Cooking and puttering about the finnish countryside

[LaCroix]

As for the size of trees, you can cut larger trees than the bar length by cutting from both sides. This is how was traditionally taught here anyway. You can use a larger bar but a larger bar is more tiring to wield and clumsier to limb with, though you don't have to bend over either with a long enough bar. Safety is generally considered here to be better with a shorter bar too.

Based on opinions on the net on local communities, 15" might be considered the new allround length it seems.

True, but here you have a lot of leaners, and to cut them without having to deal with barber chairs, you need to plunge-cut&trigger them, which is a real hassle when you need to cut from both sides in an already dangerous situation.

Also, we do have 99% HARDwood, mainly locust and oak, so we really need any extra tooth we can get to get some work donw without carrying a bag of spare chains. (Just for reference - local sawmills used to not charge per cut, but per dull bandsaw blade )

In a mostly pine environment, soft wood and straight growth, a smaller saw is perfectly fine, agreed, but I totally see why in the US - where locust and oak are also really common, they also prefer to have a longer bar, especially when you can only have one.

Also, I hate limbing bent over

[LadyTevar]

I have a problem tree in my yard. It's so dead all the bark's fallen off the trunk. It's gotta be removed before it falls over on either the garage or my car parked in the driveway.

The problem? There's a Powerline running through it. So, I haven't been able to get anyone to come remove the tree due to the Powerline.

[His Divine Shadow]

Sounds like it has to be taken apart from the top down.

[LaCroix]

Yeah - you need to ask around for people who like rope climbing or caving and would like to do something exiting...

[His Divine Shadow]

Finally some machining. Turned both tapers without changing the compound slide. I turned the outside by running the lathe in reverse and turning on the back.



New part, bottom of old piston and unaltered piston.



​

Still need to turn some features on the other side, will receive a bolt that will attach the two parts that will be hidden inside. Then I will turn a cap that will screw over the entire front of the piston and become the new face. Probably from stainless.

[LadyTevar]

Yeah - you need to ask around for people who like rope climbing or caving and would like to do something exiting...

Right now, all we can do is call the Power Co and tell them "Hey, this tree needs removed", because no one will touch it because of the Power Line.
Of course, this is the same Power Co that leaves fallen trees dangling on power lines for years, as long as the line's not down...

[Raw Shark]

Right now, all we can do is call the Power Co and tell them "Hey, this tree needs removed", because no one will touch it because of the Power Line.
Of course, this is the same Power Co that leaves fallen trees dangling on power lines for years, as long as the line's not down...

1: Stock up on water and shelf-stable foods to last as long as the Power Co usually takes to respond to a downed line plus some.

2: Move your car.

3: Cut down the tree in a way that leaves your house clear of it and yourself clear of the cable (attn: Element of unpredictable risk here)

4: File a police report about the malicious tree-assassins, citing "too many enemies to list" when they ask who would do such a thing. Alert Power Co to the situation.

5: ?????

: Profit!

[His Divine Shadow]

Bought a new freezer. Our cabinet freezer gave up the ghost at the ripe age of 9.5 years. We emergency bought a 2nd had freezer for cheap. This one will probably last another 20 years. And it's already old. This one also can be placed outside and will have no problems being in a cold space that can get down to -30 C. Once we get a replacement for the kitchen this one will live outside in the shed as a secondary freezer, great to keep berries and jams and stuff.



Open the freezer door, Hal.
I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.


The wonders of freon I guess? That it can live outside in the cold, which a lot of modern ones can't. I've seen some modern ones advertize -15C but it gets colder than that here.



I bet it uses more power than a modern freezer. I am gonna hook up a power monitor and see what it uses compared to a new one. Since this one can be outside in cold temps I don't think it will have to work super hard over the whole year so it might use a lot less power in the winter months. I do wonder about the environmental aspect of buying new stuff that only lasts 1/5th the time before it has to be scrapped. They use less power sure, and some people claim that's absolutely a win for the environment. But I wonder...

[His Divine Shadow]

Been energy logging this beast and it uses 1.8 kWh per day pretty accurately. Fixed the thermostat so it's -20 -21 C. So it is pretty inefficient despite having only .5cm narrower walls than the modern chest freezer we already had.

I suspect the insulation is in bad shape, the compressor is likely not as efficient as a modern one, but I think it's small change in the overall scheme of things.

Still haven't gotten a new one, this one is so big we also shut down the small chest freezer and now use soley this one. Probably will get one soon. Having problems deciding if we should move away from stainless to white instead.

[His Divine Shadow]

Finally I did it after many years of just using a squirt bottle, I hooked up the original flood coolant system for the lathe. It has a built in tank and pump but I've never used it. I used a magnet base to hold the nozzle instead of the factory mount.

It made parting operations a snap. But oh my god what a mess. Had to clean the lathe so much afterwards. I will need to think of new guarding for this. Particularly to keep the bedways cleaner.

[His Divine Shadow]

My pressure washer project took a detour. After creating such a mess using flood coolant but also finding it so very useful I made a better splash cover for my lathe. I designed it so it would keep coolant from getting onto the ways as well as naturally running down between the ways and it doesn't steal (much) capacity from the lathe. Sheet metal and mig welding basically.





Video showing the principle


Took a parting cut with flood coolant on stainless and I can say I have never achieved this good a result before on any material. More than the look, it feels so smooth, can't feel the surface imperfections.


Overall it works really well after some test cuts with flood coolant, only a few drops of coolant on the ways, took a few seconds to clean vs. half an hour last time.

Flood coolant = soluble oil that is mixed with water. 1 part soluble oil to 25 parts water in my case.

[His Divine Shadow]

I learned how to wrap a burrito. You wrap it from both ends. Never knew that. I dunno if my burritos are up to mexican or american standards. Ground beef, beans, cheddar, tomatoes, salsa, corn, kitchen sink.





Two smaller ones todays lunch, pan fried them in butter

[Raw Shark]

That is 100% appropriate burrito filling by American standards, Sir.

[His Divine Shadow]

Good to know. Been interested in upping my game and doing refried beans, pinto beans are hard to find though.

On my pressure washer project. I completed all the pistons, one is of different design but I hope it'll work, a threaded rod will go through it later and I will seal it with thread locker.



Reassembly was difficult, I had to build two tools to work as spreaders to get the shaft and cams in over the very strong springs.













Then I found a crack on the unloader valve, I tried to tig braze it but in doing so I think I fried an internal gasket I didn't know about, might leak anyway now.

[His Divine Shadow]

Oh I forgot, I was offered a piece of hex brass rod so I can turn my own replacement of above part. Which is nice. A new unloader valve would be about 40€ though but free is still cheaper. I don't count my own labour or time, it's a hobby it's supposed to take up my time.

[madd0c0t0r2]

There's something about seeing a big lump of weld on a thread that makes me squirm

[His Divine Shadow]

That part of the thread was unused anyway, but if I really wanted to I could chuck it in the lathe and recut the thread. Well, there'd be some low spots. But I won't bother with that.

[His Divine Shadow]

Damn it's hard to find some cow poop manure now, strange given the smell in spring in this place. I need fertilizer for my potato patch. Chicken manure is what I got but it's not good for potatoes. Cow manure though is the good stuff. When I was a kid we'd get all the cow dung we needed from my granddad who had a small dairy farm (less than 20 cows, but you could live on that in the far past of the 1980s, those days are gone).

Back then we planted on a scale sufficient enough to feed ourselves entirely. My dad would drive the tractor (1963 Massey Ferguson 165) and my mom and I would sit on the back on this potato ploughing / planting / covering machine, we just had to toss down a potato with even spacing.

This year I'm gonna grow my granddads favorite cultivar, one I like too, Almon potatoes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond_potato

[His Divine Shadow]

Last night I found a chunk of brass hex rod in my mailbox, that was fast. Guy said he'd gone out motorcycling and just dropped it off.

[His Divine Shadow]

Visited my parents for mothers day, took a walk to the lake next to their house, it's the biggest natural lake in ostrobothnia. Unfortunately it suffers greatly from eutrophication.



When I was a kid there were still places you could swim in it and when my parents were young it was even better, now it's all disgusting muck and mud on the bottom, the water was always brownish as it's filled from forest streams running through peaty bogs. Runoff from farming and an intentional lowering of the lake caused most of it.

Found out the government planted out eel this spring, all over Finland, and also here. I hope they make it, the european eel is in dire straits.

For some reason my kids filled one of their caps with stones and threw it in the lake. I was an accident they swear. We managed to fish the dam thing out though and washed it off.

[His Divine Shadow]

First test, but without a hose or handle. I found a few leaks where I didn't tighten up properly. And the new hose barb for the inlet leaks, it was broken looking but I tried anyway, the original barb is for 3/4 garden hose and I have only 1/2" garden hose. The welded unloader valve leaks unfortunately from where I did not weld it. I tried starting it and it "pulsed", I figure with no nozzle on the front and an unloader valve that's on the fritz that's about what you can expect. I saw no leakage from the pistons. I finally placed an order for a new handle & hose.

So I need a new hose barb for the inlet, make a new part for the unloader valve and a nozzle simulator (some threaded insert with a hole. I am not sure, is 075 = .075 inches?)



And here I am starting on making a new part for the unloader valve and oh my brass likes to fly everywhere. I had to rig up some shields to contain the mess. Feel like I should vacuum this up into its own bag and save it for melting down.



I ground a new tool for brass turning and it's working real well. I used another tool with a top rake at first and it didn't work well at all, it was HSS, but it was also a cheap grade without cobalt so it might have been partial reason.

I bought a batch of NOS blanks with cobalt a while ago though so I ground a simple tool with no top rake and it worked great. I'm gonna have to grind a 55 degree threading tool as well, already have a 60 degree one. I grind these with no top rake as well.

And no / neutral top rake means they won't have a tendency to dig in like I found happened with the carbide inserts, which mostly just caused me grief. If you got a worn screw or nut (or both) on the cross slide that can be an issue when threading I found, with a positive rake it sometimes dug in.

[His Divine Shadow]

New part almost done, there's still the need to make an o-ring groove on the inside bore, I also managed to get .4mm thicker walls on this by being careful with the fitting of the spring that goes on the inside, a nice sliding fit instead of a sloppy one. Should make it stronger than the original. There's some play so the spring can expand, it should be enough anyway.









I also made the o-ring groove last night and finished the part. Now I just need a new hose barb connector for the inlet manifold. I've been wondering if the inlet manifold needs to be remade from scratch. For some reason it's built from a steel box that's corroded on the inside and that can, will cause pieces of debris to make it's way to the cylinders.

Should've been made from stainless or brass. Possibly aluminum could work.

[His Divine Shadow]

Cut my own hair, my good pair of clippers is broken and I had issues getting a good fade, kept creeping upwards until I gave up and left it like that. I'm not growing a beard, just lazy. I'll shave eventually. My hair line is going upwards all way around it seems like.



I also cut my sons (both of them) hair which turned out better, but was still a PITA with these clippers. They have both been insistent about wanting long hair, but neither of them are good at keeping it clean or even combed. So we compromise, just cut the sides and leave the top alone.

[His Divine Shadow]

Planted potatoes on saturday:


Been testing the pressure washer, on video it sounds and looks better than IRL


The check valves are the issue I believe, worn and leaking most likely, causing a rythmic pulsing.






No modern check valve fits, I've looked all weekend. I'm trying to save these, lapping them on the lathe but no noticeable difference after I did them all. I think they still leak.

[His Divine Shadow]

Here's a finnish drink mix, take .75 liters of E85 and mix it with .38 deciliters of two stroke oil. I run my chainsaw on this. It's controversial but IMO it works, and the engine runs cooler which is why I like it, engine lasts longer.