It's always something...

Had a horrible morning. Yesterday I received most of what I had ordered to be able to do the Babbitt bearings on the planter I am resurrecting. So got up this morning all excited about doing something fun. Fun to me is doing anything I haven't done before especially if it involves my metal lathe and heat.

Make coffee and walk out to the shop, open the door and hear the furnace fan running problem was it was about 35 deg in the shop. Run over to the furnace and find the pilot light out. Disconnected the thermostat so the fan would quit running and re-lit the pilot. It lit fine and stayed lit so knew that wasn't the problem. Connected the thermostat back up, grabbed a meter, fan came on but no volts to the gas valve. Oh crap probably one of the over heat sensors went open. Now those sensors are hidden behind sheet metal that have a million screws to take out and it's freezing in the shop.

Well ol Bob ain't gonna spend any more time than he has too working on a furnace in a 30 deg shop. So I jumpered voltage to the gas valve and got the furnace going. While the shop was warming up I built a little relay circuit that would turn on the gas valve when the thermostat kicked in and hung it on clip leads clipped to the appropriate connections in the furnace. After a couple checks furnace works like it should and was finally able to get on with the fun stuff.

The furnace can wait for one of the 60 deg days we are suppose to have next week. Not real comfortable having all the safety stuff bypassed but it works and a risk I guess I am willing to take at least for a few days. Guess it's a blessing I spent most of my working life in electronics, have a pretty good parts supply and the knowledge to make an old furnace work. Otherwise I would still be huddled in the house waiting for somebody to come fix the durn furnace.

Managed to get the mandrel/form finished I will be using when I pour the bearings and figured out my pour plan. All I am waiting on now is a new heating element for my old Lee lead melting pot and a 3/4" adjustable reamer to clean up the ID when I have the bearings finished.

Sorry about being so long winded, I did have it formatted into paragraphs for easier reading but when it posted it ran everything together. One of my pet paves is trying to read a 20 line paragraph like I just posted..

I have also noticed if I space my posts out they get connected together too.

I didn't have the luxury of working where it was warm yesterday. It was about 12 degrees with a wind chill below zero. The cows were starting to congregate more and more in the corral across the road. I hoped it was because I had put a new salt block out,but no,all the balls were down in the waterer and no water was running in.

I ran back across the road,got a pail of hot water and a big screwdriver,opened it up and started pouring hot water on the valve. A whole pail of water and nothing was happening. I ran back over and got more,told the wife to grab some buckets and keep it coming.

Five pails of hot water and still nothing. I ran back and got a pair of pliers and a crescent wrench to take the valve off. When I pulled the cotter pin out of the float,it started running.

The darned thing is overfilling a little now and coming up around the balls so it's freezing them up. At least the valve isn't froze today,but I've already had to kick the balls loose twice today. Gotta love winter in Michigan.

Mine just worked. I'm using classic. I hit Enter twice where I want a paragraph.

Okay Guys,

I admit that I'm a whiner. We have about 2 or 3 inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is 28 degrees with a fairly stiff northern breeze. I just finished feeding the livestock and was feeling really sorry for myself until I came in and read your posts! I guess it's not quite as bad right here as I was thinking.

Good luck with your winter adaptations.

Tom in TN

It's 11 with a wind chill around -3. Headed out to grind two loads of feed. Wish you were here. LOL

Its 15 down here with a 0 wind chill and 3 inches of that white stuff from up north. Last week it was 65 and sunny here. If you don't like the Indiana weather wait a few days and it will change!

(quoted from post at 12:53:27 01/06/17)
The darned thing is overfilling a little now and coming up around the balls so it's freezing them up. ...but I've already had to kick the balls loose twice today.

Click to expand...

I hate it when the balls freeze up! :shock:

You can check the waterer twice a day for months and it will be just fine. Skip looking at it one time, it will have been frozen solid for 11.5 hours, just when the temp hits it's lowest...

still beats getting the old windmill spinning and breaking ice out of the steel tank!

Minus 13 here this morning with a good west breeze. I have to haul my water to the barn in an old stock tank in the back of an old truck , and then carry via 5 gallon buckets to each stall. When its this cold out , the valve on the stock tank discharge pipe is frozen by the time I drive the 150 feet to the barn !

I had to change the starter in the truck(even with jump didn't turn over) yesterday afternoon, it was a high of 2 for the day...add heavy wind and laying on a ice sheet(couldn't push in shop no room to turn around in there).... lets just say... B Ba B B-BURRRR...ten min out, 20 in.... three or four trips to fight it out...then another couple to get new in, then rest off night trying to warm up to "comfortable".

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket. Three times now the heater has failed to light in the wood working shop due to some electronic board glitch. All three times I have been in there to unplug and re-set it. One time I walked into the tractor shop in the morning to the sight of a hot foggy shop with and I could see flames coming out of the gas furnace through the fog. Temp in the shop was 105. I couldn't run fast enough to get the gas turned off. The pilot line had cracked and was leaking gas that ignited. Sooted up walls and ceiling was all the damage I had.

Ain't Snowbank Maintenance fun? Changed the distributor cap in my truck like that last winter at -10F. Could do it from the top, of course, but my 2000 chevy ton truck sets high enough that even with my long arms and torso I can't get to the back middle of the engine where it's located without standing on something, and of course when you're parked on a sheet of ice anything you stand on wants to scoot out from under you the minute you lean over--just about face-planted myself on top of the engine (with all those nice sensitive wires, cords, hoses, cables, sensors and other stuff to land on and break your fall!) several times and of course the wind is blowing snow all over everything. Same deal--10 minutes out, 20 in, and fighting a timetable before the transfer station closed trying to help a friend get her garbage taken care of. Got there with 10 minutes to spare until closing, and spent the rest of the day trying to get warm again!

Hate to be a spoil sport, but at least you have a shop. Single digit temps and sub- zero wind chills. Have to pull hub on four wheel drive and change ball joints. This is going to be fun.