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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 735
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 17 July, 2019 - 15:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I need a new home for my Rolls Royce Silver Shadow (notice how I tried to keep this thread relevant to RRs). Where I live it is too small, too expensive, no control over what I can do. The town tells me I cannot park cars out where they can be seen unless it has a license (ie running and driving and has past inspection). (And I got a moving violation ticket for parking my 18 wheeler truck in my parking lot. Stating trucks are not allowed on any road in this part of town.) In trying to restore cars, this means I cannot do what I need to do to restore cars.

I know all people that drive Rolls Royces are multi-millionaires and land barons. (Ha Ha, just a joke.) But I am hoping someone knows about buying land.

I want to buy a cheap plot of land (if in this county it has to be 2 acres to have a septic tank permit). I need it seen from a major highway so lots of traffic will see the cars I have. I have contacted lots of realtors and they just brush me off as not worth their time. There are lots of abandoned gas stations, houses, etc. but trying to find who owns them is a big problem. And the ones I have made contact with don't want to sell, have the property so fractionalised that to find all that own it is impossible. Near here the prices for just a bit of land is unbelievable.

How would you go about, with a small amount of money, get a piece of land (my Rolls needs a new home)?
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3382
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Wednesday, 17 July, 2019 - 16:21:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Haunt "Mortgagee in Possession" property auctions as the Vendor invariably wants a quick sale to get some money and crystallise any loss-related tax deductions.

This is especially relevant when an economy is heading for a recession as this gives greater impetus to the Vendor accepting a much lower price.

David's Rule for Real Estate "Sell in a Boom; Buy in a Recession" - this has worked every time for me.
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Graham Hutton
Experienced User
Username: gph

Post Number: 63
Registered: 01-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 17 July, 2019 - 19:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

How about you consider a storage / lock up. Less aggravation than land , easy access and probably not expensive.
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michael vass
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Username: mikebentleyturbo2

Post Number: 569
Registered: 07-2015
Posted on Wednesday, 17 July, 2019 - 20:57:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I thought USA was land of the free! Sounds more screwed up than UK
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 737
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 18 July, 2019 - 02:08:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David, I suspect that the USA recessions have global effects that cause recessions in all markets globally. As far as I know we are still feeling the effects of the housing collapse, when I worked at FEMA for property disposal and for the top law firm in Miami in the case of Drexel Burnham Lambert defense. In other words a long time ago.

So should I be buying or selling (I have nothing to sell)?

Graham, not sure how storage would help except when I come across a really good deal. As a 1965 Barracuda in good shape for only $1500 and I could not buy it because I had no place to put it.

Michael, The only freedom the USA has is what a law says you have the freedom to do. In other words there is no freedom in the USA only an illusion of it. An example women can only go topless at a beach if the law there says they can, it is not a given that humans have that right.

How do people in the UK buy land?


David Texas Law

Notice of Sale

After the cure period has expired, and at least 21 days before the foreclosure sale, the servicer then sends a notice of sale (via certified mail) to each borrower who is obligated to pay the debt. The notice of sale will also be:

* posted at the courthouse door in the county in which the property is located, and
* filed with the county clerk in the county in which the property is located.

The notice of sale must include the date, time, and location of the sale, as well as a disclosure geared toward military service members that they should notify the sender of the notice about their military status.
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Mark Luft
Frequent User
Username: bentleyman1993

Post Number: 277
Registered: 10-2016
Posted on Thursday, 18 July, 2019 - 03:02:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike, look outside of Texas. I have found land in Iowa for $2000 an acre. Look in small towns with no one around. If you're a truck driver then you can live anywhere in the USA.
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Randy Roberson
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Username: wascator

Post Number: 829
Registered: 05-2009
Posted on Thursday, 18 July, 2019 - 05:33:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

A friend just bought circa 20 acres of land in north-central Arkansas, Ozark mountains, for $1500 an acre, and it has easy access to a water system and electric power; not over 10 miles from a nice-sized town. You need to get more rural get away from the cities (where all the money is, unfortunately...).
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 741
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 18 July, 2019 - 07:41:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well Texas has a lot of disadvantages (a police state, I got a ticket for stopping past the imaginary line, because there was no line), but there are a lot of advantages as well. Inspections are mostly in and out, look at the lights, honk the horn drive the car stomp on the brakes and hand you a paper you passed. ( I just got my Cadillac done and this time they did not even do the drive and stomp on the brakes.)

Then again if land is that cheap elsewhere $2000 and $1500 I may need to look at the number of cars you can sell in that state without a license, and inspection requirements. Thanks Mark and Randy.

In Texas there are vast amounts of land along well traveled highways (people going to California, Las Vegas etc.) that have people that have lots of money. Cars are usually impulse buying. So some rich guy (driving a Rolls Royce of course wink wink) may just stop by and buy my car. So there are rural areas along the highway well outside of any city limit only subject to county laws. But like I say I don't know how to buy them. The realtors won't help me.

Oh P.S. I am no longer a truck driver, I only do cars right now.

.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1512
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Friday, 19 July, 2019 - 00:48:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike I noticed a lot of desert land in Arizona going cheap but also noticed very cheap houses and land in upstate New York around a town called Oxford.

Forget Australia and New Zealand because the land and houses are way over priced to the point of a tragic insanity
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 751
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 19 July, 2019 - 10:44:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Here are some examples of land here in Texas, how does that compare with what you know?

http://openskylandcompany.com/?ct=t%28%29&mc_cid=128cd74651&mc_eid=65f43328c7

Vlad on one of my visa runs I went to Perth Australia to have a look if I would want to live there. Police wise it looked as bad as the USA so I have already crossed it off my list. Pattaya Thailand still tops my list, but since the military and new king took over the visa run life is over. Now you have to be retired or going to school. Spain is not bad, but the corrupt Judicial system scared me.
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3386
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Friday, 19 July, 2019 - 12:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

Based on the prices in your link, I would NEVER complain about your local land prices.

Australian Police and even the Queensland "coppers" come nowhere near the depths of many US Police forces.

Whilst all Australian Police either carry or have access to firearms, we rarely have "shoot first and ask questions afterwards" incidents. There are many instances of police bravery and loss of life where officers refrained from shooting and were severely injured or killed as a consequence. Here in NSW we have a "Wall of Remembrance" dedicated to police officers who paid the supreme price protecting the public; there is a similar National Memorial in our National Capital Canberra:

http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/government/state/display/23250-police-service-wall-of-remembrance

I believe it is accurate to claim Australia is one of the safest countries in the world to live as a consequence of our gun laws enacted after the Port Arthur massacre:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_(Australia)

This opinion is always quickly challenged by the US NRA and similar gun lobby organisations however the facts speak for themselves as we DO NOT have anything like the number of massacres and individual deaths as a result of firearm use per head of population. I have gone everywhere in our nation and I can never remember having to worry about being threatened or losing my life from a gun incident.

I grew up with firearms and owned a high-power air rifle when I was 12 years old. We lived in bank premises in country regions where a .38 calibre Smith and Wesson revolver was always kept in an accessible location. As a teenager, I participated in the annual local bank and police firearm practices and modesty should [but will not] prevent me from mentioning I achieved higher scores than both my father and the local Police Sergeant for both single shot and rapid fire exercises. In this era, the bank revolvers were more reliable than the Police "clip up the butt" pistols which were prone to jamming in rapid fire mode.

I have not owned a firearm for many decades as I have had no need to own one and it is highly probable this will apply for the rest of my life. The only exception would be if we purchased a country property and needed a firearm to control feral animals.

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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 752
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 19 July, 2019 - 16:12:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David, my judgment on a place and their police firearms have nothing to with this judgment. It is how likely am I to get a ticket, how free do I feel in that place. How hard would it be if I got a car to have it inspected (these are examples). In Thailand for example I would feel free to go down the road at any speed "I" feel is safe, even if on a highway at 100 mph etc. (like everyone else). (The way they see it in Thailand if you get into a accident it was the fate of Buddha.) I feel these freedoms would not be the case in Australia, so I deem it a police state with too much lack of freedom. That is my definition of a police state, lack of freedom and too much control.

The lower property prices in the examples on the site I gave is property (for the most part) that is as we say, out in the boon docks. Some I think are so far off the beaten path that there may not be electricity. Water and sewage are easy here, just dig deep enough and you will either hit water or oil. Although the oil will make you rich, you can't drink it. I still have no idea how to buy a property if I pick one out.
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ross kowalski
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Username: cdfpw

Post Number: 1173
Registered: 11-2015
Posted on Monday, 22 July, 2019 - 01:18:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

What you want is land with a well and septic already installed, but no house of value. A bank will sell you a property like that for a good price, but it would be a cash sale.

Where I am water is clean and shallow, lots of folks use well points and shallow wells which is cheap or free. The soil is sandy so septics are easy.
Trouble is the taxes you pay when you are done.
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Randy Roberson
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Username: wascator

Post Number: 831
Registered: 05-2009
Posted on Monday, 22 July, 2019 - 03:06:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Agree. Find an area with few-no urbanites in the tax district. Rural folks generally want low taxes and to be left alone. Watch out for “nice” middle-class areas; they have cash incomes and will vote taxes for services they want but the locals don’t and can’t afford.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 761
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 22 July, 2019 - 05:39:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The more I am around people the less I want to be around people. :-)

Where I am any warm body that has enough cash for the deposit and first months rent, my land lord will allow them in. (Sometimes without the deposit.) Some of the most wretched people on the planet have come through here. You would think that if a person has no car and has no job that would be a clue they are not going to be able to pay rent. But the land lord wants money so bad he will take anyone. 6 months later having not paid another dime they are still there. I know in Missouri if you do not pay rent you have 30 days to get out or the police come and have you start taking everything you own out. Not here.

Still the same problem exists for me the how to do it part. I am willing I had a high paying job (truck drivers make a lot of money now up to $100,000+ a year) ready to buy a place or land and every one I wanted, I either could not locate the owner, it was fractionalized between the surviving children, there children and the grandchildren, (good luck buying that) or I needed to wait until they decided if they wanted to sell it. All the others through a realtor wanted like a million dollars, for like an abandoned porno shop (that looked like an old house of pancakes building) and 4 acres. Really.

So that's where I'm at, how to do it. (and now I'm unemployed.)
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 779
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 25 July, 2019 - 08:53:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I found some land by a lake which is 1 acre not that far from here and with sewage and water for $ 6,990. I think I will go look at it tomorrow.

Weird point: In the county it is in, you must have 2 acres for a septic tank permit without water supplied, 1 acre if there is water supplied. (Not sure what the difference is where you get water from, unless it is to lessen the impact on the aquifer.)
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3399
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 25 July, 2019 - 09:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Weird ordinance - what about having a rain water tank holding drain off from a suitable roof [usually an out-building with the dwelling roof providing drinking water] and a pressure pump as the "supply"?
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 780
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 25 July, 2019 - 13:05:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David I would assume that because it is not supplied by an approved government or company, and only falls from the sky not through a pipe, you have to have 2 acres. :-) ???

That system you described is only used long ago in old houses (out in the boon docks) in the USA (to my knowledge) and have hand pumps. (The best water I had came from a large aquifer that had been purified by millions of years. The worst was here in Texas I don't drink it comes out brown and tastes like dirt or sewage, Los Angeles treatment, and I think London.)
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3401
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 25 July, 2019 - 19:40:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

With your ingenuity and Texas climate, you would find a solar still would quickly solve your potable [drinking] water problem; you just have to undertake some practical tests to determine the size of still needed to meet your water usage requirements all year round:

https://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/home/how-to-make-a-solar-still-ze0z1209zsch

Another possibility would be a reverse osmosis system however this would probably need to be connected to a set of solar power panels to run pumps to circulate the water for maximum efficiency.

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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 784
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 26 July, 2019 - 02:47:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David, I have had thoughts along this line to heat the water, as did the public swimming pool in Miami Beach FL. That pool was heated by solar power. The water circulated through a pipes painted black laid out in a fenced area. I thought the water could come from the well filtered, part go into a tank unheated, the other into a cement container that has the same heating as the pool and the water + cement would keep it hot. Then pumped to the house as needed.

You got to think if a dirt particle as big as it is makes its way through what else is making it through. I have taken unbelievable pictures of the water here. I talked to the guy that is in charge of the water. I said I don't drink the water here and asked would you drink that stuff? He said sure I drink it all the time, because I know what's in it. Old guy done it that same way since he was young, not likely to change. The water comes from a lake that in the summer the boats churn up whatever is at the bottom of the lake and is pumped into our houses. Nice idea on the still.

water

water 2

Would you drink that?

People are lead to believe the water in the USA is safe, it's not.

.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 785
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 26 July, 2019 - 07:07:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I tried to go see the property but it is so far out in the boon docks I think I went back in time (buffalo).

buffalo

Then I about got to the property and was met by this, and no way to get around it to go where the property is. Really you could not tell me it is a gated community.

gate

But on the other side of that branch of the lake is the property (somewhere). And no cell service at all (well not for my carrier).

lake
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3404
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Friday, 26 July, 2019 - 09:55:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

Here in the"Land Down-Under", we have installed close-coupled solar hot water systems on house roofs since the 1980's to reduce energy bills.

https://www.rinnai.com.au/online/hot-water/close-coupled-systems/

This is now diminishing as the solar systems are being replaced by conventional electric hot water systems powered by roof-mounted solar-voltaic power systems. If a 15kW system with Li-ion storage batteries is installed, it is possible to go completely off-grid and sell your surplus power to the national electricity grid. This gives a pay-back period around 5 to 7 years for a system that has warranties for 15 years [now increasing to 20 years as panel and battery technology improves].

https://solarcalculator.com.au/solar-power-systems/

https://www.originenergy.com.au/for-home/solar/systems-batteries/savings-estimator.html?cid=ps:sl:genericnsw_g&state=nsw&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2vy966DR4wIVQgwrCh1PEAgHEAAYAiAAEgJaK_D_BwE

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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 787
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 26 July, 2019 - 11:27:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I mentioned before I knew a policeman that (illegally) street races on the week ends. The same guy for his garage, which is not part of the house and not that close to the house, installed solar panels on the roof and runs everything electric that way.

It is a bit bigger than this one.

https://www.pwssteelbuildings.com/wp-content/uploads/photo-gallery/nipomo8.jpg?bwg=0

Close Coupled Systems is a nice idea no moving parts.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 798
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 30 July, 2019 - 07:40:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I found a property I wanted big enough, elec. water, sewer, in town, a Walmart and parts stores. I was calling about my APR rate on my credit card at around 22 APR, very high. The lady said she could give me a one time deal of transferring $6000 to my account at 0 APR so I pay no interest, but it had to be done right then. I had not talked to the realtor if I could buy the property for $5990. But I knew I wanted it, this was Friday night. So Today (Monday) I was all set to buy the property, so I called them (by the way they don't take credit cards so I would have to do a wire transfer, why I transferred the funds). Then they told me the place had restrictions on it, and would not allow a mobile home or even a metal building. Both of which are in my price range. So I called the city to see if I could work something out. No deal it has to be a built wooden family home a certain size and look like all the other homes there. The reason he said was all the mobile homes around abandoned and no way to get rid of them. So it was a bad day for me.

Both lots for $5990.

land

view

And I got on craigslist.com (Sunday) and found a free lawn mower, and went and got it for my new land (that fell through). The carb leaks a lot, I think it is the float valve gummed up. Looks like the owner never cleaned the air filter, ever. And no doubt left gas in it through the winters. Thus float valve is stuck open.

mower
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1517
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Tuesday, 30 July, 2019 - 20:15:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I once drank straight from the apartment tap in Samara Russia (formally Kuibyshev) but my Russian partner at the time told me that Russians don't ever drink household water and only crazy Australian Russians do! I never got sick. Probably a bullet proof stomach.

My water at my country lair comes from the sky and I have two tanks so its free with the beauty of no water rates and when I run out of water my neighbour comes over and fills my tank with his Mack truck water tanker and never accepts any money in return.

I doubt there is any block of land in Australia for under $7000, more like $20,000 but of course all real estate here is wildly overpriced.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 801
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 31 July, 2019 - 00:58:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Down in Honduras I accidentally drank the water via a hamburger that I told them plain, but they put onions on. I told them I wanted plain so they took it back then brought it back onions removed, but not the bugs in the water on the onions.

Needless to say I had projectile diarrhea for 2 weeks. I was taking so much Pepto Bismol (anti-diarrhea, liquid at the time) that I started to have blood come out my penis, so I stopped that and just went with the flow as it were.

I'm finding if you look hard enough there are good deals around. Just is there cell service or not (and septic tank issues). At the lots above for the first time ever I had all the bars on my phone lit up. It was perfect. and some government kept me from my dream land. (But in Thailand foreigners can only rent the land, but build anything they like on it. Then if the land owner decides he would like that nice building or home all they have to do is say move it. And that's why many marry a Moose, a lady married only to keep the land in the family.)
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 805
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 01 August, 2019 - 13:03:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I went to another property some 9 miles away, that is near a lake. It is some 100'X122'. It was supposed to be somewhat cleared land. Not. I could not see the land for all the trees. Then the good part it was supposed to have utilities.

To get the electricity to the lot would cost $20,000, to get the water to the lot would cost $6400 plus your own hook up fees, if you could get water. Which they will not bring the water to the lot because the old pipes never used, will not hold water pressure, and so no sewer as well. The property was only $6500. Total cost for that lot without my cost to hook to their lines, $32,900. If I had that money I would buy a house in a city. Maybe undeveloped means more money not less.
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3414
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 01 August, 2019 - 19:34:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

Economics 101 - the blocks being advertised at a low cost hoping the buyer will not be aware the occupation costs after purchase are huge.

Look for land which already has services connected and budget accordingly knowing these costs have been covered by the purchase.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 807
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 02 August, 2019 - 02:50:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Having never done this before, I have a steep learning curve.

I think most electric companies in the USA hook you up without cost, if the lines are already there. And I am looking at a Porta Potty for sewage solution, a temporary fix until I sell some cars. A outhouse without the hole as it were. (Maybe an RV porta potty.) A off the grid solution without as much cost approach. What do you think?

Just thought, for the gray water (anything but sewage) a sprinkler system that on a timer at night gets rid of that water and keeps the lawn nice.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 808
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 02 August, 2019 - 03:47:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Added to the above post:

Is putting your poop in the trash OK?

https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/comments/54ghrk/debate_topic_is_putting_your_poop_in_the_trash/

Didn't know there are people living in their vehicles because they like it.

I have been thinking of getting a school bus to haul cars on. And have a cab in it with a bed to take to auctions etc. have it titled as an RV. They are big enough for 1 or 2 cars (depending on the size, 2 Smart cars). Not sure I would want to live in it though.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/06/bf/fc/06bffcdc40bea160468c863ec522c69b.jpg

Didn't know other people had thought about this. I would cut it to only 2 seats back with a bed and some shelves for tools etc.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 810
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 02 August, 2019 - 08:24:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Added to the 2 above posts:

Since I just got back from getting the title for my car (Woopee) also a guy came in that had converted a school bus to a really nice camper. To take to Sturgis Motorcycle Rally South Dakota, and race car events. So I asked what were the qualification for a title for a (RV) Motor Home.

Motor home

MH

I figure I can meet the red arrows.
.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1524
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Friday, 02 August, 2019 - 10:19:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike, you turned me on to PSY Now I should book a ticket to ........

All I can say is once you buy your own place and are not at the mercy of a landlord things get very rock and rolly.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 812
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 02 August, 2019 - 11:26:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

chto oznachayet PSY

David you are right on some of these guys tring to trick you on the utilities. I did not know that I was dealing with two companies on the same lot of land. One treated me like poop on Facebook land, the other was a nice and text on phone from another company.

The one on Facebook had a picture that was not of the property. Then when I told him it would cost $36,000 to move in he said he talked to the Power Of Attorney and the county and what I said the hook up costs of utilities was way off because he talked to them. The county has nothing to do with putting in utilities, only the city near it or a utility company. And I have no idea how talking to a Power Of Attorney would do you any good on this.

He blocked me so I can't report him.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1526
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Saturday, 03 August, 2019 - 23:05:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Power of Attorney is a legal document whereby you legally authorize another person to act on your behalf. Hard to see how anybody could talk to a document to get an answer. Sounds like that guy was a con man.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 827
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 04 August, 2019 - 03:18:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Vlad I agree, I posted in a lot of places to not trust that guy. Unfortunately he has property I want, that I believe have utilities on the main road. Not down where there are no utilities.

Going Monday to the county deeds office to get the owner's name to see if I might be able to buy from them direct.

I widened my search and found a lot of land in that area. Cheaper and better too.
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Brian Vogel
Grand Master
Username: guyslp

Post Number: 2905
Registered: 06-2009
Posted on Sunday, 04 August, 2019 - 13:28:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Vlad,

I really don't know what colloquialisms might or might not be used elsewhere, but it is very common to speak of "talking to the Power of Attorney," or, more commonly, "talking to the PoA," here in the USA.

That has the implied meaning of "talking to the individual who holds Power of Attorney in regard to whatever is being discussed because the actual principal is not available."

I have been my mother's Power of Attorney for years and, believe me, I've seen plenty of notes after discussions with me where the person notes something like, "cleared with PoA." I've also said, on a couple of occasions, that, "I need to talk with [insert name of principal here] or their PoA."

Context matters.

Brian
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 830
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 04 August, 2019 - 14:40:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Power of a Skoolie.

skoolie

koolie

oolie

olie
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 835
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 06 August, 2019 - 07:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

SUCCESS ! on the new land. I finally found a pot of land to call my own. The Rolls will have a new home to go to. It is of course undeveloped land, but has electricity (see red arrow) right there, but water and sewer are iffy. It of course is in the most tree infested part, with copperhead snakes, but trees can come down and snakes can be dealt with. Signed the papers to start the process, only $7,000 USD. (Happy camper.)

land 2
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3422
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Tuesday, 06 August, 2019 - 08:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Congratulations Mike - there is nothing better than the security of owning a place of your own and a corner block as well.

Just cannot get over the land value - a similar sized block in country NSW would be in the range AUD80,000 - AUD200,000 however this would include paved road access, electricity, water and sewerage connections being available for connection. Blocks without these connections would be approximately AUD50,000 less depending on locality.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1527
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Tuesday, 06 August, 2019 - 09:48:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Good on you Mike. As I said before owning your own place to live is the only way to go.

How many acres is it? Do you have to go through a mile of bureaucratic insanity to chop a tree down? In Sydney you have no idea of the lunacy involved in removing a tree from private property.

I would locate the living space dead centre in the guts of it using the trees east and west for shade and using the rest for privacy.

You could go one better and have a swing gate covered in branches and nobody will know you are there. Also cuts down on the unwanted tap tap on your door from religious nutcases, cable salesmen, charity beggars and other riff raff.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1528
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Tuesday, 06 August, 2019 - 09:57:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

You can of course eat the copperheads. They hardly fit into the aussie eastern brown category of poisonous so make a snake net and into the pot they go.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 836
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 06 August, 2019 - 11:57:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David I went to buy the lot (block) next to it (on right) but the realtor did a general search to find the property and found the corner lot was for sale by a guy she knew. It was more money but 1. it was the corner lot that I wanted, 2. it is just that much closer to that elec line. A two fer as we call it. (Two for the price of one.) And it is bigger as well (a three fer).

Vlad, it is around 0.28 acres not even a acre (not sure the size on that one, it is not the one I went to buy, but the realtor said it is bigger). And I would have said something about the snakes but after the deer incident I worded it very carefully. I am thinking of putting patio bricks around the property to have the snakes just go around it not into it. (Rabbit fence as it were.) I figure if they hit the bricks they will either turn or go back the way they came. Not sure they will go over, they're not that bright.

It will be nice that mostly I can do what I want without having to ask a land lord, and it is mostly out of the city but somehow the city still has an influence. The county is trying to fix that.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 844
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 07 August, 2019 - 12:43:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I just got back from taking an hour to hack and saw my way through the bottom half of the property. It took me half an hour just to get into the property, because everything down here has stickers. So anything you grab will puts holes into you. So I finally got into the perimeter, and inside it opens up a bit. Then I found out it is not flat land as I thought, and it is filled with boulders. If I were to name this land like some name their cars, I would name this Boulders City.

From the outside it looks flat and totally full of trees.

Bolder city 1

Boulder city 2

This is the path I made to just get into the place.

Boulder city 3

I think that is the end of the property somewhere along there.

Boulder city 4

And the rock garden at the end of the property.

Boulder city 5

I found out I can rent this Backhoe for $237 USD for 8 hours. I does not come with the Rock Breaker attached that is another $210 for 8 hours, total $447 (+ insurance) for 8 hours, not that bad. I think I could do some serious damage to the property in 8 hours. What do you think?

backhoe
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3427
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Wednesday, 07 August, 2019 - 20:26:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

Dig out as many of the rocks you can without using the rock breaker and carefully stockpile them to avoid damage- you might be able to sell them to garden enthusiasts for landscaping depending on the local market for such items.

Once you break them up, their value will essentially disappear as they no longer look natural and are little more than feed for a rock crusher to make gravel.

P.S. My block here in Sydney was far steeper than yours and the sandstone boulders were huge so I used them to make dry walls for holding fill from the main excavation to create a car park for 4 to 6 vehicles on an otherwise inaccessible and useless portion of the block. The depth of the fill ended up being 10 to 12 metres [30 to 36 feet in your measurements] and has been absolutely stable for just under 40 years.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 848
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 08 August, 2019 - 01:34:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David,
Since I don't have a survey of the site I'm not sure the rock garden is on my land, but there are plenty of smaller ones to deal with, and unknown if I am only seeing the tip of the iceberg as well. The land is not mine yet and the owner is poking around on signing the contract and getting it back to my realtor. Which he is a realtor as well. They have a reciprocity thing down here with realtors. Today is the last day I am suppose to get the Earnest Money to the title company, so I am getting antsy. I will be in breach of contact after today, and the contract can be terminated. They both know each other so I doubt that would happen and it is not my fault they have not delivered the contract to the title company.

What does "make dry walls for holding fill" mean, breaking them up to fill up an area for dirt to be put on top and I suppose cement?

Also I believe the only viable sewer line (if one still exists) is at the top of the hill and I'm not sure if I could get the sewage up there without building the toilet on a second floor or something as a pump.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1539
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Thursday, 08 August, 2019 - 05:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Don't sweat it Mike if the deal on that land falls through because there are plenty of other bargains in the USA which are on very pretty land.

Some time back I spoke to a real estate agent about some rural land in Virginia. The land was cheap and stunning and the lady agent told me the reason it was so cheap is that it was "remote".

Not remote like the 126 kilometers away from the nearest town like I have here but maybe 60 kilometers away from the nearest town.

I got a laugh out of that one. With remoteness comes a massive increase in the quality of life in my experience.

No neighbours are the best neighbours.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 849
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 08 August, 2019 - 07:03:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I texted the realtor and she say he would not terminate the contract. Hard to say when the last time anyone was interested in buying land there. The blocks have been there a very long time, since at least 2003. I think it was farm land before that, must have been for cows because of all the boulders.

I picked that lot because although there is a cell tower a quarter mile away, anywhere but there has no cell service, because there is a repeater blocking Sprint signal. Up there I am getting 3 bars. Below close to the repeater nothing.
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3430
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 08 August, 2019 - 08:51:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

A "dry wall" is exactly that - you make a wall with the largest rocks and then place smaller rocks behind the large rocks to fill in the gaps between them to stop the fill that goes in behind the wall being washed out by rain and/or seepage.

Here is a very small one I built in my back yard to make a garden bed - the sandstone outcrock is part of a monolith that is one of the headlands that outcrop into the Georges River in Sydney and there is a lot of seepage every time it rains [very infrequent at the present time as we are in the middle of a drought].

Note the log crib wall at the top to stabilise the rocks behind as I had run out of large rocks ("floaters") having used them for the parking area wall on the lower side of the block.

rock wall

.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 850
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 08 August, 2019 - 13:16:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David,

How did you/they pick up such large rocks? Looks like someone put in a lot of work.

I spent another hour and a half making a path from the front left of the property down to the extent corner path I made before. Cutting little trees down, then all the sticker vines attached to the ground and the top of the trees, around maybe 150 feet. But I was finally able to see what the property looks like. And there are more and more rocks and trees to deal with. Definitely going to need equipment to do it with.

The above Backhoe will come in handy for the job. I will have them put on just a bucket on the back not the rock breaker, to deal with the rocks and larger trees. None are any bigger than the others. So I assume they are only some 16 years old trees. The trees are only around as big as if you have white walls on your Rolls Royce tires, that is the extent of the circumference. Hopefully I can push them down with the backhoe bucket like an elephant does.

This has me a bit worried because I need to put things into the ground. I'm not sure what is under that ground. It is not the same as here, I don't know the rock map topology under that area.
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3431
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 08 August, 2019 - 16:13:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

The big rocks are not individual rocks, they are the outcrop of the monolith I referred to above. The biggest surface rocks [floaters] we moved by a machine similar to the one in your photo had a mass around 6 tons each.

They are part of a sea bed that was under water a long time ago and were compressed into a sedimentary rock. Subsequent earth movements tilted the monolith 45 degrees from the horizontal; the "ripples" you can see are the edges of the sand layers.

Where I excavated to build my home, there is a layer of pure white china clay of varying thickness in the monolith with the same angle of dip. It is interesting to speculate how it came into being when Nature was laying the sediments down. Sydney is built on a thick sandstone surface layer with huge underlying coal seams that form a basin approximately 400km [250 miles] long and 160km [100 miles] wide.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 852
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 08 August, 2019 - 16:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I am going to need a lot of barrels to store water in and looks what is free at a few places.

https://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/zip/d/irving-55-gallon-barrels-30-gallon/6921116120.html
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 857
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 09 August, 2019 - 12:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I just got back from the property I'm buying, and I went to the house where I have been going because they know a lot about the area. Little did I know I was making them nervous. So a family member is the chief of police or something for the county. So first the local police show up asking why I am in the neighbourhood, and that they have gotten many calls on my car snooping around in the neighbourhood. Knocking on doors and the like. Well yeah, how else am I supposed to know where the sewer is and is not and the like. If I had not talked to the neighbours I would have bought a property that I would not ever have any utilities on. The local cop was nice. The county cop was all up in my face saying I am making his family nervous and making him nervous. I said why, he said you keep coming back to this same spot and you're making them nervous. I said they should have said that and I would have stopped. The cop said they are young. I have never been in a neighbourhood where just trying to find out about property can get you arrested. F..king America that is why I hate living here. Now I have the county police on my asp and I have yet to even move in. I would like to file a complaint against him, but down here you can end up dead out in some field.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 860
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 10 August, 2019 - 04:47:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Just called the rental place on the above backhoe and with insurance it would cost $292 for eight hours. Which then leaves how to get it there. They said I could rent a trailer for $150, but you have to have a 1 ton truck which I don't have. If I had my school bus as I want, that would do it but that is in the future. So they will take it there, called a round trip, for $10 more or $160. Total of $452 for 8 hours of tearing up the property. Also last night I went to clear rocks and such on the perimeter of the property to mow it and found I think all rocks are on the surface. I believe at some ice age these rocks were left there in the place they are. It could not have been the last one, it did not reach down to Texas. The last one just gouged out the Great Lakes and a bit past Chicago.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Prolific User
Username: soviet

Post Number: 1547
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Saturday, 10 August, 2019 - 05:17:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Holy shite Mike, a county cop in your face. Gosh I could have some jolly fun with him.

"You keep coming back to the same spot and you are making me nervous...blah blah"

Hang on you lost me totally. Did you inform basket case brain county cop that you have or are in the process of being a land owner?

Secondly please explain to me why people in the USA waste police time and obviously their own taxes by phoning the police when they see a strangers car?

This type of behaviour is bizarre to me. If I started to telephone the local police on every strangers car I see in my town they would definitely bust me for public nuisance and a range of other things and they would not be impressed at all by my behaviour.
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David Gore
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Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3434
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Saturday, 10 August, 2019 - 08:56:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Vladimir,

I can understand the neighbours' concerns - after all, Texas is a place where they shoot first and ask questions afterwards!

I remember my first visit to Texas in January 1976 and being shocked at the number of pickups driving around with fully loaded gun racks across the rear window. I always wondered how many were loaded with the safety off.

Completely the reverse of my own training with the safe handling and use of guns during my country upbringing.

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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 861
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 10 August, 2019 - 10:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David, I might understand the neighbours' concerns but having a cop who has the authority to kill people pissed off and in my face for doing nothing but collecting information for my due diligence of the property, just because they happen to be relatives, is uncalled for. The local cop was called by those I was talking to and the local cop called the county cop because they were friends. Because the county cop thanked the local cop at the end of this unsettling event. Out on a country road where there are no witnesses except family and friends one can end up as so many did in the past as strange fruit.

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

It wasn't always blacks. I got what he was saying loud and clear. And why he was there.

Vlad The county cop knew exactly why I was there. I did not remember him because he looked different in his unmarked county SUV and he told me about the utilities, that was one of the reasons he was pissed. He thought that was all that needed to be said, but my memory is bad, and I have what is called face blindness, I can't remember faces. And as I have said many times I have to process (transduce) things in my way. The county cop thought I kept coming there for another reason than information. "You make me nervous".

Usually the person shot first is the one coming on the property not the other way around. The guns in the windows are by law, so a cop knows they are armed and usually going hunting and the ammo is supposed to be as in the glovebox.
The local cop said every time a door to door salesman comes there they get like 10 calls. The "You make me nervous" comment really makes me nervous.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1550
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Saturday, 10 August, 2019 - 22:23:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Gosh Mike it appears to me to be very weird behaviour by a policeman.

I can't wait to tell your story to my brother Sasha in Russia. He has never left the Soviet Union or Russia. I am guessing he will say something like
" I told you before, the Americans are crazy " but I suspect he will explode in laughter.

I am now working for one of our local extremely rich cattle ranchers and I told him your story and he said " the police would not bother coming out ".

I think considering he has been in this area 30 years longer than me that he is probably right.

However, I do think that if we moved the matter closer to a rural area that had more people the police would charge you for public nuisance if you phoned them about a stranger's car.

Now if you were in an Australian city well I am certain the police would regard a caller about a stranger's car to be nothing more than a full blown nutcase.

Well the way I see it Mike, in rural areas people all get to know each other sooner or later and perhaps the county cop will one day come up to you and apologise for being a dickhead.

Of course, then again perhaps the county cop himself is a full blown nutter or perhaps you have stumbled across a community that is practising wild sex orgies and infantile sacrifice.

I do know that in my life time successive US governments thought the Soviet Union was a threat and certainly the Soviet Union thought the USA was a threat to it and that fear nearly caused the thermonuclear war a number of times that almost croaked every living species on the entire planet bar the family cockroach. I have studied these matters quite closely and can honesty tell you that we are all quite lucky to be alive.

Now all that yap aside perhaps you can chill all your neighbours out by putting on a house warming public barbeque with free beer and sausages at your expense.

Don't be surprised though if after they see the Rolls Royce you overhear some chatter like " Good grief he obviously was not going to rob us because he's goddamn rich "
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 862
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 11 August, 2019 - 03:51:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The only thing that makes any sense of this hysterical behaviour is "stranger danger". There are two younger children at that house, and why the county cop-relative kept asking and referring to why are you coming to "this"" house. And "You are making them nervous", and "You make me nervous". That is the only context I can think of that fits the facts. Which is even more scary in the USA. It is scary that doing your due diligence toward obtaining property could get you strung up as strange fruit. And in a county known to be corrupt there would be nothing you could do about it.

I can personally tell that I worked for Walmart and federal laws were being violated. I turned in complaints against managers. A big no no at Walmart. They found a way to fire me saying I was stealing stuff. As I have said before here, trash is public property to take it is not stealing. So they finally after I was fired thought oh hey we can file charges as well. So they filed a false police report, which I complained to the police department. They said they would not bring this to the court. So now not only was a false police report filed but the police are at best ignoring it. The day of trial the state prosecutor did not show up, for all the cases that morning. Absolutely unheard of. We all walked. Why, he had to know that he would face that the police department was corrupt (because in pretrial I told him about the police) so the only thing he could do is bring charges against the police department and loose the trial, so to avoid that he did not show up (also meaning the State is involved). If that isn't enough to scare the crap out of you, then you must live/lived in Russia. The people in the USA are blissfully unaware of what is really going on in the USA.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1551
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Sunday, 11 August, 2019 - 05:18:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well Mike I certainly have lived in Russia and more than once and I utilize the blatant corruption in Russia to my advantage.

Your story about Walmart though makes my skin crawl because naively I expected the USA especially Texas to be squeaky clean unlike Manhattan NY where I lived and worked in 1980 which was a pretty rotten though exciting part of the big apple.

Your comments about "stranger danger" I totally agree with. This American madness like all USA neurosis has spread to here along with the "if you see anything suspicious call this number blah blah" caper.

Indeed these nitwit ideas are costing the taxpayers billions both here and in the USA and I have personally been told by a cop here that 80% of his time is taken up by false matters and information and that it was driving him nuts.

Until our societies go back to the old ways we are going to have to tolerate this type of stupidity. However, I don't really tolerate it at all. I go on the legal warpath if somebody makes a false allegation against me - yes I don't hesitate to sue them and seize their assets. I revel in the vicious cross examination of fools.

Right now in my town we have a bit of a giggle going on after our bar owner has been seized by the cops in relation to matters of 20 million dollars of imported from Colombia cocaine. The problem is before she was dragged away she hired a black rude as hell transvestite from LA to run the bar.

I have already indicted that I will personally flog the tranny like the family mule if I hear one more syllable out of its nutbag mouth and I have as we speak an $800 home brew beer making kit complete with German 750 ml resealable bottles in transit to my place which along with a $600 vodka still completely replaces my tendency to attend the bar.

Put simply I am avoiding this foolish American who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and I must admit I derive great pleasure knowing that sooner or later a pack of crazy rum drinking cowboys are going to dance the quick step upon its skull - that is if they don't shoot it first.

Try to avoid the unwashed Texas loon Mike. That aside if I was there I cannot deny I would be packing a revolver in the event things got ugly.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 863
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 11 August, 2019 - 08:02:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Unfortunately that "unwashed Texas loon" bought a block of land on the same street down the way and put a prefab house on it. I'm hoping I will not hear from him again.

And "stranger danger" is one of those things that once labeled it sticks to you, just like with a witch in times of old where they were doomed by drowning or fire.

And the FBI was all for promoting "stranger danger" and taught law enforcement how to teach it in schools etc. This despite their own statistics that say 97% of all child abductions and the like happened by the family or friends of the family. And the FBI is now trying to reverse this trend, because it sends the wrong message, that it is some googled eyed guy in the bathrooms you have to worry about, when in fact it is dad or uncle Bill who are the ones likely to do these things.

As for transvestites, in many countries I have been to (Asia) you can't tell them from the real thing without doing like Crocodile Dundee and give it a feel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHTPLpY8mBI
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 866
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 12 August, 2019 - 01:12:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I had no idea how much a concrete slab costs. The slab may cost more than the garage/house will cost. I want to build a 45' X 30' metal building with three garage doors and one walk in door. The living quarters in a 10' X 30' kitchenette.

Something along the lines of this:

kitchen

And on the property I found this somehow connected to the sewer (not sure).

sewer

sewer2
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 884
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 15 August, 2019 - 04:14:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

This is the picture I photoshop to show them what I wanted this is the quote I got. (Cheap for a new home I'm sure.)

For a 30' wide x 46' long x 9' tall Vertical Roof Style Metal Garage
with (3) 10 x 8 Roll Up Style Doors on the 46' long side, the pre-tax price
is: $13,610.00; with a current promotion I can reduce the pre-tax price to:
$11,976.80

This includes free delivery and installation on your level land in TX.

home

I would put the walk in door and window into the building.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
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Username: soviet

Post Number: 1561
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Friday, 16 August, 2019 - 03:54:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I don't know Mike. Texas. They kill people in Texas. Texas has a border with Mexico.

Its really a different scenario.

Cannot see myself ever going stateside again but when I get work, I tend to think about exotic places like Mobassa.

But more to the point, I have to take my hat off to you because you have something that I simply don't have.

Faced with a Texas piggy armed.,.

I would have disarmed the piggy before he got to o in nervous.

Then I would have gowchowed his jaw, picked him up and pole axed him head first into the bitumen and then ground what was left of his face along the bitumen.

And Putin is riding with the Night Wolves as we speak.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 886
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 17 August, 2019 - 11:47:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Apparently climbing in and out of a big truck, and sitting in a seat for 10 hours a day, plus working on cars does not equal exercise. I closed on the property today, meaning it is now my property. And I took my free lawn mower over there, measured out the land, and started to mow. It was not long at all pushing a lawn mower through 3 feet high weeds that sweat was pouring down my face and my heart racing. Holly crap, I was thinking, this is hard work.

But I found out even with 20 foot setbacks on two sides, the property I own is larger than anything I have ever lived on. And I can use the setbacks, but I just can't put any buildings etc. on it.

Here is what I got done today (in 3 hours).

The red arrow is the last tree sticking out and my property is 10 feet beyond that with a 15 foot setback so 25 feet more. The blue arrow marker is where my property actually begins with two 20 foot setbacks on the corner roads. After:


prop 1

Before:

prop 2

After:

prop 3
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 888
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 18 August, 2019 - 05:00:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Since I have never knocked down trees with a backhoe, I watched some videos. I was thinking you just take the front bucket, lift it in the air and go. No, that's not how it has to be done. If I could have rented a bulldozer that would do it. The last one is probably the way I will try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1_8ZBdL0J4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2EeMFKQZaI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqjSGg0NulU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZGwwnXNtbQ
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 892
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 20 August, 2019 - 10:42:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

As you can see I rented the backhoe, and about a half hour in I pushed over a small tree, the top snapped off and I backed up. The 3 feet left attached to the ground stood up and caught a valve that lifts the front loader, and broke it. End of day and will cost me some $200 + to fix it. (Money I really cannot afford just because they did not put a shield on the bottom of the backhoe.)

backhoe 2
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Robert J. Sprauer
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Username: wraithman

Post Number: 510
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Tuesday, 20 August, 2019 - 10:56:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

This is why you need a professional and let them assume the risk.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 897
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 20 August, 2019 - 14:07:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Yes I know your answer to everything is open up the bill fold and buy buy buy.

Can't can't can't.

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Patrick Lockyer.
Grand Master
Username: pat_lockyer

Post Number: 2179
Registered: 09-2004
Posted on Tuesday, 20 August, 2019 - 19:02:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Don't throw the dice if you can't pay the price!
The way to do the job is cut the trees down with chain saw.
Then you can hire a stump grinder.
I used a Oregon battery electric saw, you could use an inverter with a small solar panel to charge if you have no grid tie up.


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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 898
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 21 August, 2019 - 02:33:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I bought a Craftsman 18 inch gas chainsaw this morning.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/CRAFTSMAN-42-cc-2-cycle-18-in-Gas-Chainsaw/1000601361

The place I rented the backhoe from wants me to pay for the whole valve assembly, not just the valve that got broke, at a price of $2418.00. I am not willing to pay that price when I paid for insurance. If I can find a valve or a rebuild kit for the credit left on the rental I will leave it at that.

I might be able to make something like this.

https://www.wirtzrentals.com/itemimages/14241.jpg
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 901
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 21 August, 2019 - 14:52:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Vlad, I am hoping this is right up your alley. I need to find the part shown below as cheap as possible. I do not need the whole Terex/Mecalac valve assembly (For $2418) part number T136185, I need only the one pointed to below. Terex/Mecalac part number 6196516M91 LOADER LIFT SECTION, just that valve, or better a crossover to a much cheaper (American) part. (Or replacement parts/rebuild kit.)

Since Terex was a Russian company maybe you have black magic connections to the underground overlords. Use that Voodoo you do.

valve
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 912
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 08:55:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I took back my Craftsman 18 inch gas chainsaw this morning, it gave up the ship after just two short times working with it. I Bought a MS 170 Stihl for the same price but is only 16 inch. Made a lot of difference in cutting. The Stihl kept getting real hot and burned the the wood, and the chain kept getting loose and just did not cut as good as the Craftsman. All and all I liked the Craftsman better, but then again I worked from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and it did not breakdown, (yet). They gave me a 2 year warranty for buying a 6 pack of synthetic 2 cycle oil. Weird but hopefully if it breaks down they will fix it.
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Robert J. Sprauer
Frequent User
Username: wraithman

Post Number: 515
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 09:07:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Check bar oil after every 30min. Little to no bar oil and the bar wears unevenly, heats and stretches the chain and off it goes.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 913
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 10:11:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The fuel runs out before the bar oil does, so I top off the bar oil every time it ran out of fuel.

Thanks.

I think the chain is just not made as sharp or at the same angle as the Craftsman. So causes more friction than cut.
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ross kowalski
Prolific User
Username: cdfpw

Post Number: 1208
Registered: 11-2015
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 11:49:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

Did you keep the revs up on the craftsman, lugging makes them run hot, sieze, not be lubricated, etc. That saw was probably a weekend warrior class tool but it should have worked.

The Stihl is a good saw with a good chain so I think the reason the craftsman seemed better was the chain didn't have time to get dull. If you were working the Stihl even remotely hard for 8 hours the blade needed to be sharpened or replaced several times.
If you cut anything on the ground you could have touched dirt which will instantly dull a saw.

A real saw like the Stihl should not be breaking down on you if you take care of it.

As Robert said it might be lubrication. Some saws have an adjustment for lube oil.

Good Luck and be careful.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 914
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 12:38:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Ross I had heard that, that if you touch the dirt it will dull it. I am trying to get the cuts as close to the ground as possible, so I am sure it is dull. I was going to read how to sharpen it in the morning. I'm sure you are right. (Still feels sharp don't know if you can go by that.)

The Craftsman did not have that problem, I used it some 4 hours before it would not start anymore. I think it was in the carb. Breakdown in only 4 hours old, to me says a crappy piece of equipment so I took it back. It would start and run a bit on starting fluid.
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
New User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 38
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 14:41:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Chain saws 101.
The speed that a chain cuts is dependent upon the size, shape & sharpness of the teeth.
All things equal, the closer a tooth is to square with the bar the faster it cuts . Square to the bar is called Full Chisel & is only found on professional chain because of the ease which it removes limbs from the user.
After that they are at an angle usually 30 to 35 degrees and those 5 deg make a massive difference.
Then there is the shape of the tooth and in particular the offset. The bigger the offset the more wood it removes, the slower it cuts.
If a chain is sharp it will cut through a log under it's own weight.
I can always tell his saw from her saw because his will have wear undercut at the tip & at the spikes from being forced to cut while blunt.
So give the blade a touch up with a file or grinder every time you refill the tank.
Also flip the bar every time you refill the tank.
A chain that smokes in the cut is DULL. A dull chain created more drag, more drag generates more heat more heat make the chain run slack a slack chain looses a lot of its oil before it get to the cutting zone ( near the spike ), where the pressure is greatest so it gets hotter which makes it looser in a never ending self feeding loop till it jumps off the bar and performs a non reversible contraceptive surgery .
Now days you can get a lot of really good sharpening machines that are 12V so you can run them off the battery of your roller when you are sitting in the boot having a cuppa.
If you have a lot of trees to remove think about getting a chain saw plank cutting attachment so you can save a few $ on lumber, even if all you use it for is a post & rail fence.
Pushing over trees kills more dozer drivers than any other operation so don't do it if you want to live long enough to enjoy being an old fart driving his old roller.
Clear just enough land to put up a garage just big enough for the rolls and a laundry with toilet.
You can then pop a portable garage or markee next to it to sleep & cook in for the time being.
Then cut down the trees & move the rocks to make the block livable.
Stumps should have a big hole bored in the middle and the roots dug up so they can dry out then in a year you light a rocket fire in them to burn them out.
Putting a slab over the place where a tress was less than 5 years ago is going to be expensive because the soil will shift and it will crack or tilt the slab.
If there is enough trees on your block, consider a log cabin.
Spend as much time as you can in the local bar & shops ask about weather, rainfall, snow winds etc and make sure they realize you want to live there and are not looking for a back block in the boonies to brew drugs for a bikie gang.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 916
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 15:46:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Trevor, you said: "A chain that smokes in the cut is DULL. A dull chain created more drag, more drag generates more heat more heat make the chain run slack a slack chain looses a lot of its oil before it get to the cutting zone"

That is exactly what is happening, but I keep a watch on the slack, so the eunuch syndrome will hopefully not happen. (It is after all my favorite organ.)

They actually give away mobile homes down here. The first one would be great, the size needs no permits for the road, and easy to fix up. I had one that was actually a collector's item. 1958 something, really nice wood inside etc. A little paint and cleaning and they are great until the metal one goes up.

https://dallas.craigslist.org/mdf/zip/d/carrollton-trailer-house/6953148467.html

https://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/zip/d/fort-worth-3-free-mobile-homes-1st-come/6963028048.html
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
New User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 40
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 22:11:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

It can happen in the blink of an eye.
You are allowed to tighten the chain a bit between cuts, just do it with the saw turned off.
Oregon make a really good chain sharpener that clams onto the bar so the angles & teeth size all end up being the same .
I am sure HF, Wallys, Lowes or Ace will have a Chinses Knock off of the Oregon one they sent over there to be copied for 1/3 the price and 100 times the cost.
There are only 2 companies who make chain saws in the USA now days, Stihl ,who make Stihl & husquvarba , who make most of the well known brands that are not made in China.
Rule of thumb is a saw that costs less then a months wages is a domestic use throw away saw regardless of the brand on it.
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Robert J. Sprauer
Frequent User
Username: wraithman

Post Number: 517
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Sunday, 25 August, 2019 - 22:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

My 3 Stihl's are approx 30 yrs old , a 12", 16" and 20". I have a loggers pro chain on the 20" and use for the big jobs and it throws chunks of wood. You will know something is wrong when the saw wants to find its own path and the the sawdust gets finer and finer.I blow bar and chain with compressed air and touch up the teeth. I also reverse the roller bar. The saws are extremely dangerous and have to be used carefully.
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Patrick Lockyer.
Grand Master
Username: pat_lockyer

Post Number: 2185
Registered: 09-2004
Posted on Monday, 26 August, 2019 - 06:14:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

My battery powered Oregon has no need to fiddle with the chain sharpening with the old file or the sharpening machine.
Just lift the lever for two or three seconds with the chain running and the inbuilt stone sharpens as you go!
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 918
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 26 August, 2019 - 08:51:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

This looks like the best way to loose a limb, and not the one on the tree.

https://www.amazon.com/Chainsaw-Sharpener-Sharpen-Grinder-Woodworking/dp/B07SSZ9933
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ross kowalski
Prolific User
Username: cdfpw

Post Number: 1209
Registered: 11-2015
Posted on Monday, 26 August, 2019 - 09:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

That saw blade sharpening device only works with special chain saw chain.

I keep several sharpened chains in the saw case. I just swap them when one gets dull. I have a file in the case but these days 4 chains worth of cutting is about all I am willing to do on a given day anyway.
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
New User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 42
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, 26 August, 2019 - 09:46:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Yes Mike.
Using one of those on a regular chain can cause serious injury
That sharpener is a cheap & nasty copy of the Oregon Power Sharp system.
You need a special bar & chain for it to work.
Then again IMHO people who are so cheap that they want to shop on Amazon and send retailers who know about what they are selling bankrupt deserve to loose a few digits if not complete limbs.
Much like the penny pinching idiots who go to "Super Cheap & Nasty" car parts and buy parts for their Roller that don't actually fit then find the $ 2 part has wrecked their $ 10,000 engine.
Living proof that Darwin was right all along.
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ross kowalski
Prolific User
Username: cdfpw

Post Number: 1211
Registered: 11-2015
Posted on Tuesday, 27 August, 2019 - 09:06:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Trevor,

I'm not going to argue that some people shouldn't be equipment operators or own 5 hp table saws, but Amazon is a pretty amazing kind of genius deal.

I started with them when they just did books and it was lethal, you just though about some obscure piece of print and the next day it was on your doorstep. Shopping was never EVER even remotely like that.

Today, I shopped for and ordered a VFD for a friend's three phase jointer while driving a 700 lb casting to the scrap yard. It listened to my voice and then brought up the last 2.2kw VFD I ordered an said swipe here. It will be on my doorstep in a couple days. Really.

This is why Amazon has makes like a million dollars.

It is bad because it lets you buy exactly what you ask for, and also good because it lets you buy exactly what you ask for.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 920
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 27 August, 2019 - 13:13:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I lived like a King in Thailand until the USA stuck their nose into the business of Swiss banking and forced them to not have secret accounts anymore. I lived in a hotel room that was just like a big condo, something that the locals could only dream of, as a Banking Information Broker. When I finally went through all my savings. I had to move back to the USA and work at Walmart. Some people are cheap due to lack of money. I am living off the savings as a truck driver where I would make a minimum of $65,000 a year, (but did not have a chance to save much in 9 months).

For years Amazon lost billions of dollars, for the first 5 years, before it started to turn a profit. It just lost $51 billion dollars overseas, and turned a profit of only $1.6 billion dollars. It sends packages for free that the cost of postage costs more than the price of the item. But that is one of the reason I use it. But Jeff Bezos is not losing money net worth $109 billion.

Net worth
https://www.google.com/search?q=jeff+bezos+net+worth&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLQz9U3MDTPK1HiBLMMq8wstfgCUouK8_OCM1NSyxMrixcxSmcnW-kXpOYX5KQCKZCcVV5qiUJ5flFJxiJWkazUtDSFpNSq_GIFuDAA2v066lwAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjcn_DKhKLkAhVhhq0KHZ0VDEQQxA0wA3oECA4QCA
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
New User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 48
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Tuesday, 27 August, 2019 - 15:32:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I know what you are saying Ross.
It is convienant .
However t is also a platform for every con artist on the planet.
I went bust some time ago and due to the drought currently make less than the old age pension, but I still purchase from the local shops because I need them to be there.
Like preditors in the vein of Lowes & Walmart Amazon destroys business who employ people who inovate & invent.
Amazon just flogs stuff to people without any responsibility.
Fine if you know that you need VFD and what the specs of the VFD are and which machine it can power, but what about the people who don't who need the expertise of the technician.
And then there is the inventory problem.
If I can not sell any more Silver Shadow parts because you are buying your on Amazon from a backyard factory in China am I going to bother to market improved valve stem seals or starters or , or, or,,,
Then even worse the Silver Dawn parts that cost me millions in oppertunity costs sitting on the shelf will no longer be kept because I no longer have the profits of the Silver Shadow parts to subsidize me carrying low profit , low sales lines.
Go to Amazon & try to find a CIE not or Bolt, there are about 20 of them on a Shadow or perhaps a BA screw to hold a wire in the back of a switch.
I can do that right now because the nut & bolt shop will keep slow moving items, but Amazon will not.
I fix lawnmowers right now ( well I would if it ever rains again ) and daily I see mower companies closing down because I can buy a Chinese ride on for $ 650 US landed in Sydney off Amazon.
The last salaried job I had was running a warehouse .
We got approached by a space brooker who rented out vacant pallet spaces on a week by week basis.
These were filled with stuff from China & India most of which would be illegal to sell in a retail shop but can be sold on line .
And who was behind these vendors, an illegal imigrant (visa overstayer) with a computer in the garage of a friends house.

We used to have around 200 book publishers in Oz appart from the Universities.
We now have 6 apart from the glossy magazine publishers who occasionally put out a cook book or a self help book.
So if I want to sell a book about Silver Shadows, there is no one to edit it and help me put out a quality item.
No one to say yes that is a good idea Trev, here is $ 20,000 to finish it off
All I can do is download an app & sell it a as a print on demand Amazon book that no one will know about.

In the case of Amazon, it is the greed of the one created from the poverty of the many.
And who will your fiend sell his carpentry to when identical items are all over Amazon for less than he pays for the lumber to make his.?
And this is where the process ends
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 922
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 28 August, 2019 - 00:10:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I think John Lennon said: You have to change with the times or the times will change without you. I had a computer repair business. I would repair computers, upgrade them (put all new part into their case), or build new ones (much cheaper than other ways) and a programmer. I went to people's houses so the did not even have to come to a shop. At first (around 1993) I was doing well. As the times changed and the average teen knew enough to help the next door neighbor etc. the calls stopped coming around 2000. I had a choice, stay in that business and somehow turn a profit or change models (the world changed, as James Burke the day the universe changed). I went for web sites.

I found people needed some place to stick their money (usually from overseas) but like me did not know how to open a Swiss Bank account. I paid to go into sites that just had one bank they offered as a way to open an account. And that's all. I felt there was a need for much more information, and much more options for opening a bank account. I went to Switzerland and did 6 months of research, on which banks responded to me, which banks had credit cards or debit cards and did this card come with the account or did you have to deposit a million dollars (literally). Many Swiss banks have no online service, no way to get your money out without going to the bank or having them transfer money to another bank. Then if you wanted to take Uncle Sam out of the loop altogether and move to another country, I found the easiest countries to become a citizen and gain a passport and the hand always out for more of your money of Uncle Sam could be broken (well after 10 years even if you give up your US citizenship). I had it set up (like porn sites) that unless you cancel your subscription I get paid, so it is a constant growth. It was nice while it lasted, until the USA forced Switzerland to change their laws on secret bank accounts, that the USA must be notified if an American opened an account and how much the have in the bank (at least if asked). Switzerland has no laws on tax evasion, they have no income tax (they tax the banks). So to them sticking you money in their bank is your business. But then again the world changed and no one was interested in a Swiss bank account all the subscriptions dried up and I started working for Walmart. Conclusion: You have to change with the times or the times will change without you. Many times in my life this is the case.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 923
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 28 August, 2019 - 03:31:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Turning a hood (bonnet) latch and PVC pipe into a weed ax or as I call it a weed wacker.

For dismantling the VW Beetle size bramble of sticker vines tangled together on my new land.

weed wacker
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 51
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Wednesday, 28 August, 2019 - 11:57:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

And Joani Mitchel said
"Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it is gone"
As for change, I started my professional life as a Metallurgist.
This was not the start of my working life as I had been holding down full time jobs since I was 14.
I watched in horror as retail changed and all of the foundries closed down because when a single company got to 60% of the market they could dictate the purchase price of their stock.
So it was sell it to us for cost or we will send your product overseas ( it was Japan in those days ) and have it copied.
Even worse most of the copies were to the average member of the public identical to the quality locally made item so after you had broken 3 copies & decided to get a good one from a specialist what you saw looked the same for twice the price.
The same company now controls 85% of the entire building products & hardwear retail & trade so funny enough we now have the most expensive building products on the planet.
A 20sq house will cost $ 150,000 in materials alone +interiour fitout.
The net effect of this is the only thing we make in Australia is houses so we have the most expensive houses on the planet.
A suburban California bungalow style 3Br house in the suburbs is $ 500,000 and older established one on a 1/4 acre block will be $ 1,000,000 + .
This is the real cost of cheap $ 10 toasters.
The only difference between Oz & the USA is population size and because of the small population here the effect is magnified.
Amazon is still in it's infancy, once it becomes the word wide dominat retail method they will start to change things and it will not be to the benefit of anyone other than Amazon.
Free trade & open competition only works when it is regulated so no one player can dominate any sector of the market.
That is why the USA passed the anti-trust laws, which from the day they were iniated powerful players have been forcing successive governments to water them down.
Perfect example is your own Microsoft, a product that was initally stolen ( QDOS) then used every underhanded tactic to destroy any opposition , like buying Semantic Great Works & bundling it with windows then buying Word & bundling it with windows. It did not make windows, a fundamentially flawed product any better , it just made it impossible for any new player to enter the market unless you had billions to throw away. And of course even worse was deliberately making every other piece of softwear incompatiable with windows so once you had windows in your office you had no alternative but to use Navs to do your warehousing & inventory control.
nave will only work with other Microsloth product so you had to use Drives as the despatching & delivery softwear which only works on Microsoft PDT's which down here are $ 3,000 a piece and make it impossible for the drivers because they are in a terminal that is too big to go in your pocket .
You can get everything you need to carry out the same duties for a smart phone but when they connect to NAVS , NAVS deliberately jumble the data & introduce errors.

Amazon will be the same they will get to a size where they will dictate to governments rather than being regulated by them.
In the long run , and we will be alive to see this, Amazon will cause massive redundencies in retail and in retail property.
This will already causing a large rise in unemployment in the retail sector that will just get worse with time.
When real unemployment gets to around 25% then the rule of law no longer applies,, much the same as the rule of law does not apply to drug addicts.
And all this comes from a person who already had more money that he could spend in 1000 lifetimes deciding he wants to be the most weathiest person on the planet.
Uber are the same only worse as they were strait out criminals whose business plan is to engage in illegal activities and by numbers force governments to change the laws to suit UBER , thus you have an unelected company that is responsible to no one making laws to suit themselves.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 926
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 28 August, 2019 - 15:09:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

QDOS (The "quick and dirty operating system") was supposed to be the first OS as said by The Register UK. Fully licensed from Seattle Computer Systems. I had the first MS-DOS 1.0 Floppy disk. What I heard much closer to the time it happen Bill Gates bought an operating system from a company in California, that used it on an IBM computer with similar BIOS coding and only needed to change the numerical values for the machine language to those that matched the BIOS coding used with the 8086 for disk drive control and programs and previously the 8010 so called PC which only used 12 inch 1 megabite floppy disks (which I operated and was a programmer for a large hotel). See picture.

http://interface-experience.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/IE-Star-1.jpg

The first IBM PCs (which cost $6,000 USD as much as 2 or 3 cars) only had 5 inch floppy disks that had two slots. One for MS-DOS the other for the program. (Very simalar to the TS-80 Radioshack computer but bigger and really heavy.) But was actually a desktop version of the 8010 computer.

You should read Alexis de Tocqueville "Democracy in America". United States facing the tyranny of the majority.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3448
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Wednesday, 28 August, 2019 - 20:57:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Trevor,

From one Metallurgist to another - where did you do your Metallurgy course and when?

I did mine at the UNSW School of Metallurgy finishing in 1970 on a Comsteel full-time scholarship and then spent the next 14 years with them in a variety of positions until BHP decided to use the Company as a "guinea pig" for restructuring and the VER offers were too good to refuse.

Great Company to work for and certainly the best in the BHP Group but ruined by poor management unable to accept the threat of imports and take appropriate competitive measures.
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 55
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Thursday, 29 August, 2019 - 12:17:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

UNSW just like you .
However you were that at the right time, I was there too late started in 72 finished in 78, missed graduation ceremony as I was in a coma at the time.
Started under Hugh Muir who retired before I finished so ended up under Prof Walwok just before the school got merged with Mining which eventually adsorbed it.
Did 2 years full time then the last 2 in 6 years part time as I was working full time jobs and could just not keep up the pace which was hammered home when I hit a truck & ended up DOA in Royal South Sydney.
Went on to do Dip NDT then a Dip Ed ( adult with TAFE )
Did 4 years with Simsmetal, a couple more with Austral Bronze, then Bradken after which the BHP Newcastle lab had closed, the NSWGR lab had closed, Dufor had closed T & S had closed , Packer had taken over ANI , Reynors had closed so foundry Metallurgist were dime a dozen.
Thus I went into transport.
As for BHP, the least said the better. Sucked up billions in government funding proving that continious casting was not commercially viable and the second that it looked like government funding to them was going to be cut, tossed the steel industry like a hot set rivet.
Shame we had to wait 40 years and get an Indian to do what BHP should have done and set Wyhalla up as a high nickel steel plant.
But to be fair, the management of BHP were just the same as most big business managements, still had not come to grips with the fact that Bob Menzies was no longer Prime Minister and locked into the adverserial attitude to their workforce.
The fact that with a high cost labour force we might just be better off specializing in high profit low volume special products rather than high volume of low profit goods seemed to be beyond the understanding of any one higher up than a shift supervisor.
Can not remember how many times I have listened to a presentation saying that we must send all of our production overseas where it can be done profitably while keeping the high profit design here where we have a natural superiority.
The only thing that has changed is the country where we should send it to.
The first time I heard the racist stupidity Japan were the idiots who could not design a paper clip but would do all of our manufacturing at discounted rates.
The last time I heard the exact same paper ( could almost have been a cut & paste job ) was last year and India was the prefferred destination, China have become too expensive and untrustworty.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3449
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 29 August, 2019 - 21:05:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Trevor,

Will send you a PM next week as I am off to Brisbane tomorrow morning and will be back next Tuesday.

FYI Max Hatherly was my final year thesis supervisor involving research into deep internal oxidation found in a sample from the Santa Catharina Iron-Nickel-Phosphorus meteorite discovered in Brazil in 1875 which suggested the oxidation may have been extra-terrestial and could have been present prior to the meteorite entering the earth's atmosphere.

Associate Professors Max Hatherly and John Bowles had been researching the meteorite sample from the Australian Museum for a number of years to determine if the oxidation was extra-terrestial or terrestial. My contribution was defining the possibility of accelerated vacancy diffusion associated with the deformation caused by the high speed impact with Earth being the reason for the depth of oxidation observed in the sample.

Later research after the installation of the scanning electron microscope apparently provided further confirmation of the terrestial source of the observed oxidation however I am not aware of what mechanism was eventually determined for this oxidation.

I was always a practical rather than theoretical metallurgist and spent the entire metallurgical period of my Comsteel career in a customer service role providing material selection and failure analysis across the entire range of Comsteel's products before assuming Marketing and Management responsibilities which became more varied after "early retirement" from Comsteel and eventually becoming self-employed and now I am trying to transition into retirement but "old habits die hard" and I keep finding interesting situations where my past experience and knowledge is relevant and curiosity always gets the better of me.
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 57
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Thursday, 29 August, 2019 - 21:33:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Look forward to it.
None of those names rig a bell then a lot of the past is vague due to brain damage from massive blood loss.
Little bits come back now & then.
As you may have guessed I was an independent student and the other 11 in my fist year were all either scholorship or cadets.
Then discontinuing & going part time sort of breaks things up so I lost contact with most of them .My graduation year had only 3 students and by then I had become a B Tech Mtly, not B App Sci because I finished part time.
The only name i remember from Com Steel was Peter Sheeny.
Went into foundry, big mistake should have gone into primary and mining as that was the only sector that had a future but there was a lot of foundry work at the time but it was amazing just how fast it all collapsed.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 929
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 30 August, 2019 - 14:11:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I found something interesting in the brambles today. The trees are bent down because they cannot go up, and the sticker vine tug them over. The limbs that touch the ground turn into roots. I had never seen that before, so I had to cut or pull on both ends to get them out.

On a metallurgical question. In the USA they put steel bars in the ground to make the corners of your property (survey monuments) for surveying property boundaries. They have been there a long time if they were put there. I bought a metal detector and tried to find mine. All I found was a tin can and a pull off lid for vienna sausages. If they are totally oxidized will I be able to detect them? (Although I work with physics on a daily basis, it is on a scale so small, well to put it plainly, the Planck level, so it is just not my field.)

David See (could not find the whole thing)

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1990pmce.conf...67G

https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/338887
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3451
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Saturday, 31 August, 2019 - 07:31:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Trevor,

I know Peter Sheedy very well and we still remain in contact. He was the Plant Metallurgist at Comsteel Lidcombe after the Company purchased it when it was kown as Industrial Steel to get the patent rights for certain railway products.

Peter later became a Head Teacher of Granville TAFE specialising in Non-Destructive Testing and received an OAM for services to the Australian Standards Association and the steel industry. You might have known Richard Butcher who was the Railway Welding Engineer at Everleigh who later also taught at Granville TAFE.

Mike,

Will try and answer your question later todayafter some research but my first reaction is not likely as my understanding is the metal detectors require a solid target of a certain sze depending on the detector to get an indication.
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Robert J. Sprauer
Frequent User
Username: wraithman

Post Number: 524
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Saturday, 31 August, 2019 - 07:48:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The rods are called "survey pins". In many cases concrete rods (posts) were used with a survey marker emblem on top. Most plots used 2 of these because they were more permanent and visible than a metal rod with no emblem. Using 2 permanent markers you can triangulate the other distances to form the lot size providing you have a copy of the survey which should have been part of the closing...if you don't have one, how do you know what you actually paid for and taxed??
The permanent markers are sometimes known as "Bernsten Markers"
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Trevor P Hodgkinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 59
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Saturday, 31 August, 2019 - 09:38:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I did NTD at Sydney TAFE so I either know Peter from there or from the AIM . I just remember his enthusiasm was quite infectious.
I kept the AIM membership far longer than I should have and still subscribe to some foundry journals to keep the brain cells working.
However by the time I finished getting my "wisdom" there was sod all full time positions. The last job I applied for there were over 1000 applicants and by the time they got around to making the appointment the plant had been running for quite some time with no metallurgist and thus no NATA signatory there.
I was runner up, the salary was around 2/3 what I was making driving taxis which was the reason I was runner up as the panel could not understand why anyone who was competient would take a pay cut. It was the last job I bothered to apply for.
Something about a 22 y/o HR staffer with a BA telling me that at 36 the company wold never recoup the cost of on site training.
I could have walked in & done every thing with my eyes closed & the only thing needed to be done "training wise" was transferring my NATA certification to their plant.
But that was the prevailing attitude of the now fully professional HR graduates . Spread sheets had started to rule the world.
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Prolific User
Username: soviet

Post Number: 1602
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Monday, 02 September, 2019 - 11:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike I don't think Terex was ever a Russian company although Terex did form a business partnership with GAZ which is a company which built many cars in Russia and in fact they built a Limo called Chaika ( means seagull of all things)

I suspect that the backhoe that you need a valve body for was probably made in Russia.

In the 1980s I worked building huge Terex coal mining trucks in Perth during vacation periods while at university.

I always thought Terex was a US company.

So sorry but I cannot help obtain that part you need but if you find a source in Russia selling that part cheaper than the price you posted DONT TRY TO BUY IT WITH A CREDIT CARD OR CASH IN AN ENVELOPE BECAUSE YOU WILL GET RIPPED OFF.

It looks like a simple valve body. Maybe a good engineer can repair it for you or maybe it's a copy of a Case, JCB or another US backhoe manufacturer.

Hard to see how you damaged it as it would be filled with orifices, spool valves, springs and orings. More likely it's just worn out and or was poorly manufactured.

Good luck.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 931
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 05 September, 2019 - 23:17:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well my old phone turned into a paper weight and I could not get the new one to work around here, because there is only 3G here and the new phone is 4G lite. Today is the first day anything has showed up so I can post.

I was told my markers are metal but wood posts 4X4s are what are used after survey here. I hope a metal detector can find them but the surveys are done with GPS now anyway. The cheapest is around $200.

Thanks Vlad anyway.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 954
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 10 September, 2019 - 07:03:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I was hoping today would be the last day I would have to work on my land. I hired a guy to do 4 hours work for $340. But like the backhoe before him his Cat 289D broke down (overheating, here in Texas, no, never happens). Anyway he had an attachment that I had never seen. The coolest thing for getting rocks and trees out one could dream of. He knocked trees down like they were made of paper. In less than a half hour he had maybe a quarter of the trees knocked down.

Skid Steer

Skid Steer 2

Skid Steer 3

Skid Steer 4

Skid Steer 5

Skid Steer 6

Education is often expensive.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3459
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Tuesday, 10 September, 2019 - 09:08:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

A classic case of "you get what you pay for".

No substitute for "brute force and no finesse" - works every time...........
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Robert J. Sprauer
Frequent User
Username: wraithman

Post Number: 538
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Tuesday, 10 September, 2019 - 09:50:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Most of the skidsteer industry adopted a quick release plate system to allow "attachments" to quickly mount and use quick release couplers for the hydraulics in/out. I know of at least 20 varied attachments for skidsteers.
Skidsteer design has limited use but are very handy . I sold my Bobcat because it wasn't able to handle larger projects and have a backhoe.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 956
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 10 September, 2019 - 10:41:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

That Terex backhoe was in no way as powerful as that Cat 289D skid steer. When I tried to push a small tree down the automatic transmission slipped, probably to prevent damage. With the skid steer the tracks would keep grinding to try to push as hard as it could. I don't think a Bobcat is compared to this skid steer in power and weight. It's bigger than the Bobcats I have seen. And with that attachment it is a weapon against all the trees it came up against so far. I have a few really big trees, I will be interested in the brute force applied on them. It is really fun to watch. A tree almost the size of a RR tire coming down was entertainment. (See above.)

Oh and he brought three different attachments, that one shown above, a regular bucket, and tree jaws. I am so glad I came across him on the road. In one minute it's obvious he knows what he's doing.
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Robert J. Sprauer
Frequent User
Username: wraithman

Post Number: 539
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Tuesday, 10 September, 2019 - 11:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Bobcats are available with tracks. For me it wasn't traction. It was payload capacity in the loader and I needed a backhoe on the rear with quick disconnect.
There are attachments called a "tree pullers" that will pull out small trees.
https://www.skidpro.com/skid-steer-attachments/
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 963
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 12 September, 2019 - 14:01:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Today the skid steer came back, the problem was a maybe $10 radiator cap. It was not opening for expansion so it was over heating.

A swath of destruction.

swath

First Copperheads (headless) I seen on the land. He must have dug up a nest.

copperhead

Big old oak is falling down falling down falling down.

oak 1

oak 2

Detach and conquer.

attach

T-rex want-a-be.

trex
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 964
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 13 September, 2019 - 13:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Day 2, So I show up and the guy is already at work on the land. He knocked over a dead tree and a cloud of honey bees came out. I did not see this happen so I was just leaning up against a tree when all of a sudden there are bees all over me and stinging me. Since this was the first time this had happen, I was freaking out. So I was slapping at myself hands waving all over and running full speed toward my truck. I make it to my truck and get in and start to close the doors, but at least 5 bees made it inside with me and more on the way. So I open the door ran toward the back of the truck made a u-turn and got back into the truck and now only 2 were with me, so I killed them. Since I am 63 years old it is nice to know I can still run, that's just not the way I wanted to find out. So then the guy shows up as fast as he could with the skid steer to my truck, hurries over to the window asking do you need to go to the hospital are you allergic to bees, I said no I just got stung and so I ran to my truck. At least I was not screaming like a little girl as I was running away, although my hands were waving like I was imitating a spastic kid at his first dance. Bees and copperheads and stickery vines oh my. I did not sign up for this my oh my.

He's gathering boulders and plucking smaller trees out of the ground.

plucking

Continuing brush piling.

piling

New rock garden appears after scrapping them out of the ground and piling them up.

rocks

Mid-day the land starts looking like it's pretty cleared.

clear

End of the day I have a view! Neat.

view
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Patrick Ryan
Grand Master
Username: patrick_r

Post Number: 2149
Registered: 04-2016
Posted on Friday, 13 September, 2019 - 13:34:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mate,
What an awesome job, terrific result.

Did the Cat have a cup holder (or 2) for your beer?
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Vladimir Ivanovich Kirillov
Prolific User
Username: soviet

Post Number: 1636
Registered: 02-2013
Posted on Friday, 13 September, 2019 - 15:28:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Quite strange Mike but your view in Texas looks quite like my view here in outback Queensland but my mountain is a bit bigger but the vegetation looks the same.
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 965
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 14 September, 2019 - 00:43:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Vlad, it is a view of Mesquite trees, and Honey locust trees, both nasty trees with thorns some 2 inches or more long. The Mesquite tree may or may not have thorns. But a nice view none the less. A great swath of trees needed to be pushed over to get that view.

Patrick, A Caterpillar 289D is the Cadillac of the skid steer type so of course it comes with cup holders and a lady for the right price for ballast. (Just kidding.)
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Patrick Ryan
Grand Master
Username: patrick_r

Post Number: 2150
Registered: 04-2016
Posted on Saturday, 14 September, 2019 - 07:38:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Sounds like my kinda machine Mike,
Rolls-Royce
Cup holder
Lady
Big ass ballast.

We have just now attracted Omar here
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 966
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 14 September, 2019 - 09:58:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Day 3, Burn day. The guy only does the Land work part time. He works 4 days on 4 days off as a supervisor for oil rigs. And the T-rex claw developed a leak. Took only 4 hours to reduce the pile to just white logs.

Before shot.

before birn

Fire twister, and the burn made lots of Dust devils.

burn 2

Spreading fast.

burn 3

Turning the logs to white ember.

burn 4

Incredibly hot I could only be there for seconds at a time.

burn 5

burn 6

4 hours later just white embers of logs. And my view is back.

burn 7
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 968
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 15 September, 2019 - 07:36:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

18 hours later and the pile has pretty much so turned to ash.

ash
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 969
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 15 September, 2019 - 10:26:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

To get an idea how much work was put into this land look at the two below pictures, and then the one above. I'm tired.

before 1

before 2
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 975
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 17 September, 2019 - 02:58:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

After

n
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 988
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 25 September, 2019 - 07:52:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Today was another rock day. The guys came over started before I came and got a lot done. The best part of this work is it is for free. They want the rock and I get rid of all that rock. Win win.

That pile of rocks that was sitting there is now gone.

rock 1

They piled them up in a line out of the way so they can pick them up whenever they want.

rock 2

rock 3

All the tree piles are gone, all the rocks up topside are gone. Next the landscaper will come back and turn the land into a soon to be home.

rock 4
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ross kowalski
Prolific User
Username: cdfpw

Post Number: 1242
Registered: 11-2015
Posted on Sunday, 29 September, 2019 - 22:30:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

What ever happened with the valve body on that Terex backhoe?
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Mike Thompson
Frequent User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 994
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 30 September, 2019 - 13:17:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Ross, They have not contacted me on that yet, I'm willing to forget about it, doubt they will. Since my bank will not protect my money from such a company taking all my money out of their bank saying, if you gave them your credit card number there is nothing we can do if they take your money. I made a savings account and transferred all but $500 USD into that account to do what my bank will not, protect my money. This is the same bank that discontinued my credit card while I lived outside the USA, and when I came back to renew my card and was denied then made to apply for a new card, and was turned down saying I did not have enough history with that bank. I had that account before that bank came into existence (now the second largest bank in the USA after the bailouts). No history, really.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1044
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 25 October, 2019 - 11:04:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well the land has been totally reclaimed and all the rock is gone. It took 32 dump trailers (about the size of a dump truck) full of small rocks (up to the size of a small oven), and some 20 flat bed trailer loads for boulders up to the size of a VW Beetle. Some so large (heavy) they had to be taken one at a time on a low trailer for boulders too large to pick up. And were pushed onto the low trailer one at a time. Three were so large they could not be gotten out of the ground and the tops were either broken off, using the method the Egyptians used of taking wedges and finding fault lines to tap the wedges until the top broke off, or using the equipment to break off chunks of rock until the boulder was low enough to bury. All this plus the use of the backhoe was for free, a cost I could never afford by the hard work and generosity of the Bed and Breakfast owner who took the rock to use.

rock 1

rock 2

rolls 3

rolls 4

rolls 5
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3501
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Friday, 25 October, 2019 - 15:21:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

A milestone finally reached ........

A case of being "wise after the event" - did anyone discuss with you using a rock drill to pre-drill the rock and then use a plug[pin] and feathers and either a sledge hammer or a compressed air jack hammer if you had access to a suitable air compressor to split the rock into manageable sizes?

You only need to see if there is any directional grain to facilitate cleavage or otherwise you just fragment the rock as best you can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_and_feather

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG4DAeQKVn4

.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1045
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 25 October, 2019 - 23:35:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David, we call them feather and wedges, and we did not have electricity or a rock drill and these were not just what I would call "little rocks" as I saw on many videos (compared to these boulders). So I just used big and little wedges on fault lines to, in one case, split a 5 X 5 X 4 foot boulder almost in half down to a size and weight to load on the trailers. I had never seen rock splitting compound before. I suppose it is like freezing water it expands to form a six molecule hexagonal ring or something to crack the rock. Even a single big wedge did a surprising amount of damage to sand stone rock in a fault line (as pictured above).

I asked before how they moved those very big boulders on your parking area wall but you did not say?

What we did not know at the time of taking this picture is some of the rock showing was in fact the tip of the iceberg.

#1 is shown in pictures above #3 and 4 top down, that we could not find the bottom to it so it is still in the ground.

boulders

#2 is the boulder shown in the picture above #1 being rolled by the backhoe. Which I split. And #3 is behind it.

I am still thinking of heating my water and living area by solar heat, as in this long winded video of what I was thinking of using (but bigger). As a long the line of the Closed Coupled Solar Hot Water System, I am thinking of a way to do it with the tank in the building and a bit of the heat in the living area. The rising part is the obvious problem for the heated water to the tank not being above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC_Ql5qVs4Q
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3502
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Saturday, 26 October, 2019 - 06:43:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

I didn't move any big rocks only rocks I could pick up by hand.

The big rocks you see in the photograph are solid outcrops of the competent sandstone originally formed under the ocean from sediments carried down from the inland mountain ranges by the rivers and streams running into the ocean. There is virtually nothing of the original mountains left on land given the geological age of our continent which has already been identified as having been occupied by our indigenous people for over 60,000 years and probably longer as further evidence of occupation continues to be found by researchers.

Splitting sandstone blocks is easy once you have enough experience to identify the cleavage planes "in situ".
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1053
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 29 October, 2019 - 05:40:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I have given a lot of thought to a way to use a Closed Coupled Solar Hot Water System with the tank not on the roof. Where on a cheap metal building it might not be safe and cause leaks. Most of what I have read says the tank has to be above the solar panels. As:

Closed Coupled Solar Hot Water System

But then there is this system which says water will flow from the tank to an upper system and back as long as the return pipe is a smaller pipe then the up, as 3/4 up and down is 1/2 pipes.

tank

What I would like to do is combine them as:

both

The water in the tank should always be cooler than the water in the top of the solar panel, the return pipe is smaller than the rise pipe. Thermosiphon Loop?
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Alan Dibley
Frequent User
Username: alsdibley

Post Number: 215
Registered: 10-2009
Posted on Tuesday, 29 October, 2019 - 19:18:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Oh dear, the Thermosiphon theory is going to start an earthquake.

For a start, where does the cold water enter?
Where is it already in use?
Why should hot or cold water be fussy about the size of the pipe it is flowing in? Does it depend on someone upsetting the pressures by turning a tap on occasionally?

Alan D.
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ross kowalski
Prolific User
Username: cdfpw

Post Number: 1274
Registered: 11-2015
Posted on Tuesday, 29 October, 2019 - 20:14:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

Pretty sure your hottest water will be in the panel with the diagram you made.

I would look at some local solar installations to find local best practice.



Cdfpw
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1054
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 30 October, 2019 - 13:35:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Alan OBE, The cold water would come into the tank. At where I am living my hot water heater went out, due to anaerobic bacteria in the water eating the aluminum anode (hey fill up the radiator with that stuff). So I will try to keep it, or pay what the scrap yard would give him.

You said: "Why should hot or cold water be fussy about the size of the pipe it is flowing in?"

Newton asked, and many other physicist as well, if a body is spinning in relative motion and there is nothing else in the universe to tell that body it is spinning how does it know?

This is what the inspector said:

"All that is required for this loop to function is for the water heater to be below the fixtures that you want hot water at, and for there to be a bit of an “assist” to increase the loop’s performance. This assist consists of having the return pipe from the remote location being smaller than the supply pipe. So if you run a ¾ inch pipe to the remote location, you would then run a ½ inch pipe back to the water heater. The supply side comes off the top hot side of the tank and returns to the bottom of the tank to a “T” installed at the drain outlet of the tank."

https://www.buellinspections.com/re-circulating-hot-water/

See picture above.

It is not in use as far as I know, that is why I am wondering if it would work.

Ross, Yes the hottest water would be in the panel, and that is kind of the problem, Thermosiphon theory is that hot water rises (like air does, think hot air balloon). So the tank needs to be above, but I am afraid to put a tank on a cheap roof, and end up with it on my head.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1056
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 31 October, 2019 - 11:09:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I have actually been using solar power for years. Every winter I break out the black trash bags and cut them down the seams. Then I tape them to the windows. The black bag must be in contact with the window inside. It produces enough heat during the day I rarely need a heater. Where I live now it has no heating (commercial property), and this is the way I heat the place, and only need to turn on a little space heater to make it through the night. Try it and see how much heat it produces. The bigger the window the more heat it makes. But it might bulge from the air flow so in spots cut out a little square and use black tape (elec.) to keep it in contact with the window. It has to touch the window to work.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1058
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 01 November, 2019 - 02:23:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Adding on to the above post, I put up the black trash bag on the glass door, that yesterday was just sucking the heat out of the room, to today with the black on the window it is pouring out 112 degrees of heat with the outside temp of 30 degrees. I had the heater running all day long yesterday and I had to turn it off today because it was getting too hot in here.

An object that is 93 million miles away that takes 8 minutes at the speed of light (at 186000 mps) is heating my office.
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Patrick Ryan
Grand Master
Username: patrick_r

Post Number: 2183
Registered: 04-2016
Posted on Saturday, 02 November, 2019 - 05:59:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,
Black trash bags on the windows?

Are you sure you are not growing anything illegally in there?
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1063
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 02 November, 2019 - 10:41:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I change from newspaper to black bags summer to winter. The last time I grew anything not so legal was in Los Angeles California in the 80's where they would give you a ticket if caught. I remember I was restoring a 1965 Dodge Van that had a hole in the floor board. Two cops were stopping me so I pitched the (wink wink) cigarette out the hole. Needless to say I got a ticket. If I was still in Missouri I would have gone to jail.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1065
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 04 November, 2019 - 08:54:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I am not sure when I will have enough money to get a slab done (and I don't have enough dirt), or then get the building. So I bought an old camper and I am in the process of resorting it (the word restoring is subjective). It only cost $1100 USD so even if I start to run out of money I have a place to live, besides my cars. I'm having no luck selling anything and craigslist has changed to $5 for every add to sell cars, and that was my main way of selling cars, besides sitting it out by the road. Here is some pictures the seller made.

camper 1

camper 2

Needs some TLC and outside a lot of paint, but it can be home sweet home. I have no idea who made it but I think it is a 1980 +- Shasta.

See below (I had a heck of a time finding this, google did not want to cooperate).

camper 3

camper 4

http://trucks-campers-sales.com/ca/sale/cars/1980-shasta-16338.html
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 98
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, 04 November, 2019 - 10:05:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Put up a pole shed for the time being.
You can then pour the concrete slab around it at a latter date
Slip the van under the shed for some extra weather protection
Thus you can build up the ground & any retaining walls you need to make the slab level
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1066
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 04 November, 2019 - 12:37:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I was thinking of a pole shed, or a wooded structure made by left over wood. There are lots of new houses going up in that area and an unbelievable amount of wood ends up in the dumpster. And in America trash is public property free for the taking. But I am not sure either can take the stress of a 4 foot lift at one end in my case.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1070
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 08 November, 2019 - 12:42:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The camper had a dual system where the lights were run by a step down transformer from 120v to 12v which buzzes really loud, (I don't like buzzing). So I added 3 new 120v lights, 3 on/off switches, 4 more wall outlets. I'll add a switch for the transformer to use if needed. I had 50 foot of wire and it is about gone, I thought I would only need some 25, wrong.

(If you wonder where your pictures are on your android phone to download them to your computer, (like I do). It is usually under the folder name Internal Storage then DCIM then 100(YourPhoneName) or Camera or something like that.)
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1071
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 09 November, 2019 - 15:46:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I think there are people here that have RVs or Campers, and may know how to solve this problem I have. Mud daubers have built there nests in the water supply inlets (and heater etc.). The only way I can think of getting the mud nests out of there is to back flow water through the hose to dissolve the nest and contents. I could stick a wire in there to break it up but then there would be mud in the system.

Also the shower has cracks due to two things. There is an overhead skylight that introduces UV rays on the plastic making it brittle, and the support for the floor has sagged over time which has caused the cracks. To fix the sagging support they say to drill holes and use expanding foam. (We'll see if that works.) Then use fiberglass, and Bondo, and paint.

Shower

It's a little hard to see the cracks.
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 103
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Saturday, 09 November, 2019 - 21:05:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Get some line trimmer cord.
By prefference the square or hex sectioned ones as thick as the hardwear store has and use this to break up the mud nests.
because it is plastic it will go around corners
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1073
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 11 November, 2019 - 13:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

In order to get out of the expensive place I'm in, and on my land I need storage for my car junk, seats etc. I looked on craigslist for storage sheds, when they show up for free, they are usually wood, which would be real hard to take apart and put back together. So here comes along this shed.

There is an interesting story behind this shed, and why it is upside down and beat up. If you notice in the yard there is no slab. The reason is this shed did not come from this yard. There was a big storm about 3 weeks ago, and it picked up this shed and hurled it about a block down into this yard. So now I have a flying shed! Pretty cool.

I dismantled it and it fit nice and neatly in the truck. I walked the folds out of the shed and it should make a good shed, and I will clip it's wings with tie downs so its galavanting flying days will be over. As I was bringing it home, now dark, I got stopped by the police for, he said, driving without lights on. Which was another truck that passed him.

flying shed 1

flying shed 2

flying shed 3

flying shed 4
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3510
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Monday, 11 November, 2019 - 15:23:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

MIKE,

I hereby nominate you for the 2019 US "All Comers" Scroungers Award .
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1074
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 11 November, 2019 - 15:46:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Nice to hear from you David.

Maybe with that nomination I can join the:

club
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 104
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, 11 November, 2019 - 17:12:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Here is a little trick I use to hold down garden sheds.
Down here if you fit a shed to a slab, bigger than 6' x 10' you need council approal wich means putting in Development Application ( min $ 500 ).
However if the shed is not "fixed to the ground" you can go up to 20' x 20',
So the get around is to pave an area at lease 1 full paver bigger than the shed all round.
Then run some hooping iron under the shed riveted to both sides.
Then lay another layer of pavers over the top of the iron.
Usually you can get pavers for free cause they are not popular for driveways any more. I have about 400 sq meters that were uplifted from a shopping center courtyard cause some one tripped on one that was poking up & the insurance company demanded that the courtyard be full concrete.
Hooping iron is a 1" wide strip of full soft galvanised steel strip with lots of holes punched through it bought in rolls.
The stuff is used to repair old pailing fences and for cross bracing wooden building frames.
So then your stuff will be 2 paver height above ground level so in really heavy rain all will remain high & dry.
Also anything that leaks on the floor will trickle through the cracks in the bricks.
If you are in a big ant type area toss a bag or two of cement powder under the first layer as being so basic it will burn them so they will not nest there.
Do the same between the layers.
Note no sand, just cement powder.
I did the shed at Springwood like that & it never shifted an inch in 15 years.
When SWMBO tossed me out she got a builder to move it to the other side of the house, he scoffed at my anchoring method and bolted it down to the railway sleepers he made the retaining wall with.
I retrieved it from a neighbours place a few years latter.
Cut some 1" square sections to fit neatly between the top & bottom rails to strengthen the walls then make up some wire hooks to go over the top rail.
Hang all your heavy stuff off these hooks to add weight to the shed.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1075
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Tuesday, 12 November, 2019 - 14:40:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The patio bricks, as we call them, is a good idea. There are lots of bricks for free on craigslist. The above shed would be a lot better with a firm floor not just on the ground with drop paint plastic on the ground. This shed is 10' x 13 1/2'.

Where I live you do what you want. The only thing I need a permit for is a septic tank or a driveway if you put a conduit for water. That's it period.
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 106
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Tuesday, 12 November, 2019 - 16:12:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

And the cars will be a lot happier sitting on bricks too.
Goes a long way to stop the tyres rotting as well.

had a customer on 10 acres.
He used to drive a dump truck so when ever he got a load of used bricks to take to the tip ( dump to some ) he took them home.
He had a 500 yard drive paved with common house bricks , the frogged bricks, not the extruded ones with holes right through them.
Round the back was 200 sq yards of paved entertainment area encircled with a 3' high retaining wall which he made into raised gardens.
Because the bricks are all different colours and randomly mixed ( he used the cleanest bricks first ) it looks quite small.
All of the old motar went into the bottom of the garden beds which countered the very acidic soils so it worked a treat.

he also built a brick sun trap a bit further down the yard to allow him to grow veggies deep into winter.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1076
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 13 November, 2019 - 07:51:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Scrounger alert, I went and got this loveseat that I did not know was much bigger than the one I threw away because it was nasty. I had trouble getting the old one out, so getting this new one in took, well, some destruction. The outer armrests I thought were just fluffy, they're not, luckily I think they were made of cardboard and particle board. Some choice hits with a large hammer and I finally got it through the 2 foot wide door. I hit it in spots that, as tight as it is in the living room nook, will not show. It suffered just a little damage in transit.

Here is the picture on craigslist. It looks worn in the picture and I worried about that but, that is only the way the light reflects on the fabric. Except for cat hairs it is a fine loveseat, and because of the deep freeze last night (the loveseat was sitting outside) there should not be any living thing transported (namely flees and such). I still find it amazing all the free stuff people give away. Next a big screen TV for the living room (which beleive it or not there are lots on craigslist).

loveseat
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 108
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Wednesday, 13 November, 2019 - 08:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I am not surprised at all.
Yonks ago I was at Ikea returning furnature that had been borrowed for photography.
A cutsie young woman strode over and asked if I owned the van & if I could help her out because no taxi would take the lounge home for her.
Well it turned out to be a lounge, 2 book shelves, a coffee table and a rug.
When we got there ( a share house that I had lived in 40 years earlier ) I laughed that they had bad timing as there was an almost new lounge dumped over the road.
Oh she said, that is our old one.
We had a party last night & one of the guests vomited on it so we had to throw it out.
And she was doing an Economics Degree.

When I lived there the lounge was a door cut in 1/2 lengthwise supported each end by some concrete blocks.
The "table" was an old cable spool liberated from the railway yard opposite.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1080
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 17 November, 2019 - 13:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Here is more free ideas (or Scrounger Found-her). I see pallets on craigslist for free everyday, and I need a temp. garage. So I was thinking, hey why not use pallets to build with. It turns out others have thought of that as well.

pallets 1

pallets 2
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 109
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, 18 November, 2019 - 08:44:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The problem with using pallets is they are anything but a standard size.
The stringers used are usually scrap grade timber which is fine for supporting the planks but do not make a particularly strong column.
Planks are usually again scrap grate timber and full of knots
Some will be pine and some will be hardwood
OTOH I have seen a really good shed made from old steel airfreight pallets welded together like bricks
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1081
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 18 November, 2019 - 13:34:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I would only use hardwood pallets for the above type structure, which from experience is really hard wood (I found out the hard way when I was young and was heavily into karate and tried to break a hardwood plank, and broke my hand). Plus I would reinforce the sides with 2 x 4s etc. I always over design everything I do.

Today I got some 200 bricks for the perimeter of the above shed. Because it would take some 912 bricks to do the whole thing which the bricks were used with or without mortar so only a few were without mortar.

bricks
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1085
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 24 November, 2019 - 12:17:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I got enough pallets to make the walls of a temp two bay garage. This will make the 4 walls for the garage. As you can see they are heavy, squatting the truck and tires. I had to pick through the bad ones to find the good ones. I'll need more for the roof and to strengthen the structure for the notorious Texas winds.

pallets
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Graham Phillips
Experienced User
Username: playtime

Post Number: 172
Registered: 03-2019
Posted on Sunday, 24 November, 2019 - 20:32:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

G'day everyone,....



WOW,.. I can't believe I just read this whole thread.

Great work and progress with the land.

I want to comment on a couple of statements by David Gore, the first being about the NRA being the 'gun lobby', it isn't, in fact not long ago this last week it celebrated its 148th Anniversary as the oldest civil and human rights organisation.

But to return to regular programing,...

I would have had fun with that county cop if I had of been there,... he left himself open to all levels of ridicule.


Graham.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3517
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Monday, 25 November, 2019 - 07:39:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Graham,

Just to clear up a misconception - I am not anti-gun having grown up using guns on rural properties for their intended purpose for control of feral animals and euthanasia of afflicted animals with no reasonable chance of recovery. My favourite weapon for this purpose has always been a .222 calibre bolt action repeater with open sights and high velocity ammunition.

What I am against is town and city dwellers having access to military specification heavy calibre automatic weapons specifically designed for killing other people and hand guns designed for the same purpose - I only need to mention the USA in this context.

I am also anti-gun for town and city residents for personal reasons. One of my cousins was murdered in the 1980's by her husband with a .22 automatic rifle in a fit of rage at point-blank range whilst holding her 4 month old baby daughter. This baby is now an adult and her life has been heavily affected by the loss of having a mother to help and guide her and to share her possible future life.

It is difficult to appreciate let alone understand these consequences unless you experience them personally - with rights come responsibilities and unfortunately too many people are unable or unwilling to accept these responsibilities with tragic and avoidable consequences such as those experienced in our family.
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 111
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, 25 November, 2019 - 08:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well Greaham
If you consider lobbying for teachers to carry side arms in schools to protect students from being turned into dog food by other students using firearms that they should only ever be able to touch when under strict parential control then you have a very funny ideal of " Human & Civil rights ".
I rather like the "right" to walk down the street without having to eyeball every one walking past to determine if they are carrying a firearm then having to tollerate any thing that they do for fear they will use that firearm.

Now politicians do what polliticans do so in the wake of Port Arthur they of course went way too far with what they considered to be a either a fire arm or a weapon but I can live with that as the lesser of two evils.

Fortunately we are all fairly well educated & intelligent people on this site, way too smart to be fooled by the misuse of statistics.

The Australian Firearm legislation did exactly what it was designed to do, ended MASS PUBLIC SHOOTINGS .

It was never intended to end violent crime.
Furthermore the definition of Violent Crimes has been changed substantially to the point that any crime that results in a person other than the perpertrator requiring hospital treatment is now classified as a violent crime.

When I was a motorcycle riding thug in my youth, a punch up where several ended up in intensive care was not considered a "violent crime" , now days it is if a single person is held in a hospital overnight.

Much the same as sexual crimes where Rape required intercourse of some kind to happen where as now days a rape can be little more than an assult where some one was "touched" or had clothing removed.

Crime rates, right across the board on a per head of population basis ( which is the only true measure ) have been falling since the Whitlam Government changed the divorce & welfare laws so wives were no longer forced to stay at home & be beaten to a pulp by frustrated husbands and of course the contraceptive pill that reduced the number of pregnancy forced marriages.

Gun crime numbers have fallen over all by a very small amount
However gun crimes involving the general public are at an all time low. There were 3 bystanders hit by a stay bullet in 2018 and the last death of a bystander was 2015.
Now if criminals want to blow each other to pieces I am in favour of giving each & every one of them the highest powered firearm on the plant, a single round and have them face off against each other. Then repeat this proceedure till there is just one left standing.

As we are getting safer & safer the definitions of "violence" get lesser and lesser to the point that I can "Violently abuse you verbally" and this is recorded as a "Violent Crime" .

Oh & I am no fan of Prime Minister Howard or his highly destructive term of government. He was a reasonable opposition leader, in fact probably the best Liberal opposition leader ever but his term in government was a disaster which sowed the seeds of the financial troubles of all governments since and of course sparked the house price frenzy that has made housing next to impossible for working class Australians.

If this post is considered to breach the politics embargo then please remove it however we should not tollerate the deliberate misuse of any statists for the purpose of furthering some ones idology be it politics or fire arm related.

And FWIW I have not voted for a major party since the 80's with the single exception of the Rudd Govrnment for the single reason that the Telstra board had revoked the fiber to the door plan after an unfavourable ruling that prevented them from recouping or sharing the cost of the roll out from other resellers.
Reliable , high speed communications are vital if this country is expecting to be part of the 21st century
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1086
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 25 November, 2019 - 11:24:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

In response to the above gun lore. Most would not think that the speed of light and crime have anything to do with each other, but they do. Why, the speed of light is a constant. The rate of crimes are about the same each year making them a constant. Take cars being stolen each year (say Rolls Royces). About the same amount of cars are stolen each year despite the fact they keep changing the ability of being broke into and being able to start the car. (For instance when I was 10 years old I would hot wire my moms VW and drive it around. I probably was not an average child, but a child could hot wire a car back then.) The thief needed to change with the times to maintain the constant. As if the thief was just a tool used by the constant to maintain the constant. Constants are very funny things, the whole universe is forced to follow this constant of the speed of light, and is molded by this absolute. The thief unable to fulfill the constant by breaking into a car to steal it, then started to do Carjackings, stopping the car with a gun and having the driver get out. So the constant stayed the same.

So if there is a constant that a certain number of people are killed by criminals each year, just changing gun laws will not stop this constant. You must change the constant.

In the case of the universe, there is no way to do that, it is a fundamental fact. In a society it can be done by changing the society. Sometimes doing so ends in disaster, making the constant go from about zero to everyday common. (I can think of one all children face today.)

So if you change gun laws as in England, the criminal just switched to knives to kill. England did not change the constant.

Funny every country has a War Department, but none have a Peace Department, then they wonder why there is always wars.
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 112
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Monday, 25 November, 2019 - 16:23:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Sort of true Mike.
The actual crime rate is probably fairly constant.
Criminal just switch the crime and a lot of crime is done at board room levels and on the web.
However the number of bystanders slaughtered by firearms down here is so close to 0 it is not funny.
Now while I can still get stabbed the chances of some one with a axe to grind slaughtering me because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time is next to zero because of the gun laws.
I can disarm most thugs carrying a knife, machetti, sword chain etc etc.
Done so in the past & quite confident of doing it in the future.
A junkie doped up might be a bit different but for your garden variety mugger or precious darling with hurt feelings not a worry.

However I am not much chop at avoiding a bullet, particularly when they are coming at a rate of 100/ min or faster.

People watch way too much TV and a lot of them believe that you can take a 1/2 dozen direct hits and keep on moving.
The reality of it is a 1 gram fragment is more than capable of ending you time on the planet.
Projectile velocities now days are sufficiently high enough for the hydrostatic shock to rupture internal organs even if the projectile does not penetrate.

I partially blame political correctness for this.
When I was at school, any kids caught fighting were dragged up in front of the whole school, given a pair of gloves and told to either rip into each other or shake hands & go away.
I can remember only 1 case where the kids belted it out.
Now days you get councilled, so the anger brews then you go home grab whatever weapon you can get your hands on then form a possie of supported and go seek revenge.

Like David I can remember a school friend who was boozed up, got his knickers in a knot over a girls rebuke went home grabbed dads long arm came back to the club shot the girl dead, shot her 'new' boyfriend, turning him into a vegitable and shot 2 security guards trying to dissarmed him.
Six families with destroyed lives because Terry could just go home and grab a rifle while drunken and in a rage.
As luck would have it all he could grab was a bolt action .303 had we gone the way of the USA it could have been an Armalite set to automatic and the body count substantially higher.
Nothing against owning a fire arm , nothing against hunters, collectors or recreational shooters, even those who want to own machine guns & cannons, but the access t them has to be moderated & regulated.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1089
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 27 November, 2019 - 14:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I was 3/4 the way finished with putting up the walls on my flying shed and up come a Texas breeze and opened it up like a sail on a ship and laid it down along the road. I only stopped because it was dark. And right before I had a chance to leave the wind blew real hard and a days work in seconds was destroyed. That shed and wind don't get along it's flying days are still not over.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1093
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 29 November, 2019 - 12:52:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

You might remember I was toying with the solar system water heater above the building and the tank in the building. I could not figure out how to circulate the water.

Here was my concept:

solar heater 1

It turns out a company in Australia makes a system that is the same but uses a pump, not the Thermosiphon Loop. Not 100% self working system without electricity, but if you use a 12v pump it could be powered by solar power, or with and inverter 120v etc.

solar heater 2

https://enviroshop.com.au/pages/efficient-hot-water

By the way I put the shed back together and it made it through the rainy night. I think I will call it Galloping Gertie, after the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that collapsed due to the wind hitting the bridge's natural resonance frequency and tore it apart. Nikola Tesla found out the hard way that using a device (an oscillator for a reciprocating electricity generator) it hit the natural resonance frequency of his building and almost tore it down, he thought it could be used to destroy anything as a bridge. I guess the maker of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge did not hear of this.

This is the most footage I have ever seen of this event of the collapse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 116
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Friday, 29 November, 2019 - 14:08:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The crunch with that system is the water gets really really hot if you are not using a lot of water.
The collector needs a pressure relief valve because if you are not drawing water it will boil.
Most of the systems now days are using brine in the collector and then have a heating coil inside the water tank.
If you are going to run the actual water through the collector then use a stainless tank.

Good luck with the shed
Tie the rafters to the bumper of the roller .
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1094
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 30 November, 2019 - 15:52:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

So I get up this morning and turn on the weather, it said tonight there will be a strong thunderstorm. I had no plans to go to work on the shed. So I know it is not ready for anything that they say is going to be a strong thunderstorm around here. A normal storm, as last night, blew the shed 3 feet off the foundation. When they say a strong thunderstorm here that means 60 mph wind, flooding and your roof may or may not stay on, or your car may or may not still have windows from the hail. So I went out there in the rain and got the shed back on the foundation, put corner supports in each corner, put one of the triangles on the front with a brace to hold the back, and wood from the ground to the top of each side inside and out to brace the walls. And 2 pallets in each corner on the inside in hopes the shed will stay in place. Now I can only hope the shed does not take up its Galloping Gertie ways and take off again. And I have to start all over again. The way it was built I'm not sure how it ever stood together down here.
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Patrick Lockyer.
Grand Master
Username: pat_lockyer

Post Number: 2210
Registered: 09-2004
Posted on Saturday, 30 November, 2019 - 21:45:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

If you made a video of "help with buying land" and doing it Mikes way on the cheap you would make a fortune in royalties...….
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1097
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 01 December, 2019 - 10:53:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Thanks Patrick.

Well I think I said before that Texas is the only place in the world I have lived that even the weather men and that includes the computer models don't always know what the weather is going to be. They have actually said we don't know what the weather will be like today. The first time I heard that I was shocked. So that big strong thunderstorm they predicted, ... didn't happen. I'm not complaining mind you but I went in the rain did a lot of work to shore it up for a nonevent.

I finally remembered to bring the camera so here's some pics.

Just the way I left it last night. (You might notice the positrack wheel slides, I about got stuck again, the last time I went down to the frame and it cost $125 USD to get the truck out.)

shed 1

The work I did in hopes the shed did not fly away again for the third time. Galloping Gertie likes to fly. I'm glad the Concorde plane is not around any more I could not afford the flight.

shed 2

This is what I got done today. It might not seem like much, just two more beams in place, and one more triangle, but I did it alone and getting things to stand up, like the triangle by yourself, so you can get some screws into place is not fun. Let's just say I used a lot of colorful phrases starting with mother, son of a, and god etc. After many attempts I finally got it.

shed 3
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1110
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 05 December, 2019 - 11:58:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well the Shed is mostly finished now. It just needs the doors reconfigured. As mangled as it was the sliding doors will never work the way the original way worked. Maybe some sliders that work on drawers. It will never win a beauty contest. But considering the state it was in, I'm happy it is somewhat straight and is somewhat water tight. But there is now a lot of light coming through the roof holes, so I will have to hang some plastic or something to keep it dry.

Here is some before and after pictures.

shed 4

shed 5
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1111
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 05 December, 2019 - 12:22:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Above is one of the things I did today. The other was go look at a 4 door 1957 Chevy for only $500 USD. Now normally I would have jumped on that and dragged it home. But probably some kid shot the windows with a BB gun. The front window and the all of the left side windows were broken. I can fix the other parts but I would have to buy the windows. I was going to buy it to flip. At $500 I should have been able to turn around and make at least $2000 off of it. But it is a roller, no engine, no transmission, no front grill, a beat up different colored hood (bonnet) and no interior. Floorboards rusted out, lots of Bondo, not from rust it is a Texas car, but like someone jumping on the top. It was in such sad condition that unless I wanted to sell it for parts I don't think I could sell it.

Question: would you buy it like that for the low price of $500?

57 chevy
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 118
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Thursday, 05 December, 2019 - 14:13:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

A tube or 2 of silicon will fix the sky lights
Other than that some Flash Tack ,self adheasive roof flashing will also work but you have to clean really well then apply quite a bit of force.
We fix rusted out shipping container roofs with it and some have been better than 20 years watertight.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1112
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 05 December, 2019 - 18:15:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Most silicones are not UV ray resistant. But I doubt I will be using the shed long enough where that will be a problem. I have of course considered silicone, but there is the problem with reach. The main areas I need it at I cannot reach it on top and the beams are in the way underneath. Also due to the damage I had to redesign the way the panels on top were connected, which even originally there were vast areas that are open but covered. I have covered them again as well. There are now also rips and screw holes that would no longer connect together due to the deformation of the materials. I was going to use a lining before securing the roof but I needed to see where the beams were to screw the self tapping screws. So there was some technical challenges in rebuilding a very mangled shed. All in all the shed is not bad for a mangled (flying) shed I got for free.

Now there is the problem of the 1957 Chevy.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1115
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 07 December, 2019 - 14:28:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Today I drove 60 miles (one way) to get some free pallets that were 16 feet 2 X 4s but they were gone. They did not put a way to contact them to find out, so I took the chance. So I drove around the industrial area and found these pallets below. They are 9 1/2' X 4 foot by 1/2 inch pine boards for the roof and possibly enough for the siding. There are plenty more if I need more. The bottom pieces that make it a pallet for the forklift, will be scrap or filler for small areas. They are just stacked pine layers. And some felt sheets 1/2 inch same size for insulation or sound deadening.

pallets 3
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1125
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 13 December, 2019 - 04:35:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

You might remember when I got the loveseat (above) I said: "Next a big screen TV for the living room (which believe it or not there are lots on craigslist)."

So last night I saw this 52 inch flat screen TV on craigslist, and drove 180 miles round trip (a cost of around $35 USD in my truck, I sold the 2007 Cadillac to get utilities dug and a taps for them). They said they don't need the TV because it has lines down the middle (shown in red, a price of some $350 in 2011). So a $350 TV for free (plus gas), not bad. And so I went on youtube and the lines are an easy fix, just take off the back and clean the ribbon cables (unless it is the TFT controler circuit board).

And since this is an Australian blog I broke out an old VHS player and an old Mel Gibson movie "Braveheart" (as shown, plus I was not sure the TV worked until I did this). On top of that I had a very old universal programmable remote control that works (somewhat) on this TV. Since the RC is so old I had to google it to remember how to program it. After hitting the right buttons I then had to enter 168 codes to find the right one (out of 300 possible codes, so could have been worse). So after I fix it (I hope) I have a TV I can wire with the HDMI cable (In-wall Wiring I plain to install in the camper) and use my computer for movies etc.

tv
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1128
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 13 December, 2019 - 15:45:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I just got finished with cleaning all the ribbon cables, and the good news is the TV still works, the bad news is it did not fix it. Oh well, if I get tired of the lines I can just wait for the next TV and go pick it up for free as well.

I should be used to lines, when I was a boy there was only 3 channel, ABC, NBC, and CBS. And there was lines, waves and sparkles (static, signal noise). The other lines on the screen (above) other than the ones in the middle, is the chrome on the Rolls Royce. The TV is standing on it's side. You might also notice there is a red tint to Mel's hair and chest, that also did not go away and is a good sign it is a component issue not corrosion. Oh well only $35 bucks (for gas) and a 3 hour drive.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1133
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 14 December, 2019 - 17:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

There was no stand with the TV, it was hooked to the wall. So I had to make one. I made it out of a old satellite dish, that as every new renter comes and goes the dish company toss them back in the woods in back. So it became my TV stand.

dish

Cut off the receivers. And turned the pole bracket around to stand up straight.

dish 2

Some drilling, a piece of metal, 7 bolts and the parts from the dish and there is a TV stand.

dish 3
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1137
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 18 December, 2019 - 11:43:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I could not take it, that there is a 1957 Chevy for only $500 so I went over there again to buy it, and I talked him down to only $320 USD. I can resell it, as is, for a minimum of some $2500, a profit $2180. I could sell the parts for more, but anyone that follows me knows I don't like to do that. It ain't pretty but it's mine. And I asked if you would buy it, probably in hopes someone would talk me out of it, but you didn't.

It is only a shell.

1957 Chevy 1

All the spots and streaks are mold like on rocks.

1957 Chevy 2

No engine, the inner fenders are inside the car along with some other parts as the headlight bezels. The hood (bonnet) is in the truck. It was obviously used to slide down hills (maybe when it snowed, rare around here).

1957 Chevy 3

The inside is just luxurious, no pesky seats, well ventilated floors, decorative broken glass. rustic doors, with the hope ... of air conditioning.

1957 Chevy 4
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3535
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Wednesday, 18 December, 2019 - 12:46:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

To quote in Oz vernacular........

Mike - bloody hell you are a glutton for punishment!!

You are fortunate you can do things like this without incurring the wrath of a partner/parent/relative/neighbour/community.

P.S. I am a fan of cars from the 1930 to 1970 era as they had character, individuality and, most importantly, could be maintained and repaired by anyone with a modicum of knowledge and experience.

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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1138
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Wednesday, 18 December, 2019 - 18:03:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Well I figured out a way to minimize the big build that this would be, to a shell swap for the most part. I plain to get a truck or car with the same wheel base and dropping out the 57 Chevy frame for the truck frame with seats, engine, steering, and rear end in one piece. Then all I have to do is fit the 57 shell to the new frame. And it is a modern car with a 57 shell. Faster, easier, cheaper and a modern ride, speed and gas mileage. An ultimate restomod. That is the only reason I would pick such a wreak. Probably a $3000 restomod worth some $10,000 + to the right owner. Another car back on the road. Looking good, feeling good. Of course with a big LS if possible. Like a Cadillac Escalade.

The lady across the street has moved out selling the house, and the day before yesterday (I believe) the realtor lady was there. I waved as is the custom there, and she gave a disgusted look at me. I believe she was thinking I was devaluing the neighbourhood. The Mexican down the street has what looks like a scrap yard of things. With that nice house in between. That is the oddity not us. I picked that land to get away from the government telling me what I can do.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1139
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 19 December, 2019 - 14:39:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The house across the street was sold to rednecks. I bobbed my head to say hello, that did not work, then I waved. All I got was, they said you'll have to get used to that, and you could always move again. Hey my place was just as it is when they sign on the dotted line. If they don't like it they can kiss my grass. I moved there to get away from people telling me what I can an cannot do.

Here's what I found in the trunk (boot) of the 57 Chevy (above). There is only chrome for one side. And the front right side door was not bolted on. So when I kicked it from inside to get it open it dropped on the ground. Why? Is all I can say to these things.

1957 Chevy 5

Now the pic of the day, an award winning dashboard.

1957 Chevy 6

In Cuba maybe. Oh yeah, the air conditioning is a Ford. Why?
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1140
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 11:20:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

An interesting thing happened today. If you remember yesterday I kicked the right front door and it fell off after opening it. So I found the bolts for the bottom of the door, the same bolts don't (any longer) fit the top hing of the door (they need to be longer). So I took one to the local auto parts store that has lots of bolts. None matched, the fine thread is not the same as any. So I was wondering if it could be a British fine thread, maybe 1957 Chevys imported British bolts for some reason.

Also finally I kicked open (or pulled hard to get it stared open and moved the door gently back and forth on one) three of the doors. The back left hand side would not open even with a jack and a long enough piece of wood that even bent the door inside. So finally I thought it is stuck because it needs to be lifted. Sure enough it opened. The reason though that it needed to be lifted was the top door hing pin was broken. There is signs that they still used it that way for a long time. Again, Why?

I can't get the pins out and they are too hard to drill out, so I'm trying vinegar to eat the rust out, maybe they will budge that way. (And I'm out of propane to heat them.)

1957 Chevy 7
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3536
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 13:47:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

Best rust dissolving non-corrosive treatment is soaking for a few weeks in a solution of 1 part molasses and 5 parts water warmed if necessary in a cold climate - any farm supplies merchant should have it as it is a popular feed supplement for cattle.

Used extensively by machinery restorers on plant left outside for decades. Removes rust effectively over time without affecting the parent metal.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1141
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 15:08:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I wonder how much of that car would be left if I put 1 part molasses and 5 parts water in a swimming pool and put that car into it? A few flecks of bad paint.

What are the chances that a 1957 Chevy has British fine thread bolts in it?
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3537
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 19:06:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

I have seen a lot of heavily rusted machinery and motor vehicles that have been subjected to the molasses treatment and the important factor involved is that only the rust disappears and the original steel/iron remains completely unaffected.

The main drawback is that it is a slow process requiring patience before the derusting is finished.

Re the US fine threads which are probably UNF, the table on the attached link should help. You should get a set of thread gauges as these are very useful when you have to identify threads - these are not expensive and available from all trade tool shops.

https://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/measuring/us-tpi.aspx

https://www.amazon.com/Thread-Gauges/b?ie=UTF8&node=256422011

.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1142
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 19:27:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I have 2 tap and die sets SAE and Metric with Thread Pitch Gauges, plus the auto parts have two screw type big plates. None of which matched. Hence the question is it British.
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 123
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 21:30:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David,
Surely you jest
the major drawback is IT STINKS.
The No 2 drawback is every animal on the planet will be attracted to it so you can't leave it outside
And third is it takes a lOOOOOOng time
And finally, you can only use it once.
If something has previously been treated with molasses, the surfaces will be passivated so subsequent treatments will not work.
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 124
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 21:32:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,
Not much chance of it being a British thread but good chance of it being a non standard SAE thread ( for runner of Unified )
So we need to major diameter and thread count.
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Robert J. Sprauer
Frequent User
Username: wraithman

Post Number: 568
Registered: 11-2017
Posted on Friday, 20 December, 2019 - 22:28:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

It is a standard SAE fine thread. I had a 1957 Corvette and it usd the same bolts. Totally US car nothing was imported for this car.
Go to a site for parts for that car and it may give you bolt specs.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1144
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 21 December, 2019 - 13:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I finally got to the bottom of the problem with the bolt. I'm blind as a bat! I assumed the younger guy at the auto parts actually looked at the threads, he didn't (at that place they just want to get you out of the store as fast as they can). So I came home broke out the tap and die sets, tried to screw on the dies to no luck. Then today I put on my high powered glasses (to count the threads) and the threads were all messed up. The dies and plate gauges didn't screw on for that reason. No excuse for the younger guy (nor me not putting on my other glasses). The actual SAE fine thread gauge match at the 24, and I measured the bolt at 5/16. The moral of this story is don't believe your (blind) eyes, nor young store clerks (the stranger danger generation who would rather kill you as serve you).

So it is a 5/16 X 24 SAE fine thread bolt.

The closest I could find is a 1960-1964 Falcon - FENDER BOLTS 5/16 - 24 X 1 way too short.
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 125
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Saturday, 21 December, 2019 - 17:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

If the head end is good but the free end is buggered, get a nut and cut it in 1/2 point to point.
Dress the 2 halves on an oil stone so they are flat and of course the edges are sharp.
Clamp the 2 halves on the good section of thread with a pair of lockjaw pliers.
Then work it back & forth down the bolt over the bad thread area.
If it stops cutting undo the pliers and dress the face with the oil stone again to refresh the sharp edges.

You can do the same with a thread chaser ( die nut to some ) but they are a lot harder to cut.

I use his method regularly on motorcycle threads that are CEI 20 or 26 tpi constant pitch which is good because if you use one size smaller diameter you get a really sharp cutting edge.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1146
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 22 December, 2019 - 00:44:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

What I did is after I found out what size thread it was, I just used the die to unbugger the threads. The bolts it goes into are welded on a plate that is held in place by loose fitting clips. (It seems for Rolls Royces they do not weld the bolts on as with American cars, they have two men work on the car, one holding the bolt and one screwing the nut. I could not get the rat trap off for that reason.) That (the loose fitting nut plate I think) is why I needed to use a longer bolt, and because the shorter bolts had the buggered threads, it made it seem they were not long enough so would not go in. When it dries up around here I'll find out.
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1147
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 22 December, 2019 - 02:14:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I have been doing some research on what car I can use as a donor car for the shell conversion of the 1957 Chevy. I have found that Cadillacs have wheelbases of 113 to 115 inches. The wheelbase of the 57 Chevy is 115. I need to do some more research on the interior dimensions of both the 57 Chevy and the Cadillacs to find the best fit. But I like the thought of a luxury car as far as ride, gas mileage, and over all interior look and comfort, with a 1957 Chevy shell for the exterior look. Anything from the frame down on this 57 Chevy is trash. I can buy a nice Cadillac cheaper than to fix it. I would like to be able to just trash the frame and bottom of the 57, and just slip the Cadillac up into the shell.

They have a kit for Camaros called a Belaro, it is 1957 Chevy parts that fit on a Chevy Camaro. To me it looks like a chop job.

Belaro

I would rather it look like a 1957 Chevy and be a luxury car.

.
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ross kowalski
Prolific User
Username: cdfpw

Post Number: 1295
Registered: 11-2015
Posted on Sunday, 22 December, 2019 - 23:54:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Mike,

I use in order Phosphoric acid, molasses, and electrolysis in that order with molasses and phosphoric being about the same.


The molasses works a treat, costs essentially nothing and is largely non toxic. It won't remove paint or harm plastic. You don't put aluminum parts you like in it, but other than that, it works great. It might be slow but it works fast enough for me (and my things to do lists include entries like "8am ~ 11Am weld front clip on mini")

Phosphoric acid works great, is a lot more expensive but nearly as slow as molasses. It attacks the rust and coats the steel with a phosphate surface that resists further rusting. I think it's what's in navel jelly. I buy that kleen and strip etching fluid from Lowes stores. It keeps so I often have a bucket of it in the garage ready mixed for whatever needs some loving.

Electrolysis works OK, but is more a pain to set up uses electricity, has to be monitored, cannot be used on chrome parts, etc. I use graphite electrodes which work great keeping the water clear, but I still don't often do it because it is lots more work.

Also,

Don't overlook a Toranado FWD big block unit. They are cheap and don't have wheelbase issues.

Best,
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1150
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 23 December, 2019 - 04:06:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I was looking at Cadillac DTSs until I found out they are front wheel drive. Personally I hate front wheel drives. I hate the response, the added problems etc. I have vowed to never drive or buy another one again. And we don't have snow down here anyway.

I sure wish some company would make some spray on chrome that I could afford. I would use it a lot. They now don't even need to be painted black first to work.

There are not many Toranados left now a days, I would probably go with a big asp Elderado, but I could not see ripping off the top for such a crappy car as this 57 Chevy. But there are gobs of Cadillac CTSs. At some $2500 in great condition, and I am no fan of the front ends and would have no problem cutting a CTS to pieces. I buy them because they are fast and not that bad looking (the backs are great, the fronts look like a stealth fight jet, ugly, Lambos started that).
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Mike Thompson
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Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1154
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 27 December, 2019 - 10:46:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

If you are interested in somewhat what I plan to do with the 1957 Chevy chassis swap have a look at the series swapping a 1959 Ford 100E chassis for a MX5 Miata Chassis.

1959 FORD 100E BODY ON A MX5/ MIATA CHASSIS.

1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCakWaTK0Xk
2.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGqV2p2zXVY
3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJa1boQmbs

That Plasma Cutter looks super cool I got to get me one of those.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3541
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Friday, 27 December, 2019 - 14:23:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

The first car I ever drove on my own was my grandfather's 1960 Ford Anglia 105E [the one in the Harry Potter movies right down to the same blue and white 2-tone paint].

The 105E Anglia is best known for its "reverse slope" rear window and its "knife through butter" manual gear change which became one of the best-loved features of the later Cortina and Cortina GT models.

The Ford 100E was sold here in various versions in the late 1950's as base model 4 cylinder Ford Consul and a prestige 6 cylinder Zephyr version using a "stretched" Consul body shell to accommodate the Zephyr 6 cylinder engine.

Memories are flooding back as I write this.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1157
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 29 December, 2019 - 12:19:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

David, I'm glad I sparked some old memories.

Yesterday I tried to tow my 1965 Thunderbird over to my land. I started on my way after (I thought) I secured it to the tow dolly. So the first turn in the driveway I turned, the T-bird didn't. So the front wheel plopped onto the ground. (You might remember my truck did the same thing with a A frame tow bar on the front bumper. I turned, the truck didn't and the bumper and AC was not the same afterwords. Don't you hate when that happens.)

Anyway I am sure it is because I could not tie the steering wheel to hold it in place. Why, because it don't have one, and the rag joint that connects the column bar to the steering box pulled apart at the rubber (long ago before I got it). So I just hoped it would make it. Not, don't try this at home. So now I have to figure out how to get the column out even though you can't reach any of the bolts, so I can rig something to hold the wheels in place.

Tow trucks don't bother tying the steering wheel when they tow cars and trucks by the rear end. Not sure why it works for them. So it rained all day today so now I am two days behind on my work. Plus the T-bird sat there for 5 years, becoming a storage area as usual with old cars in the waiting for their turn.

If I had the school bus (above) I would not have these problems. I hope people wish me luck.

I shall not be moved. If you look to the left there is a cop car there with his lights on. I thought great I'm going to get another ticket in my parking lot. He was stopping a truck.

car go boom

I've fallin and I can't get up! (Probibly only Americans know this commercial.) What it take to get it back onto the dolly.

car go up

My red neck garage going up. The funny thing is people have seen this going up, now I see trucks full of pallets and they are building storage and what not with them. I hope this offends my new neighbour as much as possible. Standing there stairing at me for like 10 minutes and taking pictures saying he's devaluing my property. Hey it was like that when he signed on the dotted line. That really nice lady for that red neck old man. Geeze I can never win.

red neck garage
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Larry Kavanagh
Frequent User
Username: shadow_11

Post Number: 548
Registered: 05-2016
Posted on Monday, 30 December, 2019 - 06:37:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

My dad had an Anglia 105E in the 1960s, I think it was the first car I drove. It suffered from tin worms and the leaf spring suspension eventually worked its way through the boot floor but it still drove although a little low on the rear. We had holes in the floor which my old man called "air-conditioning".
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1161
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Monday, 30 December, 2019 - 12:02:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

When I woke up this morning my T-Bird looked like this. I think it is poltergeist. When I touched it , it floated to the ground. Weird.

car floating

To get the T-bird over to my land I added a modern car door hinge with a strap. To keep the tires straight and to help hold the car onto the tow dolly.

strap 1

And I added a bumper to the back.

bumper

bumper2

Today I made it to my land. The wind blew one side of my red neck garage down, I did not brace one of the sides.
.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1169
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 02 January, 2020 - 13:44:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

About 5 years ago I gutted my Toyota before I sent it to the recycling yard. So I needed a place to put the bigger parts, the seats. So I stuck them into the 57 Chevy. They actually fit very well.

seat

Here are the cars in waiting for their turn to go back on the road.

cars

Getting that (now double wide) beam up there by myself was really fun. I had to invent ways of doing it (Shhhh top secret).

red neck garage
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Trevor Hodgekinson
Experienced User
Username: wm20

Post Number: 136
Registered: 11-2006
Posted on Thursday, 02 January, 2020 - 19:24:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Don't know if this is the method you used but you can lift very heavy beams using a rope ladder.
First time I came across this method was a technician installing a 30' wide x 20" high roller door.
He secured a rope ladder with "rungs" about 6" apart to each holding bracket.
Then it was up one end then up the other end , so on & so on.
The thing must have gone near 300 kg as it was a thick steel door not your tinny garage ones.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3548
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 02 January, 2020 - 19:27:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I would do this by building "pig sties" with the wood bearers in the foreground starting with the first level, positioning the beam at both ends on this level.

Step 2 would be to lift the beam at one end, slip a bearer underneath it. Do the same at the other end then slide in the other 3 bearers to form the wall of the sty .

Step 3 and thereafter repeat step 2 until the beam is at the desired height and can be positioned on the wall frame proper.

The bearers in the foreground would be ideal for constructing the sties.

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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1170
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 03 January, 2020 - 09:34:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Ok I will break down and tell you how I did it, Shhh top secret. I pre-nailed a nail into the right side of the beam, and put like 6 long drywall screws in the right side 6" down from where I wanted the board. Then as you can still see in the picture, I screwed a board across again 6" below where that end goes. Then I nailed a 2 X 4 vertically, slightly out a little at the top so I could set the beam into the slot. I put the beam up on the top of the ladder (positioned on the right), climbed up the ladder and sat the beam on the 6 screws and held it tight with my left hand and pounded the pre-nailed nail into the wood and put like 6 more nails in, then moved to the other side and repeat. Of course this was after the beam falling a few times and frustration set in, trying to hold it up there, and pound a nail in. Necessity is the mother of invention.
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1171
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Friday, 03 January, 2020 - 13:42:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Before I can put up the support columns for the beam and roof at the front, I needed to know how wide the door would be. And I did not have a door. So when I got all that new looking wood they had also 5 gym locker doors, which I knew would be good for something. So I took 2 home and cut the frame on both and screwed the doors together (with self tapping screws) and screwed metal braces onto the cut part of the frame, some braces for the two doors and now I have a garage door and the measurements for the support columns.

door

door 2
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1173
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Saturday, 04 January, 2020 - 13:28:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

And in place.

door 3
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1174
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Sunday, 05 January, 2020 - 10:25:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

It took all day to make and put up this beam. I call it the "Super Beam" you have to say it like Edward Teller said the Super Bomb.

bla
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1186
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 09 January, 2020 - 02:27:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

I have been toying with the idea of what to call a 1957 Chevy Bel Air body sitting on a (probably) 2007 Cadillac STS 4.6L (283 cu in as was the original sized engine). I'm thinking of calling it a Belac (sounds like something that comes out of Transylvania). A 57 Chevy sitting on a Camero they call a Belaro (See above).

I worked on the hood and tapped the nuts so the hood would go back on the car and had to drill out a bolt stuck in there. Beat out the dents and I will have to give it a fiberglass exoskeleton to make it rigid and smooth.

I stuck some baby moon caps and other chrome stuff on there, as well as fitting the hood to start making it look like a car again.

Belac 57 chevy

What would you call it (besides a POS)?

.
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David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore

Post Number: 3554
Registered: 04-2003
Posted on Thursday, 09 January, 2020 - 07:51:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Chadillac!!
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Mike Thompson
Prolific User
Username: vroomrr

Post Number: 1188
Registered: 04-2019
Posted on Thursday, 09 January, 2020 - 14:59:   Edit PostDelete PostView Post/Check IP

Chevrolac. Well I started looking into a bonded title since the guy could not find the title (not in his name). One of the things it has to have to get a bonded title is an engine. It don't got one y'all. But the Cadillac will have a title, so like the Belaros I should be good to go. I will need to ask the DMV.

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