Tips and Tricks

[ATH]

I assume you just wire that into the unused prong on a 7 prong harness?

 

[Jehinten]

When I wired them up I was replacing all of the electrical harness for my lights and adding trailer brakes to the truck. Between the two of them there were terminals labeled for backup lights.

 

[Jehinten]

I assume you just wire that into the unused prong on a 7 prong harness?

The center pin for back up lights

 

[southsoundtree]

I was just saying about how silly it is but to have backing-up lights in trailers!

Genius to build them in!

 

[Jehinten]

https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Lights/Optronics/STL201RB.html

These are the ones that I installed. They work great and are nice and bright.

 

[MorningStar]

On the subject of rake handles, metal conduit for electrical wires makes a great replacement handle. I think it's the 5/8" or 3/4" that's a perfect fit and it's sold in 10-foot lengths so you can get two handles from each "stick". Much cheaper than buying wooden handles and they pretty much last forever.

 

[Jehinten]

Bit of an old thread, but thought I'd add something to it.

I just made this the other day to organize saw tools in the shop. 4" pvc with the ends cut at an angle to make screwing it to the wall a little easier. Drilled holes just off center in the top and added a couple of pieces of 1/2" Styrofoam insulation to the middle to keep files from bouncing around. So far it works great.

Left to right is a scratch awl, t-27 torx scrench, large-med-small file, flat head scrench, carburetor screwdriver

 

[27RMT0N]

Good bump, I've got tons of little tips learned over the years.

A simple 2x4 (or 2x6, etc) and two clamps make for a great railing or top-of-fence protector:

 

[27RMT0N]

Hinged plywood: A-frame over landscaping to protect, a corner you are dragging around, cover the peak of a roof, backstop for shooting a chip pile, the possibilities are endless. Stores in half the space, opens back up full size.

 

[Flying~Squirrel]

I'm bringing that hinged plywood idea to work tomorrow.

 

[27RMT0N]

Imma keep em comin while this is fresh in my mind.... with pictures.

The best way I've found to buck logs into perfectly uniform firewood is this: use an old handsaw and retired blade, then 2x2s spray painted orange to keep track of them. Measure, cut and label them at the desired size. If you need other sizes, make a 1" mark. 3 sticks make 6 perfect measures. For marking perfect firewood in the tree, use a piece of measured plywood on a leash and use the handsaw you should already have with you to mark the pieces. Getting the leash length right is important for ergonomics here.

Can you guess what the typical firewood size here is?



I posted this picture before, but yah, uniform firewood is important to me....

 

[27RMT0N]

It took years before someone showed me this and it felt like the most simple, obvious thing, but:

If you buy bar oil in gallon jugs, use your bar-tool to poke a hole in the foil cover and use it like a squeeze bottle instead of tearing the whole thing off! No more oil floods on the saw, or if the jug gets knocked over, far less mess:

 

[27RMT0N]

Last one for the night.

Clamps that open wide enough can be great for holding a tarp on siding to cover a window (left), smaller spring-clamps can be used to hang a tarp off a gutter to cover a window (right). In this situation, I was bombing wood out onto the gravel driveway and the tarps kept anything from hitting glass:

(and there is my hinged plywood again, this time fully opened for maximum coverage)

 

[southsoundtree]

Ropes on chocks let the driver pull off them, and pull then under the truck to the solo driver on a hill.

 

[Serf Life]

The twig trick for getting the chain back in the rail when it gets partly thrown and a scrench isn’t handy: Put a small twig in between two top rail drive links at an angle and pull the chain backwards so the twig goes into the clutch cover. Voila (most of the time...).

 

[Flying~Squirrel]

Any tips for chunking down firewood from the spar? The cool guys on YouTube can always cut straight through a piece and leave the round balancing on top of the spar, but when I do it I usually get pinched before the cut finishes.

 

[southsoundtree]

Wedges on cords are your friend. Cut until it starts to bind, insert two wedges on the sides as close as reasonable to the chain, tap in, cut through, chunk will tip back with an unbound chain ready to go. The wedges will be a bit of sliders.

 

[Jehinten]

Any tips for chunking down firewood from the spar? The cool guys on YouTube can always cut straight through a piece and leave the round balancing on top of the spar, but when I do it I usually get pinched before the cut finishes.

Rotate your saw in the cut so that you finish the cut using the part of the bar closes to the power head. You get a bit more torque to power through while its trying to pinch.

For heavier rounds the tip given above works really well.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Any tips for chunking down firewood from the spar? The cool guys on YouTube can always cut straight through a piece and leave the round balancing on top of the spar, but when I do it I usually get pinched before the cut finishes.

THe fiberglass wands used to mark edges for plowing. Cut them 6-8" long. You can drill a hole for thin throwline as a leash or electrical tape string to the end. The rods come in two diameters to match up with chain width too.

 

[Dan Cobb]

I hand sew a lot of my runners, slings, lanyards, etc. I like to sleeve a short piece of webbing in all the eyes for chafe protection and, more importantly, it keeps the eyes open so clipping in a carabiner is easier.