What did you do today?

[zannej]

Rusty and Jon, those are gorgeous pictures! I wish I had more pics of my time in Guam. The water there was beautiful.

Highup, LOL! Its because I don't believe in carrying a purse and instead I wear a fanny pack with my keys hooked to the outside. They see me with a bunch of keys and seem to think I work there. I still had a good laugh over the guy who started screaming and swearing at me about how incompetent I was that I didn't know where something was in the store. I told him "I don't work here" but he was too busy screaming at me. He got mad at me for laughing and said he wanted to speak to my supervisor. I laughed harder and told him "for the fifth time I DON'T WORK HERE, YOU MORON!" Finally the words sunk in and he just stared at me flabbergasted. No apology or anything, but I was too busy laughing at his stupidity.

A couple of times I actually had people argue with me to try to convince me that I must work there because I have keys. LOL.

On more occasions I'll just start helping people (mostly elderly ones) and when they ask something only an employee knows I just say "I don't know, I don't work here" and they apologize.

One of the funniest times was when a manager at Staples mistook me for an employee and barked an order at me when I was trying to help my mother find something. I thought it was odd but thought maybe he was just rude and I didn't really care. Then a customer was asking a question and I knew the answer so I was explaining it to him and he asked if I worked there. I said "No" and the manager did a doubletake and apologized to me and then asked me to apply for a job there (unfortunately I don't live near that area and it was one of those places we go maybe once a month or once every few months).

and here I go rambling again. LOL.

 

[Floorist]

Crawled up into the back of my box truck yesterday, a tool box shifted and I fell and put a five inch gash in my left arm. Out comes the paper towels and duct tape. Old people are just plain clumsy.

 

[highup]

Rusty and Jon, those are gorgeous pictures! I wish I had more pics of my time in Guam. The water there was beautiful.

Highup, LOL! Its because I don't believe in carrying a purse and instead I wear a fanny pack with my keys hooked to the outside. They see me with a bunch of keys and seem to think I work there. I still had a good laugh over the guy who started screaming and swearing at me about how incompetent I was that I didn't know where something was in the store. I told him "I don't work here" but he was too busy screaming at me. He got mad at me for laughing and said he wanted to speak to my supervisor. I laughed harder and told him "for the fifth time I DON'T WORK HERE, YOU MORON!" Finally the words sunk in and he just stared at me flabbergasted. No apology or anything, but I was too busy laughing at his stupidity.

A couple of times I actually had people argue with me to try to convince me that I must work there because I have keys. LOL.

On more occasions I'll just start helping people (mostly elderly ones) and when they ask something only an employee knows I just say "I don't know, I don't work here" and they apologize.

One of the funniest times was when a manager at Staples mistook me for an employee and barked an order at me when I was trying to help my mother find something. I thought it was odd but thought maybe he was just rude and I didn't really care. Then a customer was asking a question and I knew the answer so I was explaining it to him and he asked if I worked there. I said "No" and the manager did a doubletake and apologized to me and then asked me to apply for a job there (unfortunately I don't live near that area and it was one of those places we go maybe once a month or once every few months).

and here I go rambling again. LOL.

The more you ramble, the better you make me look. ...so keep it up.

 

[Floorist]

Spent the day at a blue grass music festival. Yee-haw.

 

[highup]

+

Spent the day at a blue grass music festival. Yee-haw.

Speaking of grass.............
I acquired 3 mowers from my uncle from a rental house he just listed for sale. He needed to get them off the property because it had just been listed. I figured if they are just garbage, I'll sell 'em for scrap metal.
If I can butcher and combine them, maybe I can make one good mower out of the three.
Two had the same, or similar Briggs engines, but totally different carb designs, mainly the choke and priming systems. The engine dates are 6 years apart. Small engines were my thing back in high school and this was a challenge and also a need. I've been borrowing my neighbors mower.

My, how things have changed. No points anymore, and the magnetic pickup is now inside the coil................. I've been sleeping under a rock I guess.
The mowers are all missing parts because of an idiot that shouldn't have been allowed to touch tools. Parts are missing and corroded from setting outside in the elements.

Of the three mowers, I picked the one with the most potential as my guinea pig. Not a bad looking mower.
New gas of course wouldn't get it started. It "puffed" just once every three or four pulls.

I cleaned the carb really good and blew it out with compressed air.. It was pretty clean.................... There was no improvement.


Decided now, that the occasional "puff", was because the flywheel key was sheered making the ignition timing way off. Small issues like this are really big issues pertaining to one cylinder engine.

I bought a flywheel puller and sure enough, the flywheel key was sheered and I'd guess the ignition timing was a good 10 degrees off because of that.


I bought a new key, installed it plus a new spark plug, and expected a one pull start.... NOPE!
I had this clean engine, clean carb, clean tank, fresh gas with no corn crap in it................ dang, what could it be?

I checked the magneto and it seemed good. It measured the same as the second, and similar, Briggs engine.

This engine has an internal compression release and Briggs calls it an "Easy Start" engine. New to me how they actually do this. They mechanically reduce the compression at low RPM to make it easier to pull the rope. Once the engine starts, it's full compression. It's done as I have read, by the valve being held open by a special cam until the engine gets up to normal speed.
The engine is rated at 6.75 ft lbs of torque. The HP is probably similar. I can see why they reduce the compression at startup once the power gets to this level or above..............................old geezers like me can't pull like we used to do.

Because my other repair attempts that did virtually nothing, I decided to go deeper............... my frustration was setting in.

I removed the head and discovered that the exhaust valve was stuck open.........seized up pretty bad.

I got a new head gasket, lapped and polished the valves and gave the intake and exhaust ports a nice cleaning and polishing. I cut the valve stems on the intake and exhaust about 2 thousandths to compensate for my aggressive lapping and polishing of the valves.

It was after dark as I was packing up tools and getting this all buttoned up................ I got it all back together and got the head torqued "in the ballpark".

..............................DAM, it started on the second pull. I let it run for just 5 seconds as I didn't have the specs for the head bolt torque and hadn't snugged the bolts down as per factory spec. I'll do that tomorrow. I just wanted to hear this baby start.
IT"S ALIVE!

I'm sleepin' pretty good tonight. As frustrating as it was, I wasn't defeated by this mechanical nightmare. I learned a lot too................ so it was a good day.

 

[highup]

and here I go rambling again. LOL.

I can out ramble anyone. Even the great newcomer zannej stands not a chance in Hell! Muah ha ha!

 

[Jon]

I gave up fighting with lawn mowers years ago
Pay a guy $25 to mow them

 

[Jon]

Spent the day at a blue grass music festival. Yee-haw.

We went to a bar and there were 2 guys singing Country Rock. One of the guys even used to live in America until he saw the light and came to live in New Zealand He is a good guy
http://www.jamesray.info/

 

[DarisMulkin]

I gave up fighting with lawn mowers years ago
Pay a guy $25 to mow them

But we are poor flooring installers. Not millionaire flooring installers that takes these fancy trips with their pretty money.

Daris

 

[Nick]

You tell him Daris . I'm still waiting for my adoption papers from him .

 

[highup]

I gave up fighting with lawn mowers years ago
Pay a guy $25 to mow them

I did it for the challenge. There are very few parts on a mower that can cause a problem, and they are relatively cheap to work on. Besides, my old mower bit the dust, and my neighbors have been mowing my lawn when it gets too tall.
I think I just screwed up that excuse because it starts on one pull and runs smooooother than a new one.

You tell him Daris . I'm still waiting for my adoption papers from him .

Who was first in line?

 

[Floorist]

Bought an old minivan. I'm going to try concentrating on repairs and restretches. Keeping my full size van for the occasional new installation.

 

[Jon]

You tell him Daris . I'm still waiting for my adoption papers from him .

Haven't you got them yet Nick?
You sure you gave me the correct address
It was care of the White House wasn't it?

 

[Nick]

My house is white , You must have put in the wrong state and address .

 

[Nick]

I did it for the challenge. There are very few parts on a mower that can cause a problem, and they are relatively cheap to work on. Besides, my old mower bit the dust, and my neighbors have been mowing my lawn when it gets too tall.
I think I just screwed up that excuse because it starts on one pull and runs smooooother than a new one.



Who was first in line?

I was .

 

[DarisMulkin]

I was .

No you are on second.

Daris

 

[Nick]

Guess I'll have to hack into his confuser and change that .

 

[highup]

No you are on second.

Daris

Guess I'll have to hack into his confuser and change that .

Who's on first?

 

[highup]

Bought an old minivan. I'm going to try concentrating on repairs and restretches. Keeping my full size van for the occasional new installation.

I have used my '93 S-10 pickup to travel to and fro once I get tools on a job. Sometimes if the job is near by, I will check it out first, then arrange a time to do the work. That way, if the work is simple, or just a repair, I can load the tools I need into the truck. 20mpg is a lot better than 10.5

 

[Floorist]

I have used my '93 S-10 pickup to travel to and fro once I get tools on a job. Sometimes if the job is near by, I will check it out first, then arrange a time to do the work. That way, if the work is simple, or just a repair, I can load the tools I need into the truck. 20mpg is a lot better than 10.5

My work van gets about 8.