Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux

[rickf]

That HD Ryobi sale must be a local thing. I just looked at mine and it has two sales but bot are dedicated tool kits. A 6 tool combo kit for 199.00 or a drill/driver kit for 79.00. Nothing about 4 amp batteries at all. I saw on the Project Farm site where one of the cheap brands at Lowes I think it was consistently tested even with the Milwaukee brand. That was in 3/8 impact, which I think is by far the most useful.

Neat website, tests all kinds of stuff from useful to downright crazy but really puts some serious thought into the testing process.

https://www.youtube.com/c/projectfarm

[m3a1]

I really loath battery powered stuff but I felt better about it having two batteries. Lots of little stuff to be done around here that will benefit from it. Less cords to run (and I have a LOT of cords). Might even get off my backside and do those jobs, now that I have made it so much easier.

So, to some news. I am contemplating buying a used 1993 Jeep YJ (Wrangler) from the same friend who sold me Longfellow. I think Jeeps are, for the most part, 'OK' but every time I get close to a newer one I see the interior jam packed with all sorts of crap that would leave me driving with my elbows tucked into my ribs. Not the kind of driving experience I'm looking for. NOPE. But an older rig might just do.

The truth is, my Suburban is too long in the tooth to justify sorting out all the myriad things that are wrong with it...including a few things, the repair of which absolutely cannot be justified unless I intend to drive it another 150,000 miles and that's not gonna happen. So, we are looking to replace it before it finally turns up its toes.

Now, I don't know if you've looked at what is happening with used car and truck prices but a friend of mine took his pickup in for some work the other day and they promptly offered him $38,000 for it, so they could flip it and make 10K or more from the next buyer. He didn't sell it because you can't get doodly squat for 38K. Crazy times we live in and certainly NOT the time to be shopping for anything anywhere other than off the curb.

So, my buddy has this YJ with....are ya ready kids?....

63,000 miles on the clock.

Yup. You read that right. Well, between that low a mileage and for the fact that it has the Iron Duke six-banger under the hood, I became VERY interested. Also in the Plus Column, it has an automatic trans (not very manly, but it means more floor space), NEW tires (including the spare), NEW professionally installed aftermarket under-dash AC, NEW radiator, NEW water pump, NEW battery, NEW brake shoes all around, NEW radio/CD player/bluetooth, NEW padding on the whole roll cage, it's a Sahara edition (whatever that means), the interior is wholly without carpet (but has been professionally coated with bedliner stuff, fore and aft), it is tidy and unmolested under the hood, it has a modest receiver hitch (for modest towing) and the sort of bumper up front that could conceivably hold a winch. Oh, and it has a hard top with hard top doors along with a second set of hard half-doors.

By now, you may have guessed that I'm a very practical fellow. I think putting carpet in a Jeep is as useful as putting pomade on a Porcupine.

In the Minus Column, it is a tad too tall, the tires are too darned big, the front end needs work (I would rather direct those repairs rather then rely on a previous owner's judgement anyway) and the seats need to be rebuilt and reupholstered, chiefly because the truck is a tad too tall and occupants have been sliding out of those seats for YEARS (with predictable results) and the paint needs attention here and there.

Otherwise, she's cherry.

I reckon the best part is, if I DO buy it, this Jeep won't depreciate much over the next few years. Hopefully the people in this country will grow tired of all this nonsense we've had to endure and things will begin to straighten out a bit after a few politicians get shown the door. Maybe we Americans can even buy a truck once in a while without having to sell off a few of our kids to do it. So, I'm hoping this little Jeep will carry me through to that day.

Cheers,
TJ

[m3a1]

Hey, kids! It's Movie Review Time!

*spoiler alert*

Subject - JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION

In this movie, dinosaurs live among us. Some are a hazard, some just seem to hang out (like cats) but, if you came to see dinosaurs on a collision coarse with humanity you came to the right movie. There is a dinosaur behind every blade of grass. But, Evil (or misguided) Big Tech is doing some things (No! REALLY? Say it ain't so!) without considering whether or not they should be doing some of these things.

Right in the center of this is 'THAT GUY' (played by B.D. Wong) who is the lovable, brilliant (but misguided) Dr. Henry Wu, who continually assures everyone, "I can fix this!" after his work goes right off the rails at the leadership of a brilliant, yet stupid, boss who represents an End Justifies The Means mentality.

Sound familiar?

We can give Dr. Wu a pass because the writers assure us that when you screw around with DNA, well...Shirt Happens. So, it's all good, especially if you CAN fix this....right?

Steely Dan's lyrics seem right somehow-

Are you with me Doctor Wu
Are you really just a shadow
Of the man that I once knew
Are you crazy are you high
Or just an ordinary guy
Have you done all you can do
Are you with me Doctor

Frankly, I found that timely, considering the people who are presently at OUR helm won't even admit there is a problem, much less work toward solutions. This whacky scientist dude has that been at the heart of EVERY one of the Jurassic films and HE is the engine that drives all this mayhem. Dr. Wu reminds me of the old LE training question, "If you bust into a bomb making factory, who is the first guy you shoot?" Answer, "You shoot the chemist." Right! If I were a character in this movie, Dr Wu (no matter how lovable) would be on my personal hit list and yet, the conundrum is laid bare because in THIS universe, only Big Tech is capable of undoing its wrongs. Sounds rather sticky. Those of us who would reverse the process with butterfly nets, sticks, arrows, spears, and boom sticks are apparently completely powerless to stop it.

Yeeeeeahhh.

Riiiiiiight.

Give me a few A10 Warthogs and I'll take care of your dinosaur problem, friend. Afterward, your ground will be plowed, your trees will be trimmed and your house will be air conditioned but finding a dinosaur napping in your favorite parking space will never happen again. EVER.

Oddly, the script writers decided that, despite the evils of Big Tech, some of its minions are just pawns in a much larger game and could possibly be redeemed. They should be given a stern talking to, complete with finger-wagging, in order to bring them back from the edge of irredeemability. (Is that a word?) This 'talking to' actually happens in the movie too little and too late and despite its perfect logic, it is ultimately dismissed by the minions because...well, YOU know...Big Tech always pays big, Big, BIG paychecks! That's how they keep otherwise worthwhile folk completely zombified and doing their bidding, no questions asked.

There's a lesson in there somewhere.

What goes completely unaddressed is the concept that maybe some OTHER lovable, brilliant (but misguided) chemist (and there's that chemist again!) would find a way to round up all those excess dinosaurs and turn them into motor fuels....which nowadays, would undoubtedly be panned as being even MORE EVIL than bioengineering dinosaurs under the auspices of advancing DNA research for the good of all mankind. The concept seems real enough to me, but some things just go unexplained.

Either way, the dinosaurs get the short end of the stick because, once their utility as a practice run for some whacky DNA experiment is exhausted, they are simply being sent out into the great big world with no marching orders whatsoever and left to fend for themselves. Maybe if Evil Big Tech had been cleaning up after themselves... Maybe afterwards, if they sold the dinosaurs to ANOTHER Evil Big Tech who made them into motor fuels (and maybe even into some of those tasty little breakfast sausages) we might really have even less clarity about who the villains actually are. You can't buy me with money, but tasty little breakfast sausages (especially the ones that brown up really nice) well, those will get my attention every time. But seriously, it's tough to complain too loudly about stuff that's "for the good of all mankind"....especially if it involves cheaper fuel and tasty little breakfast sausages as a by-product.

And if that isn't confusing you...

The OTHER 800 lb gorilla in the room is the absence of PETA in this movie. Where the H-E-double toothpicks is PETA?! Are they on the cutting room floor? In this movie, PETA is apparently sitting this one out because, well....lots of dinosaurs EAT PEOPLE (apparently sometimes just for the sport of it). PETA, trying to convince folks that their personal safety and the safety of little kids waiting in line for a school bus (or maybe even ice cream) comes a distant second to the safety of dinosaurs....is a mountain even PETA can't climb, and they darned well know it. I would have loved to see a scene where a few Vegan PETA protestors get gobbled up by a dinosaur that was formerly believed to be exclusively a herbivore. Ahh, that would have been perfect. Alas, it wasn't in the movie.

But it should have been.

Minor Spoiler - Some people of questionable integrity are seen to be eating dinosaurs, making them seem all the more counter-culture, chiefly because good people with a strong moral compass don't eat dinosaurs.

Mmmm-Hmmmm.

Personally, I think that one thing sums up the balance to the movie which is, the lines between the good guys and the bad guys (and the lines between herbivores and carnivores) can be rather blurry and the rest of us can get dragged into the maelstrom even if we're doing our best to stay on the sidelines. Ain't THAT the truth!

I give this movie Five Dinostars.

Cheers,
TJ

[raymond]

At least these dinosaurs aren't doing actual destruction like the real life dinosaurs in D.C.

[m3a1]

[m3a1]

Happy Father's Day in advance...I'm sure at least SOME of you have procreated.

[m3a1]

Father's Day. First, let me say that I hope it was good for you too.

We took a leisurely drive in the Hill Country on Saturday and ended up at Camp Verde, Texas which is a nice little restaurant (with shopping for the wife) located in what was formerly a general store located about one mile from Old Camp Verde; an Army encampment famous for its contribution of camels (you read that right...C-a-m-e-l-s) to the military arsenal. Google that if you're curious but don't confuse it with any Camp Verde located in any of the other 49 lesser states.

Along the drive we came across this unique fixer-upper opportunity.

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I also picked this turn of the century multi-tool. It's a Lowentraut 1894 Patent Combination Brace Wrench made in Newark, NJ. They had a lot on their minds when they whipped this one up. Very prominently laid the casting is the phrase, "20th CENTURY". There was at lot going on at the turn of the century. Lots of exciting things coming to pass and as with many other people, these folks were probably basking in the glory of their technological achievements so, why not commemorate that with a snazzy multi-tool? It's really 'all that' and I'd imagine if you showed up at the mechanic's convention with one of these, you'd be the belle of the ball. Alas, as it goes with most multi-tools, it obviously never really caught on.

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Sunday, the good doctor took me to a one-weekend-a-month venue called Fredericksburg Market Days (because working in and around a flea market ALL THE TIME just isn't enough). You've heard me speak of going to Warrenton before. This is a miniature version of that and it was surprisingly good in that there were small hills of good stuff. 'Market Days' usually evokes visions of kitschy stuff that people whip up to make a quick buck, like little barnyard geese with bows around their necks, cut out of pine and painted with chalk paint in a sort of strange, otherworldly Mother Goose theme. You know the one...where Geese talk and old women live in shoes. There was some of that but, happily, it was kept to a manageable level.

As per usual, I barely set foot in the place and immediately found something to take home with me. Happens all the time. I might just as well have saved all the walking and gone home at that point but this was new territory so, I felt compelled to check everything out. Found more good stuff I would have liked to take home but the heat was making everyone crazy, including some of the sellers who clearly wanted to make a weekend's payday all in one sale. So, I left quite a few interesting things behind. Anyway, what I did bring home was a largish sheave. I selected it over all the other goodies based upon the principle that one can never ever have enough sheaves.

This li'l' fella was a very robustly designed unit, missing a pin (I had one on the shelf at home just waiting for this sort of work, naturally) and the sheave was the size of a large dinner plate. It exhibited very minor evidence of having been greased sometime in the last 10 years which, in my experience, seemed promising enough to warrant a second look. The seller had simply glanced at it, decided it was too ugly to be of any real purposeful use, and put a 'gimmee price' on it (for people who buy old stuff just for the sake of ambiance). That's my kind of deal. Seeing past the rust, I looked it over carefully, declared it 100% healthy and claimed it as my own. I still have to do the math on it but I reckon it's rated fairly high and this fills a gap in my collection of sheaves that, heretofore, jumped straight from intermediate-sized to full-gonzo-humongous. I might even clean it up a little bit, or just let the rust wear off naturally, which is to say during good, honest use.

IMG_9436.jpg

Cheers,
TJ

[rickf]

I have the exact same snatch block, bought it new in 1975 when I bought my new Warn 8274 winch. That block should have a pop out pin that only slides out through the one side and the clevis and is retained in the other side for insertion and removal of the cable. It should also have a grease nipple on the bolt that goes through the center of the pulley. I have used up three cables and never put any wear on that snatch block. I will see if I can find it in the Jeep and get some pics.

[raymond]

TJ

In all these flea market/garage sale/swap meets you've documented,...................did you ever find a good old fashioned battery charger?

[rickf]

I have found several in local auctions. Look in estate auctions, that is where I tend to find older and marine stuff.

[m3a1]

If you're talking about the 'not smart' chargers...they are as rare as hen's teeth. Funny you should mention it. I really though I found one while I was at the latest place and it turned out to be a Schumacher that looked all the world like an old school one when it had a bunch of stuff piled on top of it.

I've been looking for one that will allow me to set up an electrolytic bath. Sir Billiam fried my last one when he was doing his motorcycle tank. Sad, but true.

[Mark]

charger, Is this what you are talking about?

[Mark]

I want to post the picture with no png(31.52 KiB under it.Before I did, but I can't.I don't know what I am doing wrong/not doing

[m3a1]

In case you were wondering...here's what a turn of the century, horse drawn grader looks like...

67728628863__C4FA8F4D-7C3B-4B35-A92A-2223873BB147.jpg

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67728630215__E9DE9F1F-B4EC-4DDA-BAC0-D3C2F32F7439.jpg

It's missing the sulky seat and the front wheel set but, hooked up to Longfellow, it actually pulls and grades rather well. Its cutting abilities would be improved by the addition of a little weight (since there is no one sitting on the back to weigh it down) but it does the work.

The moldboard can be adjusted much as you would expect any other grader's blade to adjust. It can be adjusted in terms of blade lift which includes level blade lift or blade-angled lift (i.e. tilted), and rotation (wherein the blade is set at an angle, rather than being at zero degrees which is set to grade straight ahead). I am only guessing but I would imagine that the blade angle might have been adjusted by raising or lowering the tongue at the front wheel set. Alas, that bit is long gone but at this late date one cannot expect to have everything.

[D Pizzoferrato]

TJ's Camp Verde comments remind me of a joke told to me long ago by a former 5th SF trooper. A new Lieutenant was assigned to Camp Verde where the Army Cavalry had experimented with camels in the past. The camels were long gone as working animals when the Lt arrived, but the old time troopers had an affinity for one cantankerous old she camel that they couldn't bear to get rid of. She was off the books and hidden in the back of the stables where she was lovingly cared for by the troopers. The Lt, familiarizing himself with his new posting, made an inspection trip to the stables. He was quite impressed with the facilty and the horses and expressed so to his troopers. As he was leaving, he heard the most gawdawful snorting bawl from the hidden rear recesses of the stable; so gawdawful, that it stopped him dead in his tracks. "Sergeant, what in the hell was that?" Sarge explained that it was the old she camel that the men had grown fond of cared for in the back of the stables. Lt went to investigate, at which point the camel snorted and spit on him raising his ire a couple of notches. "Sergeant, What in the hell is that camel doing here"? "Well sir, you see, the men, who have grown rather fond of her, use the camel when their masculine needs become unbearable, being out here in the middle of nowhere, with no women around." That's the most perverted, disgusting thing I ever heard retorted the Lt. "I order you to immediately dispose of that disgusting creature." But the men sir, and their needs". "That's an order Sargeant, Immediately!" As the Lt was leaving the stables, he heard a lone shot ring out. Some months later, the Lt approached the Sergeant, admitting that he was experiencing the isolation of the post and relayed that he may have acted in youthful, stubborn haste when he ordered the camel destroyed. The sergeant fessed up that he couln't bear to destroy the animal, as ordered, but fired the shot to make it appear so. He confessed that he took the camel to an adjacent ranch where it was being tended to. "Could you get her back?" asked the Lt. "I'll have her here this evening sir" the sergeant replied. Later that evening, the Lt met the Sargeant in the stable. "So, how do the men do this?" asked the Lt. Sarge told the Lt to stand behind the camel as he went to the lead to get the camel to kneel down. Once the camel knealt down and returning to the Lt behind the camel, Sarge was shocked to see Lt standing there with his pants down around his ankles with an anticipatory grin and a loving gleam in his eyes. "What do the men do next Sergeant"? "Well, beggin' the Lt's pardon sir, but generally at this point, three or four troopers climb on her back, ride her out the rear gate, over the next two hills and end up at the nearest whorehouse".