Text 1312, 416 rader
Skriven 2012-07-26 09:38:33 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
   Kommentar till text 1224 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
Ärende: Darwion award candidate
===============================
25 Jul 12 01:29, Richard Webb wrote to Roy Witt:

 RW>>> YEah I know, and this one just has the hydraulics.  Has the
 RW>>> air horn though, but the tank for the air horn seems to
 RW>>> slowly leak air.

 Roy>>> Might be a cracked hose too.

 RW> <snippety doo dah>

 RW>> So there's a leak in the system, somewhere.

 RW> YEah, just gotta find it.  I'll get some more hose soemwhere and try
 RW> that first, I really like the air horn better than the wimpy <meep
 RW> meep> electric horn on it, sorry but if my driver needs to use a horn
 RW> for what a horn's meant for I damned sure want you to hear it and do
 RW> a wtf, and pay attention.

You could externally pressurize (10psi) the system instead and use some
soapy water to test for leaks.

 RW>>> I think it was aftermarketed to just use hydraulics for the brakes,
 RW>>> and I'm not sure that was such a great idea.

 Roy>>> Hydraulic assisted braking is an OEM heavy duty truck feature.
 Roy>>> Especially if it's a diesel powered truck. Although I've seen big
 Roy>>> block gasoline powered Chevys in 3500HDs using OEM hydraulic
 Roy>>> assisted braking.

 RW>> Right, this is gasoline, the usual 350 cubic inch v8.  I've
 RW>> replaced the hydraulic booster pump twice now.  <arrrrgh>

 Roy>> That bad eh...

 RW> YEah I don't think the system was well maintained, and the
 RW> first booster pump went out when the xyl was bringing it
 RW> from Houston back here, I'd just had a truck specialist
 RW> place go over a lot of things, they couldn't find me another saddle
 RW> tank, so I'm down to just the fuel tank on passenger's side, driver's
 RW> side tank was toast.  Former owner had a crew bring it back from last
 RW> job, and when a hydraulic line from booster pump crumped they
 RW> replaced it with garden variety hose, <bad move!!!>  I think there's
 RW> too much truck for the size booster pump to be honest with you.
 RW> Technically anybody but it's owner has to have a cdl for this bad
 RW> boy.

Technically, if you're using the truck in 'not hauling for a fee', anybody
can drive it.

 RW>>   I don't know what I'm going to do when it needs more work, my
 RW>> favorite big truck mechanic around here retired, lost his lease and
 RW>> threw in the towel,

 Roy>> That happens to a lot of em...

 RW> yEah, and the good ones hang on as long as they can jsut
 RW> cause business is good, but when he lost his lease thanks to
 RW> landowner's kids thinking they were gonna make big money selling it
 RW> for housing development he just said to hell with it.

I know where he's coming from. When my lease came up for renewal, business
wasn't doing as well as it had in the past 10 years, so I opted to not
renew it and sold off the shop I had. Besides, I needed to make an income
that was a lot more than I reported at tax time in those 11 years I was in
business. SS wise, that increased my SS income to max when I retired.

 RW> That was just about the time the housing market went crash, and I
 RW> note that the buildings on the land were still exactly as they were
 RW> when he moved out of the place a few months ago.

I noted that housing was on the way down in 08, but really took a nose
dive after Jan 21, 2009...shades of days to come.

 RW>> he's an old guy anyway.

 Roy>> Hey, we all resemble that remark...

 RW> YEah I'm sorta resembling that remark myself these days, but this
 RW> guy's pushing 80 or already passed it by.

When you get to that age, your muscles and bones don't let you forget that
you've been working in the automotive field. I still do it, but I'm not as
agile as I was even 7 years ago when I retired...

 RW>> I've been to two other guys out here
 RW>> in the county who would apparently do big trucks, but one I don't
 RW>> trust, and the other ... well I'm not really sure about him either.

 Roy>> That doesn't sound good.

 RW> Nah, and you're right about the one, he's got all the
 RW> farmers' work it seems,

That's what my dad and my uncle experienced when they had a garage in
lower Wisconsin. My uncle was a farmer for 30 years before he partnered
with my dad in the garage. He could fabricate and the farmers in the area
knew his work, so business was good.

 RW> cause he's fairly good, and I don't know about the other guy, I
 RW> wasn't happy with the way he treated me on the big truck, or on
 RW> something on my old GMC van, he tried blowing smoke up my tailpipe
 RW> and got caught.

8^) That sounds like some of the 'automotive' shows on TV...they all talk
a good line of BS, but anyone with a history of being a car nut can pick
their stuff to pieces...I often do.

 RW> They tell me he's one of the best in the area if you need an
 RW> automatic tranny rebuilt though.

That's a plus. A lot of them will blow smoke and give you something that
won't be right. A good transmission re-builder is a great find.

 RW> <snip>

 Roy>> That's a thankless job. Farmers usually don't pay the bill except
 Roy>> on Gov't subsidization day (spring) and after harvest day (fall).

 RW> YEah that's part of it, but at least he  knows he'll have
 RW> money coming in, and I think he's got a couple of other
 RW> contracts for vehicle maintenance that keep him solvent
 RW> until paydays for farmers.

That's what kept Harry's head above water...regular service was always
coming in the door. Repair was even better, although they'd gripe about
the prices, they knew it needed to be done.

 RW>> and his dad lives down the street and across it from me, and we got
 RW>> off on the wrong foot shortly after i moved in because his dog used
 RW>> to be just let loose to ramble the neighborhood, and used to harrass
 RW>> my dog, who's properly restrained when she's out.

 Roy>> A Rotty. Right?

 RW> YEp, a rottie on a chain, in her own yard.

Thought so.

 RW>>  HIs wife ran to rescue their dog once and made a comment which
 RW>> didn't get a sympathetic response from me, after all, my dog never
 RW>> runs wild in the neighborhood, theirs does. <small town life>.

 Roy>> Then he shouldn't have a problem, unless he had a hefty vet bill at
 Roy>> the time.

 RW> NO vet bill, this thing was smart enough to harrass then
 RW> back off where my Schotze couldn't get to it.  IF my rottie
 RW> would've got loose though it would have been little dog
 RW> munchies.

One of those, eh...I would have let the Rottie off the chain and watch
that little loud mouth run home or be eaten.

 Roy>> [railroad bulls]

 Roy>>>> Charges of trespassing comes to mind. That's about all they could
 Roy>>>> do.

 RW>>> YEah that's about all they could do.  THe boes used to say
 RW>>> though that the bulls sort of enjoyed whipping up on 'em a
 RW>>> bit if they could catch 'em.  We may have been able to
 RW>>> outrun those guys, but part of being small twon kids was
 RW>>> that everybody knew everybody, and no doubt one of those
 RW>>> guys would know at least one kid in the group, and parents
 RW>>> would be notified, and the usual lectures ensue.

 Roy>>> OTH, had one of those kids been beaten up by a bull, the shoe
 Roy>>> would be on the other foot. I'd have feigned mild injuries whether
 Roy>>> that bull caught me or not. 'He twisted my arm and kicked me in
 Roy>>> the butt, dad!' Being a RR buff, my dad knew those guys too.

 RW>> YEp, and in West Burlington they didn't really have to lay a hand on
 RW>> us, just pick out the kid they knew, tell parents, let parents
 RW>> handle it.

 Roy>> Which can be used against him, if the kids are smart enough.

 RW> Can be, but they were very careful.Again, small town folks,
 RW> they knew that a word to parents was usually sufficient.

 RW> <snip>

 Roy>> [Chicago]

 Roy>>> Riding the train into Chicago and back was quite an experience,
 Roy>>> one that I'll never forget. I've forgotten most of the western
 Roy>>> shows, but the trains still impress me.

 RW>> ME too.  I'd rather take the train long distance than the
 RW>> Grey dog, but often the Grey dog goes closer to where i want to go,
 RW>> and is cheaper.

 Roy>> I did a pre-move scouting trip to Texas in 03 by Grey dog and swore
 Roy>> off of the dog after the trip home. I prefered the previous trip by
 Roy>> AMTRAK vs the dog.

 RW> YEah I know, it's much more friendly to the body.

In 04, I drove the older Z28 to TX and when I left, I had a friend look
after it. When I returned in April of 05, it had been sitting, untouched,
for 5 months and wouldn't start (dead battery). I wasn't very happy about
that. He was supposed to start it and let it run for 30 min every week. He
never touched it.

 RW>> STill, did some train traveling with my grandmother as a kid, and
 RW>> always liked it much better. Get up and move around more, go to the
 RW>> dining car to eat, etc.  Iirc they even had a bar car where Grandma
 RW>> could ahve a libation when I went to Chicago with her a couple of
 RW>> times.

 Roy>> Nancy and I did that from San Diego to Portland, OR and across
 Roy>> Idaho, Montana, N Dakota and Minnesota to Madison, WS...met a lot
 Roy>> of interesting people in the piano-bar car, dad picked us up
 Roy>> there...after the Grey dog dropped us off in Chicago and we stayed
 Roy>> in a hotel overlooking Lake Shore Dr and the lake for a few days,
 Roy>> the trip back to SD was just as interesting.

 RW> YEp, much better, and, back in the day if you wanted to
 RW> spend a few more bucks you could even get a bunk.

We didn't do the bunks, but we agreed to a compartment if we ever did a
trip like that again.

 RW>>   That was a real special occasion of a summer when the folks would
 RW>> let us go with Grandma to Chicago.

 Roy>> Being her first grandson, G-Witt made those trips special...

 RW> Ditto with my grandmother.  Always something interesting.
 RW> Musem of natural history, all that sort of cool stuff.

Science and Industry was the most interesting. Grandma wasn't that
interested, but I was. If you took the 'coal miners' elevator to the lower
elevation, there was an entire mock-up of a 1920s city scene, which
grandma was familiar with, having played piano in the silent movie houses
of that era.

 Roy>>> That had to be around the lower East Side, maybe close to Calumet
 Roy>>> City.

 RW>> That sound very familiar, so I'm betting you're right on
 RW>> that one.

 Roy>> I'm familiar with the area, and know where the refineries are/were.

 RW> YEp, figured as much.

 RW>>> Part of the deal for his farmland was S.O. stock, and she still had
 RW>>> quite a bit of it when she died.

 Roy>>> Would have been nice to be mentioned in that will.

 RW>> OH yeah it sure would have been, but they had an only child, a
 RW>> daughter, and she did fairly well by it.  Mom aunt wasn't actually
 RW>> profligate with her resources, but when you traveled with her or did
 RW>> anything she wanted to make sure the world knew that she and hers
 RW>> could afford the very best. When she was pretty far gone I took my
 RW>> new bride to visit her when we honeymooned and combined it with a
 RW>> convention in Chicago, auntie come out of her purse with a $100 bill
 RW>> and told us where she wanted us to go for supper down near the
 RW>> Palmer HOuse where we were staying.  HEr place was one of the first
 RW>> i ever saw with central air conditioning in fact.

 Roy>> I got the 'we can afford it' impression from relatives living in
 Roy>> Chicago too. My grandfather's two brothers lived there and we'd pay
 Roy>> them a visit when something from Chicago was needed. Like our first
 Roy>> TV in 1947/48. They already had one and my brother and I watched TV
 Roy>> all weekend while dad and his uncle Walt went shopping for ours.

 RW> Can relate.  Mom's side of the family was definitely waht
 RW> you'd call well to do.  Dad's brother who lived over toward
 RW> the Indiana side, Chicago heights I think they called it,
 RW> wasn't so well off, even though he ahd a good job.

Some of G-ma Witt's family came from that area, but they lived in
Indiana...

 RW> Makin' all them babies tends to do that.

I used to call that 'f**kin' yourself away from the table'...mom's side of
the family was like that; all the kids and mom were healthey specimens and
gramps was as skinny as a rail. Could'a just been that cigar he held
between his teeth though. Never saw him without one.

 Roy>>> I think I'm the only one in town who does custom machining that
 Roy>>> has an 18" by 24" granite plate for checking the parts I make. It
 Roy>>> would be nice to have a set of 'jo blocks' to go with it. Not that
 Roy>>> anything I do these days has to be that accurate.

 RW>> true, but it would be nice to know you could do that sort of
 RW>> precision work if you wanted to I'll bet.

 Roy>> I can do it without the blocks, it's just harder to do is all.

 RW> This is probably true, the blocks sure save you time.

Yeup.

 RW>> I'm still beating the bushes around here for somebody does some
 RW>> machine shop work.

 Roy>> I was asked to quote on a motorcycle job from one of my highschool
 Roy>> machine shop buddies, just last week. Some guy in Fredericksburg,
 Roy>> TX was advertising on a BMW motorcycle blog that he needed
 Roy>> handlebar risers. My friend gave him my phone number, but I never
 Roy>> heard from him.

 RW> I'll catch this guy, he was out of town for a couple months
 RW> up north, and I missed last radio club meeting, but sooner
 RW> or later I'll corner him.  OFten you gotta catch him early
 RW> though as he helps out with the ve exams before the meeting
 RW> then splits right after the business meeting and before the
 RW> program, so you gotta move fast if you want to catch him,

I'd leave him a message with the VE head guy...he's sure to get it and
follow up on it, if he's a mind to.

 RW> but usually I get Kathy and her wheelchair inside to sign the book
 RW> and find us a place to sit, then I slip outside for a smoke,
 RW> so often I'll catch him then if he's around at all.

Hope you get in touch.

 RW>> I'm trying to find soembody who'll do a device which will go into my
 RW>> trailer hitch receiver on the van, I put one of those sections of
 RW>> portable military masting in it, tighten the setscrew and then add a
 RW>> fwe more mast sections. A friend of mine has such a system, but the
 RW>> guy who rigged it up for him's no longer around here, and I haven't
 RW>> found anybody else around here does custom work like that.

 Roy>> Interesting. I made a verticle-mill-pusher that fits into the
 Roy>> receiver hitch on my truck, on my mill. That's how I got that
 Roy>> 2500lb monster moved to the back of my garage. It also came in
 Roy>> handy when I needed to move the mill to the side after getting it
 Roy>> to the back of the garage...one 12 ton hydraulic jack and some
 Roy>> inginuity got that job done, using the same pusher tool.

 RW> INgenuity is a wonderful thing.  Once I catch this guy at
 RW> club meeting I'll have him look at the receiver hitch, and I always
 RW> carry my duffel bag of military masting, so he can get measurements
 RW> on the spot <grin>.

If it's just the pipe diameter you need, take a seamstress tape measure
with you. Measure the circumference and divide by PI...6.31/3.14 = 2"
pipe.

 RW>> I"ve got another local I intend to talk to though next time I see
 RW>> him at a radio club meeting.  IF he's still got access to the shop,
 RW>> and appropriate metal stock he'll probably fabricate it up for me
 RW>> for a reasonable price.

 Roy>> That shouldn't be a very hard job to do. While shopping for
 Roy>> receiver hitch parts, I came across a universal hitch that could be
 Roy>> used for that purpose.

 RW> Where'd you find that?  Harbor freight?

I've seen it at Walmart, HF and a few RV places around town. While I was
thinking about this, I remembered that I have a thrust bearing that was
meant to take the antenna load off of a tower mounted rotor.

After having your machinist friend make a tapered insert to slip into the
bottom of the pipe, place it on a piece of plywood under the antenna mast
and use it to ease the task of rotating that mast and antenna from a
sitting position at the operating table. I havn't thought this whole thing
through, but you could also use a rope with a couple of turns around the
pipe and each end tied to each end of a 'steering' stick at the center
tent pole for easier turning of a heavier antenna, like a beam.

 RW>> I was quite sure of that one.  I thought I was taking a
 RW>> shortcut down a hillside in the woods one afternoon, ended
 RW>> up going down what was vertical bouncing off the rock after
 RW>> I belly flopped when I tried to run off the cliff,
 RW>> unbeknownst to old blind man.

 Roy>> Ouch!

 RW> That's kinda waht I thought, but i figured if I hadn't been
 RW> slightly inebriated it probably would've hurt worse.

I thought of a friend of mine who, years ago, was out in the desert,
riding his dirt bike, when they both went off a cliff. The bike landed on
two wheels, but the bike collapsed under his weight. He was hurtin' for
quite a while afterwards.

 RW>> NOw if i don't carry the white cane in the woods I've got a good
 RW>> sized trekking pole that I can use to feel around in front of me
 RW>> <grin>.

 Roy>> Blind men aren't supposed to be trekking through the woods on their
 Roy>> own...get a seeing-eye dog for that... 8^)

 RW> OH yeah?   PRay tell why not <grin>.  USed to do it all the
 RW> time.  SOme of my favorite fishing spots couldn't be reached any
 RW> other way <grin>.

I take it you can see objects, but not make out what you're seeing. Kinda
like some of my friends during their better days; blind in one eye and
can't see out of the other. 8^)

                R\%/itt

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... net node-number to the ZCC !            - Cato the Elder -

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