What did you do today?

[highup]

I took my monster Makita 5200 compressor to the job today. When I got home, just for the heck of it I unscrewed the fill cap thinking it would have a dipstick on it. Nope, it's got a site plug with a red dot in the center to show the fill level.
I bought this compressor around Christmas time, a little before. My 1993 Emglo was kicking the bucket, needing a start capacitor and a pressure switch. Who knows how much rust was on the inside of those twin tanks, so find the repair parts might not make that good of a deal. I needed a compressor, like it right now. It died while I was finishing up 200 ft of quarter round. Had to buy a compressor.
Got a really good deal on this compressor and it was only $160 bucks at a pawn shop. New ones at the time for costing $350 to $400. It's much more compressive than I need for work but I found that it now allows me to use some air tools and not just staplers.
Why would I not check the oil level in a new to me, used compressor? That should have been the first thing I did when I bought it.
On the outside, the compressor looks fantastic. At the pawn shop I plugged it in and both gauges slowly rose up to 140 lb in perfect synchronicity...... Is that a word?
This is a 3 horsepower compressor in the pawn shop it started easily with a 50 ft 16 3 cord outside the building. That right there sold me on it.
I had to also looked at ratings on this unit and it's like top of the list, top of the heap.
Anyway before unloading it out of the truck tonight, I unscrewed the fill cap and it didn't have a dipstick so I looked at the site plug and it was just totally black. I had no idea if it was empty or overfilled so I put a plastic container underneath it and pulled the drain plug. Thick goo, almost resembling gear oil, came out of there. It smelled like used motor oil.
Compressors don't have thick oil. They also don't have black oil. The compressor runs perfect so I hope nothing is worn inside of it.
I let the oil drain for 10 minutes and tipped it on its side to get every drop I could out of there. I had a quart of senco synthetic compressor oil so I filled that up to the sight line with that. I plugged in the compressor and allowed it to fill up then unplug it and flush the tank. I looked at the site plug again and now it looked like it was low so I added some more oil. I pumped up the tank again and flushed it and I did that two times. Then I checked the oil a second time and it seems foamy.
Looked online and show me oil seems to me from high humidity and temperature issues or overfilling of the oil in the crankcase. It's been sitting in the carport for 2 hours. It was obvious that I overfilled it. I have a friend designed for mixing fuel for two cycle engines and I use that to suck out the excess oil. It's now slightly below the red dot in a sight line, not slightly above it. I'm sure it will be fine, it was just kind of a surprise to see the synthetic oil turn foamy that fast. Maybe it's compatibility issue with the thick oil that I drained out. I still have enough Senco oil to refill the crank case a second time and use my first fill as a flush.
I got reading stuff online that semco and probably other manufacturers send a break-in oil which is supposed to be changed soon after you start using it.
If the oil was that thick, could this be the breaking oil from 2008?
Nobody is that stupid, right?

https://www.amazon.com/Makita-MAC52...=mac5200+air+compressor&qid=1629444681&sr=8-3

 

[highup]

On a different note:
This has got to be one of the coolest families ever. To have a dad so dedicated to these kids lives that he's made one of the neatest bands in my recollection.
His profession is as a musician.
Colvin brought his income and his world to a virtual stop. He had time to teach the kids and somehow he turned this into a fantastic family band.
Who would think that covid could create something this fantastic.

This an eary early video and it shows him instructing his kids as to their part in this one song. I'm biased because I think this is one of the coolest songs ever. These kids nailed it.
The little girl is the one that intrigues me the most because she looks like she's goofing around and dancing like an idiot, but when it comes time to shine, like hitting the cowbell or any other instrument or just anything, she is spot on and as good as it gets. She nails every note, every single tap of the cowbell or Maracas or whatever she's handed. She spins in circles like a dust devil but whenever she needs to hit a note, she nails it.

 

[highup]

Well I'm gaining on my gauge set. Got the aluminum and the formica piece cut out. The formica fits well enough the gauges will hold it in place so I'm not going to glue it.
Next is wiring and running the oil line and the water temperature line.
This might be harder than what I've done so far. I would have preferred gray Formica, but finding a match would be a bit unrealistic.
...besides, I have black.

 

[Floorist]

Just walking the pets.

 

[highup]

If it isn't one thing, it's another.
The one thing is I was going to check the wiring from the dimmer switch for my gauge lights so I can run a wire from there to where my new gauges will be.
The panel that holds my headlights and the dimmer only takes two screws to get loose but the bundle of wires is short which makes it hard getting the plugs unplugged.
Once I got the panel removed I noticed one of the wires had a bare spot in it. I grabbed a light to get a better look at the situation and realize that same wire has a bubbled appearance indicating it's been rather warm. It appears to be a ground wire but I can't find a description with the color codes.
It gets even more fun. To hold the dimmer knob and the headlight switches in place is a metal bracket with two screws at the top and two screws at the bottom. They of course screw into plastic. In the '80s and into the '90s GM used the crappiest plastic ever created. To add insult to injury they made it thin.
One of the bosses that holds the screws was still intact. The bottom runs were actually gone and one of the top ones was cracked.
I probably spent 2 hours getting a piece of plastic to replace the lower bosses and then cut reinforcements for the upper bosses to reinforce them. JB weld quick is your friend. Love that stuff.
While I had a torn apart I opened up the rheostat and polished up all the copper contacts and contact surfaces. I won't know if the dimmer works better than it used to or not at least not until tonight.
Basically all I got done today was worry about a ground wire that's gotten hot. I have no idea how to get in there and replace it because the wires are tucked too far into the dash to do a repair and the cavity is only about 2 in by 5 in. Not much room for wire strippers and fat hands.
Oh wait it gets better.
I replaced the gasket in the bottom of the throttle body a month and a half or two ago and while I had it off like I gave it a spit shine inside and out.
The engine has had a slight stumble for a couple of seconds whenever I start the truck. I decided to look into the throttle body again and see if there was any build up, which there shouldn't be because I just, ....I just cleaned the damn thing.
There is a vent from the rocker arm cover directly into an air cleaner spacer in the back of the throttle body. That hose was plugged up totally when I had the throttle body off and was cleaning it so I cleaned out the hose too and for the first time in a long time, my PVC system was functioning.
Okay, back to the stumble I was trying to get rid of. This is what the back side of the throttle body looks like. It was shiny metal a month and a half or so ago.
Okay, that's obviously from moisture. I searched around and discovered where it's coming from. The intake manifold gasket is apparently not in the best of shape. There's a water crossover passage on the back side of the intake manifold that feeds both heads. This is one time where moist is not good. I'm thinking it may be a slow drip into the lifter valley that's just enough to evaporate continuously and get sucked up through that vent tube. The oil is not milky at all it looks great.
I pulled the spark plugs on this side of the engine and if water was seeping into the intake then the plug should be white and clean because water in the heat pretty much steam clean the porcelain. The one closest to the leak had a reddish tinge to it. That's not from water so I don't think any water is getting sucked into the cylinder. I don't think a leak into the head could cause the moisture getting into the oil. And since I can now see some bubbling on the backside of the intake manifold I think it's just that gasket.
This is not going to be fun to fix. I'm hoping some stop leak, some of that Silver Seal aluminum stuff we'll make a temporary fix.
..................and how was your day?

 

[highup]

I'm sitting at the hospital in the parking lot waiting for my brother. He had a pain in his side and just told me he's been having it off and on for a week. Looks like somebody else isn't having a nice day because of a helicopter just landed at the end of the parking lot by the emergency room.
No they weren't landing in a parking space they have their own.

 

[Floorist]

I'm sitting at the hospital in the parking lot waiting for my brother. He had a pain in his side and just told me he's been having it off and on for a week. Looks like somebody else isn't having a nice day because of a helicopter just landed at the end of the parking lot by the emergency room.
No they weren't landing in a parking space they have their own.

I hope he gets seen soon. In the ERs around here you can have a 12 hour wait because of covid. Some people have actually waited 24 hours. Last time I went to one I left after 3 hours. A lady sitting there told me he had been there 8 hours and still had 8 people in front of her. In the 3 hours I had waited, they had taken in 1 patient.

 

[Mark Brown]

I hope he gets seen soon. In the ERs around here you can have a 12 hour wait because of covid. Some people have actually waited 24 hours. Last time I went to one I left after 3 hours. A lady sitting there told me he had been there 8 hours and still had 8 people in front of her. In the 3 hours I had waited, they had taken in 1 patient.

Last time I needed stitches, I did it myself because I knew there was no way I hell my little (non life threatening) cut would ever be seen as a priority.

I figure unless I'm closer to death than life I stay far away from that place.

 

[havasu]

Since today is my birthday, my son got me a bottle of wine, and 2500 rounds of 9mm bullets!

 

[C.J.]

I'm sitting at the hospital in the parking lot waiting for my brother. He had a pain in his side and just told me he's been having it off and on for a week. Looks like somebody else isn't having a nice day because of a helicopter just landed at the end of the parking lot by the emergency room.
No they weren't landing in a parking space they have their own.

Fun fact: If you tell them you think you’re having a heart attack, there is no waiting.

 

[C.J.]

Since today is my birthday, my son got me a bottle of wine, and 2500 rounds of 9mm bullets!

So you’re gonna have some wine then fire off a few rounds? Don’t forget to raise your pinkie

 

[highup]

Last time I needed stitches, I did it myself because I knew there was no way I hell my little (non life threatening) cut would ever be seen as a priority.

I figure unless I'm closer to death than life I stay far away from that place.

Cross stitch? Overcast stitch? 5:00 stitch?

 

[highup]

Since today is my birthday, my son got me a bottle of wine, and 2500 rounds of 9mm bullets!

Holy crap I just figured out why I don't celebrate my birthday. If I got crap like that I'd have more than one birthday per year.

 

[highup]

I hope he gets seen soon. In the ERs around here you can have a 12 hour wait because of covid. Some people have actually waited 24 hours. Last time I went to one I left after 3 hours. A lady sitting there told me he had been there 8 hours and still had 8 people in front of her. In the 3 hours I had waited, they had taken in 1 patient.

Well it's been over three and a half hours. I was probably here for half an hour before I posted something online. They don't want visitors hanging out in there so I had to leave anyway. I made a run to O'Reilly's and I've been sitting here ever since. I've texted him twice and hasn't responded so I went inside and the security lady went back and checked for me. I don't know how long it took for him to be seen. I guess he's waiting for a CT scan and he told me to go home. He'll give me a call when it's time to pick him up. I'm only about 12 or 15 minutes away from the hospital anyway.
Film at 11:00 ......

 

[Jon]

Happy Birthday hav
Hope you got that parcel I sent you?

 

[highup]

Wow I totally forgot to do the film....
The scan showed just whaty brother thought it was. He was told a year or so ago he had something that's not unusual for us older folks. Some sort of bulge or pocket in the intestine or colon.
It can sometimes cause a blockage. The gave him every test known to mankind except for an MRI. Better safe than sorry I guess. He's gonna be fine. Maybe a liquid diet till Monday when he can get a prescription filled.

 

[zannej]

CJ, you would think they there is no waiting if you think you're having a heart attack but that's not how it works where I live. First and foremost they want to know if you have insurance. No insurance or crappy insurance & you're S.O.L. Also, they are more likely to take you in if you are a man. They don't take women as seriously and women's symptoms for heart attack can be different. But, I think it also depends on where you live. Where I live they don't take women seriously. My friend's grandma went to the ER with a heart attack. They made her wait behind other non-critical male patients even though she was brought in an ambulance. After about 4 hours of waiting her son took her to another hospital with fewer patients & that hospital was able to see her & treat her-- said if she had waited longer she would have died. This was before Covid. Our system here is f***ed up.

Highup, I hope replacing that one gasket will fix things. Good luck with that wiring harness. Will your brother require surgery eventually? Bowl obstructions can be very painful from what I've heard.

Havasu, Happy Birthday!

I went to Sams to pick up stuff and did a curbside pickup order. Since the app won't load on my phone I tried calling but nobody answered the phone. I was lucky enough to catch the lady who brings stuff out to vehicles when she was just finishing up loading someone's stuff. I told her I couldn't get the app to work on my phone and had tried to set up texting but it didn't seem to be working and that nobody answered when I called. No arguments about trying to install the app from her. She asked my name and grabbed my order. Then came out and asked me to pull up to the loading area as some of the stuff was heavy. My brother and I got out in the loading area to help. My brother got the heaviest stuff for her. Much less hassle this time. Popped in to the nearest Walmart to grab something that wasn't available at Sams for our friend.

Dropped stuff off at our friend's house and headed home. He messaged me later saying there was a problem. I thought it was with the diapers or something but then he said a rat chewed a hole in the power cable for his refrigerator and he couldn't find any electrical tape to temporarily patch it. So I grabbed some from the house as well as a UV disinfectant box that Mom wanted me to give him, and headed over. He called just as I was pulling up to his house and said he wanted to bring a cat in to kill the rat and asked me to hit the nearest store for spray foam (to seal the hole in the wall to block the rat), a litterbox, litter scoop, cheap litter, and cat food. Store had no spray foam but I grabbed steel wool & told him to cram it in the hole and tape it if need be. He patched the wire and fridge is working again. I then searched for a replacement cord and sent him the link. He's going to order it. I forgot to ask if he needed any wire nuts for the meantime.

I was exhausted after that so I was napping. Mom paged me in a rage saying something about the hamburger meat being bad and that it was like I was flushing her money down the toilet. Then she shouted something else and hung up. I checked the meat and got my brother to check it for a 2nd opinion. It's not bad. She was just being melodramatic. Also, it's rich to hear her complain about throwing money away on wasted food considering how whenever she went grocery shopping herself she would get all kinds of stuff she said she was going to cook, never cooked it, and it would go bad. She always had a lot of wasted food every month. The rest of us weren't allowed to touch it because she "had plans" for it. So it would go bad and I'd have to clean it out.

I'll have to cook the meat today.

 

[DarisMulkin]

Since today is my birthday, my son got me a bottle of wine, and 2500 rounds of 9mm bullets!

Happy Birthday and enjoy the trigger pulling.

 

[Floorist]

I thought I was having a heart attack about 15 years ago. Waited over 2 hours to be seen while having chest pains

 

[highup]

My plan is to not need to go to the hospital. My plan has worked so well, that I haven't been in need of one for almost 64 years. With the exception of mom taking me there almost 64 years ago.