Veterans Day Weekend - Garage Remodel and Yard Work

Lights in the loft:

The upstairs of the garage had one outlet and no lights when I got it. This was really annoying, since you either needed a flashlight, or could only go up during the daylight hours. That's just too limiting.

Now the loft has a light switch at the stair way. The outlet box that was buried behind the wood pellets and the tread stringer is mounted higher with an non-shattered outlet (now a usable outlet again). Two 4 foot shop lights are hung and plugged into the light switch..

Light switch and outlets in the work corner:

Removed broken outlet in the corner. Installed a switched outlet just below the rafters for the overhead lights to plug into, and install a new outlet and the light switch to the left of the existing bench. It's much nicer to have lights on switches, and not having to constantly swap out what's plugged in.

In the process of installing the loft lighting, I replaced a missing stud in the half wall, and ran the electric line through the half wall studs so that it will be possible to properly put up actual walls later on.

Lights and leaking hydraulics on the tractor:

The transmission fill tube was loose and leaking. No wonder why, there is no tool that can fit in between the welded panels to actually tighten the compression fitting. After hours of frustration I finally manged to finger tighten the nut and lucked out that a 1/16 of a turn using channel locks was enough to get a good solid seal again. While I was working on the transmission area of the tractor I also tightened the brakes so they work again, and installed all the missing 1/2 inch bolts that hold the wheels on the tractor.

Next I worked on the headlights, the 3 little round bulbs that were used back in 1976 were pretty dismal when the worked, and would frequently rattle their connections lose. I started with a pair of Harbor Freight fog lights. Don't drop glass lights on concrete, the concrete wins. So I replaced the light I broke with a bigger brighter set of off-road lights from Harbor Freight. These mounted much quicker, put out 100+ Watts, and a colossal amount more lumens than the original set up. I also picked up a different pair of fog lights to mount on the rear fender so I can see while I'm going in reverse. I might also reinstall the missing rear red fender lights while I'm at it too. The red light housings are installed, but the wires and bulbs are missing.

When I'm done playing with my John Deere, there's not going to be much John Deere left on the outside of it.Working on the tractor is hard work, but surprisingly enjoyable to work on. Pictures will be posted soon.

New stable workbench:

The bench that came with the garage is a little high, and it wobbles a lot. I would guess that is was built to park a snow blower and lawn mower underneath and was braced in place with some heavy boxes stacked next to it. This doesn't make for a good work surface.

The new bench will be 8 foot by 25.5 inches and will be accessible from both garage bays, and have plenty of tote storage space underneath it. The center beam is a 2x8 and a 2x4 spanning the pillar gap, and 2 -2x4 center legs. To finish off the bench I need to pick up 3 more 2x6's to finish the top surface.

Front Center is 1 of the 2 new head lamps on the tractor.

This bench will be stable and please to work on with no walls to get in the way of my work.

Woodchipping:

On Friday my new electric wood chipper arrived. After producing between 120 and 150 gallons of wood chips and getting rid of 2 brush piles I'm quite happy with my purchase. For under $120 dollars it does what it claims and does it well. It works better on greener wood and old dry wood. I don't  understand all the negative reviews that my wood chipper had on Amazon. It takes up to it's stated size, it feeds fast, the blades stay sharp, and it doesn't drown out conversations.

This first 100 gallons of wood chips nicely filled in an old stump hole that a certain spouse and the dogs have been know to fall into. Now the will trip over the slightly squishy mound.