Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

Worked for the Egyptians'

 

A very smart old man who worked alone and did amazing things showed me how to load huge loads of lumber on pipes so I could unload them by my self.

 

Dude unloaded our 12x16 shed off his flatbed & into my backyard using 4" round PVC pipes by himself. It worked like a champ. Probably took less than an hour from arrival, unload, move into my yard & leveled it all up.

 

I grew up on our ranch and had to work alone a lot of the time sometimes a couple of miles from the shop. My truck was always loaded with come-a-longs, chains , crow bars , pipes, block and tackles, a lot of things to get the job done.
Necessities is the mother of invention. Many times my Dad would come by and ask “ you did that by yourself?”. I would say “ yes, you taught me!”
Still, to today, I rarely ask for help. I figure out how to do it myself.



Bones

 

Me too ranch/farm raised machinist/mechanic/farmer/rancher/well driller dad. Never saw him fail to do anything he started including retrieving the drill bit from a 280' hole after spending several days fishing for it. He rode the slush bucket down the hole and hooked the bit! That was his last day as a driller. The rig was in our yard that night with a FOR SALE sign on it.
The old man who showed the loading trick demolished an old 3 story school in Carson City almost completely by himself. High timbers and stone work. Much of my house is built with material he salvaged. Down to shingles, flooring, & electrical fixtures.

 

I had to unload and position my mill (big ol' english Harrison) so I backed in under where my block and tackle is mounted for engine changes, and then hoisted it up and then onto some 3' lengths of water pipe, and then made like the egyptians, removing the last pipe and replacing it to the front. Because of the very small contact area on the pipe, the load can be slid slightly off centre so it can be steered in the right direction.

 

I have a 63" semi sleeper on my car trailer. I put it on by myself using a floor jack and blocks to reach the trailer bed height. I put a pair of 2x6 on the blocks and using some pipe rolled it into place on the trailer. I'm another old guy who out of necessity learned how to do many things alone

 

Mr. Bones , all my life my Buddies stay clear when I’m deep into a project . The favorite saying is “ he belongs in a cage , with a sign does not play well with others”!

 

Now if I could just figure how to get the tractor off the side of the hill that I almost rolled. It has been there a few years. Probably the closest I've come to killing my self. Well maybe not, but it was one of the closest.

 

Funny you should mention a tractor on the side of a hill. My friend worked for a company that cleared trees from right of ways, and they had a giraffe that had slid down hill and got hung up on a huge rock. No wrecker company would touch it. So I load my gear and put my 1968 Bronco on my trailer and travel an hour to retrieve it. When I got there the foreman asked me where was my equipment?When I pointed to my pto winch equipped Bronco he said I don’t think you brought enough truck! I said we’ll see.
I spent some time rigging my pulleys and straps to several trees and pulled that huge piece of equipment sideways up the hill!
After that every time that company got in a jamb, I got a call! You give me an anchor and I’ll pull the world side ways!
Here is a picture of some of my small stuff, my big stuff stays on the ranch!




Bones

 

And a giraffe is?

Ben

 

I hope it was still alive when retrieved and didn't break his neck...

 

It a big tree trimmer.

 

Thank you

Ben

 

Like most of what we do prep & setup is the key to success. I have the stuff but I'm having a hard time finding the will. Now if it was my only tractor I'd be more motivated. If the little JD crawler was running the Ford would be home.

 

Boneyard, nice assortment of pulleys and cables

 

More torque,,,,,,

 

Cushioned floor mats in front of bench:

My wife and daughter both replace their floor mats in front of their kitchen sinks. They use the really thick and soft mats. As I said they replace them occasionally. They give the old ones to me and I put them on the concrete floor in front of my shop bench. I now have several. The work bench and lathe bench are end to end and together are about 17 feet long.

Sure makes standing/working at the bench more comfortable.

 

Thank you! That is one of my many vises! I have collected several more since that photo! lol




Bones

 

Boneyard,

I'm getting a little jealous. Although I seldom need it I think I'll start collecting some of the stuff you have in that pic.

I occasionally get criticized for having some of my tools that rarely get used. I'd rather have a tool when I need it than need a tool I don't have. Even if it gets used only once in a blue moon.

 

I get calls all the time to pull things out. I pulled a huge stump out of my friends yard, actually two them with my 500 cc Polaris. The a week ago I pulled a tree down that I thoght was dead and endangering my house….come to find out it wasn’t completely dead and I pulled up a huge root ball with my Polaris!
Thanks , Dad, for teaching me this!




Bones

 

Damn Bones, Getting shit done like a real man is supposed to !

 

Had some issues with welding wire making a birds nest so I came up with this

 

spun aluminum bowl from a flat sheet on a lathe, using shaping tools...


Hello,

I was in my final two years of college, now down in Long Beach. My northern California college days were over and now I wanted to finish my education locally. Lucky for me, the college was high on a hill overlooking our teenage cruising grounds and it was like old home week…

But, it was a business to get things done like the final requirements for the degree. In the mean time, I had to take some elective classes to fill out the “well rounded” college kid aura of requirements. Most of my friends took business classes as electives. I opted for something more to my liking, with less instruction and more lab work. This case, the class was called Art Metal.

It was using all sorts of ideas, machinery and products for future artists and those of us with skills to create something out of nothing. My brother taught me well in the car universe. I applied it to my own hot rod explorations and was happy with the results. But art was there, just not explored as much as it should have been. I shaped the wooden forms on the same lathe to get each project started for the spinning aluminum form fitted shapes.

My first project was a spun aluminum candy dish bowl with some acid dipping patterns on the outside, once the metal was shaped. The design was applied with random strokes of rubber cement, with swirls and ovals to the aluminum surface. Then placed in an acid dip container for a few seconds or until the seasoned look was viewed.

With rounded edges and a few spin polishing on the buffer, it was a dish worthy of some great Christmas candy displays. My second project was still in the spun aluminum phase. We had always been associated with Moon Discs on my brother’s 51 Oldsmobile sedan.

So, my project was to make a couple of spun discs and put them inside of a homemade redwood/cedar thin strip wooden frame. It was to be displayed in our teenage, now older guy den walls instead of those old funky art frames.

Spinning the larger size of aluminum was not difficult, as I was prepared from spinning the small 8 inch diameter candy dish. Now, it was at least 15 inches in diameter from my stash of aluminum sheets purchased at our local, Douglas Aircraft Surplus Yard near the Long Beach Airport.

The set up on the custom wooden mold shape was simple enough, the tools were the same, and the large lathe was set up for the project. Care was taken to go slower due to the larger size of spinning aluminum sheet. Any odd or erratic touches instantly destroys the spinning shape and project.

Jnaki

Well, after a few destroyed 14-15 inch spinning discs, it was not as easy to make. Being a larger version of the thin, but smaller, candy dish had its problems or it was the shaper… me! Not to feel dismayed, I made several smaller candy dishes for gifts and saved the larger spinning discs, now, 8 to 10 inches of error free finished projects.

What about the larger 14-15 inch copy of the Moon Discs for my wall project? Well, two destroyed attempts and a row of nice candy dishes were turned over to see what they could have looked like as larger Moon Discs. So, I decided to buy a real Moon Disc for my wall display. Kudos to those Moon Machinists who crank out plenty of discs each year back then.

Mine were a nice try, but coming in second or none at all is never satisfying. At least I got some "ooohhs" and "aaahhs" at Christmas Morning when the acid dipped sides, shiny inside and out, candy dishes made the morning a little “brighter.” YRMV

 

Jackstrap

 

Hand Jackin ?

 

Plumbing parts are your friend.