sawduststeve
Well-known member
I can agree with this
Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Bob Heine's Auto Emporium
- Thread starter Bob Heine
- Start date
Workspaces between 485 and 705 squarefeet.
Pete, returning home to Florida after a business trip is always the same. You leave the plane and it's like opening the oven on a roasting turkey. On the other hand, your northern cousins have lovely days in early May that go from warm sunshine to snow, back to sunshine and then rain (a day at the Edinburgh Zoo).
Steve, our Spring and Fall visits to Britain were a pleasant break from the Florida steam bath. Weather in this part of Florida is at least predictable. The high every day from mid-June through mid-October is going to be low 90°s F and the low every night is going to be low 80°Fs. If it weren't for those few days in winter, our thermometers would only need to show a 15° spread.I can agree with this
Today we had a tremendous thunderstorm with torrential rain and really strong winds. The sun was shining brightly on us the whole time,
mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
You work for the tourism board don't you?
slimpickins
Well-known member
Ahhh, now it all makes sense. I bought a small scanner similar to your Ion scanner, which I used for scanning slides and negatives. Worked not bad for the cost.
In regard to your fear of the Photobucket nightmare, this is exactly why I have a NAS and use PLEX. I keep everything local. Even if PLEX goes bye bye, I still have all my own media and can always use individual apps for direct playback. I even started some back ups using M-discs but realized they also were just too small to back up the mountains of data that we accumulate these days, and now the drives are becoming scarce as well. FreeNAS made the most sense to me for long term data storage, with its "Scrub" maintenance to ensure all the data is re-read on a schedule you determine. Anyway, thanks for sharing your adventure with those CD changers. I still think they are still a very cool tech for being 30+ years old.
Cheers!
PS. I'm going to try to stop by more often!
driftpin
Well-known member
I've been slacking on keeping up with the Bob 'o-links screed, and this morning, I began reading about 4 pp I was in-arrears. What great entertainment there is to be had!Oh boy, brake bleeding... I hesitate to even comment because it's not my thread and there's just no "short version" of this, but brake bleeding is absolutely my least favorite maintenance task (on motorcycles, at least; I've weirdly met zero resistance when changing brake fluid on the four-wheeled vehicles). I don't know if I've ever attempted to bleed a motorcycle's brakes without getting an eyeful or mouthful of good ol' DOT4, always when the bleed tube explodes off the ******.
The biggest battle I've ever had with brake fluid was with a CBR600RR that developed incredibly spongy front brakes after a lowside crash. I tried every trick I knew to get them bleed down (vacuum bleeder, gravity bleed, pressure bleed with a syringe-slash-eat brake fluid...), but it always came back exactly the same. So I bought a master cylinder rebuild kit and put fresh guts in the master cylinder. No dice. So I bought new brake calipers off eBay. No change. Finally, in a fit of desperation, I bought every jar of DOT4 I could find in town (at this point I'd already exhausted the whole town's worth of shop's supply of crush washers for the banjos, so I was having to order those) and poured them into a 5-gallon bucket, then I submerged every component of the braking system in brake fluid, put everything together, bled the system down while completely submerged in fluid, removed it all and wiped it down, installed it on the bike, aaaaaaaaand spongy lever.
This meant war, so off to the hardware store to assemble a homemade pressure bleeding rig using a cheap pump sprayer for the motive force and clamping all tubing to bleed ******* so leaks wouldn't happen and lines wouldn't explode off and spray into my mouth. Looked like this:
With this setup, I could bleed each caliper and the master cylinder all at the same time or in sequence, and I could reverse the position of the pump and catch can to pressure down from the master cylinder or up from the calipers. I thought I was a friggin' genius.
It didn't do anything.
I gave up and bought a new master cylinder, and the lever was rock hard after two pumps of the lever...
Anyway, sorry for the threadjack. Figured you'd find it entertaining.
The post someone made (sorry I don't recall whom) about their mom writing in a journal, and being transported back in-time, is a great story.
My oldest brother (I think he would be a bit-older than Bob) died of cancer probably 10 years ago. He had prostate cancer in his early 50's, and dealt with that apparently successfully. However about 17-18 years later, he got cancer appearing again. He vacillated on dealing with it, and it killed him after about a year and a half.
He had a masters' in library science from Simmons College in Boston, and he kept renewing his student parking sticker because it's across the street from Fenway Park, where his wife and he liked to attend Red Sox games.
Because of his vocation being an employee of Penn Central RR, ConRail, and Amtrak (I believe he was the senior engineer in the Boston yard upon his retirement) his formal education was nothing like a boon to his working career. That is, unless you liken him to Nat Hentoff, whom I used to read all the time, a literate blue-collar worker, a 'man of letters' who read the 'old grey lady' (NY Times) every Sunday, and who saved the NYT Review of Books supplement, frequently adding to his collection of books to read, from that. Those books were stacked in piles next to his favorite reading chair, because all the bookshelves were full, and a favorite vintage floor lamp casting a warm incandescent glow just where he wanted it.
His wife and he retired from their jobs, and she was from WI, so they moved from Boston to Milwaukee for a lower cost of living. Their old three-story Victorian in Boston had appreciated greatly, but they decided to rent in Milwaukee instead of buying. They found a nice rental home, with an empty basement, which became to be the repository for all his books, magazines, and other things he kept, though the bulk of the vintage floor lamps he kept in the attic of the Boston Victorian home were sold-off, maybe six making the trip.
Among all that stuff now in the Milwaukee rental home basement, he had carefully catalogued what appeared to be all my letters I'd written to him, since the 1960's when I was still in high school, and then off to college in MI. When my brother died, his widow decided to buy a home, and she had this volume of printed material with which to deal. Among that was my correspondence to my brother. She has sent me a couple packages of it, and reading that is like your other thread follower's journal from his mother. It's a very emotional thing to read those long-ago letters I wrote to him. He was always writing to me about things like rock concerts, books, cars, and social issues of the day. He also gave me career advice and he was a great big brother. I miss him, and his writings. Of course, as the 21st century came closer, the USPS letters became emails instead, and the content subject material was often the same, just email.
I expect that upon my demise, those letters will be discarded by the family, however, reading the letters I wrote long-ago to my big brother reminds me of what a good brother he was to me.
Thinking of you running a chainsaw of any size makes me shudder, but I guess you have it figured out. On fire-rescue here in south Florida, I treated all-sorts of tool-induced injuries, from lacerations to crushing injuries, amputated parts, and a few mortalities.
Geddy T's motorcycle brake bleeding frustrations and his different attempts to get things working properly, are entertaining. I don't have any ABS brakes motorcycles, I do have several MityVacs, my oldest is probably 40 y.o. and yes, it's had rebuild kits installed numerous times. However, I find that using a 60 ml syringe with a short length of 1/4" i.d. transparent plastic hose is my most-effective bleeding method. I fill a slave cyl or a caliper with brake fluid before I attach hoses/lines, and I use a hose clamp on the hose to the bleeder ****** to keep the DOT 4 where it's supposed to be going. I keep handy a spray bottle of brake cleaner, to remove any spillage, and I use paper towels as needed. Once in awhile, I've encountered a component which resists being leak-free and functional after a rebuild. That culprit is usually a master cyl. Sometimes the kit works, and sometimes it doesn't. I have no qualms about scrapping a motorcycle master cyl if it continually resists my attempts to fix it and to restore it to service. As the rebuild kits from OEM or a good aftermarket supplier like K&L are usually <$30, I'm not out much if the overhaul doesn't work. Here are some pics of what I've done in the past to disassemble a stuck SOHC Honda motorcycle master cyl, and to bench-test my efforts at returning the system to operation.
Honing a master cyl:
Bench-testing a repaired SOHC Honda 750 front brake:
An inexpensive tool I made to remove a stuck SOHC Honda master cyl brake piston:
Defeating a bad SOHC Honda caliper mounting screw:
Defeating a stuck SOHC Honda caliper, when 140psi of air pressure wouldn't budge it. I've never suffered defeat when resorting to the grease gun method. The license tag on this bike was from the late 1970's:
****** from behind the caliper piston:
The ultimately successful disassembly of a 40 year old master cylinder which caused me to devise an easier, quicker tool to use in the future (seen in pic #3):
Using a heli-arc welder to change the contour of a master cyl lever, reducing free-play significantly:
Seeing all the machinists work their tools to make pieces is beyond my abilities or skills, but defeating age and neglect, damage or wear is a satisfying process.
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Philip, my brother passed when he was 21 and I was 19 and we never wrote letters to each other (even when he was away at school). He and my father corresponded and I have some of my father's letters when **** was traveling around Europe one summer. They shared interests that didn't appeal to me and my interests had no appeal to them. I was mentioned in passing in the letters "Bob finally got a job..." and "your brother struggles to make ends meet." On the other hand, I saved all the letters and cards from my son and daughter so they may have some interest in holding on to those.
You are not alone shuddering. I treat those machines with utmost respect. I am also extremely careful with the big power tools, like the table saw, drill press, portable routers and the router table.
As are yours. in my youth I rebuilt master and wheel cylinders to save money but decided to spend the money to replace those parts with new. A mistake rebuilding brakes could be a forever regret if the car my wife or children drove got in an accident because I forgot an important step or exceeded a tolerance I didn't really understand. Few people die because an engine or transmission rebuild fails.
I envy the folks on here who own and know how to use mills, lathes and other fabrication tools (including 3D printers) but with my limited future I don't want to start down that learning and spending trail. It seems I get a reminder of my mortality every year.
driftpin
Well-known member
I spent the weekend in speaking with relatives and friends of two of my friends who are on their way out. One was a co-worker on fire-rescue with me and he literally was in the first group of physician-trained paramedics licensed by the State of Florida. He has a letter from the State of Florida attesting to that, and I recall when he received it, back in the 1970's. Two hundred candidates were selected to take the pilot exam, and on the basis of that exam the State of Florida developed the paramedic licensing exam for future test-takers. The numbers for the paramedic test-takers being licensed are now in the 500,000's and he was in the first group. Now he's lying in the hospital, and has multiple organ failure. I expect that soon his wife will call to inform me, "he's gone." We worked together on the same ambulance for close-to 10 years and we became very-proficient at caring for M.I.'s, C.V.A.'s, and trauma patients, because of the demographics of the population where we served, being predominantly elderly. I have many great memories of things we did, and I am proud to have had such a good partner.
The other friend has a debilitating neuromuscular disease and is becoming more infirm. He cannot stand unaided, and as he was a musician since his teens, losing the ability to perform as he has until several years ago and that is a bitter medicine to swallow. He is a G.C. and has owned a landscaping and sprinkler company for many years, which he sold at retirement. His band played at our 50th high school reunion, which was a well-attended event. Shortly after that, he began to become more-symptomatic.
His wife we're trying to convince to get hospice assistance. She's been dealing with things on his own, and one of my other friends told me, "she's visibly aging from the stress." I've spoken with her and suggested that it's time to seek assistance, but she hasn't yet agreed. Since they're in another state, I cannot do more than offer advice, long-distance. He's starting to have more issues, a very sad development.
Reminders like these do serve to recall one's mortality is approaching, for some, sooner than expected.
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PugetDude
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Going through the same thing here- watching my best friend from High School (and best man in both my weddings...) being consumed by ALS. Went from flying F14's to totally bedridden, unable to speak or move and communicating only through a Stephen Hawking computer controlled by his eyes. 
Sorry for the thread hijack, Bob.
Sorry for the thread hijack, Bob.
xtremek
Well-known member
I can definitely see the wisdom in limiting the spending trail. I'm trying to start limiting the span of introduction into new subjects. I did take a CAD class, since it was free, and I can see a direct use for it in my hobbies. But with Robin, we can cover almost everything. But she's also intentn on trying to bring in so many more projects, while I'm trying to finish things off before I start new. And to your discussion, Pops is 82 and the neighbor is close to 85, andf they're still moving and groovingz, but they are aware of their growing limitations, and that is highlighting mine.
Philip, many times a still small voice in me says "There but for the grace of God, go I."
Scott, my oldest grandson's father-in-law had back pain that made him unsteady on his feet. Not a good thing when your business is pressure cleaning stuff, especially roofs. Because he went to a specialist orthopedic surgeon, the doctor fused a couple of vertebrae. Problem got worse so they fused a couple more. Finally diagnosed with ALS. With a cane he was able to walk his youngest daughter down the aisle but it had everyone in tears.Going through the same thing here- watching my best friend from High School (and best man in both my weddings...) being consumed by ALS. Went from flying F14's to totally bedridden, unable to speak or move and communicating only through a Stephen Hawking computer controlled by his eyes.
Sorry for the thread hijack, Bob.
No hijack, it's just a reminder of how grateful the rest of us should be.
Kirk, I'm afraid to record how many projects I have lined up for myself. I walk past a purchase and tick off how many days are required to deal with it. I need to look into Methuselah's secret for a really long life.
Ripped out a few wagon loads of succulents from the front garden yesterday. The comfort index was in the life-threatening steam bath zone. Sweat line reached my ankles and sunglasses stayed clear with a constant stream of fluid from my forehead. No way to hydrate adequately and this will be a 9-potassium pill night. I expect some horrific new garden plantings are in my future.
The commercial for fancy gutter screens starts with an old coot getting grief from his wife and daughter for continuing to climb a ladder to clean the gutters. Rather than re-mortgage the house, I thought I could avoid the crippling fall by buying a shepherd's hook extension for the pressure washer. I thought it was a great solution that would let me clean the guttersw from the ground.
It did not occur to me that 3,200psi water at the working end would be hard to control with one hand. The 8-foot wand took off and pulled my arm across my neck in the half-second it was under pressure. On the bright side, it could have been worse because I removed one of the wand sections. Tried various options and the best I could do was fling leaves all over the house, walkway and me while standing sideways with the handle in the fully twisted position against my neck. Safety glasses seemed inadequate so the full face shield came out, along with the lower pressure electric pressure washer.
Turns out 1,450psi water isn't much better but the impact from the pressure washer wand will likely result in much less noticeable bruises. Falling off a ladder was becoming a very attractive option.
The flimsy 6-foot step ladder felt so much more secure and comfortable and the old standby hose nozzle with shutoff worked perfectly. When the leaves piled up in the gutter I moved the ladder and put the wet wads in a 2-gallon bucket. At the end I filled a 5-gallon bucket with leaves and Mahogany seedlings. There are also a dozen or so chunks of concrete tile scattered in the garden where they won't create a leaf dam. Pressure washers have their place but my gutter cleaner is going to be the old reliable brass nozzle with shutoff valve.
Between my sweat and the backsplash from gutter cleaning I could have dried off in the pool. Instead, I took a cool shower -- the water coming out of the cold water tap is 73°F so my shower at the end of the day used very little hot water.
The commercial for fancy gutter screens starts with an old coot getting grief from his wife and daughter for continuing to climb a ladder to clean the gutters. Rather than re-mortgage the house, I thought I could avoid the crippling fall by buying a shepherd's hook extension for the pressure washer. I thought it was a great solution that would let me clean the guttersw from the ground.
It did not occur to me that 3,200psi water at the working end would be hard to control with one hand. The 8-foot wand took off and pulled my arm across my neck in the half-second it was under pressure. On the bright side, it could have been worse because I removed one of the wand sections. Tried various options and the best I could do was fling leaves all over the house, walkway and me while standing sideways with the handle in the fully twisted position against my neck. Safety glasses seemed inadequate so the full face shield came out, along with the lower pressure electric pressure washer.
Turns out 1,450psi water isn't much better but the impact from the pressure washer wand will likely result in much less noticeable bruises. Falling off a ladder was becoming a very attractive option.
The flimsy 6-foot step ladder felt so much more secure and comfortable and the old standby hose nozzle with shutoff worked perfectly. When the leaves piled up in the gutter I moved the ladder and put the wet wads in a 2-gallon bucket. At the end I filled a 5-gallon bucket with leaves and Mahogany seedlings. There are also a dozen or so chunks of concrete tile scattered in the garden where they won't create a leaf dam. Pressure washers have their place but my gutter cleaner is going to be the old reliable brass nozzle with shutoff valve.
Between my sweat and the backsplash from gutter cleaning I could have dried off in the pool. Instead, I took a cool shower -- the water coming out of the cold water tap is 73°F so my shower at the end of the day used very little hot water.
gilr
Well-known member
Well Bob, you aren't the lone ranger when it comes to heat, it was 98 here in Richmond yesterday, or as I have often referred to it as the "gates of Hell"! It was too hot to even walk the dog, I tried but had sweat rolling off my forehead so bad, it became difficult to see, so the walk was shortened considerably.
Those extensions for the pressure washer are great until you pull the trigger and the leverage at the end of the extension seems to multiply! I used the same setup on a garden hose for things like the gutters until i wised up and paid for the gutter guard style gutters and no more cleaning for me. Some of my gutters are more than 25 feet off the ground and with 320 lineal feet of gutters, I gave in and paid the price. Turns out it has been money well spent.
Gil
Those extensions for the pressure washer are great until you pull the trigger and the leverage at the end of the extension seems to multiply! I used the same setup on a garden hose for things like the gutters until i wised up and paid for the gutter guard style gutters and no more cleaning for me. Some of my gutters are more than 25 feet off the ground and with 320 lineal feet of gutters, I gave in and paid the price. Turns out it has been money well spent.
Gil
Gil, I don't think South Florida could handle 98° heat. The governor would declare a state of emergency and order rolling blackouts. We deal with a hot, muggy climate but the temperature only swings twelve or thirteen degrees on a daily basis. It's as cool as 80° at night and as hot as 93° on most days from late spring to early fall. Because the sun is so strong, the temperature difference between sun and shade is huge. The lawn out front is 83° in the shade of the tree and 99° in the sun. At the same time, the driveway, painted a pale gray, is 119° in direct sun.
My gutters are at the other end of the spectrum. There is 33-feet of gutter on the front of the house with a huge overhanging Mahogany tree. Along with leaves it drops tennis ball size seed pods that split open into 5 wooden wedges that drop off the tree along with the seeds.
These woody wedges do a great job clogging up the gutters, keeping the leaves and seeds from reaching the downspouts. The pods sometimes fall off the tree before they split open and you don't want one of them hitting you -- not deadly but it will get your attention.
I may someday have to invest in the gutter guards but the 50-foot gutter on the back of the house is free-flowing since we had the big ficus taken down. Unfortunately the screen enclosure attaches to the gutter so the guard would allow leaves to pile up at the junction. On the front of the house there is 33-feet of gutter and I can touch the bottom of it while standing on the ground. I can clean it from a step stool but use a 6-foot stepladder so I can see inside the gutter.
gilr
Well-known member
Ah, ok, i understand why the gutter guards wouldn't be worth it for you. Here, the heat is closely followed by the humidity, so no relief without AC. I spent many summers in Florida as my first wife's mom was from Clearwater, and they moved to Inverness after my father-in-law retired. Our kids used to spend the entire summer there and we rescued them in August just before school started here in Richmond. I agree it doesn't get quite as hot, but the humidity is rampant! It always tickled me how once the temps dropped into the 60s and 50s how Floridians put on their winter coats, parkas and gloves. I'd still be out in short sleeve shirts enjoying what seemed like spring weather in Richmond. All in what you get used to......
GeddyT
Well-known member
I used to have gutter guards, but I removed them and threw them away. My house is surrounded by trees, some leaning over the roofline, so I found the gutter guards would quickly plug and back up tree debris up the roof, creating a water dam. And needles would still build up under the guards, requiring extra time to remove the guards and clean the gutters out. As far as pressure washing goes, isn't there a concern that water would splash up, catch the underside of the shingles, and migrate up to the roof deck and soak the edge? I've always just done the old fashioned ladder and gloved hand scoops to avoid just this, but my house is small and all of my gutters can be reached from a stepladder.
OutlawDrifter
Well-known member
Bob, stop reminding me about cleaning gutters and the heat that is quickly approaching northeast KS!
Today was BEAUTIFUL, 68ish and a light breeze. All yards mowed, rough stuff done with the tractor, and all the trimming done. Sitting on the porch listening to the birds (and Waylon Jennings on the BT speaker), and happy!
Today was BEAUTIFUL, 68ish and a light breeze. All yards mowed, rough stuff done with the tractor, and all the trimming done. Sitting on the porch listening to the birds (and Waylon Jennings on the BT speaker), and happy!
mybigwarwagon
Well-known member
I am glad I don't have gutters on the camper. Everything else about it ***** enough. I would love to have a mahogany tree though. Or, since the PO bulldozed the place, just any trees. Once the house is set up we will look into some. I would love to have the pear tree out of my old yard.
RickP
Well-known member
I've had trouble with a pressure washer extension wand getting away from me too. And cleaning gutters in late fall when it gets cold here is pretty miserable. But I finally found a nozzle that worked better:
The wand is still heavy, but at least the torque is balanced on each side. I envy your 83' of single-story gutters. I need to stand on a ladder and use the wand extension to reach the second floor.
Gil, you are absolutely right about getting used to weather. When I went to work for AOL in '95 I spent every other week in Virginia, where my sinuses would swell up and clog. Three minutes after landing in Florida they would open up. Apparently my Viking genes surrendered after 20 years in Florida.
When the blizzard of '96 hit I was stuck in Virginia for the week (got the last flight south out of Dulles Friday morning). Having lived in the Hudson Valley I had no problem navigating in the snow. Every day the news would show dozens of cars stuck along the side of the road and the vast majority were 4-wheel drive. It appeared to be a contest to see who could drive the furthest into a snowbank.
Tom, the concept looks great but I suspect the reality is what you experienced. When the Mahogany isn't dumping leaves and nuts on the roof, it is dumping pine-needle-like stems that would create a dam.
If I had a normal asphalt shingle roof, pressure washing might be a concern. To dramatically cut my wind insurance premium, we opted to have the cedar shake shingle roof replaced with overlapping concrete tiles. They start by nailing a layer of 30lb felt (edges nailed with caps every 6 inches and field every 12 inches). A layer of 90lb roll roofing goes over a liberal layer of hot tar on the felt. Valleys get a second hot mop/roll roofing layer and then they glue the shingles to the roll roofing using a urethane foam. Each concrete tile weighs around 8lbs. Even my 3,100psi pressure washer with the red nozzle won't lift those puppies.
Marc, I figured you were done with cleaning gutters before Winter hits. A lot of trees in Florida don't understand the meaning of Fall and drop their leaves in Winter or Spring.
I'm looking forward to 68ish weather in another 6 or 7 months. Some guy came to the house today and mowed, edged and trimmed the lawn. He also trimmed one of the hedges. I expect he'll be back in another 10 days.
Uncle Willie, at least you have a decent camper. My parents tricked us into appreciating the 15-foot wheeled box by taking us tent camping in Canada first. Sleeping on your own flat surface with a mattress is a huge upgrade from an army cot shared with a sibling.
I think you're out of luck on the Mahogany. They don't do well north of Zones 10. That would be anything north of Jacksonville FL. Boca Raton is near the northern edge of Zone 11 so ours is thriving. Maybe a few Live Oak trees. Pretty sure they do fine all the way up to Virginia. Maybe line both sides of the drive up to your plantation?
Rick, thanks for that! Amazon is out of that brand but they have others. Because I did the search, another pressure washer attachment started yelling at me.I've had trouble with a pressure washer extension wand getting away from me too. And cleaning gutters in late fall when it gets cold here is pretty miserable. But I finally found a nozzle that worked better:
The wand is still heavy, but at least the torque is balanced on each side. I envy your 83' of single-story gutters. I need to stand on a ladder and use the wand extension to reach the second floor.
I hate working on greasy filthy stuff on the cars and I've been able to keep the engine compartments relatively clean. The undercarriage, not so much. I have been known to lie down on the driveway and aim a pressure washer at the undercarriage but it's a real mess and it only reaches the stuff hanging down. With an undercarriage cleaning (and broom) attachment I should be able to spray de-greaser and then rinse it off, making any fluid seeps easier to find. Wish I had one of these when I lived in the land of salted roads, I might still be driving my '68 GTO.
Available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09QG4V673/?tag=atomicindus08-20
You're welcome!
jbmatth
Well-known member
I've been meaning to order one of these for a while now Bob, thank you for that, I'll be waiting for me when I get home.
JB
JB
Grizz1963
Well-known member
Gil, you are absolutely right about getting used to weather. When I went to work for AOL in '95 I spent every other week in Virginia, where my sinuses would swell up and clog. Three minutes after landing in Florida they would open up. Apparently my Viking genes surrendered after 20 years in Florida.
When the blizzard of '96 hit I was stuck in Virginia for the week (got the last flight south out of Dulles Friday morning). Having lived in the Hudson Valley I had no problem navigating in the snow. Every day the news would show dozens of cars stuck along the side of the road and the vast majority were 4-wheel drive. It appeared to be a contest to see who could drive the furthest into a snowbank.
Tom, the concept looks great but I suspect the reality is what you experienced. When the Mahogany isn't dumping leaves and nuts on the roof, it is dumping pine-needle-like stems that would create a dam.
If I had a normal asphalt shingle roof, pressure washing might be a concern. To dramatically cut my wind insurance premium, we opted to have the cedar shake shingle roof replaced with overlapping concrete tiles. They start by nailing a layer of 30lb felt (edges nailed with caps every 6 inches and field every 12 inches). A layer of 90lb roll roofing goes over a liberal layer of hot tar on the felt. Valleys get a second hot mop/roll roofing layer and then they glue the shingles to the roll roofing using a urethane foam. Each concrete tile weighs around 8lbs. Even my 3,100psi pressure washer with the red nozzle won't lift those puppies.
Marc, I figured you were done with cleaning gutters before Winter hits. A lot of trees in Florida don't understand the meaning of Fall and drop their leaves in Winter or Spring.
I'm looking forward to 68ish weather in another 6 or 7 months. Some guy came to the house today and mowed, edged and trimmed the lawn. He also trimmed one of the hedges. I expect he'll be back in another 10 days.
Uncle Willie, at least you have a decent camper. My parents tricked us into appreciating the 15-foot wheeled box by taking us tent camping in Canada first. Sleeping on your own flat surface with a mattress is a huge upgrade from an army cot shared with a sibling.
I think you're out of luck on the Mahogany. They don't do well north of Zones 10. That would be anything north of Jacksonville FL. Boca Raton is near the northern edge of Zone 11 so ours is thriving. Maybe a few Live Oak trees. Pretty sure they do fine all the way up to Virginia. Maybe line both sides of the drive up to your plantation?
Rick, thanks for that! Amazon is out of that brand but they have others. Because I did the search, another pressure washer attachment started yelling at me.
I hate working on greasy filthy stuff on the cars and I've been able to keep the engine compartments relatively clean. The undercarriage, not so much. I have been known to lie down on the driveway and aim a pressure washer at the undercarriage but it's a real mess and it only reaches the stuff hanging down. With an undercarriage cleaning (and broom) attachment I should be able to spray de-greaser and then rinse it off, making any fluid seeps easier to find. Wish I had one of these when I lived in the land of salted roads, I might still be driving my '68 GTO.
Available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09QG4V673/?tag=atomicindus08-20
You're welcome!
Salted roads…..
killer of many dreams.
madison069
Well-known member
Funny, I just cleaned one of my gutter out yesterday. the hardest part was carrying the ladder to the back porch. Carrying the heavy gorilla extension/step ladder made me realize that I want something lighter. If only I was smart enough to grab the 6' fiberglass step ladder from dad's house when I was loading stuff up. But unfortunately I had to start telling myself to stop loading stuff up.
For me it was just those maple helicopter seed that likes to fill everyone's gutter up. 2 handful at the downspout end and the gutter was free flowing again.
For me it was just those maple helicopter seed that likes to fill everyone's gutter up. 2 handful at the downspout end and the gutter was free flowing again.
Lyndon
Well-known member
Bob
For gutter cleaning out here I used to routinely climb ladders and cut myself to pieces on the sharp edge of the colourbond roof sheets. Then apparently I got too old (and lost too many internal organs) and was warned off doing it..... (By you know who!).
Now I get a guy with the most powerful vacuum I've ever seen, and he parks his ute and trailer at the top of the drive and vacuums the whole house from there, some 108m (360 ft) of gutters around the house, garage, carport and back deck. Furthest point from his ute is 40+m away, but his massive vac handles it all. One guy is on the roof, the other on the ground feeding out line to the guy up top. I'm now getting it done every June/July after the deciduous trees have finished their spill for the year. Takes the 2 of them about an hour. Makes my life a lot easier!
And the garage gutters get clogged with the pine needles off the massive trees that some stupid, old neighbour planted years ago that make a shocking mess during any windy storm! And they are on the northern side of the house, so the shadow lines during Winter completely black out the garage skylights, and half the back yard (haven't been game enough to poison them though.....).
And luckily, we don't get salted roads out here!
Lyndon
For gutter cleaning out here I used to routinely climb ladders and cut myself to pieces on the sharp edge of the colourbond roof sheets. Then apparently I got too old (and lost too many internal organs) and was warned off doing it..... (By you know who!).
Now I get a guy with the most powerful vacuum I've ever seen, and he parks his ute and trailer at the top of the drive and vacuums the whole house from there, some 108m (360 ft) of gutters around the house, garage, carport and back deck. Furthest point from his ute is 40+m away, but his massive vac handles it all. One guy is on the roof, the other on the ground feeding out line to the guy up top. I'm now getting it done every June/July after the deciduous trees have finished their spill for the year. Takes the 2 of them about an hour. Makes my life a lot easier!
And the garage gutters get clogged with the pine needles off the massive trees that some stupid, old neighbour planted years ago that make a shocking mess during any windy storm! And they are on the northern side of the house, so the shadow lines during Winter completely black out the garage skylights, and half the back yard (haven't been game enough to poison them though.....).
And luckily, we don't get salted roads out here!
Lyndon
RickP
Well-known member
Amazing what you can find with random Amazon searches! That looks handy -- I'll be interested to see how well it works for you. I've got oil, dirt and salt that needs to get cleaned off someday.
JB, it's a reasonable purchase for me. My automotive work involves jacks and jackstands so lying on the driveway while hosing off the undercarriage is plain uncomfortable.
Rian, you've got that right. My love affair with Corvettes started when I had to do rust repair on four-year-old cars. Now that I live in a state that has no need to salt the roads, I just have to watch salty air blowing in from the Atlantic. Owners of ocean-front condos get to watch all kinds of stuff deteriorate.
Cody, my extremely flimsy 6-foot aluminum step ladder has one saving attribute -- it weighs next to nothing.
Growing up, those maple seeds were great for making Rhino horns for my nose but luckily we only had oaks and evergreens around my childhood home. I don't remember having to clean out the gutters but our house was one step above a barren wasteland when we moved in. Our first Florida home had no gutters and no overhanging trees.
Hi Lyndon! The edges of the concrete tiles on our roof do a great job exfoliating my wrist and hand but I've taken to wearing gloves the past few years (I'm developing the paper-thin skin of an old person). I am still allowed up on small ladders but those days are probably coming to an end,
That vacuum sounds like a great deal, as does farming out the 360 feet of gutter cleaning. I last said the words "I'm going to go up on the roof" in 1996 and it was to repair a flat roof 8-feet off the ground. A South Florida roof grows mold and mildew in our sub-tropical environment so it has to be cleaned every few years. I hired a company to do it two years ago but they expect $720 a year to do roof once and patio/walks/driveway twice a year. They use super strong chlorine and other chemicals and I fear that's doing invisible damage to a lot of stuff. Because his father-in-law has ALS, my oldest grandson is taking over his pressure cleaning business. He's on speed dial and even if he doesn't want to drive the 70-mile round trip he will know who will do the job in my location for a fair price.
I used to go to one of Boca Raton's ocean-front parks on my lunch hour at IBM and the place was full of Australian Pines. I would park the Corvette with the top down and after 45 minutes would have an hour's worth of needle cleanup. My vacuums do not work well on pine needles.
Rick, the tool can be used with the nozzles facing up or down. I suspect it's a snake fight when they are facing down. I'm hoping it works well enough to make the under-car work more pleasant. It will be worth forty bucks if it does.
nicholam77
Well-known member
That's pretty cool! Thanks for the link
" I have to resort to CDs because "Classic Rock" is now 80s and 90s music. Sometimes I like a little Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis or Elvis."
I am concerned about the shifting definition of "Classic Rock" nowadays!
"The install was delayed by a few days waiting for 12-inch long black pipe ******* to get the lights above the lower foliage."
I am also concerned about the plumbing industry's strange use of the word "******." It's a 12 inch piece of pipe! How can that still be a ******?
I am concerned about the shifting definition of "Classic Rock" nowadays!
"The install was delayed by a few days waiting for 12-inch long black pipe ******* to get the lights above the lower foliage."
I am also concerned about the plumbing industry's strange use of the word "******." It's a 12 inch piece of pipe! How can that still be a ******?
You're welcome Nick!
@Squankum, I don't recognize many of the songs they play on the radio stations but I consider my '87 Corvette a modern automobile and it has an Antique plate on it.
I can forgive the plumbing industry's stretching of the word ****** -- I've seen photos of a shirtless Putin.
That's right! Your Corvette is a thoroughly modern high tech car with a transverse leaf spring just like a (checks notes) 19th century horse-drawn wagon! OK, the springs are fiberglass, so that's impressive.
And now, I shall digress.
I've always meant to go into a bit of history about Timken, roller bearings, trains, and wagons at my thread but I wanted to do more research first. What I did learn was that before the German immigrant Mr. Timken the blacksmith invented the tapered roller bearing and became stinking steaming rich and retired to San Diego, he invented a leaf spring to make horse-drawn wagons more comfy. I have been unable to find a drawing of that spring or a wagon with it, but tonight, I did find this murky image which... doesn't help much.
Tapered roller bearings were a big damned deal even before cars came along! Even horse and ox-drawn wagons would like such a bearing. What they used before real bearings came along was just savagery, as best as I can figure out.
And now, I shall digress.
I've always meant to go into a bit of history about Timken, roller bearings, trains, and wagons at my thread but I wanted to do more research first. What I did learn was that before the German immigrant Mr. Timken the blacksmith invented the tapered roller bearing and became stinking steaming rich and retired to San Diego, he invented a leaf spring to make horse-drawn wagons more comfy. I have been unable to find a drawing of that spring or a wagon with it, but tonight, I did find this murky image which... doesn't help much.
Tapered roller bearings were a big damned deal even before cars came along! Even horse and ox-drawn wagons would like such a bearing. What they used before real bearings came along was just savagery, as best as I can figure out.
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On the other hand, Pete, I think you'll find central UK has many fewer predatory dinosaurs compared to Florida.
Some say that the authories in Florida ship the excess predatory dinosaur population to South Carolina under cover of darkness!
Also, Bob, 50,000 hour light fixtures, well, that's 5.7 years and I doubt they tested their product that long before putting it on the market. (OK, probably past testing of that type of LED, etc etc.)
@Squankum, good point, the transverse leaf spring does antiquate my Corvette. On the other hand, the steel coil springs on the front of my '72 Corvette weigh 23 pounds and the steel rear leaf spring weighs 38.4 pounds. The '87 Corvette composite springs weigh 15 pounds each so less than half the weight. Composite transverse leaf springs didn't disappear after 1987. Corvettes continued to have transverse composite leaf springs front and rear until the release of the mid-engine 2020 C8 Corvette.That's right! Your Corvette is a thoroughly modern high tech car with a transverse leaf spring just like a (checks notes) 19th century horse-drawn wagon! OK, the springs are fiberglass, so that's impressive.
And now, I shall digress.
I've always meant to go into a bit of history about Timken, roller bearings, trains, and wagons at my thread but I wanted to do more research first. What I did learn was that before the German immigrant Mr. Timken the blacksmith invented the tapered roller bearing and became stinking steaming rich and retired to San Diego, he invented a leaf spring to make horse-drawn wagons more comfy. I have been unable to find a drawing of that spring or a wagon with it, but tonight, I did find this murky image which... doesn't help much.
Tapered roller bearings were a big damned deal even before cars came along! Even horse and ox-drawn wagons would like such a bearing. What they used before real bearings came along was just savagery, as best as I can figure out.
The C4 (1984-1996) Corvettes are the least appreciated (most hated?) of all the Corvettes. Not sure why because I thought they really were pretty cool when they came out. Ignoring their looks, the suspension is mostly forged aluminum instead of stamped or cast steel. Same with the brake calipers. In 1987, the small block came with port fuel injection and hydraulic roller lifters. While not fragile old-man-friendly, the huge, awkward and heavy hood makes working on those cars a relative pleasure (I can sit on the front tire and work on the engine). The real cool factor for the C4 Corvette was its performance on the track. Performance good enough to have the SCCA exclude it from racing with other cars:
"The C4 Corvette thrust Chevy’s sports car into supercar handling territory, if not ultimate speed, when it debuted for 1984. With 0.9-g cornering, reliable Chevy small-block V-8 performance, and excellent brakes, the C4 quickly proved its mettle in SCCA Showroom Stock GT racing. The Vette utterly dominated the podium in the ******* and then ****** Endurance Championship from 1985–87, relegating the Porsche 944 Turbo to a cameo role in the series.
'The Corvette beat Porsche 29–0 from 1985 to 1987,' says John Powell, who ran a racing school at Canada’s Mosport track in Ontario, Canada, and campaigned Vettes in that series."
The Timken tapered roller bearing and buggy spring stories kinda compliment my point. Just because something was invented long ago doesn't make its use today "antiquated."
I tried to blow up a section of your picture to better show Timken's patented transverse spring:
@Squankum, Florida has some population issues. At one time alligators were an endangered species and protected but once their population recovered we started killing them. From that video it is obvious Florida isn't doing enough to control the alligator population. Being Florida, I suspect the alligators in that video got word of really good early bird special.
I'm with you on the 50,000 hour thing. My hope is that some will last five years and purchased a six-pack of lights for the future. One has already been added to the back of the garden at Liane's request. Now I have five replacements.
Jasmine has been slacking off. She's put on a few pounds and needs to get back to her iguana-fighting-weight. In the past couple of months she has only added two to her toll (that we're aware of). Iguana pelt count is now 18. She killed and hid one in the bushes yesterday so she could roll in it's blood and guts. She got a bath yesterday and today went and got the corpse to present to Liane.
There are various groups of people who might dislike something, but for different reasons. I remember sitting in high school health class with a new issue of Car and Driver that had just come out, extolling the exciting new C4 model. (I am younger than you, Bob.) A blue collar kid sitting behind me started griping that this new Corvette sucked because it didn't have a big block. Just a baby motor. A baby motor. His words!
Then you've got your eurofoofoos for whom it will always be too big, heavy, overpowered, flimsy, tacky (and here we are with the real complaint for so many of them: who's buying them. Which is no way to evaluate a machine.) Oh, and the digital dash.
I know I'm a eurofoofoo but I've always rooted for progress at Corvette group, and they've made so much since the 80's!
And hooray for lighter parts! Had I stayed in autox another year or two I would have been buying titanium coil springs. Eeegads. The battle against mass is a never-ending slog.
Here's some recent Lay Leno Corvette content in case you missed it:
Then you've got your eurofoofoos for whom it will always be too big, heavy, overpowered, flimsy, tacky (and here we are with the real complaint for so many of them: who's buying them. Which is no way to evaluate a machine.) Oh, and the digital dash.
I know I'm a eurofoofoo but I've always rooted for progress at Corvette group, and they've made so much since the 80's!
And hooray for lighter parts! Had I stayed in autox another year or two I would have been buying titanium coil springs. Eeegads. The battle against mass is a never-ending slog.
Here's some recent Lay Leno Corvette content in case you missed it:
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xtremek
Well-known member
The hiding dead igauna is too funny.
Long ago, when I was young and energetic, living in an apartment complex, I had my GTI up on jackstands and was cleaning the floor pan and wheel wells with Castrol Super Clean, a brush, and a garden hose. People walking by thought I was insane. Once I actually heard some college dude say to another as they walked by, "That guy is always under his car."
(It was... kinda true. Some projects in those days took many hours, or days.)
Now, I'm assuming your main discomfort at this age is getting down on the grown, rolling around, and then, getting back up -- repeatedly. I consider that to be a workout! (And I welcome it, but when I've become really out of shape, I sure notice it.)
This being GJ, I must now recommend you buy a tool of gizmo: pit mats! I got into these in the past ten years and wondered why I hadn't discovered them sooner.
These are a nice size and a great price but do slowly fall apart:
Speedway Standard Track Mat
Crawl under your car in style. Speedways padded vinyl track mat is 23" x 50" and folds in quarters for easy storage. Available in red, blue or black.Item Details 23" x 50"
This Lisle mat costs more, should be longer, but the workmanship is impeccable and mine just isn't showing any deterioriation at the seams. Also, the grab handle I thought would annoy my back, nope, it hides in the fold, and the velcro patches on the bottom that I thought I'd be cutting off also because who needs that? Well, they work great, too:
There are also wider versions of the Speedway mat, and Jeg's and Summit sells them, too, I'm sure. When I'm really rolling around I put two or three mats together in parallel. Luxury!
I actually had a taste of pit mat luxury back in the early 2000's, snow accident with the GTI, had to replace a driveshaft and a steering knuckle out in the apartment complex parking lot on a January evening with a light, steady 38 degree rain. Laying down in that water on 38F asphalt was not going to work out, and I had scrap of "water heater bubble wrap" (that hardware stores don't sell for water heaters anymore, but for other purposes) and laying on that helped a whole lot.
Some use scraps of cardboard or some dirty old carpet scrap or floor mat Yeah. Uh, get the pit mats, they have a dirty side and a side you can wipe clean!
@Squankum, I avoided the "Corvettes are not sports car" wars in my youth. Just before I turned 18 (and our daughter was born) a friend showed up at the house with a '54 Corvette. It was factory blue with a red interior and I thought someone had painted it that color, having only seen Polo White with red up to that time. He wanted $800 and I had already blown my $20 life savings on a '55 Plymouth Belvedere 4-door sedan with a V8 automatic (with 6 working cylinders). I was a big fan of hopped up Stovebolt Chevy straight 6's. A straight-six dragster at the West Hampton dragstrip made me a convert. Anyone could make a V8 fast.
As a devotee of the big block Corvettes, I learned pretty quickly the all-cast-iron ones like mine have no place on an autox course. I could reliably beat my best time in my automatic big block driving my 4-speed Fiat X1/9. Only time the big block was competitive was at Sebring or Daytona. I've always wanted to swap out the iron heads in the '72 for a pair of aluminum heads. A quick 100-pound weight loss program.
Kirk, Jasmine really is a hoot.
@Mr.zippy, Jasmine does eyeball the TV and may have stepped on the remote more than once.
@Squankum, she said:
"You talkin to me?" @Squankum, when the automatic in the '55 Plymouth **** the bed I converted it to a floor-shifted 3-speed manual. Spent most of a week going back and forth to the closest junkyard on my bicycle. Didn't realize the nose on the mainshaft was longer and broke off an ear. Yard gave me another and even torched off a half-inch. Did the whole swap in the dirt driveway with the front tires on concrete blocks. Chose to do the swap in January on Long Island. Not the coldest place but not real comfortable. Did a couple of other engine swaps the same way and for some reason they all had to be done in the winter.Long ago, when I was young and energetic, living in an apartment complex, I had my GTI up on jackstands and was cleaning the floor pan and wheel wells with Castrol Super Clean, a brush, and a garden hose. People walking by thought I was insane. Once I actually heard some college dude say to another as they walked by, "That guy is always under his car."
(It was... kinda true. Some projects in those days took many hours, or days.)
Now, I'm assuming your main discomfort at this age is getting down on the grown, rolling around, and then, getting back up -- repeatedly. I consider that to be a workout! (And I welcome it, but when I've become really out of shape, I sure notice it.)
This being GJ, I must now recommend you buy a tool of gizmo: pit mats! I got into these in the past ten years and wondered why I hadn't discovered them sooner.
These are a nice size and a great price but do slowly fall apart:
Speedway Standard Track Mat
Crawl under your car in style. Speedways padded vinyl track mat is 23" x 50" and folds in quarters for easy storage. Available in red, blue or black.Item Details 23" x 50"www.speedwaymotors.com
This Lisle mat costs more, should be longer, but the workmanship is impeccable and mine just isn't showing any deterioriation at the seams. Also, the grab handle I thought would annoy my back, nope, it hides in the fold, and the velcro patches on the bottom that I thought I'd be cutting off also because who needs that? Well, they work great, too:
There are also wider versions of the Speedway mat, and Jeg's and Summit sells them, too, I'm sure. When I'm really rolling around I put two or three mats together in parallel. Luxury!
I actually had a taste of pit mat luxury back in the early 2000's, snow accident with the GTI, had to replace a driveshaft and a steering knuckle out in the apartment complex parking lot on a January evening with a light, steady 38 degree rain. Laying down in that water on 38F asphalt was not going to work out, and I had scrap of "water heater bubble wrap" (that hardware stores don't sell for water heaters anymore, but for other purposes) and laying on that helped a whole lot.
Some use scraps of cardboard or some dirty old carpet scrap or floor mat Yeah. Uh, get the pit mats, they have a dirty side and a side you can wipe clean!
I did something to my right knee that made it swell up and become very tender (and hard to bend). I am trying to be more careful, hoping it will recover. I also try to avoid using my arm to lift myself off the ground. I sometimes look like a turtle stuck upside down on his shell.
My driveway is a great place to work but it's in direct sunlight most of the day. Anything dark sitting in the sun becomes a cooking surface in quick order. I've never timed it but a black or even red object becomes too hot to pick up in very short order. For the quick projects I use a white linen tablecloth as a slide surface and heat barrier.. For more involved projects I get out the low-slung 6-wheel Larin creeper. I store a couple of boxed projects on the creeper and roll it under the '72 so it isn't just grab & go.
Dang, I'd be tempted to build some kind of shade/awning for the driveway on wrench days! Yes, you don't want to lay on that concrete after the sun has been pouring heat energy to it. (I once went for a barefoot walk in a semi-shady neighborhood in Mexico. That was... a mistake. Towards the end I was walking on white center line when I could.)
I hurt my knee in early April and I don't even know how! I have one guess... the second guess is 14-18 lb cats sleeping on my foot and twisting my ankle while I sleep at night. I'm now of the age that I had forgotten that this was the knee that did that thing before! All of the Mercedes wrenching on my thread last month was basically done with me limping around and wincing and occasionally shouting in pain. Now I can walk around the block twice a day, whee.
I hurt my knee in early April and I don't even know how! I have one guess... the second guess is 14-18 lb cats sleeping on my foot and twisting my ankle while I sleep at night. I'm now of the age that I had forgotten that this was the knee that did that thing before! All of the Mercedes wrenching on my thread last month was basically done with me limping around and wincing and occasionally shouting in pain. Now I can walk around the block twice a day, whee.
Now, some brake bleeding stuff, in the theme of this Emporium recently:
Thanks for the tip re. the brake fluid tester! I found what's probably the same danged thing for even a few bucks cheaper from Motiv (via amazon) and ordered it. OK, I think you can do with this with a VOM, but what the hey, at that price...
I bought my GTI in 1985 and the factory maintenance spec for brake fluid was a) DOT 4 and b) change every two years. Both of these things were fairly freaky & weird in those days.
For the longest time, I used a Gunsen's Eezi-Bleed, which is a bottle you hook up to your left front tire (having lowered it to 22 psi) and screw the cap on the other hose to your master cylinder and watch it swell like a balloon (scary!) but it pretty much worked. (And in my pre-compressor days, this meant going out and filling the tire back up. Which eventually turned into "find a gas station left in this town with a real air hose." (Also because this was during my autox years and I'd be filling up my air tank, too.)
Lately I'm trying all sorts of things for brake bleeding. I bought a CAPRI tools vacuum bleeder that looks like some others in this thread, similar price. (The Blue Point is better in that it has a wide footprint and won't fall over. Mine falls over easily and gets knocked about, nearly trod upon, etc.)
CAPRI tools bleeder is now $94.
I have bought a replacement hose because I couldn't find my original one.
(This, of course made the old one show up.)
I first bought one of those garden kneeling pads but the target for your knees was so small! Got this big, soft inch-thick pad and you can tussle with fuse boxes and under other-dash things while kneeling on concrete and readjust your position and not worry so much about where the mat is. Like the pit mats, I didn't realize I needed this bit of civilization until I had it!
And now for the creme de resistance: ****-O-MATIC. Eric O. has his own things he says in his shop to amuse himself, me, I have my own lingo, like saying ****-O-MATIC when I use one of three fluid sucking tools, or saying "Kroil -- the oil for creeps" when I reach for the orange can of penetrant.
Take your vaccum bleeder and add 1/4" copper tubing. First I started out with the next size down (whatever that is) and that kinda worked. I bought a foot-long scrap from my friendly Ace Hardware, but then... I lost it in the shop. Also, I wondered if the bleeder ****** rubber could accept the next size up, so I got some more copper tubing. (This time, I bought a bunch, so I could build different shapes for different tasks if need be, and, of course, if I lost my foot-long piece.)
This little bit of copper tubing -- don't bottom it out in the rubber ******! -- is a great thing for emptying things of fluid. Mostly master cylinder reservoirs and power steering reservoirs. Very civilized, no spills, the turkey baster gathers dust now. I've also used it on differential oil.
First attempt on a differential, room temperature 75W-90 Mobil 1 gear oil inside a differential. Nope. No dice. This was back when I was using the smaller diameter copper tubing. Now that I have the 1/4" OD copper tubing, I have used it on the other differential on the same Durango, remove silly rubber plug in stamped steel diff cover, insert bent copper tube, work it down low and SCHNORRRK that oil out of there! Just like an annoying kid with a milkshake, you'll know when the straw is sucking wind, and can move the tube about trying to find a deeper pocket of oil.
Oh, and I also use it for the silly oil filter housing on the modern BMW. Squeeze handle, let ****-O-Matic remove all the excess oil you see puddled up down in there.
Bought my tubing at a hardware store, but here's an amazon link:
Thanks for the tip re. the brake fluid tester! I found what's probably the same danged thing for even a few bucks cheaper from Motiv (via amazon) and ordered it. OK, I think you can do with this with a VOM, but what the hey, at that price...
I bought my GTI in 1985 and the factory maintenance spec for brake fluid was a) DOT 4 and b) change every two years. Both of these things were fairly freaky & weird in those days.
For the longest time, I used a Gunsen's Eezi-Bleed, which is a bottle you hook up to your left front tire (having lowered it to 22 psi) and screw the cap on the other hose to your master cylinder and watch it swell like a balloon (scary!) but it pretty much worked. (And in my pre-compressor days, this meant going out and filling the tire back up. Which eventually turned into "find a gas station left in this town with a real air hose." (Also because this was during my autox years and I'd be filling up my air tank, too.)
Lately I'm trying all sorts of things for brake bleeding. I bought a CAPRI tools vacuum bleeder that looks like some others in this thread, similar price. (The Blue Point is better in that it has a wide footprint and won't fall over. Mine falls over easily and gets knocked about, nearly trod upon, etc.)
CAPRI tools bleeder is now $94.
I have bought a replacement hose because I couldn't find my original one.
(This, of course made the old one show up.)
I first bought one of those garden kneeling pads but the target for your knees was so small! Got this big, soft inch-thick pad and you can tussle with fuse boxes and under other-dash things while kneeling on concrete and readjust your position and not worry so much about where the mat is. Like the pit mats, I didn't realize I needed this bit of civilization until I had it!
And now for the creme de resistance: ****-O-MATIC. Eric O. has his own things he says in his shop to amuse himself, me, I have my own lingo, like saying ****-O-MATIC when I use one of three fluid sucking tools, or saying "Kroil -- the oil for creeps" when I reach for the orange can of penetrant.
Take your vaccum bleeder and add 1/4" copper tubing. First I started out with the next size down (whatever that is) and that kinda worked. I bought a foot-long scrap from my friendly Ace Hardware, but then... I lost it in the shop. Also, I wondered if the bleeder ****** rubber could accept the next size up, so I got some more copper tubing. (This time, I bought a bunch, so I could build different shapes for different tasks if need be, and, of course, if I lost my foot-long piece.)
This little bit of copper tubing -- don't bottom it out in the rubber ******! -- is a great thing for emptying things of fluid. Mostly master cylinder reservoirs and power steering reservoirs. Very civilized, no spills, the turkey baster gathers dust now. I've also used it on differential oil.
First attempt on a differential, room temperature 75W-90 Mobil 1 gear oil inside a differential. Nope. No dice. This was back when I was using the smaller diameter copper tubing. Now that I have the 1/4" OD copper tubing, I have used it on the other differential on the same Durango, remove silly rubber plug in stamped steel diff cover, insert bent copper tube, work it down low and SCHNORRRK that oil out of there! Just like an annoying kid with a milkshake, you'll know when the straw is sucking wind, and can move the tube about trying to find a deeper pocket of oil.
Oh, and I also use it for the silly oil filter housing on the modern BMW. Squeeze handle, let ****-O-Matic remove all the excess oil you see puddled up down in there.
Bought my tubing at a hardware store, but here's an amazon link:
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