What's everybody doing?

Mowing, trimming, piddling and working on the little garage some today.  I got the dozer blade situation done yesterday minus having to make a few more pivot flags.  All of the rods and springs are on the frames and the blades are bare.  It made for a little more room standing the blades up in rows.  The frames are also running down the right wall not as deep as before, only 5-6 deep, which made a lot more room in the center.  

A ladder in the floor finally got hung up, the hangers have been in the garage for about 15 years along with a lot of other hangers that will be put up next week inbetween other things.  I've wanted to do something about getting the wagon up against the wall for a long time when not in use making more floor space.  I came up with a simple solution in the pics below.  The slotted steel just raises up and swings to the side to get the wagon out.  Simple but effective.  

 

I took some time this week to finish up my nice shop fan.  It's quiet as a mouse and I can talk on the phone with it running which makes it nice.  It was running for a long time with the bottom cover off on the Frigidaire side where the filter grille is now.  With the filter grille on the bottom cover I could tell it wasn't drawing enough air, especially on high speed.  It has a 3 speed switch on it on the opposite side of the pics.  The time taken this week was to install another one on the opposite side.  That took care of the problem.  

The last 4 pics are when the first filter grille was installed on Sat 15 Mar 2025 according to the pic properties.  I can tell by the mess that's when the air compressor room was getting redone.  Can't believe that was almost 4 months ago, time flies whether your having fun or not lol.   

 

Had everything hooked up and ready to do steam cleaning at 8 this morning.  Hit the pump switch and the motor lagged then quit.  I thought oh not now when it's a customers tractor...   

I checked everything out and didn't see anything obvious so back in the shop it went.  I got it up on the forklift and started tearing it apart and checking things.   The main switch and contactor were good and working, the start and run capacitors were getting power, pulled the start and run capacitors and they measured perfect.   I took the motor loose and I thought it may be the reset switch when I decided to check the connections in the motor for fun.  When I took the plate off I saw they had 2-14 gauge wires for hot and ground wired with the small orange wire nuts meant for much smaller wire.  Sure enough, the ground wire got pushed back and was barely in the wire nut when they built the unit.  The nut was burnt up and the wire was melted in two from the bad connection.  I stripped it back and put the correct yellow 12 gauge wire nuts on them then put it all back together and now it works great again.  I can't believe it lasted so many years the way it was.  I guess we'll try it again Monday morning.     

 

Had some real nice peeps in from Ohio most of the day today.  I knew I wouldn't get a whole lot done today but I got one thing I've been meaning to do for awhile done.  I'm constantly messing with my flag pole, tangled up, broken rope, and broken plastic holders.  I found some aluminum collars on Amazon that allow the flag to spin and had metal carabiners.  Now it will be more trouble free, except I need to straighten up the pole..  

Old glory flies here again. 

 

The world came to a stop today.     I do laundry on Sundays and as soon as the washer started it sounded like a box of rocks then quit.  Of course it got all the clothes wet first so I put them in a basket and thought tomorrow is another day.  I bought the washer and dryer set from Lowes and they had a promo for free pedestals at the time.  They were $1000.00 delivered when I bought them.  I looked at new washer prices and thought no thanks for a bunch of more expensive made in China stuff. 

It's a Whirlpool Duet front loader and has been pretty good for 18 years old.  I got the washer in the shop and tore it apart today and it looks like it was only the belt making all the noise.  It also had more vibration than it should so the shocks are getting replace as well.  I really wanted to save this because it is a much better machine, almost everything says made in Mexico including the model info and most of the parts.  The belt was made in Brazil, shocks were made in Germany.  Everyone in reviews aren't happy with the newer Duet series made in China, of course... 

Parts will be here Wed for a grand total of $74.00 for the belt, 4 shocks, and 2 new steel braided supply hoses with new filter screens.  I can live with that.    

My unit has 3 shocks, replacement sets are 4.  If you look at the 3rd pic closely there is a spot for a 4th shock behind the module and in the tub as well.  There are also slots to move the module forward to another set of slots to be able to use the 4th shock.  The wiring will have to be moved around and the rear panel safety switch wire will have to be lengthened so I'm gonna look into that tomorrow.  If I can get another shock in there it will be even better than new.  

 

Washer is done and back in the house.  I ran it through a high speed (70mph) spin cycle in the shop and it works like new.  One more thing fixed.   

 

I was running low on chrome lugnuts and they had a deal on a box of 100 so I ordered them.  When they came in I thought, there's no way there's 100 lugnuts in that little box.  I was right, there were 101 of them in there...   

Instead of putting them in the Fastenal bins bulk I'm gonna put these lugnuts, locks, and bolts together and bag them in 10 packs, that way peeps don't have to wait while I get out all the bulk parts when they come in and buy a set.  There are still more bulk in the bins but I'll get them out for me when I need them for a repair or restore.  

Got a few things done today that needed to be done for awhile.  Replaced the control valve on the steam cleaner that turns the pump + burner on and off when you pull the trigger on the gun that went bad, cleaned a terribly nasty air purifier, finished the 10 tractor stud kits and put them up, mowed, and a dozen other little things that needed to be finished up.  It seems like new things need to be done every day whether work, finding new parts, ordering and stocking parts and supplies coming in, organizing, things needing to be fixed, cleaning, making space, etc, etc, etc.   I'm trying to do better but it doesn't stay quiet around here for very long.  I need a vacation...  

 

Did some more steam cleaning yesterday.  Started around 10AM and had to quit about 2pm, it was over 100 in the lot with little wind and it wore me out.  Another cart of parts are clean and ready for blasting, dad's old 314-8 and Clipper got a clean up as well.  Dad's 314 will be the new hill mower so it has the tires and nice Wheel Horse seat off of my 312-A (the old hill mower) on it already.  

 

Got all the parts put up from the steaming the other day and 2 more carts are cleared and put in the back.  Now there's more floor space where I work, I'll take all the space I can get.  

A bunch of Wheel Horse 7473 belts will be here tomorrow so Bob's 414-8 should be wrapped up tomorrow and it will be on to the next projects on the never ending list.  

Also been selling some stuff on CL.  Best thing was someone picked up one of my 275 gallon diesel tanks that was taking up a lot of space in the lot.  I could use a lot more room out there too.