Entropy

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

I hooked up the winch (come along) and developed some serious tension, then chickened out... not coming loose that easy. :o

I took the axe to it and chopped the small section in half... found a root right beneath it... so got half loose but still half of it left in place. I suspect another hidden tap root.

I predict several more axe sessions just chopping away at it... no easy answers, but good exercise at least. The axe actually works very well, just hard physical work that I am unaccustomed to. :lol:

JR

PS: This would take less than 10 minutes with a backhoe.. I don't own a backhoe. :roll:
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

PS: This would take less than 10 minutes with a backhoe.. I don't own a backhoe. :roll:
Or about $80-120 for someone with a stump grinder if they were starting from scratch.
In your case, since you've done about 80-90% of the work, the rate would be around $80-120. :lol:

But you've had fun doing it...
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

mediatechnology wrote: Fri Sep 14, 2018 10:19 am
PS: This would take less than 10 minutes with a backhoe.. I don't own a backhoe. :roll:
Or about $80-120 for someone with a stump grinder if they were starting from scratch.
In your case, since you've done about 80-90% of the work, the rate would be around $80-120. :lol:

But you've had fun doing it...
I wouldn't call it fun, but i do get a sense of satisfaction watching the mess go away... I also feel like my body appreciates the exercise, as long as I keep hydrated. Even with the temps in the low-mid 90s, the humidity is still very high so I lose a lot of water to sweat.

I have a few other smaller stumps/roots around my yard that I may attack with the axe...but no hurry.

The axe is far from the perfect tool. I remember seeing a 25# maul at wally world pretty cheap but if swinging the 3.5# axe is kicking my butt, I could never handle the 25# maul. :lol:

JR
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Re: Entropy

Post by Gold »

Cross post from Group DIY but John guessed right on the problem with my bench testing setup. To recap. I was checking out a stereo preamp that a work neighbor has. It was a gift from his late father so he didn’t mind spending some money on it.

When I put it up on the AP Portable One I got really wacky results. All hum no signal. After screwing around with the grounding scheme got me no where I threw up a help sign.

The AP is transformer coupled. I was able to make the DUT perform correctly when I put an active balanced to unbalanced bump box between the DUT and the AP.

John guessed a crossed Live and Neutral at the AC receptacle. The building did work on the crappy electric that is in the shop recently. He was right. I reversed Live and Neutral at the extension cable feeding the test setup and labeled it. Fixed!
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Thanks, go around the sun enough times and you pick up some tips....
===

Warning, progress in the pictures may appear like less than really occurred.
DSCF0030.JPG
The lumps, to the left are now completely gone... found some tap roots going almost straight down from the bottom. I may be tempted to break out my chainsaw to attack the wood sticking out well above the dirt. That axe is getting heavy. :roll: You can see, or should see this is getting close.

I decided to invest some effort in trying to get the roots to burn on my burn pile...
DSCF0031.JPG
That red glow is actually wood burning (slowly). :lol:
DSCF0033.JPG
That white foam visible on the root end roughly mid picture is water steaming out of the burning root... very wet wood, but I can burn anything if I get it hot enough. 8-)

JR
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

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The fire went out overnight, wet wood requires attention. I got it restarted with some dry dead pine limbs I held back yesterday.
----
I poured some water on the trunk remnant to reduce the dirt clinging to the sides. hopefully this won't trash my chainsaw blade as much.

I'll wait a little while for the water in the hole to dry up, sink in..

Plan for today is two pronged attack, chainsaw up high and axe to finish down low... I don't have to get it completely out, just below the ground level enough to cover with dirt, hopefully several inches below the surface.
===
I found the nest that the bumble bee that stung me came from a few weeks ago... I still have a pink scar on my arm as a reminder. :shock: I went back this morning with some wasp/hornet spray to dose the nest entrance hole and found two holes, and a steady stream of bees already streaming out from both holes. I was hoping they would be lethargic in the morning cool, but not cool enough this morning and already active so I left them be to live another day... they are 50+ feet away from my pecan stump so I shouldn't irritate them today, but when my pecan tree fell, I was in their space picking up branches.

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Just a quick update on things that broke recently:

1) A clip that holds the self-propelled control cable for the lawnmower broke. This failure opportunistically occurred as I was mowing the terraces. I had no assistance from the mower pushing it up the hill and decided to finish the job before troubleshooting it. The clip was $1.74 and lasted 16 years. I temporarily used a hose clamp while waiting for a replacement.

2) I looked down the other day at the generator wheel which has a plastic hub. Where the tire met the floor the plastic rim had cracked. Turns out the other wheel had cracked too. The generator is heavy: My adding 100 lbs of coiled 10/4 extension cord on the handle most-certainly accelerated the wheels' demise. I bought new wheels, installed them and then spaced the generator off the floor with blocks so they're not loaded.
Nature is constantly disordering order. In my battle to maintain functional order around me it seems life can be hand to hand combat against entropy.
So true.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

Yup stuff always breaks... on that subject i broke one spade handle, and cracked my good shovel handle, trying to use it like a pry bar so human assisted entropy.
===
My two pronged attack today turned into 3 or 4 pronged attack with even some other simple machines getting their due.

The bigger than it looks in photos stump remnant got cut about 1/3-2/3 with chainsaw revealing another hidden bottom (tap) root that I dispatched with the axe. After much shovelling and hacking I got the 2/3 piece loose but not free (that sounds like a good name for a band :lol: ). Next campaign (#3) was to use my come-along (winch)... this time I used my big dog mower as the anchor... I probably could have dragged it out using the mower but didn't want to tear up my yard. The winch did it's job and popped the remaining hidden bottom roots going straight down.. The last simple machine to get involved was my wheelbarrow (#4), as the stump remnant was too heavy for me to carry over to the burn pile.

Now my stump hole is empty
DSCF0034.JPG
and my burn pile is full...
DSCF0035.JPG
I have more work to do, filling in the hole... there is a crown(?) of extra dirt around where the tree was, so I expect after I level it off the hole will be pretty much filled. But not today... it's already beer o'clock... 8-)

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Entropy

Post by mediatechnology »

Congratulations on the empty hole! That was work.
While you did that there's worry about a missing 1-1/3rd dB in the ZTX851 MC thread.
The empty hole though represents real progress. You earned that beer.
on that subject i broke one spade handle, and cracked my good shovel handle, trying to use it like a pry bar
I have a nice 1" steel 60# rock/pry bar that would have been good for that job.
I should photograph the Hackberry that came up inside the dead cedar that my neighbor has.
He spent the better part of an hour breaking about half of the cedar off with that pry bar.
It's been a couple of months and he's working back towards that.
I was pretty sure he was going to burn up his chainsaw so I offered the bar.

On the subject of broken tools due to abuse I'm embarrassed to say that I also broke a hoe.
Not the handle but where the blade attaches to the metal "hook" that is pressed into the handle.
This one was spot-welded so I'm not surprised.
I knew I shouldn't have used it to remove weeds from the rocky driveway.

I was going to buy a new hoe head but apparently no one sells replacements for garden hoes - only handles.
I now have a spare handle.

For a replacement I bought one with a cast head and was advised to sharpen it before use.
He must've thought I was going to use it for gardening or something.
I don't think the salesman knew I was using it on rocks.
Maybe I should be afraid to and revert to using the shovel.
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JR.
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Re: Entropy

Post by JR. »

A proper pry bar would have been handy but I really don't plan to do this again ever...(I hope). Speaking of simple machines the pry bar tops the list. I have a crow bar but its too short to do much with that stump.

The 3.5# $15 axe was my good buy of the week/month... a physics lesson in one tool...

Then again a back-hoe would have been nice too.... 8-)

===

I figure I can find a replacement shovel handle driving the opposite direction from the nearest city... country living. :lol:

JR

ps: yes, I saw that gain question but had more pressing matters... :lol: I have never used a sim other than the program I wrote myself (using basic) back in the 70s for designing filters.
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