Advice The Home Improvement/Automation Thread

Original design concept for getting the wood chipper going again:


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"Ok, this test is gonna take a couple hours to run, off to the machine shop I go":

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Need to braze it together, loctite 609 the bearing in, and cut and thread the end of some 1" shaft, and the power fisted wood chipper will be together.
 
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holy hell, how big is that fabricobbled thing?

I have completely underestimated the scale of whatever it is you're trying to do here.
 
So this is really fucking neat. HA+NodeRed will track the state of lights you designate over a period of one week. If you're gone starting on a Monday, for example, it replays what you did with those lights at those times last Monday. Much better than randomizing, or setting specific lights to come on at certain times.


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holy hell, how big is that fabricobbled thing?

I have completely underestimated the scale of whatever it is you're trying to do here.
14 inches. Problem is, here's the wood chipper:



The chipper chute sneaks by the engine with very little clearance, which seriously limits the number of engine options that can go on there... not to mention, the chipper flywheel requires a 1" shaft and I don't trust using a shaft adapter to hang the chipper flywheel off a 3/4" shaft engine.

So I bought a used-but-never-used, 10hp snowblower engine for $100 and figured I'd work it out. I could remove the chipper chute, make a 3/4" spacer plate that goes between the engine and chipper to account for the difference in shaft lengths, and be left with a shredder only... but I really want to keep the wood chipper feature for making wood mulch for gardens and stuff.

So yeah, this is what I came up with.
 
Leveled about half the lawn yesterday. One 20x20 sinkholey thing that was about 1.5 inches low, and a bunch of smaller dips that were like an inch low. Took like 3 cubic yards of dirt in all.

Another half of the yard still needs doing, but gonna have to bring in a machien for that, too much work to do by hand.
 
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Leveled about half the lawn yesterday. One 20x20 sinkholey thing that was about 1.5 inches low, and a bunch of smaller dips that were like an inch low. Took like 3 cubic yards of dirt in all.

Another half of the yard still needs doing, but gonna have to bring in a machien for that, too much work to do by hand.
Your tractor tires gonna tear up too much existing grass?
 
Leveled about half the lawn yesterday. One 20x20 sinkholey thing that was about 1.5 inches low, and a bunch of smaller dips that were like an inch low. Took like 3 cubic yards of dirt in all.

Another half of the yard still needs doing, but gonna have to bring in a machien for that, too much work to do by hand.
I'd like to do that with my yard, especiallythis time of year when we get 2-3 inches of standing water with a bad rain. But I'm not gonna put in work on this house.
 
Your tractor tires gonna tear up too much existing grass?
ha, existing grass. You assume too much

My tractor is busted :p Steering column bearing went out last week. Really threw a wrench in the plans.

Also, a bunch of the work is over the septic system and something tracked would be a little safer in regards to ground pressure, so i dont mind bringing in a bobcat.
 
Got the Opensprinkler today, and it's pretty cool. The wires swapped over real easy, the programming was really easy to figure out, and the web interface is super intuitive (and the schedule is nice to be able to see too).
 
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So.. i just spent a couple of hours extending my buried downspout extension. It was about 15 feet out from the house, but im buildin a deck that would cover it up and i dont want it discharging under the deck and making things all soggy. So i extended it out to 25 feet, not a huge deal, but 10 feet of digging about a foot deep, 6 inches wide in hard hard soil.

Then i realized after i was done and had regraded and made the whole thing nice.... dumbass, you're building a deck, you didnt have to bury it, you could have just run it under the deck on top of the ground.
 
So.. i just spent a couple of hours extending my buried downspout extension. It was about 15 feet out from the house, but im buildin a deck that would cover it up and i dont want it discharging under the deck and making things all soggy. So i extended it out to 25 feet, not a huge deal, but 10 feet of digging about a foot deep, 6 inches wide in hard hard soil.

Then i realized after i was done and had regraded and made the whole thing nice.... dumbass, you're building a deck, you didnt have to bury it, you could have just run it under the deck on top of the ground.

But now the kiddos can play in the dirt under the deck and not disturb the pipe.
 
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So.. i just spent a couple of hours extending my buried downspout extension. It was about 15 feet out from the house, but im buildin a deck that would cover it up and i dont want it discharging under the deck and making things all soggy. So i extended it out to 25 feet, not a huge deal, but 10 feet of digging about a foot deep, 6 inches wide in hard hard soil.

Then i realized after i was done and had regraded and made the whole thing nice.... dumbass, you're building a deck, you didnt have to bury it, you could have just run it under the deck on top of the ground.
No harm in taking pride while layin' pipe.
 
So.. i just spent a couple of hours extending my buried downspout extension. It was about 15 feet out from the house, but im buildin a deck that would cover it up and i dont want it discharging under the deck and making things all soggy. So i extended it out to 25 feet, not a huge deal, but 10 feet of digging about a foot deep, 6 inches wide in hard hard soil.

Then i realized after i was done and had regraded and made the whole thing nice.... dumbass, you're building a deck, you didnt have to bury it, you could have just run it under the deck on top of the ground.
:lol:
 
I should also bury some downspout extensions on my barn and house. Have one downspout on the rear (north side) of my house which should be pretty easy, like 15ft long and the ground slopes away from the house. The downspout on the front of the house is next to my propane tanks and septic tank and the lawn is level. Not really sure what I should do there. For now it just dumps water onto the lawn. Of course this year it really doesn't matter since we're in a bad drought.
 
i assume in maine you have a basement, its always a good idea to not put your entire roofs surface area of water right next to your basement wall. Hydrostatic pressure is not your friend