How'd it go today?

Was looking at heavy duty brush cutter blade options. some of the simple ones are a lot more expensive than it seems they should be and wouldn't quite fit the shaft size on my Troy Bilt. So, I checked the scrap materials and found a 19.375" mower blade that fits that I can cut down to 12", though 18" or so will fit in the guard, but it's too much for that small engine. Also made a plastic spacer/adapter to center an old non carbide tipped 7" circular saw blade, which works well on woody stuff at least. Cost $0.
I got an email from Forester about brush cutter blades. Never looked at their website or products any time recently. Thanks google, but it's too late. I've got $70 of brush cutter blades now for free. The 12" mower blade so far works well on occasional <1/2" woody stems and up to 1" non woody. I debated giving it a tapered tip to kick away from stems that are too hard, but didn't.
 
Started off today in a shit mood. It isn't much better, but it's mellowed a bit. Warm, and probably 90% humidity when I left the house. Duty today was laying out anchor bolts on a tiny bridge, which somehow needed 7 beams for it's 16' width and 21' span. Bolts aren't fun anyway, and doing so many in a small space just pissed me off. Back in a creek valley, so again the air just sat there, with the humidity ramped up.

Pull my belt out, and see I lost the gammon reel for my plumb bob on the trail job, so I pull out a different bob with my ghetto handmade reel. First abutment I'm wedged between a concrete backwall that's still cooking, and a wood form up front. Sweat's just dripping, dripping, dripping... Boss sucks at doing the gun, so I'm dealing with him too. Soaked in sweat again, but not as bad as yesterday. Deciding if I'm gonna go in again this week. I'm thinking about boycotting work til the temp's below 90°. Earlier it was "frig this stupid shit!", but I've mellowed out to maybe going in again.

Home now. Sitting in front of the computer, and I hear something that sounds like paper gently unfurling after being crumpled up. I reflect on the cat's interest in the woodstove last night, and think "something's in the stove". Grab my handy tactical flashlight(it's "tactical" cause it's black, and has a bunch of stupid grooves milled(?) into it), and carefully open the door. Bat? Bird? What wonders await me??

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It's a ginormous beetle! I don't know what to do about this, so I just closed the door. Maybe I'll try catching it and throwing it outside, but it might pull me into the stove with it.
 
Deciding if I'm gonna go in again this week. I'm thinking about boycotting work til the temp's below 90°. Earlier it was "frig this stupid shit!", but I've mellowed out to maybe going in again.
I was gonna go in but the boss called, and he didn't sound enthused about working in the heat tomorrow. He said "I think we're far enough ahead of them, but if you want to work...". Yea, we are pretty far ahead of them, and no, I don't particularly want to work, so I'm taking off tomorrow, and I suspect I'll get another call about Friday, so that's good. Not only don't I feel like working, giving the brush I cut a chance to dry out improves my odds for finding the stuff I lost out there.
 
Well, boss called tomorrow off. He left it up to me, but it was obvious he didn't want to work, and you don't have to twist my arm to stay home :^D That was the good news. The bad news is he suggested starting at 6am on Monday. That was left up to me also. That's absolutely sensible, but it means I'll have to get up at 4:30. A better solution would be summer just friggin' off and dying; forever... However, all data points to everything just getting worse and worse. This is the best year of the rest of my life. friggin' yay...
 
Not many pictures but made it to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Friday morning via plane. Kids first time flying. They enjoyed everything but the duration (surprise). I’m sitting on the plane by myself since I have work Monday. Family will be home Tuesday if the upcoming tropical storm doesn’t interfere.
 

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Picked the girls up yesterday afternoon, did the dinner thing, then went and camped out on the Porter Mountain Overlook. Only a few sprinkles of rain on us, but plenty all around. 20240803_190345.jpg 20240803_190349.jpg 20240803_194053.jpg 20240803_204211.jpg 20240804_070642.jpg
This morning we had cream cheese and bagles, then went to the park. Sarah picked them up about three o'clock and I cruised back to Heber/Overgaard, had a cheap cheese burger and found a spot to park for the night.
 
Hot and shitty. staking LOD. Broke my 2511. It was making a weird noise, so I wanted to take the sprocket off and check the bearing. Tried using a pullcord as a piston stop, and it got cut. Took the muffler off and slid a piece of Vbelt up into the cylinder, and it got cut(of course), and now there's a piece of Vbelt in the motor. I guess I'm buying a new 2511, and I'll try to fix the one I have when I feel like making the time. Everything's shit...
 
I probably would. I have a stock saw coming from homedepot. Should be here by Friday. I might try shining a light in the old saw, and see if I can grab the rubber with hemostats. If not, that would be a good candidate for porting, since it would have to come apart anyway. I've never done full teardown of a saw, and a tophandle *will not* be my first. Otherwise, I'll do a test fire of the new saw, and if it works, it'll get my old modded muffler, dogs, and B&C. I'll see if there's enough adjustment with the carb screwstops in place. If not, pull those, cut the ears off and tune it, and I should be back in business.

I rely on that saw too much to go without it. I still don't know what the weird noise is. Sounded like scrapy metal coming from the clutch area. Seemed like it might have caused the clutch to slip, but I'm not 100% sure on that. The noise would come and go. My two leading ideas are a piece of /something/ is stuck where it doesn't belong, or the bearings are going bad. I'll have to get the rubber out of the cylinder, and a properly sized pistonstop before I proceed though.
 
Hot and shitty. staking LOD. Broke my 2511. It was making a weird noise, so I wanted to take the sprocket off and check the bearing. Tried using a pullcord as a piston stop, and it got cut. Took the muffler off and slid a piece of Vbelt up into the cylinder, and it got cut(of course), and now there's a piece of Vbelt in the motor. I guess I'm buying a new 2511, and I'll try to fix the one I have when I feel like making the time. Everything's shit...
Does it sound like an occasional screech, or squirrel noise, or like some small animal sneezing when it is idling?
 
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