Daves’ Gadgets

[hardtail]

Good deal explosives and alcohol, what could possibly go wrong 😁

[just Dave]

20 hours ago, Rawleigh99 said:

Need some dynamite!

A Neighbor caught a little heat years back doing that. I have seriously been thinking about black powder though. I’m a little afraid to research it due to being marked as a terrorist.

[Rawleigh99]

Try some tannerite!  Drill it in sideways and shoot it from afar!

[Shell1066]

Gun power works good. I did it in a farming field. used a air drill to drill 3 feet deep, quarter cup of powder in the bottom, strip the end off a lamp cord, use one strand wrapped around the bare ends of an electric cord,. insert that to bottom of hole, fill hole and touch the other end to a battery or into e generator. BOOM!! If you put two feet of dirt on top you wont hardly see it move. Unless you put lots of powder in!!!

[Gearclash]

Just a thought.  I haven’t had to deal with rock layers like you have there, just random large rocks and mucho old concrete. I wonder how it would work to find an old pallet fork, preferably something thicker than the run of the mill skid steer fork.  Cut it short and mount it so you can use it as a pry bar on your excavator.  The key to demolishing anything concrete or rock is to take advantage of its lack of tensile strength, and any existing cracks.  I have torn out pieces of concrete with a 2 ton skid steer that it should have had no business trying to tear out.  Run what ya brung.  

[just Dave]

13 hours ago, Gearclash said:

Just a thought.  I haven’t had to deal with rock layers like you have there, just random large rocks and mucho old concrete. I wonder how it would work to find an old pallet fork, preferably something thicker than the run of the mill skid steer fork.  Cut it short and mount it so you can use it as a pry bar on your excavator.  The key to demolishing anything concrete or rock is to take advantage of its lack of tensile strength, and any existing cracks.  I have torn out pieces of concrete with a 2 ton skid steer that it should have had no business trying to tear out.  Run what ya brung.  

That’s kind of what I am doing with the beak I hung on the back of my bucket. My son lives next door, same hill side. He did some renovations on a Mustang 320 I had setting around and I built him a single fork for that quick hitch style. It does work pretty good at picking out rocks for such a small tractor.

[just Dave]

Black gun powder?

[just Dave]

13 hours ago, Shell1066 said:

Gun power works good. I did it in a farming field. used a air drill to drill 3 feet deep, quarter cup of powder in the bottom, strip the end off a lamp cord, use one strand wrapped around the bare ends of an electric cord,. insert that to bottom of hole, fill hole and touch the other end to a battery or into e generator. BOOM!! If you put two feet of dirt on top you wont hardly see it move. Unless you put lots of powder in!!!

Black gun powder?

[Shell1066]

yes. I had the old smokeless black powder . It's hotter then the newer stuff but the newer stuff should work.

[Shell1066]

I used a hundred foot power cord to get away for the blast. tied that onto a piece of 12/3 electrical wire. This is what you will put the end of into the hole. With each blast you will lose a couple feet of it. After each shot i just cut the bad off n started over.

[Shell1066]

I stripped all three wires in the 12/3 and made hooks on each one by bending the wire back onto itself. Then took one strand of a lamp cord or auto wiring and wrapped it around the 12/3. what your trying to create is a fuse. By doing all three wires if it doesn't work on first try you got two other tries by switching the end at the battery or generator. I used a 18 volt dewalt battery and just held the wire to the battery spades. A gen-set will make more juice ,but I worked with what I had.

[hardtail]

His buildings are pretty close to the hillside, if you haven't encountered this type of undisturbed rock it is formidable, at the surface the weathering kind of softens it up but that takes time.

[just Dave]

On 9/1/2024 at 9:06 AM, hardtail said:

His buildings are pretty close to the hillside, if you haven't encountered this type of undisturbed rock it is formidable, at the surface the weathering kind of softens it up but that takes time.

I dug out major portions of the hill , when I built my house in 99-2000. With a couple different track loaders. I had a Buddies 977 here for a couple weeks. It would move any thing I could reach.  I haven’t spent much time on it lately, I’m nursing a sore wing.

@Shell1066 So in sounds like I dead short the end n the hole with 1/4 cup black powder and when I power up the cord , boom?

 

[Shell1066]

49 minutes ago, just Dave said:

I dug out major portions of the hill , when I built my house in 99-2000. With a couple different track loaders. I had a Buddies 977 here for a couple weeks. It would move any thing I could reach.  I haven’t spent much time on it lately, I’m nursing a sore wing.

@Shell1066 So in sounds like I dead short the end n the hole with 1/4 cup black powder and when I power up the cord , boom?

 

Yup!! I did 40 plus holes that way. It's trial and error on how much to use . We just wanted to crack it so it was moveable with a track skid loader. 1/4 cup worked for us.

[just Dave]

I have a wooden handle that’s going bad but the blade is a very good cutter so I made a new  one from some food grade Delren, I have some scraps of.

I put a spacer under 1 jaw to make the grip oval for good registering. Cut 1 side then turn the part 180 degrees in the chuck and make same cut.

With the piece chucked back in the center I cut some finger groves. I offset it for 1 more cut to reduce the grooves on the top side.

I used a .062” slitting saw to make the slot. Drilling and tapping for two 6-32 screws next.

Back in the lathe 1 more time to radius the end. The tool I had on hand was configured for a right hand cut not left, so the tool is upside down and I ran the spindle in reverse for that cut.

I’ve been trying to rest a shoulder injury, so not much heavy work lately…

[mike newman]

13 minutes ago, just Dave said:

I have a wooden handle that’s going bad but the blade is a very good cutter so I made a new  one from some food grade Delren, I have some scraps of.

I put a spacer under 1 jaw to make the grip oval for good registering. Cut 1 side then turn the part 180 degrees in the chuck and make same cut.

With the piece chucked back in the center I cut some finger groves. I offset it for 1 more cut to reduce the grooves on the top side.

I used a .062” slitting saw to make the slot. Drilling and tapping for two 6-32 screws next.

Back in the lathe 1 more time to radius the end. The tool I had on hand was configured for a right hand cut not left, so the tool is upside down and I ran the spindle in reverse for that cut.

I’ve been trying to rest a shoulder injury, so not much heavy work lately…

...another piece of creative ingenuity from ""Dave's  "   Alladin cave of unending engineering opportunities........

....another great memory from our recent trip ....

Regards,,,Mike

[just Dave]

6 minutes ago, mike newman said:

...another piece of creative ingenuity from ""Dave's  "   Alladin cave of unending engineering opportunities........

....another great memory from our recent trip ....

Regards,,,Mike

Hi Mike, I imagine it’s good to be home..:)  My little road up the hill has become the animal hi way, deer and coons. I can see them out the kitchen window almost daily. The fawns born on Memorial Day have lost all their spots now, I can’t hardly tell Truman from Eisenhower anymore. Fall is right on time, my favorite time, the present. 
Take care,  Dave

 

[just Dave]

I had an opportunity to get about 150’ of rubber belting the other day. This is very good floor covering for barns . It weighs around #500 and no forklift available, so for free, I will need to earn it. I rigged it like a roller and got it loaded.

Im putting up another portable shelter and after gradeing a slight fall the rubber goes down. This very heavy belting on the pad . The roll is a bit thinner and will be used in paths.

[just Dave]

I finished up the building and trying to organize in a few things I hate to get covered in leaf fall. Not bad for under $500. 

I had to change a tire on an ATV.  The new one was so flat I could barely get a finger in between the two beads.  I worked a tube for bit smaller setup into the space and gave it some air, set it out in the sun and it came back to shape nicely. 

I also was fighting the bead a bit on the old one, it wanted to roll around like a football. I had a old wheel setting there, so I set the wheel on my wheel tire assembly and put it in the press.

That was so easy I couldn’t believe it. The pump never even built any measure able pressure.

Slipped rite off after.

[just Dave]

It’s time to get the stove ready . I have maintained this one for 23 years burning around the clock, without having to climb on the roof.

This is an air bag from a junker. It has a very heavy eye hole to run the rods through and a large hole that I clamp around the pipe. I keep the brush in the bag when stored. I do get some build up on the skirt around the cap, but a few taps with a length of pvc pipe frees it.

[mikem]

On 8/30/2024 at 8:29 AM, Alan Dinan said:

they work cheap, they like to blow things up in trade for adult beverages!

What could POSSIBLY go wrong with that????

Mike

[just Dave]

I have been meaning to build myself a good pickaroon for a bit now. The 1/2” eye bolt is high quality steel and taking space in a drawer, same with the coupling nut I used to give column strength to the pick. I cut that honeysuckle handle close to two years ago for the project. The curve and knots were just right.

[just Dave]

I’ve tried a few different portable buildings, most take a lot of maintenance if you get a pile of snow. Keep it fairly clear or it can collapse. We just had a foot dump a couple days ago and this style impressed me. It did not come with a snow rating but did great without having to do anything. 
It is bolted down to rock soil with 1/2” x 14” lag screws on every leg.

[just Dave]

Old gloves tend to wear out in a couple spots and that’s that, too crapy to use. I tend to use specific gloves on specific jobs. Rite now I handle a lot of wood . The pair I feed the fire with are a regular welding glove with the cuff off a worn pair sewn on to extend the arm protection. Generally they age well but this pair got a hole in the tip of a finger prematurely, so I sleeved it with a piece of heavy leather from the cuff of an otherwise worn out work glove.

I use a couple stitches of nomex on the Pam side to close up and e9000 glue on the back of the finger to secure it.

This pair of work gloves is what I wear to stack wood and bring it in 24/7 all Winter into Spring. Unaltered I might get 3-4 week before a hole starts, if lucky. I use good fingers and cuff sections off old gloves to sleeve or cover as needed, agin e9000 glue is hard to beat. I get a couple years out of wood wrangling gloves this way. Ya I know you don’t have time for all this nonsense but you do have money to burn? I do things like this when I’m setting around relaxing, knowing I’m being efficient make steak taste better. 

one other thing I have studied is inside out work gloves. They do tend to feel fabulous on your hands , and it is much easier to get the sawdust out of the fingers after a day running a chainsaw. The thing I did not expect was the sewing on the end of the finger lasts much longer this way. The thread is not exposed and stretched across the tip like the regular way. The only downside I have seen is sweaty hands are sticky for glove removal so I use regular way in the Summer.

Hope you ALL are staying warm, and cool for you @mike newman

 

[mike newman]

Hello@just Dave  !!!!

...just come down from my Summer job at the Rainbow Station.....get some meat and fuel etc ...Our ability to keep things like meat and vegetables, frozen, is very limited...so I come out to civilisation  every fortnight or so ....My eldest Daughter, Helen , helps me run a toll  gate, where we painlessly extract $60.00  for a vehicle and $30.00  for a motor bike, so the peasants can run thru 60  odd miles of rough road, mountains , rivers etc  heading eventually to pick up a main arterial road to points South...this in our South Island. ..

We have a multitude of different nationalities coming thru this 'private'' route..and a lot on cycles , ...folk from all over the Globe, on holiday in New Zealand    It used to be fun, but after a few years, I find  its now not quite as interesting , thus I am going to sneak home and remove the cylinder head off two tractors...an "H"  and a "M',,,and give them a valve grind to pas the time away, whilst Daughter handles the travelers..

It is a very pleasant environment to pass the time away....a very modest reward, though, and I just think of all the jobs I could be doing at home...home being about 80 minutes away...Radio Telephone  to Station Staff..., via solar panel power We have allready  this season had to call in the Rescue Helicopter..(this with the ubiquitous Personal Locator   Beckon  )....for the equally ubiquitous  Motor Cyclist with the leg broken....Happens every season.....

Enclose photo of old Accommodation House...built in 1896,,,there was one located at every twenty mile intervals, between Nelson   (at the 'top' of the South Island )...and Christchurch...in the middle of the Island on the eastern side..this for droving cattle down ..back in those halcyon   days of yore....!!  Very few still exist, but this one pictured is still in reasonable shape.  This is where we stay, untill end of April..by then the snow will have clogged the  main pass in the Mountains...for the winter

All the best Dave to you and yours 

Mike