hopefully I can have this roofed before it gets hot..

How’s the roof going? You doing it all by yourself?

[gee-dub]

Tried to color match a drawer from the desk this unit is supposed to look something like . . .

 

[BillyJack]

On 3/4/2024 at 5:35 PM, legenddc said:

How’s the roof going? You doing it all by yourself?

I’ll probably have my son help after I get past the tricky stuff..

 

I won’t touch cabinetry till summer probably…was working on the cabinet for the bar , but I guess it can wait..I built cabinets for 30 years, I think I can take a break from it..

[Tom King]

Put new tie rods in my truck today.  This is the third set that's been in it, and the second replacement set.  I went with much heavier duty aftermarket ones this time.  First one took over a half hour working by myself because I laid out a pile of wrenches to sort through to find what I needed, and still had to get in and out under the truck a dozen times.  The second one took about five minutes because I eliminated all the tools I didn't need and didn't have to make but one trip underneath.

I bolted four foot aluminum angles I had to one lug on each front wheel to measure between for alignment. The dually wheels have a big flat spot where the bolt circle is so they can go together if used in the rear.  Trip to town and back (about 50 miles total) showed no wear on the tires, drove tight and smoothly, with no vibration.  Steering wheel still centered.

The last set were way past due changing.  One was scary sloppy, and tires had started to show wear from it. This almost 8,000 pound truck is too much truck for these GM independent front ends with stock components and multi hundred thousand miles.  I still like that they drive like a car though, and when this one wears out, will get another one.

No slop in the upper control arms, but I'll probably change them later this Spring to heavier aftermarket ones.  I put a new steering box and idler bracket in it last Fall or Summer.  It drives better than a new one now with these heavier components in it.

I needed to go to Lowes to pick up the wall tile for the shower, but didn't want to drive the truck any more until I put those new tie rods in it.  While there, a guy was working in the aisle where the thinset was.  I had bought a broken open bag (the last white one) last week from the same guy for a dollar.  I asked him if he wanted to sell all the broken bags for a dollar today, and he said he'd be glad to.  I bought way more thinset than I need for this job for$6.  It doesn't bother me a bit that they bags are broken. They were all the $31 a bag stuff, so I feel like I made out on that deal.  He even put them each in a new thick plastic bag.

I asked him if he had any broken bags of concrete or mortar that he wanted to get rid of like that.  He said he did, but it would probably be about 3/4 of a pallet.  I told him I'd bring a trailer back another day.

[Coop]

@treeslayer, did you give her some pointers?