I cranked out a duplicate of a semi prototype mold today. The single
cavity prototype worked, so I made a 4 cavity version yesterday, and a duplicate of it today. It takes about 3 hours to machine. I was going
to run another prototype that will take about 3hrs at the same time on
another machine, but I found I was out of the right size stock, and I
certainly don't want to waste larger stock cutting it down.

While the job was running, in between tool changes (It has a quick
change tool system, but no actual tool changer) I did some cleanup in
the shop, and then I found a good pallet to stack boxes of wire on.

As you are probably aware I picked up a 40ft, high cube shipping
container recently. It was some work, which I bragged about rather
obnoxiously here, to get it placed where I wanted it behind the shop,
and a bit more to get shelves down one side.

I already had a 20ft container out front filled will with assorted
stuff, old computers from my wife's office, boxes and spools of wire of
wire left over from my contracting business, and stuff left from my
in-laws estate that my wife will not sort through or throw away.

I removed the hard drives for later disposal after destruction, threw
away the old computers a while ago, and started stacking up tools from
my dad's stuff on the shelves where the computers had been. The plan is
to sell of duplicates that I already have duplicates of and use the
money to work on the buildings on their property or just give the cash
to my mom as needed. I needed more space, so I found a good pallet, and started stacking boxes of wire and cable spools up to be carried around
back to go in the new container.

Since most of that wire and cable will get used rarely if ever it went
all the way to the back of the container. Sitting there on the tractor
with the second load getting ready to set the pallet down in the
container I thought... you know if I could get to my pallet jack and set
it in the container I wouldn't have to haul all this wire one or two spools/boxes at a time all the way to the other end of the container by
hand. Then the front wheels lightly bumped up against the door sill I
looked on either side and had enough room so I crawled the front of the
tractor right up into the container. "Okay, lets take it in as far it
will go." Then the back wheels bumped against the sill, and I just
crawled right up into the container. The rear wheels fit with a few
inches to spare on either side. As I set the pallet down just short of
the shelf the stuff was going on I thought, "You know if I had sprung
for the shelving on the other wall I wouldn't have been able to do this."

FYI: Slip on bucket forks are really handy on a front loader. If you
only need them once in a while its no big deal to put them on and take
them off, and they are pretty cheap. They have a couple issues, but if
you don't use them often you can live with it. If you have a well used
bucket where you put them affects how well they line up. When you are
lifting a pallet off a truck you you can't see the forks. The bucket is
right in the way. A set of forks that replace the bucket are so much
better. I recently picked up a set. I wasn't crazy about swapping the
bucket and forks back and forth, but its crazy easy on the 300X loader
on this tractor. You remove two wire lock pins and then tilt the main
bar out of the hooks on the bucket or forks. Then you drive up to the
other item, tilt it in, and get off the tractor to replace the pins.
Its ten times easier than slip on bucket fork, puts the load a little
closer to the tractor, and YOU CAN FREAKING SEE THE FORKS.

The slip on forks are pretty cheap. You can find them on eBay for a
couple hundred bucks or less and they are stronger than the load
capacity of most compact loader buckets anyway. The proper implement
forks are about (or maybe a little more than) 4 times that. Not cheap,
but not outrageously expensive. The proper forks are much better, and
they are both faster and easier to change out than the slip on forks.

Somewhere in all of that I resealed one of the hydraulic cylinders on
the loader. (Week or two ago) Took me about two hours to reseal.
Piston and cap. I think now that I know the weird snap ring method John
Deere uses in the cap I could do it quite a bit quicker the next time.
Probably in less than hour if I did it regularly. Weird but elegant,
and the the new seal kit comes with the disposable plastic tool to do
the job.

Bonus. A few months ago one of my neighbors stopped by and asked me
where I got my slip on forks. After I used them to unload my new forks
I used the new forks to carry them over and dump them next to his tractor/loader. I did call and make sure he wanted them first. He's an
older cancer survivor, and won't have the beef to help with a hard task,
but he has a son who's young and strong. LOL. Meh. Hopefully I can
manage most things without asking.

I was going to try to go fishing this afternoon, but there is stuff in
the back of my truck, and by he time I got unloaded and the boat out to
the lake I wouldn't have much time left before dark. I think I'll drive
that pallet back around front, get the rest of the spools of wire out of
the smaller container, and maybe start getting wire and cable off the
shelves in the shop as well.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff


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On 5/18/2025 6:46 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

"Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:100dvck$18gr0$[email protected]...

FYI:  Slip on bucket forks are really handy on a front loader.  If you
only need them once in a while its no big deal to put them on and take
them off, and they are pretty cheap.  They have a couple issues, but if
you don't use them often you can live with it. ---------------------------------------------------------
My younger neighbor has slip-on forks for his loader and tried to use
them to stack the logs the tree company left in a tangle in my yard. He
found they were useless for lifting all but the smallest logs, though he could knock the larger logs around so he played with them for a while.

Bucket forks or even a bucket swap fork are still limited to the
capability rating of the tractor. Typically for a compact, but real,
working tractor that's 750-800 pounds. Basically more than the weight
of a bucket full of dirt. There is a safety margin. Having pushed mine
to its limits I know it will lift around 1500 lbs through its range, and
lift 2000lbs a few inches and stop. This does not mean its inferior to
your home made stack up. It means it has design limits. Your stacked
up tool may be able to lift 4000lbs or even a lot more, but it might not
be practical for "knocking around" an 8500 lb container. You bump an
8500 pound container with a 6000+lb tractor and the container is going
to move. Bumping around is a legitimate way of moving things. LOL.

The home made stackup might not be so good at lifting pallets off of a
truck. That can a new compressor out of my pickup bed for the shop, and placing it right where I want it a couple hundred feet around back by
the door where its going. It could be a pallet of salt for a water
softner, or the better fork attachment that will replace it. Sure you
"can" unload things with non optimal tools. I once unloaded a welder
from a semi truck with a cherry picker, by running a pair of lifting
slings through the pallet. The tractor forks with its paltry 750lb
"rated" lifting limit would still be the better tool for the job.

I recently lifted/dragged a boat off a trailer and set it on the ground
in order to repair the trailer. Sure I could have done that with a home
made stack up, but it was much easier and faster to do it with the
tractor. When I pull the engine on the Bronco I'm considering making
road worthy again I may use the tractor, I may use a chain fall and an
A-from, or I might use the cherry picker. Its going to depend on what
is most convenient at the time. A the moment there is an outboard
hanging from my cherry picker, so it would be the least convenient.

I
weighed one he could barely lift at the specified capacity of his
tractor, proving its hydraulics were still in good internal condition,
if not so pretty externally.

They can generally lift twice their rated capacity if you have a counter
weight on the rear to prevent nose diving, and air up all the tires to
prevent 3 wheeling.

Then I set up my manual hoists and neatly stacked all of them on blocks
to cover for winter, including two at ~25' long and over 4000 Lbs each.

Sounds like a good tool.



--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

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On 5/20/2025 9:42 AM, Bob La Londe wrote:

That being said, I've got a clapped out 1950 John Deere Model M sitting
out at my folks property that I have no idea what I am going to do with.

Hmmm... I just recalled he had a forklift for it. Not an adapter. A
real forklift. It mounted on the rear with a proper vertical hydraulic.
I wonder where that is. Having a real forklift on a tractor frame
might be worth fixing it up. I seem to recall it would lift enough he
had to run a rack of counter weights on the front when using it.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

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On 5/20/2025 7:13 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

I'd love to find a justifiably affordable tractor/loader/backhoe, even
one too small to be commercially practical, since I can hoist a boulder
or log beyond the capacity of any loader I could maneuver through my woods.

As you may be aware the big green, red, and blue, ag (and construction) equipment manufacturers are fighting tooth and nail against "right to
repair." Particularly green, but they all are. As a result in some
regions some ag equipment users have bought up older stuff they can work
on. Some are buying stuff they would otherwise deem to costly to
repair, because it equals out when they have to pay a servicing dealer
for all their repairs no matter how minor on new stuff.

If you really want something like that I think you will have to actively
look for it. I'm not dismissing serendipity, but the odds are longer
than they used to be.

That being said, I've got a clapped out 1950 John Deere Model M sitting
out at my folks property that I have no idea what I am going to do with.
My Grandfather purchased it brand new and paid for it one nasty winter
in North Central Ohio plowing roads and driveways. My dad wanted it,
and he hauled it from Ohio to Arizona some years back. Interested? LOL.
I haven't gotten into it at all. I expect it will likely need a major overhaul from hitch to grill. I actually used that tractor back in 1980 hauling grape lugs out of the vineyard behind my Grand parents house.
That vineyard is now a Christmas tree farm, but all the trees have grown
to lumber size. My Grampa would tie a toboggan on behind and tow us
down the road after a snow.

One thing that might extend your odds is looking in areas with crazy
strict emissions on equipment demanding basically new equipment every
year or two in order to keep up. I wouldn't count on a steal.
Companies in that kind of business are aware other states want their
"used" equipment.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

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On 5/20/2025 7:13 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

and you are much too far away to borrow my reject* pipe bollard

Several people said, "Just throw some pipe under it," including my buddy
who delivered it. That doesn't really work in sand, and I was a bit disappointed in him for that. My method of setting it on square timbers (reclaimed guard rail posts) as skid surfaces worked. It was a lot of
work which I expected, but it worked just the way I envisioned.

https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250504_170050.jpg

The come along and chains at one end...

https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250504_151043.jpg

... and the John Deere battering ram at the other did the job.

https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250504_160547.jpg

That was actually before I rebuilt the hydraulic cylinder and received
the new forks. Neither of which would have been any help for this
particular job.

I have used the new forks several times in the last few days however.

https://www.yumabassman.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/20250510_121732.jpg

They might even handle marginally more weight because the leverage is
less with the load closer to the tractor by the depth of the bucket.

I suppose I really should clean it up now that its not pouring hydraulic
fluid everywhere any longer.


--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

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On 5/20/2025 5:53 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

"Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:100j5gq$2fnms$[email protected]...

On 5/20/2025 7:13 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

and you are much too far away to borrow my reject* pipe bollard

Several people said, "Just throw some pipe under it," including my buddy
who delivered it.  That doesn't really work in sand, and I was a bit disappointed in him for that.  My method of setting it on square timbers (reclaimed guard rail posts) as skid surfaces worked.  It was a lot of
work which I expected, but it worked just the way I envisioned.

------------------------------

Needing timbers or pavement under the pipes seemed so obvious I didn't
want to insult you by mentioning it. I've kept the scrap 6x6s and other
PT the neighborhood contractor threw into his scrap pile. We saved him several large dumpster loads by burning the untreated wood scrap in big
party bonfires, his wife supplying the snacks. The small PT scrap
blocked up the pallets I store my firewood on, to slow or prevent their rotting. I had enough 6x6 timbers to support the shed high enough to
back the trailer underneath. It's kept logs downed in late fall off the ground over winters.

Pipes do tend to twist out of parallel and need to be knocked straight
again, with chocks handy to block them, they can be as much annoyance as help. The timbers under them should be overlapped at the ends instead of abutted, which may let the pipe force them apart.

... and you actually have to HAVE the pipe for the job, and you have to
get everything lined up so the pipes and the timbers line up with the
cross beams under the container, because if you don't you can make it
worse.

...and you have to level the ground where you place the container and
the timbers temporarily so it doesn't roll in the wrong direction right
into the sand making it worse, not better.

The clear space where the container is now had a couple tons of steel,
fence, aluminum etc setting there when my buddy delivered the container
or I would have just had him slide it off the trailer into place.

I was concerned about catching on the end of the timber in the middle,
but only one actually hung and a few cranks with the farm jack allowed
me to pull it right past that spot.

Then when you are finished you have to put the grade back so any rain
will drain away from the slab. Everybody thinks they have a better way,
but I think I did it the easiest way for the conditions and what was
available.

When I was contracting each time a client used the word "just" or "only"
or the phrase "all you have to do" I would double the price.

--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

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On 5/20/2025 6:14 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:

On 5/20/2025 5:53 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

"Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:100j5gq$2fnms$[email protected]...

On 5/20/2025 7:13 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

and you are much too far away to borrow my reject* pipe bollard

Several people said, "Just throw some pipe under it," including my buddy
who delivered it.  That doesn't really work in sand, and I was a bit
disappointed in him for that.  My method of setting it on square timbers
(reclaimed guard rail posts) as skid surfaces worked.  It was a lot of
work which I expected, but it worked just the way I envisioned.

------------------------------

Needing timbers or pavement under the pipes seemed so obvious I didn't
want to insult you by mentioning it. I've kept the scrap 6x6s and
other PT the neighborhood contractor threw into his scrap pile. We
saved him several large dumpster loads by burning the untreated wood
scrap in big party bonfires, his wife supplying the snacks. The small
PT scrap blocked up the pallets I store my firewood on, to slow or
prevent their rotting. I had enough 6x6 timbers to support the shed
high enough to back the trailer underneath. It's kept logs downed in
late fall off the ground over winters.

Pipes do tend to twist out of parallel and need to be knocked straight
again, with chocks handy to block them, they can be as much annoyance
as help. The timbers under them should be overlapped at the ends
instead of abutted, which may let the pipe force them apart.

... and you actually have to HAVE the pipe for the job, and you have to
get everything lined up so the pipes and the timbers line up with the
cross beams under the container, because if you don't you can make it
worse.

...and you have to level the ground where you place the container and
the timbers temporarily so it doesn't roll in the wrong direction right
into the sand making it worse, not better.

The clear space where the container is now had a couple tons of steel,
fence, aluminum etc setting there when my buddy delivered the container
or I would have just had him slide it off the trailer into place.

I was concerned about catching on the end of the timber in the middle,
but only one actually hung and a few cranks with the farm jack allowed
me to pull it right past that spot.

Then when you are finished you have to put the grade back so any rain
will drain away from the slab.  Everybody thinks they have a better way,
but I think I did it the easiest way for the conditions and what was available.

When I was contracting each time a client used the word "just" or "only"
or the phrase "all you have to do" I would double the price.

I could have easily turned a half day (4 hrs more or less) job of moving
a container into a two job by trying to make it easier. Time is the
most valuable commodity. I don't mind hard work. I hate making a job
take longer than it should.





--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

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