Beverly Hillbillies, Part Deux

[rickf]

Great to have a dad who was a lawyer/judge! Bet the other guys stayed friends with you for a loooong time. Also bet you never got another work offer from that company, as kids or adults.

[m3a1]

Well, who would want to work there? Think about it...

[rickf]

Well, if it was like a lot of smaller town in those times it was the only big place that had steady work, So basically if you wanted a job that was one of the few choices. When I moved to Pa. in the early 80's you had the tannery and the sawmill. That was it, the rest of the places to get a job were mom and pop businesses and family run operations that hired family and friends. Anyone ever worked at or been in or even close to a tannery? Yea, if you ever have you will know exactly why I ask that. I did get a job at the sawmill along with working on my buddies dairy farm.

[m3a1]

We were a small town, with a HUGE railroad and farmland absolutely everywhere. Almost everybody was employed. Just a good balance between all the jobs necessary to sustain a town's economy. We also had a pretty big General Electric factory. Sandusky, Ohio (a nearby town) had the Ford Plant. Clyde, Ohio, had Whirlpool...and so on. When you strike a balance like that, it's tough to kill and economy. Naturally, the politicians achieved that by taxing the bejusus out of everyone and then pilfering the public coffers. Sounds familiar, right?

*sigh*

Hey, when the G838 picture embargo gonna be over?

Cheers,
TJ

[rickf]

Go ahead with the pics but don't go overboard. Still having issues and they are not giving solutions.

[m3a1]

Okay.

So, here's where we are with the '49. She's shedding pounds and we are nearly ready to drag this engine, still on the front half of the frame, out through a narrow gap between trees and a pile of scrap metal. Then we'll load it up on Peach and get it home. The rest of the car is going up to Nice Lady's place to be scrapped.

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Turns out, cutting off that front clip and taking it up to the flea market was the right thing to do. It sold, yesterday. Can you say, Free Gas Money?!

Woo Hoo!

Cheers,
TJ

[m3a1]

Haven't much to say at the moment. The scrapping work continues.. Today, the salvage guys will return with their freshly repaired machine. We'll see how long that lasts. Frankly, I think they had been asking too much of that poor little skid steer.

We recovered two MORE winches. One was brought out front and put up for sale and the other, I put away until I finally decided to buy it. Turned out to be a wise choice because the winch I brought up was promptly stolen over the weekend.

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[Mark]

I was going to say something changed my mind but can't delete it which should be my choice

[rickf]

Mark, There should be no reason you can't delete your post. The setting are all set so you can but if you still can't I will do it.

[rickf]

Haven't much to say at the moment. The scrapping work continues.. Today, the salvage guys will return with their freshly repaired machine. We'll see how long that lasts. Frankly, I think they had been asking too much of that poor little skid steer.

We recovered two MORE winches. One was brought out front and put up for sale and the other, I put away until I finally decided to buy it. Turned out to be a wise choice because the winch I brought up was promptly stolen over the weekend.


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That appears to be a Ramsey 8-12,000 lb. winch. They are nice, heavy duty winches. I believe it is upside down in that photo.

[m3a1]

Yes, and what you cannot see is the plastic cover on one end is melted. SOMETHING inside went up in a puff of smoke but obviously, the motor is external to this unit. No matter, I'll get it sorted out, Important thing is, it has a full spool of cable and that cable doesn't look too bad. Everything else is repairable....

Today was like being the first fellow to discover gold in the west... EVERYTHING we touched just turned to big, stupid grins. Sir Billiam and I arrived a bit late and the scrappers were already there and we found the new guy drove that skid steer like Mario Andretti. He was literally racing around the yard....no wasted motion and if you aren't on his train, stay the hell off the tracks!

We touched base with him, gave him the nickel tour and my phone number (so he could get a quick answer should any questions arise, whether I was on the property, or not). He mentioned that his predecessor had been doing a poor job of loading the cans and that Nice Lady could expect bigger checks per can from now on. He was really packin' it in there!

Marvelous!

I returned to my truck to find Julio, who is the local artiste', parked behind me. He had arrived with a small crew and a 20' gooseneck. This place used to be a place where he could just kind of stroll around, consult his muse, pick a bit here and pick a bit there and take it home to make his metal art. Now, the place was a beehive of activity and all the goodies were disappearing before his very eyes. Julio was now what you'd call, One Motivated Individual.

But finally! FINALLY, he was here to pick up a large metal table and a giant air tank and who-knows-what else he had purchased. That table had been vexing me because it was in absolutely the wrong place at an intersection that was tough for Longfellow to negotiate when turning. That table was also constructed in such a way that it was nearly impossible to move without removing several vises and a poorly made sheet metal brake. Pointing that out to him, he allowed me to have at it and soon we had just a large, heavy table without all the extra weight. Since my work left the table top unfettered, I proposed we flip it over upside down and drag it to an advantageous spot where loading could commence. Julio nixed the suggestion and set his crew to work on moving that table. They got it done but it wasn't pretty....like the Keystone Cops...but with hernias. Then, with the loading done, just as quickly they all scampered back out to the yard like a pack of wolves. Our new skid-steer driver had them worried...a lot.

Señor Bill and I addressed a couple of sections of very fancy fence with a lot of filigree and a big G right in the middle of each section. They had shown up in a huge pile of scrap but had been so interwoven with the rest of the pile, Bill and I had pretty much given up on them (and had agreed to not tell Nice Lady about them for fear that she would want us to get 'em). Since Nice Lady's last name starts with G, I reckoned maybe...just maybe these might have had, at one time, some importance to her but common sense had, thus far, overruled any rescue effort. Julio overheard our conversation. His eyes grew wide when he spotted the fence sections and, once again, set his crew to fetch those fence sections out of their entanglement with the rest of the scrap. Once they were free, Julio said he wanted them...badly. He begged me to set a price. I reminded him that I don't do that. I'm a helper and it ain't my place to conduct business....unless it's to facilitate a sale.

So, we did the right thing and dragged one section of fence over to the house so that Nice Lady could have a look.

She looked and stated flatly that she had never seen them before. Thoroughly disinterested, she suggested that they be sold. I told her Julio wanted them...BADLY and she quoted the exact price he had offered. BAM! Done deal! I returned to Julio and told him he had just bought himself two fence sections.

Congratulations!

Meanwhile, Bill saved a small roll of barbed wire that looked like a Texas wreath. Well done, Bill. You're a real heavy hitter.

Nice Lady cleaned Julio out with the sale of the fancy fence sections and the remainder of the items he had selected would have to be paid for later. Long time customers get special dispensation. For Julio, there is one undeniable benefit of having me around and that is the fact that I'm in tune with the kind of stuff he's looking for. I have his phone number and I send him tantalizing pictures. Poor fellow. He's completely at our mercy.

Now, I have related to you how, when locked doors are opened around this place, particularly to buildings and trailers that one has never been in before, it never fails to take one's breath away. It's like Jewel of the Nile, the Indiana Jones series, and Tomb Raider 1-10 all rolled into one breath taking experience (absent the ridiculously well-funded bad guys and natives with blow darts and spears). Yeah. We raided another new tomb today (new to us, anyway). I would like to suggest that this may have been Nice Lady's late husband's sanctum sanctorum but, with all the experiences I've had around this place up to this point in time, I know better than to make that declaration.

If I was running this business, I'd call it. A Box of Chocolates. 'Flea Market' just doesn't do it justice.

THIS building was THE tool shed with a healthy smattering of 'All Sorts' mixed in. What sort of 'All Sorts', you ask? Well, when I walked in, I was suddenly face to face with a Federal Sign And Signal Corporation - Model 17 (think about how low that model number is for a minute) in what appeared to be pretty good shape. A giant chromium plated base with a huge plastic dome; the classic bubble gum machine! 10-4, good buddy!

Apparently I let out a low, appreciative moan and Nice Lady looked at me with curiosity. "I had something very much like this on my very first Highway Patrol cruiser", I said, "but it had a red lens." (This one had a yellow lens.) Nice Lady said, "Well take it home!" Well, hell, she didn't have to tell me twice! Okay...MINE!

Friends, it's going to look FABULOUS on my old school wrecker!

But, with so much going on and with so many things needing to be done in order to maintain the lead we had made on the scrappers, we backed out of the BEST BUILDING SO FAR. Well, actually, I sorta moon-walked out of there, cradling my prize FS&SCo Model 17 like a much-loved child...close to my heart. I also began figuring out how to put some of the burglar bars on this shed because once it became known what was actually in there it would only be a matter of time.... Add that to the list of many things to do.

We had come to work with so many things on our current To-Do List. One more thing wasn't gonna sink us but, Julio's surprise appearance simply dashed all the plans to bits so, the day became a long series of knee-jerk, reactionary jobs...much, but not all of it requiring the muscle of Longfellow. While the Death Wheel was out I took a little time to pilfer some choice bits off one of the many deceased fork lifts and we also finally pulled my monstah hydraulic press out of its hole and back into the light and got it ready to go to it's new home.

Through the day, more goodies were taken up front to be sold and on one of the trips back I eyeballed a large platform created from heavy angle iron with an expanded sheet metal deck. This thing had caught my eye on my very first day there. It had been part of a hydraulic lift on the back of some delivery truck and was about 6' x 6' and it was straight as an arrow. Completely damage free. We chained up to it and with Longfellow we pulled it like a grader just to see what it would do. Oh boy, it worked great; even better than the ancient grader I had recovered last week and with a platform that big, one could pile things on it for extra weight and as a result it would be a simple, effective, top-shelf grader.

No moving parts. Nothing to break. Adjust the pullin' chains a bit one way or another and one could grade whilst pulling it at an angle, shedding anything that built up in front of the angle iron edges. YessireeBob...another choice bit, saved from the scrapper! I dragged it around the place twice, just so I could see what it had accomplished....grinning from ear to ear because of the stellar results.

After I was thoroughly satisfied with the results and finding Señor Bill in complete agreement (I admit, I do occasionally get too starry-eyed about things and need to be brought back down to earth) we brought it around and parked it next to the Nice Lady's huge roller/compactor. It was becoming very late in the day and because we were about to skootch out of there, a final pow-wow with Nice Lady was in the offing so as to report the 'daily despatches'.

I was still excited about our new grader and I launched right into singing its praises. Nice Lady coyly said, "I thought you were in love with the old grader." "I am. I am, but this new rig really does a much better job", said I. "Then why don't you take it home if we don't need it around here?" Nice Lady bequeathed a second treasure to me. (I am not only cheap...I am ALSO easy. My morals are great. My methods, however, are sometimes questionable. What can I say?) "Can I at least pay you something for it", I asked (more like begging, actually). "Oh, HELL, just take it home. I know you love it", she said.

*sigh* My wife is gonna skin me alive...but it'll look fabulous in the front yard. Blame my father. He sold off all the family junk. I'm just trying to get it back.

Now, Nice Lady is not just nice....she's also dangerously savvy. "I want to talk to you about something", she said. My cop sense tingled. "Shoot", I said. "I have a friend who is 90 years old. She had a husband who was a lot like my husband...never threw anything away and that man died about a year ago. She had the kids come over and take whatever stuff they wanted...."

Now, I'm thinking, 'The Kids' would be about...what...70 years old?!! Heck, they've already reached the pinnacle of their life's stuff-getting!

"...and she wants to just get rid of it all", said the Nice Lady. "I told her about the good help I was getting from you two. Do you think you could help her?"

'Stuff' is tricky business. It's like quantum physics. One moment it's 'Good Stuff' and the next, it's 'Not So Good Stuff'...sometimes all at the same time. Dangerous Curves Ahead.

I'm truly a decent fellow, so I went right up the middle. "I'll tell you what, if I can help, and I cannot speak for Bill, I will certainly help. HOWEVER...you're the one running a flea market. If she's got sellable stuff that has value, why don't you just open up another booth for her? I would bring it over and set it up. No furniture though! I'm sure she'd appreciate the extra income. I can help make that happen." (Part of me was visualizing hiring a portable dumpster and having it brought to the Other Nice Lady's home.) "You set up a visit and we'll all go over and see what needs to be done. That means you too."

Yeah, NOBODY rides my train for free..

And so, we left it at that. It will be interesting to see how far Nice Lady runs with this ball. Another adventure? Perhaps!

Cheers,
TJ

[rickf]

YOU, Are going to need a warehouse!!!!

[D Pizzoferrato]

YOU, Are going to need a warehouse!!!!

The warehouse he needs and doesn't have is already not big enough.

[rickf]

[m3a1]

Apparently, yesterday was winch day....again.

I'm sure I didn't receive the memo.

I brought home what appears to be the remains of a 6000# winch; broken castings and missing pieces, all bolted to a rather nice mount plate with a rather anemic-looking fairlead roller setup. Pretty good, but low bid. The REAL good of it was the mounting plate which nobody had messed with, and a full spool of cable. Bingo. For whatever reason, cable seems to be the lion's share of the expense on most winches so I am always glad to luck into something like that.

Winch #2 was, more accurately, a chain hoist with a set of driving pawls, two ratchet wheels set up on either end of the chain sprocket. Wobble the handle up and down and one or the other of the driving pawls walks the reel up a notch while the driving pawl next to it drops into place, preparatory to the next iteration. Quite a rig and simplistic enough to probably be some turn of the century set up. Impressive, nonetheless. Can't wait to see if there is anything about them on the internet.

Winch #3 is really a continuation of the commercial jib boom crane I brought home some time ago; the one that was missing it's base. Well, we found that missing base bolted to a POS trailer out in the yard. Out came the death wheel and I began cutting bolt heads. As the blade bisected the bolts, it began binding so I'd back off and cut in again. MORE binding! Weird.

The base plate is about 3/4 inch thick so it surely wasn't flexing. Eventually I got through the first bolt and part way through another and the cutting disc blew up. I got a face full but had my safety glasses on. I've had several negative learning experiences over the years and now I'm a dedicated safety glasses kinda guy.

No harm. Just surprised. Got a new disc.

After that negative experience, I bisected the heads of the bolts. As I cut through the shank, pieces of the bolt head would flex up and then come off. In that way the cutting disc wouldn't get trapped. Handling the death wheel is like handling a chainsaw. There are some tricks that can keep you out of trouble and save the equipment...or your life.

But, I hadn't expected trouble because I was only looking at the base plate, hence the ruined disc (and discs aren't cheap). As it turned out, the trouble was not with the base plate flexing. Nope. It was the 1/4" steel plate of the trailer beneath it and why was this mysterious pressure there at all? Rust, corrosion, whatever you want to call it. It had built up to about 1/8" or more between the base plate and the floor of the trailer. That meant those bolts were under tremendous pressure. I hadn't considered the substrate. Another lesson learned.

But, in the final analysis, finding the correct base plate and getting it back together with the jib crane it came from originally was just a spectacular piece of luck. Spend enough time around that place and things do eventually come together. I'm very pleased to have found it because now, far less effort will have to be expended to get it back into serviceable condition.

Happy St. Patricks Day, Y'all!

Cheers,
TJ