willedoo

You could make a small panel of mini orb with a timber frame around it containing some insulation behind the orb. Even a couple of layers of sisalation would help if you had some spare stuff lying around. Something along these lines only with mini orb:

I got a good view of Halley's Comet in 1986. Myself and a couple of mates did a short job on Nappamerri Station in SW Queensland and we had a rough maggot camp for a few days on the station's higher country while the comet was passing. Outback night skies and no generator made for good viewing. Those on the coast didn't get a very good view of it but where we were it really stood out.

The world has gone mad. This bloke wants $20 per sheet for this old corrugated iron.

Funny you should mention that. On another thread I mentioned that I got rid of five truck and trailer loads of scrap steel, aluminium, vehicle bodies etc. when I was cleaning up to sell and move in 2021. Plans changed and I'm staying for the foreseeable future and regret getting rid of three quarters of the stuff. Yesterday I was having a wander around and picking up every rusty scrap of steel I could find lying around the place. That was brought on by checking the steel prices lately. What a shock.

I wonder how long it would take to burn the oil smell out of the diff housing. I imagine it would be cast steel. A hot drum made from a 44 takes a bit of burning in depending on what's been in it. Burning the paint off is a bit smelly. This is my old hot drum. It's on it's second drum but all the add-ons are the same as the original one I built. The first one was full length but it's now 2/3 length to fit this space. It was all made from scrap I found on the junk heap at my dad's farm in the late 1980's. The hatch is an old boiler hatch with an old horse drawn plough handle bolted to a scrap piece of plate steel. The lower vent I made out of scrap steel with the welder and gas axe. The semi-circular cradle the drum sits on is a wooden spoke car wheel rim cut in half. In hindsight, it's probably off my grandfather's T Ford. The rest of the support is just old pipe and angle iron. The collar the flue sits over is a round thread protector from an oilfield drill pipe.

I think that's why she appointed Tim Walz as point man. Normally VP candidates are almost invisible, but he's everywhere. He even sat in with her in her first ever candidate press interview.

Witchetty grubs are very nice to eat. They have a slight peanut flavoured scrambled egg taste. A bit of work involved finding them though.

This is dated 14 years ago but it gives some idea of the variation in laws between the States and Commonwealth. https://www.alrc.gov.au/publication/recognition-of-aboriginal-customary-laws-alrc-report-31/35-aboriginal-hunting-fishing-and-gathering-rights-current-australian-legislation/australian-legislation-on-hunting-fishing-and-gathering-an-overview/

That's the catch. They want an arm and leg for chimney flue sections these days.

Thanks onetrack, I love Pinterest. You can get so many ideas from that site.

A novel use for an old diff housing:

Apparently OSHA is the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

I've made a start. Today I picked up two stub axles and hubs from a bloke on Facebook marketplace. They're a perfect fit for the two wheels I have and about one third the price of buying new ones. It looks like he's even repacked and adjusted the bearings.

The only left hand drive vehicle I've ever driven was an old Peterbilt ex pole truck that was being used for a water truck. The good thing about pole trucks is that the poles and snatch block brackets all pack away in recesses flush with the deck, so you can have a crane truck capability or a flat deck, whichever you need. A big powerful winch and a full width roller at the rear tops it off. Just a straight winch truck is a handy item as well. One mob I used to know had semi trailer winch trucks. They had no sleeper cabs as the winch took up that space so you'd always see a swag tied on the back of the prime mover. The rear of the prime mover chassis behind the turntable was sloped and had a roller at the end similar to that on the rear of the trailer. The trailer legs could fold up parallel with the trailer deck so when the winch cable was connected to the trailer front, all they had to do was pull the turntable pin and drive forward dropping the front of the trailer on the ground. The front of the trailer was rounded off to move easily down the back of the prime mover chassis and roller. I had one of them move a D7G once. I drove the machine straight on the back as there was a high ramp available. There was no ramp at the destination so the winch truck driver dropped the front of the trailer on the ground and I drove the tractor straight off. You just had to be careful crossing his winch cable that you didn't damage it with the track grousers. After I was clear he sucked the empty trailer back up with the winch.

The idea for those lifting arches on the back of trailers and utes would have come from pole trucks which are used in the oilfields for moving rigs and equipment. The basic principle is the same except the pole truck winches pull horizontally to a snatch block on the rear of the deck then up to the top. The lifting arches pull directly from the top of the arch. They still use pole trucks but not quite as much as they used to. Mobile cranes are used a lot these days.

There's still bargains on FB marketplace and even some good stuff for free but you have to be quick and basically first cab off the ranks. Today I contacted a bloke who was selling a tandem 7x5 trailer. It was a solid trailer with ladder racks, large toolbox, sunraysia wheels and about a month's rego left. It had surface rust and needed a cleanup and a coat of paint. He had $1500 on it as is. He messaged me back saying it was sold and he'd dropped the price to $500 as there was a couple of holes in the side he didn't notice when he listed it. I'd say the buyer played him like a fish. The four wheel hubs would be worth that.

Might be worth a try but they are normally fairly expensive around here. You never know your luck though.

One thing about all those European and American YouTube videos is that they are hauling pine and other timbers much lighter than our Australian hardwoods. I've got a billet cut from a brushbox that had to come down when my power line was repaired early in the year. I might put it on the scales to get a rough weight estimate of logs. Brushbox is medium weight I think. The heaviest around here is ironbark.

I think America is weird. https://www.dailycloths.com/collections/us-flag

Very true. The rich and famous would probably like to swap places with us at times. I remember reading about an interview with Amy Winehouse not long before she died, and she said she'd give it all up just to be able to walk down the street and not be recognised. Some of us lead very humble lives but kings and queens probably envy us.

Facebook marketplace often has old caravan or trailer full axles and wheels for sale at a more affordable price than buying new hubs and stub axles. The problem with FB marketplace is getting a seller to reply to your message. Most of them don't. They often sell the item then don't bother to take the ad down so they just ignore messages.

That quad bike used to belong to my dad. He rolled it on top of himself and broke his leg when he came home a bit full after playing bowls and got a bit over enthusiastic rounding his sheep up. It was repairable when I disposed of it. The front wheel drive wasn't working and the engine needed a new main bearing by the sound of the knock. By the time a main bearing goes, there's usually a total engine rebuild in order at that many hours.

Unfortunately not. I had a Honda quad bike that needed an engine repair but it went along with all the steel, axles and wheels in the the great clean-up of 2021. The only property off-road vehicle now is a 4x4 Mitsubishi Triton.

Although you've still got to back the ute up to within the towbar length of the front of the log with the articulated setup. I had a look at the winch and it's only a 500kg winch so it might not be big enough. Cost wise, it wouldn't be viable to buy a new winch.