What did YOU do today?

[racsan]

another therapy appointment, shoulder is technically improving but sure seems like progress is slow. Had new tires (&related sensors) replaced on her equinox. there was nearly a thousand gone like that. (and she thought my tractors were expensive?) Going to try & get the lower control arms on my escape. Its still chewing front tires up, Have a used pump & lift plate for the tractor so the 3-point will work again, Heard the locusts this past week so it could be a early winter. But its been in the high 80’s except for today with rain & 68. Almost feels chilly but its nice to not be sweating before Ive even clocked in.

 

[holyford86]

Finished the panels closing in my slide out counter in my overland camper then helped out one of my friends with making brake lines on his somewhat ridiculous jeep cherokee project.

 

["Risky Bizness"]

Brought yet another car back from the car auction

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Painted old plywood and laid it down for a working surface under a car on my new to me 2post lift.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Well, finally I'm able.to load a picture with 2 clicks! But now it is sideways...

 

[sgtsandman]

I installed a proper dual band ham radio in the 2019, cleaned up and organized the stuff stored behind and under it's rear seat better, and made more progress on the drawer box and a picture. I never really liked the repetitive nature of assembly line work and all the drilling, counter sinking, cutting and filing are getting to me. I need to stop to pay bills and setup a frequency list for the new radio so I don't have to hand program everything in one item at a time.

 

[Rick W]

I installed a proper dual band ham radio in the 2019, cleaned up and organized the stuff stored behind and under it's rear seat better, and made more progress on the drawer box and a picture. I never really liked the repetitive nature of assembly line work and all the drilling, counter sinking, cutting and filing are getting to me. I need to stop to pay bills and setup a frequency list for the new radio so I don't have to hand program everything in one item at a time.

Looks great, pro built!!

 

[sgtsandman]

Looks great, pro built!!

Thank you. It looks better in the photo than in person but it will serve the purpose it is being built for and won't fall apart anytime soon. I still need to build the drawers and the split deck that will hold the actual items. The drawer box will just serve as the foundation to hold and store everything.

 

[scotts90ranger]

The grass is dormant but the dandelions and queen Anne's lace hasn't so I needed to mow... it's been a while since I sharpened the blades and I decided to get a blade balancer ($6 version not the $20 identical version, they're simple enough) so I sharpened two blades and replaced one since that one had been ground further than I wanted (had 3 spares so not a big deal). It worked about 50% better, the long stem flower type stuff is hard to cut with short blades...

After I got that done I mowed for a while then switched to the tractor with finish mower that's faster but less precise... Then I unhooked the boat from the F350 and got some stuff unloaded and moved the boat to some shade for now. I tried moving the '90 Ranger when I was mowing and apparently it's out of power steering fluid since it didn't turn for crap...

I also burned some weeds in the shop driveway, not the best idea considering the current fire danger but I was just working on the full gravel area, wanted to get to the edges but not a good idea...

 

[racsan]

Worked on the tractor today, put in a different hydraulic top plate & a different pump goes in tomorrow. Both are from a older ford tractor that worked when it was removed 10 years ago, it was changed to upgrade it to a newer system, so ironically my 8N will have 2N hydraulics. (just draft control, no postion control) the plus side is it should (better!) pick up the bush hog now even if it’s difficult to have midrange control. Maybe someday I will try & rebuild the 8N pump. My shoulder seemed to be ok as I was working but I am sore now that Im back in the house & resting . Just have to put the pump back in tomorrow, its aluminum so shouldn’t be to bad, the 8N is a cast iron body & quite heavy. Will be nice to have a working 3-point again.

 

[JoshT]

It was the day I've been dreading for the past few days/weeks. Dad's funeral. Somehow it didn't quite seem as real until today. It hurt, but just didn't seem as real. It was great seeing how many people attended. I knew he touched a lot of lives, but he was the quiet solitary type. Alot of people I would not have expected or did not remember were there. Sadly there were also several that I haven't seen or heard from that I expected to. Can't fault them, I have no idea what may be going on in their lives at the moment, can't even say for sure if word reached them.

Somehow got through the service ok, but got entirely too much of people afterwards. Especially a certain group. Hadn't seen some of them in several years, and after today it's ok with me if I don't see them for several more. I guess it wasn't bad seeing them, but I can only handle so much, especially on a day like this. One of the many ways I'm like dad was, once we've had enough of people that's it and with some it doesn't take much to reach that limit. Goes much better when we can get away from them after a short time, but I wasn't about to leave mom and since it was her side of the family I couldn't tell them to leave. They did mean well, they just overstayed their welcome and couldn't take a hint.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Hmm… I didn’t think of that… I have a few machinist books on my shelves.

I had thought of taking my MIG and lay a few beads on it to build it up a little.

I’m pretty sure the original bar isn’t anything more than mild steel. The rod I bought was mild steel with a zinc coating (much to my disgruntlement). The difference is the diameter. Original was 5/8” and I was unsure if it needed to be that thick for mild steel or if they just used a size that worked for the ball ends. I went with 7/16” rod because that’s what worked for my ends. Apparently I needed a thicker rod or a stiffer steel.

Wish I could afford to just go full hydro steer, I’ve always had a problem with how this thing steered, it’s a big and heavy enough machine that sometimes steering is a wrestling match.

Kinda curious on how you have a problem with how it steers, do you have front weights or oversized front tires? I'm almost always mowing with a drink in one hand steering with the other and it's super easy, sure it turns tighter left than right but that's by design since the outlet is on the right they expect you to go counterclockwise... Mine with a manual transmission was actually a selling point when I got it 5 years ago, I like the 3 speed high low transmission... first and reverse when doing tight turns is easy, even second and reverse aren't hard... 3rd is too fast for almost anything so I don't use it much.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Kinda curious on how you have a problem with how it steers, do you have front weights or oversized front tires? I'm almost always mowing with a drink in one hand steering with the other and it's super easy, sure it turns tighter left than right but that's by design since the outlet is on the right they expect you to go counterclockwise... Mine with a manual transmission was actually a selling point when I got it 5 years ago, I like the 3 speed high low transmission... first and reverse when doing tight turns is easy, even second and reverse aren't hard... 3rd is too fast for almost anything so I don't use it much.

I have AG tires on the rear filled with RV antifreeze and 55# wheel weights… I haven’t touched the fronts yet but they need tubes and I’ve thought of putting a little weight in them just because it gets a little light on the nose going up the one bank at my property. Not enough to be tippy, but enough that if the grass and weeds are tall the front tires like to skip along instead of letting me turn at the top. Of course, once I get the dump truck and skid steer working I intend to get some dirt and flatten that slope out.

That said, it’s always been hard to turn. I used to take a beverage to mow with but between the bumps on my property, dust, and needing both hands to turn sometimes (I’ve thought about a spinner but I don’t think I could get enough leverage), I gave up taking a drink along. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to turn. I do need to go through the bearings and bushings for the steering since I don’t remember when that was last done but I’m not sure I’ll see much improvement. If it wouldn’t be so stupid expensive for a hydro pump and small ram, I’d definitely do it.

I think I’m going to fix up my pull behind brush hog a little and put it up for sale, then use that money towards a 3-point brush hog for the farm tractor and call it good. I like the little tractor, it’s nice with the automatic hydrostatic rear to just get it cranked up and cruise after cutting in the edges, but my backup tractor needs work and my farm tractor doesn’t have a good mower yet so it’s a frustration.