Lift finished!

We finished the lift last night and I'm really glad I painted it white! It's much brighter and reflects light better. I'll paint the other one someday when I move shops and dissassemble it. As you can see we finished it outside and lowered it on the caster wheels and then wheeled it in the shop, made some adjustments and pulled my 62 Impala on it. The one GTO body shell went on the bottom for now, but when winter comes, I'll put my 55 chevy under there and the shell out in the barn, which I plan to close in, insulate and heat next.

Update on summer projects...

Ok, I was way overdue for an update. I have been working on projects all summer. In the last two months my cousin Mike K. has been working with me. What a great help he has been! I would be so far bogged down if it weren' t his help. He picks up things quickly and thinks about what he's doing. We've managed to rebuild the farmhouse stormdoor and it's frame, paint it all, he's painted all the window ledges. We've caulked all the house windows (remoing the old caulk was the hard part, but finally found the best method was heating a putty knife with a propane torch). We then caulked all the soffit trim, and now are caulking the basement windows. We also installed a new water heater last weekend. I've also got the tractor ready to start, but am not getting spark at the plugs so I'm going to trouble shoot that.

This last weekend I received the second car storage lift. We unpacked it on Saturday morning and dissassembled everything in preparation to repaint it. It came powder coated black, but I want things like this bright white in my shop to help with lighting. We had to sand every face of the lift parts, prime them and paint them. In two days we will start reassembling the lift. That should be enough drying time. Here are some pics of the process:

My next post will show the assembled lift.

Second system installed

Well last weekend (actually by Tuesday night) , I finally finished the installation of the iron filter and water softener at my place in the farmhouse. I replaced all the incoming piping which was PVC, which exits to various spigots or shop buildings on the farm, as well as to the well tank and now to the iron filter. Again I upped the pipe size to 1 inch all the way up to where it runs to the rest of the house. Several threaded and union connections gave me a hard time leaking and I worked on them until they were leak free. I had to replace one union(that I got from Ace hardware) with another Menards one like the rest are. I found that the best way to prevent a threaded connection leak was to wrap it three times with 3/4" PTFE tape and maybe add a little PTFE paste to the first few threads. Here are some pics:


In the morning I will prep the mower and mow. (I've been sick the last couple days and unable to think about doing it). It really needs it as it's starting to look like a hillbilly joint with all the dandelions. The rest of the weekend I can dedicate to more small cleanup projects like the addition to my welder cart to make more floor space etc.

Getting my head above water finally!

I'm no longer feeling so mired. Two weeks ago I installed the new softener and iron filter as well as a new well pressure switch, at my mom's place. I also upped the pipe size through all this equipment to 1 inch to reduce any flow restriction. It transitions to 3/4 inch as it exits to all the runs above. I spent a lot of time researching softeners and understanding how to size them and what equipment to buy, and looking for a good price. 4 of my co-workers and I did all of ours at the same time to get a savings on equipment and support eachother.

I've also finished up a bunch of small tasks like pruning of trees, burning the waste, woodworking some brackets and a hanger rod for a closet in my mom's house, Urethaning a bunch of plywood pieces that sit on furnature moving dollies, also some tool handles and making wood saw covers for all of my and my mom's hand saws. Yesterday I did a bunch of clean up in the shop and I feel like I am making good progress. I think by about the beginning of June I will buy the second auto storage lift I need. Next major tasks - install water softener and iron filter in the farmhouse I'm living in, prep the mower deck and mowing tractor for mowing, build a framework on my welder cart to accomodate my small mig welder on top of the TIG to save more floorspace.

Still mired...

Sorry, no new pics. Still mired in plumbing issues. Got my mom's pluming rearranged, but didn't get the softener and iron filter installed yet. I haven't even started installing the softener and iron filter at my place yet. I did experiment last weekend with removing old pegs from a timber. I drilled the center of the peg and instalalled a 1/4 inch timberloc screw. I then tried a slide hammer on the screw to bang it out. It works, but not all that well. I then tried with a curved pry bar and block of oak to rest it one. It give a big lever arm and works well, however you have to keep raising the blocking to gain additional travel on the pry bar. I also sketched up a puller tool to use with an impact wrench. I wonder if I will ever find time to make it? I need to get the softeners installed at the two places before I can get back on projects.

House maintenance

The last two weeks I've been mired down in non timberframe related activities. I locked myself out of the house last weekend and had to kick the back door in. It broke the door and didn't hurt the jam that I had reinforced from a previous break in before I lived here. I spent last weekend repairing the door and installing a deadbolt and metal lock covers as well. If I get locked out again I will not be able to kick the door in. I'd have to break a window or something. I also did a few other maintenance activities as well like burning brush, and cleaning in the shop. Then this past wekeend my well pressure tank sprung a few leaks so I had to order a new one and install it this last weekend. It wouldn't have been bad had I not had a leak in the bottom of the tank at the new fitting. I had to redo it 4 times before I got is sealed right. I also had to do a hydrogen peroxide treatment on my water heater. At work I got a group of guys together and we all wanted new water softeners. Together we've learned to test water, research and understand water softeners, rust filters, chlorine injectors etc. I am becoming knowlegeable in water treatment in the home. I still haven't finished enough in the shop to make room for the new auto lift. This week I will be working on project after work to try to catch up. I need to finish assembling the 55 Ford tractor, prune trees and grape vines, and try to get more done on my power tool cabinets and build two more smaller ones that I've started. I promise pics with next update.

Power tool storage cabinets

The last three weekends have not been as productive as I would have liked. I have been building power tool storage cabinets. The plans are from a magazine article and use 2X4's, pegboard and MDF. The frames are nicely done by rabbiting all the joints and glueing and screwing. The sides are Pegboard dado'd into the frame. The shelves are MDF. I'm makeing a specific place for every tool, and that is what's taking time and why I am not done yet. As you can see in the pic below, my circ saws sit on shelves with slots for the blade and guard. This allows them to rest on their bases nicely. The real casters should arrive this week. They temporarily sit on furnature dollies. My Delta Unisaw was the major tool used to make all the pieces, including ripping, rabbiting, and dado-ing.

I also visited Indy this last weekend to look at another auto lift I will buy. I wanted to see if it was built well enough and they had a showroom at their Indy dealer. It also gave me a day to hang out with my neices and their parent and grand parents. I decided that the lift is up to par and the price is right. I was going to order it this week, but realized that I need to make space in my shop to assemble the lift. This means I have to finish a couple projects, namely the power tool cabinets, the assembly of my tractor, and get the John deer tractor fixed as it suddenly has decided to have an electrical problem and not start.