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What did YOU do today?


washed and waxed the F150 since i didn't get time to wax it last weekend after polishing it and washed and waxed the wifes car along with cleaning the inside of both of them. Did the same to the ranger as well
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It's been more work on the drawer box. Now that the box is glued together, I removed screws so I could better space them and use the router to i let the wood to install aluminum angle for edge protection, especially for the plywood bottom and deck.

I have meetings the next two evenings. So mich progress probably won't get done. The aluminum needs to be cut to length and holes drilled for screws to hold it on. The angle will be glued/sealed to the box with paintable caulk, but could potentially get pulled off if not mechanically fastened down. Then I can move on to the next thing that needs done in the project, like hand holds to carry the thing and removable access panels to be able to reach the holes needed to anchor stuff down to the deck using T-nuts.
 
Paid the wheeler off 👍🏻 7 months early. Between interest and not needing to renew its full ride insurance policy.. free'd up probably 450 dollarydoos I can now spend on the ranger 😌 that's most of a fancy clutch kit & half weight flywheel. Feels goodman.
 
Got the brakes bled in dad’s Ranger, ordered parts for the Choptop’s fuel system and Paul’s Ranger (ouch, $500), and got the new steering link for the lawn tractor mostly manufactured. I’m hoping that it’s sturdy enough. If it’s not, I might have to try reinforcing it. If that doesn’t work, I’m gonna have to bite the bullet and spend real money on this. Factory rod was 5/8” diameter. What I’m making is 7/16” diameter rod. Because that’s the size ball stud ends are available that fit. Apparently MTD tractors used them for steering so I’m hopeful…

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and convert to full hydro steer?
 
The oven/broiler burner on the gas stove was fixed. That was not a fun job. The last person who was there, doing the same task, stripped one of the screws and the other one was missing. Oh, and it turns out the issue with the igniter was corrosion in the splices for the igniter. It seems that the stove had been sitting outside for some time based on the amount of rust there was in the inside of the bottom of the stove.
 
I forgot to set the alarm so I went to work an hour late so like a typical IT person, I decided to sneak in the back door and stopped by the break room for coffee where a coworker was testing out some fancy expensive software for scanning wifi networks. So, I took my laptop out of my backback and showed in a few wifi scanning commands in the terminal. He sat there with a blank look on his face, then justified the price by making a point that whatever software he was using could export the results to a text file or spreadsheet. I can do that in the terminal too. He abruptly had work to do.

I didn't mean to hurt his feelings.

Anyway, if you want to try it the command is nmcli dev wifi. Add > textfilename.txt if you want to save it as a text file.
We should have a thread for fun computer commands.

nmcli dev wifi > wifilist.txt

IN-USE BSSID SSID MODE CHAN RATE SIGNAL BARS SECURITY
6C:B0:CE:ED:D4:76 Rain Infra 1 270 Mbit/s 100 ▂▄▆█ WPA2
10:DA:43:7E:AA:9C Linux Infra 1 195 Mbit/s 100 ▂▄▆█ WPA2
* 10:DA:43:7E:AA:9B Linux-5G Infra 153 405 Mbit/s 95 ▂▄▆█ WPA2
6C:B0:CE:ED:D4:78 5GHz Infra 153 270 Mbit/s 79 ▂▄▆_ WPA2
FC:12:63:94:4F:32 Alejandra1615 Infra 1 540 Mbit/s 67 ▂▄▆_ WPA2
FC:12:63:94:4F:33 Alejandra1615 Infra 100 540 Mbit/s 64 ▂▄▆_ WPA2
10:27:F5:71:67:A2 RVNnetwork Infra 10 540 Mbit/s 57 ▂▄▆_ WPA2
06:12:63:94:4F:33 -- Infra 100 540 Mbit/s 45 ▂▄__ WPA2
B6:98:13:D0:0E:57 -- Infra 157 540 Mbit/s 39 ▂▄__ WPA1 WPA2 802.1X
BE:91:9B:98:18:DE Verizon_7BLLN7-WFH Infra 6 540 Mbit/s 37 ▂▄__ WPA2 802.1X
 
Couple of window cleaning jobs (my side gig), then mowed and bagged the yard and took the grass plus my recycling to the grass dump. All in 90+ degree heat. It's good for you, sweat cleans the pores.
Now I'm showered and Mrs. O and I are going to dinner and to the movies to see "F1".
 
It was a busy day. For Work Party day, I raked plants out of the pond so it doesn't get choked with aquatic plants, cut and routered hand holds and access holes into the bottom and sides of the drawer box for the 2019's bed, washed the 2011, and hosed off the front porch.
 
Got frustrated. And angry. I’m not proud of that.

The steering link I fabricated doesn’t work, 7/16” rod apparently just is not stout enough to do the job. I have a hairbrained scheme of how to stiffen it. I also have another unanticipated problem of the fact that because I didn’t realize how this problem was “solved” by an engineer… my link has too much flop and needs some kind of guide, but it has to be a flexible guide. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but if you could see it you’d understand. It was a hokey setup from the factory and I have yet to improve upon it successfully. I borrowed a link off a tractor dad had, but it’s not right at all. It will turn left. Right… not so much. About a hard drift to the right is all it’s got. So my property is mostly knocked down again. Because the deck can’t be raised or the belt and the steering link have to share the same space then.

So the property is mostly knocked down. I’m thinking hard about a finish mower for the farm tractor at this point. That would be a solid backup plan I think. There’s a 6’ for sale close that needs the spindles rebuilt, or so they say…
 
Got frustrated. And angry. I’m not proud of that.

The steering link I fabricated doesn’t work, 7/16” rod apparently just is not stout enough to do the job. I have a hairbrained scheme of how to stiffen it. I also have another unanticipated problem of the fact that because I didn’t realize how this problem was “solved” by an engineer… my link has too much flop and needs some kind of guide, but it has to be a flexible guide. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but if you could see it you’d understand. It was a hokey setup from the factory and I have yet to improve upon it successfully. I borrowed a link off a tractor dad had, but it’s not right at all. It will turn left. Right… not so much. About a hard drift to the right is all it’s got. So my property is mostly knocked down again. Because the deck can’t be raised or the belt and the steering link have to share the same space then.

So the property is mostly knocked down. I’m thinking hard about a finish mower for the farm tractor at this point. That would be a solid backup plan I think. There’s a 6’ for sale close that needs the spindles rebuilt, or so they say…

If it will only turn left, can’t you mow everything on the left, and then turn it around and mow everything on the right?

No, scratch that.

Send us a picture of this link, the one you made, and maybe a screenshot of the real one, and maybe we could give you some ideas. Without seeing it, I’m thinking, can’t you just weld little fins out of 1/4” key stock at the 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions, or maybe 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, but that doesn’t help with a guide.

Send us a pic.
 
Spent the say at hospice and then getting internet fixed. Those that haven;t been in sanctuary section, my dad was admitted to hospice on Wednesday. Given his condition he probably won't be there for long, and isn't likely to be coming home.

During the 2-3 weeks that mom and dad were in Savannah at the hospital (~3 hours away) something happened and their cable modem died. We were able to convince mom to go home to sleep and rest, but didn't help when she got home and the internet wasn't working. Basically everything in the house relies on it. Computer internet obviously. I've got their TV going through an ONN streaming box, which works great as long as there is internat. The home phone is VOIP, and relies on the internet. Somehow they live in town and still in a spotty cell service area, so it's better than mobile internet too. With dad being in hospice, she needs to be able to connect when she isn;t there with him.

Got spent time with her, him, and seeing family that wanted to visit. It's weird. Obviously dad had a child hood and life before I came along 40 years ago. Some of the family wanting to visit I've seen once in my 40 years and it was just a couple of years ago. Another apparently even mom hasn't seen since I was a newborn. Still appreciate the support and that they made the trip from out of state, just wish that dad was responsive enough to show that he knew.

Anyhow, modem is changed out, so hopefully mom will be able to have some distraction when she is at home. Fixing it was certainly a good distraction for me today.

Now the battle going on upstairs is what to do with his truck. Not getting rid of the 99 Ranger, but it seems like I might be joining the group of late model F-150 owners on the forum. It's a battle between what he seems to have wanted, and what fits my needs better. From what mom has said it seems like he wanted ME specifically driving his truck while he was in the hospital, but that was when he was able to communicate and we thought he was coming come. I've already got 4 registered vehicles. The 2010 Kia Forte daily driver, the '99 Ranger, the '68 F-100, and the F-250. I don't need 5 registered vehicles to insure and maintain. I also don't need 3 full size trucks. So if I get the F-150, I'll have to consolidate.

A couple are easy decisions. Dad gave me the F-100 and F-250, and he recently helped me with the V8 swap on the Ranger. The Ranger isn't going anywhere for a long time, too many recent memories. The F-100 isn't going anywhere, ever if I can help it, I grew up with dad driving that truck and always wanted to fix it up. So I've got to figure out if want take the F-150 or keep the F-250. If I take the F-150, the Kia is going to and cutting back to three vehicles (for now). If I keep the F-250, I'll probably be keeping 4 and have find another car in a few years when this Kia is slap worn out, it's pushing 200k miles now.

It's also going to mean that I will likely end up passing the 85 project truck onto someone else. I never started on it, now the F-100 and a couple of other "bucket list" projects I have seem more important.

On a Ranger note. Between dad's '21 F-150 and '02 Ranger, mom said that she only wants to keep the Ranger. Have tried to convince her to keep the newer truck, but she won't have it. Likes the smaller one better. With that in mind I'll probably need to tear it down for timing chains/guides/tensioners in a few years. Might be more justification to pick up a manual 4.0L V6 Mustang parts car. Engine to prep for swapping into the '02, and the transmission for one of the bucket list projects. Maybe I can slip in a moddbox without her noticing? Dad would have liked it.

(If my post seems off or inappropriate for the situation, thinking about things and writing like this is kind of helping me cope.)
 
If it will only turn left, can’t you mow everything on the left, and then turn it around and mow everything on the right?

No, scratch that.

Send us a picture of this link, the one you made, and maybe a screenshot of the real one, and maybe we could give you some ideas. Without seeing it, I’m thinking, can’t you just weld little fins out of 1/4” key stock at the 12 o’clock and 3 o’clock positions, or maybe 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, but that doesn’t help with a guide.

Send us a pic.
I have some video. I’m going to walk away from this project for a couple days though other than trying to reinforce the link I made. I may want to do some total re-engineering. The easy button would be to just go to hydrosteer, but my wallet doesn’t allow that unless someone has any bright ideas on a cheap way to do it.

I can try to grab some pictures tomorrow.
 
I borrowed a link off a tractor dad had, but it’s not right at all. It will turn left. Right… not so much. About a hard drift to the right is all it’s got.

You sure it was a tractor part you borrowed and not a nascar part?

I agree with Rick. Post up some pictures of what you're working with. I might not come up with any answers, but maybe it'll give me something else to think about for a little while.
 

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