Druidic Dabblings and General Twaddle !!

[V8Druid]

just blagged me'sen half a dozen Acrows ... 3 are gonna need some work, t'other 3 should be functional with a bit of a clean (3 in the mud,3 on top) ... horsey girls up the barn asked me if I could dig a drainage ditch behind the barn, to try and keep the water that comes down the bank, out .. and damn me there they were lying in the tish, half way along the back of it ... went back up with the trailer PDQ - gift horses, etc..

was also a knackered barrow chassis with a remarkably straight body, so took a disc with me and separated the chaff from the wheat

just gonna need some mud-wing washers when it goes back on a chassis - bloody straight though and thought initially it was ali, but galvy BTLs

grass has all greened up again after some significant rainfall the last week or so - a lot of it overnight .. so it had to have it -- best part of a collector full off both the lawn and the side of the drive, that got Countaxed - then it was Dane time for the rest of it

and after that there's this " can we just " ...
Nursery about ten miles from here that grows for/sells to, M&S, John Lewis, etc., that has 'gate sales' on a Saturday and Sunday, May 'til October to out their 'over-production' and they are 'kin cheap for flowers/plants/small trees/etc. - like 1/4 to 1/3rd of prices you'd pay in their customer's shops ...
so we headed for there ...
get to within 1/2 mile of them, Hang a right off the A465 for Allensmore, only to discover the road is closed - replacing the level crossing 150 yards from the entrance to the nurseries - the wrong side!!

Spun it round and back to the main drag, following a 'diversion' sign and we're debating as we go as to WTF this was gonna take us, 'cos neither of us could work it out ...
eventually gave up spun around and came several miles back, past the closed turning and then back a couple more miles from where we'd come from/home to take a 'known' alternate route ...
eventually get onto the Allensmore road from t'other end and drive round several 'road closed' signs to arrive at the nurseries.

they were well PO-ed ..
barely seen a soul all day -
Network rail or whoever is responsible for the crossing work had done a piss poor job on re-routing traffic (read non existent) - plenty of road closed signs everywhere - sod all to tell non-locals HTF to get to them

the place is usually heaving - we're talking a several hundred acre nursery - up side was that Pam had her pick of virtually their entire stock came away with a couple of hundred quids-worth of nice mature plants - for 60 quid ..
will keep her occupied for a few hours locating and planting 'em all
might get some machine time on the Ajax and Harrison tomorrow -- after Hamster juice time, first thing (ish).

 

[V8Druid]

I am trying to think of a good alternate use for this ... rotator is almost worth the asking but already have a few of them
must've cost a few bob new

 

[V8Druid]

just blagged me'sen half a dozen Acrows ... 3 are gonna need some work, t'other 3 should be functional with a bit of a clean (3 in the mud,3 on top) ...

has absolutely lashed it down here most of the day ....
did get half hour reprieve before lunch and managed to separate all 6 Acrows -- need another 12hrs of the wet stuff to wash all the mud off
reckon I can most of the top halves in the Harrison to buff 'em up ...
gonna have to cut the base plates off the bottoms to do the same though -- all the 'nuts' are gonna need some serious diesel soaking -- see if I can't stand 'em in a large bucket somewhere, upside-down - for a week ...
job for anon ATM though ...
got a few other things to sort first - been working out me new tool post requirements I need to make seeing as it was too wet for much else - and way too wet for the CAD .. had to resort to pencil and paper

did manage to find some suitable bits of material when it stopped persisting down .. just need to turn them into the right shapes now

 

[V8Druid]

Sunday night 'precious' fest for @Stock ... good job I had a lid on the bin full today - nice and dry
this is why it's an after dark operation ..............................................................................................................................................'til it gets going

into the mouth of the beast

 

[V8Druid]

beautiful start to the day ... 'til it lashed it down .... grass is growing as you watch it - swear it's grown an inch overnight
Good job we had to hit the town first thing pick up some med.s owed, for Pam - pharmacy never has everything - always end up with an owing note and have to go back a second time ... I'd have had a good soaking if I'd been out there as I'd planned to be
bit of shopping whilst we're there and home by one.
picked these up in Aldi's middle aisle .. three quid each'll do for the odd usage they'll get - I like my Visegrips for everything else

thought I'd give their knackered screw head extractors a try too for a couple of quid .. again not summat you'd use every day !

dragged a few bits together

and lopped the block off you see there with the Meba, after winding the genny up - behaving fine straight off today - odd?

tried the piece of inch bar I'd lopped for a fit in the QCTP ... it's been machined imperial - lovely fit

and set about it with the Harrison

cleaned up a bit of 50mm and bored it out to 19 mil - need to make a centre-ing washer for under the base of the new tool post

and'd just started to part it off when Pam's on the phone - tea's ready -NOW- dunno WTF the afternoon went

so legged it down the house for tea - in fairness she'd left it half hour longer than usual, but was hungry so 'I had to have it'
bit late to fire the genny up again by the time we'd eaten, so hopefully will get some time tomorrow to carry on
sized up the inch bar in the post ...
sweet

still considering using an inch thread at the base into the Tee nut to hold it down and can re-cycle this for the pull down/locking nut's thread, t'other end with a bit of extending it's length - the top centre-ing washer/plate is only 19mm / 3/4" - and a bit HARD to open up to an inch ??
Jury's still out ATM - I've got 3/4" and 1 " taps and dies so either is feasible

 

[V8Druid]

kept meself busy most of the day today - ERCP at 08.00 in the morning and didn't wanna spend the day thinking about it and the possible outcomes - best case - I get to come home tea time - worst (ish)case - I end up back on Frome Ward on a morphine drip with pancreatitis - again !! Worst worse case - I don't come home !! From all I've read, with my pancreatitis history, I'm not offering odds on anything tonight -- gotta keep it cool for Pam, or she'll have a melt down.
won't say I'm brickin' it, but deffo properly concerned.
so - today's escapades - the genny and the Ajax have both had a busy day of it --
the block I cut off the bar yesterday needed 'true-ing up' and sizing down to suit where it's gonna live
slab mill in the miller and trued up two edges and sized it down to 65 mil with the second edge ...

then I just had to skim the ends off as it was already near as damn it to size off the bar width, but needed true-ing/squaring up

beautiful finish off the carbide insert slabber
then face off a side ...

another glass like finish, despite the way it looks, 's like a baby's bum

then onto the other side to get it down to 23.5mil thick

'nother baby's bum

and all squared and ready for the next bit

out with the Clarkson Autolock for a nice big end mill ....

picked this up on ebay just after I bought the Ajax - already had its little brother - but this had to be had for 40 quid - don't think it'd ever been used - still waxed

then set up the DRO with an electronic edge finder - really cool little device - beats a wobbler anytime

had to resort to a 2MT collet chuck in a3MT sleeve in a 3MT tool holder - damned if I could find my collet chuck tool holder - 's here some where was using it a couple of weeks back -- bought the 2MT collet chuck recently, to use in the Meddings - good job I did
aaaand - I'm out of pix ....... TBC

 

[Monkeybusiness]

Good luck in the morning Graham - I’m sure everything will go to plan.

 

[V8Druid]

with the DRO set, the edge finder came out and in went the Clarkson - lovely tool holders, these - solid as the proverbial - time to make a Tee out of that lovely square block

with the one above down to dimension

it was rinse and repeat on the other edge .. had considered faffing about with the coolant pump - have never filled the base with suds as rarely need it, but today would've been handy, but it makes such a bloody mess, I just kept the feed rate down and light mil to two mil cuts/passes - slow but didn't warm the cutter up and didn't have a god awful mess of suds and swarf every where ... bit of Rocol and a few squirts of oil occasionally worked fine

and the end result

followed by a trial fit in the Harrison's compound slide

was well past tea time and was getting ear-ache .. but it went in there nice --

would've slung it back in the Ajax and centred it, whilst I had the DRO set/zero-ed to the back jaw of the vice, but ran out of time, so zero-ed it on the DRO to a set point and turned the genny off - no one's gonna move it, so it'll be zero-ed the next time I turn it back on
looking at the DRO's wiring this afters, it's a 240V unit hard wired into the control box - might put a switched metal box 3 pin socket on the control box, in place of the switched outlet, feeding it and 13A plug on the DRO's flying lead - can run it without the genny then, as set up often takes time -- genny costs about a quid an hour to run on red

Harper will be four on Thursday (easy one to remember - 9/11) and we'll have the girls and Mummy for tea (and hopefully I'll be here too ), so Pam's kept herself busy today - couple of visitors for her, after we got back from taking the girls to school first thing and then baking and cake decorating time this afters - the kids love a 'bespoke' birthday cake .....

you'd never know it was for a four year old, eh?
wouldn't fit any of here cake tins, so a Pyrex mixing bowl to the rescue
just fitted ...

bet it's looking a bit s/hand by 6 o'clock Thursday
no idea what's in there - didn't see it getting created, but I do know Harper loves Pam's buttercream

Anyway - If I'm not on here tomorrow night, I'll likely be on Frome in Hereford and you'll have to all wait for the next bits

 

[V8Druid]

Good luck in the morning Graham - I’m sure everything will go to plan.

thanks Dan, I hope it does and probably will - it's what they might 'kick off' that bothers me - I will not be happy if they induce/cause #4
biggest concern ATM is ---- HTF am I going to survive a 6 o'clock kick off without a couple of cups of coffeecan cope without me toast but no

 

[6feetdown]

kept meself busy most of the day today - ERCP at 08.00 in the morning and didn't wanna spend the day thinking about it and the possible outcomes - best case - I get to come home tea time - worst (ish)case - I end up back on Frome Ward on a morphine drip with pancreatitis - again !! Worst worse case - I don't come home !! From all I've read, with my pancreatitis history, I'm not offering odds on anything tonight -- gotta keep it cool for Pam, or she'll have a melt down.
won't say I'm brickin' it, but deffo properly concerned.
so - today's escapades - the genny and the Ajax have both had a busy day of it --
the block I cut off the bar yesterday needed 'true-ing up' and sizing down to suit where it's gonna live
slab mill in the miller and trued up two edges and sized it down to 65 mil with the second edge ...
View attachment 75351View attachment 75350
then I just had to skim the ends off as it was already near as damn it to size off the bar width, but needed true-ing/squaring up
View attachment 75349 View attachment 75348
beautiful finish off the carbide insert slabber
then face off a side ...
View attachment 75347
another glass like finish, despite the way it looks, 's like a baby's bum
View attachment 75346

then onto the other side to get it down to 23.5mil thick
View attachment 75345

'nother baby's bum
View attachment 75344
and all squared and ready for the next bit
View attachment 75343

out with the Clarkson Autolock for a nice big end mill ....
View attachment 75341

picked this up on ebay just after I bought the Ajax - already had its little brother - but this had to be had for 40 quid - don't think it'd ever been used - still waxed

then set up the DRO with an electronic edge finder - really cool little device - beats a wobbler anytime
View attachment 75340
had to resort to a 2MT collet chuck in a3MT sleeve in a 3MT tool holder - damned if I could find my collet chuck tool holder - 's here some where was using it a couple of weeks back -- bought the 2MT collet chuck recently, to use in the Meddings - good job I did
aaaand - I'm out of pix ....... TBC

won't say I'm brickin' it, but deffo properly concerned.

Finger x all is good

 

[Jimbo69]

Good luck today Graham, I’m sure you’ll be fine

 

[Rob65]

Good luck with the medics Druid.
Keep us posted.

 

[Powerfab]

Hope all goes well Gra, keep us posted when you can.

 

[V8Druid]

thanks Guys - was back by noon ..... spaced out from the sedation ..... was more like an anaesthetic TBH .. can't recall a great deal after I started to struggle to swallow - they anaesthetise your throat and it feels like you're choking - then they zapped me.
woke up in recovery 2 hrs later, to be told I'd be coming back in two weeks for another go ...... pancreatic ducts still too inflamed / swollen to get where they wanted to go

cast of thousands in the theatre - 8 people and a student observing - couple of firsts for me ... never had anything stuck up me bum - suppository drug job to decrease the risk of peeing off my pancreas and then an endoscope down me throat (but was out of it for that) so hardly counts as 'an experience'

and then the top man walks in, brandishing paperwork--
Mr Ransford had the bedside manner of a stale kipper ...
"Sign the consent form please" .....
" I've a few Q.s first -
" OH!! - OK "
" what's your rate for inducing pancreatitis, given my history of three episodes already? " --
he looked a bit taken aback
" er - national average is 17.8% "
" yeh I've read that too, but what's YOURS? "
" 2% " He said proudly

" Where's that form - that's good enough for me "

Just about getting my head together now - the 6a.m.kick off didn't help - or the lack of brekky, but fair play they gave me a real nice cup of coffee and a chicken sandwich when I woke up
throat is getting progressively sorer as the day wears on though


Oh and I'm not allowed to 'play' with machinery for 24 hrs

 

[Quattromike]

If your throat is that sore just imagine how bad it could have been going in from the other end
Take it easy Graham, I'm quite sure you've earned it

 

[Stock]

Sunday night 'precious' fest for @Stock ... good job I had a lid on the bin full today - nice and dry
this is why it's an after dark operation ..............................................................................................................................................'til it gets going
View attachment 75269

Yes the precious.............................................................................................................

 

[V8Druid]

Hello everyone,

Hope you're all having a good week. The weather's been a bit up and down here, but that's nothing new, eh? I've been lurking in this thread for a bit and loving the mix of banter and proper chat. It feels like a real online pub.

Seeing some of the machinery photos got me thinking about the switch to direct drilling. It's a huge topic these days, and I'm curious what everyone's biggest hang-up is with it. Is it the initial cost, the learning curve, or the worry about slugs and weeds? It's a big decision to make, and I think it's worth getting different perspectives on it.

What's on your mind?

Hi Ross ...... we got another one @Regy53

 

[Marko]

Yes the precious.............................................................................................................

Then have i got something for you... been testing out the heating system in preparation for the winter season and remembered my fellow pyromaniac

 

[Marko]

Hello everyone,

Hope you're all having a good week. The weather's been a bit up and down here, but that's nothing new, eh? I've been lurking in this thread for a bit and loving the mix of banter and proper chat. It feels like a real online pub.

Seeing some of the machinery photos got me thinking about the switch to direct drilling. It's a huge topic these days, and I'm curious what everyone's biggest hang-up is with it. Is it the initial cost, the learning curve, or the worry about slugs and weeds? It's a big decision to make, and I think it's worth getting different perspectives on it.

What's on your mind?

I know a few guys here (eastern europe) that have switched to direct drilling, took them some time to adjust to the new equipment, but over all it is much more cost effective, at least thats what they say, one guy told me that he plows his field every 2 years because of soil compaction, before he started direct driling plowing was done yearly. I'm not in that industry so i know jack about farming tho i have had a lot of people bring in things like cultivators, plows and sprayers for basic repairs like welding up busted frames, replacing parts, manufacturing new parts like sprayer arms, plow shanks and the likes.

 

[Stock]

Then have i got something for you... been testing out the heating system in preparation for the winter season and remembered my fellow pyromaniac

Ronald once described that picture..........................................
"They know him real well, but won't let him (the Precious) loose,
They wont let him have any fun.......
they don't love him, who doesn't love fire"

Don't contain the Precious..............................................