What did you do "IN" your garage today?

[Beerhippie]

Morning is off to an interesting start.

The kitchen vent fan started popping its breaker last night. We had to shut down the griddle, limiting our menu for the evening.

I got out the ol' Fluke 112 DMM and Fluke 1410 amp clamp. I hate that clamp--it needs a new battery every time I need to use it, but it works. Confirmed that fan was not over drawing. Tightened all terminals in the system--none were loose. Replaced the breaker and it's now been running for 45 minutes. Hope that got it.

Could I have fixed that last night? You don't just run down to the LHS for a 20A 230V Square D QO breaker and all the electricians are closed on Sunday, so no.

One of the printers for our POS system (POS stands for Point Of Sale--and that other thing) went down during the day. I checked it out this AM. Surely, some one checked to see if it was out of printer paper? Nope. Mystery error light explained.

Let's see what's up next on my dance card....

 

[Outlawmws]

Surely, some one checked to see if it was out of printer paper? Nope. Mystery error light explained.

At least it was plugged in...

 

[rzims]

It's been a busy few weeks. I ended up selling the 93 ford ranger and bought an 02 f250.
It's got 170k on it and is in pretty good shape. Just completely neglected, filthy and not maintained.
A buddy and I started in 2 weeks ago, between ordering parts and cleaning and working on it, its really come along nicely.
New shocks and steering stabilizer. New brake pads and rotors, a/c compressor, serpentine belt, pkugs and wires, battery, tires and 2" leveling kit and its pretty much done.
Thank goodness I got it for a good price...

 

[Beerhippie]

At least it was plugged in...

The error light wouldn't be blinking then, would it?

Actually, I love things like this. I get some smug satisfaction from seeing the look on someone's face when I fix the problem by plugging something in.

Now to see if the kitchen vent fan is still running... that would be nice. If not, it's a trip to the roof.

 

[zimman]

The last tool box from Storage. Had to have the better half help with this one. all 4 casters rotate and that's stupid. LOL
Need some new liners so on the way to HF. Film at 11.
Zim


Inside the lid when I opened it. Some places still make good calanders. LOL



Running out of room.

 

[Outlawmws]

Inside the lid when I opened it. Some places still make good calanders. LOL

Well they did in 2016...

 

[Beerhippie]

Some places still make good calanders. LOL

Used to be, the trick to getting the "good" calendars from the FLAPS was to ask. They kept those behind the counter so as not to draw the wrath and ire of the dreaded Church Ladies. The ones by the cash register had pictures of fully-clad cars, trucks and tractors.

 

[rharman]

< snip >
One of the printers for our POS system (POS stands for Point Of Sale--and that other thing) went down during the day. I checked it out this AM. Surely, some one checked to see if it was out of printer paper? Nope. Mystery error light explained.

Let's see what's up next on my dance card....
< /snip >

At least it was plugged in...

At a long ago employer (a department store chain), we once had to send someone out to a remote site to troubleshoot a computer terminal that was down. Since the cabling system was a daisy chain, it actually took down several terminals and a printer at the customer service counter. Not a good thing on a Friday afternoon.

Someone had been on the phone with them for quite a while before we decided to send someone. It was an almost 2-hour drive due to Friday afternoon rush hour traffic. Our guy gets there and discovers that a data cable connector on the terminal was unscrewed. We figured someone waiting at the counter was fiddling with it and unscrewed it. Even though we had asked the user about it, they missed it. Literally a 1-minute fix after all that drive - and then having to drive back in traffic.

Right after that, we issued instructions to all the stores to put up a barrier around all the terminals at the stores to keep people away from the cables. And, I put together a training curriculum and classes for the store maintenance folks on basic introduction and troubleshooting, for all the IT equipment in the stores. Pictures, descriptions on what the equipment did, and excerpts of relevant manual pages.

 

[Beerhippie]

Literally a 1-minute fix after all that drive - and then having to drive back in traffic.

Billed, I hope, for five hours of time. One hour minimum, plus transit, plus mileage.

If we need to call a tech out here, it's minimum 5 hours each way (more often 6-8) plus accommodations and meals, plus hourly rate. That's why I have a job.

Seems last time we had to get a tech out for a couple of days, the bill ran about $10K.

 

[Skyman]

Surely, some one checked to see if it was out of printer paper? Nope. Mystery error light explained.

Same crew on duty that had torn the sink off the wall?

 

[rharman]

Billed, I hope, for five hours of time. One hour minimum, plus transit.

If we need to call a tech out here, it's minimum 5 hours each way (more often 6-8) plus accommodations and meals, plus hourly rate. That's why I have a job.

No billing - Corporate office was there to support the stores - they brought in the $$. The store should have given him dinner though.

Yeah, I'm always amazed at the breadth of stuff you have to support as a one-man band.

 

[Jgaz]

Yeah, I'm always amazed at the breadth of stuff you have to support as a one-man band.

Amen @rharman.
I've got on thing to add.
@Beerhippie, seeing how your job discription cover every f#$&ing thing in that facility, there is no damn way you’d be on some shaky *** ladder trimming trees!

 

[Beerhippie]

there is no damn way you’d be on some shaky *** ladder trimming trees!

My title is Plant Manager. Among other things, I manage the plants.

Mowed some lawns that dried out a bit today. Trimmed some weeds back.

Then finished a couple of projects.



That's done. I even put a new edge on the mattock side:





And that's done.

I think they look a little better than they did on Friday:

 

[Outlawmws]

Is the mattock going into the Brick?

 

[Wrench97]

At least it was plugged in...

And wasn't on the same breaker as the kitchen fan.....

 

[Snip's]

Did some maintenance on my wife's Ford Explorer today...
Drained out 5 qts of Motorcraft Mercon LV transmission fluid and refilled it with fresh...
Took it for a spin on the freeway to warm up the fluid...
Stopped by Walmarts and picked up five 5 quart jugs of Mobile 1 motor oil as it seems to be going up in price for some darn reason..
Then back home to check the fluid level...
All is well now...

 

[Beerhippie]

Is the mattock going into the Brick?

Nope. It'll be grubbing out some stumps from the trees in the lawn that blew down last winter. I'll be getting on that when we go back to our "shoulder season" hours--soon.

 

[Old Man Roger]

The last tool box from Storage. Had to have the better half help with this one. all 4 casters rotate and that's stupid. LOL
Need some new liners so on the way to HF. Film at 11.
Zim


Inside the lid when I opened it. Some places still make good calanders. LOL



Running out of room.

I like my carts to have 4 swivels. I have some tool boxes like that too.

 

[Burt Shaver]

Put a few tools away and changed the nylon pawl in my little ms250

 

[Beerhippie]

I like my carts to have 4 swivels. I have some tool boxes like that too.

I hate four swivels. Seems they can never all agree on one direction to go, and if they do, it's the wrong one.

 

[Old Man Roger]

I hate four swivels. Seems they can never all agree on one direction to go, and if they do, it's the wrong one.

It makes it possible to position it between things. You can roll it straight back, sideways, swing it around, rotate it in place, pull it closer to you while sitting under the hood, push it away. Very convenient.

 

[Beerhippie]

It makes it possible to position it between things. You can roll it straight back, sideways, swing it around, rotate it in place, pull it closer to you while sitting under the hood, push it away. Very convenient.

All of which happen when I'm trying to go in a straight line!

 

[ObnoxiousFumes]

I hate that clamp--it needs a new battery every time I need to use it, but it works.

I have a cheap set of machinists approximeters that do that as well, I just leave the battery loose in the case till I need it.

 

[Skyman]

I have a cheap set of machinists approximeters that do that as well, I just leave the battery loose in the case till I need it.

I started doing the same, but mostly to prevent leakage and corrosion within the device it lives in. I'm using up my inventory of POS alkaline cells and migrating to non-rechargeable lithium.

 

[mikegt4]

Spent some time going through boxes of motorcycle parts. A very good lifelong friend (there were only 48 states when we met) offered me 2 old motorcycles as he is living in another country and can't import them. They were in storage at his son's house and have been totally disassembled for many decades. His kids have no interest in them or anything that doesn't have a computer screen, these bikes would surely end up in a dumpster if something happened to my friend.

One is a 1970 BSA 750 triple that I sold to him circa 1980 and the other is a 1973 Norton 850 that a mutual friend sold to him in the 1980's. Included is enough parts to convert the BSA from the stock Flash Gordon styling to a Vetter designed Triumph Hurricane. I don't know when or even if I will ever have the time to restore them, I have put about 5 years into restoring my 1966 BSA 650 Spitfire MK11 that I got from the same friend in 1973 and it's still only about half done.

For those on this forum whose parents were still in diapers when these bikes ruled the road I added some photos and one of my Spitfire from 1973 when I got it from my friend who acquired it in 1969.

 

[Motorman55]

Started the day by putting the '74 FLH Harley's battery on charge. Going to be doing some maintenace and tune up shorty. It's also due for a new 530 rear chain swap which I have in stock. Should get to that by next week.

After that I spent the day sorting, seperating and boxing up all the loose supplies/tools, ect. Even boxed up, they're still taking up a lot of room on the garage floor. At least now I know what I have and can start rearranging all the tool boxes to fit these things in and the floor will finally be clear once again.

Then I took some time and mounted a couple of my motorcycle related posters onto new foam backing boards. These two I hung up on the left side wall. I have others that will get the same treatment.

Oh yeah, yesterday I started framing the upper left side wall continuing with the red paint border color. Funny thing, the new Krylon 'Gloss Banner Red' paint doesn't exactly match the old Krylon 'Gloss Banner Red' I painted on the main wall trim and door a few years ago. Oh well...

Also framed out the Fire Extinquisher decal with some thin wood trim painted black just for "shits and giggles". Little details to add to the overall shop theme.

Here's a couple pics...

 

[TurnipTruck]

I’m slowly converting an 8N from points/6v/positive ground/generator to electronic ignition/12v/neg gnd/alternator for an oldertimer while enjoying maybe the last nice open door day.


For a distraction from that, I finally installed a 240v “compressor ON” reminder light and wired it to the motor starter leads in the disconnect.

(The cord under the disconnect powers the electric blowdown)

 

[Jgaz]

Spent some time going through boxes of motorcycle parts. A very good lifelong friend (there were only 48 states when we met) offered me 2 old motorcycles as he is living in another country and can't import them. They were in storage at his son's house and have been totally disassembled for many decades. His kids have no interest in them or anything that doesn't have a computer screen, these bikes would surely end up in a dumpster if something happened to my friend.

One is a 1970 BSA 750 triple that I sold to him circa 1980 and the other is a 1973 Norton 850 that a mutual friend sold to him in the 1980's. Included is enough parts to convert the BSA from the stock Flash Gordon styling to a Vetter designed Triumph Hurricane. I don't know when or even if I will ever have the time to restore them, I have put about 5 years into restoring my 1966 BSA 650 Spitfire MK11 that I got from the same friend in 1973 and it's still only about half done.

For those on this forum whose parents were still in diapers when these bikes ruled the road I added some photos and one of my Spitfire from 1973 when I got it from my friend who acquired it in 1969.

Love the Norton

 

[bmwrd0]

One is a 1970 BSA 750 triple that I sold to him circa 1980 and the other is a 1973 Norton 850 that a mutual friend sold to him in the 1980's. Included is enough parts to convert the BSA from the stock Flash Gordon styling to a Vetter designed Triumph Hurricane. I don't know when or even if I will ever have the time to restore them, I have put about 5 years into restoring my 1966 BSA 650 Spitfire MK11 that I got from the same friend in 1973 and it's still only about half done.

When I was a little kid in the seventies, my brother and I spent a couple glorious afternoons riding his Honda 50 around Craig Vetters hill top mansion. He was a friend of a friend of my fathers. Cool guy.

I spent yesterday unpacking and then staring at, and finally coming up with a solution of where to put this:

 

[SMOKEYBEAR]

A bit of wire wheeling my restore finds, some clean up on the belt sander, fresh paint using what I already had on hand. The small one is teh Bonney, the large one is 40oz USA made but I can not find the manufacturer. The larger one took a bit of grinding to cleanup the deterioration, not 40 oz any longer. Probably let them cure for a few days before I put handles on them. Set some walnut out, pulled some measurements for a "C" table I'm going to attempt to make. New seats for the boat are supposed to ship Wed or Thurs, maybe these projects will get wrapped up before they arrive, I'm expecting ground shipping which will take some time.

 

[bugnut]

spent the day fiddling on the bench with the nilights and electrical connections for the replacement lights on the baja , not much progress

 

[Hal]

Every quick job is just one broken bolt away from a three day nightmare. This one was just one problem after another. Thank you rust belt.

All day job on a 2004 Hyundai wheel bearing. Partly a paid job, partly a favor to a friend.
Job started going south at the ABS sensor. Wrung off the first 6 mm bolt that we tried to remove. Well that won’t come out, let’s unhook the wires in the engine compartment.. plug wouldn’t come apart, so you’re buying a new ABSsensor.

Brake rotor fought us to the last quarter inch, needs to be replaced, but won’t be today.
Hub wouldn’t come off with my big slam puller, so remove the knuckle and put it in the press.

Hub out, snap ring won’t come out to remove bearing. Don’t have a new one, so can’t just destroy it. Fifteen minutes- half an hour of screwing around, got it out.

Sketchy setup in the press, bearing won’t move. Ripped the guts out of it and welded several heavy beads on the inside of the outer race. After it cooled it almost fell out. Drilled out and re-tapped the broken bolt, even though we won’t be installing ABS sensor right now.

Got everything reassembled, and he backed off the lift, forgot to remove the wheel chock, backed over it and ripped off the front bumper cover.

So the car now needs the following:
Upper control arm on the opposite side.
Pads and rotors on the front, and probably all around.
ABS sensor and wiring.
Zip ties, duct tape and whatever to patch the bumper.

I got my money for the parts, and a good tip. He doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to get some time out of him on the firewood project.

 

[WisJim]

One is a 1970 BSA 750 triple that I sold to him circa 1980 and the other is a 1973 Norton 850 that a mutual friend sold to him in the 1980's. Included is enough parts to convert the BSA from the stock Flash Gordon styling to a Vetter designed Triumph Hurricane. I don't know when or even if I will ever have the time to restore them, I have put about 5 years into restoring my 1966 BSA 650 Spitfire MK11 that I got from the same friend in 1973 and it's still only about half done.

Those bring back memories. When I bought my first new motorcycle in 1967, a 350 Yamaha YR1, from a BSA/Yamaha dealer, I would have bought a BSA Spitfire except that it was so expensive --over $1000! I always liked what Vetter did and in more recent years I looked at some Nortons before deciding that I shouldn't ride anymore.

 

[Skyman]

Every quick job is just one broken bolt away from a three day nightmare. This one was just one problem after another. Thank you rust belt.

All day job on a 2004 Hyundai wheel bearing. Partly a paid job, partly a favor to a friend.
Job started going south at the ABS sensor. Wrung off the first 6 mm bolt that we tried to remove. Well that won’t come out, let’s unhook the wires in the engine compartment.. plug wouldn’t come apart, so you’re buying a new ABSsensor.

Brake rotor fought us to the last quarter inch, needs to be replaced, but won’t be today.
Hub wouldn’t come off with my big slam puller, so remove the knuckle and put it in the press.

Hub out, snap ring won’t come out to remove bearing. Don’t have a new one, so can’t just destroy it. Fifteen minutes- half an hour of screwing around, got it out.

Sketchy setup in the press, bearing won’t move. Ripped the guts out of it and welded several heavy beads on the inside of the outer race. After it cooled it almost fell out. Drilled out and re-tapped the broken bolt, even though we won’t be installing ABS sensor right now.

Got everything reassembled, and he backed off the lift, forgot to remove the wheel chock, backed over it and ripped off the front bumper cover.

So the car now needs the following:
Upper control arm on the opposite side.
Pads and rotors on the front, and probably all around.
ABS sensor and wiring.
Zip ties, duct tape and whatever to patch the bumper.

I got my money for the parts, and a good tip. He doesn’t know it yet, but I’m going to get some time out of him on the firewood project.

That job sure grew fangs!

 

[racecougar]

Spent last night in the shop diagnosing a random part throttle misfire on the 2004 Mustang GT. No pending DTC's, smoke tested for vacuum leaks, removed and tested the EGR valve, then happened to notice through a small gap by the headlamp that I could see the air filter laying down inside the front bumper cover. It's supposed to be up in the fender, NOT down in the bumper cover. Pulled the MAF, found it to be quite dirty from the missing air filter, and reassembled everything. A ten mile test drive proved that that was the root cause. While it ***** that the engine was run at all without the air filter, at most, it could have only been for ~100 miles.

 

[Outlawmws]

Yesterday got the switch panel "mechanically" finished except for the main power switch, which was ordered. Waiting to confirm the hole size needed. The spring clip was transferred from the old switch, adn the plastic catches on the other end emulated with spacers and washers. I also discovered the easy way to install and remove the switch is to push it against the spring clip adn simply lift the catch end out... Who knew? (certainly neither the FSM nor on line references ever said anything about it.)

Got the schematic for this part copied and planned the wiring. also found the color code translation page and will mark up my copy better and make my planned mods for the power switch.

 

[Beerhippie]

Spent last night in the shop diagnosing a random part throttle misfire on the 2004 Mustang GT. No pending DTC's, smoke tested for vacuum leaks, removed and tested the EGR valve, then happened to notice through a small gap by the headlamp that I could see the air filter laying down inside the front bumper cover. It's supposed to be up in the fender, NOT down in the bumper cover. Pulled the MAF, found it to be quite dirty from the missing air filter, and reassembled everything. A ten mile test drive proved that that was the root cause. While it ***** that the engine was run at all without the air filter, at most, it could have only been for ~100 miles.

AF is one of these sort?

 

[racecougar]

AF is one of these sort?

I think it has a S&B on it, but similar.

 

[Beerhippie]

I think it has a S&B on it, but similar.

K&N clones. Alright for road use, but mine is on a Vanagon that lives on dirt and gravel. I have to clean that thing after every drive or it looks like this:



and it's no longer a high-flow filter. That was after 100 miles of the rough.

 

[racecougar]

Yeah, this Mustang doesn't see the same environment that my Chenowth does.