So Whatcha Doin' Today?

[SilvrSRT10]

Well, the Chinese deal didn't pan out so I ordered a Versa Cut 40 from Eastwood. It showed up today and I just got to play with it some. I am very pleased. The thing cuts 1/4 steel like butter and I don't even have it cranked up. With thin steel like a barrel, you can literally lay out a straight edge and drag the torch just like a pen, same speed too.

Plasma cutters are awesome. I've used mine to make Christmas ornaments out of old torsion springs. I cut the coils apart and then weld them back together in the design I want. I've done reindeer, snowmen and Mickey's. I've recently gotten a TIG welder and hope to get better at welding than with a MIG welder.

 

[oppo]

One of these days, I would like to try my hand at tig. It makes some pretty welds.

 

[priell3]

Took a ride today. Temp got close to 80.

 

[SilvrSRT10]

Been down on my hands and knees banging together a new floor for the house. But I first had to take up the carpet and glued down parquet flooring. Oh what a joy that is. I bought a long handled pneumatic chisel that is doing a pretty good job at prying up the old parquet. It's still a job but much better than doing it by hand.

Here's what I've accomplished so far. Wife has set the deadline for Nov. 1st. That's when she wants to start decorating for the holidays. Wish me luck.

 

[oppo]

Lots of work but looking really good

 

[oppo]

I added another toy to the collection, a dual voltage, inverter based DC stick welder. It has nice cables, dinse connectors, is stupid light, has a 60% duty cycle at 160 amps and was only $139. The other day I ran quite a few 1/8 7018's back to back on 1/4" plate and barely kicked the fan on. Last night I tried it on 110v and put this together. So far, I am thrilled with it.

 

[SilvrSRT10]

Finally got all the carpet and parquet flooring removed. It's been hauled out to our dumpster which is overflowing with stuff. Didn't make the Nov. 1 deadline but she's being lenient on me because she knows how hard I've been working installing doors and fixing openers. Heck! she's the one that does my schedule.

After we got all the old flooring up today, I was able to put some of the new stuff down into a coat closet. It took a bunch of trips out to the shop to make the cuts I needed to get it to fit. But that's all done and I'm now working with a wide open space. Should be able to make some quick progress now. We even moved the stove, trash compactor and dish washer out onto the front porch so that I can get into those areas. Maybe... optimistically.... I'll be done by the end of the week. That is if I'm not too worn out from the money making job.

 

[priell3]

Went on a benefit ride today. Temps in 30s. I am 3rd from left.

 

[priell3]

I got a set of wheels from Tire Rack today and then had a set of winter tires that I had in the garage mounted and balanced on them.

Then after yesterday's dusting of snow it was dry and around 50 today. I got in a late season ride.

 

[SilvrSRT10]

I'm about to wrap up the flooring project. I've got one more threshold to do going into the front guest bedroom and I've got to get the end cabinet pieces back in place so I can re-install the dish washer and trash compactor. Then a few little shoe moldings and that should be it.

My wife has already started Christmas decorating so she's happy to be proceeding with that. I think she's only doing seven Christmas trees this year. Yes, she has more. It looks like a pine forest in the living room.

She wanted to re-arrange the furniture in the house so that the living room and dining rooms were swapped. I never liked this idea but went along. Now she's thinking ahead of where guest can sleep when they come over. I suggested putting the furniture back the way it was originally intended by putting the sofa and two love seats back in the living room where we could have a conversation area and it's back in front of the fireplace. Then we could look at a sleeper sofa for the sunroom. Ding, ding, ding...we have a winner. She all aboard on that idea.

So guess what I'll be doing when we get back from our Thanksgiving getaway?

 

[oppo]

Yesterday, I pulled into our container yard to drop a chassis and pick up a load and found out the top pick, basically a huge machine that lifts and stacks shipping containers had broken. Well, I was good on hours and there was a miller engine drive and some 7018's there. There wasn't much to prep it with but I cleaned it up as well as I could and started running beads. It wasn't ideal I but I got it back up and running and trucks moving again.

This isn't the actual machine but one like it.

 

[SilvrSRT10]

Bought a 65" LG UHD 4K TV and brought it home and installed it. Man what a great picture. Was watching some Nat Geo programming and the detail is incredible. Sound was a little tinny so I went back and got the sound bar with subwoofer. Now it's a treat for the eyes and the ears. It replaced a non HD 52" that we had mounted above the fireplace. I'm not sure we're actually getting 4K but whatever it is looks wonderful.

 

[SilvrSRT10]

A little revision. I'm not happy with the sound coming from the soundbar. No matter what adjustments I make it sounds like the actors are phoning in their lines. And the subwoofer doesn't hit the bass the way I like. I liked my old Polk Audio soundbar better. But it doesn't have an optical input. I may have to get an adapter to see if that will work. Uhg! now I have to box up the LG soundbar so I can return it.

 

[oppo]

My weekend project

 

[SCARPETTA]

I am going to celebrate our good fortune (but no red meat) and salvation.
The Pope just announced... " there is No Hell ".
Get the sparkling white, and lobster out of the fridge.

 

[oppo]

After I built and installed the latch

 

[SilvrSRT10]

That a very good lookin' and robust gate.

 

[oppo]

Thank you. The angle and flat stock are 1/8 and all the tubing is 14 gauge, all stick welder. The wood is 2x6's from the old fence that I plained down. That part worked out really well since the inside of the gate measures 60.5" and the old 2x6's are 5.5" wide so 11 pieces fit perfectly without trimming and also made spacing the holes in the steel simple.

 

[oppo]

It is definitely not light as the wood adds a lot of weight but it does swing easily.

The latch is made of 1" angle, 5/8 round, 2" angle to latch to, and obviously a horseshoe. The piece on the end where it latches is also a piece of horseshoe. Using 1" angle, because I already had some, made cutting out the carrier or whatever you want to call it much easier and let me tighten it up a little vs using a piece square tubing.