so waht ya doin today?

[JonB]

I've never chainsawed utility poles...So I gotta ask for the details why the chain dulls.

Is it due to the years of dust/sand/soil that has blown on/into the wood and held in place by the creosote?
OR
Is it due to friction/heat created by the creosote soaked wood?
Because if it's not dust/sand/soil, it seems that some kind of cheap light oil, like used automotive engine oil, could be liberally squirted into the Cut area while cutting (by someone not running the chainsaw).

I have cut up trees in flood plain areas, where the wood get's coated with silt each year and ends up incorporated into the wood. I haven't found a solution to dull chains from cutting that wood.

 

[Rick]

It's the creosote, stuff is worse on the teeth of the chain than the chain is on the wood. It does gum up the chain and bar but worse is how fast and how badly it dulls the chain.

 

[Ian]

Similar to Jon I was thinking an aerosol can of WD-40 or penetrating oil to help deal with gum, but it must be the mineral base of the creosote that's the issue. I've seen places where the crude comes right up out of the ground and leaves dried beds of glassy, black stuff like lava but minus any porosity. That stuff would be brutal on a chain.

 

[KeithB]

Years ago I cut the end off of four railroad ties that the wife wanted to use around a garden bed. After burning up one chainsaw blade on a 12" electric chain saw I made wife squirt kerosene (or maybe it was turpentine) on the cut with a squirt bottle. Helped some but cutting creosote saturated anything is an ugly process.

 

[Brad]

My dad used a Skil saw and a cheap carbide tooth blade with very few teeth. Did t cut real fast but it didn’t gum up fast either. Lots of shallow cuts.

 

[Rick]

It does gum up the bar but far worse is that it dulls the teeth, leaves you with feeling like the chain is using butter knives. The gummed up bar makes the engine work much harder also as does using a chain far duller than you could imagine.

I've got a friend who spent his career putting in new poles for the phone company. He must have had plenty of need to cut the poles I would think. I'll see if I can get an answer from him on what they used.

 

[462]

Shot the .38 Special Uberti 1866 (Yellow Boy), and it's still preferring Sierra's 125 and 158-grain JHCs to either of the Lee 158-grainers -- respectable groups versus embarrassingly large patterns. Also, both jacketed bullets shoot to point of aim, while both cast bullets shoot 6" to 8" right of it.

Finished cleaning the windows, and mounted the second of the paired LED motion-detecting security lights. The lights are quite spiffy, in that if one is triggered its mate turns on.

 

[L Ross]

Once again, too busy to get any shooting in. Throw in some off and on rain and the day, while productive, just sort of melted away. I had taken my Winter wheels and tires off my F-150 earlier in the month. I finally found time to take a can of chrome cleaner and a rag and give them a good polish. Then hoist them up on the forks of the tractor to store them in the pole shed loft. Blended composted Yak manure into the raised beds. Pulled down two wren houses, cleaned them out, trimmed some white birch limbs and put the bird houses back up. Used the back blade to regrade the drive way. Then put a 6' section of fine drag behind the ATV and knocked down the darned mole humps in the yard and then the 22 silhouette range. My wife ran the yard roller over the dragged areas and the yard looks pretty good. She also hauled several Ranger loads of downed branches from both the yard and the range. Got one of the JD lawn mowers going and mowed the part of the 22 range that grows the fastest. Went to a local classic car restoration shop to interview and meet the shop foreman. He made a good impression and I scheduled some work.
Finally some time now for bourbon and Brewers baseball on TV. I have less than a month until our annual 22 BPCR rules silhouette and Boy's Rifle 22 Matches that we host here at Thorn Hollow. I always have a lot of prep to do on the range, the rails, the targets, get the house ready for guests. Every year I plan on getting in some actual practice before the shoot and usually never find the spare time.

 

[Ian]

Well....at least you did something with your day! Sheesh, I couldn't get that much done in a week. All I did was work nine hours, wrestle three rolls of used, free high-tensile game fence from our neighbor at work onto my trailer, come home and unload it, then clean/vacuum the pantry and living room.

 

[fiver]

I got the jalapeno's that come up from seed thinned out and transplanted into some bigger containers.
then promptly knocked half of them on the floor.
I don't really like Jalapeno's so I was planning on keeping them in some planting soil to help them have a more mellow flavor.
meh I still have 5 more than I need.
got the flower box for the climbing plants built, used some old grass and needles off the cedar tree to line the bottom and the frame for the trellis is almost done.
should be able to fill, plant, and finish it in about an hour once I get the parts.


AHH.
got my sawz-all back.
the Dentist down on the corner seen it out in the street and picked it up.
he dropped it off today after pulling some ones molar.
it's slightly scuffed, and the cover to the safety button got knocked off, but other than that it's fine.
now I got 2 tool kits.. LOL.
think I like the older 20 volt kit better than the 24 volt kit.

 

[CZ93X62]

Sawz-alls are right handy critters to have, for certain.

 

[uncle jimbo]

Got the lawn mower tractor out and was getting it ready. Only to find out that not only is the battery in poor condition but the starter drags bad. When I put it away last year I knew the battery was going bad but the started got me. So I spent most of the day rebuilding the starter for the lawn tractor, cleaned up some of the shut-off switches on the mower deck, back-up gear selector and seat. Sharpened the blades and got them back on. Still need to buy a battery and some oil for a oil change tomorrow. Then I can mow the lawn. The job I hate the most.
Smoked half a salmon also today. it was a good dinner tonight.

 

[Bret4207]

Speaking of cordless tools, youse guys recall me mentioning someone ought to invent adapters that allow us to use brand A battery on brand B tool? It's been done! Was looking for stuff on Ebay yesterday and ran across this- https://www.ebay.com/itm/20V-MAX-To...ITA/273789625789?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144 That one does Porter Cable to Makita, but I saw others for other brands. Also found a $14 charger for my PC stuff. The factory charger I couldn't locate for under $50, so I'll probably try it. I have 8 or 10 batteries for the PC and several tools. I also found PC batteries running like 2 for $20 so I will probably risk it.

Spent yesterday busting my butt and brain. Biggest issue was trying to budget out X amount of dollars for Y amount of projects. As luck would have it I found not one but TWO Honda Trail 90's for sale locally! Burns my biscuits, but they are going to have to go to someone else, unless I run into a pot of gold. I had the 55ci version in my teens and have been sort of looking for years for a replacement. Such is life. I need a roof on my machine shed more than a toy. Did get the seals ordered for the JD420 crawler dozer lift cylinders. I will have one set of proper Mother Deere seals and I'll get a local hydraulic shop to match up the 2nd set I need. From what I understand you can usually get the seals needed for about $35 bucks. Mother Deere gets $118 and change. I will dutifully record the part#'s and post them on a JD crawler forum I belong to. No one else seems to have thought of doing this. They will be here at our local JD construction dealer this AM. Also have to pick up some cage flooring for the rabbits and birds at TSC and some turkey poults. Our local TSC is having a problem getting rid of the poults they have and must have done some sales talk to the wife and kids the other day. So this will be Turkey poults V 2.0 for us. The first 6 we tried pretty much starved to death because we couldn't teach them how to drink or eat. Later I was told the solution is to put half a dozen chicks in with the poults. The chicks will teach the poults to eat and drink through imitation. Domestic turkeys are a far, far cry from their wild relatives!

Had to search out some tires for the front of a couple of my tractors. In the good old days you could go to a local farm tire store and walk out with brand new, mounted fronts with tubes for under $40 each, and they were GOOD tires. Now the farm tire store is long gone, good tires are few and far between and the cost for them is 5 times what it was. So, Ebay to the rescue again. Found what I need for just 2x what I used to pay and I get to buy the tubes and mount them. No the aren't Firestones or Michelins, but I bet they hold air better than the ones that spilt down the middle on me. One tire I fixed the other day has a slow leak again. Got to be a thorn or wire in the tire someplace. I can't find it from the inside or outside. In desperation I pumped some Slime "flat fixer" in there. They tell me that stuff is nothing but shredded paper and antifreeze mixed up in the right proportions. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Also got ahold of a local Amish guy to help with some foundation and roofing work. he owes me, so maybe that will help with the cost. Finally found some door parts I've been looking for for a couple years. Funny how sometimes you just start running into the stuff you need all in a bunch like that. Got that stuff mounted. When looking for youngest son and found him cleaning his room- voluntarily. That's just weird! Needed him to
assist in getting round bales out to stock. Found out that we used bales in the wrong order over the winter, so now were have a muddy, rutted mess to fix when the fields dry a bit. Should have used them up in the reverse order then we did. I must have some flat rock someplace here I can store them on.

Todays planned activities include crawling around in the mud under a D4, hopefully getting a backhoe moved, ripping out some fence and laundry.

 

[L Ross]

Well....at least you did something with your day! Sheesh, I couldn't get that much done in a week. All I did was work nine hours, wrestle three rolls of used, free high-tensile game fence from our neighbor at work onto my trailer, come home and unload it, then clean/vacuum the pantry and living room.

Sounds like you got more than a full day's work done yourself! Every busy person also knows that nothing ever goes smoothly and as planned.

 

[fiver]

half the time I don't even finish the project I planned on starting.
I get half the tools out and run into something else that needs done first.

I got to thinking about some of my seedlings getting a bit leggy on me.
it's pretty obvious a window facing east and a giant cedar tree blocking the sun 2 hours after sunrise was pretty much my problem.
but that's my only option as far as placement goes.
so an artificial light is in order, but me being somewhat cheap I decided I was not going to buy one.
so first I built a little frame from some scraps of 1x2 and 2x2 and hung some reflective paper stuff i got in a box on that.
that seemed to work pretty good until I got so many seedlings they were too far away.
I could tell by how the plants were all bending toward the reflected light.
so I started shuffling the plants in a circle which sort of worked but it takes like 2 hours to remove and replace them all.
then I got to thinking about things and done some research into what the plants need as far as light waves go.
fluorescent light ain't perfect but between them and the reflected sunlight there is enough light waves of the proper color and length to do the job.
so I ended up getting one bulb at the far blue end of the spectrum and one at the far end of the yellow/red spectrum and took down one of my shop lights and rigged in a board to hang it from.
now all of my plants are going up instead of sideways.
I'm going to watch them to see if they are gonna try going up too fast, and maybe add in another piece of reflective material on the other side, to see if that helps if they do.
seems like a lot of trouble to go through for a bunch of plants I'm going to sacrifice at least half of in the next month.

 

[JonB]

Fiver,
It's pretty inexpensive to build your own grow lights using LED grow strips ...and the LED's don't use much electricity.
Using a 5 meter roll (like in the link), I built 3, each one provides enough light for one flat.
I scrounged some 12 volt transformers, they need to be 2 amps for each flat (1/3 of a 5 meter roll).

 

[fiver]

I haven't quite put together how LED's work for grow lights just yet.
I can buy them as shop lights super cheap here, like maybe 2$ more than just the Florescent bulbs actually.
but I don't get how they put out the proper wavelength of light for the plants.

 

[S Mac]

#2 for the season, a twin to the first. I'm done, almost too early.

 

[JonB]

While I can't explain "why" they put the red and blue LED's in a strip and call it a grow light (I figure someone must have done the research?)
BUT, I can say, I have used a standard Florescent shop light for many years, until three years ago, when I built the LED grow lights I use now, exclusively. I think I get better results with the LEDs, than I did with a standard Florescent shop light (My veggie farmer friend has used standard Florescents for 20+ years in his starting room.
I have no idea about the white LED shop lights and how they work for plants.

 

[Ian]

Nice bird, SMac!