Life goes on - Winter 2020

I used to use those for landscape timbers - can’t pull them out. Dry poles might split if too close to the end. Green poles better.

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I used those everywhere on my new house when a strong connection is neaded. Its a absolute PITA to hamer them in and requires a good hammer and steady hand not to bend the shaft but once in it is there to stay and it will never break off like screws like to do.

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The green wood has showed no signs of splitting, though trembling aspen splits quite well when frozen. I did drill pilot holes smaller than the spike size to help avoid that, but other stuff I didn’t bother and got the same results.

The ardox spikes are like night and day for nailing. Here they are available in all sizes down to 1 1/4". Excellent for sheathing and framing, anywhere you don’t want things coming apart. The hot dipped galvanized has even more grip, but seems only available up to 3 1/2" .

I believe they are a Canadian invention, here I thought most of the world was suffering without them, like the Robertson (square drive) screw… :smiley:

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Those remind me of the screw nails we used in the cow barn. But screw nails are brittle. They won’t come out but if you hit them off center they snap like a twig. They where good for keeping the cows from pushing them out though. And whatever you do don’t accidentally step on one you pulled out of a telephone pole. I got a nasty infection as a kid doing that. Ofcourse being stubborn I didn’t want to tell my uncle so I cleaned it out the next day and packed the hole in my foot with salt. I still remember how it felt like someone was holding a blowtorch in my foot as the salt cleaned it all out. So now I don’t like those nails…

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Life goes on indeed.

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Hello John .

Sorry about the web sight blocking you out but you are good to go now :smile:

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Ardox nails are the same as common nails, just square shanked and spiraled, not brittle at all. As you drive them in you watch the head turn. And pulling out is the same, so they’re hard pulling. Way better than common nails.

I think every farm kid has a stepping on rusty nail experience (or two). Maybe kids farm boots should have steel plate in the sole.

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Well those are definitely not the screw nails we had. Ours where crazy hard steal almost like drill stock.
Well the nail I stepped on wasn’t rusty I probably would have been better off if it was. It was loaded with all the nasty stuff they soak a telephone pole in back in the 60s. The infection was all that stuff that was wrapped around the screw thread that decided to stay in my foot when the nail came out. Nasty…
Oh well I lived through it.

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You said it JohnG.

" . . . .you gotta’ keep going on . . . . to keep it (Life) going on . . . and that’s the whole ball of (Life) wax . . ."
Henry Fonda in character as Papa Stamper in: Sometimes A Great Notion.

Welcome to the DOW
Steve Unruh

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Back in action! love the Henry Fonda quote Steve, I had accidently clicked send before my comment was completed. I just wanted to say hello to everyone from Blount County Al, I had the opportunity to visit Mr. Keith and observe some of his awesome creations yesterday! I have got a lot of reading to do, it is nice to be a part of an online community of folks sharing ideas like everyone does here. Happy Monday, it’s snowing in November!

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Hey Guys,
Black ice on the roads the last two days; mornings.
The inevitable early morning power outage. Somewhere. Someone on non-studded tried pushing it . . . skid, ooh sheet!!! . . . slam!! Power outage for us all.
Doing fine with the woodstove.
Hot pot water on the right.
Coffee perking on the left.
Child and dog obvious, eh.

Stay warm. Stay dry. And keep those generators primed ready to step up.
Steve Unruh

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Steve,
Time for wodden flintstone tires in Washington state :smile:
Rubber softener kills salmon.
If no translation, there’s English audio in the video.

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Opps. Sorry. I went a little social-political-religious above.
The Covid-19 talking started here; showed that is not what is wanted.

As an apology and well within the “D” for driving DOW ethics: here is a link to one of the real-in-paper books now in my fireside winter will-read stack:

'Course I got my copy with a B’day gift card at a real-brick&morter book store.
If worthy once I’ve read studied it. The author’s, " . . . Becoming an Individual in the Age of Distraction" sounds good too.
S.U.

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Sorry Steve, I missed your deleted post.
When the article about Seattle popped up I just wanted to tease you about another potential regulation in Washington state :smile:

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Ha,ha, Ha,ha LOL, that’s a good one JO, now you have made my Day. That makes me want to give you a great big Washington State tree hug.
Bob

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Hey All,
The Amazon listing on this book allows you to,
“see inside”
How to use this. What I do in an actual book store/library…
Pull up and read the inside the dust cover blurbs. Interested? Yes, then . . .
Open up and read the table of contents. More interesting? (No J.O. I found and read this book AFTER my PM comments)
Then go to the back and read the authors “Postscript” ending. His summery.

And to find he did this very collaboratively; then read his ending “Acknowledgements”.
And to really nail down shelling out hard money and a full book reading time commitment; skim thru the back of book numerical chapter Index Notes.

Anybody woodgasing to express their Individuality for Driving Freedom as They Wish should really like this book.

Not your thaanggg.
You a bio-mass’er; an automation extraordinaire; a world shouldering green-spinner, I really don’t figure you will like this book at all. Pass on. Save yourself the steaming headache you’ll get.
That’s ok. Move on. On to a different book shelf in Life.
Regards
Steve Unruh

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One of the thing I can Winter do is wide read, research and have the time/energy to deep think.
About practical-use things.

With this new satellite internet we had to put in for the girl’s Distance-schooling; off school times I can deep probe in-use systems.

One is the now deployments of variable cylinder engine systems having now been made, sold and put into uses.
I was there at Cadillac’s failure with their 4-6-8’s. Unavailability of a fast enough controller system they said.
I was there with Chrysler/Dodges release of their modern Hemi V-8 with at it’s core castings the intent to later do multiple cylinder de-activation. Designed in possibility right down to their internal reversed oil flow rocker arms → pushrod → lifters.
They did later deploy their running variable cylinder system. A fail out in general usage now. Camshaft lobe wearing. Lifters sticking. Electro-mechanical deep internal oil switching valves failures. Creating many more in-service problems that the net of it’s benefits.
GM’s system now. The same range of in service failures. With added deactivated cylinders oils slobbering.
Honda’s V-6 variable cylinder systems. An owners in-service headache. Super special engine oils. Activated in-out balance and power pulse shaking.

Three wholly separated design teams.
Three fails in deployed services. With the poor actual owners doing retro-fit deactivation modifications.

Ha! Just like the many now retro-fitting deactivations of their run-stop engine systems now too.
Lessons to woodgassers.
Just because a “good idea” sounds neat; forcing it into creations doesn’t mean is is practical. Or worthy benefits wise once forced into creation and useage.

A lot to be learned also from the forced wider use of these “better idea” systems too;
Gasoline Direct Injection systems (search up oil catch cans)
Cautiously Variable Transmission systems
Dual Clutch Transmission systems
Modern high speed fuzzy logic control allows these to be made and controlled. This near infinite control Does Not solve the actual mechanical stresses and wears problems encountered out in actual deployments.

Personal use here for the wife and I, keep us center of the road with non-turbocharged, larger, natural asperated engines; port SEFI; one-two generations back conventional automatic transmissions.

Wood-for-power . . . a can burn near anything with an aware operator bulk wood stove.
My gasifier system is at it heart an Imbert. Just feed it site grown chunks.

When you keep having in-use failures . . . go back and reexamine your premises.
See where your drove yourself into the ditches of failures forcing a “better idea”.
Climb up out of those ditches of failure. Shake your self off.
Re-prioritize, and move a step or two back. Get your footings solid. And get back to moving on forward with Life.

“Just because you can. Does not mean you should.”
S.U.

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put retort in boiler .

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I think I heard that before.

That guitar is worth more than my homestead and everything on it. Of course the Bullet Mustang from the movie sold for 3.74 million. I once owned that same year mustang with a 390. It was a slug and I sold it for $1200 in 1970.

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