Junkyard's work thread.....maybe haha

[Junkyard]

Not too bad. A little slower than I’d like but it gave me time to get the shop cleaned up and the rest of my garden planted. The steel plant is picking up now that they know I’ll show up when I say I will.

 

[Junkyard]

A little dental work on a 315 Cat. He does demo with it and uses the cheap teeth. Every so often I have to build up the shanks so they don’t get so loose the keys fall out. He can get a couple years out of these teeth.

 

[stinky64]

Them squirrels weren't lethargic they were makin' little squirrels.

 

[Junkyard]

I wondered about that. Heckuva place to bump uglies lol.

 

[Junkyard]

After the teeth I finished an AC repair on the same machine. Went to his haul truck and swapped a brake chamber, fixed a trailer light issue (amazing what grounds do for circuits lol), fixed an air leak on the trailer, changed a hydraulic coupler on his 299. Doing that the pry bar I was holding the lines with slipped and smacked my eye. I bled like a stuck hog!

Didn’t get back to the steel plant to finish the landing gear on a trailer. I’ll knock it out Monday. Tomorrow the oldest boy and I are headed to a truck show in Norman.

My demo buddy has a job close to my house, he sent me a picture of an old GM dump truck. Late 60’s early 70’s. I wanted the 427 out of it but got to looking at it….pretty solid old truck. Might actually be worth fixing up. Bed isn’t bad, both transmissions are there. Either way some or all of it will live again. He’s got 4 or 5 jobs coming up I’ll lend a hand on either moving iron or shagging loads to the dump. We trade back and forth a lot.

 

[Junkyard]

Tool fabrication today. Steel co had a sky trak with a failed lower kingpin bearing. They don’t come out easy so I made a puller of sorts. The top isn’t far behind the bottom. Book shows grease zerks but these don’t have them.

 

[Junkyard]

Here’s the bottom. Got all the good out of this one!

 

[DMiller]

Dare say got ALL the goodie outa that one!!

 

[Junkyard]

Got parts ordered. Going to attempt to save the bottom kingpin. They’re on back order, estimated shipping date is 5/11. Both will get new bearings, races and seals.

 

[Vetech63]

So are you a happy indy? We all want to know!

 

[DMiller]

Popcorn at the ready!!!

 

[Junkyard]

Hell yeah I am. Should have done it a long time ago. In this particular case the timing was perfect.

The change in my demeanor has been noticed by many. If I use some discipline financially I’ll be fine.

 

[old-iron-habit]

Hi Folks. Have not been on HEF or anything for a while. Fishing in t-shirt comfort made the winter pass quickly. Jeff, I've ben going to call you. As I tell everybody, remember to charge enough to cover everything, including investing in your retirement. I always view income as subsistence pay. The only true income is what we can invest to get out of working and still have a decent quality of life. If you are getting more work than you can handle, chances are your rates are not high enough. Good luck my friend, I know your skill set will be an issue in determining your work load.

 

[Junkyard]

This was absolutely a quality of life move. I’ve got a solid hourly rate, Vetech and Dmiller both consulted on that. I haven’t and won’t use borrowed money for anything. I’ve always had a retirement independent of any job offered 401k or pension. Before I made the move I sat down with my proposed hourly rate and broke it down into various categories so I can appropriate the income.

Work is steady, my rate has weeded out a bunch of dump truck guys and that’s fine by me. I don’t want all the work. The steel plant has a fair bit plus a couple others I’ve always worked for. I’m in a situation where 15 hours a week pays the bills.

I’ve got a couple other sources of revenue coming that are a bit more passive, a friend with a body shop needs a lot for the wreckers to drop cars so he’ll rent some space. Lots of things clicked for this to feel right.

 

[Junkyard]

Picked up the first piece of a new venture today. Gonna give it a whirl to see if I can make a buck.

 

[Bluox]

Poop tanks?
Bad Bob

 

[Acoals]

Some kind of concrete form? Precast?

 

[Junkyard]

You’re both right. Septic tanks. Have a friend that has done installs for 30 years. His main supplier retired so the regional guy came to him which in turn sent him to me. On top of pouring tanks I may build some of the forms for the regional guy and his parent company. I’ll have three forms when they all get here plus I’ll need to build some small ones for the pedestals and whatnot.

 

[Birken Vogt]

All I know is this. There is a local co. near my shop that makes them by the hundreds with that same arrangement. Once I was on a job and they had to fill it with water in the pit that was still open for inspection, to prove that it does not leak. Well the whole side blew out. So there must be more to it than simply pouring concrete into a box.

Not a good day when that happened. Had to fish a broken tank out of a muddy pit, repair the excavation, replace it with a new tank, held up the job that much longer.

 

[joe--h]

The local guy here does 2 piece tanks, there's a groove in one piece and a key in the other.

Roll of black snot goes in the groove and then together they go.

Form doesn't look anything like what you have.

Joe H