Took the first step towards building my shop

[jdurand]

So you're saying you were just hanging around.

[Frank S]

So you're saying you were just hanging around.

My mother used to threaten to hang me up on a hook by the suspenders on my overalls for some of the things I did I finally made good on her threat and hung myself on a hook.
I had thought about making a Bosons chair then I thought why make something that I already had better. It worked so well that I was able to remove the line without damaging the loop clamps that held it in place because I had the lanyard around the pole and my legs wrapped around it to stabilize myself freeing both hands to work on the line

[metric_taper]

Hope your New Years dinner has something special from the trip to town.
I bet there were a few expletives used to get the diesel running. But you beat the beast into coming alive. And you got a good day in. Can't wait to see the insulation and roof sheeting installed.
I learned with my first car (62 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon ~71) that oil viscosity was everything to getting it started when winter temps in North Dakota were -40F. As well a huge Cadillac battery. Mobil One just started being sold, and it was the missing ingredient to cold weather engine starts (5W-30 it was $2.90/qt, when regular oil was $0.65). Every auto also had engine block heaters, either one that installed in a freeze plug, or separate tank in the heater hose line, and there were dip stick heaters as well. I don't see that anymore, as synthetic oils seem to be the norm in all autos.
A new battery, darn things have gotten expensive. That should fix your tropical temp. engine start problem.

[Frank S]

Hope your New Years dinner has something special from the trip to town.
I bet there were a few expletives used to get the diesel running. But you beat the beast into coming alive. And you got a good day in. Can't wait to see the insulation and roof sheeting installed.
I learned with my first car (62 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon ~71) that oil viscosity was everything to getting it started when winter temps in North Dakota were -40F. As well a huge Cadillac battery. Mobil One just started being sold, and it was the missing ingredient to cold weather engine starts (5W-30 it was $2.90/qt, when regular oil was $0.65). Every auto also had engine block heaters, either one that installed in a freeze plug, or separate tank in the heater hose line, and there were dip stick heaters as well. I don't see that anymore, as synthetic oils seem to be the norm in all autos.
A new battery, darn things have gotten expensive. That should fix your tropical temp. engine start problem.

If I would take the time to pull the injector pump and re build it, that would go a long way to curing the starting and low power problems with the old gal. The problem with these old minimatic pumps is with an off the shelf rebuild you might as well be shooting craps in Vegas trying to locate one that is a quality reman. To do it my self would mean the backhoe would be down for the length of time to order in replacements for any worn parts, the price of new NOS is not in budget. I know a pump guy in Florida who used to be good if he still does that sort of thing who used to be fairly reasonable. Maybe this coming summer when the need for the backhoe will be lessened hopefully I will be able to do the pump and injectors

[Frank S]

Yeppers nothing like snaps.
it didn't quite get down to freezing here this morning kind of a change from the previous couple mornings whre I saw 18 on the digital even though the weather guessers say things like 25 or 28 I go by how thick the ice forms on the pet bowls when it is thick enough thatI have to use a hammer to break it then I know it was colder than any 25° for 2 or 3 hours. Yesterday and the day before even though it froze hard enough to freeze the hose bib on the pump house even though covered with the useless foam cover it tells me it was on the chilly side becaue the inside of the pump house has a thermostat that switches on the heaters when below 45 so the freeze has to happen between the insulated wall and the valve on the bib. My solution for this is I bought a 8" frost free hose bib so no water will be inside the pipe outside of the wall just haven't gotten it installed yet Probably should ahve done that today LOL

[Frank S]

After several days of wind and being tied up on another project I finally got back to the work on the shop
26 this morning but the wind was blowing out of the North around 15 MPH. went out at 7 to feed the animals and break ice on their water bowls.
Figured the day might be another wash out but around 10 the wind began changing direction and dying down the temp was in the upper 30's so hooked up an electric heater on the backhoe by 11 I tried to start it the wind had calmed I hoisted 7 sheets up then started screwing them down managed to get 4 before the wind decided to make a brief blow not real bad but enough to make it hard to drag the 36 foot long sheets around so took a brief break then got back up there and screwed down the remaining 3 then went and loaded 6 more hoisted them up by now it was around 3 in the afternoon had the last one screwed down by 5 then Jane told me we needed to go cut some more fire wood incase rainy weather comes in Tuesday like they think
Any way I now have 40 feet of the 61 feet of the north roof completed

[Frank S]

Everything cleared away , bus scaffold in place and the remaining purlin staged for lifting

[Crusty]

I once talked with an old trucker who ran the Montana outback regularly during the worst of winter when it gets really cold. He told me that one of his secrets was to carry a heavy canvas tarp and a bag of charcoal. When it got so cold that his diesel gelled he spread the tarp over the left side tank and engine and then built a charcoal fire under the tarp off to the side to heat and reliquify his diesel and warm the oil in the pan so that he could get his truck to bust off. He also had electric as well as coolant recirc heaters installed on his truck to keep it liquid once it was running. It sounded really dangerous to me but he'd been doing it for years with no unplanned fires.

[metric_taper]

I once talked with an old trucker who ran the Montana outback regularly during the worst of winter when it gets really cold. He told me that one of his secrets was to carry a heavy canvas tarp and a bag of charcoal. When it got so cold that his diesel gelled he spread the tarp over the left side tank and engine and then built a charcoal fire under the tarp off to the side to heat and reliquify his diesel and warm the oil in the pan so that he could get his truck to bust off. He also had electric as well as coolant recirc heaters installed on his truck to keep it liquid once it was running. It sounded really dangerous to me but he'd been doing it for years with no unplanned fires.

I recall truckers using acetylene as an engine start helper. But that can end up bending a connecting rod, that is what I was told when watching this. So I have no idea how they metered that. Preheat igniters must not have been a standard diesel component back then.

[Frank S]

Wind has been howling at times today not all that cold but if you are in the wind a good pair of Carhart's are in order. way too much wind to be 25 feet off the ground trying to weld though