Big melt off

Fast Melt 

The snow didn't last long.  Weather warmed up quickly and the snow was melted off the roads within a day!  The rest of it took longer, but still most was gone quickly

Had some fun watching the snow melt off the roof of the garage!  Look at the icicles!

First round of tree planting for the year and a big snow

First Tree shipment has arrived!

My shipment of birch trees (27), poplar trees (60), maple trees (60), bald cypress (55), and white pine (100) arrived!  Planting time!

Hard to believe all of those trees fit in those two boxes?

They are really small trees!  In fact I thought they forgot to ship some of them, but discovered that they were all there - most in that little bag on the right!

The weather was - mostly cooperative

The white pines are planted every 8 ft apart on the steep hill

The bald cypress are down there in the swamp

Another view of the pines - none of the maples, birch, or poplar.  Nothing to see really, they are so small!

I rushed to get them all planted before Tuesday when a big snow storm was predicted...  I got all the trees planted just in time - I was out late Monday evening.  I tried to leave Tuesday morning, but the snow was coming down too hard to make it. So I spent a week at the farm!

Over a foot of snow!

Fruit tree trimming time

Yay!  100,000 miles!

I lucked out and caught this picture as my car made 100,000 miles!

Yes, I took the picture while driving, but it's ok - the cruise control was on! 

Tree Trimming Time

Lots of trees to trim!   Most are looking pretty good.  I trimmed a bit less aggressively than previous years since they are get closer to their ideal structure.  

Removed the trimmings to keep the disease and pests out of the orchard.

All done!

Grape vine pruning time!

But first, more plastic stuff!

I printed out some more shop stuff to try out this week.  I made a handle for the mill head screw and a handle for the tensioner on the belt-grinder.  Both worked!  The mill-handle is not strong enough though.  Also, it could be a bit bigger to give more mechanical advantage.  I will have to redesign a bit.

This is based on a thingiverse design for a beertap handle.  I did some extensive changes to come up with this.  Pretty much only used the threaded portion of the original design.  The threads fit perfectly though!

This part actually helps quite a bit too.

Obviously, this part needs longer arms!  There is not much mechanical advantage as-is.  I guessed the center shape and it turned out damn near perfect!

I think I will move the nut portion to one end and extend the arm length a bit.  Maybe I will use a bearing instead of those plastic handles too - they don't help much.

Grape Vine Pruning and Cordon Training

The grape vines are finally big enough to train onto the arbor!  I was able to move most of the vines into some kind of cordon system.  A few were still too small or not cooperative, but most are moving in the right direction.  I did notice some diseased areas though, so I will need to keep up the fungicide and I plan on fertilizing again this year.  Also, I plan on some kind of fence defense against the wildlife onslaught. 

Machinery fixed and returned, shop stuff

Machinery Fixed and returned 

Hines delivered my UTV and tractor to the farm after extensive maintenance.  Especially extensive on the UTV.  They had to replace pretty much everything associated with the drive to the wheels and the drive belt too!  The shifter was replaced too.  Its been dead for a over a year, I was just shifting using pliers for a long time!  It seems a bit stiff, but that's OK.  The bill hurt, but it hasn't seen service for a number of years...  The tractor had all of the fluids changed and the read left lights replaced.

Yikes!

 Printed a new lathe spindle protector

 I noted the old protector was a bit tight in the threads, so I added about .03" to the thread diameter dimension and reprinted it (I used red this time!).

I have been printing without mats lately.  Most of my items have a natural flat side so a mat is not necessary (and takes a long time to print and wastes plastic!)

Fit is much nicer on the threads!  However the registration area is still a bit tight.  I am not reprinting it though, its good enough for now!

Belt-grinder finally attached to the table!

I had to pick up some 3/8" bolts that were long enough first.  Then I drilled into the table and the underlying metal frame (which I arranged to be right under the bolt tabs so it would be more sturdy) and then attached the table using 3/8" nuts and bolts.  It's sturdy!  Now I can rotate the belt-grinder to horizontal without worrying about heaving it off the side of the table!

Of course, this poor lever handle had to be right above the bolt and therefore needed to be ground down even further!

Showing that the attachment bolts go through the frame.  This thing isn't going to blow away!

Shop-floor-plan adjustments

I went ahead and added a cover for the front of the grinder table to help keep metal dust off of anything I had stored under the grinder  I also added a shelf under the grinder to hold the welding accessories.  I might add another shelf to hold the belt-grinder accessories (belts, other tables, platens, etc).  I then got the welder and gas cylinder off of the welding table; that was really bothering me!

I moved the plasma cutter- stick welder over beside the belt-grinder and placed all of its attachments on the shelf below the belt-grinder.  I am not sure the plasma-cutter cord will reach the plug from there, but its much light to move than the MIG welder!  I might just add some cord to the plasma-cutter machine.  I am still thinking about the electrical arrangements.

Organized the welding clamps handy to the welding table.

Moved the MIG welder to the cart that was holding the plasma-cutter.  It fit just perfect!  The chair situation is still not optimal though.  Still thinking about what to do for that.  Shop stool?

I think there is enough room for a extra shelf for the grinder accessories.  The cord for the motor from the VFD is awkward.  I might lengthen that and put the VFD controls under the plasma-cutter.

I moved the jointer to in-back of the workbench to make room for the grinder.  This setup is ok for now.

Grinder access from the workbench.  Here you can see the front panel I added to keep grinder dust off of the storage area below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Machine care and rust prevention

I purchased a product called "Fluid Film" that was highly recommend by a number of shop forums for rust prevention purposes.  I cleaned up the rust on my tools and machines (a rough job, not meticulous) and applied this stuff.  It has lanolin in it and no solvents so it never "dries".  The point is that it maintains this coating (even if dirty) and that keeps the surfaces from rusting.  For use on machine tools that are not in the weather they say it should last about 3 years!  Fingers crossed!

The surface of this jointer takes a lot of abuse, so I did it first.  The fluid-film stuff really seems to penetrate!

This is not rust-prevention - just showing the workbench surface after some cleanup. 

I used that green brillo pad there to clean up the metal surfaces before I applied the fluid-film

This vise took a lot of rust damage.  I will have to spend some time later to clean it up with some steel wool.  I still coated it with the fluid film to keep it from getting any worse.

The ER-32 chuck and collets didn't seem to get any rust on them!

These drill chucks and centers didn't do too bad either

This "spin-dexer" did show some rust on the labels there - I don't think that should hurt anything.

The 4-jaw chuck took a hit, but not on the jaws!  Whew!

These slitting saws where already a bit dirty/rusty.  I coated them to prevent any further rust

These V-blocks took some rust damage.  I will have to try some steel wool on them when I have the chance.

These indexing plates came with something else that I ordered off of ebay.  I don't know if they can be used with anything I have.  I coated them just to be sure though.

The cross-feed on the lathe got some rust.  Most cleaned up pretty good.

This looked the worst.  I will hit it with some steel wool, as well.