Old iron......

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One day I had the tractor running in the doorway to the shed and I noticed a weird glow down under the hood. I investigated and found that the wire coming from the generator was about to burn off at it's connection to the generator cut-out (an old style of voltage regulator). This was not good! I noticed that the bolt that was supposed to be holding the wire's ring terminal was rusted tight and all the insulating plastic under it was gone. Hmmmm.....

So I did a repair that any old time farmer would be proud of.... I put a new terminal on the wire and clamped it to what remained of the attaching bolt by clamping it on with a very small, needle nosed locking pliers!! You can see it doing it's job right in the center of the photo, just beneath the cylindrical red item. You can see a couple bits of bright blue on the ring terminal, and the terminal itself is sticking down a bit below the bolt. Now it would not be good for any part of this pliers to touch anything metal, as that would short out the charging system. So I put an old towel underneath the pliers, an old rag on top and a bungee cord going from the clutch rod below on the left, up across all the cloth and down to the radius rod mounting plate on the right. This would give me a functional tractor until I could decide what to do next. Pretty crusty looking stuff in that first photo, hey? You have to remember that this tractor is 70 years old! A Ford 9N, which was built from 1939 thru 1941 (this one is from 1939). The 2N followed from 1942 thru 1947, followed by the 8N which came out in 1948. This naming sequence is confusing, and lots of people think the 9N is the newest, but really it was the first model.

Recently Ivan was doing a clean-out on his garage. He had a throw-away pile and asked if I wanted anything. There they, were.... intact, not dented up, a pair of 12 volt headlights from a Ford TO30 tractor! They would work fine on our tractor, if I ever did the 12 volt conversion on it, so I took them home and put them on a shelf.

So, the decision was easy. I would do the 12 volt conversion. This would eliminate the need for the faulty generator cut-out, let me use the lights I had acquired, make for better starting and let me use a 12 volt battery like everything else we have (the original system is 6 volt, positive ground). The two photos above are of the new conversion kit that I received last Friday evening.
I placed a coffee cup in there for size comparison. This kit has a 12V alternator and a 12V coil, the two most important items, three mounting brackets, several bolts, a resistor that I won't use, a new fan/alternator belt, and a complete new wiring harness. Woo hoo!!!! Now I can replace all those wires whose insulation cracks and crumbles if you bend them. I'll do this conversion while I'm off work the next few weeks. I'll post a photo of before/after including generator to alternator switch and the addition of the lights..........

This is interesting. If you double click on this to enlarge it, you can track the progress of my parts package from Washington state to me. Its UPS all the way. Check the Louisville, KY, connection.... twice.

A stock 6volt schematic......

A converted 12 volt schematic........

And here, my friends, is the real reason for using an actual carrot for the nose on your snowman.....


I gotta go, Carlo

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Stove news...

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Hey, we finally are getting some winter weather!! Shovel is all set to go, tractor has already been used to plow the driveway, what more could you ask for? Anyway, here goes the story of the "indicator light".......

When you have an outside wood fired boiler, you notice quickly that when you open the door when the fire is not actively burning, lot's of smoke comes pouring out. So it is best to do the adding of wood when the fire is going well, especially at night in poor lighting. Notice above the gray wire that now runs down the left side of the door.....

You see, the fire door has a draft control at the bottom. When the water temperature gets down to a certain level, the controller sends current to the damper solenoid on the door. This opens the damper and allows the fire to return to life and burns strongly until the water reaches the upper temperature limit. Note the connector attaching a green wire to the new gray wire....

That gray wire is tapping into the power loop that feeds the damper solenoid. When the furnace damper opens, the green wire receives power and , voila, the LED light string come on!!

These lights are draped around the stainless steel chimney and are in plain sight of the back door of the house.

They're really nice and sparkly at night and now I know when it's a good time to go feed the monster.

Nice and hot in there, warming the water, keeping our house cozy and warm.........

I gotta go, Carlo

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OK, so I've been lazy lately.... again. But here is all the news that is news in Ottertail country. One afternoon I found Peg on the couch knitting something with a couple of sharpened pulpsticks.

Chris and Hailee showed up weekend before last. I remember a tent something like this with my Uncle Larry, only it was with chairs and we had a lamp inside, as I recall.

She really seems to like these giant dog toys that Rosie and Bryn used to play with. Still hamming it up for the camera.....

This was a duet that defies description. Really Hailee does quite nicely on the piano, with no pounding of keys while shrieking. That's what I do when about 3/4 of the way through most songs.

A lot of Christmas ornaments were made, but no messes ;-) Again, just kidding, most of her projects are mild compared to the messes I made when her age ((that is a total guess, but somehow I think it's true)).

Crochet hooks, can this be for real?

The action moved outside later, as there was a fresh snowfall, about 3" with temps in low 30's. Perfect for snow"person" making. Now it occurs to me that changing the "man" in words to person does not really fix the gender issue, as the "son" in person is not gender neutral.... So I believe the correct term would "off spring"??? Per'son' becomes per'offspring', snowman becomes snow 'peroffspring'. Carry this forward to any word that contains person and we get some interesting results:
A Chairperson is simply a Chairperoffspring.
Personage is now peroffspringage.
And personable becomes peroffspringable.

But I digress........

And here we have 'Snowflake' and Hailee, both happy lookin' and about the same height......

Pa got in on the action, too. They moved around so fast I had trouble getting good photos. Of course, I stayed in the house so I would not get wet and cold....

After a few days of warmer weather we decided to rename Snowflake. She is now known as Eileen...... work with me here, O.K.????

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