Above 1200 Sq/FT The Salvage Garage

[Strouty]

I had devised this great plan to plumb the small air compressor into the furnace, I found all the fittings for the tiny air lines, made an adapter, then I thought how stupid all that was and I just plumbed it directly into the hose reel on the lift. It back feeds air into the compressor tank and everything. Wish I had thought of it first, but I wasn’t being too smart. I am not sure how long the little air compressor will last, but it built pressure enough in the big air compressor tank, then shut itself off once the tank was full. I left everything running, with the thermostat set at 50, it was at 41 after running things for an hour, so it must have been cold.

 

[Firstram]

Wow, you were busy!

 

[Strouty]

Not even done, I have to go back now and check on things before it gets dark, that way I can hopefully fix anything that needs fixing before it gets dark. Fingers crossed that things are working still and all I have to do is feed Chuck and the generators.

 

[Strouty]

Waste oil furnace needs way too much air to for me to use it with what I have for equipment right now. At least for any length of time. This is the first time I have lost power when it was this cold, at least for this long. I am working on alternatives now, but there is no good one, not until tomorrow anyways.

 

[Firstram]

Bummer. is this a homemade heater? I thought they used blowers

 

[Strouty]

It is a “clean burn” brand, as far as I know all waste oil heaters use compressed air to help atomize the oil. I am sure I could use a smaller compressor, but I don’t have one small enough to run using the generator that I have. I can see a lot of the flaws in my systems, I am going to try and fix things before I have another storm like this and lose power again for multiple cold days.

 

[rharman]

Wow, that was quick on the pole anyway. Just got my power back, Crew from New Brunswick got it going. Props to those guys for coming to help and working in some brutal wind and temps.

Canuks to the rescue. Lol.

But... Do you now have metric electricity??

 

[65ranchero]

And I need to know if your electricity is slower now that it's very cold out (slower electrons)

 

[Strouty]

My electricity must be slower, the power company has sent trucks out at least ten times and they still haven't touched the power lines, except to cut them lose for me to get my truck out. The pole is a step in the right direction, but when they come out to see what they need then never come back it kind of *****. I am sure that this will be a repair that will take as long as it would to fix thousands of customers, except there are only 12 on this stretch and I am six of those twelve meters. I have to be up at about two so I can check the generators and make sure things are still functioning.

 

[rvieceli]

With all your military stuff, I'm surprised you don't a surplus 30kW generator floating around somewhere. Sure you don't have one in a container?

Anyway, hope you get your stuff sorted out without too much trouble.

Ron

 

[Strouty]

It was a Christmas miracle, they had power back on before midnight and I now have everything swapped back over to the full panels, no generators. I am going home to go to bed, will be sleeping in for sure.

 

[xtremek]

Glad to hear about your power. Hope your not awake for another couple of hours.

 

[walrus]

Yea for power. We take a lot for granted and any disruption *****. Still folks up here and down there waiting, hopefully they get it back today.

 

[Strouty]

I got some sleep, woke up sick, throat sore, nose stuffed up. Lovely.

I will say one thing with the power being out for just two nights, well it seemed like four days. I am almost back to where I left off on Friday, I have to put away the generators and put the panels back together, move extension cords and clean up the mess I made in the last 48 hours.

Then I get to dig out the chipper and start cleaning up the mess at the bottom of the Hill, might save that for Wednesday, it should be warmer.

 

[xtremek]

Sound like you need a break. Take it while you can.

 

[Strouty]

I got a break, only because the Mitsu blew a seal (insert seal joke here). It is the main dipper ram, so I will have to pull that off tomorrow. I am going home and chilling out for the rest of the day and I am going to bed early.

 

[86turbodsl]

Holy smokes Strouty, what a mess you've been dealing with! How windy was it there to snap those trees off that high? Must have been bad! I think we dodged some of the bullet here, and you got it instead!

Hope you are feeling better, and Merry Christmas my friend!

 

[Johanfpa]

Are you going to rebuild the dipper ram yourself Strouty?
Enjoy the rest of the day, you deserved a bit of down time.

 

[Strouty]

I would like to rebuild the ram myself, but right now I have so much going on, it will probably get sent out. I did one of the main boom rams a few years ago, so I know I could do it and that is really all that matters, right?



86, wind was close to 70 at times, but these trees were all just waiting for an excuse. We took out as many as we could afterwards just to mitigate future issues.

I am at home and I am wearing my pajamas (not a pink bunny suit), going to make dinner then watch a movie before going to bed. I am definitely drained.

 

[Strouty]

This is our forecast, not sure what to think, but it doesn’t look like there will be much snow anytime soon and the people that do the polar dip are going to have an easy time of it compared to normal years.

 

[xtremek]

How long will the turn around be on the ram, do you know?

 

[Strouty]

I won’t have any idea until I get the ram off the machine, I might be able to do it tomorrow, might not, I am so far behind at this point, I just don’t know.

 

[harley jim]

You did a great job keeping things from freezing for over 48 hours, that alone I would be proud of! You had the equipment and bits and pieces that it took to get it done at your fingertips, I would revel in that a bit and not be worried about being behind schedule.
You won this round.
Oh yea, the water pipes are popping like crazy down here, whole apartment complexes have the sprinkler systems flooding everything!

 

[RivennHewn]

I was about 10 pages behind. Just got up to current.

Y’all been busy! But that’s kinda a given, now isn’t it?

Hope the rest of this winter goes a bit easier on you.

All the best in the New Year!

 

[Strouty]

Sprinklers flooding sounds awful, I am glad I made it through without any major issues.

I feel like I have been hit by a truck this morning. I have to get myself going though, there is way too much that needs to be done for me to take a day off. Hopefully a hot shower will make things a bit better.

 

[86turbodsl]

Hang in there Strouty!

Harley, as far as the apartment complexes flooding, i can only imagine the costs on that mess. We had a pipe burst on the inlet vestibule of my workplace, was just one pipe, feeding the fire sprinkler system, after a prolonged -10F period. It flooded the whole first floor with incredibly stinky water, they were cleaning it up for days. And it got shut off right away. We got sent home and lots of carpet had to be replaced, as well as all the drywall that the water hit. It cost many thousands. Now multiply that times all the southern buildings being affected, that's a big number.

 

[Swanny1953]

I'm on the board of a remediation company HQ'd here in DFW. Had occasion to talk with the CEO as a neighbor had his sprinkler pipe burst while in Italy on 12/24. The neighbors jumped in and swamped out a bunch of the water - luckily, they had a full time dog sitter on site and she called 911 as soon as pipe burst. Still a bunch of water. CEO told me they are piled up with work as the south, in particular, is not generally built for the single digit temps we had for a couple of days last week.

 

[racer-john]

As a former Engineering Fire Inspector, I can atest to that.

 

[Strouty]

Luckily I don’t have any sprinkler systems in place.

I don’t exactly know how my easy office day turned into being at the SG removing the alternator and fan on the Hyster, but here I am. On top of that, I hit a pothole with the Blurb and completely lost throttle, had to coast to the side of the road and luckily when it restarted, throttle was there, but the transmission shifted funny, this furthers my thoughts on the harness being bad, I am taking Perk back to the Hill with Clark, then running the Maroon Burb home tonight. I know it will start and as long as I don’t accelerate too fast, the transmission still shifts.

It is time to deal with a Burb, got to have one that is trustworthy.

 

[1Garageman]

Late happy Christmas, and I defiantly hope you have a better New Years day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is just unbelievable all the $hit you constantly have had to put up with and fix!

 

[Strouty]

I am the perfect drama, if there isn't chaos, I don't think I would know what to do????

I am back at the Hill, Clark is ready to be unloaded, the sky looks like it wants to dump snow on us. On the way from the SG, there was a downed power line and the road was shut down, luckily I am nimble and I could turn around, all the twinscrew trucks with the 53' trailers were stuck there until the lines were cleared and the utility company hadn't even showed up yet, just fire and PD. It added an extra 15 minutes to my drive, but I made it. Thinking about going back to get something else, going to check the radar first.

 

[Strouty]

Got things setup for tomorrow so I can remove the ram on the Mitsu, it was getting cold and dark quick and I really don’t feel that great, going to take another easy night, then get back to it tomorrow. I still have to feed Chuck and do some paperwork anyways.

 

[68400BIRD]

Put a Harley sticker on it and run it. Should last a long time and prevent rust.

 

[DennisK59]

Break the gland nut loose while it's still mounted solid. I wonder if the shaft cut the seal, like flaked chrome.

 

[harley jim]

Put a Harley sticker on it and run it. Should last a long time and prevent rust.

Hey, really!

 

[Strouty]

I was told not to worry about breaking it loose, so I am not going to. I guess they have a table with hydraulics? I still feel like ****, haven’t even left the house yet, getting ready to head to the Hill, check on Chuck, plug a few things in, then get the alternator and belt over to NAPA to see if we can match it up, PN is on a sticker and it is not really visible. Doesn’t appear to be the stick alternator either, I think it is just a GM one from the late 80s, still has a V-Belt.

 

[FarmerWill]

Hey, really!

NO DOUBT!!!!

 

[Strouty]

Apparently since Spectrum never went down during the telephone pole breakage, they are acting like they don't have anything to do. I just spent some time on the phone trying to get them to understand that the main line is on the ground and they need to send a crew to fix it. They are insisting that a tech can handle it and will be out there today between 1 and 2PM. I am betting the tech won't even do anything, but who knows.

The phone company has their lines reinstalled, one less line to deal with.

 

[Strouty]

Haven’t gotten much accomplished yet, I am almost at the SG with the alternator and a belt for the Hyster, I wasn’t going to do that yet, but why not?

 

[jollygreengiant]

$20k, neighbor went 1600’ and still runs out of water frequently. We NEVER run out of available water, sometimes the delivery system fails.

I'm in the process of trying to catch up on your thread so excuse me for bringing up an old post but I had to comment on this.

Your neighbor had a 1600' well drilled and it only cost him 20K??? Up here that would have cost $105,000.