Ker-SNAP-POPshhh…

Hmmm…that can *not* be good.

Sooo….a couple weeks ago I had the Left-handed Fargle-snorker up on the square to hang a new banner for our store.

Had to take the old banner down:

The Fargle-snorker at work

And then roll out a new one:

Rolling out the new banner for The Cupola

Almost done:

The new banner almost done

It was quite windy that day so I had to be careful about letting the 10 foot long canvas banner get away. Basically, I loosely tied it on, then worked my way back to the other end tightening everything up.

As luck would have it, I was tensioning the last knot/line, but I had to stretch a bit to reach it. Overreaching when elevated is not a good idea, especially when you have the tools to avoid doing so.

So I grabbed the bucket controls and nudged myself into a better position by swinging the bottom boom “over the top” just a little more (the folding booms are an art in themselves to get yourself positioned, though once you get used to it, it’s pretty easy).

Just as I let off the lever, “Ker-SNAP-POP…”.

That was a strange noise…

Now these old trucks make a lot of strange noises, but I wasn’t even sure where this one came from. A quick check to make triple sure I hadn’t hit anything with the boom or bucket (I hadn’t, I’m pretty careful), a visual look over the truck (nope, not on fire), and I just had to shrug and get back to work.

I finished my knot and swung the boom around to begin the descent onto the truck.

When I went to swing the bottom boom back “over the top” is when I found out what the noise was. Hydraulic oil shot out the hinge between the booms, which at that moment, was pointed straight up in the air.

“Hey look! Old Faithful! Except with light oil!”

Sigh. Blew a hose. That’s going to be a pain to fix.

These cylinders are equipped with “pressure relief” type valves at each end of the cylinder. The result is that they won’t “bleed down”. You have to use hydraulic pressure on the other side to force the “down” side to vent. This does a couple things…it makes general control much smoother, and it keeps booms from falling if you blow a hose. A very good thing.

In this case, it was on the “up” side and I could force the boom down gracefully (due to the pressure relief valve), and the only oil to leak was from what should return to the tank out of the compressing cylinder.

Now I’ve got to get the hose out, and get a new one made. Probably ought to replace a couple others in there as well. I expect this one blew due to wear and sun exposure right at the bend in the boom and there are probably others that should be replaced.

It would be kind of embarrassing and inconvenient to get stuck up in a bucket with a boom I can’t move…

It’s probably a 40 foot long hose though (sigh). I’ll take pics on the operation to get that sucker out of there.

And knowing me, I’ll probably take this excuse to tune up/repair anything else I find along the way that needs it (like painting the booms…and the bed…and ??)

Anyway, got the sign hung and parked the truck, to await some time to get out the big wrenches.

At least I got the sign hung before the Fargle-snorker broke.

Always something to fix.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Kind of a big deal to us…we are opening a shop in our historic building on the Clarksville Square!

The Cupola
On the Historic Clarksville Square
131 North Locust Street
Clarksville, Texas 75426

Opening Saturday, October 1, 2011 at 10 am. We will be open late due to the Clarksville Bazaar and Street Dance. Stop in!

Hours:
Thursday – Saturday 10 am – 4 pm.

The Cupola carries art, antiques, collectables, and regional/Texas products from a variety of vendors. We will also carry a selection of books and music by area authors as well as a selection of used books.

We will eventually expand to include a coffee house, ice-cream, sandwiches, and a full soda fountain.

The Cupola is also the headquarters for Stormrider Press.

Check out our website (here) for more information!

A preview of the “art” part:

Dragon in a pickup? (sculpture by Roger Scott, from a single piece of wood!)

We’ve been cleaning up the old Pharmacy building downtown for nearly nearly 20 months.

We could have done it faster, if it had been the priority or we had thrown money at it.

Anyway, to illustrate the *scale* of the challenge, I was going through my receipts, and with the load of trash I pulled out of the building today we’ve used 800 contractor trash bags.

If I assume a VERY conservative 40 pounds each, we’ve hauled off 16 tons of garbage.

Piles and piles...

This doesn’t count several thousand pounds of non-bagged stuff…including a pool table, old smashed sandwich machines, dead printers and outdated electronic cash registers (dozens, literally).

Lots and lots...

It’s a big job. We’re seeing the light near the end of the tunnel!

I’ve repaired lights (12 ballasts and so far, 40 bulbs…I need another case), pulled out unneeded/bad electric, and pulled nasty carpet.

Maybe next weekend…pics of it *clean*!

It needs it…we’re about to open something…

More on that later!

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Sooo…I needed to fix the downspout on my building and rolled out the fargle-snorker Saturday morning.

Felt kind of silly to work on a rain downspout. I mean, is it *ever* going to rain again?

Had a short window to get it done as I wasn’t quite up to getting up before the crack of dawn, and by 11am it would be too hot to work in the direct sun.

Below, you can see the facade on the red building is shifting outward. Note the crack at the back and then near my building (blue building) it is pushing the downspout pipe away from the building:

The facade has shifted on the red building, pushing my downspout off.

This is the other end of the red building’s facade, where it comes close to my building. Note the outward shift pushing the downspout away.

The view of the facade shift from the other end

A closeup showing the shift. The paint mark from when my building was painted (long ago…don’t know exactly when) shows that it has taken a while to get to this point.

A closer view

This is looking down at the red buildings roof flashing and facade right were it connects to my building, clearly showing how much it has shifted since this roof was installed.

Where their roof flashing and facade connect, showing the shift away from my building

I cut a piece of flashing long enough to wrap around the pipe one and a quarter times, coiled it up, and inserted it into the downspout. I then let it uncoil inside the downspout, and pulled it up onto the drain for a firm fit.

Fixing the downspout...

I then zapped a couple sheet-metal screws in…

Zap a screw or two in

Another screw or two, holds the flashing insert into the downspout…it is not connected to the roof drain, as when or if the facade shifts or falls off the building below, it will take the pipe out but not rip my drain off the side of the building.

Connecting the pipe to the flashing...

The new flashing "collar" in place.

I then shoved $20 worth of spray foam into this crack to seal between the buildings where the flashing cannot. Didn’t get a pic with the foam yet. Next week I’ll make sure it was enough foam, then I’ll add some flashing over the foam on the roof side to keep the sun from decaying it over time.

I filled this crack with spray foam...

We had to quit about then, as the intense sun and high temps were making everything metal way too hot to touch…the standpipe, the flashings, the truck, and tools. Just leaning on a flashing would burn me through my t-shirt. We went to 107 this day. Youch!

The reward for all that work…rain! This was the next morning. Apparently working on a downspout in the intense heat is something like a rain-dance…blessedly without me even having to get naked!

This, was the reward!

None of this is really going to help the little red building with its water problem…as its roof has a low spot right before the edge that collects water…this spot is probably 20 feet across. Pretty much any water the hits the section of roof is going inside the building through the screwholes, seams, and of course…the big nasty rust holes.

None of this helps the red building...as it has a holy roof.

I would love to see this little red building saved…it’ll make a great shop of some sort…even a barbers shop or a hole-in-the wall tamale place. Perhaps an art workshop even…but it needs a new roof and the facade reinforced…and soon…

Rust holes...

Lots more to do…but every bit that moves us forward helps. I really need to pull that roof drain and enlarge the hole through the wall to the roof, and probably add another drain or two. There is simply not enough drainage on that roof…

I have no leaks under light rain, but have several with very heavy rain, most likely because the rain is filling up on the roof…as it gets deeper any little imperfection becomes a leak.

Anyway…more later. Thanks to my friend Mike for the assistance and shooting some pics!

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer