Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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Recall that gum slab wood outdoor table I made a few months back? Did I mention it was an experiment so was a gift for Sis as couldn't sell it? Well I was given two old nearly empty drums of epoxy that had been laying around in Sis' shed for years and she didn't know about until I noticed them recently. Turns out there is still about 25 gallons of resin in them so i thought I'd thank her by flood coating that table that I still haven't delivered to her bc I can't lift it without tractor which is 5 hrs away for another few months. So, I pulled the cover off the table last evening and laughed.

A few weeks back we heard a rifle shot and every neighbour I spoke to just thought it was another neighbour taking care of a possum (pest here). We were wrong.
View attachment 799492

I placed those tenons to try and stop this, knowing the slabs weren't fully seasoned. Look at how they have sheared - across the grain. The force required to do that is extreme. It's not ripping down the grain but the epoxy held and the fibres of the tenon sheared across the grain. Would have had to be many tons of force and I'm quite sure that was the rifle shot we all heard a while back.

I'm more stoked to have heard and experienced this failure than i am worried about the table. Have got some clamps on it to restrict/guide any future movement and will give it the rest of Summer and then use my new big saw to cut it up enough to get it all back together with the free epoxy I have. Hopefully by then it's moved all it wants. I have always known it's really difficult to hold back timber if it wants to go, especially eucalyptus, but thought I'd take a chance, do what I can to mitigate and see what happens. A really cool lesson to learn. I never thought the tenons would shear like that and the epoxy would hold them in the mortice so the only way left to relieve the stress was to shear across the grain like that.

I wonder what the force required must have been. Yuge.
Dang! That’s a lot of force.
 
I have Savage , Ithaca, Beretta, Winchester and Remington shotguns. Almost pulled a deal together on a A5, definitely on my gotta have list. Just worried like the model 12, I will love looking at its aesthetics more than shooting it.
I have my Gramp’s 1948 A5, a Belgium made. I love it. I put a Hastings rifled slug barrel on it, an it’s a deer slaying machine. Or at least was. I use the .450BM AR now.

Like a dummy, I had it out in the rain and the handguard cracked from the moisture, the temp changes. It’s actually at my buddy’s shop who specializes in restoring old guns. He’s fixing the handguard and re-bluing the metal for me. I’m hoping to get it back soon.
 
Well the truck is in the shop again.

Almost unbelievably, my lower ball joint on the driver’s side went out this time. I’ve never heard of one failing, let alone two within two weeks of each other.

Tow truck ride number 3 covered by insurance. And ball joint will be covered by warranty.

Go figure. Praise the lord it happened 250 yards from home at 5 mph.
 
Well the truck is in the shop again.

Almost unbelievably, my lower ball joint on the driver’s side went out this time. I’ve never heard of one failing, let alone two within two weeks of each other.

Tow truck ride number 3 covered by insurance. And ball joint will be covered by warranty.

Go figure. Praise the lord it happened 250 yards from home at 5 mph.
I'd suspect sabotage!:D You make someone mad lately?
 
I’m only joking. Being and AR guy, there is always a banter between AK and AR guys. Sorta like Sailors and Marines.

I’ve owned two AKs. A Polytech and an Aresenal. The Aresenal was a SLR106F, in 5.56. They’re supposed to be some of the best shooting 5.56 AKs out there, being Bulgarian made using a quality 1/7 barrel. I shot M855 at 100 yards through the Aresenal, and then my Colt. Both wearing irons, both with 1/7 twist chrome-lined barrels. The AR’s 15 shot groups were half the size of the AKs. I then went out to 200 yards, and again the AR shot half or better sized groups.

So, I sold the AK and bought more ARs. LMBO. Still a great platform. I’ll probably own another one at some point.

My SLR is my favorite. Irons sights only on AK’s for me. I love AR’s (wish i could love them more[emoji53])but for some reason the AK controls and ergonomic (or lack there of[emoji1787]) are more friendly to me.

I enjoy taking my AK to AR rifle classes. Fun to have a little competition between them after they warm up to ya.

Sent while firmly grasping my redline lubed RAM [emoji231]
 
My favorite driving job was on farm plates. Pulled into a weigh station down shifting all the way like I had a load (empty). Pull up and the patrol asks for my license. The older guy next to him says why ya want his license? Says he's got farm plates wave em through!
That is funny.
I liked when I was hauling a very heavy load and I was almost to the scale sign and it changed from open to closed :happy:, hammer down :rock:.
 
Even when you are on the rd there are so many things that don't make sense with the laws. I could drive for a company in Detroit over 2hrs away and finish my limit of hrs in the truck, drive home for my 10hrs off and then back, so I was still driving for another 4hr and then did I ever even sleep :nofunny:. I was pulled over on a Thursday by a DOT cop, he asked for my log book and I said you don't want to see that, he said why and I explained I had been running Pepsi loads and they were unloading me and reloading me out of the same dock and that they woke me up when they were finished(I had almost 3k miles already), he said are you tired/are you safe to be on the rd, I said I'm more refreshed now that during most other weeks. He let me go with a written logbook warning, he understood the intent of the law and didn't get caught up in the letter of the law, for which there are always ways around.
Did you ever get to drive one of the trucks with the flame job and the chrome wheels :cool:.
No. We used to have a big car show. Over about 10 years it turned into one of the biggest one day car shows on the East Coast. That was when we sponsored Dale Jarret. They always had the Flame Truck there and one of Jarrets back up cars. They would start it up on the half hour and rev it up a few times. The R's that thing cranked out were amazing. They also had a Nascar simulator there, but I never tried it. One of my buddy's was the supervisor in charge of the car show. It was a United Way Fund raiser. He built the show up from about 80 cars the first year to over 1400 the last year. He did all of the car show work on his own time with no compensation from the company. There was a period of time when all management people were told not to use their company credit cards. Our big boss couldn't even buy donuts and coffee for our safety meetings. Well, my buddy used his, and got fired. The rumor mill on one side said he just paid for stuff like gas going to meet vendors. On the other side of the rumor mill, they said he bought person items, like jewelry, for his wife. I never got the truth. But, his termination stuck and it was the end of the show.
 
Well the truck is in the shop again.

Almost unbelievably, my lower ball joint on the driver’s side went out this time. I’ve never heard of one failing, let alone two within two weeks of each other.

Tow truck ride number 3 covered by insurance. And ball joint will be covered by warranty.

Go figure. Praise the lord it happened 250 yards from home at 5 mph.

Surprised they didn't catch it at the shop . Always check the other when one went out. My hub was going on my Dodge on the front axle I replaced both .
 
Maple season is here! I may be a week or 2 late but I put out 15 taps yesterday . The trees are swamp maple, not sugar maple but it still works out it just takes more sap to get the syrup. I picked up a 55 gallon drum I plan to convert into a stove end put 2 pans in it for an evaporator. I can't find the stove kit locally and will have to order one so it's one more year for a beat up old Jotul stove I got for free, The pan fits perfectly in it.View attachment 799061 View attachment 799061

Nice old #8! That’s what I use for heat and it’s 36 years old. Anyway a family friend of mine was boiling down some Maple syrup a few days ago, 45 gallon sap to get 1 gallon syrup. No wonder it is so expensive!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Surprised they didn't catch it at the shop . Always check the other when one went out. My hub was going on my Dodge on the front axle I replaced both .
Yeah I suppose it’s such a rare thing that they didn’t even think of it. I sure didn’t.

These were replaced in close proximity so I’m wondering if they had a bad lot of parts.
 
Nice old #8! That’s what I use for heat and it’s 36 years old. Anyway a family friend of mine was boiling down some Maple syrup a few days ago, 45 gallon sap to get 1 gallon syrup. No wonder it is so expensive!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A lot depends on the tree . I have some that yield high3 to 4% sugar . But most are a little under 2%, the higher %trees usually are 25 to 30 gallons per gallon of syrup.

Funny story I was doing maple syrup years ago , I boil out doors of course my cousin asked if he could take some sap from the trees I tapped on his dad's property. Sure thing it's your dad's trees after all. He called me two days later all upset. All the wallpaper was coming off his kitchen and living room. The dumbass was doing it on his stove
 

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