What did you do today?

[DennisCA]

I bought a robot lawnmower. After my walk behind mowers gearbox melted and seized up.

Husqvarna 310 rated for 1000m2 (lawn area is around 800ish), but we got a pretty complicated garden layout.... I drew a plan because only have a ****ty satellite photo of my house. And I forgot the woodshed and the small building to the right isn't completed yet.



Red is the boundary wire and blue is the guide wire. The walls are retaining walls from rock. I was about the yard and looking and considering how the hell to get the mower down to the lower area (bottom left in map), I don't want to move it. So I made a path using gravel, I plan to add topsoil and grass as well:




Then it can mow this area as well



Then this lower area, working on some logs in the corner so I gotta section that off for now.


The front of the house is a bit tricky too, I started laying down the boundary wire last night, pretty much according to the map. That area infront of the house sign post though I avoided.



Will be interesting to see it work.

[DennisCA]

Also my cat is nuts, I just peeled a blood orange.

https://i.imgur.com/nVZmgG7.mp4

[Tungsten dipper]

Also my cat is nuts, I just peeled a blood orange.

https://i.imgur.com/nVZmgG7.mp4

That was good; why didn't you give him a piece of the orange?

[DennisCA]

Citrus is actually poisonous for cats

[J Tiers]

That was good; why didn't you give him a piece of the orange?

They won't go near it..... Never seen one that would.

They make their own vitamin C, they don't need oranges, maybe that's it, but they find the smell intensely horrible.

After the smell dissipates, some may like the sweet taste on your fingers. But every cat I have ever dealt with hates the smell of fresh orange. Something is wrong with that beast of Dennis'

[DennisCA]

Ever since he was a kitten he liked to gnaw and bite on my fingers. I guess its more that the citrus didn't dissuade him rather than he likes it. Still he crazy, but I like my cats crazy.

Here's oscar too:

https://i.imgur.com/FTmIIgR.mp4

We found "Elvis" (my son named him) like this when we got home. Gonna have to work on the ramp yet, put up fencing.

[mattthemuppet]

oh man, your first autonomous lawnmower crash! Maybe you need to bank the path so it doesn't do a Tiger Woods again?

[Cenedd]

Maybe you need to bank the path

How fast do these things go that they need banked curves?!

[Dan Dubeau]

Day 2 of "holidays". Fabed up 2 battery trays for my kubota mowers this morning. I seem to have an abundance of car batteries around here, and they don't fit the stock kubota boxes, so I made some new ones. 1"x1"x1/8" angle, and some 1/8" sheet. Nothing fancy, just get it done. I welded 5/16 nuts on for the hold down, but then realized I didn't have any 5/16" allthread lol. I have a few lengths of 1/4" and 3/8" though. I shoulda looked first i guess.






The one with the ROPS has developed an overheating problem lately and I'm not sure why. First time I figured it was a plugged up rad. It was filthy so I blew it all out, and washed it, and it did fine for the next 2 times cutting the grass. Then it overheated again yesterday. I let it cool down, pulled the thermostat and it did it again. Water pump looks to be pumping. Didn't really have much time to delve into it deeper, needed to cut the grass. That was the reason for the battery boxes as I didn't have a battery that would fit the other one. I might have a more in depth go at it later in the week if I find some time. I have a lot of projects I want to get done before I go back to work next week, and working on lawnmowers isn't one of them. There are lots of little things that need fixed between the pair of them, I need to chip away at, but I keep putting it off just to get the grass cut.

[RMinMN]

Day 2 of "holidays". Fabed up 2 battery trays for my kubota mowers this morning. I seem to have an abundance of car batteries around here, and they don't fit the stock kubota boxes, so I made some new ones. 1"x1"x1/8" angle, and some 1/8" sheet. Nothing fancy, just get it done. I welded 5/16 nuts on for the hold down, but then realized I didn't have any 5/16" allthread lol. I have a few lengths of 1/4" and 3/8" though. I shoulda looked first i guess.


The one with the ROPS has developed an overheating problem lately and I'm not sure why. First time I figured it was a plugged up rad. It was filthy so I blew it all out, and washed it, and it did fine for the next 2 times cutting the grass. Then it overheated again yesterday. I let it cool down, pulled the thermostat and it did it again. Water pump looks to be pumping. Didn't really have much time to delve into it deeper, needed to cut the grass. That was the reason for the battery boxes as I didn't have a battery that would fit the other one. I might have a more in depth go at it later in the week if I find some time. I have a lot of projects I want to get done before I go back to work next week, and working on lawnmowers isn't one of them. There are lots of little things that need fixed between the pair of them, I need to chip away at, but I keep putting it off just to get the grass cut.

Since you have allthread, drill a couple more holes on each side and weld on the other 3 sizes of nuts so you have the option of using whatever size of allthread you have.

Blowing out the radiator and washing is a good start but sometimes there might still be some blockage in the fins. Pressure washers work well to punch these out. I have to do it with my combine and swather, often more than once per season.

[mattthemuppet]

reverse flush it too. Alternate one direction then the other and you'll flush out a whole lot of extra sediment.

[Dan Dubeau]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll get into it more next week hopefully. I put put about 3 hours of trouble free mowing on the other one today finishing the trails and yard, longest i've ever ran that one. Switching out the deck for the flail tomorrow to give it a work out. Since buying the pair of them last year I haven't used this one much at all. After using it a bit more today I actually like it a bit better now. Especially for back in the bush, no rops makes it easier to get in the tight stuff. the 4wd isn't working though, so I'll have to have a peek at it tomorrow before I start as I'll need it for some of the hills. Did some quick googling, it seems like a common problem and an easy fix in the shift linkage (i'm hoping that's all it is). Ideally would like to end up leaving a deck on one, and using the other for flail/snowblower duty. They're pretty versatile machines. Wish I bought one years ago.

[The Metal Butcher]

I specced an 8 tenths concentricity at work the other day on a mandrel and the inspection guy got huffy because apparently I'm being ridiculous. Sorry for asking a professional CNC machinist do something an amateur home-gamer (me) can do on 40 year old manual equipment? I'm sure I drove the price up some, but when I'm making a mandrel for machining a part where I have no drawings, tolerances, or specifications... yeah, I'm gonna air to the side of caution. Then at least if it comes out bad I'm not to blame. I get it, fun to poke at engineers, but at least I can make what I draw... most of the time.

[Arcane]

Just before noon today I got my second COVID-19 (Pfizer) vaccination shot.

[john b]

Got my oil changed and tires rotated