so waht ya doin today?

[Bret4207]

Was backing the flatbed GMC2500 up to the barn door last night and heard a funny sound. Huh! My full to the tippy top gas tank broke a strap and is dangling there! I got a strap under it, but I have a feeling I'll have to lighten the tank to get it back where it's supposed to be. Dang NYS and it's salt the roads policy! Makes $$$ for car dealers and saves $$$ for auto insurance companies! Everyone else suffers.

Got the JD420 crawler over in front of the garage for teardown. Pretty sure I busted the rings on #2 cylinder this past winter. Water intrusion into the oil, same time I broke the oil pump drive train. I can't figure out how water is getting into the engine, new manifold, muffler, rain cap, seals on the valve cover bolts. It's not coolant, it's rain water. I did just get a line on enough trusses to do a 24x28 pole barn for cheap, so that would solve the problem! Anyways, not much compression on cyl 2, and it's not the valves since the head was just replaced with one with a fresh valve job. #1 has a newer OS piston and great compression, I should have checked #2 better when I was doing the head.

Oldest boy Matt had borrowed SWMBO Wrangler to get back to Albany because his S10 Blazer had allegedly " lost the transmission". I had volunteered to drive down and take a look at it (about a 5 hour trip one way) but he decided to get it to a garage as he's working local there this week. He called last night and immediately claimed to be dumber than a box of rocks. Why? Seems that model has an electronic switch for 4WD and somehow he got it into low range! The indicator lights don't always work on the switch (bad ground probably) but when he started it up he spotted the low range light right away! Better that than needing a new tranny or car. Now all we have to do is figure out how to get the Wrangler back north!

Got a kennel up for the pups, the "Oodles of Poodles" (aka- The Clowns) like it fine. "The Monsters" (Goldens) are still up in the air about it. We got the kennel from one of the owners of a horse that won the Kentucky Derby called "Funny Cide". Apparently they were local. I don't follow that stuff but she knew about the horse. Nice guy.

 

[popper]

Yea, Tom, good dog that likes to run with the gater, probably what got him. He was about 9 yrs, a merle. They lost his sister to a bad neuter job when they were pups. They sure were cute then.
Son goes in tomorrow to clean up the knee surgery, then on IV antibiotics for a day. Doc didn't like the looks of the wound that hasn't yet healed. She want to visit her sis that should find if she has throat cancer. Then she realized BIL has mers and probably all through the house. Not sure what is going to happen.

 

[JWFilips]

Yesterday Did 3 batches of 277 PC
Today I resized them again and Weighed 200 of them Not much of a jump, most were between 135.1 grain and 135.6 grain!

 

[Mitty38]

Not much so far.
Was going to work on barn a bit, but...
Work last night, wore me out.
Any more now I am older, it just tares me up,when they are short. I have to work in the pour pit, sledge Hamering pull pins from hot ingot sows, as they pull them from moulds.
Heat fatigued. Pounding wrists. Ankles aching. So I medicated up and slept most of the day so far.
Balanced the checking, paid some bills. Now getting myself together, to head back to work. Watching "Forgotten Weapons" having a coffee.

 

[Bret4207]

Hope you get lots of sleep Mitty!

Fixed the gas tank in the truck. Local auto parts store actually had a strap set in stock. Took almost an hour to get the broken bolt on one end out. Rusted beyond words, ended up grinding it out. Nothing more fun than being downhill in a shower of sparks and hot rusty steel! But it's done. Still trying to figure out whats up with the truck. If I start it and let it warm up good it runs decent-sometimes. If I start it and take right off it runs good until I slow down for a stop sign or something and then it dies or spits and sputters till it dies. I dunno if that fuel or spark, but I'm thinking it's beyond my ability to diagnose either way.

 

[Mitty38]

No rest for the wicked.
Just got a notice on my locker that I will be working 6-12 hour shifts for a couple weeks. So they will have time to train the new employee on days, as we are down to 1 computer now, that communicates with the lab equipment.
Plus they are having to pull me for labor, in the pit because of employee shortages. Leaving me less time to get things done in the lab.
I had just got cut to 50 hrs from 60, a couple weeks ago and was able to start getting things done at home for a change.
Hope this Newbie lasts more then the training period .
For now back up to 72 a week.
Wonder if I can get hold of effedrin legally?

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I Cast up ALOTTA bullets...



This was second pile. First was just a bit larger.. The video was first pile (same bullet)

 

[fiver]

just got home from the circus.
it was probably 90-95 in that big o'l tent [the rain didn't help], the G-girl wanted Gampa but only wanted him to walk her all over the park.
not a park like the fair would have, an actual city park [the one i got for Littlegirls wedding actually] it's more like a treeless mostly dead grass flat plain [I.E. the parking area for the 4th. of july celebration]
probably hoofed it 10 miles walking/carrying her around.

 

[L Ross]

We decided a retaining wall will be nice for the downhill end of the of the embankment I created to put Sue's new garden shed on. So, get the tractor out and pull the trailer out of the field, air up the tires to 65# each, and the spare. Hooked up the truck, after the trailer slipped off the high lift jack twice. The built in trailer jack wouldn't raise the hitch high enough for the angle I had. Drive 50 miles to Menard's and get 6,600 lbs. of retaining wall blocks. About all of the load I want to pull with my F-150. Everything went fine, but I was apprehensive until it was safely backed into the driveway.

 

[fiver]

yeah, 6600 is a bit much for a 5~K truck.

 

[Bret4207]

No rest for the wicked.
Just got a notice on my locker that I will be working 6-12 hour shifts for a couple weeks. So they will have time to train the new employee on days, as we are down to 1 computer now, that communicates with the lab equipment.
Plus they are having to pull me for labor, in the pit because of employee shortages. Leaving me less time to get things done in the lab.
I had just got cut to 50 hrs from 60, a couple weeks ago and was able to start getting things done at home for a change.
Hope this Newbie lasts more then the training period .
For now back up to 72 a week.
Wonder if I can get hold of effedrin legally?

What a world we have created, eh? People won't work because the system pays them not to, but the decent people still hack away doing more than they ever did but for the same $$$. Depressing state of affairs that I don't think will change until we move over into a harsh recession/depression where the freebies get cut.

 

[Winelover]

Join union if you don't want to work overtime. UAW says management can only force you to work nine hours a day and only two Saturdays in a row. Third Saturday they have to give you off, if you so desire. Sundays are strictly voluntary unless it's a 7 day operation.................then your days off would be during the week.

 

[Rick]

Join union if you don't want to work overtime. UAW says management can only force you to work nine hours a day and only two Saturdays in a row. Third Saturday they have to give you off, if you so desire. Sundays are strictly voluntary unless it's a 7 day operation.................then your days off would be during the week.

Tell that to the Teamsters. 80-90 hour weeks, do what the job requires or tomorrow someone else that will do it will be in your place. Pay rates are based on number of hours per day and number of days. Only restriction is that after you clock out you get 8 hours off but that rule is a waste of ink, violated more often than not and if you don't like it? Well, there's that pesky list of people supplied by the union that will love doing it for you.

 

[Winelover]

Tell that to the Teamsters. 80-90 hour weeks, do what the job requires or tomorrow someone else that will do it will be in your place. Pay rates are based on number of hours per day and number of days. Only restriction is that after you clock out you get 8 hours off but that rule is a waste of ink, violated more often than not and if you don't like it? Well, there's that pesky list of people supplied by the union that will love doing it for you.

Unions are only as strong as the members. They are the only protection against getting run roughshod over by a greedy management.

You know as well as I do, that without a union, you'd be still working or broke.

 

[Rick]

Has nothing to do with strength of the union or its members. The union contract regulating your hours and days in your industry would be completely impossible in my industry. Two totally different industries with nothing similar in job requirements. In the film/TV industry a union contract like yours would make it nearly impossible to ever get anything finished. They would still be filming Ben-Hur.

 

[Winelover]

And probably the last good movie they made.............

 

[Mitty38]

What Union? None at my shop, in my town, or in my current industry.

There are only two union shops with in 30 miles, can not get a job at either. Mainly because I can not pass a physical at one and the other I just can not do that kind of work.

Besides, If I did, would be laid off in three months just before I could sign on or get unemployment. Then be right back where I am. We have three fellows here who have been thru that. One twice.
Union was forcing a contract on the American Axel plant, by the house.
They burned down and moved to Mexico because they could not afford to get it back up and going while paying union wages, and benefits.

Teamsters we're good at first. But they did nothing for me for years, but took my money when I drove. Then ignore when I was trying to figure out a way to keep driving after my illness.
Unions are a dead horse.Not near what they were 30 years ago, when I was a young man just starting out.

 

[462]

The following is but my personal union experience. It is not written to be political. If this steps over the political red line, please delete.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) bosses priced their members out of jobs by continued unreasonable demands. Pacific Bell paid my wife to retire at a very early age, so she could be replaced by a
non-union, non-pensioned person who lives out-of-state and works for fewer dollars, and the local phone/cable repairmen are non-union, non-pensioned contract workers.

Too, unions create unnecessary inflation. At the time the following happened, my wife was still working for the phone company. We were shopping at the local Safeway and she ran into an old high school friend, who was the produce manager. They got to talking and he mentioned the phone company signed a new contract with increased workers' wages. My wife asked how he know about it, as it had just recently happened and was not widely known. He said Safeway's headquarters monitors union contracts, then increases its prices according to wage increases.

 

[smokeywolf]

Unless you're an office worker, in the Motion Picture and Television Industry, long hours are just plain a fact of life. The contracts allow for that and if you work over 60 hours a week you're making very good money. Those hours are also boosting your pension income. For several years I was an "on-call foreman", a salaried position. I was obligated to put in 9 hrs/day 5 days/wk, but was paid for 56.2 hrs./week. Plus 56.2 hrs were credited toward my pension.
EDIT: Unless I worked over 12 hrs in a day, I didn't get overtime pay.
Now and then I would have to fly to San Jose to consult on a piece of film handling machinery. Would typically depart LAX around 0700 and on my return, if I deplaned at LAX that night after 0035 (12:35 AM), that counted as 2 entire days work.

The down side to the Motion Picture Industry is, it's feast or famine. I went through a half dozen layoffs ranging from 6 weeks to as long as 9 months.
The guys who don't want to work lots of overtime when asked are the ones who don't get called back from a layoff.

 

[Rick]

The guys who don't want to work lots of overtime when asked are the ones who don't get called back from a layoff.

In the transportation dept. those that complain about the hours don't get called back tomorrow, never mind after a layoff.