End of May
2019-May-29, Wednesday 22:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
texxgadgetIts been quite a month.
Im sure youve seen "Case" tractors, backhoes etc.
They actually started before WW1.
KSW has 2 of them, "Hortense" from 1915 and Pappy built in 1917.
Pappy is a recent donation.
We have borrowed Pappy, but its now ours, failing clutch and all.
3 weeks before Maker Faire, John took the clutch apart and built them back up with Bondo.
Next, we made a sand casting of them which allowed us to cast and machine a brand new clutch in time for
Maker Faire.
During the faire, Pappy remained stationary, supplying steam for the engine belt driving
the printing press (1897 CHander Price 10x15),
a small "mantle engine" driving the orrery, and some steam to drive a steam powered bicycle up on a stand.
Off the flywheel from Pappys engine, we had a 12in wide belt driving a generator.
Originally, we were goung to use wood to make steam to drive an engine, to drive a generator,
to drive an induction furnace to melt metal.
With the chance of rain, a bank of expensive 2ft tall vacuum tubes was a bad mix,
so we ended up using the generator to drive a bank of high voltage transformers running jacobs ladders.
That was probably also a bad idea in the rain.
We had a canopy over the press, and Troye & Zee were doing iron casting with the oil powered furnace.
Zee is slowly sand casting a series of fruit. Completed are bananna, apple, pear and a tiny pumpkin.
There is a standard bowl of fruit that every art class gets to draw.
Zee is going to cast all the pieces and the bowl in cast iron!
This year the fair was smaller than half of last year.
Corporate sponsorship has dropped.
Considering that it poured most of both days, this was probably the last of the Bay Area Maker Faires.
I had planned on printing, but spent most of my time working the crowd as an explainer.
On a steam powered tractor, the firebox is close to the operator towards the back.
Toward the front is the boiler and then at the very fron is a chamber where all the fire tubes open into
allowing the smoke to go up the stack from here.
This means there is a 3ft diameter by about 2 and a half foot deep chamber full of smoke that sits
around 3 or 4 hundred degrees.
We have been threatening to do this for a while.
We baked several pizzas and a dutchoven containing a porkloin and BBQ sauce.
I was also drying shop rags on the outside of the smoke box.
I pointed out that a steam tractoe is a vehicle, a portable steam engine, a portable boiler, as well
as cooking lunch for the cre out in the field and drying your laundry.
It got laughs.
We will do this again in Oct at Roaring camp, but Pat will once again belting up an ice cream freezer to one
of the small steam engines, and Im going to take a shot at eith peach cobbler or berry crisp in another
dutch oven. Pat and I want to make cooking in a steam tractor a tradition.
Pappy's boiler is poorly insulated, so the rain put quite a chill on it.
We could barely keep up 60psi despite the boiler being built for 175.
We got soaked and chilled to the bone.
I picked up a month or two of work.
Weve had 2 more trips up to Sharons Dads place.
Last Nove when we tried to move the press was the first time since Sully died that Sharon didnt break down and cry.
Shes finally ready to deal with the place.
The guest house has no running water or power right now.
We gave it a good cleaning out and its almost habitable to allow overnight work sessions.
Her brother disconnected the water and now we cant find the water feed.
I put a reverse hose fitting on the laundry sink and managed to get the lines to hold pressure.
Most importantly, the toilet flushes so we dont have to bug her step bro to use the one in his cabin.
Problem is that the water pressure there is very low, despite being connected to the end of the city main.
There is a booster pump, but its hard to get to.
Armed with a weed eater and 2 battery packs, I cleared a 5ft wide path about 250-300ft long.
That dot us to the pump.
Replacing the pressure switch, brought pressure from 16 to 40psi.
The pump cycles on for 2 secs, and then off for about 30, and then on again.
We suspect there is a leak in the pressure tank, so we have another session on it next week.
While Don wired up the new switch and Sharon did more cleaning on the guest house, I went wild with the weedeater around several other buildings etc after topping off both batteries.
Sharon says that when I started around the main house there was a green cloud in the air where I was working.
Then she asked, "Wait, what did you do about all the poison oak that was over there?"
Thats when we realized that the green cloud in the air surrounding me was a cloud of airborn shredded poison oak.
I also fopund a toppled tower and the heating oil tank that once graced it down the hill and single handedly dragged both up the hill.
Miraculously, I survived.
On the other hand, Im quite sore still from the exertion.
I wasnt TRYING to prove anything, or perhaps I was. I dunno.
This weekend, we will verify that it ts the pressure tank and not the piping that is leaking,
we will go looking for where the guest house was connected to the water line and restore that.
Most of the floor in the guest house is covered in tar paper in preparation for a tile floor that was never
installed. Its got to go because tar paper is no longer used under tile, its badly walked on
and Sharon wants to start over on the floor.
I will be on my hands and knees with a heat gun and a putty knife.
If there was ever any doubt whether or not I was crazy, I have probably now removed any doubt.
Im sure youve seen "Case" tractors, backhoes etc.
They actually started before WW1.
KSW has 2 of them, "Hortense" from 1915 and Pappy built in 1917.
Pappy is a recent donation.
We have borrowed Pappy, but its now ours, failing clutch and all.
3 weeks before Maker Faire, John took the clutch apart and built them back up with Bondo.
Next, we made a sand casting of them which allowed us to cast and machine a brand new clutch in time for
Maker Faire.
During the faire, Pappy remained stationary, supplying steam for the engine belt driving
the printing press (1897 CHander Price 10x15),
a small "mantle engine" driving the orrery, and some steam to drive a steam powered bicycle up on a stand.
Off the flywheel from Pappys engine, we had a 12in wide belt driving a generator.
Originally, we were goung to use wood to make steam to drive an engine, to drive a generator,
to drive an induction furnace to melt metal.
With the chance of rain, a bank of expensive 2ft tall vacuum tubes was a bad mix,
so we ended up using the generator to drive a bank of high voltage transformers running jacobs ladders.
That was probably also a bad idea in the rain.
We had a canopy over the press, and Troye & Zee were doing iron casting with the oil powered furnace.
Zee is slowly sand casting a series of fruit. Completed are bananna, apple, pear and a tiny pumpkin.
There is a standard bowl of fruit that every art class gets to draw.
Zee is going to cast all the pieces and the bowl in cast iron!
This year the fair was smaller than half of last year.
Corporate sponsorship has dropped.
Considering that it poured most of both days, this was probably the last of the Bay Area Maker Faires.
I had planned on printing, but spent most of my time working the crowd as an explainer.
On a steam powered tractor, the firebox is close to the operator towards the back.
Toward the front is the boiler and then at the very fron is a chamber where all the fire tubes open into
allowing the smoke to go up the stack from here.
This means there is a 3ft diameter by about 2 and a half foot deep chamber full of smoke that sits
around 3 or 4 hundred degrees.
We have been threatening to do this for a while.
We baked several pizzas and a dutchoven containing a porkloin and BBQ sauce.
I was also drying shop rags on the outside of the smoke box.
I pointed out that a steam tractoe is a vehicle, a portable steam engine, a portable boiler, as well
as cooking lunch for the cre out in the field and drying your laundry.
It got laughs.
We will do this again in Oct at Roaring camp, but Pat will once again belting up an ice cream freezer to one
of the small steam engines, and Im going to take a shot at eith peach cobbler or berry crisp in another
dutch oven. Pat and I want to make cooking in a steam tractor a tradition.
Pappy's boiler is poorly insulated, so the rain put quite a chill on it.
We could barely keep up 60psi despite the boiler being built for 175.
We got soaked and chilled to the bone.
I picked up a month or two of work.
Weve had 2 more trips up to Sharons Dads place.
Last Nove when we tried to move the press was the first time since Sully died that Sharon didnt break down and cry.
Shes finally ready to deal with the place.
The guest house has no running water or power right now.
We gave it a good cleaning out and its almost habitable to allow overnight work sessions.
Her brother disconnected the water and now we cant find the water feed.
I put a reverse hose fitting on the laundry sink and managed to get the lines to hold pressure.
Most importantly, the toilet flushes so we dont have to bug her step bro to use the one in his cabin.
Problem is that the water pressure there is very low, despite being connected to the end of the city main.
There is a booster pump, but its hard to get to.
Armed with a weed eater and 2 battery packs, I cleared a 5ft wide path about 250-300ft long.
That dot us to the pump.
Replacing the pressure switch, brought pressure from 16 to 40psi.
The pump cycles on for 2 secs, and then off for about 30, and then on again.
We suspect there is a leak in the pressure tank, so we have another session on it next week.
While Don wired up the new switch and Sharon did more cleaning on the guest house, I went wild with the weedeater around several other buildings etc after topping off both batteries.
Sharon says that when I started around the main house there was a green cloud in the air where I was working.
Then she asked, "Wait, what did you do about all the poison oak that was over there?"
Thats when we realized that the green cloud in the air surrounding me was a cloud of airborn shredded poison oak.
I also fopund a toppled tower and the heating oil tank that once graced it down the hill and single handedly dragged both up the hill.
Miraculously, I survived.
On the other hand, Im quite sore still from the exertion.
I wasnt TRYING to prove anything, or perhaps I was. I dunno.
This weekend, we will verify that it ts the pressure tank and not the piping that is leaking,
we will go looking for where the guest house was connected to the water line and restore that.
Most of the floor in the guest house is covered in tar paper in preparation for a tile floor that was never
installed. Its got to go because tar paper is no longer used under tile, its badly walked on
and Sharon wants to start over on the floor.
I will be on my hands and knees with a heat gun and a putty knife.
If there was ever any doubt whether or not I was crazy, I have probably now removed any doubt.
