Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[PEG688]

Great story Glenn 

Whitty must be a saint of a man , for sure he's one fantastic neighbor,  to put up with your escapades !   

Best of luck with the test flight! 

[glenn kangiser]

Glad you enjoyed it, PEG. 

Yeah, Whitlock is one of those guys you can count on. 

He says he hangs around to see what I'll tear up next....

Test flight was good.  Took a bit of free play out of the pedal but other than that, no problems.

Checking out the A/C tonight and the two speed rear axle.  Maybe it's time to fix a couple more things on the old truck. 

[glenn kangiser]

One down... got the two speed fixed this afternoon.  Finished hanging steel early so stopped by the truck gear shop, tested myself because they were too busy, pulled the shifter off and they bench tested it to confirm I was right.  [ouch]

$370 something later I am shifting the two speed axle again.  Yay...

[rick91351]

The little motor in the little housing on the big differential?   

[glenn kangiser]

Yup, Rick.. I think it just wanted to prove to me how important it was. hmm



A lot cheaper on Ebay but I needed it now while I had the opportunity to check and fix it..... and I know what I am getting too....


When you think about it, it is surprising how many critical parts there are on a vehicle that it just can't work right without... or sometimes even work at all...

I better stop that .... it hurts to think about it....  [ouch]

[rick91351]

Yep I changed out a few of them on dad's trucks.  Then the button switch was another issue.  Seem to me there was one we had that had a little plastic box inside that housing.  The little plastic box just had two small copper bars.     Okay how in the name of well.........  how can that go bad?     Yep it did more than once.        

[glenn kangiser]

Yup, I checked the button too.  Seems to be improved a lot now.

[glenn kangiser]

Sorry about the short reply above.... I was on my mobile and lunch arrived.... [ouch]

Lunch was different today...

The chef came out to my table at the Elm Street Grill right across from where I was working today.  He asked me what I was having.  I said I thought I would try the Linguini Alfredo.. they had it listed with chicken.  I'm getting tired of the same old stuff.

I used to like seafood Pasta at Red Robin.. Then he mentioned that he had some clams and shrimp... Hey that sounds great...

I just missed a picture of the flames about a foot high over the pan as he set it afire....



Oh well... got one of him cooking it anyway...

The waitress said he didn't do that for everybody....   I chat with them a little during lunch break so I got special service... 





Well... what do you think?






It was kind of hard working after eating that and having a couple pints of lemonade.....

....but I did... out in the 100+ sun welding away....

Got home tonight and Sassy had made me some wonderful Tostadas with our garden tomatoes, onions, and Beefsteak Hamburger 


I have a problem with all of this good food... I'm afraid I'm going to be muy gordo.......


The cow family was down by the cul-de-sac this morning.  Glad I saw them because I was about ready to go down to the spring on the Bushhog to check them out and it is much too hot around here to do that if I don't have to.....




There's the new baby.... still looks like he (I think) is doing well.   

[PEG688]

Great looking supper , but for lunch , wow how'd ya bend over to weld ? Maybe it was overhead work?

Looks really dry at your place , are some of the leafs turn yellow already, maybe the dry conditions??

We have a huge fire going over in eastern Wa. lots of property damage 75 or more homes burned  down, lots of acres burned.

Cow's look happy!  I'd guess he's a bull as well!

[glenn kangiser]

42 foot manlift, PEG.... I got to stand up. 

I told the company PM I needed the 40 foot or so manlift rather than the little scissor lift they wanted to send as some of my work is not on the slab...as  in today I would not have been able to do my job. 

Had to install this (at the top by my truck)  2000 or so lb beam 22'10 inches up today and weld it on top of a bunch of 4x4 tube steel columns.  Also had to lay out the exact locations along it for each column and pull them into place lengthwise,  but 3/4 inch from the edge, before welding them.  Also.... no helper today.  Had to do it by myself.  No problem with the manlift and remote for my crane though.  A helper would have had to stand around most of the day actually.   [ouch]



Dry and hot... super hot even at night.  Yes...the leaves started falling about two weeks ago here from all the heat and only about 55% of the rain we should have had.

The cows have so much more land to run on this year they are looking great, even now.  Just give them grain as a reward when they show up at the house.... yeah, good cow....

[glenn kangiser]

I have been driving by this old barn for years and coming home late the light is right for halfway decent pix.  Combine that with the HDR camera and it makes a pretty colorful shot.



I think this was one of the other new special settings on the HDR+ app.... Maybe too much. hmm

My son is a computer buff and he really liked the HDR pix.  He thought it looked like a painting....then again ...some may not like it and just want a decent good photo... oh well... it's fun to play around with it anyway. 

I also tried the ZS20 special effects and got a similar result on one of the special settings.

...or maybe it would look cool...

in black and white? 

[glenn kangiser]

Haven't been home enough to do any damage around here so I guess you just get a picture of my yesterdays lunch..... Thursday the Chef said if I was there Friday I should try his Calamari Salad... so I did.. [idea]




Boy was he right... that was delicious...

..a couple more pix I like from the way to work...

I guess getting up earlier and having a look around does present some nicer scenery you don't see later in the day.




For some reason I like pictures of fences and grass - grains etc. too... 

[glenn kangiser]

At least someone is doing something around here... [ouch]

This morning Chef Sassy made a great breakfast of fried eggs from our chickens and vegetables from the garden...

Tomatoes, purple (blue) potatoes, basil, onions, 2 kinds of peppers, squash   ... and bacon from somebody else's pig.... 

[glenn kangiser]

So, I finally did something... pulled the 45 foot reefer up the hill with the rest of the stuff from the house we sold in the valley.  75 miles one way.

Amazing how narrow and crooked our roads are up here in the mountains.  You don't notice it so much until you bring a truck and trailer up the hill that is about 56 feet or so long all together.  Didn't run over anybody and didn't stick an oak tree limb through the top right corner of the trailer until I had to get it into the new flat spot by the cul-de-sac.  [ouch]

It is after all, a last trip for it, so no big deal.  It is only good for a storage container anyway.

Not too bad if I do have to say so myself.  Haven't pulled a 45 foot reefer since 1984.  Why am I having thoughts of Orwell right now....

[glenn kangiser]

The cows heard us coming home this evening I guess and decided it was time to come to the house for a grain snack... otherwise they tend to ignore us.  Even with the drought conditions, they still look great.

Mr. Bull looks impressive to me.... 




and his little baby boy is also looking great....

Soon time to work on him I think....  yup.... he has the huevos.... 




Back to Fresno for me tomorrow..... I can hardly wait....

[MountainDon]

Whitty must be a saint of a man , for sure he's one fantastic neighbor,  to put up with your escapades !   

Whitlock is a true gem! So's his wife. Karen and I have had the privilege to meet them face to face.

[glenn kangiser]

I know I can say for all of us here Don, that Karen's and your visit was one of the high points of our year. 

Too bad we all live so far apart, but occasionally we get to meet the real people instead of the forum alter-ego.   

That is nice.  Glad you both made the effort to get out here.

[glenn kangiser]

Finished the first phase of this clinic project yesterday afternoon.  That makes me happy.. 





Passed the UT inspection of the column I had to extend.  Got the rest of the steel up and bolts tightened with the tension controlled bolts. The wrench to tighten them costs around $2000, but makes it very easy to pass inspection and greatly cuts down on labor and inspection time.

Here is a shot of the project  from the top of the manlift -it goes 42 feet high so the pix was from around 46' high.



If it is painted red I put it up... bolted - plumbed- welded as necessary.   

I had an assistant standing the columns the first 2 days only but I worked on each of them also - final plumbing - bracing etc. [ouch]

All of the horizontal beams and the rolled one I put up by myself with the manlift and cable remote control for my crane.

I happened to meet the cranes Daddy at the steel supplier on Friday.  He had to take pictures of it to show his wife.  About ten years later and still working.  He was happy and mentioned that I was the only one he wanted to let buy it from him.   

[MountainDon]

The wrench to tighten them costs around $2000,

A super torque wrench?   

[PEG688]

Here is a shot of the project  from the top of the manlift -it goes 42 feet high so the pix was from around 46' high.



[/quote]

I think I've got you beat on height this week ,

 


 


About 55 feet give or take 7 or 8 to the top of the bell tower.  New roof with some seismic straps and HHT4's to , hopefully , hold the parapets from falling in a earth quake. Two  ladders to get up there, plus the stairs to the landing sure glad the hot weathers back off some.   

You can see the black snapped caulk lines where the new roof will be and the white paint marks the core bores we'll do tomorrow  for the threaded rod to pass thru for the RP6's and HTT4 to tie the walls to the roof framing .

 

[glenn kangiser]

Wow PEG.... You got a big one.... [ouch]

Nice project.  I like working on old buildings as long as there is enough money in it.  Seems like any remodel or retrofit takes three times longer than new construction though....

Don, the tightening gun is called a Shear Wrench and it works with special bolts called tension control bolts.  It takes around 5 seconds to tighten a bolt to tension with no need for another wrench or back up helper or anything else...probably around 400 or 500 foot lbs on 3/4 or 7/8.  Everything is done within the end of the gun with no more work than just holding the gun in place and squeezing the trigger.  There is a lever to eject the sheared bolt end.

Mine is made by Makita and will do 5/8, 3/4 and 7/8 inch bolts.  There are a few other companies that make them but if you don't need the bigger sizes the Makita is compact and nice to use.

Here is a pix showing the socket of the gun, one sheared bolt and one not sheared. 



The bolts are made with a round head like a carriage bolt, a structural grade nut and washer and a 12 point drive end that works inside the end of the socket.  The socket and bolt are made to counter rotate by the gun until it gets tight then it continues to tighten until the slightly deformed ring on the end of the bolt shears off right at the end of the threads - It is a one time operation for the bolts with the gun though it would be possible to re-tension one with turn of the nut method in emergency.



http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/Tools/ToolDetails.aspx?ID=638

[glenn kangiser]

An interesting point... the detailer calculated the hole locations in the rolled beam at the top.... specified the column locations that I welded them precisely to. 

I measured ... plumbed and welded the column.. then lifted it into place with the crane.  I was thinking... what are the chances this will fit....



I put bolts in the near end - the tall one, and finger tightened it.  I went over to the other end on the zoom boom, and the holes shown in the picture above were within about 1/8 inch....... a line up with the spud wrench and they were in.  Amazing to me that he can do the math... do it on paper and it just plain fits.  I told him I wasn't bothered by the column he got 10 inches short.  I was amazed by the thousand things he got right. 

[PEG688]

So does it lock itself up so it can't back off?  It's inspect-able /required?? 

Looks cool either way , just like you Glenn! 

[glenn kangiser]

Yeah, we cool, PEG... we cool... 

It locks up because it is tighter than a bulls bum in fly time.  It is just an easy way to get to the specified torque very quickly and easily.  The T/C bolts pretty much without fail ever are in the specified torque range.

Die hard inspectors will bring a Skidmore tester out to the jobsite and have you tighten a couple on it to be sure they meet the specs.  This is destructive testing as the bolts can only be tensioned once with the wrench.  The Skidmore is a tool that measures tension on the bolt rather than torque.  A torque wrench technically is not an extremely accurate way to measure tightness of a bolt as it is affected by dryness or lubrication of the bolt - surface roughness - rust etc.  Practically it is probably fine... it is just that inspectors like to get technical if for little other reason except that they can. 

To their credit, most of the inspectors I work with are great guys...



A  skidmore tester.  The gauge  tells when the bolt tension is in the specified range whether using an impact wrench at a specified air pressure, or a torque wrench on an oiled or dry bolt - as long as conditions are similar to the tested bolt, tension should be correct when tested with this machine... or tension when the end shears off of the T/C bolt.

Inspection is a breeze because when the inspector sees that the bolts are sheared off he knows they are tight.  There is a method called turn of the nut that can be used in areas where the wrench won't fit.  You have to keep in mind the clearance for the wrench so it may determine whether the bolts go up down - or in or out.  IN a few cases the engineer may want no threads in the shear plane, so in those cases I put the head of the bolt against the beam - generally keeping the unthreaded shank in the shear plane that way.

[MountainDon]

Very clever stuff.  Here's a document that illustrates the bolt and gun interaction.

http://www.tannerbolt.com/customer/tabonu/pdfs/Tanner%20Product%20Catalog%2008/A325%20Tension%20Control%20Bolts.pdf

The gun both hold the bolt and tightens the nut, then shears off the end.