Projects

[nomadpete]

A lady brought an old telephone in to the Mens Shed hoping somebody might be able to 'clean it up a bit'.

 

Some of you old blokes might have distant recollections of these things.

Well that's what it should look like. We passed the case along to a woody guy to glue it back together and refinish the American oak.

I volunteered to try to recover the remants of the hand cranked ring generator, from a morass of rust.

[onetrack]

Gee, that's a lot older than me, when I first left school and lived in a rented farmhouse in the wheatbelt with the brother, we had a party line phone with a local manned switchboard, where you had to ask the operator for a specific person - but that phone was this style of handset.

 

We had a couple of miles of heavy gauge iron wire suspended on poles, running through farmland to the highway, that we had to maintain. It wasn't unusual for a big Salmon Gum to drop a branch over the wire, and put your phone out - whereby we had to go an do our own "fault tracing"!  The girls on the switchboard would regularly listen in to your calls, so you kept the discourse to a minimum.

 

[nomadpete]

10 minutes ago, onetrack said:

lived in a rented farmhouse in the wheatbelt with the brother, we had a party line phone with a local manned switchboard, where you had to ask the operator for a specific person - but that phone was this style of handset.

Australia was ahead of the game until Telecom was sold off. In the late 1980's America still had country businesses stuck with party lines. We had country wide Subscriber Trunk Dialling by then. In the American movies you saw people picking up a phone and saying "Operator, operator?".

 

Anyway, the phone project is under way. The generator mechanism was completely frozen up by masses of rust, having been submerged in a mix of water and decaying battery chemicals.

As a testament to old fashioned quality, I successfully completely dismantled it. Amazingly, I unscrewed every screw even those that had head rusted off!

Edited October 18 by nomadpete
anticorruption cured everythin

[willedoo]

My uncle, auntie and cousins had a party line fairly late in history. Definitely through the 1970's. I was still using the old bakelite dial phone until early this century, but gave it away as you can't do the press one or press two option with the automation. Dialing it doesn't work. My dad was still using the old bakelite PMG phone right up until he passed away in 2015. They're collector's items now.

[willedoo]

11 hours ago, nomadpete said:

I volunteered to try to recover the remants of the hand cranked ring generator, from a morass of rust.

That looks like a tough restoration.

[willedoo]

The career as a lumberjack hasn't really taken off yet, but today I did manage to winch a brush box log out to the track. It had to be cut down at the start of the year when the power line was repaired as at some stage in the future it would have toppled on to the line. The brush box around here get a rot or decayed portion in the base. I don't know what causes it, a fungal thing perhaps. The end result is a tree with big limbs up top and not much holding it up at ground level. They have a fairly big canopy as well which catches a lot of wind and adds to the instability.

 

The winch is a poxy little thing, one of those 500 kg Gorilla winches, but it did the job. The log will live there until I set up some transportation method to haul it up the hill. I'll go ahead and build a rear log dolly to take care of the back end, then it's just a matter of deciding on the easiest way to handle the front of the logs. The rear dolly is worth building as I can design it for multi-role use. I've got some 16'' Landcruiser sunraysia wheels on an axle that will do the job.

 

[facthunter]

It takes a surprising lot of Horsepower to drag a log along even if it only digs in a bit at the front. If you equip it with wheels it may get away from you on a downhill section. Pull it with a chain hitched too high and your tractor may go over backwards with axle wind up. your tow bar must be as low to the ground as possible. The chain may also break and fling around your head. I've experienced that and have no wish to try it again.  Nev

[nomadpete]

22 minutes ago, facthunter said:

It takes a surprising lot of Horsepower to drag a log along even if it only digs in a bit at the front. If you equip it with wheels it may get away from you on a downhill section. Pull it with a chain hitched too high and your tractor may go over backwards with axle wind up. your tow bar must be as low to the ground as possible. The chain may also break and fling around your head. I've experienced that and have no wish to try it again.  Nev

Is it ALL gloom and doom?

[spacesailor]

Don't use chain or rope .

It's illegal in NSW for towing .  It has to be a rigid ' tow apparatus ' .

Of course off the blacktop anything goes .

In my 4X4 training,  a rear Windows was broken by a

' snatch strap ' failure. It could have been a serious body Injury,  if the trainer hadn't move the spectators to a safer area .

spacesailor

 

[willedoo]

There's a lot of good synthetic products used these days for winching, although they are more expensive than the steel alternatives. These soft shackles pictured below have a 14 to 15 tonne minimum breaking strain and cost around $50. Saves the risk of a steel shackle becoming a flying missile. Synthetic winch rope in 10mm thickness, 25 metres long would cost around $200 with a load capacity of around 8 tonnes. Often a synthetic winch rope of a decent size will cost more than a cheap winch.

 

[willedoo]

25 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

In my 4X4 training,  a rear Windows was broken by a

' snatch strap ' failure. It could have been a serious body Injury,  if the trainer hadn't move the spectators to a safer area .

I remember a bloke once telling me about an accident he came across on the beach at Fraser Island. A vehicle was bogged and a good samaritan with a snatch strap stopped to pull him out. They attached the strap to the bullbar of the bogged vehicle. The problem was the bolts holding the bullbar on were rusted and weak. When the rubber band force of the snatch strap was applied, it tore the bullbar off which went airborne hitting the girlfriend of the bloke who had stopped to help. It hit her in the head and she got a brain injury.

[onetrack]

Proper loggers use steel wire rope and D-shackles for logging, and they always have a braking method for the log. Dragging one end on the ground isn't such a silly or power-wasting idea, it does stop the log from getting away from you. Even a small slope can become dangerous if you have no way to brake a trailered log. Loggers spend all their time thinking about, and ensuring log stability. A log can roll on you right after it's released from restraints. Think one step ahead, and work out all the potential danger scenarios.

[willedoo]

I was told that the bullock teams coming down the old tollbar Toowoomba range crossing used to chain big logs behind the loaded wagons and drag them as a brake.

[facthunter]

With all this stuff prevention is better than cure. Most farm equipment is dangerous as it's frequently operated. Just what is more dangerous than a    Massey Fergusson Post hole digger/ Perhaps an Aeroplane propeller?  Nev

[onetrack]

Falling trees and logging have to be about the most dangerous occupations you could ever get involved in.

I never cease to be amazed how many older, professional loggers are killed by trees and logs.

Those trees and logs are out to get you every minute of the day, and you only need a few seconds inattention, or make a mistake, and they've nailed you.

 

[facthunter]

Tree branches fall fast and without warning often in caravan parks where people seek a site with some shade.. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

At Steavonson Falls, near Marysville, there is a plaque in memory of a couple of lads who were killed by a falling limb.. I have seen a eucalypt limb fall and it is without warnidng and fast. It has a name, suddeb brach drop.. https://www.trekandtravel.com.au/blogs/trek-travel-events-and-blog/sudden-limb-drop-the-facts?srsltid=AfmBOooQ5V94xiS0wutTm1X-V7kdF9lx-HK1kkUze1s-plF1GfL0LwdF

 

[onetrack]

Lemon-scented gums and Marri (Redgum) are the two worst trees for SBD that I know of. I never walk under any Lemon-scented gum without looking up, and I knew a number of fellers who would never sit in the shade of a Marri any time.

Just recently, a big Lemon-scented gum dropped a limb in our local Kings Park that overlooks Perth, and it seriously injured several people. The main route into Kings Park, May Drive, is lined with huge Lemon-scented gums, and I trust none of them.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-26/wa-several-injured-as-tree-falls-in-kings-park/103395646

 

I see where a young bloke was killed by a big Whitegum that fell on him and his swag in Victoria. They'd had recent rain and strong wind, no doubt they were factors in weakening the tree.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-19/victoria-kevington-tree-collapse-man-dies/104493314

 

I also knew a couple of old farmers in the wheatbelt, they were bachelor brothers in their 70's. They had a big tree by the front gate of their farm, that they'd driven under, for probably over 60 years.

In an incredible turn of events, they were returning to the farm from town one day, the brother driving stopped at the gate, and the other brother got out to open the gate - and as the bloke opened the gate, the big tree by the gate fell on him, killing him instantly! Talk about, "come in number 99, your times up!" 😞 

[old man emu]

On 19/10/2024 at 8:29 AM, nomadpete said:

I volunteered to try to recover the remants of the hand cranked ring generator, from a morass of rust.

That's a job for "OME's DIY Liquid Rust Remover"

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

That's a job for "OME's DIY Liquid Rust Remover"

Sorry OME, but I  mostly used a grit blaster.

[nomadpete]

I was rather hoping one of the hoader forumites would chime in and offer me some nice replacement parts.

[willedoo]

On 20/10/2024 at 5:42 PM, onetrack said:

Falling trees and logging have to be about the most dangerous occupations you could ever get involved in.

I never cease to be amazed how many older, professional loggers are killed by trees and logs.

Those trees and logs are out to get you every minute of the day, and you only need a few seconds inattention, or make a mistake, and they've nailed you.

 

The risk increases on a big scale dropping trees in steep, rough, rocky country. With country like where I live, a lot of thought has to go into figuring out an escape route. Often there's never a good option. On flat land you stand half a chance if a tree doesn't play nice but steepness, rocks and undergrowth will get you if a tree falls wrong. I think the restrictive tree clearing laws have helped a lot of us live longer.

[willedoo]

Me and cousin Clem about to look for logs:

 

[Marty_d]

Hmmm... your mum was also your sister AND your aunty, wasn't she!

[willedoo]

5 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

Hmmm... your mum was also your sister AND your aunty, wasn't she!

You've been checking the records.