so waht ya doin today?
- Thread starter fiver
- Start date
462
California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Didn't mean any disrespect, Ian.
It's just that this pre-geezerhood guy remembers his long ago shade-tree mechanic days, and how easy it was to work on pre-80s cars.
Back in my Air Force days and stationed in the Mojave desert, I had need to drop the '68 Midget's oil pan. I drove off the shoulder of an unused, washboarded desert dirt road, dug a trench, drove the car over it, dropped the pan and made the repair.
Today, I don't know where Ford hid the oil filter on my wife's 2010 Escape. I still change my '95 4WD F-150's oil and filter, but for the life of my can't figure out a way to change the passenger side's back two spark plugs.
I agree that dealing with today's public causes stress, and is one of the reasons why I called it quits as early as I did. I think the death of the small Mom and Pop businesses, and their replacements by Big Corporate's big boxes, helped create the Customer From Hell.
It's just that this pre-geezerhood guy remembers his long ago shade-tree mechanic days, and how easy it was to work on pre-80s cars.
Back in my Air Force days and stationed in the Mojave desert, I had need to drop the '68 Midget's oil pan. I drove off the shoulder of an unused, washboarded desert dirt road, dug a trench, drove the car over it, dropped the pan and made the repair.
Today, I don't know where Ford hid the oil filter on my wife's 2010 Escape. I still change my '95 4WD F-150's oil and filter, but for the life of my can't figure out a way to change the passenger side's back two spark plugs.
I agree that dealing with today's public causes stress, and is one of the reasons why I called it quits as early as I did. I think the death of the small Mom and Pop businesses, and their replacements by Big Corporate's big boxes, helped create the Customer From Hell.
358156 hp
At large, whereabouts unknown.
Long ago I had an 86 Bronco II and the heater core started leaking on me. I pulled it into the shop after hours to tackle it, and the Shop Foreman came over to antagonize me a bit. He looked under the hood, and told me not to touch it. He grabbed a screwdriver and had the old heater core out in about five minutes, and the new one installed in about another three minutes or so. His reason for wanting to do it himself was pretty simple. He was a gut who had been around a long time, and when he saw how easy this was going to be, he wanted just once in his life to be able to replace a heater core without blowing the dash apart and working until midnight to finish it. It was a point of honor for him I guess. I honestly was refilling the cooling system withing ten minutes of Darrell walking over to annoy me.
358156 hp
At large, whereabouts unknown.
And now the big box stores are dying off as a result of centralized consumer purchasing on the internet. We've lost our Radio Shacks, Sears & Shopko stores here in the last year or so. Soon the only things you'll be able to buy locally will be things like perishable groceries and auto parts. More eggs in fewer baskets..... delivered to your door!
'81 Ford 2wd,300 inline 6 shoptruck;
Under the hood,take a die grinder and whiz wheel and cut through the cover. RR the heater core in about 15 minutes. Grab a pce of sheet metal,shear it an inch or so oversize,RTV and a handful of "pop" rivets..... go drink beer.
Best shoptruck I ever had. Bought it with 100k miles,put in new lifters(about as easy as the heater core)change the oil every once in awhile..... used "remanufactured" oil no less...got 300k miles on it and gave it away.
Under the hood,take a die grinder and whiz wheel and cut through the cover. RR the heater core in about 15 minutes. Grab a pce of sheet metal,shear it an inch or so oversize,RTV and a handful of "pop" rivets..... go drink beer.
Best shoptruck I ever had. Bought it with 100k miles,put in new lifters(about as easy as the heater core)change the oil every once in awhile..... used "remanufactured" oil no less...got 300k miles on it and gave it away.
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Thanks for the well wishes. It was a nice day.
I'm not all that sorry to see the "mom and pops" go. The vast majority of those places I dealt with were very limited in selection, outrageously priced and not at all interested in doing anything different than they'd done it for 40 years or more. Often they were nearby, but that was their only good point. The good ones were rare, but an exception. The big box type places that came in had far better pricing, worlds better choices and you could get credit to finish a job. Now we order a lot of stuff from the internet, but is that really all that different from when we ordered all our stuff from Sears, Montgomery Wards, Speigel, Gander Mt, Cabelas, specialty tool houses, etc? We still have wally world, just like we had the discount stores in my youth and for the nicer stuff you shop on line. Doesn't matter if it's 1969 or 2019, I still can't afford the real nice stuff brand new no matter what, so I don't see it changing all that much. The biggest change is having to pay sales tax on internet purchases.
Raining hard here.
Ian, your photo illustrates why I got out of professional body work and why I hate working on newer cars!
I'm not all that sorry to see the "mom and pops" go. The vast majority of those places I dealt with were very limited in selection, outrageously priced and not at all interested in doing anything different than they'd done it for 40 years or more. Often they were nearby, but that was their only good point. The good ones were rare, but an exception. The big box type places that came in had far better pricing, worlds better choices and you could get credit to finish a job. Now we order a lot of stuff from the internet, but is that really all that different from when we ordered all our stuff from Sears, Montgomery Wards, Speigel, Gander Mt, Cabelas, specialty tool houses, etc? We still have wally world, just like we had the discount stores in my youth and for the nicer stuff you shop on line. Doesn't matter if it's 1969 or 2019, I still can't afford the real nice stuff brand new no matter what, so I don't see it changing all that much. The biggest change is having to pay sales tax on internet purchases.
Raining hard here.
Ian, your photo illustrates why I got out of professional body work and why I hate working on newer cars!
KeithB
Resident Half Fast Machinist
Going to try to fix the solenoid air valve on our CNC mill today. It triggers to blow air through he spindle to keep chips out during a tool change. It has been sticking open and won't shut off, which causes a fault and shuts down the machine during the tool change cycle. This requires a lot of work to manually move the tool changer into the right position to allow for a safe restart. Even with the power completely shut off when I hook up the air line it still blows air out the spindle. Called Haas service, they helped me diagnose problem and determine location of solenoid.
I can (a) wait until end of week for factory guy from Chicago to come and do work, guess that usuallyl costs about $1k. (b) Lose a day of production and try to fix it ourselves, buy $100 part from factory, wait until end of week to fix. (c) Same as (b) but hope part is $15 and in stock at local Graingers and we can get back to work this afternoon.
Meeting HVAC guy at new building this afternoon to go over specs. Electrical contractor has done all they can do right now, just waiting for local power company to plant pole and hook up power.
More to come.
I can (a) wait until end of week for factory guy from Chicago to come and do work, guess that usuallyl costs about $1k. (b) Lose a day of production and try to fix it ourselves, buy $100 part from factory, wait until end of week to fix. (c) Same as (b) but hope part is $15 and in stock at local Graingers and we can get back to work this afternoon.
Meeting HVAC guy at new building this afternoon to go over specs. Electrical contractor has done all they can do right now, just waiting for local power company to plant pole and hook up power.
More to come.
KeithB
Resident Half Fast Machinist
Turns out there are TWO solenoid valves, one turns the air on/off to actuate the tool pull stud locking mechanism, the other blows air through the spindle to eject the tool and keep the chips cleared out. The thru-spindle air valve should shut off to let the pull stud lock mechanism anchor the tool in place. If it doesn't the tool can't be locked and the system faults. Been on the phone all a.m. swapping texts/pictures with the Haas factroy tech to figure out what parts to replace. We'll get 'er done one way or tother.
358156 hp
At large, whereabouts unknown.
Okay. You got me this time. That's funny!
F
freebullet
Guest
You didn't ask but, I highly recommend staying away from any flex ducting or ducts with interior insulation. The interior duct insulation is a significant source of income to a mold remediation contractor. Over a million dollars of the stuff showed up moldy...brand new. Law suits abound.
JWFilips
Well-Known Member
Well It is raining today ( a cold rain) nothing I can do in the yard and no work this week at my studio....so my wife suggested doing some casting!
OK I can work with that! But first I had to clean up my workshop which was a disaster from the last three projects I had in there!....I'm not a tidy person and I work in the shop until I can't find anything then I just stop and put everything back to square one!
Well after that I grabbed my trusty NOE- 311-165 -RF mould (This is Al's redo of the 165 Ranch Dog but with traditional Lube Grooves and a flatter nose) This is my favorite Target bullet in my Savage 340 ....I don't hunt deer anymore but I would imagine it is a hammer on game!
Don't know why, but casting with the doors open to the outside and rain falling it just seems magical! Casting is sure easy on a day like today!
My mould has one Plain base and one Gas checked bullet cavity. But since I Powder Coat I get the best accuracy with the gas check cavity ( sans the checks but just PC'ed) In "Low Node" for me this is my most accurate bullet!
So In just about an hour I cast 250 bullets using just one cavity.... so a rainy day was productive for me.
Today batch:
Close up
OK I can work with that! But first I had to clean up my workshop which was a disaster from the last three projects I had in there!....I'm not a tidy person and I work in the shop until I can't find anything then I just stop and put everything back to square one!
Well after that I grabbed my trusty NOE- 311-165 -RF mould (This is Al's redo of the 165 Ranch Dog but with traditional Lube Grooves and a flatter nose) This is my favorite Target bullet in my Savage 340 ....I don't hunt deer anymore but I would imagine it is a hammer on game!
Don't know why, but casting with the doors open to the outside and rain falling it just seems magical! Casting is sure easy on a day like today!
My mould has one Plain base and one Gas checked bullet cavity. But since I Powder Coat I get the best accuracy with the gas check cavity ( sans the checks but just PC'ed) In "Low Node" for me this is my most accurate bullet!
So In just about an hour I cast 250 bullets using just one cavity.... so a rainy day was productive for me.
Today batch:
Close up
Last edited:
uncle jimbo
Well-Known Member
Nothing wrong with that. You use what you like and know it works.