Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT 3rd time's a charm with a 3 car workshop

[wreckdiver1321]

Watching the landscaping carefully. I hate the way my house is landscaped and need some ideas for next summer.

As if I don't have enough to do already.

 

[Trapps]

"I made the bold(and likely reckless) decision to cut my 3 yr old daughters hair without the wife's approval or even presence..."

We can postulate, after reading this thread that you are in fact, not reckless, or stupid. Ergo we can also surmise that you are not just bold, but incredibly brave. I assume you tote your stones in a wheelbarrow; something like a Jackson M6.

 

[loganb]

Logan,
My kids are 29, 28, and 22 and the telling mom right away does not seem to get better.....


Wrench rack looks great.

Jason

Way to ruin my future hopes...lol. I was kinda guilty of that too....Dad had/has a habit of buying equipment for the farm/personal(2 different bank accounts) and although he's the one in charge on the work one and Mom trusts him on the personal account I have made the mistake of mentioning new purchases in earshot of others before they knew(generally before said new item showed up....and we're talking farm equipment or large machining stuff...not small items that can be hidden easier . Brother and I learned to not talk about "it" until "it" was obviously home and had been shared with others!

I have a strong visualization of this. "Awww, look at the cute little baby wrench! And it's cute little baby sister wrench, awww. And this one is the mama wrench!"

She did take the 12mm over to a variety of her items to "fix them"...then told me it was her's and she wasn't giving it back....so I may be in trouble!

Not sure if this has a broad audience (I'd suspect most readers on here are either in the camp of knowing CAD proficiently / using it for work, or not knowing CAD and aren't trying to learn). But personally I'd find it interesting and useful. Fortunate to live in an age when so much is Googleable and YouTubeable, but with professional software sometimes Google can only get you so far.

I've been using parameters a lot, but still trying to figure out how and why the model adjusts the way it does when they are changed. I assume it has a lot to do with constraints, maybe the original "direction" of extrudes, etc. Sometimes it works great, other times I get an unpredictable result or broken model and unsure why.

I'll do my best to share what I did...at least it'll be an example of what not to do!

Logan, my grandfather wanted to surprise my mother by trimming my hair when I was 4 or 5. I loved my grandfather so when he started cutting with his manual clippers I thought it would be quick. I also thought it would be painless but didn't make a peep when some of the hair pulled out rather than being cut.

He probably only spent an hour but it seemed like a whole day to me. Apparently the hard part was getting it even so the short hair part of my cut ended up on top of my head. My mother, who also loved my grandfather, praised his attempt and proceeded to finish the job with scissors. Rather than make my grandfather sad or embarrassed, my brother and I wore our hair that way for a decade (short in the back, party up front). We also wore grandpa style pants.

Now that's a great story and memory Bob...thx for sharing it! I've been involved in some similar "cover ups" that way but never for 10 years...you were just doing the reverse mullet before it was cool! And seeing that old style trimmer makes me super thankful for todays electric ones with replaceable blades to stay sharp!

 

[loganb]

"I made the bold(and likely reckless) decision to cut my 3 yr old daughters hair without the wife's approval or even presence..."

We can postulate, after reading this thread that you are in fact, not reckless, or stupid. Ergo we can also surmise that you are not just bold, but incredibly brave. I assume you tote your stones in a wheelbarrow; something like a Jackson M6.

Well while I appreciate the sentiment, I think that honor goes to @tj675

See I made my bold charge or foolish foray into battle against a much less experienced adversary....in summary:

My hair care target is known to be:

• Easily distracted with offers of minor pieces of candy or demonstrating long forgotten toys with an amateur display of enthusiasm around the most minor toy
• Extremely excited about ridiculous hair combinations(6 pony tails + 1 braid for example) so an oops could be called a "unique feature"
• Prone to out of the blue wild yelling spurts with no discernable cause but with the saving fact their life span is similar to that of a case of beer at a frat party and memory of why they occurred lasts even less once they're over
• Very limited experience means definition of success is "fluid" and is primarily driven by my emotions

TJ's willing hair care client/victim/unknowing participant due to hypnosis on the other hand is probably more like the following stereotype...

• Significant experience sniffing out distraction and misdirects don't work
• Often gets frustrated with the hair even when it appears to be just what was desired
• Having done this probably several hundred times creates black and white success criteria she defines and even an Oscar winning performance of awe over a haircut wouldn't change a negative opinion
• Possess a Library of Congress level filing system to catalog any missteps, putting significant risk of reliving the errant "snip" for years to come

So with that said....I think it leads to a couple potential scenarios:

• He practiced sufficiently with enough "low risk" clients that a Covid era emergency haircut was deemed better than the alternative
• He is or has been a barber...semi related to above bullet about low risk clients...
• He was secretly hoping that the result would be so poorly received he would be banished for a few hours or maybe even days to the heated, cooled and insulated peace and quiet of his workshop to do as he pleased....

Regardless of how pure his motive was, his is the true demonstration of valor and I merely walk behind in his shadow

 

[bj383ss]

Not having any girls in my house except my wife all of these things are out of my realm but I am enjoying from sideline.


Bret

 

[loganb]

Watching the landscaping carefully. I hate the way my house is landscaped and need some ideas for next summer.

As if I don't have enough to do already.

Don't get the hopes up too high Tom....the extent of the landscaping work I believe is primarily going to be the following:

• Locations with mulch....add more mulch
• Locations with rock....add more rock, except in spots where I think it's foolish and decide to turn into mulch
• Locations with grass....pour $$$'s into ground via chemicals and fertilizer to make grass grow faster, except in locations where it's determined to remove grass and add mulch or rock

It is getting time to stain my roughly 300' of fence that went in fall of 2020 after we bought the house. I'm like Tom and don't have enough to do already so although this isn't a necessarily hard job I'm probably going to hire this out. Got 1 estimate yesterday, another supposed to come thru today to review the project and get a number to me on Wednesday. I was pleasantly surprised that they were roughly a month out on lead time, with as many houses and decks I see going up I was expecting a bigger backlog.

No idea what color the wife will pick....she's the color person not me.

 

[tj675]

Well while I appreciate the sentiment, I think that honor goes to @tj675

See I made my bold charge or foolish foray into battle against a much less experienced adversary....in summary:

My hair care target is known to be:

• Easily distracted with offers of minor pieces of candy or demonstrating long forgotten toys with an amateur display of enthusiasm around the most minor toy
• Extremely excited about ridiculous hair combinations(6 pony tails + 1 braid for example) so an oops could be called a "unique feature"
• Prone to out of the blue wild yelling spurts with no discernable cause but with the saving fact their life span is similar to that of a case of beer at a frat party and memory of why they occurred lasts even less once they're over
• Very limited experience means definition of success is "fluid" and is primarily driven by my emotions

TJ's willing hair care client/victim/unknowing participant due to hypnosis on the other hand is probably more like the following stereotype...

• Significant experience sniffing out distraction and misdirects don't work
• Often gets frustrated with the hair even when it appears to be just what was desired
• Having done this probably several hundred times creates black and white success criteria she defines and even an Oscar winning performance of awe over a haircut wouldn't change a negative opinion
• Possess a Library of Congress level filing system to catalog any missteps, putting significant risk of reliving the errant "snip" for years to come

So with that said....I think it leads to a couple potential scenarios:

• He practiced sufficiently with enough "low risk" clients that a Covid era emergency haircut was deemed better than the alternative
• He is or has been a barber...semi related to above bullet about low risk clients...
• He was secretly hoping that the result would be so poorly received he would be banished for a few hours or maybe even days to the heated, cooled and insulated peace and quiet of his workshop to do as he pleased....

Regardless of how pure his motive was, his is the true demonstration of valor and I merely walk behind in his shadow

This has to be one of my favorite posts. In all honesty I found a good video on YouTube and just followed along. My wife’s hair was down to her waist, so there was still plenty left if I screwed it up. Hardest part was adding texture to the ends.

I won the lottery with her. She’s super understanding with most of my antics (she’s about done with emergency room trips though) and likes working side by side in the shop.

 

[loganb]

I think someone said stones? Not to be crude....but I got stones....

Lots of little ones



Some big ones:



And more big ones



And some much bigger then that...and lots more yet to uncover and move. Think I've moved 3 carts of the small river rock and 4 carts so far of the larger stuff, if I didn't have a place for the rocks in other areas I might have posted some ad's for "free rocks, you remove" and let others claw thru them but I think I have locations for a good chunk of them so for now they're getting moved to the backyard.

Tomorrow I stop working so hard and I'm hooking that cart up to the mower and moving it around the easy way...

Starting to uncover bare dirt though which is nice


It also highlights how much dirt will be needed to put a bit of a hill thru the middle for water to fall off....

But since this is GJ and the Unofficial Motto...or maybe the credo is introducing new tools and similar items to folks who didn't know they needed it to solve problems they may never have...tonight's addition is the Root Slayer, available here at Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1CCIWH/?tag=atomicindus08-20

And taking a rest from action



Strong, sharp reverse V-tip to help cut thru roots, teeth cut into the sides of the spade and a nice round handle helps put some heft into that downward heave. Originally bought to help take a half dozen yucca's out which have a taproot like dandelions on steroids. It's gotten some work here ripping out some roots from some evergreen bushy things that had been cut out and doesn't complain one bit when you lean on it hard to help pop something out

 

[Bob Heine]

tonight's addition is the Root Slayer, available here at Amazon

Logan, great minds think alike. Liane saw one being used on Oak Island and said she needed it. I bought an imitation around Christmas but had to get the real thing in January. Turns out it's too heavy for her. You have to be careful with it, pretty sure dropping it on a steel toed shoe will be followed by a trip to the emergency room. I do expect to cut through a few sprinkler lines with it.

 

[loganb]

This has to be one of my favorite posts. In all honesty I found a good video on YouTube and just followed along. My wife’s hair was down to her waist, so there was still plenty left if I screwed it up. Hardest part was adding texture to the ends.

Glad I added some humor! And I had a similar thought process....I started several inches below the line where I figured fire and brimstone may appear if I crossed it so I had room to "fix" my mistake if necessary.

Logan, great minds think alike. Liane saw one being used on Oak Island and said she needed it. I bought an imitation around Christmas but had to get the real thing in January. Turns out it's too heavy for her. You have to be careful with it, pretty sure dropping it on a steel toed shoe will be followed by a trip to the emergency room. I do expect to cut through a few sprinkler lines with it.

Definitely not a tool I mess around with wearing sandals! I had never tried to remove yucca's but there were 5 or 6 at our Chicago house I eventually got pissed at and started to dig up and after breaking a normal spade and my motivation never getting the first one out I called in this as the reinforcement and it sped up the job immensely! Had 1 season after digging them up before we left and they hadn't come back yet....but that could've been the Tordon stump killer I painted any remaining tap roots with as well!

And yeah....I have a sprinkler repair bag I've put together...haven't used it yet for a line repair due to a shovel....but it's coming I know

Haven't gotten much done recently thanks to silly life getting in the way, but a few things here and there

Printed a can holder I found on Printables.com that I liked as it was very minimal and appeared to be effective. Seems to work well, have an overnight print of 8 going right now, right at 1 hour per holder.





File for download available here:

https://www.printables.com/model/52522-snap-in-spray-can-holder

Also found a hammer/mallet holder for Pegboard/Wall Control board I liked



Snaps in very tight to the pegboard, deadblow thanks to the Menards Deal thread...I like this holder enough need to print a couple more sets of this for others that need hung up

Magic delivery door was also good to me....well good to deliver projects I now have fewer excuses to put off

This one is just insurance but the capacitor for the AC compressor, cheap insurance to ensure it doesn't fail when I have the part to replace it immediately


And then thanks to @Denwood the Speedibleed for brake bleeding. This weekend is all planned on landscape to take advantage of temps in the 50's and 60's but using this bad boy is in the near-ish future for both vehicles.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I spy some T-9 Boeshield! You almost had to put a deposit down when I was growing up, to be able to walk out of the shed with "grandpa's can" of it

 

[loganb]

Saturdays high was in the mid 50's which meant I could over exert my back and shoulder without sweating...awesome!

Nothing too exciting.... lot more mulch and rock moving along with digging out stumps




Neighborhood "helpers" dropped by... not a ton of help but did entertain the daughter for a bit



Started laying out a little project while momma was out and kids were napping:



And little one wanted to help clean up... couldn't say no



Think there is a couple loads of rock left to move, then can start tilling up and getting some new dirt in... not sure if I'll get that far today or not

 

[loganb]

Wet last couple of days which gave a chance to get fertilizer on ensuring the never ending mowing is...well never ending

Most of this went on..some was held back for round 2 in a month or two. A slow(milorganite) and fast release(straight urea) nitrogen then also sulfur to see if it can lower pH a bit...relatively cheap experiment.



Couple little projects in process update:

CNC router project...nothing...excuse has been haven't had enough time in a block to get started...but it's an excuse

Wrench rack: some material for it showed up to do some trials



New project....aerosol can holder started to come to life with install of the prototype. Goal here is to use the dead space between the hanging totes for a pair of 24" drawer slides and a piece of ply to mount spray bottle holders. They're about the right size for the space and up and out of the reach range of the daughter for many years to come...


So some "L" brackets were drawn up and 3D printed. Hard to see but the back one does have an extra stiffening rib



Scrap piece of ply I had, final pieces will be taller



Front view...a handle will get added and possible a "full front" to put some type of label...not sure yet



And slid back



The height of a standard can aligns with the bottom of the hanging totes so no headroom over that bench/saw area is lost. It's a good first prototype but need to modify the mounting points vertically as right now it's a bit wobbly left to right due to all the mounting points being on the one side. May also thicken up the top horizontal leg that sits against the plywood above and add a web to further improve stiffness. Would love to have Rev1 going overnight but the siren song of my work computer is too tempting and likely going to consume most of the time after kids go down so may not see Rev1 installed till after the long weekend

 

[loganb]

Well Rev1 did get completed last night and printed overnight

Lengthened it out an inch, enlarged a chamfer substantially to aid stability and added a hole thru it for additional fastening options, increased the thickness of the mounting leg and added a flange with mounting hole on the "backside"



Mounted and much stronger...big improvement. Downside is the extra mounting flange in the backside makes the whole assy a bit too wide even if it's over to the right a bit farther then shown here.



But it does work perfectly on the end location where there isn't a tub hanging on both sides so this one will live there and Rev2 will loose that extra mounting flange and probably gain a pocket hole style screw location instead

 

[slodat]

Why not do a captive nut and a bolt or machine screw from above? The captive bolts work great!

 

[loganb]

Few random things but most of the free time this week was occupied by work and getting ready for a joint 1 yr old bday party this afternoon. If weather holds its in the backyard....if not it moves over into the house and garage

Got back to the farm for bday lunch with my family...rhe daughter loves to "drive" the fire truck(former rural pumper truck now our water hauler for random needs)...grandpa may have a bigger grin there then she does





For the 3d printing fans...this one is for you, my bother's new printer a Voron V0.1. Absolutely not a beginners machine, 120mm x 120mm print bed so small, but wicked fast. With some tuning probably 2x to 3x the speed of his Prusa or Creality. Also with the shown enclosure it prints ABS and some of the other more persnickity materials very well. About a 20 hour assembly time with lots of little M2 and M3 fasteners....but its easily portable! This is making me think differently about my next addition...biggest difference on this vs others is what axis moves. This is whats called a Core XY and the bed only moves up and down for Z, the print head moves X and Y. Most printers are a Cartesian style and the bed moves forward/back for the Y, and the head moves side to side and up/down. Keeping the motion of the bed to the Z allows it to print faster due to reducing the mass of what's moving



Couple of quick pots(bought not built) for some mandevilla climbing flowers, did one last year(shown below after about a month or so) and we liked it so got 3 more to put one in front of each of the columns.



They're a super cheap big orange box wood pot for like $14 each so I dont expect much but did grab a can of spray sealer and sprayed the inside and bottoms to see if it helps them live a bit longer.






Working to finish burying a gutter drain....sure seems strange that 4" Fernco couplers(shown here) are cheaper(9.88 ea) than a 4" solvent weld...but works for me.




Fired up the sprinklers...which of course led to rain that night. The daughter woke up early and saw them on and had to go out and investigate at 6:20 in the morning....too early for frivolity but I wasn't going to start a fight over it




And gave the air compressor probably it's biggest workout in a long time....

 

[82355]

Been reading through your thread on and off the past week or so. Finished it tonight. Pretty interesting. Out of curiosity, as you had previously lived in Iowa, why not move to Council Bluffs when you moved from Chicago? The property taxes are much better on that side of the river.

Also, are you excited for Martinez this fall?

Martin

 

[loganb]

Been reading through your thread on and off the past week or so. Finished it tonight. Pretty interesting. Out of curiosity, as you had previously lived in Iowa, why not move to Council Bluffs when you moved from Chicago? The property taxes are much better on that side of the river.

Also, are you excited for Martinez this fall?

Martin

Wow, thanks for sticking around long enough to get to the end!

Great question about the taxes, we looked at the Iowa side hard but it ended up not being anything we considered as there just wasn't any properties available that met our needs at the time. When we were looking they were either smaller than we wanted, or larger and more "original" than we wanted and would've needed a number of updates that my wife wasn't fond of the idea of after the last 2 houses were both projects. Personally I would've loved to have gone back to a small acreage....but none of those were available either and even if we had found one we really wanted a neighborhood with younger families so make it easier for the kids to play and socialize with others....so the acreage was probably out of the picture at this point of our lives regardless....next house

I would've hit some resistance with the wife on Council Bluffs and commute time, but that would've been something we could manage had the right house been there. Her commute in Chicago was right at an hour each way(via train and walking) and she was tired of that, Council Bluffs would've been about 35 minute drive commute to her job(out west-ish on Dodge St) which is better but longer than she ideally wanted. But in the end there just weren't any properties available to really consider....I'd love to dump these ridiculous taxes though!

And I'm very excited about Martinez! I think he's a very talented athlete but never had the right pieces/system around him so am excited to see what he can do with a different system/coaching staff supporting him....especially Klein. If I'm honest....I'm a little excited to see his success so I can rub it in to some Husker fans I know....

 

[82355]

Yeah, I spent a lot of 2007 in the Eastern half of Kansas doing field service work on backup generators. It was a rough time to be a Nebraska fan there. The Kansas fans really let me know. Fortunately for me, the Ron Prince era was not a time for the K State fans to also pile on.

I am curious to see how he does there. I will always root for Big 8 teams.

Martin

 

[loganb]

Oh the Ron Prince era....I was at K-State when he was hired and sat in a couple small groups that he spoke at and he was a far better speaker and connector with the audience then he was a coach(using win/loss as the metric). Now he didn't have a high bar in terms of speaking to be better than his predecessor....Snyder is many things but will never be cited as a great example of work/life balance or an engaging and inspiring public speaker! Prince was one of the most engaging people I've heard speak in any line of work and wasn't as hard to see how he made the connections with the university he did to get hired with his rather weak track record....being essentially the home town kid didn't hurt his case either. He may have lasted longer had he not had a fatal flaw of never beating Nebraska, Missouri or the nail in the coffin of loosing every game to KU...that doesn't stand well losing to KU in basketball and football! But that was the high point of KU football...and the recent low for KSU.

I seriously miss the KSU/Nebraska rivalry and wish it would come back, was always a good Saturday as it was normally opening weekend of pheasant season and walk fields in the morning and be able to watch the game in the afternoon. Even if we lost more times then won it was a solid rivalry and something I think college football has lost over the last decade or so with all the conference realignments as everyone chases a bigger pot of money in the form of TV contracts.

 

[gearhead1960]

College rivalry's always brings a smile to my face. I'm a VT alumni and beating UVA 15 times in a row was so gratifying

 

[loganb]

College rivalry's always brings a smile to my face. I'm a VT alumni and beating UVA 15 times in a row was so gratifying

Not like you were counting or anything

I'm a fan of the fun/competitive rivalry's like K-State/KU have historically had....the rivalries deep seated in century long disputes (See KU & Mizzou) are a bit different for me in that they can be fun to watch the energy and emotion in the games but the fans quickly get out of hand and end up taking it too far in the surrounding communities. Couple guys I knew would pay for summer vacations with all the tire repair/replacement and hotel parking lot tire changes they'd do whenever Mizzou was in Lawrence for basketball due to people slashing tires. But that's a long seated battle going back to Civil War time (see Bushwackers and Jayhawkers)

 

[gearhead1960]

Oh yeah, you could always count on couches being burned, fans being spat on, etc. whenever VT played WV in WV....

 

[loganb]

Quick update

Birthday party was a success so that's one thing off the list:




However glad we had a rain plan as halfway thru it opened up and we had to make a quick transition inside. Still worked out well, everyone had a good time, just got to dry a couple shirts and toss out some towels as the guests were very helpful in getting stuff taken down in the rain which turned the garage into a drying zone after the party was over



More tool related stuff did come home with a used Honda "mini-tiller"


Seems to work well for what I need. I don't need and didn't want a big rear tine but kinda wanted something small enough I could easily find a home for it here and didn't feel like I needed to rent it so someone else stores it. Lightly used FB marketplace deal, came with the aerator and dethatcher attachment as well but has done a nice job so far on the big flower bed helping to level some things out and chop up the abundance of close to the surface roots




Also have brought home (2) yds of dirt so far...first yard is spread out, 2nd is still in the truck...that's this morning's goal after breakfast I hope. Inlaws are in and leaving this AM so will see how much I get done before the heat hits. I can back up to the landscape bed so was only 20 minutes to unload the first yard with a shovel which makes this far better than having to tote it around with a cart




And cussing the designers at Deere....z445 lawn mower and it filled the crankcase full of gas so suspecting the fuel shutoff solenoid on the carb bowl is bad. Have to loose some other stuff to get the carb out, then of course it's a part no autoparts stores have so waiting till Monday when the small engine shops are open and see if I can get it locally as not wanting to pay the green store 156 bucks for it....online found it for 60 to 70.




Did borrow the neighbors dual blade Toro walk behind...30" cut did my yard in about 40 minutes vs 25 for the zero turn....it did a very nice job and cut the clippings far finer than mine does even with the mulching blades on mine. Seriously considering a trade and moving to a larger walk behind now and freeing up more space in the yard shed for some of the other yard tools and such that don't stay in there now cause the rider takes up so much space.....always something!

 

[loganb]

And current state of the landscape bed project:




Still have rock to pull out on the far end and then it needs mini-tilled up and the dirt gets dropped there. (2) sprinkler heads need moved about 8" or so in order for the edging stone to be run down along the sidewalk, then drop mulch and run more edgers. Would love to get mulch over much of what is in the picture above today, but with everything going on and temps increasing it's unlikely. Some new plants for this area came home yesterday so it's gonna need to be plantable soon!

 

[tj675]

Those little Honda tillers are quite good. We use one to “weed” the garden every couple of weeks.

 

[loganb]

Those little Honda tillers are quite good. We use one to “weed” the garden every couple of weeks.

Great to hear! I was originally looking at the Mantis ones, but couldn't find any 4 cycle ones for a cheap enough price and didn't want another gas can laying around. Broadened the search and found the Honda's with good reviews so gave it a shot. There are a couple other flower bed areas we'd like to put in over the next year so figured couldn't go too wrong and if we don't use it much after a year or two can unload it for close to what I have in it.

 

[tj675]

Keep an eye on the little foam air filter. They get packed with dirt quickly.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Landscape work is looking good. Those 30" Toros really do a great job. I'd have one if I had a "town" yard.

 

[loganb]

Keep an eye on the little foam air filter. They get packed with dirt quickly.

Great tip....thank you TJ!

Those 30" Toros really do a great job. I'd have one if I had a "town" yard.

Super impressed with it...if they made a 34" or 36" I might have one ordered already. I have spent too many hours searching craigslist and FB marketplace learning more about what's out there for a wider walk behinds...unfortunately looks like the 30" Toro Timemaster is the biggest residential/consumer model out there and I've got around 12k sq ft of grass to mow and would like to have something faster than a 40 or 45 minute cut...yes I'm being picky and spoiled! To get a 36" walk behind it's to the commercial market which doesn't bother me a bit, just learning about what's out there and in the sub $2k range(which means used will be a requirement). One of the other benefits would be gaining space in the yard shed and the fold up handle of the Toro makes it far more compact than most of the commercial units I'm finding. Right now I keep coming back to a late model Ferris 36" Hydrocut or an Encore with a 32" deck and 80 hours as possible options. Going to try and hit a couple of the outdoor power tool dealers this week and see what they have before I go too far down the rabbit hole...still have to get the gasket kit and the solenoid ordered too!

But speaking of issues...wife's Volvo tossed a check engine light while I was running errands so stopped and pulled the code at O'Reilly and got a P0420 emissions system so assuming with 95k miles the upstream O2 sensor is coming up on the "to replace" list. I cleared it for now and will see if it returns




With (2) vehicles both in the 90k mile mark and likely to stick around...does make me wonder about picking up a code reader myself. Lot of options out there on Amazon....anyone have any favorites? The bluetooth only units that sync to a device for the screen are intriguing as well...I'm never going to be doing work out there without a device close by...any experience with one like this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00652G4TS/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I use this BT reader and the Torque Pro app:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NLQAHS/?tag=atomicindus08-20

It has worked on every vehicle I have checked, GM, Ford, Toyota, etc.


Torque Pro has some nice features to where you can check every bit of info your ECU shares...all this for under $30. I've had my BT reader for over 7 years now.

And on the P0420...I would bet post cat O2 or your driver side catalyst is dying.

 

[bj383ss]

I have Torque as well. Picked up the same Bluetooth dongle on Evilbay how crazy is that.

Although I have been considering this guy. It's what Eric O on South Main Auto Youtube uses. Can diagnose alot of stuff especially emissions equipment as you have the ability to do commands and turn stuff on and off to see what is working and not working. Also can bleed abs and the list goes on.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ML7T7KZ/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Bret

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I have Torque as well. Picked up the same Bluetooth dongle on Evilbay how crazy is that.

Although I have been considering this guy. It's what Eric O on South Main Auto Youtube uses. Can diagnose alot of stuff especially emissions equipment as you have the ability to do commands and turn stuff on and off to see what is working and not working. Also can bleed abs and the list goes on.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ML7T7KZ/?tag=atomicindus08-20

Bret

That is not too bad for the money, I need to find something that will do ABS bleeds and allow me to set the distributor on my 'burb (CMP Retard).

 

[jar944]

I use Torque as well.

 

[XJSuperman]

I've got a pair of Autels that work great for my stuff. They were $60ish each

 

[jbrentd]

I have a similar OBD reader as well, but it uses the OBD Fusion app. Has worked well for me on multiple cars.

Yard is looking great!

 

[loganb]

Thanks gents! Was a bit leary on those cheaper bluetooth readers but will be picking one of them up and probably add it to the tool "travel bag"

Did do a thing and committed to downsizing the mower. Picked up a Ferris Hydrocut 36" commercial walk behind. Crappy pic of it in the shed seeing how much space I get back....



Pretty low usage backup/small yard mower from a lawn care guy who upgraded and just didn't need it anymore. Just got the front yard mowed but the striping kit(rubber flap) definitely works.



Likely will put mulching blades on and see how it does before putting the full mulch kit on it. Also will be adding an hour meter, otherwise don't think I'll be adding anything...for now...the power flip up discharge block seems pretty sweet...

The green zero turn carb is in pieces in the garage waiting on parts...hopefully get those next week so it can get put together then cleaned up and sold

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I like the stripes! Nice and straight!

 

[loganb]

I like the stripes! Nice and straight!

Beginners luck for sure!

 

[nathanOH]

Thanks gents! Was a bit leary on those cheaper bluetooth readers but will be picking one of them up and probably add it to the tool "travel bag"

Did do a thing and committed to downsizing the mower. Picked up a Ferris Hydrocut 36" commercial walk behind. Crappy pic of it in the shed seeing how much space I get back....



Pretty low usage backup/small yard mower from a lawn care guy who upgraded and just didn't need it anymore. Just got the front yard mowed but the striping kit(rubber flap) definitely works.



Likely will put mulching blades on and see how it does before putting the full mulch kit on it. Also will be adding an hour meter, otherwise don't think I'll be adding anything...for now...the power flip up discharge block seems pretty sweet...

The green zero turn carb is in pieces in the garage waiting on parts...hopefully get those next week so it can get put together then cleaned up and sold

Ferris makes good equipment and Kawasaki is probably the best small engine manufacturer.