what did you do today?

[DeadNutz]

Sorry to hear of your mistake. I know some folks who have moved here and didn't know to use RV antifreeze if their RV sits outside all winter. They find out the next year when they get ready for their first trip all the plastic pipes are busted.

[goodfellow]

It happens Clay; just don't sweat it. I'm sure the system will be OK. Suck it out and dilute as much as possible.

[slip knot]

Probably not much different in chemical make up.

[Der Bugmeister]

It happens Clay; just don't sweat it. I'm sure the system will be OK. Suck it out and dilute as much as possible.

Its all good.   Three bolts and 2 wires to remove the reservoir so I could upturn and drain it. Nothing got into the system and I don't think it would have harmed anything anyhow.

You can see the reservoir dangling at the left.

[bonneyman]

If I can't find any methanol-based washer fluid I make my own. Mix 1/8 cup of industrial strength ammonia and 1 cup of IPA with two drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid into a gallon of distilled water.
The ammonia smell isn't overpowering and it cleans well, the IPA helps with the evaporation off the glass and provides some low temp protection, and the Dawn helps cut through bug guts without damaging the rubber washer components. Not perfect (but certainly better than just plan water) and dirt cheap. Add a few drops of blue food coloring so I don't get it confused with other cleaning chemicals in the laundry room where I store it.

[Rural53]

Some maintenance on our race track today. I got a text at 7:30 this morning with this photo attached.



And the message "Track prep gear leaving the yard this morning I'll be over there after work to crack into it. Colin is heading over this morning to make a start on cleaning the silt traps out. Looking forward to ripping it all up tomorrow."

The sender is one of our club members who is the production manager for one of the biggest landscaping products manufacturers in the country and sent me of his staff to deliver the equipment. The JD is a 2001 6210.


It only has about 4,000 hours on it. It still has the plastic on the seat.


The Pearson blade is brand new. Both are on trial and "if they do what we want here, I'll buy them for work around the production facility"




A lot of material gets thrown up onto the top of the banked berms. This combination seems to move it around quite efficiently.



The material is mainly volcanic ash and is quite fine so we have deep silt traps at the low pints around the track. These need cleaning out several times a year.


Once I saw they had these works on hand I headed back in to town to finish the paperwork for tomorrow's racing. I stopped at Mitre 10 and picked up some tek screws, a 1/4" hex to 1/2" sq adapter so I can use my impact driver instead of carrying another battery driver and this LED torch.



I also bought a tek bit (Australian made Airco) because Murphy's Law says I wouldn't be able to find one when I got home. As Murphy's parent's weren't married, when I got home I found one exactly where I expected to.

[Rural53]

So the guys did a great job of the track on Saturday and we had a small number of people turn up to race on Sunday. A bit of a family affair with a father and daughter racing.



As well as a father and son.



We also have this guy, in his 30's, that races his deceased father's old school turbo Nissan powered Class 1.


Yesterday afternoon I went and got a Warrant of Fitness (State Inspection) for my ute. Since you should always support the businesses of people you know I didn't go to the drive through chain WOF place. When I turned up Dave was assembling gears and shafts on a billet plate and muttering about east European engineering (how good it was) and said look in the box.


He is the NZ agent for X Shift Gearboxes, an after market gearbox supplier from the Czech Republic. Basically he was turning a Subaru gearbox into a six speed sequential gearbox by replacing all the internals for a rally car.

His workshop is usually full of rally cars but there were more road/track cars there yesterday. This very nice, and fairly rare, 1988 Porsche Carrera Sport was in having a niggling idling issue fixed. This one came from Jersey in the Channel Islands when its owner immigrated here. The BMW, E46 3.0 turbo, is a GT Cup race car that is being prepared for the first round of the season in mid November. They also had an ex-Japan Porsche Boxster that they were putting a roll cage in, the tenth one they had done, for a new race series.



Edit - the adapter worked great on the impact to drive tek screws.

[john k]

One nice looking shop.  On the 2 post lift, the light blue reinforcement plates on the floor,   upgrade?  Know why they are there?    Silt traps, new term for me, part of being good stewards of the land.

[muddy]

(actually yesterday but I posted it in the wrong thread!) Trying to get out of this funk, so I'm not so sluggish when I return to work. Did a few loads of laundry, cleaned my basement work shop, and got the next big project on the workbench. Didn't even take an afternoon nap

The tractor needs new pedal arm, and axle bushings, , drive chain, a front axle and a paint job and decals.




free pic hosting no sign up

[Rural53]

One nice looking shop.  On the 2 post lift, the light blue reinforcement plates on the floor,   upgrade?  Know why they are there?    Silt traps, new term for me, part of being good stewards of the land.

Looking in the brochure for that lift they are the optional base plate extensions for concrete between 100-150mm.

Silt traps are just big holes dug in the ground to hold the water runoff temporarily and allow any sediment to settle out. They are a must in this area with volcanic soils. Depending on the the type of ash or pumice in the area they either act as a soak pit or hold water (generic silt trap photos below). Generally, the ones around our track don't hold water but the ones on the access road about a quarter mile away do.

[muddy]

Split logs up








Sent from the twisted mind of the mudman

[DeadNutz]

Nice splitting job Tim and that wood would work just fine in my stove. What species of wood?
The wife just ordered a couple of cords from the guy with the trucking yard behind her shop. Firewood sales keeps him busy when the sand and gravel trucks are parked during the winter. This wood will be lodgepole pine most likely.

[Rural53]

I got mugged this evening.



But I got a photo of the culprit.

I was at a meeting after work, Finn was good at the meeting for over an hour and a half sitting in his bed. Obviously we were taking too long and he started wandering around the meeting table with his lead in his mouth looking for someone to take him for a walk. When I tried to take his photo he tried to climb in my lap.

[goodfellow]

Nothing like a big cold dog nose bop in the face from a four-legged buddy. A very handsome pooch indeed --

[fatfillup]

Well if he has the lead in his mouth, can't he walk himself?