What's everybody doing?

Came out here this afternoon to do some updates to the site and finish up the steering lower support jig.  It came out perfect and lined up perfect on the mill so I thought I would do the worst one here.  I had a 13/16" mill bit but didn't notice until I went to chuck it up that it had been ground down to 3/4"  

I ordered one today that should be here Monday so I guess I'll try it out then.  The same bushing that will be used for the upper steering shaft fits the lower front steering shaft perfect, so snug that it holds the 3/4" brake shaft in when suspended.  It is the same size as the original bushing, just easier to put it in and made from better material.  This is a split bushing and can be put in easily with one finger, is self lubricating, far superior, and cost less than half of the high dollar Toro bushing.  So far nothing could have gone better on this little project.   

 

What a crazy week so far, I'll give more info later but it's after 7pm by my time, I don't switch times you know...  

Completely rebuilt Wheel Horse steering supports are now available and in stock, only at the Stables.   

I made some another guide for checking basic centering and also made a depth gauge.  I managed to do 4 of the steering supports today.  Everything worked perfect on the 1st one, so since everything was set up I did 3 more just to have 4 in stock and ready to go for now.  They are snug enough they hold the 3/4" brake shaft I cut down even when mounted upside down, it's in the second to last pic.  They are actually better than new (now discontinued or NLA) or NOS.  The bushings I'm using should never wear out in this application, but even if they wore for some reason they are both replaceable now, and with no tools needed, they can be done by hand.  

 

Had to put on the plumbers hat today and do some plumbing work.  The plan is to get water to the other end of the building to the big overhead main shop door.  There is a full kitchen in the back and the main shutoff was a little hard to get to so I cut the main, added another main shutoff (bottom horizontal one in pic), then put a tee in it and added another shutoff (top vertical one in pic) for the new water line run. 

The new water line will follow under the galvanized air line (right above water spigot in pic) all the way to the front of the shop.  Everything new going to the other end of the shop will be done in PEX so it will be pretty easy and I already have a 100' roll of it here.  Water on the front side of the shop will make things really nice and will make it a lot easier to hook up the steamer and run it closeby or right outside the door if need be.  There was already a 150' auto rewind hose reel in the back so it will be moved to somewhere near the front side of the shop as well.  Getting closer to one more thing off the list that's been on there a long time...  

 

Spent Sat doing some cleaning and getting ready for the next restore, it will be the biggest one so far I think.  It's being delivered from Dallas Texas this morning or early afternoon.  It will definitely be one that goes from the ugliest to the prettiest lol.  I'll start a post on it in the Restoration section when it gets here and settled in.   

I got the mule drive pallet out Sat as well, I only found 1 bad one and one that's iffy, all the rest of them were good.  I think I have enough to use some good ones for the front hitches made here.  I didn't think they would go over so well so I need to be ready...  

 

My friend Kevin was here Saturday and brought me a Christmas present for the new water line run.  It's a nice Vevor 5/8 auto rewind hose reel.  We went on and ran the PEX to it, pulled a piece of interior metal off the wall, and put a few 2x6's in the wall to mount it to.  It was working by the end of the day.  It's nice having water in an easy to get to spot in the middle of the shop.  The next plan is to take my 130' auto rewind hose reel and put it near the door above the wood rack.  I may plumb it someday but the Vevor reel can be run to feed the 130' for now.  That will get me to a lot of places in the lot and around the shop, and I can run the steam cleaner right outside the door.  

The Air Horse is mostly figured out, it's coming off of the forklift tomorrow and I'll get back to it after Andres comes up here to look things over with me.  Bob is bringing his 414-8 this Wed afternoon I worked on in August for round 2.  The main thing it's getting is one of the 14HP Magnums I checked out a few months ago along with some other things.  His had the motor that was leaking oil through a pin hole in the center of the block casting on the front side that can't be accessed.  

 

Got done a little early today, yay.  It's almost 6 Eastern time but it's almost 7 Geno time, as I said before I don't change my clocks because someone says so...  

Bob's 414 is coming along well, there's a new post in his topic.  I have some peeps coming in Monday to do some trading on a newer short frame (65-69 style) in the lot for a round hood they have.  Will give more details and some pics on that next week.  Looking forward to a day off, it's been a super busy week, happy weekend all.  

Last week was crazy but thank goodness it's nice and quiet this morning.  My friend Kev was here last Sat and we got started on some work on his C120.  He's had it a long time and restored it way before we met over 7 years ago.  We actually met because he needed a hydro transmission and frame for a tractor he had back then and found me on CL I think.  It came up to be rewired but the steering was worn out so we found another nice upper and lower steering shaft for it and rebuilt the steering block with new bushings like we're doing now.  We did so much extra stuff that the wiring didn't get finished and it was pretty late so he left it here until he comes back in 2 weeks.

The steering is tight as new now and the engine wiring is done.  Everything is being done as all new wiring a custom harness in 1 piece, no connections just like factory minus the engine disconnect wasn't factory but should have been.  We added the disconnect for the engine in case it ever needs to come off, that took a lot of time to rerun every wire on it while fixing other little things along the way but it's gonna be really nice when finished.  

We usually go like the wind minus our customary long good lunch somewhere (China buffet in Frankfort this time) and I don't usually get pics because we work late.  I got these pics this morning because it was still here...  

 

The test bench was redone a few months ago but the 20+ year old CD player + EQ were acting up.  Maybe it's from the 20+ years of dust in there...  They can be cleaned up with contact cleaner but I thought it may be time to upgrade.

As a lot of you know my tunes in the back are a priority for me so I took some time today to install a new setup that came in last week.  This one is a 10.1" Android I think that does everything one would imagine.  I know most of you have cell phones that do all this stuff but this is new to me.  From the description it is a "10.1 Inch HD Carplay Screen for Car with 720P Touchscreen, Double Din Car Stereo, 8-Core Processor, Backup Camera, 64GB Storage,GPS Navigation, USB Ports, Quick Reverse"  What I was most interested in was the WiFi, I just connected it to the shop wireless network and everything works.  There are also about 15 screens of EQ settings, DSP, surround sound, etc, so I didn't need the old 5 band anymore.  If the internet goes out I still have a radio, USB ports, and a few other options on there to keep the tunes going.  

I used the Google Chrome browser and had ads scrolling and flashing and pop-ups everywhere...     I put Firefox on it and as you can see in the pics (3rd pic is Google, 4th is Firefox) of my internet radio page they are all gone.  I don't know how peeps live without Firefox and all the cool add-ons.  

I need to find a theme I like and do some customizing to it but all I really need for now is my tunes, it is kinda nice to have a browser back there too.  That stuff will have to wait till later, too much work to do now.  

 

Geno wrote:

The test bench was redone a few months ago but the 20+ year old CD player + EQ were acting up.  Maybe it's from the 20+ years of dust in there...  They can be cleaned up with contact cleaner but I thought it may be time to upgrade.

As a lot of you know my tunes in the back are a priority for me so I took some time today to install a new setup that came in last week.  This one is a 10.1" Android I think that does everything one would imagine.  I know most of you have cell phones that do all this stuff but this is new to me.  From the description it is a "10.1 Inch HD Carplay Screen for Car with 720P Touchscreen, Double Din Car Stereo, 8-Core Processor, Backup Camera, 64GB Storage,GPS Navigation, USB Ports, Quick Reverse"  What I was most interested in was the WiFi, I just connected it to the shop wireless network and everything works.  There are also about 15 screens of EQ settings, DSP, surround sound, etc, so I didn't need the old 5 band anymore.  If the internet goes out I still have a radio, USB ports, and a few other options on there to keep the tunes going.  

I used the Google Chrome browser and had ads scrolling and flashing and pop-ups everywhere...  

  I put Firefox on it and as you can see in the pics (3rd pic is Google, 4th is Firefox) of my internet radio page they are all gone.  I don't know how peeps live without Firefox and all the cool add-ons.  

I need to find a theme I like and do some customizing to it but all I really need for now is my tunes, it is kinda nice to have a browser back there too.  That stuff will have to wait till later, too much work to do now.  

Nice setup..me just old school.
 

Old school is a good school lol.