We do all sorts of stuff so you could see anything from random truck and equipment repairs to sanitary tube welding with some construction mixed in lol. I inherited 4 of these cylinders Friday, outriggers off a boom truck. A "hydraulic shop" tried to take them apart, they got the first one apart, it had a steel gland, the other three have aluminum glands. They took an air hammer to the first aluminum one. Not sure of the end game on that one. I ground off all the smashed aluminum on the other ones with green wheels and burs, found the set screws, I hear it helps if you take those out first, then heated them and oiled repeatedly till I could thread the last two out with a big channellock and chain pliers. Now I have 2 decent specimens for my machine shop to work from. My dismantlement setup, my driveway is gonna be trashed by the time I'm done with this place, if I'm not taking something oily apart I'm dropping slag all over lol
Are you self employed?
My wife would cut me off for months If I was doing that on her driveway! LOL
Her driveway? Hmm.
Yeah, she thinks everything is hers. I just go with it.
oh yeah sure.I definitely believe that.
A hydraulic shop should know to look very carefully for set screws even where you don’t expect them...
Yea Lol I don't have the problem, at the moment. I'll take bigger stuff and messes to the yard but sometimes I'd rather hangout in the garage especially with small filler stuff. That's why it's "hydraulic shop" lol.
This rig was my end of the week wrench bending project, ex mil truck now in ag service. Just needs TLC. Chased some oil leaks, compressor swap, and then working on fuel line replacement, getting rid of all the old stuff like the tank selector switch. Had problems with air entry and loss of prime. Kinda cool, kinda an odd ball even for me. Once they run the driver's side tank down I'm going to drain it and run a crossover line, hook the passenger tank up and finish tying up the new lines and putting some hose guard on.
Here I have this scenario: Whats yours is hers as what hers is hers so how is it any different at your place!! I just roll with the flow and say yes Ma’am a lot, that really ticks her off.
What is hers is hers, what is mine is ours. We made a deal years ago. She stays out of my shop and I stay out of her kitchen. She doesn't whine about my tools and I don't care about hers. Match made in heaven.
My woman cant seem to stay out of my stuff. She thinks she knows more than I do LOL Hell, I'm shocked she isnt on here telling us how to repair equipment!
Maybe you should invite her on here. It would probably get pretty entertaining to have her tell a bunch of operators and mechanics what they are doing wrong!
Well, first of all, my wife would say there needs to be a colour change from yellow and then another colour change every few years on a machine when she gets tired of the last colour
Well, she has met Dmiller in person when he was on Tulsa last! He will tell you she is very nice. LOL, man does she have HIM fooled. Here is an example of what she is like trying to even do simple things around the house. 2 weekends ago she wanted me to "help" her hang some shelves in a spare bedroom. First of all, and let me make this very clear..........."help" means me doing it. Second ..........it means me doing it at "her" direction. So, she shows me where she want these shelves, 4 of them. I proceed to start the first screw in the wall stud and she says "What are you doing? You are not going to be able to tell if the shelf is level." I told her I was going to install the first screw, then lay my level across it to the next stud so I had a location for the second screw. Makes perfect sense right?! Her reply was in a smirky way was "Well, I wouldn't have done it THAT way." At that moment, I wanted to put the next screw in her brain. I went on doing it my way as she was telling me I never listen to her LOL. We cant do NOT one simple project together without something like this going on. Trust me, if she was on this forum, everyone here would be so pissed off...........thats just the way she is. Don't even think about telling her she is wrong on something. She's is such a control freak its hilarious!
Can relate Ms Massa is always splainin her way to me then she goes off to work or store and I get it done The correct way
My response under those circumstances “You can tell me what you want done, or how you want it done, but not both.”
I used to have one of those problems, did a delete lol. This was this afternoon's patient. Ripped this hydro tank out from under a truck, customer complaint was excessive leaks, contaminating brakes. They were hoping it was just the original installer's poor fitting work. We dropped it and took it back and cleaned it up and leaked checked it cause I had a feeling. So far I'm up to 4 weld leaks, guess I'm gonna be cooking some oil in the morning.
Found possibly the nastiest return filter housing going, and also had to pull a leaking PTO suction hose last night. If it's leaking while I'm just moving it by hand you're pump probably isn't enjoying things when it runs. I never feel like cleaning up on site on Friday's lol, I need a truck clean up minion.
I have that Milwaukee impact in 12v. I cannot believe how strong it is, or how long the battery lasts! The Fuel brushless motors are amazing. I won't buy any more of the old design.
Yeah we run a ton of Milwaukee stuff, M12 and M18. Pays for its self quick since it makes us more efficient in the field. I got one of these 9" saws a while back to complement our gas saw, super handy for all sorts of field fab work, rebar and of course demo. I'll cut 3" of concrete or pavement clean with the diamond blades too.
Started a storage tank and piping demo today. We're taking everything but the hydro tank out. I've got a lil rental Deere 26G on this site I'm testing out (might be mini shopping lol). It has no issue tossing around 4x8 sheets as we plasma torch them out. We left it as just a floor tonight, a very rotten floor that I need to fold up and put on a trailer. From a late afternoon service call, I just thought this was funny, when the parts guys swears everything will be identical lol. Not that it really mattered I just new that something was gonna be different.
Dropped pistons from a 3208, things that make you go huh, we're gonna have a bit of work on this guy lol. Looked in the oil I dumped there was bearing flake like crazy. I grabbed one of these off the evil amazon for $50, 9" diamond cuts everything blade that fits on the Milwaukee saw. Awesome for all sorts of metal fab work ripping up expanded metal, rebar and demo, also doing PVC pipe work, cutting old hose out of the way. Way better then swapping 9" abrasives.
By the appearance of that rod I would reassemble and take that to CAT and Exchange. USED to be a Cat Crate Engine 3208 was far and above cheaper than rebuilding a cooked one.
Is 3208 reman still available from cat
May not hurt to ask.
Probably would be easier to get a reman in the end it's gonna be about the same price, especially once I put all the stuff on the front and transplant it. Some customers are anti reman tho, rather have us overhaul.
My grandpa is anti-reman after getting a couple bad transmissions from a large, national reman center near us. The last time we lost a trans in a truck, he had a company outright rebuild it instead.
Remans that are from the manufacturer in my experience usually work out pretty well. I can’t say the same for any independent business selling reman products. I would be surprised if Cat still is doing remans on 3200 series engines.
I've been busy wearing the boss hat on the treatment plant we started, we're doing the demo, piping/supports, also supporting my pump/compressor contractor and electrical contractor. I did get a chance to do a little welding myself though this week, welded pipe supports for a new effluent discharge we put in. The guy's work makes the existing stuff look pretty trashy lol. I had to sneak away and mount up some new mudflap on a customers plant transplant rig, a converted LMTV, that was a first for me. Guess DOT had been giving them a hard time about the old crummy flaps, I beefed up the light pods with a new support and hung new brackets so they can use a off the shelf flap. Also a little bit of destruction from today, dropped the pan on a little Allison auto to reseal it. My crystal ball of mechanical fuckery predicts that we'll see this trans again soon, possibly to haul it off as a core lol.
Appears to be a assembly Pal Nut, would run it for a trophy.
Maybe holding a wire harness on a stud?
IDK, trans came out of a bus and got shop rebuilt by others then transplanted into this truck so who knows it's past. I washed all the metal out of the pan and it'll have new filters and fluid, it's getting a complete reseal job on the hotshift PTO too, new pilot hoses. Everything under there was leaking not just the pan lol.
Destruction after dark, overheated **** edition, remember kids just say no to stop leak, tap water and cheap antifreeze, And that's after I shoved the hose up its holes to get the nasty boiled green goo out lol.
Had an engine with some fuel issues yesterday afternoon, among other things it was a great example of why you shouldn't bypass or remove your primary filter/separator
It’s logical to think that the OEM put it there for a reason.
You mean that they don't put those filter housings on machines to get you to buy more filter elements in the future?
See I also thought it might be a sham too lol
Started ug on our treatment plant rehab. Got a lil 35g now from the rental house to play lever monkey on lol. I've got my EC rolling on running everything from our new MCC container. That ****** lean-to in the backt is attached to the plant building, it's taking everything I have not to introduce it to the 24" bucket lol.
I was throwing dirt and rolling out tape the last couple days, even yesterday in the rain a bit trying to backfill as anything I could so I don't have huge mud puddles lol. Notice we always use the foil backed bury tape. The guys ran a new line from a ejector pit we're putting in to catch all the process drain water from like filter housings, instruments and an eyewash/shower and sink to the existing influent lift station. Also getting started on all the equipment pad forms. Two new rotary blowers will sit on this pad along with their air valving. Now I've got to go do a pan gasket and replace the cooling package on a dreaded 8.2 Detroit now that the rain has let up today lol
Did some modification to install a trans cooler, old one ate the rad cause it was mounted poorly, leaked coolant 4 spots to match the cooler lol. I'm not real fond of it but I figure doing it with loom clamps and rivnuts is better then those stupid plastic spears that come with these cheap coolers, plus it won't eat the rad again. Started putting up controls at the waste water plant, the smaller 36x30 can is for our programmable logic controller panel we'll build in our shop. My electrical contractor's guys have to label all their buttons now. I spent part of today tossing dirt back in the last of their trench too so if it rains this weekend it'll settle everything for us lol
I added a small core rig to my tool arsenal recently (partly cause I love buying tools lol) I got tired of always having to rent or have cores done especially 6" and under for process lines and partial cores for anchors/posts. Since I do so much water/wastewater work on the civil/environmental side it'll get a fair bit of use. Coring 2 3" holes for electrical sleeves in the lift station on our current WWTP, we're replacing the lid, rails, piping and pumps too.
I did a lil service truck modification work the other night while I was screwing off in the garage, I was tired of having all my common 1/2"over 1 1/4" or 3/4" drive stuff that I'm always grabbing pilled in 2 blue plastic bins I had to dig through. An hour with some scrap sheet, round stock, some FCAW and beer and wham one organizer lol.
looks good
I tidied up our fab trailer before we took it to a site. Notice the most important pieces of equipment, the micro and mini fridge lol
Finished up the treatment plant PLC.
Very tidy
I wish the wiring on equipment could look that nice.
Imagine the ease of chasing electrical gremlins
It would be nice if there was enough space on a machine to install a junction box that size.
Be great if the machines today did not Need that much wiring!!
Yeah I would much rather deal with the stationary wiring we deal with then the messes equipment manufacturers make, or trucks eew.
I can deal with the vehicle wiring messes-it's when the power goes out and my pop tart doesn't pop out of the happy little toaster .
I'll run my engine drive on the service truck to make the microwave go during power outages lol
Looks like someone wired that box up as if they might need to work in there again some day!
That's what stand-by gen sets are for!
I have several bags of charcoal-I will BBQ that pop tart if need be.
Seems like lately I've been getting calls for tons of little stuff on trucks and equipment, lights, air brakes, batteries, compressors, hydro leaks, no fuel. I did go pull a rotary lobe blower and its motor at a treatment plant on Friday. Don't mix greases people. Looks like somebody mixed plain old lithium red hi-temp with something more exotic of another base and it's turning to wax. Blocked the grease drains solid too. Boys and I finished the pond pump station at the treatment plant we're working on. Just have to run suction and discharge when we get more sch 80 fittings. Nothing like waiting for basic parts.
I spent all day on the TIG torch.
Where's the beer?
I built pump manifolds for two years, stayed away from diesel for awhile. I liked building/installing pump stations.
We've done a few brew jobs, I hate actually working in a brewery or really any food plant, hair nets and beard nets two thumbs down. One nice thing about food jobs is everything is clean, this Sch 10 pipe is dirt, been rolling around in the back of a truck, dragged around by forklift monkeys, sat outside open for awhile without caps.
The header I welded yesterday is the discharge headed for two new 20 hp positive displacement blowers the boys epoxy anchored down. Waiting on flex joints and check valves cause COVID to hook up. I had to put a spring valve on a backhoe trailer in the dark on the way home too lol.
I broke out our small pipe tap setup for the big mag drill this afternoon, we run carbide tip cutters on ss pipe and tube.
how does a mag drill work on stainless
Unless its a type of stainless thats magnetic its likely not going to work. If i remember correctly, ferritic SS is magnetic. Use a magnet and see if it will stick. There are so many alloys of SS the magnet test is probably the only way to tell for sure. Or you can clamp a mag drill to the pipe. Not so easy on a flat surface though
It appears to me in the photo JL very cleverly has a steel plate on the jack-stand and the mag drill is sitting on the plate that extends over the pipe. I never would have thought of doing that.
And has a small level mounted to the far end of the pipe so as to be sure the new hole is bored indexed to the flange!
I believe its known as 2-holing a pipe flange when pipe fitting pipe spools
Yeah we two hole pin the flange then put a level on the mag drill sled and strap it down. I cut a 1 15/16" hole for 1 1/2" pipe so there is a tiny amount of play to tack and level up the taps.
Back on SS pipe today. Half way done with the stainless on this project. One of of two aeration basins piped.
Nice welding machine, JL !
The silicone strangler strikes again lol. Some people really love the RTV, I did a truck rear dif reseal and had to clean grey off everything, including out of where the seals go, I guess the process was fill seal bore with Ultra Grey then press the seal in lol
If you’re not using ultra gray then why bother
Oh please no. I all ready have that going on. Well just paper work here.
It's been a carnage/mangled sort of week already lol Pulled the quick-tatch off a 332 deere, uh-oh someone installed some extra parts. It's gonna need the old boom pin boss cut and weld job since the female taper is completely gone on one side lol. Funky looking hub lol explains the customer's complaint of not being able to keep oil in it. Wheeled skiddy chain case destruction, used to busted chains, not having to go fishing around for the whole rear sprocket lol.
The plant we're wrapping up discovered some slight corrosion issues. I mean almost 40 years in wastewater for plain steel probably pretty good when you think about it. Of course I had to say "yeah we can fix that" lol We put a rigging beam across the tank so we could drop the moving skimmer. The guys hammered out the hydro cement around the pipe cut the 90 off then we took what was left of the bulkhead plate off the other side. We're going back with 1/2" stainless plate and stainless pipe. It was a small chore tracking down 1/2" 304SS plate right now. The whole bottom of that steel 90 is soft, and it supports a few hundred pounds of moving basket.
The raw water piping at the nuke for plant cooling was Carbon Steel, key word WAS. Converted to HDPE almost a decade back and not looked back. Was involved as a safety man tending recovery rope for guy crawling in and thru the piping before the project, was using a regular pocket knife and 'Cut' slivers out of the pipe wall at several locations up to an 1/8" deep it had become so contaminate softened.
Some CAT carnage, I think a piston is missing something lol. Notice the offending engine got flipped so I could get it all unjammed and get the torque converter off. There's one completed 6" assembly for the treatment plant. It's always fun squaring up plate that's been plasmaed on multiple sides and in the center.
We've been swamped, seems like the last half of the year gets busier and busier, especially when we're doing larger projects. The guys got the portapower out and dismantled the other decanter I didn't feel like making another ladder climb, they got everything re-grouted with no shrink and wiped with hydro cement. I did a 3070 trans/transfer case swap the local Allison dealer didn't want, ex mil truck. Would have to go on the hook too so we did it in the field. Military had a procedure to do it by crane/wrecker/forklift so we made the rigging plates and lowered it out. I need to see if we took pics of us sliding the reman back under with a pallet jack and lever hoist and lifting it back in.
I've been doing the PM thing the last few weeks on a 1/2 acre pond reline, we mucked out, cleaned and re graded and then helped pull liner in. We're doing all the misc stuff, pipe relocates and structures up top now. Muck was anywhere from 18" to 36" deep, thankfully we didn't have to haul off site. Whoever built it originally did a nice job on the bottom at least we just chased the loose muck and then dragged with a big arena drag. Liner install in progress.