What did you do today?

[Razorback 1,191]

Today I worked from home..... then just a bit ago made a run to my local dairy and got 4 gallons of milk (SO GOOD!!!), two pints of cream, and a pound of butter.

[8ntruck 8,272]

Continued winterizing stuff.  Today, it was gathering and burning leaves from the front yard (lake side) of the lake house. 

 

Looks to be some Wheel Horse cart work yet to do there.  There is a fair sized pile of leaves at the water's edge.  Will probably be easier to pick them up now, instead of spring time when they will have had 4 months to start to break down into slimy mush.

[Ed Kennell 43,482]

On 11/23/2025 at 8:54 AM, ebinmaine said:

do a deep squat just twice per day,

 

On 11/23/2025 at 11:34 PM, Mickwhitt said:

Im now 60 

 

We're( Mrs. K and me) are now  over 80 and attend the Silver Sneakers stretch, balance, and strength classes at our Anytime Fitness gym three days a week.

Although they receive many grunts and groans, squats are included in the programs.

[Handy Don 14,947]

Loaded the car for weekend visiting. Off early tomorrow. 

- borrowed tow-behind core aerator

- the camp generator I re-engined

- a set of kids building blocks I rehabbed

- bike rack parts

- “go” tool bag (there are always small repairs needed!)

- some wheels to drop off with @ri702bill

- a stereo to “pass on"

- cooler for our Thanksgiving meal contributions

 

My spouse asked if there would be room for her!

[ebinmaine 75,217]

5 hours ago, Handy Don said:

 

 

My spouse asked if there would be room for her!

 

Does your car have roof racks? And does she have a good grip?

 

 

[ri702bill 10,407]

You thinking what I'm a-thinkin'??

 

 

 

Edited November 26 by ri702bill

[Beap52 1,710]

Smoked a couple of brisket flats today for Thanksgiving, Wife picked up a couple at our kid's request so I was delegated to smoke them.  They came in the same package and cost as much as a tire for the Wheelhorse! Put them on at 6:30 this morning.  At eleven I wrapped them in anticipation of the stall when they reached ~162 degrees.  One wrapped in aluminum and the other in parchment paper.  I thought this would be a good side by side test of how each wrap functions.  The aluminum flat was done by 12:30--and had nice smoke ring and super tender.  The parchment piece was pulled out of the smoker at 196 degrees at four o-clock this afternoon.  At this writing, it's still resting but the temperature probes slid into the meat like butter.  

 

I made gravy out of the drippings in the pan below the briskets and ate it with toast for supper.  

[Ed Kennell 43,482]

               Holiday switch over.       Pumpkins, pilgrims, and turkeys ...gone

 

 

                                        Santas back in town.

 

[Bar Nuthin 1,709]

Same thing as hundreds (maybe thousands) of Wheel Horse owners did today.

 

This heavy snow proved a bit too much for the repair hubs on the C-120, so I switched everything over to the C-141 and finished up. Guess I'm gonna have to breakdown and swap out the differential I picked up. Time to buy more Floor Dry. 

 

 

Edited 19 hours ago by Bar Nuthin

[8ntruck 8,272]

We got about 6" of snow last night.  Current temp is freezing, +/- a couple degrees, so the snow is kind of heavy.

 

I dug Tiny Toro Two Stroke out today to clear the driveway and fro t walk.  I haven't  used him in 4, maybe 5 years.  Filled him with fresh 2 cycle mix, gave him a shot of carb cleaner, and we were off making noise and throwing snow.

 

The neighbor kid came over to watch.  He thought it might be fun to stand in the stream of thrown snow.  I stopped, shut the machine down and explained why he was not to do that and why.  Was kind of interesting watching his relays close and come to a realization when I asked him how it might feel to get hit in the head with a rock that was hiding in the snow.

Edited Sunday at 10:06 PM by 8ntruck

[ebinmaine 75,217]

Got a BUNCH of stuff done. Camper is covered. Things put away. Moved around. Organized.

Barn is just a few minutes work from having 3 cars parked inside. 

 

Been snowing off n on since around 9 am. 

 

 

 

 

[MainelyWheelhorse 2,189]

Today, I worked this morning, I helped my father put his newly acquired from his older brother(my Uncle) used side by side in his garage with the 308. Did a garbage run with my father, We took the chairs and tables we used for Thanksgiving back to where we borrowed them from. I also talked to two of my brothers and one of my nephews. 

@ebinmaine We've had a mix here it's mostly rain now.

Edited Sunday at 10:32 PM by MainelyWheelhorse

[Blue Chips 332]

There are a bunch of parts on my various machines that I'd like to re-plate with zinc, but it's been a while since I used my electroplating equipment, so today I started getting things set up again.

• Cleaned up the plating bench and all of the tanks and plating accessories.
• Cut and bent four new zinc sacrificial anodes.
• Made new anode bags, which I cut from non-woven polypropylene filter material and heat-welded the seams.
• Made a new filter bag for the circulating pump out of the same polypropylene material.
• Cleaned up the anode electric clips and checked the wiring.

I had posted an earlier picture of my plating bench setup in a different thread, but since that photo was taken I improved the bench by adding a second layer of plywood with circular cutouts to hold the tanks securely and keep them from tipping and sloshing, as you can see in the photo below.

 

 

Here's a peek inside the plating tank, with heater, circulating pump, pump filter, anodes, anode bags, cathode bar, and temperature sensor.

 

 

I just have to rejuvenate the plating solution, and the plating bench will be ready to go again.

 

I also need to clear a space for my toaster oven for baking parts after plating (to help avoid hydrogen embrittlement, as I had mentioned before).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 01:37 PM by Blue Chips

[Handy Don 14,947]

17 hours ago, Blue Chips said:

How do you handle toxic fumes?

[Blue Chips 332]

5 hours ago, Handy Don said:

How do you handle toxic fumes?

 

Full face shield, long-cuff chemical-resistant rubber gloves (and sometimes disposable rubber gloves), full apron, and of course an appropriate respirator.

 

Also, this afternoon I ordered a new supply of trivalent chromium Cr(III) conversion solution, which is much safer than Cr(VI).

 

I installed a powerful through-the-wall exhaust fan some time ago, which is located only a few feet from the plating bench.

 

Here's the exhaust fan with the doors closed:

 

Exhaust fan with doors open and replaceable filter in place:

 

Exhaust fan with the filter removed for a view of the heavy-duty hazardous-location fan. There is a wire grid (not shown here) that prevents the filter media from being sucked into the fan.

 

The exhaust fan extends through the back wall to save space inside the garage/shop.

 

It sucks out a LOT of air. The drawback to that is that when I run it in the winter, the replacement air is cold outside air. I suppose I could install an air-to-air heat exchanger for the incoming air to recapture some of the warmth, but that's pretty low on the to-do list.

 

 

 

Edited 18 hours ago by Blue Chips

[Handy Don 14,947]

1 hour ago, Blue Chips said:

air-to-air heat exchanger for the incoming air to recapture some of the warmth, but that's pretty low on the to-do list.

Wow. Delighted to hear how thoroughly you are protecting your health while handling these materials. 👍

My home is quite tightly sealed (by design) and I looked carefully at these exchangers. For me, the payback period, given the expected amount of use during heating seasons, put the payback period in decades--so I abandoned it and we suffer some drafts! Maintenance is costly (and prohibitive for units that can handle cooing incoming air during the summer).

[Blue Chips 332]

1 hour ago, Handy Don said:

For me, the payback period, given the expected amount of use during heating seasons, put the payback period in decades

 

I know that the more sophisticated powered/smart air-to-air heat exchangers are rather pricey. I might try building a simple passive one someday. It wouldn't be as efficient as the fancy ones, but it might be an interesting experiment or project.

[Razorback 1,191]

Normal work day..... then, we were out of biscuits, so I made a double batch of 2-ingredient (self-rising flour & heavy cream), cast iron skillet biscuits. We like to have them in the morning, split in two, buttered, then toasted under the broiler. Then, we were also out of bread (left what we had at the in-law's), so I made a couple of nice loaves in our cast iron loaf pans. Just got finished having a hot slice with butter on it... YUM!!!!

[Beap52 1,710]

Son in law got a new pellet smoker and I was gifted his old one.  It's a  Grilla Silverbac about ten years old.  He's been having problems with it such as inconsistent temperatures and he experienced a pellet smoker explosion that really concerned him.  I brought it to the shop to either make it work or scrap it.  After I studied about these things on the internet, I cleaned the unit, disassembled the auger and cleaned the two motors, I especially paid attention to the RTD temp sensor, assuming the sensor might need to be replaced-which fortunately did not. Got it back together yesterday and fired it up.  Seemed to be working fine.  From what I can tell these smokers need regular maintenance and quality pellets.

 

Today's results are in the picture below.   I'm new to pellet smokers.  I made a water tray to place below the ribs--that way the grease doesn't drop on the drip tray where it burns the grease or anything else that falls on it. The water tray also provides moisture and seems to even out the temperature swings. The smoke flavor doesn't seem at prevalent as in my other smoker.  I suppose anything that a fellow would bake in the oven in the kitchen can be baked in the smoker.  

 

 

[cleat 7,832]

I have a Traeger pellet smoker and it gets used all summer. Yes, if you turn the temp up then it will work like a regular oven. Great for hot days when you don't want to run the oven in the house.

 

However, with the smoker in low heat smoke mode it should put out lots of smoke to flavour your food.

 

Different wood types will change the smoke flavour as well. We tend to use maple but other wood types will have a stronger smoke.

 

Once it gets down close to freezing outside I stop using it because it just doesn't work properly.

 

That's OK though because that makes it a treat when we get it out in the spring.

 

The only real maintenance I have had to do to it since I got it in 2015 is to give it a good vacuuming out after every big smoke making sure the burn pot is nice and clean.

 

[8ntruck 8,272]

Water heater is acting oddly.  Yesterday, the morning shower was hotter than usual - had to mix way more cold water in than usual.  Today, it wasn't even close to being tepid.

 

It is an electric AO Smith unit that was installed in 2003.  Checked the breaker in the panel - not tripped, but cycled it anyway.   I pulled the the covers on the thermostats.  Settings weren't changed and everything looked normal.  Then I notice a red button on the upper thermostat.  Shine the flashlight on the 6 point molded in lettering on it, which said 'reset'.  What the heck, I'm game for a smoke test.  Put my screw driver on the button, looked the other way and gave it a push.  No flash, no drama.  It clicked and I could hear gurgles from the heating elements.

 

That got it going - for now anyhow.  I downloaded the user's manual for it to see what I had just reset.  Not really helpful.  Themanual had one sentence stating that the thermostat had a manual reset button for an 'eco' over temperature. 

 

Ought to start thinking about a replacement.  Back to researching on demand units.  The one we installed in the lake house seems to have worked out OK, but it is only supplying a shower and 2 sinks.  The house would add a washing machine and a dishwasher to the list of things to run.

[sqrlgtr 1,196]

21 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

Water heater is acting oddly.  Yesterday, the morning shower was hotter than usual - had to mix way more cold water in than usual.  Today, it wasn't even close to being tepid.

 

It is an electric AO Smith unit that was installed in 2003.  Checked the breaker in the panel - not tripped, but cycled it anyway.   I pulled the the covers on the thermostats.  Settings weren't changed and everything looked normal.  Then I notice a red button on the upper thermostat.  Shine the flashlight on the 6 point molded in lettering on it, which said 'reset'.  What the heck, I'm game for a smoke test.  Put my screw driver on the button, looked the other way and gave it a push.  No flash, no drama.  It clicked and I could hear gurgles from the heating elements.

 

That got it going - for now anyhow.  I downloaded the user's manual for it to see what I had just reset.  Not really helpful.  Themanual had one sentence stating that the thermostat had a manual reset button for an 'eco' over temperature. 

 

Ought to start thinking about a replacement.  Back to researching on demand units.  The one we installed in the lake house seems to have worked out OK, but it is only supplying a shower and 2 sinks.  The house would add a washing machine and a dishwasher to the list of things to run.

 

Funny you should bring this up. I went from well water (pump burnt up) to city water a while back and my hot water is a lot hotter than it used to be. I thought I had left water heater full while working on install of water, took a couple days considering had to dig a ditch and such . I think somehow the elements must have cleaned themselves off while being low on water because the water is a lot hotter. I did learn a lot about this new PEX plumbing stuff and how much easier it is to work with. I was worried about going from cooper to PEX but was nothing to it. I have been in this house for 20 year , and it was here when I moved in so if it gives up the ghost I can't complain, I guess. 

[Handy Don 14,947]

16 hours ago, Blue Chips said:

 

I know that the more sophisticated powered/smart air-to-air heat exchangers are rather pricey. I might try building a simple passive one someday. It wouldn't be as efficient as the fancy ones, but it might be an interesting experiment or project.

I did the math on the heat transfer, i.e. heat saved, vs. the cost of electricity, cost of periodic element replacement, and, of course, purchase/install costs with ductwork. Break even was 30+ years. There were one or two units capable of handling cooled air but the losses due to cold water condensation going down the drain (literally, plus the potential for extra maintenance) made them nonsensical for us.

In both cases, one has to highly value exchanging inside air for outside air to justify part of the cost.