What did you do today?

[ebinmaine 78,126]

6 minutes ago, adsm08 said:

but we both have some rough edges

 

All of us do brother man 

 

[Beap52 2,140]

7 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

Just back from enjoying a visit with some old friends in Ocean City, Md.

Just buried an old friend today.  Your post and todays service reminded me that we need to enjoy fellowship with those who we have grown-up and grown-old with.  

[19richie66 17,857]

9 hours ago, Beap52 said:

Just buried an old friend today.  Your post and todays service reminded me that we need to enjoy fellowship with those who we have grown-up and grown-old with.  

Sorry for your loss bud. Seems everything in this world can stop except time. Enjoy it with those around you. 

[ebinmaine 78,126]

Agreed.  

 

Do what it takes to make yourself happy and content as long as it's not at the expense of others.

[cleat 8,897]

11 hours ago, Beap52 said:

Just buried an old friend today.  Your post and todays service reminded me that we need to enjoy fellowship with those who we have grown-up and grown-old with.  

 

And if there is an old friend that you keep saying you are going to go visit some day, don't wait because you may lose the chance.

 

That has happened both ways for me in the last couple of years. I have had a good visit just before I lost a friend and I have missed the chance and lost a friend just before I went to visit.

 

[953 nut 65,042]

Much like a garden, friendships need nurturing, attention, and some quality time to thrive.

I am at the stage of life where many of my friends have gone home to be with the Lord so the remaining friends are cherished that much more.

[Horsin'round 402]

The older I get, the more I realize that every day is a gift!

[Pullstart 69,553]

On 3/29/2026 at 5:49 PM, ebinmaine said:

Trina and I have learned to team up over the years and talk over where a tree will land. She'll show me where to cut the mouth and hinge it. Most often she's within just a few feet. 

Very late to the party, but do your saws have index lines on them?  My Huskys have a line that tells me if I cut the mouth here, it’ll fall there.  It’s quite helpful.

[cafoose 3,684]

3 minutes ago, Pullstart said:

do your saws have index lines on them?

That's a new one for me, never knew saws had them. Any pics of how that works and what they look like?

[Pullstart 69,553]

18 minutes ago, cafoose said:

That's a new one for me, never knew saws had them. Any pics of how that works and what they look like?

Follow that line then you cut your mouth, that’s where your tree should fall.  

 

Video explanation on the way…

 

 

[8ntruck 8,740]

My saws have part of the handle that is at 90 degrees from the blade.  I use that as a sight.

[ebinmaine 78,126]

29 minutes ago, cafoose said:

That's a new one for me, never knew saws had them. Any pics of how that works and what they look like?

 

 

New to me as well. I've never had a husky brand. I've always used the actual bar as my directional implement. You guys got me curious now.

[nylyon-(Admin) 8,911]

Many years ago, I bought an inexpensive 5x8 trailer.  I used it quite a bit until about 15 years ago when it was just sitting. I recently bought a golf cart to bring camping with me, and seemed natural to get the little trailer going again.  So it got 2 new tires and rims and today new LED lights and wiring with ground wires running to each light.

 

 

[Pullstart 69,553]

@cafoose @ebinmaine
 

 

[Pullstart 69,553]

I learned I can record, edit and publish a short instructional video in 45 minutes today 

[ebinmaine 78,126]

I have two saws in my workshop to look at today. A late 1990s Jonsered 2054 Turbo 49cc, and a 2017 Echo CS490 49cc. 

Jonsered has a black top. Echo is mostly orange. 

 

 

 

The Jonsered has a mold line up just as your Husky. The Echo does not. This does have some logic because Husky and Jonsered are the same parent company.

[sqrlgtr 2,499]

My little Stihl 250 has one on side but not on top. Above the letter I in Stihl. 

[Wayne0 1,555]

14 hours ago, sqrlgtr said:

My little Stihl 250 has one on side but not on top. Above the letter I in Stihl. 

The handle works as well.

[Ed Kennell 45,618]

Wednesdays are always busy.

   9-10 AM  Silver Sneakers gym class

   10-11  grocery shopping

   11-2   stocking trout

    2-4 second mowing this year

    4-5 recliner and Red Square Time

   5-6 dinner

   6-11 pinochle card club   Hope I can stay awake.

Edited Wednesday at 08:46 PM by Ed Kennell

[Blue Chips 726]

The weather is finally warming up here, so I plan to be outdoors soon, degreasing/cleaning the chassis of my 522xi and reinstalling the rest of the sheet metal. I still need to de-rust and repaint a couple of pieces first. I want to do the de-rusting outside with the abrasive blaster attachment for my pressure washer.

 

In the meantime, I'm back on my 1954 Dodge M37 restoration project again. I'm planning to rebuild the engine, so not exactly today, but a few days ago I pulled it out of the truck and mounted it on my engine stand to finish taking it apart. Working by myself, it only took about two hours (of course it helped that I had already removed all of the body parts from the front of the truck).

 

 

 

The truck only has a little over 8,000 miles on it (which isn't unusual for quite a few old military vehicles that probably spent much of their life in a National Guard armory parking lot), and so the engine has VERY little wear, However, I'm still planning on giving it a proper overhaul. After 72 years...not to mention sitting around for several decades covered up, but with the cylinder head off...the elements worked their magic, and it developed a bit of surface rust on the cylinder walls, as well as a few small rust spots on the connecting rod journals. The rust on the cylinder walls should clean up easily with a few passes of a hone, so the cylinders 'should' still be within standard spec (we'll see). The cam looks perfect, and I think that a very light grind on the crankshaft should clean it up nicely. I'm looking around for a good local automotive machine shop to do the crankshaft grinding/polishing and true up the connecting rods if necessary. I would also have them check the block to see if it could benefit from align honing and decking, etc. The valves, valve guides, and seats all look virtually new (other than a coat of light rust on top of the valves), but as long as I have it apart, I might touch them up a bit anyway...maybe even a three-angle grind. The engine came from the factory back in 1954 with such niceties as a forged steel crankshaft and some kind of steel exhaust valve seat inserts. I need to do a bit of research and testing to see if those original inserts will stand up to unleaded fuel. If need be, I can replace them with hardened seats or simply use a lead-substitute fuel additive.

 

Other than machining operations that require specialized equipment that I don't own, I plan to do the bulk of the engine work myself, as I have for numerous other engines over the years. I've already rebuilt the carburetor, governor, waterproof distributor, fuel/vacuum pump, and the 24V 100A alternator, and I already have a ton of OEM NOS or new parts for it, like con rod bolts, cylinder head bolts, rings, bearings, seals and gaskets, water distribution tube, oil pump pressure upgrade kit, waterproof spark plugs, waterproof spark plug wires, etc., so once the machining is done, I should theoretically be able to get the engine back together pretty quickly and move on to other restoration tasks...and some Wheel Horse stuff. 

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Blue Chips

[ebinmaine 78,126]

7 hours ago, Blue Chips said:

I'm looking around for a good local automotive machine shop

 

 

There's a place called Nasco down in Saco. AFAIK they're excellent. 

If I needed work done they'd be the choice.  

[Blue Chips 726]

25 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

There's a place called Nasco down in Saco. AFAIK they're excellent. 

If I needed work done they'd be the choice.  

 

I'll check it out. Thanks!

[Blue Chips 726]

More work on my Dodge M37 project:

 

The old instrument panel in my M37 was a bit worse for wear. I purchased new gauges (some of the old ones weren't working, and the rest didn't look too good, either). I re-used as many parts as I could, which involved bead blasting and re-plating the instrument light holders and a few other parts. I also bead blasted, primed, and painted the panel itself and replaced the original straight-slot mounting screws with identical straight-slot screws in stainless steel. I replaced the "spider" wiring harness with an NOS part. To repair the old instrument light sockets, I replaced the wiring, sealed the wire entry to the sockets with closed-cell foam EPDM grommets glued on with Loctite 480, and wrapped it in heavy-wall heat shrink tubing. This took a few days, but I finished testing it today.

 

Before:

 

Before:

 

Some parts in the zinc plating bath:

 

After plating and passivation treatment:

 

Steps in repairing the instrument lamp holders/sockets:

 

 

Repaired instrument lamp holders/sockets, with LED lamps (I ended up using a different type of LED lamp than shown here):

 

The bezels of the new instruments were a different color of green than the panel, so I masked them using a circle cutter and adhesive-backed masking film, cleaned the bezels, and sprayed them in Marine Corps green to match the panel color. BTW, I highly recommend the blue masking film for tons of different masking purposes. I can't remember what it's actually called, but it's available from multiple sources on eBay and other places.

 

Restored instrument panel (rear view):

 

Restored instrument panel:

 

I adjusted this photo to approximate how the panel appeared to me with the instrument lights on and the shop lights turned off. It's probably a little brighter than it needs to be, but I'll stay with this for now:

 

I won't be doing any more work on the dashboard for a while, since there are several higher-priority tasks ahead of that.

 

 

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Blue Chips

[adsm08 4,343]

Fire wood.

 

That is all.

[ebinmaine 78,126]

1 minute ago, adsm08 said:

Fire wood.

 

That is all.

 

Same. 

We got a new splitter. Haven't got all the bugs/adjustments right yet.  It'll get there.