The Projects Never End

[RoamingGnome]

Nice looking stove installation!

[DavidBarkey]

Nice looking fire place you have there .

[Toolslinger]

Thanks. The fireplace is a monster.

I believe it will take a 4' log without complaint. It has been burned probably 3 or 4 times since my folks built it in the 70's. (we moved in in the 90's when the house was finally done) My uncle informs me that it was the largest steel firebox fireplace available at the time. No idea if that's true, but you get the idea... It's a beautiful piece of scenery, but I'd do it different at this point. It serves as the wood storage for the stove now.

[Toolslinger]

Frankenvac day...
I mean, there was a ton of other stuff happeneing too, but this, was one of today's goals.

The 444 started. That's nice. Battery was flat the other day. Probably weak and should be changed, but it would be nice to push that off until after leaf season at least. I've got 80# on the bracket up front to counter how far back the hitch is now..

Hitched hitched the vac up to the new hitch point on the 3 point bracket. This is nice as I was dragging the landing gear of the vac getting in and out of the barn. Now I can just raise it.

Checked over things, and had to add a little oil to the blower engine. Fueled up, ran a file through the points just because... And nothing...
Pull, pull, pull some more... Starting fluid... Pull, pull, pull... Added a spark check inline. Pull, pull, pull, Ok, we got spark. Pull, and snap goes the starter rope... But it fired off, and ran!

Well yay!, and crap!...

Haven't had to do a recoil unit on an older Kohler before that I recall. At least just the recoil comes off without having to pull any tin. Took a little futzing to figure out how to get in to everything without loosing a finger, or eye to the spring. I did pull it completely apart to clean everything, and then had to rewind, and latch the spring, which is a real pain on this model. Got it cleaned, and reassembled with new line. Should be good for a while I hope.
Took this to remember which way the cam installed...

Reinstalled it, and with a couple pulls, it fired off. It was kinda cranky about going to full throttle, so I just crept up on it. It got to WOT eventually, and everything sounded as good as it ever does. It sure ain't pretty, but it does a heck of a good job. There's a hydrovac in the barn to replace this blower/motor, but that isn't on the list for this season, and really, until I kill this one, I likely will not bother.

Among other things, I also unloaded the JD310's extra backhoe buckets to the woodline, and parked the machine a little further out in the field so it can catch sun earlier in the day.
After arguing with myself, I am going to sell the Bucyrus Erie H-3 crane behind the 310.

It could sure be a handy machine, but I'm not making progress with it, and the main reason I got it, is no longer relevant... Probably wait until spring/summer for that headache.

[Toolslinger]

Well, lessee... I have been a bit lax of late. Leaves are done at the house. I should clean up a load or two at my uncles place across the street before a real snow. Hitting a leafburg on the gravel driveway sucks.

Also picked up a new to me 24" bucket for the 310. I got a 24 with it, but it was really beat, and by the time I bought the shanks and teeth to fix it, I'd be in deeper than the used unit I got. I mounted it on the machine, but found I don't have the right length bucket pin. It's on, but no digging in the immediate future. I took measurements so I can get the mechanical thumb ordered next week after I talk to the manufacturer. Being an old machine with unknown buckets, I want to make sure they're working from the right dimensions. That setup comes with a new bucket pin, so I'm good there, and the existing short one will work for the 12".

Next up was/is using up the candle making supplies from my father. He made hand dipped bayberry candles just about every years for Christmas. I spent untold hours doing that as a kid. I kept it all when I cleaned out the house, and I probably still had enough candles for the rest of my time, but I decided to make a run, use up the premixed wax, and then give the equipment away hopefully, or toss it if nobody is interested. Too much space in the closets.

This is the dipping pot. It hold about 40# of wax. The smaller pot on the side is refill wax.

These are the racks and candles after 10 or 15 dips. Takes about 29 to make a standard taper. I set up for 100 this time. Probably could have done 120, or 130, but I wanted to be very sure I could finish with the supplies on hand.

We cut the weights off this morning after 25 dipps. Cleaned up the bottoms a little along with some dripps. Another 3 dips on my rack, and 4 on my other half's and we were done. I'll do final cleanup on them tomorrow, and then sort by length, and pair them up.

[DavidBarkey]

Thats really neat . I remember my mother making larger paraffin wax candles with dried flower on the side for decoration when I was young .

[Toolslinger]

Cleanup is done. Had to cut a drip off the end of each, and then use a candle sharpener on them to get the bottoms round. Sorting is on hold, but should be done later today. They will hang and harden for a day, and then get wrapped in pairs for storage, and or gifts.

First thing this morning:

I only put the front of the hanging rack together, which hold 95. The back adds another 90 something. When my father made candles, he wasn't screwing around...

Racked up:

Trimmed, and sharpened:

Finished:

The process was far less tedious that I remembered. Probably because I was a) a teenager that had better things to do, b) it was still single sticks at the time, so it took forever. I should still get rid of everything. I have enough raw wax to make another batch if I get a little dye, scent, and steric acid. So it may stay for another year. I did have plans to refill the citronella pots for the summer, so the wax gear will stay until I deal with that at the very least.

My father was a patient guy. Every stick was slotted the same, and a little countersink in each to hold the knot, so it can't slide out easily. There are a lot of sticks... I don't know what his record year was, but man it was significant.

Still using the same nuts for weights that he started with when it was single wick, and only 100 per year... They each have a small hole drilled in the side so the wick goes through, and a single knot holds it. They get melted off back in to the refill pot in a strainer. Ready to go again.

Poured off the refill container in to his preferred storage containers. The ubiquitous take out wonton soup container. The dip pot is cooling. That will take a couple days.

[DavidBarkey]

@Toolslinger That is so fascinating the old school process . Where do you get the bayberry wax ?

[Toolslinger]

I haven't had to buy the supplies. His notes give the ratio of paraffin wax, bees wax, steric acid, dye, and scent. There was almost 13# of ready to go wax in the supply boxes. It takes about 10 to make 100 candles.

There's enough raw paraffin, and beeswax to do at least another batch. I've gotten the paraffin in the past for him from McMaster, but there are plenty of candle supply outfits out there. Beeswax I'd likely hit up one of the local beekeepers.

[Toolslinger]

It's 21 degrees out there. (-6 to you metric folks) Perfect day to go work on the water supply to my house. Particularly since we got 3" of rain in the last few days, so the stream will be running full bore. I'm really looking forward to this.

My regular supply point has never stopped since we put it in, in the late 90's. It still hasn't, but it was down to just a trickle with the drought, and if it stays dry this winter, I fear it might. It is the highest point on the property that the spring comes to the surface all the time.

So I'll be tapping back in to the original supply point a couple hundred feet down the stream. There's always a lot more water there, but I get less pressure since it's probably 20 or 30 feet lower in elevation. That's not really an issue for the house supply since it feeds a cistern, and then it's pumped. Main thing is it needs to keep running.

The up side is when we moved the source up hill, we left the original pickup in place in the dam. It's just cut off, and flows through. So I really only need to get my valve manifold on to that pipe, and then I can shut the valve, and work a little more dry for the balance... The manifold will let me switch from one source to the other in case there's a future issue.

Hopefully I remember to take some photos during the process... If I can feel my hands.