Sunday, we trimmed some trees and did the final prep on the sunroom for paint. “Trimmed some trees” is actually harder work than it sounds…didn’t even get to all that need it…and still ended up with a metric ass-load of limbs to drag around and cut up/burn. For the curious…a “metric ass-load” is the equivilent of two American shit-tons. Anyway, that’s another story involving sharp whirring things and fire…and perhaps prefaced by the statement, “Hey y’all, watch this!” so I’ll save that for another time.

Anyway, Monday…I was going to paint the sunroom before we came home. Since I really expected to get this room done…oh…say…last friggen August…I was looking forward to finally spraying the primer.

Loaded up the Wagner Paint Crew plus with a very good quality primer, did a final clean and mask of the room, fired everything up, and viola…no paint.

The unit will not come out of prime mode. While IN prime mode the pump runs and returns paint via the return hose to the tank. When I put it in spray mode it continues to do the same. Sigh.

The troubleshooting guide for the unit lists several things and the fix…except on this one it says, “return unit to an authorized Wagner repair center”.

Great. And I followed…meticioulsy…the cleanup and storage instructions. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work…but it doesn’t. Looking at how it seems to work…and how the prime/spray valve “feels”…I expect there’s a bit missing from the cleanup/storage directions…namely don’t leave that valve on “prime” for long term storage.

Any repair at the “Wagner Authorized repair center” would cost as much as I paid for the unit I expect…so I guess I’m going to attack this mystery part myself (the prime/spray valve) and see what I can see. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? Pestilence? Famine? Dogs and cats sleeping together?

Oh, and of course it’s out of warranty. I have sprayed perhaps 3 gallons of paint with it.

Intensely frustrating. I don’t need tools that fail unexpectedly with little use/wear and this one is supposedly aimed/marketed at just my market/level of use…

Even more frustrating as I was VERY pleased with how this machine performed when I used it before. It made a very difficult painting job a snap…and since I have several more “very” difficult paint jobs to get to…I really need it to simply and without any drama…just work.

I’ll abscound with the wife’s dining room table tonight and take this sucker apart. I’ll keep you posted!

Oh…and a lesson learned…when starting up a airless rig that’s been sitting a bit…try water first (if spraying water-based paints). That way, if it doesn’t work or needs some repair, you don’t have any serious cleanup to do.

Me? I had as much cleanup to do as if I had painted the entire room.

At least the fact that it was full of expensive and messy white primer kept me from kicking it’s sorry ass clear across the yard…

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

A bit of creative driving and all was well.

Did the standard checks. All the fluid had leaked out over the last week.

Sigh. Remind me to tell you about “The law of conservation of mechanical maladies” sometime…it’s part of the laws of thermodynamics methinks…as in, “Mechanical problems cannot be created or destroyed…but they can be moved from one location to another (theoretically at speeds exceeding .999C).

See, I had JUST fixed the durn lawn mower…I’ll bet the micro-second I finished tightening the last bolt, the brake fluid went “blooop” out of the truck.

Anyway, leaking wheel cylinder…and I don’t even have a jack that’s rated to pick the 15,000 pound truck up…and the budget says I’m not gonna buy one soon.

But the Left-handed Fargle-snorker has feet…

Use the feet…lift ‘er up…

Unfortunately, that lifts the back wheel (I got it nearly a foot off the ground).

Moved the boom…shifted the weight…

And now my measly 2-ton floor jack doesn’t even have to strain to pick it up.

Biggest hub I’ve ever had to pick up…but it came apart easily.

Apart…

Just like any other front drum brake I’ve worked on…except with nicer adjusters and there are two wheel cylinders…the front (also called “lower” as it’s downnstream of the other on the line) was leaking. Ordered both. Got them today.

Will put ‘er back together Saturday…

More pics then I suppose. I need the boom to nail about a billion cedar shakes on the tower…

I just hate to think where “The law of conservation of mechanical maladies” is gonna strike about the time I finish bleeding the brakes. No ill wishes to anybody…but I hope it goes further away than anything I own or maintain!

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Oh…wait…that’s a different movie. Ah well.

This weekend was a change. A real change. I’m not quite sure what to make of it yet. See, for the first time in like 4 months…it wasn’t raining (or 10 degrees!) all weekend.

Wow! Ground that doesn’t go “schluuuup” and suck your shoes off when you step on it. Birds can fly with their mouths open again (they would drown if they did it before). We can actually SEE the end of the backyard! There was sunshine on Saturday!

Unfortunately rain was scheduled for Sunday, so we wisely did NOT peel the roof back on the corner of the sunroom for needed repairs.

We did get stuff done though.

1) We scraped a lot of paint in the sunroom…there is more to do but it has reached that stage where it looks like it has a particularly disgusting form of cancer so that means it’s getting close. We should have it ready to paint with a few more days work. (I am SO looking forward to shooting that room with a coat of primer! The pepto-bismal pink trim and putrid yellow ceiling and walls are a bit much, even for my strong stomach.)

2) We got PRIMING done! WoooHoooo! We’ve been trying for a couple months to get the exterior French doors primed and the windowframe in the mudroom stripped and primed. I can’t mount weather stripping till the painting is done on that stuff and it’s been simply too wet/damp/cold. This weekend brought us one step closer to weather-tightness in the mudroom! Woot!

3) I helped a friend (Hi Larry!) install a new fan motor in one of his heat pumps. That was a success (nobody died AND he can still use the heat-pump). I’m pleased to report there were no aliens in the ductwork.

4) And I did some tool maintenance. Namely, I fixed the lower controls on the Left-handed Fargle-snorker. This means the boom can be operated from the ground as well as from the bucket. Mainly it’s a safety feature, but it’s also so that things (within the weight limit) can be lifted and also the bucket can be brought lower for easier in/out than climbing the boom.

Sooo…full power restored. That’s a good thing. I’ve a project for that machine next weekend! (should be some cool pictures!)

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

12 cartons…96 shingles/carton. 3 different patterns (fancy-ing this up just a bit).

I’m pretty sure they are a thin cedar veneer over a solid gold substrate (based on cost).

Shipped in from Canada.

So, I’ve got the tools…

The Left Handed Fargle Snorker is ready to work

…and will shortly have the material.

That about does in my spring budget…

(sigh)

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Painting? Uh, no. Not only do I not want to be outside, but the paint would be somewhat solidified. We may have lost some paint anyway…since some of it was stored in parts of the house that no-doubtably froze. (durnit)

Plumbing? Nope. Too cold to crawl around under the house.

Wiring? Attics are cold too.

Insulating? Well, maybe. Lord knows it needs to get done. But no. Too durn cold.

Roofing? Oh hell no.

Aside from that, I put in some “hours” this week, and needed some extra sleep.

Heh…yeah, I didn’t stir out of my bed until 11am Saturday. The warm, willing wife lying there with me was some incentive I expect.

Guy’s gotta have a day off every now and again.

This week the UPS fairy brought me a full-body harness and some orange traffic cones. Along with the pads and chocks I made last weekend, those will go in the toolbins on the left-handed fargle-snorker to be used as needed. Or perhaps never to be seen again, but at least I have them.

Of course, as much as I like to play with tools…there is no way in HELL I’m breaking out the left-handed fargle-snorker in temperatures in the teens and twenties…I mean….elevating onesself 40 feet in the air…the twenty degree and 30mph air…seems somewhat masochistic…even for me.

In the mean time though, I thought it prudent to test out the traffic cones.

Yes, the traffic cones.

As most of you know, they are used for marking hazards.

Let me introduce you to…

The most dangerous couch. Ever.

We’re supposed to have milder temperatures next week…so maybe we’ll get some work done then.

Until that time, y’all take care!

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

So, I jumped in the left-handed fargle-snorker and trucked on up to Clarksville on Saturday.

The trip itself is kind of a big deal. It’s an old rig, yet brand new to me, so I’d no experience as to its reliability etc. The gas gauge doesn’t work, and I didn’t even know what kind of mileage to expect. Then there’s the matter of the dealer’s tags and faxed insurance paperwork…all perfectly okay of course, but the kind of thing State Troopers like to hassle you about.

Of course, it’s only 120 mile trip, and I tend to believe I can build a shopping mall with a q-tip (that line is courtesy of Six Days, Seven Nights) so I was sure that anything short of a gear-shattering explosion I could deal with. I mean, no, I didn’t have any q-tips on me but I was carrying some duct-tape and a pair of nail-clippers and I really didn’t need a shopping mall anyway.

120 miles. No problem at all. There’s some quirks. Mentioned above, the gas guage doesn’t work. Neither does the speedometer. The rear end is two-speed, but doesn’t currently shift. That’s electrical in nature I’m sure and is probably an easy fix. For the speedo…I just snagged the wife’s GPS.

She burns no oil. Gets about 10mpg. Started up fine in the 20 degree morning weather. Brakes work fine. She’s a heavy beast. Fun to drive…in that manly testosterone-pumping, tooth-rattling, kidney bouncing sort of way.

(grunt/snort)

I’ll tinker. I like things to work…but none of the “quirks” are going to effect the job I need to do first, so they can wait.

What I DID need however, are some little accessories required when whipping equipment about in a working environment. The truck was pretty well cleaned out when I bought it…not even a stray block of wood or an oily rag remained.

So, off to the spare lumber pile. I made some chocks (two sets). The parking brake works fine, but on this rig, the hydraulics are powered by a PTO on the transmission, so when using the boom the engine needs to be running and the tranny in neutral. If I end up on any sort of incline, I’ll feel better chocking the wheels instead of just depending on the parking brake and outriggers to keep her from rolling away.

I also made a set of two pads for the outriggers to rest on. They are about 2 feet square, and since they are made with three layers of 2×6 lumber, they are something like 5″ thick. I figure they could support a small crane.

These increase the surface area of the outrigger feet and are needed to keep the outriggers from sinking when operating the machine on softer ground. Also, and more to my needs, the wood pads will protect the soft(ish) brick on the historic square from getting scarred up by the steel outrigger feet.

A pair of wheel chocks on the left, and a outrigger pad (2′ x 2′ x 5″ thick).
I made two of each of these.

A handful of traffic cones would be handy too…but that’s easily fixed. The magic UPS fairy is gonna deliver me some this week.

The holidays and all the family stuff that goes along with them have really cut into my projects…so, next weekend…I’m starting on the mudroom roof (can’t insulate until I fix the roof leak), and then for one day I’ll take the left-handed fargle-snorker up to the square and get a closer look at the damage on the tower. I need to know what materials to get before serious work begins.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

TOOL.

Wanted to get used to the boom movement/bounce etc…since I haven’t been on a boom truck since my Llamco Electric days…gad…30ish years ago…and that was a squirt boom instead of a knuckle boom…

Anyway, wanted to test it out and practice a bit before trying to use it up against our building on the historic square in Clarksville or the Old Vic, so out to the family farm we went.

My favorite pic:

Flying low (came down to grab the camera). We kept side extension to a minimum today as even though the outriggers were on hard-packed gravel, it’s been REALLY wet. All “way out” extension was done in line with the truck today.

About 80% up…went up 100% but I had the camera by that time so no pic from the ground…

The wife and my nephew looking pretty small:

Decent side view:

Well, ready to work. Just have to get started.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

They’re guys.

Single minded. Determined. Sweaty. Messy. Passionate. We LIKE blowing stuff up.

Pretty simple creatures. Our lives revolve around just a few things.

1) What’s for breakfast?
2) When can I get laid?
3) (hands shaking) Is there something around here I can friggen FIX? (even if I have to break it first).

The first two are pretty self-explanatory and are closer akin to natural laws or universal constants than particular behaviors…

Yeah, society spent the first 12 years of my education trying to convince me otherwise but it’s like arguing against gravity. We are what we are.

The third one though…it’s actually a little more complicated than that. We are buiders. Doers. We’ve just gotta have some project to work on. Delving a little deeper though turns up something interesting.

Tools.

Yep. Tools.

We get tools so we can do stuff, right?

Heh…yeah. That’s it.

Actually, I think we do stuff so we can get tools.

We LUST after the left-handed fargle-snorker they just came out with. IF ONLY I needed one.

(peers around hopefully)

OOooo! Look! A project! Why, now, durn it, I NEED a left-handed fargle-snorker and am perfectly justified in going out and getting one.

Yep. (scratches self inappropiately).

Meet my new left-handed fargle-snorker:

Needed it to work on this project:

And this one:

Now. (burp). Breakfast was good.

When can I get laid?

More pics here.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Dead. Spectacularly dead in point of fact.

And at the tender age of only…(divides by pi, carries the two)…wait, what? Really?

I’ve had that Skil saw 20 years! Just how did that happen? Used to be I just plain wasn’t busy if I didn’t burn out at least a saw and a drill every year. You see, I was one of those that rejoiced…REJOICED I say…when carbide blades came out.

Hmmmm…too much work (at my real job) and not enough play (projects) I guess.

I must make it my goal to burn out more saws.

Anyway, it died…wasn’t even using it particularly hard…but it appears the bearings blew on the blade side, and then the motor armature crashed into the rest of the insides.

Blue flames shooting out of the vent side of the saw was the first clue it was dying.

I moved my leg out of the way of the burning plasma stream (don’t cross the streams!) and finished my cut. We needed that cut to finish what we were working on.

The saw smoked for half an hour after I unplugged it. It is well and truly dead.

Fortunately…I have another hanging out in the garage of the tract home. A good one yet.

(rubs hands together)

Poor thing. It knows not what it’s in for…

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer

Well, prime, actually. I’m slapping on a coat of Sherwin Williams Oil based exterior primer first.

Next, I’ll need to caulk and fill any divots or nail holes with wood filler, and THEN I need to decide if it needs another coat of primer.

This stuff is thirsty! It’s also a royal pain to paint…with a brush. Ladder acrobatics, crevasses, thirsty wood, and multiple edges make paint brush work on this thing an absolute nightmare.

This experience will be repeated on other parts of the house…when viewed from a paint-by-brush perspective, this house grows to even more massive proportions!

Over an hour with a brush, and I only had about a quarter of this done. (I didn’t take a pic of the partially primed). Worse yet, I wasn’t happy with the coverage.

What does this mean for your hapless homeowner and dedicated do-it-myself-er?

Well, it means I get to buy another tool of course!

Muhahahahahahahahaha! <--maniacal laughter

Ur...um...snif.

(best innocent/straight face)

Tools are a necessity, not toys.

(/straight face)

So, I ordered an airless rig. Specifically, this one.

The Wagner 0515010T Paint Crew Plus Paint Sprayer. I bought a reconditioned one for $125 or so. From the reviews it seemed stout enough to do the work I need on this house without getting into professional pricing.

For the cost of about 4 gallons of paint I figured I couldn’t lose.

CUAgain,
Daniel Meyer