The Garage (What did you work on today?)

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Looks nice, what’s the purpose of the holes drilled through every other 2x?

The holes are for the hooks of the tie-down straps. The rails are too thick for the hooks, they were cut down from larger timbers and are each 1"x3" thick. So I added all those holes to make hooking the straps easier. I made these rails quickly during September because my current rails were not sufficient for a specific use case and I needed the trailer finish by the 29th. Eventually, all the rails will have holes.

The rails are for when I use the trailer for a yearly pickup of leftovers from a large fair in Massachusetts (The Springfield Fair, aka The BigE, for anyone local). A friend works at the fair every year and several years ago told use about the wasted food. At the end of the fair most of the workers don't have the ability to take leftovers that require refrigeration or freezing. There are a bunch of food stalls that already donate their leftovers to local food banks, so the local food banks can't take the extra.

So, hating to hear about the waste, we made a plan. We load my trailer up with an ice cream freezer and big coolers (double stacking the coolers) and we head down after the fair closes. We pick up the cold items left over that can't go to the local food bank, and take them to a food bank and church in our area. I overbuilt the rails knowing that I would have heavy coolers stacked up inside. I need a bunch of straps to keep things from moving around since it is a two hour drive each way (mostly on the highway).

On the way back I am seriously overloaded (a RAV4 hybrid is not a powerful towing vehicle), and we still have to leave a bunch of food behind. I am looking forward to getting a new truck in 2027 that has a better towing capacity and a larger heavy duty trailer. :cool:
 
The holes are for the hooks of the tie-down straps. The rails are too thick for the hooks, they were cut down from larger timbers and are each 1"x3" thick. So I added all those holes to make hooking the straps easier. I made these rails quickly during September because my current rails were not sufficient for a specific use case and I needed the trailer finish by the 29th. Eventually, all the rails will have holes.

The rails are for when I use the trailer for a yearly pickup of leftovers from a large fair in Massachusetts (The Springfield Fair, aka The BigE, for anyone local). A friend works at the fair every year and several years ago told use about the wasted food. At the end of the fair most of the workers don't have the ability to take leftovers that require refrigeration or freezing. There are a bunch of food stalls that already donate their leftovers to local food banks, so the local food banks can't take the extra.

So, hating to hear about the waste, we made a plan. We load my trailer up with an ice cream freezer and big coolers (double stacking the coolers) and we head down after the fair closes. We pick up the cold items left over that can't go to the local food bank, and take them to a food bank and church in our area. I overbuilt the rails knowing that I would have heavy coolers stacked up inside. I need a bunch of straps to keep things from moving around since it is a two hour drive each way (mostly on the highway).

On the way back I am seriously overloaded (a RAV4 hybrid is not a powerful towing vehicle), and we still have to leave a bunch of food behind. I am looking forward to getting a new truck in 2027 that has a better towing capacity and a larger heavy duty trailer. :cool:
That’s awesome that you devote time to great causes like that. Kudos to you
 
The holes are for the hooks of the tie-down straps. The rails are too thick for the hooks, they were cut down from larger timbers and are each 1"x3" thick. So I added all those holes to make hooking the straps easier. I made these rails quickly during September because my current rails were not sufficient for a specific use case and I needed the trailer finish by the 29th. Eventually, all the rails will have holes.

The rails are for when I use the trailer for a yearly pickup of leftovers from a large fair in Massachusetts (The Springfield Fair, aka The BigE, for anyone local). A friend works at the fair every year and several years ago told use about the wasted food. At the end of the fair most of the workers don't have the ability to take leftovers that require refrigeration or freezing. There are a bunch of food stalls that already donate their leftovers to local food banks, so the local food banks can't take the extra.

So, hating to hear about the waste, we made a plan. We load my trailer up with an ice cream freezer and big coolers (double stacking the coolers) and we head down after the fair closes. We pick up the cold items left over that can't go to the local food bank, and take them to a food bank and church in our area. I overbuilt the rails knowing that I would have heavy coolers stacked up inside. I need a bunch of straps to keep things from moving around since it is a two hour drive each way (mostly on the highway).

On the way back I am seriously overloaded (a RAV4 hybrid is not a powerful towing vehicle), and we still have to leave a bunch of food behind. I am looking forward to getting a new truck in 2027 that has a better towing capacity and a larger heavy duty trailer. :cool:
I had a feeling they likely were for ratchet strap purposes. Fantastic!
 
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Ok I’ll play. Here is a photo of my first battery purchase for home backup. About 2 months ago I bought the inverter and one battery.

My primary interest was refrigerator backup, but got to thinking why not start building a home backup system. I plugged the 2 fridges in and got about 9 hours using 70% of one battery.

Then i bought 3 more batteries because they were on ‘special pricing’ :unsure::cautious::eek::p. Each battery is 2764.8wh, so a total of 11kw. This should provide a couple of days backup on the 120V side of things. Only the AC, Dryer, and range are 240V. The furnace and water heater are gas.

The plan is to get the sub panel and connections installed in the next month or so. The Bluetti inverter AC500 also accepts solar input. That’s a project for down the line.

IMG20251003112609.jpeg
 
…a Breitling branded Venus 178, all cleaned and reassembled. I have to wait for a tiny pusher spring to arrive but once that shows the movement headed back into the vintage Navitimer from whence it came…
I didn’t know you worked on watches. Do you mind if I send you a picture of a vintage Seiko that my son needs repaired?
 
Ok I’ll play. Here is a photo of my first battery purchase for home backup. About 2 months ago I bought the inverter and one battery.

My primary interest was refrigerator backup, but got to thinking why not start building a home backup system. I plugged the 2 fridges in and got about 9 hours using 70% of one battery.

Then i bought 3 more batteries because they were on ‘special pricing’ :unsure::cautious::eek::p. Each battery is 2764.8wh, so a total of 11kw. This should provide a couple of days backup on the 120V side of things. Only the AC, Dryer, and range are 240V. The furnace and water heater are gas.

The plan is to get the sub panel and connections installed in the next month or so. The Bluetti inverter AC500 also accepts solar input. That’s a project for down the line.

View attachment 9773
Thats awesome, and I hope you never need to use it lol

Great work buddy!
 
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…a Breitling branded Venus 178, all cleaned and reassembled. I have to wait for a tiny pusher spring to arrive but once that shows the movement headed back into the vintage Navitimer from whence it came…
@rehajm Im just sending a picture. He’s having difficulty finding someone who car repair this. Apparently it’s a known issue that there’s a plastic part I add that breaks. He has read that they made a reproduction part in Japan.

The second hand start and stops so it’s not keeping time and the date wheel isn’t working properly.

He’s my vintage watch kid. He has a vintage Breitling, the new Citizen that talks to the satellite to set the time, a vintage 1918 Waltham and he had a trench cover made for it, the Seiko Tuna, a Seiko Arnie just to name a few. He knew exactly what watch you were talking about when I read him your post.

Any help with this one is appreciated. The crystal is different and it’s pretty.

IMG_7587.jpeg
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@rehajm Im just sending a picture. He’s having difficulty finding someone who car repair this. Apparently it’s a known issue that there’s a plastic part I add that breaks. He has read that they made a reproduction part in Japan.

The second hand start and stops so it’s not keeping time and the date wheel isn’t working properly.

He’s my vintage watch kid. He has a vintage Breitling, the new Citizen that talks to the satellite to set the time, a vintage 1918 Waltham and he had a trench cover made for it, the Seiko Tuna, a Seiko Arnie just to name a few. He knew exactly what watch you were talking about when I read him your post.

Any help with this one is appreciated. The crystal is different and it’s pretty.

View attachment 9783View attachment 9784
…it’s a Seiko Lord Matic- you can see the black ‘LM’ above ‘special’ on the dial, from the 1970s probably before 1975z. The 5216 on the back of the case is the model of the movement, or calibre. Seiko does many things differently, plastic parts being one of them. I’ve worked on a few Seiko ‘turtles’ that have plastic parts for the date change mechanism. You can sometimes find parts you need and whole movements for these on eBay. Sorry I can’t tell you where to get it fixed. There are online shops that get good reviews but I can’t vouch for any. There’s some YouTubers your son probably knows that claim to offer watch service where you might can send it off. I’m an experienced hobbyist but don’t take projects. Watchmaking is just an excuse to buy tools 🤣
 
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…it’s a Seiko Lord Matic- you can see the black ‘LM’ above ‘special’ on the dial, from the 1970s probably before 1975z. The 5216 on the back of the case is the model of the movement, or calibre. Seiko does many things differently, plastic parts being one of them. I’ve worked on a few Seiko ‘turtles’ that have plastic parts for the date change mechanism. You can sometimes find parts you need and whole movements for these on eBay. Sorry I can’t tell you where to get it fixed. There are online shops that get good reviews but I can’t vouch for any. There’s some YouTubers your son probably knows that claim to offer watch service where you might can send it off. I’m an experienced hobbyist but don’t take projects. Watchmaking is just an excuse to buy tools 🤣
Yeah he supposedly has found a guy in California who says he can fix it. We shall see.

The vintage Breitling he bought and the 1918 Waltham with the trench cover. It’s my understanding that one is a pocket watch angled with fixed lugs that were added to make it a watch.
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…yes, WWI saw pocket watches being fit to straps what begat the popularity of the wrist watch. those canted at an angle are sometimes called a driving watch as the automobile was becoming a thing. the angle supposedly made it easier to read while hanging on to the steering wheel…

…a Scout watch maybe 🤣
 
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Ok I’ll play. Here is a photo of my first battery purchase for home backup. About 2 months ago I bought the inverter and one battery.

My primary interest was refrigerator backup, but got to thinking why not start building a home backup system. I plugged the 2 fridges in and got about 9 hours using 70% of one battery.

Then i bought 3 more batteries because they were on ‘special pricing’ :unsure::cautious::eek::p. Each battery is 2764.8wh, so a total of 11kw. This should provide a couple of days backup on the 120V side of things. Only the AC, Dryer, and range are 240V. The furnace and water heater are gas.

The plan is to get the sub panel and connections installed in the next month or so. The Bluetti inverter AC500 also accepts solar input. That’s a project for down the line.

View attachment 9773
Nice.

My biggest regrets on the powerstation I purchased are 1) it doesn’t do 240 volts; 2) it doesn’t easily accept add-on batteries. I have a plan to correct for 2), but can’t do anything about 1).
 
This summer I acquired a 16-foot trailer for a song and dance, and I’m not at all musical, so I got the better end of the deal. It’s a tandem axle trailer with about 7k pounds capacity. But it didn’t have brakes. In AZ, you can’t tow a trailer with more than 3k pounds capacity on public roadways unless you have brakes on the trailer. Today I installed new hubs and 10" electric drum brakes on the trailer. I haven’t wired them in yet. There’s some grinding and welding I have to do on the frame before I do the wiring. But doing this project cleared up several medium-sized boxes from the workshop and will allow me to haul water in the near future.

“Pro” tip: When you’re re-installing the dust covers on hubs, get a piece of PVC pipe that just fits over the cover but not over its flange. Then you can beat the heck out of that PVC without damaging the dust cover. I used a wooden block between the hammer and the PVC. It saves about 15 minutes per dust cover.

Halfway done with one side:
PXL_20251005_231429571.RAW-01.COVER.jpg



And…second side is done.
PXL_20251006_003316964.RAW-01.MP.COVER.jpg
 
The holes are for the hooks of the tie-down straps. The rails are too thick for the hooks, they were cut down from larger timbers and are each 1"x3" thick. So I added all those holes to make hooking the straps easier. I made these rails quickly during September because my current rails were not sufficient for a specific use case and I needed the trailer finish by the 29th. Eventually, all the rails will have holes.

The rails are for when I use the trailer for a yearly pickup of leftovers from a large fair in Massachusetts (The Springfield Fair, aka The BigE, for anyone local). A friend works at the fair every year and several years ago told use about the wasted food. At the end of the fair most of the workers don't have the ability to take leftovers that require refrigeration or freezing. There are a bunch of food stalls that already donate their leftovers to local food banks, so the local food banks can't take the extra.

So, hating to hear about the waste, we made a plan. We load my trailer up with an ice cream freezer and big coolers (double stacking the coolers) and we head down after the fair closes. We pick up the cold items left over that can't go to the local food bank, and take them to a food bank and church in our area. I overbuilt the rails knowing that I would have heavy coolers stacked up inside. I need a bunch of straps to keep things from moving around since it is a two hour drive each way (mostly on the highway).

On the way back I am seriously overloaded (a RAV4 hybrid is not a powerful towing vehicle), and we still have to leave a bunch of food behind. I am looking forward to getting a new truck in 2027 that has a better towing capacity and a larger heavy duty trailer. :cool:
The Big E! I heard it's the 5th largest fair in the country. My family goes every year.

I never realized there was that much food leftover at the end that would otherwise go to waste. That's great how you drive down and get what you can to donate to good causes.
 
I’m not doing the work because I’m not the expert. We’re getting gutters on the workshop today! We couldn’t afford them when the building was first done, so we had to wait. I’ve done gutters before, but really didn’t do a great job and didn’t enjoy it, so I’m happy to pay the people who do this for a living. Anyway… It’s happening now! Yay! No photos. I don’t post pictures of other people online without their permission.
 
I convinced a coworker to buy a motorcycle a few years ago. He got a brand new KLR650 and he absolutely loves it.

He saves a ton of money in gas compared to commuting in his truck, and he’s relied on it when the truck is down.

After my accident least year I haven’t rode my motorcycle as much as I used too (typically 10,000 miles/yr)

It’s a pretty large adventure bike and I just feel super anxious when I’m stopped in traffic. It’s kind of heavy and not something I can just flick around the car in front of me if I need to take off really fast.

Well, this coworker has been hounding me about going to the new KTM dealership in town. Just look 😉. I finally caved today.

We went to the dealership after we ate lunch and were looking at some bikes. I went straight to the Husqvarna 701 Enduro.

The owner of the dealership tossed me the keys, he grabbed a KTM 890 SM and we went for a rip on backroads. We were doing some very “spirited” riding when the demo bike cut out. It ran out of gas and the owner just kept going.

It ended up taking a while for him to realize I wasn’t behind him and after he checked on me he ran and got some gas and we got it back to the dealership.

Pretty bad timing since I was an hour late coming back from lunch, but I had a blast.

I took my Norden 901 out for a few hours last night for a last ride, and traded it in today on a brand new 2024 Husqvarna 701 Enduro.

It’s perfect for someone like me, because it’s a giant dirt bike with around 74hp.

Match made in heaven! I can’t wait to start tinkering with it.

Bye bye Norden 👋
View attachment IMG_0318.jpeg

Hello 701 Enduro!
IMG_5798.jpeg



It feels so much more nimble and easy to throw around.
 
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I did get pretty frustrated yesterday though. When they were doing their PDI and setup I walked into the shop and they had a brand new Stark Varg sitting there.

I had already signed the paperwork, and got an excellent deal on the 701 Enduro, but I wasn’t aware that there was a Stark Varg dealership nearby. They didn’t have any available units so they just didn’t show up on their website.

For anyone not familiar, Stark Industries has been making waves with their fully electric Motocross and Enduro bikes.


I told the owner I would have bought the Varg in a heartbeat over the 701, and he said he is going to call me when they receive their next demo unit.
 
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I did get pretty frustrated yesterday though. When they were doing their PDI and setup I walked into the shop and they had a brand new Stark Varg sitting there.

I had already signed the paperwork, and got an excellent deal on the 701 Enduro, but I wasn’t aware that there was a Stark Varg dealership nearby. They didn’t have any available units so they just didn’t show up on their website.

For anyone not familiar, Stark Industries has been making waves with their fully electric Motocross and Enduro bikes.


I told the owner I would have bought the Varg in a heartbeat over the 701, and he said he is going to call me when they receive their next demo unit.
Oh, wow. I would have been so mad.
 
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