Air compressor

Dad's shop air compressor locked up last year.  We replaced it with a Harbor Freight compressor.  It worked, but we didn't have the capacity to run air tools like we needed and it was so noisy you couldn't talk in the shop when it was running.  We have a small air leak and when it kicked on in the middle of the night Mom was hearing it in the house.  We've looked and looked at compressors.  Harbor Freight, Tractor Supply, Sears, Rural King, Lowe's, Menard's on and on and on. Made in China, noisy, lightweight, throwaway. It got to the point I don't think Sue wanted to hear the words "air compressor" again.

I had heard a bit about Eaton on AgTalk.  I checked out their web site (www.eatoncompressor.com), talked to a few people, pondered on it a while.  I liked what I saw. They are not necessarily 100% US made, but a lot more than most.

 

 

Aman and I went to Louisville to the farm show last week.  One of my intended places to visit was the Eaton booth.  We stopped, we looked, we listened (they had one setting running in the booth!), we were impressed.  5 year warranty, 19 CFM at 100psi, 80 gallon tank, 145 maximum psi,  710 pounds.   I took a deep breath and ordered one.  It came today.

Only problem is, the road is posted for 10 tons.  I think the truck would have been OK, but to keep peace in the township we met the truck in town and loaded it on Aman's pickup.  

If you think it looked big in the semi you should have seen it in Aman's pickup.

Now where to put it?  We want to put it in the tool room.  They recommend installing them in an area that doesn't freeze, and that is about our only choice.  But until we find a new home for the lathe there isn't space.  So temporarily we put it overhead with the old compressor.  Aman brought over the Toyota forklift and we were able to get it fairly close. Not where we intended, there was just no way to maneuver it in, but we got it in the loft.   It just does fit.

We left it bolted to the pallet to spread the load out.I screwed the pallet to the floor so it wouldn't vibrate off in mid air.  We had some 4 conductor wire we bought at an auction and  some Bub Young hydraulic hoses.

OK, maybe I need to stop and explain that.  Bub was Grandma Millie's sister's husband.  Bub was  ... unique.  One of his business ventures was hauling refuse out of factories around Mattoon.  Often times Bub would save treasures he stumbled across and bring them down to Dad and Gramps.  He got a bunch of new hydraulic hoses that Blaw-Knx for some reason had discarded and brought them down.  They almost never fit anything.

We've stumbled over them for years, odd size, odd length, but today I was able to connect 2 of them together with a pipe coupler and use them to hook up the compressor to the air system.  Aman disconnected the cable to the old compressor, connected this one, and we were in business.

Mom was impressed

Actually, I was too.

I guarantee one thing, nobody's going to steal it unless they bring a forklift with them.

NFMS 2011

Thursday Aman and I went to Louisville to the National Farm Machinery Show. We walked a lot, saw a lot, I'm sure we missed a lot. I went with a few objectives. One was not getting totally disoriented like last year. I printed off maps and lists and figured out where the major displays were, as well as where certain booths were at I wanted to visit. For instance, I wanted to visit some of my AgTalk acquaintances at Dawn, Jensen Equipment, Soil Max, Oregon Seed, etc. I also had a couple booths I wanted to visit, such as Polar Air.
We made the show in good time, found pretty good parking, even kept an idea in our head where we were! I was wearing my fluorescent orance jacket and hat with a big AgTalk button on it
We had not made it to the display area before meeting up with an AgTalk member. By the way, the button is in the AgTalk store at http://www.cafepress.com/Newagtalk.332280713
I talked with Jim and Joe, but Phil and Denny were looking busy as 2 headed billy goats. Although I must say Phil was definitely upstaged by his help in the booth. He must be one heck of a salesman... I was a bit disappointed in missing some people. Jim at Dawn said I just missed MSB. And I stopped by the ******* booth but didn't catch Alan.

I ordered a few things. We had been talking about seed rebounders for the planter. We had looked at Keetons, but we decided to go a different route and ordered Schafferts (www.schaffert.com).
They look like they will still perform well when they are worn. In our highly abrasive soils that is a big factor.  Several years ago I bought a set of Lawson drill bits. A little pricey, but they worked fantastic. I haven't seen a Lawson sales rep in years. We stumbled across their booth and in a moment of weakness ordered a new set of bits.

I also ordered a new air compressor from Polar Air (www.eatoncompressor.com). It costs a little more than Rural King and Harbor Freight compressors, but this one is all US made. We had an interesting chat with a couple guys from J&M manufacturing (www.jm-inc.com). We made a suggestion for an improvement to the TF212

which the engineer we talked with seemed to understand. It was fairly minor, just a suggestion to relocate a grease zerk, but it is nice to know we are listened to.

Something I do not understand is why a company will make the kind of investment it takes to be at that show, but when a customer walks up won't talk with him! As an example, we recently bought a used belt conveyor. One of the first booths we came to was this company. Two of us stood inside the display area less than 5 ft from a salesman talking about our *** brand conveyor and not only did the salesman not even greet us, he was making a concerted effort to avoid us! Makes me want to come home and sell the blasted thing. I won't mention any names but it was as far south as you could be and not be on the outside of the wall.

But in all fairness to them, they were not the only ones we saw shunning customers. Mr and Ms sales rep take note: You are doing the company more good going to the lounge and drinking coffee than you are breathing customer's air in your booth and ignoring them.

On the other hand we did meet some reps who were happy to be there, willing to engage in conversation, and make you glad you came. For example the young lady at the Woods mower display (note: I have reached the age where young could mean under 50) who seemed genuinely interested in talking and even knew what an H Farmall was. Then there was the gentleman who showed us the belt grinder. It was not in my budget, but he cause me to consider it. We had a very interesting conversation with a couple guys with a sunflower head. We don't raise sunflowers, but if I did I'd look into one of their heads.

I should have taken more photos. Here are a few:

"What a difference a day makes!"

How does that song go, "What a difference a day makes!"  A week ago the best description was cold, miserable, and a bit hazardous.  Maybe a little more than a bit, at times very hazardous.  Here's how the upcoming week shapes up:

Feb 13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Tonight	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue
Partly Cloudy / Wind	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Drizzle	Few Showers	Few Showers	Mostly Sunny	Showers	Showers	Mostly Cloudy
N/A High	44° High	47° High	52° High	61° High	56° High	41° High	45° High	44° High	47° High
34° Low	26° Low	41° Low	50° Low	55° Low	31° Low	33° Low	36° Low	34° Low	30° Low
Wind: From WSW at 23mph	Wind: WNW at 18mph	Wind: SE at 10mph	Wind: S at 11mph	Wind: S at 17mph	Wind: WSW at 18mph	Wind:

Hopefully we can get the shed doors thawed out and open.  We need to move some things around to work on them.

				w

End of another era

Dad and I were discussing working on the roof of the old white corn crib a few years ago.  He was concerned about my being up on it trying to secure the metal roofing. I told him I wouldn't get on it again.

Well ... Monday I got on it again.  But I think Dad would have been OK with it

I was a lot closer to the ground at the time.

The crib had reached the point of not being safe to get on top of to maintain.  And even if you felt safe up there, the rafters had reached the point you couldn't nail the tin down. Screws still worked for the most part, but there were a few spots the only way to tie the tin down was run a wire around the board underneath and tie it.

We got everything out we wanted and called a friend who is a professional recycler.  Or "Scrapper" as he puts it.  If we had hauled the metal off we probably would have made a little cash, but not much. The difference between our hauling stuff off and him doing it is he knows the ins and outs of the business.  He sorts the various types and knows who is paying better for what and has enough volume to make the effort pay for him. So we said "Jim, come get it ... and stay off the roof" and left him alone.  The next day he called and said "The inside is done.  When you get the roof on the ground call me."

We had an I beam on the east side we wanted to save.  Monday morning I took the loader and picked up the rafters and pushed them to the side, the pulled the posts over.

After I had done everything I could with the loader we tied  a chain to some of the main supports, hooked it to the Magnum, and put the roof on the ground.

In the process I had to walk up a section of the roof already on the ground to tie a chain to another beam.  I had my YakTrax on my boots for walking on the ice 

... not a good combination for walking on roofing tin.  But there were enough nails sticking up to keep me from sliding very far.

So it is down and more cleanup is required.  Jim is going to get the tin off the roof, there's some iron inside we need to cut up to get out ... rods that were holding the walls from spreading and things like that we couldn't safely remove from the standing building.  Then we'll see what wood can be salvaged and get the rest hauled to a landfill.

Yeah, I know, dig a hole, shove it in and burn it.  Can't do that anymore.  We have to be environmentally correct.

Anyone want a souvenir?

A Mule?

This may surprise some people.  We bought a mule.

  Not THAT kind of mule, one like this:

We had 2 ATV's.  Dad bought a Kawasaki Bayou 220 back in 1995.  It was a good, reliable machine.  A little small statured and a bit underpowered. When we put the spot sprayer on it it was overloaded. A full sized man was cramped up driving it.  Last year I got a Polaris 330 through a promotion at Beck's Seed Company. It was better than the Bayou.  Bigger engine, larger frame, an OK bike.  But still not a real good work machine.  When we first got it we had trouble with the battery not holding a charge.  We took it back to the dealer who suplied it for beck's and they warrantied it.  Last Fall I had couple times it would not start.  If it was cold weather it would crank but until you put a charger on the battery to "top it off".  I got on it to use it last week and it wouldn't start.  We put the charger on it and once it was fully charged it started right up.  I said to myself "I bet I can fix that."

That's how I ended up at Sparks last week.  I stopped by and asked if they had any good used 4 wheel drive ATV's, and if they'd be interested in a 2 for 1 trade.  Leroy showed me very nice year old 650 Rubicon.

Great bike with a new set of tires on it.  I put down a deposit to hold it until next week when I could bring down both bikes for them to look at.

Monday Aman and I loaded up and went to Oblong.  We looked at the Rubicon while they lookedover our trade-ins  While we were looking at the Rubicon we also discussed how we would use it.  I finally came to the realization that while it was a good machine and would be nice, it really wasn't what we needed.  We needed to be able to carry 2 people and tools and supplies.  They had a basic Mule,

but for just a little more had an XC which has taller, more aggressive tires, and  a little heavier suspension.

and it is a little prettier.  I declined the opportunity to buy the $900 wheels they had on it.

That's how we ended up with a Mule.  It's not as sexy as a big red Rubicon ... that is like the Cadillac of ATV's.  It's a UTV, a Utility Vehicle. I guess this means I'm getting old?

The first thing I did with it was load the generator in the back and bring it home and park it in the chicken house.

I really hope it isn't needed.