Tank birthday, 47+ years

[Hot2na]

I know montauk, Paul.. That's where I contracted Lyme disease in 1988..hiking down to the surf fishing area through the woods a tick found its way onto my back..pretty much ruined me for life , I still have "chronic " lyme to date..
Have 2 jeeps 2018 grand cherokee ltd with the v6, 2013 grand cherokee overland with the hemi...before that had an 08 grand cherokee with the 4.7L...for the most part - solid vehicles ! my 2013 has transfer case issues , but its still under warranty,so i'm playing the back to the dealership game -every time it flairs up..my '18 is smooth as silk and runs great so far.

 

[Paul B]

Atoll, I want a lot of things, but can never find them. I had that guy a few years so far.
Hot2na, Montauk is tick haven, they love it there. Sorry about your Lyme's disease, I know that's tough. My wife has MS and at the beginning of the diagnosis we here hoping it was lymes. At least there is sometimes, something they can do for that. But MS, not so much. I hope you don't feel to bad and can go bungee jumping.

I have now a Jeep Renegade and a new Jeep Compass. I love them both. I have had that Willy's, two Wranglers and a CJ. 3 or 4 Grand Cherokees and a regular Cherokee. Maybe a few more, I forget. But I love me some Jeeps.

 

[Awesome Dennis]

I’m on my second round of Lyme disease, not fun feeling like I’m as old as @Paul B.
My first time with Lyme disease I had Bell’s palsy and a PICC line it really helped pick up the supermodel chicks.

 

[atoll]

Atoll, I want a lot of things, but can never find them. I had that guy a few years so far.
Hot2na, Montauk is tick haven, they love it there. Sorry about your Lyme's disease, I know that's tough. My wife has MS and at the beginning of the diagnosis we here hoping it was lymes. At least there is sometimes, something they can do for that. But MS, not so much. I hope you don't feel to bad and can go bungee jumping.

I have now a Jeep Renegade and a new Jeep Compass. I love them both. I have had that Willy's, two Wranglers and a CJ. 3 or 4 Grand Cherokees and a regular Cherokee. Maybe a few more, I forget. But I love me some Jeeps.

Paul if you see another red Hawkfish for sale give me a shout and I will pop over to collect that's if you don't buy it for yourself. I hear they get on fine together or eventually.

 

[M007]

I have to change the exhaust manifolds on my boat and it is breaking my heart that I will not be able to do it myself. I really have never hired anyone for anything especially something like my car or boat but there comes a time when this stuff is just to heavy. I have changed them on my last two boats but I was a lot younger then. The manifolds are the 4 big iron things, one on each side of the engine with the worm gear clamps on the far end.
This boat has two engines and there is very little room to work. They weigh maybe 25lbs each and you have to be able to twist yourself in there to lift them out, then align them up to get them back in. It is not a complicated job but it is a heavy one. You are supposed to change them (in salt water) maybe every 5 or 6 years and I have this boat 12 years and never changed them. They could be 15 or even 20 years old.

If they allow seawater to leak into the cylinders you could break a connecting rod or crack the block, two reasons to junk the boat. I don't trust anyone's work and I just like doing this type of work.

But age and strength just won't allow me to do it again. Getting old stinks but it is better than the alternative (I think)
It's the end of an era when I can't repair my own boat.
They are also not real cheap. To do it myself would cost about $1,500.00 and to have them to do it is almost tipple that. And I wanted to buy a clown gobi.

Every time I see a boat bilge with a pair of these in it I ask myself what the heck! Manifold replacement is such a PITA! Pay the guy and say thank you! Manly or not, that job is crappy and since he's got the logs off get him to throw a set of spark plugs in it.

 

[Paul B]

It's the principal and the challenge. I actually like doing it and like cleaning the glass on my tank, I don't consider it work. It's just me. I'm a doer, not a watcher or a "Pay someone else to do it who probably won't do it as good as me" type of guy. It just breaks my heart.

There also should be no reason to change manifolds. They are a stupid design and should be made of carbon or stainless steel. Even then there should be a panel on the side that you can remove for inspection or to clean them out. A lot of mechanical things on boats and other machinery is stupid. They are just designed to fail so they can sell you another one. Charge me double but make something that I won't have to change.

The first year I had this boat the hot water heater croaked. I called Sea Ray and they told me the $400.00 thing was designed to last for 3 or 4 years. Like really!

I designed a new hot water heater that cost me about 50 bucks that would last forever. I never installed it because I used that space for other things and a hot water heater in a boat is silly. The fresh water tank is in the bilge next to the engines so the water gets warm anyway and I don't use the boat in the winter so I never need hot water.

The outdrives on a boat are the stupidest thing they ever invented. There is no need for them unless if maybe you want to trailer the boat. To trailer my boat I need a big pick up truck and I am not going to trailer, or beach it.
Direct drives or jet drives are so much better and almost free.

These are the outdrives for my boat. Every year you have to remove them, chop off the barnacles, paint them, replace zinc's, change the oil and occasionally take them apart to change the water pump. They also have these expensive rubber bellows that keep water out and if they rip, the boat can sink.
The outdrives are over $3,000.00 each and are just stupid.



I love machinery and go to hardware stores just to smell the steel and paint. I hate it when I see something designed totally ridiculous, it just drives me crazy and if I ever met the guy who invented outdrives I would like to smack him. Many times.
He probably did it as a joke to see how expensive and complicated he could build something.
Don't get me started on hydraulics that raise and lower the outdrives. That's another thorn in my side but on my boat I redesigned them to be much more accessible.
I also invented a new addition to the cooling system on my boat so I can run fresh water through the engines after I use it in salt water, which is every day.
You can see the 4 red valve handles on top of my engines. That innovation allowed my manifolds to last 20 years instead of 5.

Boats only have one forward gear, that is almost as stupid as an outdrive. My boat costs about $1.25 a minute to run. If it had two speeds that cost would be about half and the engines would last almost twice as long and be half the price. Another mistake they built into boats. Probably by the same Jiboni who invented outdrives.

 

[Crabby48]

Hate to hear your knee still giving you problems.

If I was closer I would have like to do your manifolds so we both know it was right and save you money to purchase more fish.

Thursday I should have my white worm culture from insect sales but not sure if the fish or I are more excited.

 

[Paul B]

It's hard to tell if the fish are excited, you have to look very closely in their eyes.

Thanks for the offer to fix the boat. The last time I did it my Daughter's Boy friend who was a martial arts instructor helped me.

The Dr. shot me twice with cortisone (or axel grease) but it didn't do anything. I think it made it worse.
But it's only a knee and pain is just pain. It's not like I got yelled at on social media or anything.

He wants to operate again, but he is a surgeon and that's what they do.
(another subject)
I was so impressed with the mechanics of that Willy's. In virtually all modern vehicles there is a timing chain that moves the valves. In some cheap cars they are plastic

That Willy's didn't have a timing chain. It had two huge, like 7" steel gears with a plumbing pipe over them shooting oil on them so it would last longer than Nancy Pelosi. And it did. For all I know, that thing may still be on the road.


It would make a lousy family car or highway car because it was built so good and strong that it made a lot of noise. Steel is noisier than plastic.

But it was a working vehicle. Imagine if I tried to plow anything with my New Jeep Compass. There would be $2,000.00 worth of damage for every hundred bucks I made.


A few years ago I had a snow blower, I sometimes put it in the back of the Willy's to get into tough places. It was about 40 years old and you couldn't kill it. I could pick up a cinder block in it and it would just either crush the block, or stop. It was all giant, steel gears.

I needed to change the drive chain for the front "screw" that throws the snow and I went to a snow blower/bicycle store. The guy looked but couldn't find a matching chain because it was so old. I said, just give me the closest one. He said "I have been doing this for 20 years and I say, it won't fit and you can't bring it back" I told him that my socks were 20 years old and that 40 year old snow blower has so much play in it that any chain would fit and I don't need the receipt because if I say it will fit, it will fit. Of course it fit perfectly. (He was a Jiboni)


My new snow blower, which was all plastic with no gears but it comes with a handful of stupid "sheer Pins" which are little iron pins that are supposed to break before you break the machine. Just make the machine so it won't break and you are set to go, what's wrong with that concept?

I don't need a snow blower here as it is a condo so they get somebody to plow it, but I am sure that new machine I had would only last a few seasons, and that is only if it never snowed.


Maybe the Doctor can put a sheer pin in my knee.

 

[Paul B]

Someone should build a "Mans Car" A thing made out of steel plates with a cast iron engine. No plastic allowed, just big, steel gears. It wouldn't go very fast but it would be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Go through 6' of snow while idling and the radio would only play music from the 60s and 70s. No Rap, Justin Beiber or Girly songs.

You could change the oil with Vaseline or Steak Sauce. The tires would be re treads from 747s and you wouldn't need a "climate control switch"
Just a "Cold and not so cold" lever. You wouldn't be able to car jack it because if you tried, the door would explode. It couldn't get towed away because it is too heavy.

Just a real Mans car, That's what I want.

 

[Paul B]

I just came back from boating and dumped in a whole bunch of amphipods, snails, seaweed and tiny fry fish. I don't now what they are but I hope they don't grow into whale sharks because then I will have to find a way to at least keep their heads underwater.

I also caught a tiny eel but I let him go. I probably over did it with snails and I think some of them were conchs.

 

[Fudsey]

Probably put a couple striper fry in there lololol

 

[Paul B]

I can't believe at least 3 of those tiny baby fish that I collected are still living and actually thriving. I put them in as food. They stay at the surface and eat tiny
"stuff" just like a whale shark. OMG, I hope they are not whale sharks.
They have nice colors and iridescent fins just like very healthy fish are supposed to have.
They may be stripped bass, bluefish, marlin etc. Who knows. The next time I go I will bring a bigger net and collect a few hundred. This may be the next fish craze. I hope they get colorful as I can only see faint vertical stripes on them. They are tiny, like this size. -------> ! <--------
(picture that thing horizontal) but real cute. I can collect thousands of them in 5 minutes at low tide in a small lagoon I discovered. I am sure it was discovered before, probably by Nancy Pelosi, but you know what I mean.

Whatever I throw into that tank lives forever. It's like the fountain of youth for marine creatures.

 

[Brew12]

They stay at the surface and eat tiny
"stuff" just like a whale shark.

I'm guessing they are staying at the top of the tank to avoid the Godzilla Larva in your UGF.

 

[Paul B]

Right at the surface.

 

[lapin]

Maybe they want to be first inline for your clam and worm soup

 

[Paul B]

I have been putting in this "electric" fireplace. We moved to a Condo and I am not allowed to put in a real one. Besides I have no chimney. My last home had a real fireplace but I have to live with what I now have.

All I have left to do on this is install the stone hearth at the bottom which will open on hydraulics for storage. (really electric lifts)

The wall is 1/8th" steel plates. I ground them to have those swirls.




It started like this. The entire thing is also on wheels so I can move it away from the wall for maintenance, painting and when I hide from my wife. The black thing at the bottom is the sound bar for the TV


I cut the steel with an electric sheers as a tin snips won't cut it.



The mantel is 8 2X8s glued together and "hollowed" out to fit on the fireplace.


The "Stovepipe was from a copper gutter.


I bent it round and held it in place with these.

 

[Fudsey]

Nice work Paul ! ! !

 

[Dub_G]

Very cool!

 

[Hemmdog]

Looks great!

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Since were talking about Jeeps.. i have two but this my baby.. bought for 4500$ 3 years ago.. spent another 4k$ in oarts fixing it myself.. new suspensions. New tires. Nee wheel besrings. Fixed alot of electricsl.. some rusted holes in the floor i had to cut out and weld.. alot of various oil leaks.. new radiator.. new alternator... I made a new headliner for it.. i daily drive it lol.. Dont care about it getting 10mpg. My other Jeep is my 98 grand cherokee 5.9 liter v8 limited.. its a 1 year production run only model for the last of the ZJs. I love it has 345ft lbs of torque at 3200 rpm.


Im not a huge fan of the newer jeeps. They are small inside... overpriced and kinda ugly.. The newer grand cherokees have no cargo room i think like 65 cubic feet ? My Zj has i believe 80 and my wagoneer has 95 cubic feet.

I also dont like the electric cut off modern Jeeps and cars have at stop lighs.. just a bunch of useless features.