Anyone in northern Minnesota? [Archive] - The Home Shop Machinist & Machinist's Workshop Magazine's BBS

dhammer

12-08-2002, 10:09 PM

New Ulm, Rochester, Winona.. all in the banana belt. Shaving Maker.. you wouldn't recognize Bemidji today.. Home Depot, Applebys, ground Round and even a.. gasp.. Wal mart.Chester Berg is still here. The people who are supposed to know say the population of Mn from Brainard on north will increase dramatically in the next 15 years. All the baby boomers want to retire in a place that has trees, lakes and few people.

siminov

12-09-2002, 12:18 PM

I am not in northern MN but not to far on the other side of the 49th,I am inm Kenora ON. I guess you could say I understand why your shop is probably insulated!

dhammer

12-09-2002, 08:43 PM

Kenora.. colder yet! My shop is fairly well insulated except for the overhead garage doors. I don't keep it heated all the time. When it is below zero outside it takes my wood stove about 1 hr to get temp up to 70 degrees. I have to warm up my lathe in back gear for awhile or else it will trip the breaker.

Some day I will have a new shop with heat in the floor. Then I can work in the wee hours of the morning.. my favorite time. I once new a guy from Kenora name of John Johnson.. know him? {-:

siminov

12-10-2002, 12:32 PM

No I don't Know a John Johnson. I thought about in floor heat when I built my garage. I didn't go that way because of the extra cost at the time, I should have. If you can insulate that door.Last year I finished the door in my garage with some 2" styrofoam,and now I can heat my shop to T-shirt warmth with a 4800 watt construction weather in 35 below. and the scraps can be saved for lost foam patterns:-)

dhammer

12-11-2002, 04:50 AM

Siminov.. I was being facetious when I asked you if you knew John Johnson.. there must be hundreds of John Johnsons in Kenora.

I have thought of installing foam over one of the overhead garage doors I don't use. I had a two stall garage at one time. Now I only have room for one car(barely) because of all the fun tools. My car sits outside, girlfriends car inside where its warm. People from warmer climes think we have electric cars here in MN .. because of the electric cords sticking out from under the hood.

Bob S

01-14-2003, 06:18 PM

Hi, I'm new to the board, new to machine work too. I'm in Halstad, Minnesota, about half way between Moorhead and East Grand Forks on the Red River. This cold weather has me wondering why I moved back here from Colorado!

Bob Seifert

ShavingMaker

01-14-2003, 09:46 PM

Bob,us Minnesotans have to be careful about saying how cold it is... there are Canadians listening in. I think it might be colder up there!!

Oso

01-15-2003, 12:13 AM

Tropics heck. I moved to St Louis, wanna talk about tropics? Sheesh. Hadda learn to like summer, no skiing here.

Don't even hardly freeze enough to kill the skeeters here. After these dudes, the Minnesota ones are pretty weak.

It did once get down to -25 here, but I never have seen it again in 25 years.

dhammer

01-15-2003, 07:37 AM

We are finally getting a little taste of winter.. gets down to -10 at night, far cry from what it could get.

Bob S... welcome to the board and to the machining hobby. I'm new to both myself. What are you working on?

Steve

Bob S

01-22-2003, 03:14 PM

Hey Guys,

Most of my spare time has been taken up with putting together a race car for this summer but I've been working on making an adapter out of aluminum to mate a T-98 truck transmission to a 4-cylinder Jeep engine and some new pieces so that I can load black powder with in a Dillon reloader. The machining hobby is supporting my other sicknesses right now, someday it may become it's own full-fledged affliction. Oh, BTW, it's cold old out here today!

Bob

David Hafnorske

01-26-2003, 08:17 PM

Not from northern MN. But I make it up to Park Rapids in the summer. My mother grew up there so I go up there for a little getaway in the summer. If you know of any machining hobbist get togethers up there,let me know. I can't think of a better way to spend my vacation.

JCHannum

01-26-2003, 08:46 PM

Bob S. use extreme caution if using regular reloading equipment for blackpowder. It is very prone to producing static electric charges, with unpleasant results. The single shot guys use only wood to handle the powder.

Bob S

01-27-2003, 11:56 AM

JCHannum,

The parts I'm working on replace the steel and plastic parts in the powder measure with brass and aluminum to eliminate possible sparks from steel and static electricity build-up from the plastic reservoir. Lyman and Hornady use the same principals in making their powder measures for use with black powder.

4lb.Nevada

01-27-2003, 09:59 PM

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Bob S:
This cold weather has me wondering why I moved back here from Colorado!

Bob Seifert[/B]</font>

Bob, quality of life!!! http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//wink.gif
You couldn't pay me to move back to Colorado again. I had to go home last summer for a quick visit, and it was awful!!

By the way, will you let a North Dakota boy play 9 or sould I just bury my self now, for all the jokes that I'm about to receive??
Charles
Jamestown, ND

Del

01-28-2003, 12:00 AM

Charles, I have been to North Dakota in the winter but never again. I was in Strasburg last summer for wife's family reunion. It was over 100 degrees F. Thank goodness I had my airconditioned truck and travel trailer. I had a great time, Good people. Love the German food but I take along my Tabasco and Jalapeno peppers since they don't have it in Strasburg ND. An Okie

dhammer

01-28-2003, 06:27 AM

David,

We don't have a machinist's club.. yet.. but there are quite a few folks who get together to share knowledge, tools, materials etc. Let me know when you are coming up and perhaps we can get together. I'm not too far from Park Rapids.

JCHannum

01-28-2003, 07:18 AM

Bob S. Glad to hear you are on right path. I didn't want others on forum to get bad ideas either. There is potential for serious problems for the uninitiated.

dhammer

02-01-2003, 08:15 AM

Thanks to everyone who has replied. I'm sorry if I haven't answered everyone who wrote.. I've just discovered that some of my email has been going into another account.. don't know why.. At last count I had about 400 messages.. some junk.. some important so I need to get busy and respond to all of that mail.

Cliff Tanner

03-05-2003, 05:24 PM

Hey, shoulda been watchin' this area!

I'm from Carlton and work in Duluth, how's that? Get out near Brainerd once or twice a year. Promised the wife we'd go to Minnesota Wild Winery soon. And I'll be up that way again in May.

== Cliff Tanner

[This message has been edited by Cliff Tanner (edited 03-05-2003).]

Thrud

03-06-2003, 04:07 AM

Cliff
I used to go to "Robies Sports Bar" had a great live band and way, way too many tv's with sports on. Have not been there in years. Do they still have that vertical lift bridge?

dhammer

03-06-2003, 07:21 AM

Hi everyone,

I see this thread has achieved the "hot" status.. never would have thought so many readers of this forum have ties to northern Minnesota. Speaking of Minnesota, we have had a long cold spell and little or no snow cover. My septic froze last week and I had to have it steamed. Considering building my own steamer. In the winter of 78 I had to piss in a bucket most of the winter. I was new to the area and figured no big deal.. that's what folks here have to do from time to time. My lady, on the other hand, doesn't doesn't see the humor in the situation.

Cliff Tanner

03-06-2003, 03:45 PM

Hmmm. That bar's now the Bedrock. Not the best part of town.

But the Aerial Lift Bridge's still there. I got to ride it a couple of years ago while a ship came through, one of the few advantages of working for the City. Where you at now, Thrud?

dhammer, yep, my neighbor's septic field is frozen. The pump guy's makin a ton of money right now and was there at 6:00 AM today performing his service. My other neighbor got his defrosted. Ours is still working just fine, knock on wood (?).

Got a neighbor down the road who built an outhouse a few years ago. They work just fine regardless of the weather. 'Course, the seat gets a bit nippy. And SWMBO would never live with that, either.

We had out septic replaced about six or seven yeras ago. Everything's plastic now. Can you steam those out?

I hear Minnesota's the coldest of the continental 48.

dhammer

03-06-2003, 10:11 PM

Cliff,

Yes ,you can steam plastic pipe. I watched the guy do it, took him about 15 minutes to get pipes thawed. I might buid my own steamer out of hot water heater and propane weed burner. The expensive part will be the hose. I'm not complaining about what he charged.. he came out on Sunday and charged $75.00.. cheap. It is just that I like to be able to do everything for myself.

I've heard that Minnesota is the coldest state in the Union.. not counting Alaska. As I've said before, if we Minnesotans didn't have to put up with the cold from Canada and the wind from North Dakota this state would be a great place to live. No offense to Thrud.

Thrud

03-07-2003, 01:40 AM

Cliff
I live in Edmonton, Alberta - Canada.

Last time I was in Duluth I went to a pizza place close to the bridge - they had micro-brewed root beer to die for. Wish I could remember the name of the root beer. Sure lots of cuties there. Interesting town. There was a biker/strip bar near the bridge I used to raise hell in - what a dive. I loved it! The people were great fun. Too hot and humid for a hairy 400lb. gorilla during summer - winter was pleasant. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//smile.gif

Still liked Utah the best. Really nice people there plus the chocolate milk was not bad and the Carl Jr's $5.00 resturant burger was "tasty". Plus they had that pipe organ in the Mormon Tabernacle (an auditory tour de force). We now have a similar pipe organ here in Edmonton in our Winspear Center for Performing Arts. I am soo lucky... http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

Cliff Tanner

03-07-2003, 11:25 AM

dhammer,

Yep, I've thought about the same thing. I got a burner from an oil furnace and a large formed double coil of copper with pipe fittings at each end I've accumulated with the same intent, but haven't gotten a round tuit yet. The hoses I've seen are very stiff. How'd he get that around the corners? And my system also has a three-way "T" junction that would be a problem.

Thrud,

There's two pizza chains about one block from the bridge and almost across the street from one another, Old Chicago and Green Mill. And the Saratoga is still around, but they have a pretty good jazz programs Saturday afternoons that's worth a visit. There's some pretty good root beer brewed by our local micro brewery, Lake Superior, along with some pretty good beer. I especially like their Kyak Kolsch. But then the guys there are old friends and drinking buddies, at least when I was a few years younger. . . . so I may be a bit biased.

Thrud

03-08-2003, 01:57 AM

Cliff
Which pizza place is one the (north?) lakeside of the street with brick frontage?

dhammer

03-08-2003, 06:04 AM

Cliff,

I need to look at a commercial steamer. The one guy I know who has one said that the steam is produced by pumping water through many coils of stainless steel tubing.. don't know if copper tubing will hold up. I should add that he has a steam cleaner or steam pressure washer, maybe not the same as a steamer meant to thaw pipes. The steamer the septic co. used produced plenty of steam but not much pressure. Another thing to consider is the hose.. needs to be fairly stiff to stuff it down pipes and not double up on itself. On second thought, maybe its better to pay the $75.00 and spend our time and energy making chips.

Cliff Tanner

03-08-2003, 06:16 AM

Thrud,

That's Green Mill. I actually prefer them to Old Chicago, although Old Chicago has a much larger variety of beers.

dhammer,

The coil I have is a high pressure copper, it actually rings if you tap it. The guys I got it from used it to heat some pretty nasty stuff running steam through one of the coils when it was in a 55 gallon drum to get the sticky asphault-like stuff liquid enough to use. And my intent was to use it as a hot-water pressure washer, but that isn't a high priority right now, either.

Actually, in Minnesota operting a steamer requires a boiler license. They're nasty items at times. No such requirement for hot water pressure washers. One reason the steamer he was using produced very little pressure.

Well, gotta go. I'm off on a one-day trip to Green Bay to get an Atlas 7b shaper and a small surface grinder.

dhammer

03-08-2003, 06:55 AM

Cliff,

Didn't know about the boiler's license.. thanks for the heads up. Shaper, surface grinder..? I'm envious.. let us know how they turn out.

Steve

decoy91288

03-08-2003, 09:38 AM

I always thought "northern Minnesota" was an Indian phrase meaning -- "no one in their right mind lives there!" Leastwise that is what the locals told me when I was training National Guard troops at Camp Ripley. Brainard was full of honeys too, but they were all from Illinois. http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//biggrin.gif

ShavingMaker

03-08-2003, 03:55 PM

Needing a boilerman's license in Minnesota to work with high pressure steam reminds me of a process I learned about that you might find interesting. In Western Minnesota, just west of Danvers which is just west of Benson which is north and west of Willmar... there is a mint farmer. He grows mint plants on flat farm land. Not in patties like they grow rice in up north. Then they would be called Peppermint Patties, not farm fields.... (slap, slap, slap! Snap out of it!) Anyway, mint plants grow from root stock, grow like weeds, keep away deer, rabbits, etc, look kind of like alfalfa, and is harvested like alfalfa. They cut it with a mower and scoop it up into a hopper wagon that follows the mower. Here is where the interesting process comes in. (I know it took a long time to get here, but I had to follow the wagon around the field) The hopper wagon is fully enclosed, with a steam inlet pipe on the bottom and a steam outlet port at the top. When the wagon is full, it goes direct to the barn where there is a steam boiler. The steam line is plugged into the inlet port in the wagon, steam is injected into the mint leaves and leaves the wagon through the top port. It goes inside the barn to a condenser like there would be in a distillery and the mint oil is condensed out into 55 gallon drums for shipment to market. The wagon then gets pulled out to the field, the mint leave remains are dumped out, and the wagon is ready for the next load. Anyway, that farmer had to have a boilerman's license.
There, now I know all of you really wanted to hear about that. Sweet smelling place too.

[This message has been edited by ShavingMaker (edited 03-08-2003).]

dhammer

03-10-2003, 01:00 AM

Thanks to all those who replied. There are times when I think that decoy is right about the Indian translation of northern Minnesota. One of those times is now.. septic froze again.. just 8 more weeks till spring. Then we will have summer, the 4th of July ,and then back to winter again.

Cliff Tanner

03-10-2003, 11:44 AM

When I moved up here from Illionois 27 years ago my impression was that Minnesota women were very good looking -- and stuck-up like no get out! Although I was married even then, I would go out with single friends in those days. I guessed they were all the product of pioneer women and thought that since they were scarce they could do whatever they darned well pleased, and often did. Now, things have changed considerably in the past few years, people around here drive like they're form the big city now and maybe those other things have changed, too. I certainly have been out of touch on those things and, frankly, based on long-ago experiences, if I had to go through that type of thing again, I simply would opt out. They just ain't worth it.

Thrud

03-11-2003, 01:18 AM

Cliff

A wise man once told me that he never met a woman that he did not find something beautiful about.

I found the MN ladies to be cutties too. Many of them are fairly smart too - I like big brains in women.

ShavingMaker

03-11-2003, 08:09 AM

Cliff, you say you had to go to Green Bay? That's cold too, but you can tell them you live about 200 miles further north! I moved from Milwaukee to Bemidji at one time and when I told my old friends that I moved to a place 200 miles north of Green Bay their mouths just dropped! To them, Green Bay is at the end of the world.
In Duluth, isn't the pizza/spagetti place out by the aerial lift bridge called Grandma's?

Cliff Tanner

03-11-2003, 10:05 PM

Well, Grandma's has a lot more than just spaghetti, and I don't think they have any pizza. But they're pretty big and the nearest to the aerial lift bridge. There's Grandma's, Grandma's Sports Garden, and another one the name escapes me. Then there Bellisio's, an expensive Italian place also (I think) owned by Grandma's. That's all between the bridge and the pizza places a block away. Then there's Grandma's on the hill, Grandma's in Cloquet, Grandma's in the twin cities, and so forth.

The trip to Green Bay was interesting. May need to start a new thread. . . . .

Thrud,

I pick up a few extra bucks up here teaching statistics and quantitative methods in the post-secondary schools at night. I, too appreciate intelligent people of whatever sex. But I don't like smart people. I'm a simple guy. What you see is what you get. And as I get older, I just don't have any patience for gamesmanship. I was in a pretty safe vantage point all those years ago. I could observe without entering the fray. I did NOT like what I saw.
I simply would not last long were I to attempt the dating scene again. And, again, I am certainly not current in that body of knowledge. Things may have changed. . . . .