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Well, my birthday dawned after a quiet night after my wife spent the evening before at our friends. "I won't be long" she said, but four hours later she crept in to find a grumpy bear sitting in my chair. I could have gone with her and not sat on my own all evening i thought. I unwrapped presents and opened cards, still with a bitter taste in my mouth about being abandoned the night before. Last of all she handed me a plain white envelope. In it was a printed receipt for two tickets to a game of cricket. I read and read the paper again, then again. My 60 year old thinker box just couldn't make sense of it. The tickets were for the opening test match between England and Australia in a series called The Ashes. The most important competition for cricket fans in either country. It's not coming to England till 2027 (it's not held every year and there are gaps when there are no Ashes series at all). So I wondered at her buying tickets for a game over a year away. But the date was 2025, this year, when the series is being held in Australia. My clunky old brain put the pieces together and came up with the fact that she had bought tickets to watch the game in a fan zone over here, maybe at a big cricket ground. No, read it again she said. OK, two tickets, November '25, first Ashes test, day two.....Optus cricket stadium, Perth, western Australia. Oh, I see! Nice, you've bought two tickets, which i can have framed. I mean the game is in Australia, tother side of the planet, where big things jump on their back legs all day and the bears are tiny and cute. We can't possibly go there just to watch a game of cricket. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, ,, WRONG WRONG, WRONG ,WRONG ,YOU'RE WRONG,,YOU'RE WRONG.... Think the chimes of Big Ben as you read that bit again. She had, in just four days, booked a trip to Perth for the cricket, via Doha in Arabia, then on to Brisbane where her brother lives for a two week stay on the great barrier reef. What the actual F? How? But? But? How? To say I was completely blown away just doesn't quite do it justice. Thank you my beautiful, clever, sneaky wife for absolutely taking my legs from under me. Trip of a lifetime to see a cricket match every true English man must see before he dies. What a girl!

most everyone here on RSq has purchased both new and used parts at various sources -- of course prices vary as with all commodities with many variables and factors -- So yesterday i needed the little tiny clevis pins ( pn # 9321204 ) that go in the latching plates for a Rear Axle Bracket - it's about 1 inch long that has pin hole in it for a clip pin to be installed. So i went to one of the well known online parts companies many of us use -- $5.49 EACH - omg -- So my hardware store didn't have the size i needed so went to local 50 yr old locally owned Fastener Supply house -- bought 4 at only 34 cents each. Similar I wanted the link bar for the Rear axle bracket that goes on top of the axle the 2 bolts go through -- checked price at the national supply parts group it's $38 -- so i sent p.m. to one of the RSq vendors and only $12 including shipping. I certainly believe in people making a profit and capitalism -- but it's a lesson my Dad taught us at early age -- shop around !!!!!!

Do shop around. Also buy in bulk for known future usages. Steve my Ole Man @Qball was mildly obsessed about gas prices. He once drove that same 20 miles outta the way to save a few cents on fuel. For a Suburban. With a big block... We figure he saved a good strong $2 and spent around 5.....

National Toilet Paper Day is observed each year on August 26. This essential item is used most by Americans followed by other countries across the globe. One of the times we realize the importance of this often-overlooked item is when we enter a public restroom and realize there is no toilet paper. Not long ago, toilet paper used to come in multiple colors. Now, many more countries are also using toilet paper along with a bidet. It wasn’t until 1857 that toilet paper began being sold in the United States of America. The first toilet paper was loose flat sheets of paper. Then in 1930, the Germans invented the perforated rolls we have today consisting of 1,000 small sheets that were separated by a perforation. In the 1960s, toilet paper came in different colors, especially in pink and green to match the bathroom hues. In the early 2000s, colored toilet paper rolls started to exit the market but they can still be found in some parts of the world. Americans love their toilet paper though and use it the most out of any other country. Though this can also be attributed to the fact that some countries prefer using a bidet over toilet paper to clean up.

There is two sides to this story...if I may. The story that you went through is one learning lesson that is worth $1,000,000. It is pretty easy to know when you are getting "hood-winked" with the prices that you ran into. I want to talk about the guy that will drive 20 miles to save $2 on an oil filter. That is not you Bill, but we both know someone that fits this profile.

3. Pool leak, pool piping update. We were quite surprised this spring to open the pool, and it was nearly empty. I managed to use blue food coloring in a Tony Chatcherie food injection syringe to prove the bottom drain/return pipe had water flow out of it. A test plug proved to stop the water loss. Come to find out, the 1990’s flexible pipe used in pool plumbing was soy based. Mice, worms, and even ants like to chew on it. Time to update to schedule 40 pipe. @Bow_Extreme I’m going 2”!

Some people have more dollars than sense. I'm not sure that guy has too much of either.

May BIL was infamously obsessed with the price of everything, but specially gasoline. My inlaws went to visit for a week, Sunday on the way to Church he drives 2 towns out of his way to "save" 2 cents per gallon..... That station was closed on Sundays...... He ran out of gas getting to Church... No Sunday Services for them......

Simple, just move the printer to the bathroom.

Some painted parts drying in the window. Cylinder painted Tie rods painted. Cam plate bracket painted. Valve painted.

I'm gonna call this one finished. It still needs some minor adjustments, but it cuts and runs great. I need a new belt, as this one is an inch or so too long as evidenced by the mule drive being maxxed out. Deck is smooth, but sounds like it's about to pull up to a hover, and I'm running the outer smaller pulley on the PTO at about 3/4 throttle. Absolutely zero clippings pile up, and my yard (the small part in the pic anyway) was quite overdue a cut. Blades are running right at 3 inches cut height. That's about all I'll get on this rig simply due to clearance under the tractor. Probably could squeeze another inch on a more shallow deck, or with taller tires. Anyway, Bill's adjuster setup made all the difference. I have had almost zero tinker time of late, but this one is done.

A landlord I worked for had me meet his plumber at a house with plugged sewer. Upon auguring the sewer line, the plumber found paper towels. During the toilet paper shortage, the low income renters were using paper towels instead of toilet paper. The land lord added a clause in his rental agreements that using the wrong kind of "toilet paper" could result in the renter paying for sewer line cleaning.

I've got a little Arccaptain 130. It will do flux core and arc. Also tig if I add the equipment. It's a fairly recent purchase and seems well suited for me. I did weld quite a bit in the 'old' days and it was all with a Lincoln 225 AC.

This was Sunday and Monday but a workout! Cut limbs on walnut trees overhanging my brothers westside fence row , cut up three felled trees on the hill and mowed a spring and summers worth of growth after cutting up the trees! Used my brothers 314 and 312! My battery ryobi chainsaw gave me fits on Sunday but worked perfectly on Monday!

I'm thinking the big nut is the hot ticket. I'll give it all the heat my welder is capable of. 130A

With poles missing maybe the magnets don't matter either?

When I had my first apartment we never had it but there was always a phone book on the back of the toilet. Let your fingers do the walking ...

Real Raider 10s have a Kohler so you couldn't call a Tecumseh powered Raider a 10 perhaps the judges were being generous to give it a 9

I did some welding work and have done some maintenance / repairs on a neighbor and friend’s equipment lately. Instead of charging him, I banked rental time. For example, the dump truck had major tailgate issues and I remedied the route problem in a simple way. Same for his mini excavator when the track blew off on a side hill and the grease zerk fitting stripped out. I took care of it cheaper and faster than most mobile wrench shops might have. 2. The concrete was very broken, un-level and a trip hazard for all ages. It was also quite small around the pool and we were quoted nearly $13,000 to level the slabs and epoxy seal the cracks. I ended up with a quote for $14,000 to pour much larger concrete, and will pour a bit around the back of the house to support the A/C unit and encapsulate the propane line. We roasted the deck and pulled up the cement.

IMHO the better option

I built a coil tester whilst at Napa. Used and old Chevy distributor to activate the points. One day 2 of my co workers had it out and were going to test a customer's coil. One guy was connecting it and the other was chatting with the customer. All the while not knowingly twirling the dist. gear back and forth while the first guy was connecting the secondary wire. Guy hooking it up kept getting zapped! I just stood back at the other end of the counter and watched with amazement on how long this went on!

CLEAN CLEAN points and try adjusting them tighter to .018. Sometimes even tighter as I had one at .016. New points have a coating on them in the package to prevent oxidization. Personally I haven't ever had an issue with the magnet strength but there have been a couple of guys over the years that have had to change the magnets on the flywheel to get spark. Condenser maybe Sometimes the fastest way to get spark is to have @Pullstart hold the plug wire while cranking it! LOL It worked on that old Briggs at the big show!

I figured it might be a decent idea to start this thread. It’s a major undertaking, but many necessities are being taken care of in one project. We will have two graduation open houses in the next two years and many family functions end up here during summer months. Winter too, I suppose. 1. Our deck was in rough shape. We could re-do the deck boards, but it was also a very poor size and design. It’s gone now!

Happy Birthday Tom @Shynon

Kohler M flywheels came with a few different magnet layouts so it wouldn't surprise me.

gotta admit that was the funny of the day --- absolute belly laugh!!!!!!!!!!

Bill - I visit my local Ace Hardware for any onesey, twosey fasteners. Oddball styles I get from either McMaster or Bolt Depot. I do not need parts with a pedigree for any of my Workers....

So apparently it will automatically center the bracket to the axle fore and aft. So, if it they had marketed as an eyestrain saver for us "older" guys who would struggle reading a ruler, scale or tape measure while laying under our tractors, we would all probably be familiar with them...

Easier to narrow it down on where to find the problem

Brian - remove the deck drive belt ftom the PTO & try again. Noise gone - deck. Noise still there - tractor.

Happy Birthday Tom.

I have a hobart 140 MIG with gas, does everything that I need to do.

Life's simple pleasures are best! Let's see a show of hands, who maintains a stockpile, since the covid shortages?

Thank you! I have a couple belt guards. Not sure how much grass they will catch yet. But they may be used eventually.

Now that nearly everything is on-line shopping that option isn't too viable, could be a bit messy.

Yep, use a big nut that the mangled head fits inside.

The Cub Cadet is likely made by MTD and is just another disposable mower in yellow Older Cubs were good and then they degraded to a point where only the largest could be called a tractor.

Just remember that whatever caused the bolt to seize is still there. Welding a nut on is a good idea IF you are a welder. Lots of PB Blaster and heat should break the bond. However, if you don't weld, you need another way. Since the bolt head is destroyed, and you have the wheel and hub off the tractor, drill the bolt from the back side. Start small and get increasingly larger until most of the bolt is gone. At some point the bolt will come out. Chase the threads with a 7/16-20 tap.

Last week we were on our feet most days. Several were minimal elevation with milage ranging from 3.2 to 4.6. Two were mountain hikes. Both around 1850 elevation gain. One was 3.8 miles. The other nearly twice that! Most days I drink about 2 liters of fluid. Mostly water with a little lemon juice in it. On the bigger hiking day I went through 3 liters of water, then some milk when back to camp. Milk is actually a better hydrator than water. I'd also consumed several good quality carefully selected fruit bars and protein bars (not the standard trash diet ones) along with a good chicken meal in the evening. Yes. Tablets. The ones I have are a 9-in-1 mineral supplement. My understanding of the weight retention under severe physical stress is that our 300,000 year old selves will never adapt to the modern world of total availability. Our elementary original bodies have built in survival modes like any other animal. The subconscious has no way of knowing when the next feeding time will occur so it holds on to whatever is currently available.

to what size? Did you try shrinking that gap? As many others here have had and so have I, a new spark plug these days doesn't mean squat. Check the plug on a known working source like a different running engine. Same for a new condenser too The manual may include a way and the parameters to test the coil with a multi-meter

Although it might add the !!!

Yesterday, I was invited to bring a tractor to the Soo Line 1003 steam train run. Made for some great pictures.

As much as I love my Raider 10, boy is it LOUD! Sometimes I need to grab firewood or move a trailer around the yard at night, and I would like to be considerate of the neighbors. So, I had the idea to make an electric wheel horse. I began the hunt for a non-working tractor for this project and finally found one this weekend! I took some time to remove the engine and almost all of the electric (wires for lights are still in place). Now I have a clean slate to work with for my new build. A coworker had some parts left over from an electric trike build that didn't work out too well. It consists of an 1800W 48V BLDC motor, Battery pack, controller, and the wiring to make everything work. He ended up not using everything because the 1800W motor wasn't strong enough for his application. At first glance, you might thing that motor won't work for me either. But I figure it should be plenty as a drive only motor, not for PTO. These transmissions have a crazy 400:1 gear ratio at the bottom end and somewhere around a 30:1 for high speed. Supplying enough torque should be easy enough. My plan to test this is to rough mount the motor with a pulley, put the nose of the tractor against a tree, and see if I can break traction in high gear. If the motor can't do that, then I will look into a bigger motor for the job. I will also have the benefit of the motor running at 4500rpm instead of 3600rpm, so I will be using a smaller pulley. I am hoping to keep the motor as small as possible for efficiency and longer drive times. My goal (subject to change) is to mount the motor underneath the seat and belt drive the transmission. The controller will go on the shelf the fuel tank used to sit on. The battery...is a triangle (remember, this was originally for a trike), so I am not sure where I want to put it that doesn't look silly. It's pretty thin, so I'm considering mounting it to the underside of the hood, which would make it practically invisible. Operation will be similar to the current setup. key for on/off, throttle lever for motor RPM, and maintain use of the clutch for changing gears. If everything works well, I will look into mounting a motor in the same location as the engine for all PTO implements. I want to keep the two systems on separate batteries, so I can run the PTO as much as possible, without worrying about being stuck in the yard away from the charger. Stay tuned for updates! P.S. While getting ready to make this post I learned about the E-141 (previously, I only knew about the Elec-Trak). When all is complete, I guess I will need an E-100 badge for the side.

You folks are lucky to HAVE a local place that's decent for hardware.....

Sounds like PTO brake is hanging up or you have some weld someplace that it shouldn't be, just my thoughts.

Happy birthday Tom

Weld on another nut. Then heat the hub again but not red hot because it's cast. Then quench it good, Then hit it with an impact gun

She’s together, quick spin around the yard and back into the shed for today.

C-85 cleaning is essentially done…back on all fours wheels. This one might actually get waxed!