What did you do today?

[lugnut]

Yesterday our refrigerator with a bottom freezer decided to lose it's cool. It is 19 years old and I figured it was time to get a new one. The spot it is in the kitchen limits us to find a new refrigerator less than 67 inches tall. After doing a lot of research on computer and Consumers Report, I came up with only five modes that would fit. I called a local appliance dealer and of course he would have to order one and said he would get back to me. The one he thought he could get would be $1950.00 delivered and the old one hauled away.
We then took all the stuff out and carried it out to laundry room where we have another refrigerator / freezer. The wife said she wanted to wash out the old one before letting it go, while doing the cleaning we noticed some frost on the inside back wall of the freeze and I proceeded to remove the frost and noticed it was covering a row of vent holes.. I then remembered those holes allow the cold air from the freezer to go up and into the refrigerator to cool it..
We cleaned out all the frost and used a hair dryer to melt the ice buildup inside the vent holes and plugged the unit back in and turned it on and within a hour or two the thing was freezing cooling just fine. Freezer at 0 degrees and Refrigerator at 40 degrees. .
By the way that appliance dealer never did return a call to me and I saved $1950.00. Plus I got to use the temperature probe on my new volt/amp meter to check the thing out.
I know this a long drawn out tail, but it makes me wonder how many refrigerator/freezes get replaced that just needed a good thawing out.

[challenger]

I removed a bee swarm from a chimney. The bees somehow figured making their new home above the damper in a chimney would be a good idea. 20' up the flue just to reach open air???
Turned out to be the biggest swarm I've ever dealt with. It was the Mega swarm.

[wierdscience]

By the way that appliance dealer never did return a call to me and I saved $1950.00. Plus I got to use the temperature probe on my new volt/amp meter to check the thing out.
I know this a long drown out tail, but it makes me wonder how many refrigerator/freezes get replaced that just needed a good thawing out.

You have more patience than I do, one thing I can't stand is working on appliances. My fridge did the same thing, sort of. It would be warm one minute and freezing everything the next until finally it quit cooling at all. I was nearly ready to drop $1200 on a new one when it dawned on me that the freezer was sort of working, but not the fridge. Ended up being the defrost timer, $25 later I had it fixed. That's just normal daily aggregation, the part I hated is that whoever designed it, put the timer in the most impossible place to get to they could.

[Stepside]

My neighbor calls me the WOB (Wise Old Bast_rd) When something does not work/is broken he comes to my shop with his story of woe. His refridgerator would not keep things cold. I told him to pull it out and vacuum the coils. He has three dogs with long hair and housework eludes him and his wife. You could have made a rug from the hair. Then told him to put the food in a cooler and unplug the unit and leave the door open for a day. When they mopped up all the water and pluged it in everything worked perfectly.

[Dave C]

My neighbor calls me the WOB (Wise Old Bast_rd) When something does not work/is broken he comes to my shop with his story of woe. His refridgerator would not keep things cold. I told him to pull it out and vacuum the coils. He has three dogs with long hair and housework eludes him and his wife. You could have made a rug from the hair. Then told him to put the food in a cooler and unplug the unit and leave the door open for a day. When they mopped up all the water and pluged it in everything worked perfectly.

Reminds me of my dip shi.. bil.

[MattiJ]

On a cruise to Estonia. This is to my liking, not too crowded on the cruise

[MattiJ]

Old town trip. On related topic visited also Balti Jaam second hand market, few large sovjet union era vises but no other tooling.

[Dave C]

Took apart the ignition switch on my old JD 316. After sitting idle for a year, the contacts were not making and the starter was not getting power. So I got it apart, cleaned up the contacts, and now for the life of me can't get the sob back together right. The spring that makes the start position momentary, has me baffled as to how it is located. No matter how I place it, it does not work. Did anyone here ever have one of these things apart, or am I the only fool that spends 5 hours trying to fix a $15 part?

[Ridgerunner]

Tractor tri lobe pto driveshaft for brush hog split so I had to get a new one. In these times it was not possible to find one the correct length etc so looked in the junk pile and found an old one with a bad clutch. Had a new splined clutch so made a drive shaft the correct length with two splined ends by replacing the old clutch with a splined end and welding it on. The parts are not the same class but whatever works.

[nickel-city-fab]

Tractor tri lobe pto driveshaft for brush hog split so I had to get a new one. ]

Wow I feel old now.... never seen or used a tri-lobe, nor a PTO with a clutch. Just a sliding splined shaft for me (1955 Case)

[Ridgerunner]

Wow I feel old now.... never seen or used a tri-lobe, nor a PTO with a clutch. Just a sliding splined shaft for me (1955 Case)

Lol. It's the world economy now. I guess these are the Italian Eurocardan design.

I have a 1953 Ford Golden Jubilee that I sandblasted and fixed up. Even it has a small 5 foot brush hog with a tri-lobe pto shaft and clutch. Of course the old Ford's need an overrunning clutch for a brush hog too. I love that old tractor. I converted it to 12 volts and used a relay so I could use the original push button switch that just went to ground. I did have to mill the flywheel flat and mill for a flywheel bearing since they don't seem to make a pilot bushing anymore.

[Dave C]

Running a brush hog on a Jubilee without an overrunning clutch can lead to an exciting ride. 😉

[wierdscience]

Running a brush hog on a Jubilee without an overrunning clutch can lead to an exciting ride. 😉

Ain't that the truth! Total lack of power steering and a bush hog trying to shove you through a fence is quite exciting.

[DennisCA]

I found a really good deal on oxygen by finnish standards.

Stats as follows:
20 liter bottle @ 200 bar so it contains 4000 liters of oxygen or 141 cu ft.
350 € to buy the bottle, 30€ to ship it from Oulu, it's new and full (mfg 2020/3)
66€ to refill at my local gas place in Vaasa

All prices incl. local vat.

IMO that's a good deal for a hobbyist who wants a privately owned bottle, swapping/deposit schemes stop at 10/11 liter sizes, they are more conventient since no need to hand the bottle in for a refil which can take some time. But a 10l bottle is as expensive and costs almost as much to swap in. I don't have a need for 24/7 access to oxyfuel, I don't even have any right now. So I think I'll make do beng without it for refilling. Don't think it'll be getting refilled a lot.

[The Metal Butcher]

Aligned a lathe headstock. Frustrating and slow. Got it to within 1/2 thou on 4 inches, but it suddenly bumps to 1 thou at 6. The indicator tracks zero until about 4" when it starts moving up. So I don't know what's going on there. Goon enough for now I guess.