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Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT A trip back from the edge.

Workspaces between 705 and 1200 squarefeet.
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xtremek

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Apr 13, 2012
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St. Johns, Mi
I guess I’m a little further behind than I thought. I didn’t want to a bunch of dead trees to fall into the yard, so I dropped 5 of them. I borrowed the neighbor’s tractor to take them down the driveway to the brush pile. I felt a little bit of pride being able to get them down the driveway, weaving between the trees without knocking these off the forks.
 

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xtremek

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Here are a couple of lifestyle pics. If you look closely out the window, you can see one of very many big does. I’ve never seen one this close to the shop before. The other is a 75% of the fleet. Not in the picture is the Old Mule (8n) and Smooth (F-150 Screw).
 

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xtremek

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When I took the front clip of Smooth apart to replace the core support, I broke off a few (3) bolts in the front of the fenders. Some PB Blaster and careful application of the blue flame wrench, I was able to get them out without messing up any of the paint. I think I just messed up my shoulder, patting myself on the back
 

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sublime68charger

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SW Wisconsin
He has to wait for the statute of limitations to expire...

knowing Bob there has to be stories that are already exempt from the statute of limitations!

Bob sorry to drag you into another Story session but they are alway's a knowledge of Gold!

I look at it this way, If I can read about a Bob Misadventure it saves me the time and trouble of having to have that same type of misadventure of my own. I seem to find enough of them my self.

Though its been 30 years since I have had to actively use a Fire Extinguisher from my own misadventure.

68 Road Runner with a 383 and big cam didn't want to start, Soup can of gas pour some down the carb and turn it over it would fire up and die.
so I had my brother cranking it over while I tried to pour gas down the carb to keep it running and whoosh I got a fire on the engine now and some of my arm. I dive for the grass due the stop drop and roll put my arm out and then
had to grab the fire extinguisher to put out the top of the fender that was on fire from where I dropped the soup can of gas. I had a nice burn on my thumb to wrist which was tender for 3 weeks on my right hand. Lesson learned.

Glad I had a fire extinguisher set up between the front seats of the road runner it sure came in handy!
 

Bob Heine

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Oct 24, 2009
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Matt, I am treading lightly on the fire extinguisher story because I have never actually used one.

As a 9-year-old, one of my jobs was to take out the garbage twice a week. My father bought a 25-gallon A-bomb proof galvanized can (wagon wheel hoops riveted to steel tub top and bottom and lid could be used as compact spare on a big rig). Garbage trucks were seriously damaged whenever they hit it. We occasionally used the can to burn lumber scraps so one rainy day I decided it would be less work to burn the garbage in the can. Because it was raining, I decided to do the burn in the garage. The lid was my extinguisher so I felt it was Cub Scout safe. When a neighbor called our house to tell my parents there was smoke coming out of the garage, Dad came out to investigate. We disagreed on the safety of running an incinerator inside the garage and Dad explained his side of the debate with a two-by-four. It was a turning point in my life. I negotiated a return to his belt as the default debate persuader.

My other fire extinguisher story involved my Fiat X1/9. I had a small, low pressure electric fuel pump to supply gasoline to the two Weber carburetors. Sitting at a red light one day I was annoyed by the guy behind me who was blasting his horn. For goodness sake, the light is red!!! I looked in the mirror and the flames coming out of the engine cover (a foot behind my head) was preventing me from clearly seeing who was honking at me. I had a frisson moment and jumped out of the car. I had the presence of mind to flip the lever to unlatch the engine cover on my way out but neglected to shut the engine (and fuel pump) off. No problem, I just reached through the flames and ripped the wire off the pump. Because I occasionally forgot to put the hardtop back on the car, I had a large beach towel in the car for drying off the seats. Beach towels make excellent fire smotherers. I had to replace some plastic engine parts and re-paint the engine cover but at least I didn't have to clean all that extinguisher powder off the car. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it but I'm also going to search for non-powder fire extinguishers for the cars. I am certain writing this is going to cause spontaneous combustion to come into my life in the next few minutes (my invisible friend has a warped sense of humor).
 

stillp

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May 5, 2015
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428
Location
Midlands, UK
Can I squeeze in a British fire story? At a book company I visited, one of the mechanics wanted to weld new sills on his classic Mini. There wasn't a vehicle lift there, so he 'borrowed' (without permission) the fork truck, while the fork truck operator was on lunch break and lifted the Mini to a convenient height out in the yard. Welding the sills (I think you call them rocker panels over there) the gut smelt smoke, and realised he'd forgotten to take the carpets out, and they'd caught fire, so he shut the gas torch off and ran indoors to get an extinguisher. A few seconds later the fork truck driver came back from his lunch break and saw his truck in the middle of the yard with a Mini on the forks belching smoke. There was a ditch filled with water at the edge of the yard, so he jumped on the fork truck, sped across the yard, and dumped the car in the ditch!
The Mini owner was not pleased...
Pete
 
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xtremek

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Apr 13, 2012
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St. Johns, Mi
I just bought 2 used CO2 fire extinguishers (#20 ea). I think I paid $375 for the pair. They were a whole lot cheaper than new. Still need to get a #5 (for the GF), a #10 (for the house) and a #20 (for the shop) ABC extinguishers. My guess is that those new will still cost less the the 2 CO2. There's a great thread on here about buying extinguishers.
 
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Sifan

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Jul 10, 2018
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Southern Illinois
When you think you have enough, go buy three more :) nothing worse than standing in the yard with all your empties and not hearing any sirens headed your way.
 
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xtremek

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St. Johns, Mi
When you think you have enough, go buy three more :) nothing worse than standing in the yard with all your empties and not hearing any sirens headed your way.

I agree, but my budget will only stretch so far. I figure three 20 pounders in the shop cover me. And the plan is to have a #5 in each dump truck. It's unreal how much cheaper a ABC is compared to a CO2, even a used CO2. It was definitely worth the 3 1/2 hour round trip to get used/rebuilts.
 
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xtremek

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Apr 13, 2012
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St. Johns, Mi
One of the nice things about having vacation time left over is you can explore some things you've been dying to investigate. Dropped by Eric Luna's custom upholstery shop in Mason. He was patient, helpful, and had cool rides in the shop. A Camaro with a hidden full cage, and a better look at his IH Metro. Looking forward to working with him in the future on the COE.
 

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xtremek

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Sorry, I didn't take any pics while I was there. The headliner wraps around the cage from the rear package tray to the upper corner of the A-pillars. I'm guessing if you went to his website, there'd be some pics of it.
 
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xtremek

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Apr 13, 2012
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I haven’t been totally lazy. I got a few things done around the place. I did the brakes on the Orphan (Saturn SL1). I started working on the latch for the box of the Girlfriend (in order to be able to safely tow a gooseneck trailer). I got very lucky that when I snapped off the tap, that it came out fairly easily. These are 1" hex and the tap was 1/2"-13. I also took in 4 vehicles to Discount Tires for slow leaks. Got to love them for their free repairs.
 

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xtremek

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The next part of the latch I worked on were the bolts. I still have to weld the plugs into the ends, make handles, and provisions for them.
 

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Strouty

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Southern Maine
If you ever have a stuck tap you don’t have great access or it is pretty stuck, a company called Walton makes tape extractors that work pretty well. They use these fingers to grab in between the flutes, I will say the fingers can get pretty deformed, so I kind of consider them a consumable rather than the tool.
 
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xtremek

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I was using a pair of needle nose pliers like that tool probably works. That's why everything in the pic is so clean.
 
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xtremek

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11,603
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St. Johns, Mi
If you ever have a stuck tap you don’t have great access or it is pretty stuck, a company called Walton makes tape extractors that work pretty well. They use these fingers to grab in between the flutes, I will say the fingers can get pretty deformed, so I kind of consider them a consumable rather than the tool.

HOLY COW!!! They look like they're really nice, but they sure aren't cheap. Then again, how much is the part the tap is in worth. How much are the fingers?
 
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