LawnJockey

You might want to check the voltage on that bilge blower before you plug it in.

I have a couple of Wetterlings, one is a forestry axe (or something like that) and the other is a carpenter's hatchet. The axe got a little screwed up by some drunkards on a fishing trip but the hatchet I use all the time. I don't leave it out at night in camp any more. I have been very happy with them. They are a very good mix of price and quality. I have used the Gransfors hunter's axe and in my experience they are no better than the Wetterlings but they are more spendy.

I can see it now, mini bear traps.

I have read about this collection but I have never seen photos before, wow. I have a little off the grid place in NM about an hour, maybe less, away from him. When my tool fund recovers a bit I will have to contact him.

That trailer is really cool, it has everything but a beer cooler. There has been a fully set up farrier's truck for sale here in the Bay Area for a little while. It pops up now and then on CL.

Nice scalping knife. I recently reread Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and then I came across another book, Notes on Blood Meridian which names the sources McCarty used in writing Blood Meridian. It turns out that Blood Meridian was based on actual events that were contained in books published at the time. I started hunting down those books and found that many of them were available for free or almost free on the Barnes and Noble Nook. Over the past few weeks I have been reading those original accounts. It is amazing how much cruelty there was on both sides. I also never knew there were professional scalping expeditions and many of the key players went on to be well accepted in society and there is even a pass named after one of them near where I live. It is great to see a re-creation of a scalping knife here and to read the comments on the historical accuracy. Thanks to all involved.

Look into yoga. I got out of the trades 25 plus years ago due to constant back issues. Even though I stopped reinjuring myself so much I was haunted by regular flare ups. About 8 years ago I started working with a trainer on some health issues and she got me doing yoga. I still have a couple of flare ups a year but they are less intense and there are exercises that help speed up the healing. She also has me hiking, running and cycling 1-3 hours everyday. If you decide to take a yoga class position yourself toward the back of the class, the view is better.

There is an interesting you tube video on broaching small square holes without special tools.

Ivan: I have enjoyed your posts here. If you are going to be in the SF Bay Area let me know. We are located in Livermore and you are welcome to stop by and rest up. Dave AKA Lawn Jockey

I always seem to be building something. I have been collecting traditional tools forever, not to look at but to use. I have a little cabin in the middle of nowhere in NM that I built. Recently I built a sheep wagon that I can tow on the highway complete with a wood burning stove. I do some shooting of classic firearms like Martinis, Rolling Blocks and a CPA schuetzen rifle. I have chickens, fruit trees and a large vegetable garden.

Thanks guys, the come along did it. I cleaned both sides, lubed it up and it slid back together like I knew what I was doing (fool 'em). I owe you all a cold one.

Thanks for the info. I had not thought about the availability of replacement shields. Agri Supply has them for $40 if it comes to that. PTO shafts are one thing I am a safety nut about and the idea of not having a shield is something that would keep me awake at night. From everyone's comments I am thinking it is just crud. I will attack it later this morning.

Thanks. Before I called it quits today I poured some oil in the shaft and and held one end up until it started dripping out the other end then I rotated it to make sure the oil was all around and I left it tilted down to allow good penetration overnight. The come along idea sounds good, I will try that first. I hope it is just a matter of some debris and maybe some rust. When I get it apart I will give it a good cleaning with a plumbing fitting wire brush tacked on to a long rod. Like cleaning a rifle barrel and flush it with solvent before lubing it up good. Thanks again.

I went to hook up my auger attachment today and the telescoping PTO shaft was in two pieces. No problem I thought, I slipped the pieces back together as I have do many times. But this time they went so far and stopped and won't move it or out, even with substantial hammer taps. I suspect either the inner or outer shaft was bent when the two pieces were apart and thus it is jambed. Both sides have those plastic safety shields on them. So the issue is how to get them apart to locate and fix the problem. My ideas are to shackle one end of the PTO shaft to the tractor frame and attach a slap hammer to the other end and slap away. Or I could shackle one end to the base of a loaded shipping shipping container and the other end to the front end loader and try to pull it apart using the loader hydraulics. Any other ideas? In regards to locating the problem it seems like those safety covers are made to install and not come off. Are there tricks to getting them off so they can be reused? Is there a way to detect a subtle bend without pulling the safety covers? I sure can't think of one and clearly the covers would need to come off to straighten the shaft, if that is indeed the problem. I am sure I am not the first to encounter this, anyone have experience straightening these?

I am terrible at it. My power tools get no mercy, I ride them hard and put them away wet. When it is just out of reach I'll drag it over by the cord. I push them until they smoke or I can no longer hold them. Very bad habits picked up in the trades when production is all that counts. That said I still get a pretty good life out of them considering what they go through. I don't buy junk or jr handyman tools. When something does break I will hunt down the parts on the net and fix it myself, that is if the part and shipping are worth doing compared too the cost of replacement. I rarely take things into have them fixed as the costs of doing so just doesn't make it worthwhile. Air tools I do oil regularly and that is it.

Being a college man beer kegs should be plentiful.

I get what you are saying and I hope my light hearted approach wasn't received as in anyway taking away from what you said. I haven't done any bidding in 25 years and things have changed a lot since then. Back then for many trades on a run of the mill job you could get away using a construction estimator book with a regional price adjustment. You still had to study the job carefully for any unusual features which would drive costs up. The tendency to underestimate labor costs is almost universal and can't be stressed enough, thus the idea of reviewing the bid three times. Furthermore, the more "custom" a job is, the more likely labor will be underestimated. It is, with rare exceptions, almost always better to not get the job than to underbid it and get it.

On a lighter note, here are some other methods: 1 Open your credit card statement and the balance due amount is the amount of the bid (for smaller jobs, hopefully). 2 Include the customer's address or part of their phone number in the bid amount, familiarity bias. 3 Have an hourly labor figure which includes overhead and profit (arrived at by historic job costing). Analyze the job determining how many hours are required. Analyze the job a second time asking yourself how many hours is this really going to take. Analyze the job a third time asking yourself if everything goes wrong how much labor is it this going to take. Take the last labor figure and add the cost of materials plus mark up. Next the "F" factor needs to be added in. The "F" factor is for XXXX ups. 20% seems to be the right amount so multiply the labor and materials total by 120% and that is your bid amount. If you are going to use item 2 above always round up to get there. And now you know why I don't do any contracting anymore.

We did not run any heavy machines in it. You raise a good point. Furthermore there may be some space concerns with a larger machine and the narrow width of the container.

I don't know what prices are where you are but I needed some more shop space so I purchased a shipping container for 2K US. Later when the roof started to leak I built a roof and awning off to the side which doubled the square footage. Then I didn't need the container space so I rented it out for $200 per month, not a bad return on a 2k investment and I still use the covered side space. I have seen 20' containers here for as low as $1,200 on craigslist. A container can be transported by a flat bed tow truck so moving it isn't a major expense. Shipping containers are more structurally secure than most of the kit structures I have seen. Windows and doors an be added easily with a plasma cutter, torch or saws all. Two shipping containers can be placed side by side with a gap between them and then a roof built over them creating a nice roofed open work area.

A method we started using recently is mix dry 2 cups Quaker Oats oat meal and 1 cup plaster of Paris powder. It plugs them up real good and you don't have to worry about poisoning the cat. Another method my daughter discovered at our place in New Mexico is to leave a 5 gallon bucket out half filled with water. The pack rats go crazy over it and we catch 8-10 per night.

This could be a great science fair project for a mechanically inclined kid.

Here in the Bay Area we have the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Busy body neighbors report anything with smoke and they send a couple of their over compensated lackies out to check it out. Usually they will warn you the first time and then citations after that. The problem with this agency is that it is regional so the citizens really don't have any voice in it. They do crazy stuff like last Christmas they banned fires in firplaces on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I don't think wood burning fireplaces are even allowed in new construction anymore. We are kind of lucky where we are because it is semi rural. When it isn't so dry we have been known to have bonfires out back, or as we like to call them "agricultural burns". We don't complain when the neighobrs have had a few and start shooting their pistols and they don't complain about us either. It works best for everyone that way.

Yeah, what he said. My late father in law and my mother in law lived in York. I went back to help my mother in law get her house ready for sale and they had an auctioneer liquidate the contents of the home. Apparently that is a common practice in the area. If I was in the area I would seek out every auctioneer and get on their email lists. With all those old small farms in the area there has to be a bunch of tooling just waiting for someone into blacksmithing. Good luck.

Nice, congrats.