How'd it go today?

Wife's best friend wanted to show off her Japanese Maple tree.

Couldn't burst her bubble and tell her it was a Purple Leaf Plum tree.

I wonder how many years she will go on and on and on about her new tree?!
 
Well, got some more rain, so we did cow stuff today. Tested the bulls. They all tested good, and we got all of them out to pasture to get to work. Got one knot head in the corral that is going to the hamburger factory. I wont miss him. We had a nice winter so I bet no one has bad bulls. In a bad winter a bull will freeze his nuts and that makes him sterile.

The water quit at home for the stock that is still here. Most of the other cows are out on grass or the farming. I took the cover off the pump box and it had a blowed up mouse in it, plus a broken wire. So I went to the big town to the west and the well man left a control box out for me. Put it together at home and still no workie. I thought maybe the breaker was bad, stupid system has three breakers, so I changed the first one to a 30 from a 20, it was all I had. That at least did not pop, it popped another one.

I have an old oil tank buried in the ground to house my pressure switch, tank and valves. That breaker popped. All that breaker controls is the pressure switch, which in turn runs a big contactor. That breaker kept tripping, even without the wires that run to the pump connected. So I took the wires off of the pressure switch and the breaker still tripped. Then I took the wires off the breaker and the it did not trip.

For some reason that piece of 12-2 romex went bad. I was glad it was not the switch or contactor. The breaker sends 220 to the pressure switch, when it closes it sends 220 to the coil on the contactor. The contactor closes and completes the circuit, which is 2-2-4, heavy stuff. That cable runs to the well that is out in the pasture, where it goes to another box that feeds the control box for the well. That well has a pitless adapter so the water then runs to the oil tank where the valves and P tank is.

Complicated, yeah? I tell my well driller I designed it that way to piss him off.
 
You have some fancy wiring in your head, Jim, that you can cipher how all that works together. My son can do that, too...electrical voodoo is usually just beyond my ability to comprehend what the hell is really happening.

Glad you can understand all that...I am envious.
 
Ha! Thanks fellas.

It was not completely necessary to have a contactor in the system. The power starts in a big shed that is 400 yards away from the well, so I had to run no.2 wire to span the distance, even though the pump is only a 1 horse pump and is supposed to draw a bit under 10 amps. I was taught in electronics class in college that a 4 gauge wire cut in half is now an 8 gauge wire. So the well driller told me to run this big ass heavy wire to the oil tank and frigging black tape 12-2 romex to that so I could connect to the pressure switch. Just an ordinary tiny pressure switch like what is in your house.

Nonsense I says. So I bought a contactor and use the 12-2 and the pressure switch as the control circuit, the contactor has a coil in it that creates a magnetic field and shuts a big plate. That way I didnt have to drastically shrink the wire in the middle of the run.

I wont lie to youse guys, I am rather pleased with myself for figuring it out. It took a little while just looking at the bloody thing to figure it out again, and I am the guy who designed it!
 
Go, boy!

I can work my way through electrical systems, to a decent degree. I can build a simple structure, even a real framed building, as well as anyone, given enough time :). Roofing, gutters, no problem. Plumbing, heck it's easy to understand, design, assemble, or repair. With vehicles, I can fix brakes, change fluids and filters, do tune-ups, change out starters, alternators, water pumps...all the regular stuff. I can take care of a lot of the infrastructure of my life.

But you, Jim...you take all that that I'm not unreasonably proud of being competent at, to a whole 'nother level. Kudos, brother.
 
Frozen bollocks was what i took away from that, I thought being a cow farmer in Montana was bad, apparently being a cow is even worse!

Can't you knit them little woolly pouches or something?
 
FireFighterZero said:
Well, got some more rain, so we did cow stuff today. Tested the bulls. They all tested good, and we got all of them out to pasture to get to work. Got one knot head in the corral that is going to the hamburger factory. I wont miss him. We had a nice winter so I bet no one has bad bulls. In a bad winter a bull will freeze his nuts and that makes him sterile.

The water quit at home for the stock that is still here. Most of the other cows are out on grass or the farming. I took the cover off the pump box and it had a blowed up mouse in it, plus a broken wire. So I went to the big town to the west and the well man left a control box out for me. Put it together at home and still no workie. I thought maybe the breaker was bad, stupid system has three breakers, so I changed the first one to a 30 from a 20, it was all I had. That at least did not pop, it popped another one.

I have an old oil tank buried in the ground to house my pressure switch, tank and valves. That breaker popped. All that breaker controls is the pressure switch, which in turn runs a big contactor. That breaker kept tripping, even without the wires that run to the pump connected. So I took the wires off of the pressure switch and the breaker still tripped. Then I took the wires off the breaker and the it did not trip.

For some reason that piece of 12-2 romex went bad. I was glad it was not the switch or contactor. The breaker sends 220 to the pressure switch, when it closes it sends 220 to the coil on the contactor. The contactor closes and completes the circuit, which is 2-2-4, heavy stuff. That cable runs to the well that is out in the pasture, where it goes to another box that feeds the control box for the well. That well has a pitless adapter so the water then runs to the oil tank where the valves and P tank is.

Complicated, yeah? I tell my well driller I designed it that way to piss him off.
Click to expand...

deep well submersible?
 
Franklin?
Tighten all electrical joints, better if soldered, for motor loads. I stock capacitors and control boxes, but I guess it'll take too long to get to you. ;)

Shop day today, have almost a dozen pumps to rebuild. Some more service on the stumper and saws.
 
Thats right Peter. Everything up here used to be Red Jacket. Now it is Franklin, cause its so much better. That and they get a better deal.............

When you say solder ever connection, are you talking about the 4 plex from the control box to the pump? The four wires off the motor are sealed in a heat shrink connectors that have solder built into them.

Do you solder the wires in the control box?
 
Wire to wire I always solder. Stranded wire to a screw post or lug, I will apply solder to the exposed wire to make it solid when the screw tightens down on it. Occasionally I'll coat solder on the same for solid conductors in wet locations, kinda protects the copper from corrosion.

IMG_20160524_104742.jpg
 
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