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Above 1200 Sq/FT Out on Quaker Road

Wokspaces above 1200 squarefeet.
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carlquib

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2016
Messages
18
Unfortunately, I'm all too familiar with those. I like them much better as a light then for their original purpose in the milking parlor.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic
 

carlquib

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2016
Messages
18
Me too, but I'm not fast enough to get three hundred an hour done without help.

Hello, my name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic
 
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jblnut

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
I got to use a JLG lift this week. It was pretty nice not having to work off a ladder. I do believe I am going to be quoting a lift in every camera install job I do from here on in.
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I also tried out some new cable. I like the wire on the inside but the PVC jacket becomes brittle and cracks in the cold. That means it is a no go for 95% of the places I run cable. It is very inexpensive if you're looking for a cheap Cat5e ... less than $70/box.
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I can imagine this might cause some of you to lose sleep tonight. It doesn't bother me that much to have "unclocked" screws but I must say that I am noticing it a lot more since someone pointed it out :eyecrazy:
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The electrician that did this must be lazy or just plain ol' doesn't care. It literally takes zero time to hid the markings on conduit. Why not do it ??
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jblnut

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
Dad got the grinder mixer greased up and cleaned up this last week so it got used today for the first time in a few years. There were a few things that will need to be changed and the first of them was to remove the longer discharge auger. At this point it is unneeded and is adding extra stress to the lifting motors and what-not. The pivoting bolt was frozen and wouldn't come out.
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It was cold outside today (10F) so that's why it wouldn't move. Time to add heat.
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Looks like it was being stubborn because of the cold after all :lol_hitti
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This mixer has 12v motors that raise and rotate the discharge auger and this stupid switch was giving us fits. It is a safety switch that turns off the motor that rotates the discharge auger if it gets too close to the mixer but wasn't working properly. I cleaned it up and removed 23yrs of dust and it works as it should now. Yay.
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The auger extension is off and we're adding pellets. This mixer has a scale on so we can get within 5lbs of the correct amount of each ingredient. This is going to be REALLY nice as I can easily mix partial batches and will know exactly how much of each product is in the mixer.
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It unloads twice as fast as the old mixer. Love it.
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jblnut

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
It's a good thing you don't need the auger extension, that thing looks pretty beat up!
While installing cameras for a customer at my in town job I spotted it in his shed and asked about it. They quit using it a few years ago because they got a larger unit to replace it. They have 10,000 hogs from farrow to finish and grind about 3,000 bushels a week to feed them all. That's 22-23 batches a week, I'll be doing 4 at most. This mixer was new in 1993 when their operation wasn't this as large yet but it sure has seen it's fair share of use. I've seem mixers in worse shape sell for double what I paid so I am very happy and am willing to put up with a few dings and some welds. As my operation grows it'll be nice to have and someday it might be replaced by a brand new unit but not today.
 
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jblnut

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
When I got out to the barn tonight I noticed my demon cattle had broken part of their containment system. The 2x6's were suppose to be temporary but you all know how that goes ...
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I also finished (finally) the little roof to go above my panels outside. The ridge cap is a little short but it works. I plan to tell people that I did it that way on purpose :bounce:
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I think it turned out ok for using all scrap materials. All the fascia trim was made from unused downspouts and the tin is all from cover sheets so it was all free-ish. The open gap is where I plan to put the pivot point so I can pivot the roof out of the way if electrical work needs to be done so you don't have to sit on a bucket to work under it.
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jblnut

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Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
Today dad and I got the little roof installed on the panel wall. It's not as height restrictive as I thought it might be so it's not going to pivot at this time.
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I purchased a cheap Olympia 18" adjustable wrench for my work van and busted it up badly so it was time to upgrade to something a little stronger. After much research which included some Garage Journal browsing I settled on the Diamond Calk and Horseshoe brand. I believe this happens to be one of their earliest produced wrenches (according to Alloy Artifacts). If it's been around since the early 1920's I think it'll do for what I need.
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Dad built a loading box to go on the new mixer. The old one had a door on top which was nice but things can always be improved. This one has the boards placed in it as such that the corn will not bounce out when the mixer is running. No cover to open and close is a win in my book.
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When we installed the feed rail in the steer barn I made it adjustable for different size animals and today was the first time we adjusted it. It worked really well and took about 10 minutes to do one pen. Grade 8 bolts go through the square tubing and lock onto the oil well pipe to secure it and they simply need to be loosened to adjust the height.
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We used a high lift jack to lift it up 4" to accommodate the larger animals in the pen.
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It is suppose to warm up into the mid 30's next week so we decided it was time to burn a brush pile that had been sitting for a few years before all the snow melted. It's a pretty good sized pile and is almost 40' diameter. It is the result of having a drainage ditch cleaned out a few years ago.
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This was only about 10 minutes in. The wood is really dry plus grass and weeds have grown through it the last few years so that really helped ignite it in a hurry.
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It burned down quickly and is a good thing we did it now and not when more grass is exposed around it in a week or so.
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jblnut

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
Sometimes my "day job" makes me work at night. We rotate being on call to fix **** when it breaks after hours and on the weekends and this weekend it is my turn. Saturday morning about 1am a call came in that someone was having issues with a milking robot so I headed out. The place is about 1hr 15min from my house and after all was said and done I got back home about 5:30am.

The board that controls the lower part of the robot arm got wet and shorted out. This is not very common as everything is really well sealed up. I got the new board in and it lit right up. Good deal. The four red plugs on the lower left each go to a Milk Quality sensor that gathers info about the milk as it passes over it and the four little white plugs to the right of them go to air flow sensors. They listen to the milk hose on each quarter for milk flow. Pretty neat stuff.
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Here is where the board is located. About 2' from where the milking happens. There is normally a carbon fiber cover over all the stuff in the arm to protect it.
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When a single board fails it is easier to load software from the touch screen on the robot instead of re-doing all the boards from the main server.
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Last night I put a fan on a puddle I found downstairs. I tend to give very little attention to moisture in the basement but I start getting nosy when the dried up spot gets wet again. One of the feet on the water heater is moist. Looks like a new water heater is in our near future.
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This one is a LP Rheem and appears to be from the mid 90's. We're thinking about a tankless system as the shower and kitchen sink are both less than 15' of piping away from where the water heater is. I'm going to price it out both ways and we'll see what happens.
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ABSTIFFGS

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
304
Location
Twin Cities, MN
I've heard plumbers are pretty fair up in your neck of the woods. Get on the horn. It shouldn't cost more than $650-700 fully installed.
 

C_F

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Messages
9,675
Location
Utah...SNOW BLOWS!
I had the joy of replacing my water heater last year, it was about 6 years newer than yours. The tank had ruptured near the top & flooded half my basement before I caught it. :sad:

The stupid part is that there's a floor drain about a foot away, but when they poured the floor, the concrete under the water heater angles away from the drain. :mad: I now have a large pan under the new one, with a PVC pipe coming out the side, pointed right at the floor drain.
 
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jblnut

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
I had the joy of replacing my water heater last year, it was about 6 years newer than yours. The tank had ruptured near the top & flooded half my basement before I caught it. :sad:

The stupid part is that there's a floor drain about a foot away, but when they poured the floor, the concrete under the water heater angles away from the drain. :mad: I now have a large pan under the new one, with a PVC pipe coming out the side, pointed right at the floor drain.
Mine was leaking pretty good at the end and there is a floor drain but we too found out that the floor is anything but angled properly The install guy left a big sloppy mess all over the floor so I called to grumble a little, which I do very rarely but I was sort of pissed when I came home and there was water all over the floor and my carpet was all messed up and dirty. I found out the guy was the company owner so it didn't do much good to grumble about him to him.
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jblnut

ALLIANCE MEMBER
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
It's time to give some recoginition to an unsung hero in the barn. This wheelbarrow is the one I remember using to feed the dry cows and steers in my younger years and it keeps going strong.
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When I did the math this wheelbarrow has hauled 25,000ish loads of corn just like this one over the last 4.5 years. What a trooper (actually it's a True Temper)
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I repaired the feet as they had worn off to the point of breaking in half back when I was in high school. There's a bit of iron to go yet before that happens again !!
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donnie

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 24, 2007
Messages
953
Location
North Carliona
Enjoying the updates. surprised to see a copper line for the gas line. True temper is a name i have not heard in years.
 
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jblnut

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Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
Enjoying the updates. surprised to see a copper line for the gas line. True temper is a name i have not heard in years.
Thanks for following along !!


The house was built in the mid 60's so that may affect things .... is copper not suppose to be used for gas ??

The "new" version of this wheelbarrow says Jackson on the side and is $249 ... holy ****. Not sure I'll be spending that much if this one takes a **** but if it's lasted this long it'll probably go another 25 years.
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donnie

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 24, 2007
Messages
953
Location
North Carliona
I am no expert. I thought I was told years ago copper should not be used for gas. I hope someone with more knowledge than I will answer this question.


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Bib Overalls

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 4, 2006
Messages
3,318
Location
Jonesboro, Arkansas
I have also been told not to use copper for fuel or brake lines. Supposedly vibration over time can work harden the tubing at the joints and eventually the joints fail. I have never actually seen it and I have never had a copper tube failure on an air compressor. Your mileage may be different.
 
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jblnut

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Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
I have also been told not to use copper for fuel or brake lines. Supposedly vibration over time can work harden the tubing at the joints and eventually the joints fail. I have never actually seen it and I have never had a copper tube failure on an air compressor. Your mileage may be different.
The copper gas line is on my water heater in the basement running propane through it ....
 

ABSTIFFGS

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
304
Location
Twin Cities, MN
Most every gas line on any home appliance I have ever seen has been copper....
You may want to get a chunk of pipe added to the T &P valve on the side Mike. Not sure if necessary but I would feel better about it.
 

woodfor1

Active member
Joined
Apr 26, 2015
Messages
42
Location
Wantage NJ
You can use copper for propane lines when I built my house the plumbing inspector said the copper was fine but he really liked black pipe.I look in the code book for the up date but the new book does not have gas piping in it.The older code book said you can use copper on propane lines.
 

Stuart in MN

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Joined
Sep 8, 2005
Messages
23,088
Location
Minneapolis
Copper gas lines are typical in Minnesota, both inside the house as well as the utility installed lines outside the house. It may be different in other parts of the country.
 
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jblnut

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Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
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The last few weeks my rockstar wheelbarrow has been having issues keeping all the air in its tire so I ordered a new one off the ol' Amazon. The picture showed it black with a white rim and said it included bushings to go from a 3/4" axle to a 1/2" axle and that it had a 6" hub. About the only thing that matched with the wheel I got was that it was round ... I made it work though.

I went shopping in my scrap iron pile and found a new axle ....
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I went into the fab shop and whipped out some spacers ....
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Look at that. A flat free wheel on the ol' wheelbarrow. It's larger so I hope it fits under the gravity boxes ... It may have to be painted black, I don't know if I can stand the bright yellow ....
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Knyte Tyne

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Joined
Apr 23, 2014
Messages
197
Location
Johannesburg South Africa
"They Call it Mellow Yellow...." - Not that I know why you would want to, but hey, at least if you needed to find it at night it wouldn't be too hard to do... How would you even go about painting a Rubber Tire like that?
 
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jblnut

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Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
"They Call it Mellow Yellow...." - Not that I know why you would want to, but hey, at least if you needed to find it at night it wouldn't be too hard to do... How would you even go about painting a Rubber Tire like that?
Flip the wheel barrow over, give the tire a good spin and start spraying. It probably won't happen but that's how it'd be done.
 
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jblnut

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Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
While replacing the wheel I noticed the whole front end was in need of some attention. The braces are missing and the front toe/dumper bar/metal thing was all wobbly.
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Went shopping in the scrap pile again. This is the top brace from a 275gal chemical tote. Should work.
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It actually turned out really functional. Should be good for another 25 years.
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Since the new wheel is larger I was having to bed over farther and my fat *** didn't like that so I remedy'd that too.
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On to bigger and better things. It's corn moving day again.
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jblnut

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Jan 17, 2015
Messages
6,994
Location
In the Middle of MN
Mixed a load last night using the grinder mixer's loading auger. Worked well and it'll save time not having to move corn around all the time.
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