2016 POTD Thread Archive

[FOMOGO]

Have been spending some time working on my recently acquired fork lift when not working on the shop. Removed the rear counter weight with the backhoe. That cut the machine down from 9k to around 6k. Was then able lift it off the trailer and and carry it into the garage and get it on the lift. Couldn't get it as high as I wanted because of the roll cage (pretty hard crouching down and looking up with the neck/back brace on) so it was time for a chop job. The rear of the cage was bolted on, but the front was welded on. Out came the saws-all, and off with the cage. When it's time to go back on I'll weld a solid plug in one section of the cage, insert it into the lower hollow portion and drill it and bolt it together. Have diagnosed most of the issues and will be rebuilding the brake system, and the power steering cylinder, replacing some seals, and rewiring a few sections of the harness. Drained about six gallons of water out of the hyd. reservoir, but fortunately none in the pump or cylinders. It had been parked outside right under where the roof dumped and the breather on the tank was broken. Six years sitting did a nice job filling and overflowing the tank which explains the oiled down area under the machine where it was parked. Have parts on order and hope to have it up and running in a week or so. Pics are in reverse order, should be from bottom up. Mike

 

[uncle harry]

Have been spending some time working on my recently acquired fork lift when not working on the shop. Removed the rear counter weight with the backhoe. That cut the machine down from 9k to around 6k. Was then able lift it off the trailer and and carry it into the garage and get it on the lift. Couldn't get it as high as I wanted because of the roll cage (pretty hard crouching down and looking up with the neck/back brace on) so it was time for a chop job. The rear of the cage was bolted on, but the front was welded on. Out came the saws-all, and off with the cage. When it's time to go back on I'll weld a solid plug in one section of the cage, insert it into the lower hollow portion and drill it and bolt it together. Have diagnosed most of the issues and will be rebuilding the brake system, and the power steering cylinder, replacing some seals, and rewiring a few sections of the harness. Drained about six gallons of water out of the hyd. reservoir, but fortunately none in the pump or cylinders. It had been parked outside right under where the roof dumped and the breather on the tank was broken. Six years sitting did a nice job filling and overflowing the tank which explains the oiled down area under the machine where it was parked. Have parts on order and hope to have it up and running in a week or so. Pics are in reverse order, should be from bottom up. Mike
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Cool project Mike. Nice pickup s well.

 

[Firestopper]

Mike, your back gonna love the forklift. I use mine almost daily at some point during the day. Many parts can be found on eBay (OEM).

 

[chips&more]

Levin has a variable speed motor drive unit, or overarm. I have everything but the motors attaching rails and bolts. So I made it all. The “T” slot in the square stock wasn’t that fun, never is for me. I do not have coolant flooding, only a brush. Had to be vigilant on chip build up and still broke a cutter. Maybe it was kinda dull when I started. The second slotting cutter finished it all without a problem. It all needs to be blued, but I’m going to wait. I have other projects that also need bluing. I typically wait until I have a decent quantity of parts before I drag out the bluing equipment.

 

[Franko]

What I did behind my shop today.

Behind the shop got grown over with Sticky Willie (bedstraw). It has little burrs (about 1/8") that get stuck in everything and cannot be removed, except by picking them off one at a time. There are millions of them. Lord help you if your pet gets them in its fur.

I tried cutting them one at a time at the ground, but got covered with them no matter how careful I was. They are dead and all the other weeds are green. I figured a flame thrower would do the trick. Time to go to Harbor Freight for a flame thrower.

I got one of these propane weed-killing torches. Those things get very hot.
Anyway, it worked like a charm. It burnt up all the Sticky Willie and didn't set fire to my shop or fence. I had a water hose handy, just in case.

 

[intjonmiller]

What I did behind my shop today.

Behind the shop got grown over with Sticky Willie (bedstraw). It has little burrs (about 1/8") that get stuck in everything and cannot be removed, except by picking them off one at a time. There are millions of them. Lord help you if your pet gets them in its fur.

I tried cutting them one at a time at the ground, but got covered with them no matter how careful I was. They are dead and all the other weeds are green. I figured a flame thrower would do the trick. Time to go to Harbor Freight for a flame thrower.

I got one of these propane weed-killing torches. Those things get very hot.
Anyway, it worked like a charm. It burnt up all the Sticky Willie and didn't set fire to my shop or fence. I had a water hose handy, just in case.

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I HATE those things! I grew up on a couple acres of field grass. As a teenager the yard care was my job. I pursued those things with a vengeance. I had a subscription to Invention & Technology magazine and they did a story about the problem of malaria and mosquitoes during the construction of the Panama Canal. I read about how they went from doing widespread measures to control the mosquito population, all the way through to actually tracking down individual mosquito sightings after the early efforts helped eliminate their population.

I took that to heart and after several weed killing sprays of the entire property over a couple months I then started hunting them down with a pump sprayer. Those things are terrible. As soon as they detect a toxin they shut down circulation to their seeds so the seeds don't get any toxin. It's amazing. And most varieties actually have two seeds per pod. One grows one year, the other the following year, making them very difficult to eliminate. So I would go around and directly spray every one of the seed pods with Roundup (or on alternating treatments some industrial weed killer my dad tracked down for me). We also had the thorny type weed that creeps along the ground. I don't recall the name. I did the same thing with those. I learned to recognize the sprouts of those two weeds as soon as they emerged from the ground and I would hit them before they had a chance to develop.

After a few years of that we completely eliminated them from our property. That made it much more pleasant to be outside.

 

[Sandia]

What I did behind my shop today.

Behind the shop got grown over with Sticky Willie (bedstraw). It has little burrs (about 1/8") that get stuck in everything and cannot be removed, except by picking them off one at a time. There are millions of them. Lord help you if your pet gets them in its fur.

I tried cutting them one at a time at the ground, but got covered with them no matter how careful I was. They are dead and all the other weeds are green. I figured a flame thrower would do the trick. Time to go to Harbor Freight for a flame thrower.

I got one of these propane weed-killing torches. Those things get very hot.
Anyway, it worked like a charm. It burnt up all the Sticky Willie and didn't set fire to my shop or fence. I had a water hose handy, just in case.

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Franko, maybe it will serve double duty the next time you need to heat treat something. Ha Ha ...

 

[dlane]

Heat treat them when there green , 2-3 week old plants , propane weed burner
Is sticky Willie native or Chinese

 

[Franko]

I HATE those things!
<snip>
After a few years of that we completely eliminated them from our property. That made it much more pleasant to be outside.

Franko, maybe it will serve double duty the next time you need to heat treat something. Ha Ha ...

Jon, Bob. No mater what, it has to be handy to have a flame thrower. It being from Harbor Freight, the blast lever doesn't work. If you pull it, it stays pulled and you have to manually push it back in to shut off the rocket blast. It gets noisy. I just bypassed the lever and turned the knob up to put it on roaring rocket engine mode.

I'm sure, as hardy and determined to live as they are (all God's critters don't want to die) they have some mechanism defense from fire. But, they sounded like they were being destroyed. They popped and sputtered and raised general heck as they seemed to vanish. That nasty velcro they have is great for hanging on to fur and t-shirts, and it serves well as kindling. The burrs seemed to have turned to ash.

What I read about them indicated they are very hard to kill with poison.

Jon, those creeping vines with thorns sound like goat heads. They are nasty. Step on one with a bare foot, and it will punch right to the bone. Roll over one with your bicycle and it will flatten a tire. We had lots of them in West Texas. They like sandy soil. Usually, where you find them, you also find grass burrs — another friendly desert scourge.

You'd think sand would be bad enough. But no. It has to be crawling with stickers.

 

[Franko]

Heat treat them when there green , 2-3 week old plants , propane weed burner
Is sticky Willie native or Chinese

Good idea, Dlane.
I don't know where they come from. Probably from wherever they were when someone walks through on his way to somewhere else.