What's everybody doing?

I had someone coming from about 6 hours North today to make a throttle cable for a D160.  Something went south with their trailer lights not long after they started this way so we have to reschedule.  That means I got to play some hooky today.  

I had time to replace the main power switch in my test bench Power Management Center that was acting up for awhile (red button on the right), make some new and improved Wheel Horse transmission stands, and some other little things.  I made the old stands well over 10 years ago and they worked but were too big, harder to clamp down, and took up too much space in the tool box drawer.  I'll put the transmission stand building in the Home Made Tools section next week.  Since everything on the iron worker was set up for them I made 5 and an extra pattern for the hole punch so I never have to measure them again.  It never fails when I build something custom like this peeps want to buy them so I'm ready this time.  I may even put them in the WHS section next week in a post so peeps see that we will sell them.   

 

I think this has been the busiest week all this year.  Not getting lunch for a few days and working till almost bedtime, time to put the brakes on this working too much again.  

I had some peeps in from Warsaw Indiana (about 6 hours North of here) yesterday to make a throttle cable for a D-160 and a few other things.  Of course it turned out to be a little more as usual but they are all fixed up and were headed back home by 4pm...  I started this post before 9am and here it is lunchtime, as soon as I started it I had someone in that wants to do a lot of work walk in the door, where are all these peeps coming from lol.  

Anyway,,,  when I get a minute I'm trying to do some maint and changing around on my test bench.  I don't do all this audio stuff anymore so I'm taking a lot of the system out of the bench for testing and inserting amplifiers, head units and the like out of the bench.  It will do away with all the extra connections that are starting to become unstable.  I use the bench mostly for good sound in the shop now and just testing 12 volt stuff.  I'm also trying to get all the soon to be 31 year old panels wrapped in silver carbon fiber so it looks new again.  It's been 2 weeks and I haven't got far because of work...  

Someone brought me some wheels to clean up that I took some pics of.  It's amazing what my blaster with the aluminum shot can do on aluminum wheels.  I need to try to keep that a secret so I don't end up doing more of that though...  

 

I had someone that called last Friday that wanted to buy my last 275 gallon diesel tank on CL.  He showed up Sat morning and picked it up.  I was happy about getting more space in the parking lot with them gone now.  

My friend Kevin was here last Sat so we did a few different things.  We did a little work on his Kubota, and he finished up the cosmetic things on the new house mini splits.  I took the pic this morning, they look really nice now.  

 While we were out for lunch there were some messages I noticed after he left.  One was from Jeremy that I restored the 753 for awhile back and he bought one of the Wheel Horse trucks I had.  He's bringing the rolling chassis for it so I can go through the rearend, put all the fancy stuff on it we do here, put another engine on it, redo the jack shaft and lengthened part of the frame, and blast everything and paint it.  He's also bringing 3 more tractors and a bunch of parts he accumulated over the 40 years his family has sitting around from when they were Wheel Horse dealers.  He wants all this extra stuff out of his way.  Not sure what all he has or where it will all go but it's free so I'll take it...  

Another message was someone selling a 314-8 that was only about 45 mins away.  It's a 60th anniversary tractor so it's a 1996.  It runs good but needs some work.  The price was right so I paid asking price and offered an extra $50 if he brought it to me so he brought it up this morning.  So much for the extra space in the lot but I just can't help myself...  

 

Someone else found out about the winch hitch and trailer mount receivers made here and wanted me to make them.  He also wanted to use it on his Polaris side by side, and wanted a long pin so it was easy to mount a snow plow blade when the hitch was not in use.  The long pin was easy (1st pic) and I figured it wouldn't take long to make the winch mounts so I agreed to make them.  The winch bolt holes were too close to straddle the 2" receiver tube so I put it in the mill and slotted the holes a little to move them over.  After that I got ready to make a plate and test fit the tube to the mount that goes on the Polaris and that's where the trouble began...  From now on I'll check all this made in China garbage first.  

The new tube and a good hitch wouldn't even fit in the receiver for the Polaris.  I had a really old one that was pretty rusty and after blasting it years ago I guess it was a little smaller and barely fit.   Even though it fit it wouldn't go deep enough to put the pin in (2nd pic).  I figured I could go on and make the winch plate and at least get it done, then make the trailer mount.  Wrong again...     The winch factory mount plate isn't wide enough to mount without spacing it up because the winch cable plate is in the way and they need to be flat up against each other or something will bend.  I'm still getting paid for my work so far even though we need another winch, and the receiver on the Polaris mount needs to be cut out and replaced.  This is gonna become an expensive job to fix but it's not my problem.  Sometimes I have to remind peeps their problems aren't my problem, I just get paid to fix their problems lol. 



 

Been playing with the 3 newer 314s lately, (made a post in the Wheel Horse Tractor section this morning about them), and doing more work on the test bench in between other things and after work.  I'm gonna bring the old test bench redo post back to life and continue it there.  I've been redoing the main testing section, it needs a little TLC and updating after 35 years of service, I built it in 1990.  I had it on a work bench at dad's place in his shop where I did misc work back then.  

Also trying to get things done and ready before cold weather comes in.  It will be here before we know it...  At least all of the new mini splits are in and done, I hate the cold most of all.  

The test bench redo is done and working like new again.  I use it a lot and it's also nice to have one more thing off the list.   My friend Kevin is coming up this weekend and we'll be doing a ton of moving and rearranging around here, some in the shop but mostly in the lot to make more room.  He's bringing his Kubota up as well and with both of our Kubota's we should get most of it done.  Everything already behind the shop will be fenced in a smaller area and the main way back there will be between the shop and 4 car garage.  A lot of things from the lot will be moving out back in the new fenced in area that will hopefully be done this weekend, maybe...  

It's time to get the shop cleared out and get ready for what I call restoration season.  It is mainly in the Fall and Winter months around here when peeps don't need them.  There are already quite a few scheduled and I need room in the shop because most of them are here longer term than Spring and Summer work.    

 

My friend Kevin was here Sat and we worked on the rearranging all day, minus the pizza buffet of course.     I still have more to do but everything that was easier with 2 people is done.  Snow blowers and the big spray tanks are out back on concrete pads, Black Hoods are on the trailer that was empty, and the rest is all over the place but the cars are lined up and will be able to be closeby on blacktop until they are sold.  Everything else can be easily moved with the forklift.  A lot of it is going on the empty trailer in the first pics that the T-bird was on.

I had peeps in this morning then it got too hot to get out there so I'll start on the lot maybe in the morning if all is quiet.  

 

Things are going good outside but it has been hot hot out there, over 100 in the lot every day with pretty much no wind.  I spent all day out there Tues, all afternoon yesterday, and a few hours this morning.  I haven't took any pics yet waiting until it's done, at least peeps can get in and out better now.  One more day will get it all done but that will have to wait till next week when it cools down some.  

During the rearranging yesterday I decided to take the belt guards and stirrups off of the 5 short frames I had left to move.  They're hard to move with the forklift going in from the side with those on, they keep trying to slide of toward the rearend side, a real pain sometimes.  I have one more to do in the shop in the morning and I'll do the rest later.  All the decks and mule drives are off the tractors in the lot and taken apart so I can throw away bad belts, pulleys, etc.  3 more in the last pic are going back outside tomorrow, the 3-314's are all done and went outside this morning.

Working in the shop now to get things cleared out for the restores coming.  One will be here Sat morn around 10AM so tomorrow will be a lot of making room in the shop.  At least I will be cool most of the day tomorrow.  

 

Everything is ready for the first Fall restore this year coming at 10AM tomorrow from Bloomington, IN.  Only about 3 or so hours away.  It will be in the restoration section so they and others can follow along.  

A lot of stuff was taken back out of the shop from all the parting stuff.  I didn't realize but it has been over 5-1/2 months since that all started on March 29 when it all started being moved up here.  That took a lot of stuff off the list but I've been going non stop with parting, rearranging, organizing, work, and everything else going on around here...     The restores coming will be more like a vacation.  

Moving a few other things made a big difference.  The pipe bender went to the other side of the 2 post rack, the big Grizzly brake works in the front of the truck on the rack, metal was moved up against the wall under the wall cabinets, the pics explain it all.  The back was full of tractors and up against the benches, wall, and tool boxes.  You had to climb over them to get to anything.  The iron worker also got moved back about 5" so now I can actually drive a tractor to the back without going under the rack.  After mopping I forgot how the place should look so doing a lot of the rest of it is on the list for next week.  It's been a loooong time since I cleaned the floor...    

 

The drive got some patchwork and resealed today so no one will be able to get up here until Monday or so.  

Sorry about the smiley above but I could use a little break and just work on what's in the shop.