Cooling the shop.

[Leon]

I am not sure I have ever seen a capacitor ever attached by anything but a metal retainer, many require a metal ground, take for instance the old automotive style with only 1 wire connection.

[Bill]

Larry, Based on your experience, and my experience of paying $280 for my first A/C capacitor (installed) a couple years ago, I picked up one of those newfangled-meters for myself today (Sperry DV6450), slightly on sale at Menards. I hope I can even learn something from it.

I don't think my hair long enough for your regular test!

Bill

[Larry Jaques]

It doesn't matter how long your hair is. Humans aren't built for cap testing via fingers. I accidentally caught the lead of an 800v cap in a monitor when I was training at Coleman College. I had a knot of scar tissue in my finger there for years, even though the incident was over in a split second.

Best bang for the bucks.

-- We are always the same age inside. -- Gertrude Stein

[dpb]

...

I just spent all day earlier this week working lime deposits out of the return feed tubes on top of the large chiller on the education building at the church, then unplugging all the holes on the radiators...it's roughly 5-ft high x 8-ft long w/ radiator surface on both faces...

Got call from the preacher that water was pouring down the roof drains the previous evening--had plugged so badly was just dumping water. Removed several buckets-full of "egg shell".

That's after the purge valve on the PU had failed and the fuel pump had collapsed the gas tank so spent the day before that replacing it...

Now I'm in the search for an obsolete snap ring according to Mr Deere for one of the tractors that for the want of which their suggestion is a $500 assembly to replace a 3" idler pulley bearing... :(

Meanwhile, the mod's to the DC for remote access to get the planer to quit throwing chips all over everywhere which was a wanted perk before starting the box I promised DIL for her father's ashes for a memorial sometime this summer are on hold while everything else breaks...

"It's always _something_ ... "

--

[dpb]

It's obsolete in JD parts (I'm guessing because Smalley Steel Ring bought out the original OEM Spiralox and Deere didn't bother to update/confirm the new vendor when the stock from the previous ran out.

The problem is that they're the old style and a light-duty one that's to fit a 0.030" wide groove. All the standard stuff these days is 0.050".

The machine shop I deal w/ guy called his distributor and they don't have the right size in stock and it's a hefty minimum order to the manufacturer and not sure about delivery after that. I have found another distributor and they actually have an office within 100 mi so a sweet-sounding thing is supposed to be working on seeing if she can get hands on a couple for me. Smalley has a link for requesting samples; I submitted a request but no indication yet whether they'll follow through or not.

If all else fails, I'll take the pulley to the machine shop and have them recut the grooves to fit the 0.050" rings that one can get easily...if do have to go to factory minimum that'll be roughly equivalent cost and will end up w/ a more easily replaced one in the future if ever need it again...

It's just the pita of it all...Mr Deere could just as easily found that Spiralox is now Smalley as I. Generally this doesn't happen much w/ green but it did on this particular part.

Put "VH 137" in the search box for the specific puppy needed...it's for a 1.375" bore internal. And, of course, if you just happen to have one in the parts drawer... :)

Speaking of AC -- grandfather bought a little WD-45 way back when he was beginning to slow down some and thought he couldn't handle the Farmalls any longer but wanted to not give up entirely. We ended up w/ a whole line of the "Snap Coupler" equipment for it -- 4-row lister, knife sled, springtooth chisel, ... having had so much equipment, Dad traded it for a D-17 later on while I was still in HS and I did a _lot_ of row crop on that little thing. Eventually we went to the larger equipment and retired it from field work and put a frontend loader on it--it was a nice little loader tractor albeit a little low to the ground. I've kept my eyes out just for nostalgia but haven't sprung for one yet.... :)

--

[dpb]

There's no way anybody would ever be able to tell w/o completely disassembling it and I certainly don't keep stuff for collector-purposes as vintage collector. It's used, not admired... :)

...

...

AFAIK they never did go to live PTO at least until the 100-series in the mid-70s, anyway. One of the really, really, really bad things of them. But, they were the less expensive option on design and those were the ways they got them to be such. They did do a lot of work; they were pretty popular here in the 50s and 60s until Deere introduced the

4-cylinders w/ the 010 series and began to build the dominance they now have. Probably less than 20% now is other than Green around here.

The D-17 developed terrible oil leaks towards the end of its career here--Dad sold it and all the equipment in the auction when he retired. I've wished any number of times I had a couple of the smaller pieces for the garden since we came back to the farm after he died. Of course, for real work out here now that what we farmed with when growing up is just toy stuff...where it was a 4-row lister at 3-4 mph then, now it's

16-row minimum and some are up to as much as 48(!) and GPS at 7-8 mph. I plant in a morning what took most of week then.

--

[dpb]

On 8/10/2012 12:33 PM, Mike Marlow wrote: ...

Allis was bought by Deutz sometime in the 80s after struggling mightily in the new era and then eventually again to Agco who sold Agco-Allis for awhile but by 2000 roughly the Allis name had disappeared entirely.

Stuff was very mixed here in all shades in the early post-WWII years w/ green and Farmall red the most dominant. But Case, M-Moline were well represented as well as Allis. Oliver green was pretty rare. A large fraction of what became popular in an area was dependent on the quality of the dealerships as much as the brand of the equipment itself. There were a few like my grandfather and father who refused to have a "Johnny-Pop" simply because they did not want to listen to it. Grandpa's first tractor was a Twin City (forerunner of M-Moline) and then a Case. There was a period in the 20s and 30s where all the row crop work was done w/ little Cat 22's -- they look like a relatively modern Cat that was left out in the rain and shrank. The were 22 drawbar hp. Used them to pull a JD 3-row lister and cultivator. At one time I think they had at least four or five. The last one Dad sold while I was in school to a machine shop owner in town. The boy has restored it but it's now living in WY. I do want one of them for collecting. There are still quite a number in CA where they were used in the orchards a lot because of their low profile. They are pretty pricey if at all decent.

IH/Farmall lost the war to Deere w/ the problems they had w/ their new line of larger tractors that had drastic rear end/tranny problems. We pulled the guts out of several 560s and 660s and after another failure w/ a "new, improved, can't out pull it" Dad had had enough and traded all the Red for Green at one time. We also got a Case 930 wheatland model at the same time for the flatground work. But, as Deere kept moving up and the others had trouble, green just took over. There never was a local Agco dealership after the mergers and everybody else faded away. The only orange is a few Kubotas that have sorta' taken the "low-priced spread" market. They are quite capable, just don't have the size to compete for other than utility work but make great frontend loader tractors, etc., ...

...

Well, certainly do here -- although it's pulling in two (or maybe even three) 16-ft windrows for the baler to cut down passes instead of flat raking...

[Robatoy]

output is one word.

[Robatoy]

Keeping my fingers crossed. Beware of pinch points, don't get hurt, wear clean underwear, have a clean hanky. Now comb your hair......

I'm all excited too. It's a fine moment to see your first piece. A thousand times more so when you made the machine yourself.

Piccies soon I hope.

[clare]

Some AWFULL crops in the midwest this year. I thought we had it dry up here in Central Ontario - compared to indiana, illinois, michigan, and Wisconsin we've got amost a swamp. Up here we are still getting a crop - much of what I saw on our recent road trip is hardly worth cutting.

[Mike M]

I came by an old 45 Case VAI about 15 years ago and was amazed that somebody had painted it John Deere colors. Still runs, and did a lot of work when that was ll I had till a Cat 951 came my way. My neighbor was an equipment manager for a large construction outfit and it got lost on the way to auction for several years. The VAI is mostly lawn art now since I got the backhoe and an excavator. My only crop is trees.

Mike M

[dpb]

Well, it rains back there... :)

Our -average- annual is 18" or just a shade over.

Irrigated will do much better, of course, but this is for dryland grass...

This year there isn't any at all owing to the drought. We've not had 3" since April.

--

[Larry Jaques]

I was just glad we got him typing in ENGLISH this time to count that one, Toy.

(Good eye, though.)

-- We are always the same age inside. -- Gertrude Stein

[Larry Jaques]

Me, too, and done, done, done, done, done, done.

Yes, all that and more. I can't wait.

Maybe Sunday. I'm working all day tomorrow, too. After long days in

90-100F temps, I'm just too tired to work in the evening, even with the cool shop again. I'm taking Sunday off to work on my own "stuff".

-- We are always the same age inside. -- Gertrude Stein

[J. Clarke]

Check out McMaster item 91663A640. It's .031 intended for a .039 groove. 11.20 for a pack of 10.

Personally I'd be tempted to just get a regular size ring and go after it with a die grinder.

[HeyBub]

Whereas "putting out" is two.

[dpb]

On 8/11/2012 9:06 AM, J. Clarke wrote: ...

Need 0.025 for 0.030 groove...

Found them in stock at Motion, Inc. thanks to a poster to a specific thread in r.c.metalworking; they're on their way.

Ordered a half-dozen for 0.79/ea plus whatever USPS first class postage turns out to be.

I'd have machine shop regrind a groove if push came to shove; wouldn't think of trying to hand machine such niceties on a power component myself; I'm just not that steady any longer... :(

--

[dpb]

On 8/10/2012 3:39 PM, Mike M wrote: ...

Trees are verboten in CRP grass--they're invasive exotics, iow 'weeds'. :)

The introduced trees around farmsteads, windbreaks, etc., are spread by wind and birds, deer, etc., and will take over if not controlled. It's been estimated this area burned naturally about every 7-10 years on average and the plains Indians on occasion burned in springtime as well to promote early greenup and return of the buffalo. That kept the plains almost completely devoid of any trees.

Particularly cedars and in low areas along the riverbeds tamarisk are the worst followed by Russian olive and Siberian elms. The cottonwood is native species but has spread greatly. Native grass pastures/rangeland are being reclaimed as ranchers have become aware of how much grazing is lost to ground cover and the loss of water to them instead of being available for the native grasses. Some areas after a few years since removal have even seen the regeneration of surface water that had long since ceased owing to the siphoning away of it by the heavy growth.

--

[J. Clarke]

Nahh, I wouldn't go after the groove, I'd go after the rings with it. But then I'm nuts.

[dpb]

On 8/12/2012 11:22 AM, J. Clarke wrote: ...

Yeah, I'd agree... :)

The machine-shop guy initially said he'd try give a shot on the surface grinder but wasn't sure he could keep it in place. I asked if he couldn't chuck up the pulley (it's just a 3 or 4" drive clutch idler so not a biggie) and do the groove easier and he allowed as that was so.

If I were to try it I'd take double-sided tape and stick it on the bench and take a emery belt on the belt sander to it as a first shot.

But, Derrick did know they were Spirolox and altho his distributor didn't have them in stock that did lead me to discovering that Smalley Steel Ring had bought out Spirolox and a usenet denizen on the metalworking group used his account at Motion Industries to look 'em up. I then discovered they have a branch office in Dodge City and called them figuring (rightly as it turned out) that a more local presence would get me more sympathy as a self-employed farmer in the area since wasn't able to get past the telephone menuing system at their corporate offices...

Anyway, the bearings are reinstalled awaiting the ring to put it back together. I tried salvaging the old one but it was sprung too badly to go back into the groove after the abuse it suffered in managing to get it out...

--