Off the beaten path, this blog post is, it’s not everyone’s cup o’tea, but here are three subjects that have concerned a good many of my rural and not so rural readers over their lifetimes and that reignited memories for me. After I moved up here to northwestern Minnesota 43 years ago, I used grease guns, spindles, and old tractors on the varied jobs I had. Also living here on an old farm and owning old farm equipment that I bought old because as I could never afford buying new, as did so many other farmers.
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| The common grease gun |
But one common favorable thing about old farm equipment is that it seems to live forever, whereas new farm equipment, especially tractors and combines, have technology that the world has never known except on high-end automobiles, trucks, and ships. These aren’t vehicles that the average farmer operator can work on/ or repair in their own shops anymore. Something breaks on them and off they go back to the dealer or custom repair shops, or a technician has to come out to the farm or corporation to work on the machine in the field. It costs a lot of money.
But this blog post isn’t about all that. I’m boiling it down to one common tool for starters, that any DIY (Do It Yourself) mechanic-type person has used from the get-go and that is the basic grease gun. Researching a similar problem, I happened across this guy, Dennis Coffey, and his Husqvarna Rider Mower repair series about “How To Load A Grease Gun Without Not Wearing The Grease.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9VHehhSuCU
Coffey is a good mechanic and his various videos are easy to watch. He’s not silly or narcistic about his presentation although you get the idea that in his shop, his mantra is “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Though I’ve owned several grease guns and operated a couple dozen others I will admit I’ve cussed them too when things didn’t go just right. But Dennis clears the confusion -- and even if you have never used grease gun, or ever plan to, you might find this strangely interesting, just because. It’s not a commonplace read.
Another of Dennis’s videos is, once again, probably nothing you’ve ever thought about or had to know in a collegiate test, but I know for certain Jerry Solom would’ve enjoyed it even if he’d done it himself earlier in the week. It’s a DIY do-over of a brand-new spindle on a riding lawnmower. "The spindle on a riding mower is the post to which the blade attaches and around which it spins when the machine is in action.
A riding mower may have one or more spindles, depending on the size of
the mower and the way it is manufactured. You may have a problem with
one or more spindles at the same time."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYyhVyHysaw
There are lots of comments about these things under these videos, people ‘out there’ who embrace these mechanical things and find it interesting all their lives whether they ever work at such things themselves; all their little brains engaging like clockwork gears, worrying about incremental thousandths of an inch tolerances and metal fatigue. Then here’s Dennis and all his brothers and likely, sisters too, who love getting dirty working on things themselves...
Speaking of sisters, there is this video of a young woman mechanic working on hydraulic systems on Massey Ferguson tractors, with over a million views. No sexy lass. Check it out; she could be one of the neighbors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmUc1AKWi9w
My talents lie on the artistic side.
ReplyDeleteTherefore I went to auto mechanics school to balance myself out. I even got a job in a garage. I realized I could figure things out, but it would take lots of time and I would ruin some parts along the way. It made more sense to get a job doing something I was good at and pay someone with natural mechanical sense to fix my machinery when it broke.
During my mechanical days, I had to deal with grease guns. They can be ornery. My new riding mower had grease zerks so I bought the most expensive grease gun on the market. It promised I would be able to pass it down to my children.
I continue to do minor maintenance on my mower: change the oil, replace the blades, grease the above mentioned zerks, but when my Greek friend Alex moved to a condo and gave me his used mower which needed new spindles, I passed the job on to someone who likes doing that stuff. He charged me $50. Everyone was happy.
I used to have an old farm tractor. Every spring I had to call my friend Wayne to get it started. He told me if I didn’t take better care of it, I’d soon have a 3,000 pound chunk of metal.
After the last time he got it started, I drove it to his yard and never looked back.
A friend once told me I lacked an analytic mind. I think he was insulting me in a friendly way. I lacked the skills to dispute him so I went to the movies instead.
Excellent post WW
Slick article!
ReplyDeleteThe U-tube for loading a grease gun is useful. Back in the day we had a five or six gallon bucket of grease and pawed handfuls of grease from the bucket into the tube of the gun. The new cardboard cartridges need more technique. Or I never knew how to do either method and made a mess always.
ReplyDeleteToday I am looking for a self locking end of the hose to attach to the zerk. Damn it.