Area51 - Mike's Misc Projects 2015:

 

2015 Was one of the busiest years I've had in awhile. Between work, ceramic tile work and gun club stuff (including installing a new 15kw generator) I still found time for a bunch of projects in the garage.

 

 

 

The first was building 4 new gun racks for the trap field at the club as we needed additional racks for the expanded sporting clays range so they used the new racks we built two years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next was the design and fabrication of four steel carts to store and move our voice release systems from the storage garage to the trap field. I started with a standard moving cart, built an expanded base to fit the 5 microphone stands and a support bar with 5 clamps to hold them in place while moving. These have worked out very well and make set up for Sunday Trap Shoots much easier.

 

 

 

Soon after, Dad started having trouble with his 2006 Outlander 400. It was squeaking and binding up intermittently in reverse. I found the two rear driveshaft U-joints were completely worn out.

 

 

 

Maffer and I removed the driveshaft, installed two new U-joints and the problem was solved.

 

 

In July I finally got around to fixing the blown down fence that came with the house last year when we moved in. We get a lot of strong wind on our street, the previous owner installed 4x4" posts on 10' centres buried about a foot in the ground.

 

 

The posts that didn't topple over simply cracked off. I replaced the posts with 6x6 buried 30" in the ground on 8' centres. With lots of fence material on hand, I re-cut and reused the existing fence panels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November arrived and with snow not far away I got Sandra's car & my truck ready for winter by changing over the winter tires. Sandra's car also received new brakes front & rear while my truck got new rear brakes. I also washed the summer wheels inside & out so they are clean and ready to go next spring.

 

 

After 9 hard winters my trusty Honda 9/28 snowblower definitely deserved a full maintenance and inspection. There was a noise in the impeller which I suspected was a worn bearing. I removed the augers, then the whole front bucket to inspect the belts and impeller bearing. Sure enough the bearing was rusty and rough as hell so I replaced it with a new one.

 

 

 

 

The impeller belt was in OK shape, the smaller track drive belt was in need of replacement, since I had both already in stock I installed 2 new belts. It's amazing how well the Japanese blower belts hold up, these were original to the machine. Everything else checked out OK so the only other repairs were an oil change and greasing of all moving parts such as the controls & chute.

 

 

 

 

While I was in Bangor Mane this fall, I picked up this powder coating kit at Harbour Freight. It got great reviews from a number of sources and happened to be on sale. I cant wait to try it out!

 

Cheers, MIKE

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Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith