What a run! We have for some time decided to get a new TV, a digital high definition version, yada, yada, yada. Now to do that is not so easy, first one must pick out the new furniture for the TV to rest upon. That alone took several weeks and a few different furniture stores. At long last the furniture from Haversty's made the grade and was ordered.
Then comes the process of getting a TV. Yes, we had looked around and pretty much settled on a Sony big screen - a 52 incher. That size, of course, had some input into the size of the new furniture, don't you know. But with measuring tape, all things were checked and rechecked, it fits.
Off to buy the big screen TV. Oops a significant price increase. Well to be honest, it is a newer version and considerably brighter than the one originally looked at. So what the hell, go for it, right. And we did. Took Best Buy the better part of an hour just to get the purchase order into their computer. A store manager charged by and gave us a screen cleaning kit, a nice $20.00 item. That was a snag, the store can not just give you something, so to circumvent all the computer road blocks, we were charged a whopping one cent for the kit. That allowed other things to occur such as transportation and installation as free. And to top that off, a flyer that said if the price is reduced in the next 60 days we could get the reduction credited to us.
Well the reduction arrived the following week. In a nut shell we did get several hundred dollars back. Still watching the ads, might just get more.
The credit card is groaning with the load we placed on it. The furniture and the TV went on the card, it was so much the credit card people pulled the plug on the card just make sure that there was no theft going on. Nice of them, but it screwed up some purchases that night. But we got that straightened out PDQ. After all, plastic is king, right?
We were on our way home from dining out and decided to take a look at David Beard's Catfish place. We had heard it had closed, abruptly. It was a left turn into the parking lot from Sante Fe Drive, just past the Iron Skillet truck stop. We were slowing, almost a crawl with left turn signals on, when kabam, a young lady plowed into the back of us. Not to serious, bent my back bumper pretty bad but that was all. It totalled the Geo that ran into us, albeit it already had bad signs like a bunge cord holding the hood down. This hit did it in and it was towed. That was April 17, 2008 about 6:30 PM.
Then the storms came about 6:30 PM on April 18, 2008 and totaled my truck. Looked like an eight year old boy with a ball peen hammer had a field day on my truck. There are several hundred dents in the hood, similar amount of dents in the roof and the poor camper shell is beat up so bad, it split in one place. There were dents in the front fenders, the doors and in the rear cargo side panels. The only place there were no dents was the tailgate. There were chuncks out of the side mirrors and grill. That was one awesome hail storm and I now believe, the worst zone of the entire storm was around our house. We have the trees to prove it (looks like some are dying too).
We have not gotten to the roof yet. The adjuster is coming. He is doing those places that need immediate attention, we don't - yet. Storm season is not over yet. But judging by the roofing trucks in the neighborhood, well ours is probably toast too. Just down the street, a new house, less than two years old has just gotten a new roof as a result of the storm. I know this, the wind turbines are going to be replace, and the covers over the vents will be replace and the smoke stacks on the heaters/hot water heaters will be replaced. Whether the roof itself will need replacement, well we will let the insurance people tell us.
Did I mention we have a 2% deductible on the roof. Yeah, that means a big out of pocket expense if we have to put a new roof on. That's Texas for you
And since the truck is a total loss, that means a new vehicle for me. It turns out to be a Mercury Mountaineer -2005 model with less than 16,000 miles on it. While it is a used vehicle it is practially new. The dealer had to fix the hail dents but that's okay, part of the deal. So he turned over a vehile in less than a week, that's inventory control.
No, we are not broke but sure feel like it. We have run through some money in just a couple of months. Who says the economy is in the doldrums, we been personally holding economy up! Hurry up the economy stimulus check from the IRS, we need to pay the gasoline bill!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The mystery of it all. . .
Yeah, a mystery. I have this neat, well maybe not so neat anymore, "SmartDisk." It plugs into one of the USB ports and is a 120 Giga Byte hard drive. And it comes with a program called "Bounce Back." Bounce Back pops up evey 7 days and says, "Check me out." It goes out and determines what has changed on the basic computer hard drive and backs it up on the SmartDisk. Super, Right?
Well not so super. If you do not back up on the seventh day, it dutifully comes up when you boot up telling you to back up the data. You can punch it off. You do not have to back up on that seventh day if you do not want to. But what I have found out is that about two or three days of punching it off and it disappears. The hard drive has case light so I know it is getting power but my computer OS (XP of course) has lost it. I can not find it (Could this be another MicroSoft conspiracy?). That means I either have to go back some time and restore my registry or erase "Bounce Back." and then reinstall the SmartDisk (and Bounce Back). Sure enough, the computer then finds it, down loads Bounce Back off the SmartDisk and we are off and running again, except that it starts from ground zero and backs up the entire hard disk - takes a while. I should know better by now to let it back up when it wants to not when I want to do it.
I have two programs that seem to not like the SmartDisk. One is Norton Utilities and the other is a spyware blocker. I think maybe the virus checker does not like it either. Don't know but the logic seems to me that anything that pops up like Bounce Back these programs think is a viurus or some kind of spy ware (perhaps it shares the same logic as viruses of some sort like Trojan Horse). And given a little time they conspire to get rid of the Bounce Back operation.
So I guess I will go to "restore" and reload it from a month or so back and see if that is a quick fix or then erase Bounce Back and start over again. Irritating, isn't it?
Ciao
Well not so super. If you do not back up on the seventh day, it dutifully comes up when you boot up telling you to back up the data. You can punch it off. You do not have to back up on that seventh day if you do not want to. But what I have found out is that about two or three days of punching it off and it disappears. The hard drive has case light so I know it is getting power but my computer OS (XP of course) has lost it. I can not find it (Could this be another MicroSoft conspiracy?). That means I either have to go back some time and restore my registry or erase "Bounce Back." and then reinstall the SmartDisk (and Bounce Back). Sure enough, the computer then finds it, down loads Bounce Back off the SmartDisk and we are off and running again, except that it starts from ground zero and backs up the entire hard disk - takes a while. I should know better by now to let it back up when it wants to not when I want to do it.
I have two programs that seem to not like the SmartDisk. One is Norton Utilities and the other is a spyware blocker. I think maybe the virus checker does not like it either. Don't know but the logic seems to me that anything that pops up like Bounce Back these programs think is a viurus or some kind of spy ware (perhaps it shares the same logic as viruses of some sort like Trojan Horse). And given a little time they conspire to get rid of the Bounce Back operation.
So I guess I will go to "restore" and reload it from a month or so back and see if that is a quick fix or then erase Bounce Back and start over again. Irritating, isn't it?
Ciao
Thursday, April 24, 2008
The Wind
The wind continues to blow this year. Yeah, I know I am located in the bottom end of the Great Plains and it is always blowing in the great plains. But it was not this way for years, or it seems it was that way. Maybe I am more sensitive or something.
The wind either blows directly, well mostly directly, out of the South or the North. Right now it is out of the South and blowing about 15 knots which is the extreme upper limit for RC flying. RC - radio control - is a combine hobby and sport. It is a challenge to get everything running and charged up, right fuel and correct trim to get a radio control airplane to handle okay. Sure you can fly it in a lot of wind, especially if it is on the bigger side and is trimmed up pretty good. Flying in the wind is not a problem.
Taking off can be hazardous if a gust comes along while you are in the midst of it. But the smart thing is not to tary on the ground, gun it and go, I say. Get it off the ground fast and in the air. Once in the air it is easier to control. The last stage is landing, that's another matter.
Landing requires the reduction in power (hence harder to control), integrating a reduced speed with a reduction in altitude and to place or land it in a specific location like the runway. Easy as it sounds it isn't easy, it requires a lot of actions, some subtle and some massive to get there. Gusty winds just complicates the problem.
Consider that when you start down the approach to the runway, the airplane is flying at you. When it is almost on the ground it typically is abreast of you. And when it touches down it is moving away from you. You have to move the sticks on your transmitter to make the appropriate inputs to get all this done, with reduced speed, reduce altitude (say that as safe altitude above the ground). After a while it becomes automatic but even then one can over control and get into real trouble. So then add a cross wind gust or something like your hat getting blow off at the critical moment. Landing, in my humble opinion, is the toughest maneuver in radio control!
But don't let me deter you. Once you master most of the ins and outs, you get pretty good at it. But I have seen the best of the best make crappy landings. The old saw, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one," applies here. Except any landing in which you model airplane is not damaged is a "good one."
The other old saw is "Altitude above you and runway behind you," also applies. At lot times we make "number nine" maneuvers where the nose of the model impacts the earth. We refer to that as "rekitting" your model. That is not landing, that is a crash. Usually, one can reconstruct his or her airplane at least once, after that, it becomes more of challenge.
The wind either blows directly, well mostly directly, out of the South or the North. Right now it is out of the South and blowing about 15 knots which is the extreme upper limit for RC flying. RC - radio control - is a combine hobby and sport. It is a challenge to get everything running and charged up, right fuel and correct trim to get a radio control airplane to handle okay. Sure you can fly it in a lot of wind, especially if it is on the bigger side and is trimmed up pretty good. Flying in the wind is not a problem.
Taking off can be hazardous if a gust comes along while you are in the midst of it. But the smart thing is not to tary on the ground, gun it and go, I say. Get it off the ground fast and in the air. Once in the air it is easier to control. The last stage is landing, that's another matter.
Landing requires the reduction in power (hence harder to control), integrating a reduced speed with a reduction in altitude and to place or land it in a specific location like the runway. Easy as it sounds it isn't easy, it requires a lot of actions, some subtle and some massive to get there. Gusty winds just complicates the problem.
Consider that when you start down the approach to the runway, the airplane is flying at you. When it is almost on the ground it typically is abreast of you. And when it touches down it is moving away from you. You have to move the sticks on your transmitter to make the appropriate inputs to get all this done, with reduced speed, reduce altitude (say that as safe altitude above the ground). After a while it becomes automatic but even then one can over control and get into real trouble. So then add a cross wind gust or something like your hat getting blow off at the critical moment. Landing, in my humble opinion, is the toughest maneuver in radio control!
But don't let me deter you. Once you master most of the ins and outs, you get pretty good at it. But I have seen the best of the best make crappy landings. The old saw, "Any landing you can walk away from is a good one," applies here. Except any landing in which you model airplane is not damaged is a "good one."
The other old saw is "Altitude above you and runway behind you," also applies. At lot times we make "number nine" maneuvers where the nose of the model impacts the earth. We refer to that as "rekitting" your model. That is not landing, that is a crash. Usually, one can reconstruct his or her airplane at least once, after that, it becomes more of challenge.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Insurance . . .
First, auto insurance. Something you gotta have to drive, right? Well it may be that the young lady that rammed us in the back end may not have had any insurance. The answer remains to be seen.
If she does not, then my auto insurance policy covers the damage with a $250 deductible. The adjsuter has to evaluate it and tell me how much it would cost to repaid. And I would collect the difference after $250 is deducted. Okay, I can accept that.
But if she does have insurance, then there is a process called "subrogation." Subrogation means my insurance company collects for the damages from her insurance company, pays me. No deductible involved. I can accept that too.
Now comes the next day and a super cell thunder storm of gigantic proportions. We had hail the size of golf balls pelts. It beat my little truck to a frazzle, the only place not dented was the tailgate which was facing away from the storm. Chunks out of the grill, rear view mirrors, at least 20 direct hits and cracks in the windshield and looks like a kid took a ball peen hammer and worked over the hood, the roof and camper shell with the camper shell getting the worst (it was thin aluminum). There were dents in the fenders and the side panels too. The adjuster said it was a total loss. Okay I can accept that too.
Now comes the hooker, the insurance company offers me a descent amount less $500 deductible. Wait I say, what about the first accident and subrogation or uninsured motorist coverage. So I said I could accept their offer with a $250 deductible and call it a day. No way, Jose - no can do. So now we wait for the adjuster to come out and deal with the bumper and find out if the young lady does indeed have insurance or not. I figure I can be out $250 or maybe nothing. The insurance company may have a moral dilemma.
Second the house. The same storm did damage all over the house, the shutters are beat up, Malibu lights destroyed, roof fixtures beat up, one wind turbine is not working, ad infinitum. The adjuster has called and will come around soon. We are already being pestered by roofers, they are hungry with the housing slump now going on. They are trolling the neighborhood.
We may end up with a new roof. Don't know but I am sure as hell not going to let a roofing contractor make that decision. As far as they are concerned, it is all bad. They need work.
so we will wait for the adjuster and if we need a new roof, we will do it later after the storm season has passed. Not going to rush into this activity.
"And now we wait." A line out of Harry Potter.
If she does not, then my auto insurance policy covers the damage with a $250 deductible. The adjsuter has to evaluate it and tell me how much it would cost to repaid. And I would collect the difference after $250 is deducted. Okay, I can accept that.
But if she does have insurance, then there is a process called "subrogation." Subrogation means my insurance company collects for the damages from her insurance company, pays me. No deductible involved. I can accept that too.
Now comes the next day and a super cell thunder storm of gigantic proportions. We had hail the size of golf balls pelts. It beat my little truck to a frazzle, the only place not dented was the tailgate which was facing away from the storm. Chunks out of the grill, rear view mirrors, at least 20 direct hits and cracks in the windshield and looks like a kid took a ball peen hammer and worked over the hood, the roof and camper shell with the camper shell getting the worst (it was thin aluminum). There were dents in the fenders and the side panels too. The adjuster said it was a total loss. Okay I can accept that too.
Now comes the hooker, the insurance company offers me a descent amount less $500 deductible. Wait I say, what about the first accident and subrogation or uninsured motorist coverage. So I said I could accept their offer with a $250 deductible and call it a day. No way, Jose - no can do. So now we wait for the adjuster to come out and deal with the bumper and find out if the young lady does indeed have insurance or not. I figure I can be out $250 or maybe nothing. The insurance company may have a moral dilemma.
Second the house. The same storm did damage all over the house, the shutters are beat up, Malibu lights destroyed, roof fixtures beat up, one wind turbine is not working, ad infinitum. The adjuster has called and will come around soon. We are already being pestered by roofers, they are hungry with the housing slump now going on. They are trolling the neighborhood.
We may end up with a new roof. Don't know but I am sure as hell not going to let a roofing contractor make that decision. As far as they are concerned, it is all bad. They need work.
so we will wait for the adjuster and if we need a new roof, we will do it later after the storm season has passed. Not going to rush into this activity.
"And now we wait." A line out of Harry Potter.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Geez Louise . . .
Geez Louise, got rear ended day before yesterday and last night got hailed on by a super cell thunderstorm. A tornado set down not more that 6 miles away from us.
It hailed for at least 10 or 15 minutes with some hail stones the size of golf balls. Don't believe me, we have some in the freezer for proof. The hail shredded the trees, knocked all the peaches off the peach tree, pounded the Weeping Willow tree, devastated the Wax Myrtles around the transformer and beat the hell out of our Crepe Mytrles beside the bedroom window. The hedges, really low shrubs in the Holly family along the front of the house, a little bit out of control, are now back to almost nothing.
The back under the Post Oak trees is a carpet of green right now. Several of the Malibu lights, with their self charging curcuits were pounded into the ground. Especially those out front which faces the west took the brunt of the storm.
Judie had just planted some wax leaf Begonias, many of them pounded into the ground. A couple of Hostas that came back from last year and now green heaps, I hope they recover. Dafodills had finished but the green stalks were still growing charging up the bulbs for next year are all flat on the ground now. The Iris were in proud bloom, most of the blooms are gone now. Pansies in the last color of Spring glory, well they are just part of the green ditrimus scattered about. Everything took a beating, even the grass got beat up.
As bad as it sounds, the car dealer around the corner took down his sun covers over his Cadillacs, Toyotas, Chevies, Pontiacs, Hundais, and so on, got the crap beat out of them. They are already advertizing a "Hail Sale." Must have cost them millions of dollars. There are also Suzuki, Datsun, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury dealers bn the same road. Let's say there was 50 acres of cars out there. Come get a deal - I'm not saying a good deal but there will be some discount.
Not good.
Well now starts the clean up. Start over again.
It hailed for at least 10 or 15 minutes with some hail stones the size of golf balls. Don't believe me, we have some in the freezer for proof. The hail shredded the trees, knocked all the peaches off the peach tree, pounded the Weeping Willow tree, devastated the Wax Myrtles around the transformer and beat the hell out of our Crepe Mytrles beside the bedroom window. The hedges, really low shrubs in the Holly family along the front of the house, a little bit out of control, are now back to almost nothing.
The back under the Post Oak trees is a carpet of green right now. Several of the Malibu lights, with their self charging curcuits were pounded into the ground. Especially those out front which faces the west took the brunt of the storm.
Judie had just planted some wax leaf Begonias, many of them pounded into the ground. A couple of Hostas that came back from last year and now green heaps, I hope they recover. Dafodills had finished but the green stalks were still growing charging up the bulbs for next year are all flat on the ground now. The Iris were in proud bloom, most of the blooms are gone now. Pansies in the last color of Spring glory, well they are just part of the green ditrimus scattered about. Everything took a beating, even the grass got beat up.
As bad as it sounds, the car dealer around the corner took down his sun covers over his Cadillacs, Toyotas, Chevies, Pontiacs, Hundais, and so on, got the crap beat out of them. They are already advertizing a "Hail Sale." Must have cost them millions of dollars. There are also Suzuki, Datsun, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury dealers bn the same road. Let's say there was 50 acres of cars out there. Come get a deal - I'm not saying a good deal but there will be some discount.
Not good.
Well now starts the clean up. Start over again.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Ka-Bam!
There we were cruising in my pickup, a Ford Ranger, 1997 never been wrecked either and ka bam. We were rear ended by a small compact black car.
We were on Sante Fe drive in Weatherford, just past the Iron Skillet, going to check out a restaurant that we heard had closed suddenly. I was driving, we had slowed down, almost to a stop with a left turn signal on in preparation to turning across on coming traffic. Unfortunately, there was on coming traffic or otherwise we would have been out of the line of fire, so to speak.
Judie took quite a shock, I her saw fly forward but the seat belts held up. The air bags did not deploy. Apparently, we were moving just a tiny bit and I was putting on the breaks and all that took up the relative shock - not enough to set the air bags off.
The Ranger has 171,000 miles on it and I just had the air conditioning worked over at a costly price. Now I have great air conditioning and bent back bumper. No damage to the tail gate, even the six small Pyrochantha shrubs did not topple over. So it was really a minor thing to us.
Not the Jap trap, it was totally disabled. The young lady driving had gotten distracted, she had spill her drink and was bending over to retrieve it. Bad maneuver. Collapsed her radiator into her engine, it disabled the car, and jammed up her driver's door. She was distraught, forlorn even but uninjured - thank God.
So much for cruising around and checking out closed restuarants.
We were on Sante Fe drive in Weatherford, just past the Iron Skillet, going to check out a restaurant that we heard had closed suddenly. I was driving, we had slowed down, almost to a stop with a left turn signal on in preparation to turning across on coming traffic. Unfortunately, there was on coming traffic or otherwise we would have been out of the line of fire, so to speak.
Judie took quite a shock, I her saw fly forward but the seat belts held up. The air bags did not deploy. Apparently, we were moving just a tiny bit and I was putting on the breaks and all that took up the relative shock - not enough to set the air bags off.
The Ranger has 171,000 miles on it and I just had the air conditioning worked over at a costly price. Now I have great air conditioning and bent back bumper. No damage to the tail gate, even the six small Pyrochantha shrubs did not topple over. So it was really a minor thing to us.
Not the Jap trap, it was totally disabled. The young lady driving had gotten distracted, she had spill her drink and was bending over to retrieve it. Bad maneuver. Collapsed her radiator into her engine, it disabled the car, and jammed up her driver's door. She was distraught, forlorn even but uninjured - thank God.
So much for cruising around and checking out closed restuarants.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Damn Machine . . .
The Damn Machine is a 3 inch Troy-Built chipper/shredder. It is a big red monster with a 10 horsepower over head valve engine and can allegedly chew up a 3" log. Well, my beloved and I were turning last year's leaves into this year's compost when, "Bam" out flies a thee inch piece of metal and the whole thing is so off balance it is tearing itself apart. I got it shut down before too much damage was done.
My mechanical curiosty got the better of me and I preceded to disassemble the monster. Not to hard, just a lot of bolts and occasional assistance from my honey on removing awkward assemblies. Got it apart and saw where the pieces known as flails had disintergrated.
Each flail had three fingers that are about three inches long by inch wide and maybe a quarter of an inch thick. And the flail was held in place by pin, about 3/8ths of an inch thick and a little more than three inches long. The flail rotated on this pin. The flail was held in place on the pin by a "rolled pin." A rolled pin is a common man's term for a pin made of steel that has been rolled into a pin shape. Some call these "spiral pins" and the true brand name is "Spirol" pin. Spirol being the name of the actual manufacturer of this device. So you can see where sprial and rolled come from.
You must have a "drift" to drive the pin out. A drift is nothing more than a round pin about three inches long and then tappered up into about a half inch round butt end. Drifts are bought by the size of the small end. In this case the end had to be 0.156 inches in diameter. That translates into a 3 MM drift. So I had to go get one of those.
After gaining access to the working area of the chipper, I found it configured with a short blade about 12 inches long. This blade was sharpened and was held into place by three bolts. One in the center and two out 2 inches from the center. It was meant to stay in its place, not move. Then comes the flail area. There are four flails, located at the cardinal points all 90 degrees from each other.
So material to be ground up enters the big red chute, and encounters the big sharpened blade first. After it gets passed the blade, it gets beatened to pieces by the flails. And the impeller assembly is turning so fast that all the material is expelled out a chute on to the ground.
Well one of the flails had thrown one of its three blades and that blade had hit other flails causing other flail arms to fail. This in turn caused the severe imbalance. I mean pieces of metal were flying all over the place, inside for few damanging seconds and then out the chute on to the ground.
After some Internet search, I found the parts, and I ordered them up. Got my drift and drove out the rolled pins - turned out to be a relatively easy job. That took about 10 minutes. Waited six days for the parts to come in. And then installed them. Had to drive the rolled pins back in through the flail into the pin and out the other side a little bit so that the pin was flush on both sides of the flail. Then we reassemble the chute with the help of my honey, she keeps me from cussing to much.
Fired up the red monster and we began make mulch again. We were grinding up oak leaves and small branches. We ran though one tank of gas and were half way through the next tank of gas when "bang" a flail finger shot out of the machine. Crap, same old problem again!
A little study and some belated thoughts and I concluded one of the flail mounts must be distorted or, so to speak, "bent out of shape." Not really misshapened so much as knocked off center so that the flail fingers were interfering with the structure. This was leading to premature failure of a finger that led to an interference with the remainging fingers (flails). As you can imagine, the interference happened once per revolution and let's say the assembly was turning 4,ooo thousand revolutions per minute. That is a lot of pounding and something has got to fail.
So the damn machine is on the patio waiting for me to tear it down again. This time I will have to "re-align" the flail mounts. This will not be a precise process, I do not possess welding machines or torches, so the tool will be a two pound hammer. Yep, I will have to beat it back to its original alignment. That means I have to figure out which one is the culprit and work on it, then reassemble the whole shebang and see if that fixes it. Poor man's trial and error method!
The assembly with flail mounts is called the impeller. A new impeller cost $233 plus shipping, so you can see why I am "aligning" the old one.
Bottom line is never, ever try to put a large rock or piece of concrete through a chipper/shredder. I know that no one would intentionally do that (yeah, right) but that is probably what happened to start this series of failures. Something very, very hard has had to knock the flail mount off its alignment. And the rest is history.
Beware of Damn Machines!
My mechanical curiosty got the better of me and I preceded to disassemble the monster. Not to hard, just a lot of bolts and occasional assistance from my honey on removing awkward assemblies. Got it apart and saw where the pieces known as flails had disintergrated.
Each flail had three fingers that are about three inches long by inch wide and maybe a quarter of an inch thick. And the flail was held in place by pin, about 3/8ths of an inch thick and a little more than three inches long. The flail rotated on this pin. The flail was held in place on the pin by a "rolled pin." A rolled pin is a common man's term for a pin made of steel that has been rolled into a pin shape. Some call these "spiral pins" and the true brand name is "Spirol" pin. Spirol being the name of the actual manufacturer of this device. So you can see where sprial and rolled come from.
You must have a "drift" to drive the pin out. A drift is nothing more than a round pin about three inches long and then tappered up into about a half inch round butt end. Drifts are bought by the size of the small end. In this case the end had to be 0.156 inches in diameter. That translates into a 3 MM drift. So I had to go get one of those.
After gaining access to the working area of the chipper, I found it configured with a short blade about 12 inches long. This blade was sharpened and was held into place by three bolts. One in the center and two out 2 inches from the center. It was meant to stay in its place, not move. Then comes the flail area. There are four flails, located at the cardinal points all 90 degrees from each other.
So material to be ground up enters the big red chute, and encounters the big sharpened blade first. After it gets passed the blade, it gets beatened to pieces by the flails. And the impeller assembly is turning so fast that all the material is expelled out a chute on to the ground.
Well one of the flails had thrown one of its three blades and that blade had hit other flails causing other flail arms to fail. This in turn caused the severe imbalance. I mean pieces of metal were flying all over the place, inside for few damanging seconds and then out the chute on to the ground.
After some Internet search, I found the parts, and I ordered them up. Got my drift and drove out the rolled pins - turned out to be a relatively easy job. That took about 10 minutes. Waited six days for the parts to come in. And then installed them. Had to drive the rolled pins back in through the flail into the pin and out the other side a little bit so that the pin was flush on both sides of the flail. Then we reassemble the chute with the help of my honey, she keeps me from cussing to much.
Fired up the red monster and we began make mulch again. We were grinding up oak leaves and small branches. We ran though one tank of gas and were half way through the next tank of gas when "bang" a flail finger shot out of the machine. Crap, same old problem again!
A little study and some belated thoughts and I concluded one of the flail mounts must be distorted or, so to speak, "bent out of shape." Not really misshapened so much as knocked off center so that the flail fingers were interfering with the structure. This was leading to premature failure of a finger that led to an interference with the remainging fingers (flails). As you can imagine, the interference happened once per revolution and let's say the assembly was turning 4,ooo thousand revolutions per minute. That is a lot of pounding and something has got to fail.
So the damn machine is on the patio waiting for me to tear it down again. This time I will have to "re-align" the flail mounts. This will not be a precise process, I do not possess welding machines or torches, so the tool will be a two pound hammer. Yep, I will have to beat it back to its original alignment. That means I have to figure out which one is the culprit and work on it, then reassemble the whole shebang and see if that fixes it. Poor man's trial and error method!
The assembly with flail mounts is called the impeller. A new impeller cost $233 plus shipping, so you can see why I am "aligning" the old one.
Bottom line is never, ever try to put a large rock or piece of concrete through a chipper/shredder. I know that no one would intentionally do that (yeah, right) but that is probably what happened to start this series of failures. Something very, very hard has had to knock the flail mount off its alignment. And the rest is history.
Beware of Damn Machines!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Finished at Last...
My mother, Mrs John Landry Morrison, compiled an index of early marriages of Pointe Coupee Parish and published the index in the early 1970s. She has since past on. She did a great service in that these records go back to pre-Revolutionary War days and they were recorded in the language of the moment - French, English and Spanish. So she had to interpret the writings, all in individual script and sometimes names were spelled different on succeeding pages. She tried to hold true to the spelling, even if it is in error. And some names have changed over time, for instance in French Etienne is Stephen in English.
She took her findings home, translated them to today's English, and typed them up by hand. There was no such thing as a word processor in that day, at least not available to her. The pages were then given to Claitor's Books in Baton Rouge who published the book. There were no galleys, no proofing, just Xeroxing of the original, setting up the press and binding the book. Mama advertised the book in the DAR house organ and was surprised that she went through three printings of the book. She sold it that way and in the end not expecting to make money, did indeed make a small profit from her endeavor.
She gave a copy to the Louisiana State Library and a copy to the LSU Library. I checked and both repositories have copies. She also gave a copy to the Pointe Coupee Library but I do not have an easy way to check their card catalog. Since my Aunt was librarian at that time, I am sure it is there. However, I can not find a copyright on the original works so will attempt to copyright the work I have done.
I took her book and typed it into MicroSoft Word, keeping with her page numbers. I copied her foreword and added one of my own. I found many errors and corrected them. But I held true to her edict about spelling of names unless there was a severe disconnect, like what was in the index and was in body of the text - a direct reference. And she had typos since it was all done by hand on a portable typewriter.
I will give copies to my sister and my brother's children. It is there intellectual property to now days. I will use MicroSoft to lock up the book but that does not prevent someone from copying the book and reformatting it. I thought about putting it in Adobe, but again, that does not prevent someone from copying the document and reproducing it. So I think I may have to copyright the disk and hope for the best.
It took me about nine months to do. I quit for awhile, it gets sort of boring, doing a lot of repetitious work. But I finally got her done.
When I get the copyright, I intend to advertise the book in the DAR house magazine. Then I can mail out a disk to buyer for him or her to use.
This whole endeavor got started because I was perusing the Pointe Coupee Parish genealogy web page and noted no mention of my mother's works. I enquired as to why not and the response I got was it was not in electronic or digital format. That made me angry, since a lot of valuable research was being skipped because it required a little elbow grease. Then I decided if they were willing to pay for it, I would put it in a digital format for them to use. But they will have to pay for it.
She took her findings home, translated them to today's English, and typed them up by hand. There was no such thing as a word processor in that day, at least not available to her. The pages were then given to Claitor's Books in Baton Rouge who published the book. There were no galleys, no proofing, just Xeroxing of the original, setting up the press and binding the book. Mama advertised the book in the DAR house organ and was surprised that she went through three printings of the book. She sold it that way and in the end not expecting to make money, did indeed make a small profit from her endeavor.
She gave a copy to the Louisiana State Library and a copy to the LSU Library. I checked and both repositories have copies. She also gave a copy to the Pointe Coupee Library but I do not have an easy way to check their card catalog. Since my Aunt was librarian at that time, I am sure it is there. However, I can not find a copyright on the original works so will attempt to copyright the work I have done.
I took her book and typed it into MicroSoft Word, keeping with her page numbers. I copied her foreword and added one of my own. I found many errors and corrected them. But I held true to her edict about spelling of names unless there was a severe disconnect, like what was in the index and was in body of the text - a direct reference. And she had typos since it was all done by hand on a portable typewriter.
I will give copies to my sister and my brother's children. It is there intellectual property to now days. I will use MicroSoft to lock up the book but that does not prevent someone from copying the book and reformatting it. I thought about putting it in Adobe, but again, that does not prevent someone from copying the document and reproducing it. So I think I may have to copyright the disk and hope for the best.
It took me about nine months to do. I quit for awhile, it gets sort of boring, doing a lot of repetitious work. But I finally got her done.
When I get the copyright, I intend to advertise the book in the DAR house magazine. Then I can mail out a disk to buyer for him or her to use.
This whole endeavor got started because I was perusing the Pointe Coupee Parish genealogy web page and noted no mention of my mother's works. I enquired as to why not and the response I got was it was not in electronic or digital format. That made me angry, since a lot of valuable research was being skipped because it required a little elbow grease. Then I decided if they were willing to pay for it, I would put it in a digital format for them to use. But they will have to pay for it.
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