What are the odds?

Over at Phil's place I see a YT vidya about a Ford. However, I think there were more Eff's in there than just Ford. Is he looking over my shoulder now or what?  I mean, what are the odds of that showing up right now??

 I recently traded this wonderful engineering marvel I bought from a buddy.  He found under a tree, in a pasture out near Kerrville, TX:

 

Goodbye old friend.

He shot some clear on it, and fixed the interior up.  Nice little get around truck.  I put new skins on it, a rear bumper and a new battery.  Besides oil changes, it never needed anything else.  Everything was Armstrong: steering, windows, 5 speed trans....  It didn't even have a/c, and I live a few miles from the sun during the summer (April to October down here).  All in all, one of the best horses I've ever had.  Got it with 100K, and traded it away with 120K after 10 years or so.  Just my Little Roller Skate, or the Green Hornet. I never settled on a name....

 Traded for this one:

The Hyena

The old bed was junk, so the welder put a nifty farm bed on it.  Insurance deemed it 'commercial' so it's a couple bux more a month than the Roller Skate.  Thinking about white wash on the sides of the bed, and Rhino Liner on the top.  It needs bed drains, that four inch square tubing makes a great swimming pool.  Planning a tow truck flat front bumper and a few aerials for the two-ways.  Mount them like the Aussies do.  Might as well be rilly-rilly differnt.

I think it resembles a hyena, what with the tucked butt.  Maybe a zoomie dog.  It's got potential.  I have plans for it.  I hope to get that done over the next several months.  My uncle used to narrate the arrival of his sister's beau back in the long distant past when the theater of the mind still ruled the airwaves:  "...a white truck, a  cloud of dust, hi-yo Silver!!!"

 

Hyena Silver!

Well, of course you'd do that....

 Finally getting back on track to work on the taper attachment.   Got some 12L14 for additional nuts to replace the missing ones, and the three jaw chuck on the Logan clanks up.  Not sure why, but it's got a couple stiff spots in it, then it seized.  So past time to service it. 

Mr. Garcia had this on the Logan

HOWEVER............

At some point in it's life, it hit the ground right in line with a bolt on the back.  That seized the bolt up, and boy it is tight..... too tight to move.  And someone tried to move it.  Argh......

Wonderful

Those neat little cracks are where I gently, ever so gently tapped on the inside of the hole to move the bent spot out a touch.  And it cracked.  sigh.....  That socket is sure nasty isn't it?  I have a 3/8 left hand bit coming tomorrow.  I'll probably mill this down a little, so I don't catch the drill on the mess and break it.  Hopefully after the head is milled down, the shank will unscrew itself while I'm drilling it.

After I get it apart, it'll be cleaning time and reassembly.  Nothing special there.  But it's always something to break up the monotony around here.  Oh, and I already have the next job lined up....

I was running a quickie job and zonked out the quick change gear box with a very minor crash.  Stabbed a boring bar into a piece of delrin and it seized up the box.  It's made noise on the slowest feeds since I purchased it....  I was on borrowed time anyway.  I have a bit of review to do so I'll be ready to tackle that little project.

 

 Review Topic:  Quick Change Gear Box

 

    Gear Box part 1

 

Gear Box part 2

 

A bit of extra credit if you want to learn from the master

 

Scroll Chuck Operation

Story Time with an assist from Phil

 

True confessions time:

Heading out to White Deer, TX from the San Antonio area many many moons ago (Pre-windmill farm in White Deer).  West on I10 to Junction, then north on 83.  Stopped in Junction for lunch, big new BBQ place on the left.  Got a nice BBQ turkey sandwich with fixins.  Rest of the trip to Amarillo was uneventful...  Until about 0200.

BAD FOOD!

Woke up feeling woozy, and sat up.  Cold spit running around my back teeth, and that is the tell.  I'd rather nearly die than puke, but today wasn't that day.  Got up and eased into the bathroom, and took the plastic bag out of the trash can....  Gut started really rumbling....  Like an old, cold diesel engine that is just barely loping on a couple cylinders on a freezing cold morning.   This isn't gonna be pretty.  

When I barf, it sounds like I'm being squeezed in half.  It's a lower pitch or register than bagpipes, but it's loud and it hurts like blazes.  Que the conductor in 3, 2, 1.....  For 20 minutes I'm blowing out both ends and it sounds horrible to me.  Smells worse.  Finally get to bed and sort of to sleep about 0330.  Passing thoughts about waking up the neighbors....

Next day, out to White Deer on 60.  I drove from spot to spot.  "I can make that bush..... okay passed it.  Can I make that sign?  Yep."  I figured I'd have seconds to stop, get out, and shuck my pants to dump out if I had to. Gut malfunction. rumbling idle like a Ford 427 with a full race cam.   Made it to the tower I was looking for near Skellytown.  Whew, didn't think I would without a stop.

Cow pasture tower site

 Ease open the pasture gate, and up to the tower base and repeater shelter.  Unload and start the tune up..... when the flag went up.  Ran to the front of the truck, shucked the pants, cows all around looking at me like "WHAT IS THAT???"  And the valve went to full open.  Gut cramps, smells, sounds, and me just happy I made it the 20 feet to the front of the truck.  After a few minutes of making sure I didn't slip and fall into the offal, I looked up and there wasn't a cow in sight.  I didn't realize you could offend a cow's olfactories.  

That device in the picture would have been too slow to deploy that day.  I guess for scheduled maintenance, it might work.  But for an emergency blow, any port in the storm.