Bruce Jackson has pointed to the pre-prep beyond the Keep it Clean!!
Know you Hot-Spot sources!!
Be carful working with heats, sparks and combustibles.
Any working day you did make heats, and/or sparks you just obligated yourself to 4 hours, then 8 hours going back look-see.
The pre-prep he exampled?
Have good fire extinguishers.
Have them always same spots hung. (Wifie won’t let me in-house hang those and tends to move them around!! Bad! Bad!!)
Commercial shops I found better than to rely on the shops extinguishers to have my own toolboxes mounted ones. These did get used. Especially the Halon one on my roll-cart.
Snuffed quick when small saves your ass.
Take a real extinguisher use class by the fire department. A real one. Having you put out real fires. You’ll know it good when they set up a fire too big to put out with one extinguisher. Making you mad scramble.
S.U.
As I mentioned, I live back in the woods. By the time the volunteer fire department figured out where we were and got unstuck from the loose sand in my road it was too late. It was April and the hose I had running out to the shop was frozen. Now my hoses get blown out with compressed air after every use. It may have made all the difference had I had a water supply. Store your fuels outside Also oxygen, acetylene and argon tanks do not like to be super heated. I don’t use gases anymore but if I did I also find a way to isolate them.
Hearing about others fires is certainly depressing. I thought I was the only one that got caught with my half hazard activities with fire. I have to admit that my insurance, State Farm, was very good to me. The shop was covered at 30% of the house coverage. At first I didn’t think that was a very good deal, but when the actual adjuster inspected it he was very generous with his estimates. When he got his estimate done it was way over the 30% figure . So they gave me the full 30% cash. I rebuilt cutting corners where ever I could. The estimator could see spots through the rubble, that the cement floor had blow up, so he put down remove and replace concrete floor. When I got ready to rebuild, I saw that the floor had a few spots about 2 or 3 ft in dia. that the thin troweled coat had blown off. Not bad enough for me to remove and replace-- nice savings. Same story with the outside of the Quonset. He put down “soada blasting” and “painting”. Vallue in the thousands. I contacted a guy through Sherman Williams that said he had painted many steel building by just pressure washing and spraying with a good SW paint. That saved me big bucks.
The personal property was crazy. I had to make out a list of EVERYTHING I lost individually with the “Item” “make” “Model No.”“Condition”, “Price New”. State Farm sent me a check for what they valued everything at, including my original list with a column of what THEY paid me for the item. So I needed my wheel borrow right away. I went to the store and for the money they had given me, I was able to buy new handles and tire to put on the old tub, I had saved. Before I bought tools, I needed a tool box to put them in, so I went to Sears and picked out a tool box that cost what SF had given me for my tool box. ( about 20% of the Snap-On price). Hand tools I started picking up at Sears and even HF to try to stay with in what SF had paid for each. I had a Lincoln Weld-n-power welder they gave me $800 for. I found an add in Craigs List for a used one for $800 so I bought it.
To make a long story short, I lost 4 farm tractors. When making out my list, I talked to SF and told them they hadn’t made Farmall H’s since 1950’s. How was I going to get a new price. He told me to call the dealer and get a price for a comparable tractor. Very hesitantly I went to my Case/Farmall dealer and purchase a brand new 30 hp tractor for big bucks. I paid what SF gave me and sent the receipt in, and back came a check for the difference.
I could have done the same with all of my Snap-on tools, and ended up with a new set. How ever, seeings most of the tools like sockets and wrenches were not physically damaged, just the chrome, I decided to keep the old tools AND the percentage of money they had given me for them.
In the end, I thought SF treated me very well. TomC
PS I am now spending my time in the shop wire buffing the burned tools to make them usable again. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to keep the tools from rusting after the chrome is gone and I have buffed the steel up to a shine?
Hi Tom , if the heat of the fire was so hot to burn the chrome off the sockets have you tested them yet to make sure they still have the required hardness and not gone brittle of soft ? if they are still good usable sockets then maybe get them powder coated or re chromed .
Dave
I’ve used Dave Ailey’s methods. They work. Your tools will be serviceable though not beautiful. You might also be able to zinc plate. I haven’t tried it though.
Rindert
I sure don’t have an good answer. I soaked some stuff in Enviro-rust but that got too expensive. Use Phosphoric and Muriatic acid but almost as soon as you pull the stuff out of the acid it flash surface rusts again. I’ve used Rustoleum rust reformer over the flash rust and then painted things but by then you can’t read the sizes anymore. I just buy new from HF for stuff like wrenches and sockets. I like shiny chrome. I lost a lot of stuff I can never replace. A 1955 Atlas metal lathe, a Bridgeport mill, all kinds of Mics, dial indicators, everything you need to set up the lower end of an engine, a 30 CFM stationary compressor and a 24 CFM gas engine compressor. I’ve got to stop now, I’m starting to tear up again.
I think it’s here to stay.
We do have enough charcoal in barrels, so this doesn’t matter. If I want more, I have to get coppice dead maple. It will be standing dry.
It’s funny how the snow reprioritizes everything.
You are one of the few places in the country, outside of the Western mountains, that gets more snow than us. Most of ours is Lake Effect and comes two-three inches at a time but three or four times a week. Last year we got a 20 inch drop the first week in November. That was rare and unexpected to have it that early. It was April before I finally located the stuff I didn’t get put away in time. It’s been a long time since I visited you neck of the woods. I remember that at least one town there, Houghton?, had streets with about 45 degree hills. Always wondered how you got around on those in the winter.
Oh gawd. I have an idea of what you went through. We had Farm Bureau. They gave me forms to itemize the individual pieces lost. When the adjuster said I had to show original purchase price I pointed to the remains of my office - file cabinets containing nothing but charred paper and said - there are my records… Well - give your best recollection. Then I had to find current market value for each item. Not a similar item - that exact item. And provide copies of the advertisements or quotes.
I spent months going to ebay and machinery dealer web sites trying to find machines line mine and a value. About 2 months into the process I asked of the “depreciation” column on the form. “Well - we might use that.” I was only eligible for 10% of the $250,000 personal property coverage on my home. So -$25,000. Well that amount was VERY easy to get to. However - how much depreciation were they going to apply? They would not say.
I made sure I claimed as much as I could. Remember - it had to be items not ever used for business. They also failed to tell me I had to file the claim within 6 months of the date of the fire. I found that out 2 weeks before the deadline. I had waited 2 months for my agent to contact me, The bugger lives close enough that I can see his home from the plant. I worked up a head of steam for that phone call. I nearly did not make the deadline. I took a day off from work and worked all day and night - literally - no sleep - so my wife and I could bring the nearly 300 page claim to the insurance agent the last day we could file the claim. He scanned all of the pages and asked if that was every thing. “No - not at all” was my response. He asked if I knew the total of what I was claiming. “No”. He responded $186,00.
The total personal value lost is essentially a similar amount as my lifetime earned income. I never had much income. What I had I was able to get because I horse traded. In addition to running the business I worked on the side. I bought - resold machines. I scrapped junk. I went to auctions and made exceptional purchases. My wife and I lived off her income. I had thought I could sell off the collection to help fund a retirement. Instead - the first 95 cu/yard scrap container was packed with 45,000 lbs of my collection. The second container is ready for pickup.
I knew I had this stored somewhere.
In his example, Sir Harry Ricardo shows a constant volume engine ( spark ignition engine) with a 5 to 1 compression ratio will only have a thermo efficiency of 47.5%
Soooo, all those Fish Carburetor guys telling you their super duper magnetic fuel line molecule aligning devices will double your mileage…are wrong.
He goes on to relate how efficiency is ultimately tied to compression ratio.
This was an excerpt from “The Internal Combustion Engine”
I know this is a distraction…but this just came to me from Craigslist. $200. After three different rides it finally made it from Iron Mountain, MI to Hancock, MI.
If I can master this fella, I can get away to the shop and get some work done. This thing should charge the house bank, while we go through the solstice.
I’m going to like this and then throw in two thumbs up. I never find deals like that. I think I was born under a bad sign.
By the way. I paid over 200 bucks for the propane carb and regulator for my generator 8 years ago so the engine and alternator were just frosting on your cake.
Good job BruceJ.
You mentioned now being Chrysler/Dodge mini-van keep running fellow now.
Most of those had dual intenral fan Nippon Denso alternators. Solid units. Dual isolated field terminal, external voltage regulator units. Can get aftermarket retrofits if the reg in the PCM goes bad.
Then the since the late 90’s Ford internal dual fan units. Also very solid units. Their back mounted voltage regulator/brush holder can be easy modified for external remote voltage regulating too.
The late model in the last 15 years GM dual internal fans units too.
ALL of these have 17mm drive side shafts. With nutted pulley retention. Pulley swapping is easy.
You could run that Honda engined gen set up on free scrounged alternators for a 100 years at least.
So come the time you’re out of the older SI units, halfs, and parts, like I am now . . . . just saying.
Regards
Steve unruh
Moved these panels out of the doorway, and onto the wall. That doesn’t seem gas related but it is…now all these snow machines can cycle through the shop, because the door opens again. Once they are gone I will have the time and cash to tackle the gas “H” engine. Which reminds me I better get the engine stand inside before that gets buried. I am very thankful for no snow yet.
We got 8 inches yesterday. Super wet and heavy. Would probably have been 16 inches of powder. Our first snow and the middle of December. I’d be glad if it went away. Amazing how much more you can get done if you aren’t wading through snow.
I have multiple layers of fence which make it hard to bring in firewood but keep the whole heard of deer from coming across the lawn at one time . They ate field of beans and came in yard looking for more beans . This year they ate a corn field . If I wanted to take a deer I would just need to aim . I am not allowed to do that . Not allowed to cook my own beans . domestic situation . Having vehicles that are very quiet cars totally quiet , pretty sure we have not adjusted to that yet .
