Workshop Wednesday-New Trailer

  For a while now we have known we were quickly outgrowing our pesticide applications trailer at work.  Our old trailer measured 26 feet and all our crap didn't fit in it. We also had a problem with the axles not being up to the task of hauling the weight of all that junk we were stuffing in it. So a few weeks back the boss ordered a new trailer. This would be 32 feet long and have a side door wide enough to allow for loading a pallet of fertilizer. I think the size will be ok for us from the point of view that we can get all our equipment in it. From a towing and parking standpoint, it's big. I know that scares a lot of contractors but we're in a pretty much rural setting and can get away with it. The other thing is we don't have to park in front of your house and drag a house hundreds of feet. I built our tractors with 300 feet of hose and a tank. I can park the tractor anywhere and drag hose from there if needed.
 The first step in making this trailer functional is to build a set of shelves so we can get our chemicals off the floor. Tripping over jugs and boxes has been a real pain in the ass.

 I came up with a rough plan for a shelf and gave the boss a material list. I don't know who our steel supplier is but the next day I had ten 20 foot lengths of angle iron.

 My plan was to build eight individual uprights with a shelf bracket and then screw those to the trailers steel wall studs. I would then weld a face, back and sides along with adding an expanded metal shelf bottom.

 So here is about an 18 foot shelf. Below the shelf will be fuel cans, spill kits, rakes/shovels, gas blower, chest spreader, etc. Except for personal protective equipment, first aid and eye wash kits, everything I hang on the trailer wall will be this wall. The other side will be left clear so we can walk front to rear unobstructed.

 All that was left was to make some sort of "retainer" to keep jugs and boxes from falling off the shelf. A big lip on the front of the shelf wouldn't do as I have no interest in tipping a jug of chemicals forward over my head.

 The answer was a simple U shaped loop that is hinged on each end. The loop only drops as low as seen in the pic and the hinges have enough drag to hold the loop in the raised position for loading the shelf.
 With the side wall shelf complete I was now ready to build a shelf in the front to store some grass seed, mulch and a few random bags of fert. I used the same basic design as the side walls only deeper and following the contour of the V shaped front.

 Yesterday we went out for the day to spray and fertilize lawns. We had a pallet of fert loaded in the front and were still able to get both tractors and the stand-on unit in the trailer.

 This setup worked out really nice. Each of those three units were used at the ten different stops we made. Loading and unloading was a breeze and nobody tripped over anything. It's nice having a home for everything. I'm sure this makes us more efficient and I think it made the day go faster.

Later.

Workshop Wednesday-Stake Puller

 Our tent crew at work has been after the shop techs to build them some kind of stake puller for those tough to remove tent stakes.

 There has been a lot of talk about converting log splitters, building self propelled hydraulic units and many other mechanical doohickeys. The other day when Dan asked about a puller I decided it was time to "just do it". The idea of beefing up a hi-lift jack had been discussed and I was in the right mood to build it.

 I don't claim to know everything and the nice thing about our shop is wealth of knowledge that is freely shared among the techs. When I asked the others how thick they thought this piece of steel needed to be, most thought half inch thick. I don't know why I asked because I had already planned on using some 3/4" plate.

 Most of you have figured out by now that my method of building shit like this is "go big or go home". If the jack breaks, I don't want it to be where I modified it. That's the reason I chose to use 3/4" steel for the piece that actually pulls on the stake. I mounted it in a way that most of the pulling force is on the original jack lifting pad. Thanks Al for the idea.

 The base plate has a hole large enough to allow a stake head to pass through. The jack upright is raised so it can pivot to compensate for stakes pounded in on angles. This way the jack will never shit out no matter how many monkeys are on the end of the handle. The hole in the plate design assures that.

 The tent crew took it out on a few jobs already and it's not broken yet. When I asked how it worked I was told it does what it is supposed to do and got a thumbs up.

 In other work related news, it seems I'm to blame for the destruction of all living creatures on the planet. The other day I was spraying some weeds in a lawn when I noticed a lady walking down the sidewalk. My spray rig was parked in the street and the hose was hanging over the sidewalk, meaning a person would have to lift their leg up and step over the hose or walk in the freshly sprayed lawn. Both are unacceptable and I was watching for this scenario so I moved over to the machine and pulled some slack into the hose so it would lay flat on the ground. As the woman passed she said "thanks..." and right away I thought she meant for moving the hose. Before I could finish that thought she continued "...for killing everything!" Set phasers to stun I just took a direct hit. She had a look on her face and the tone in her voice as if I had just pushed the button on a doomsday device. I was at a loss for words and all I could do was smile and laugh. She continued across the street and struck up a conversation with some workers there and in a short time they were all watching me.
 I wonder what crawled up her ass and died?

Later.

Workshop Wednesday-Stand On Sprayer

 Due to the high demand (one person) for another "Workshop Wednesday" post, I offer you an update on the stand on sprayer project  that I last reported on in March. I finished the plumbing to include a foam marker system, flow meters and a quick disconnect for removing the hood to allow for spreading fertilizer.
 If a guy is building something for personal use, that's one thing. If you are gonna build something and then charge people for the work it does, it better work right. I had to calibrate the sprayer first which meant measuring out an area and spraying water. This gave me gallons per thousand square feet and allowed for figuring how much chemical to add per tank. The first job for the new sprayer was a remote industrial location. Afterwards we parked the sprayer for a week and watched the area to see if there were any problems. This was done just in case I screwed up on my calculations or if there was some type of weird overlap problem. As it turns out the sprayer did just fine and we brought it into the fleet for daily use. "Bringing it into the fleet" is easier said than done.

 Anytime we've added new equipment to the truck or trailer there has been a learning curve to get everything to fit. The hooded sprayer was no exception but the extra hassle is well worth it. The unit doesn't do the job any faster than an open boom but it does keep drift to a minimum and eliminates the potential for random over spray on desirable plants. With its foam marker system it also takes the guess work out of overlapping rows. It's also nice to just follow the foam and not have to think about where your last pass was.
 I have no experience with other brands of stand on sprayers and I'm not aware of any that are hooded so I can't compare it to other sprayers. The machine does handle a little stiff with the extra weight out front. I expected that and it's actually not as bad as I thought it might be. From the beginning I've had a plan to make it easier for me to handle and that was to make James run it. So far that plan is working out great!

Later.

Next Project-Continued

 Those that follow know I'm adding a hooded sprayer system to a stand on spreader/sprayer machine. Those that are new here, welcome and where the hell have you been? Click the "hooded sprayer" link in the first line to get caught up. I'll pick up where I left off.

 Above pic is the completed mount. I built it this way to spread the forces from the hood evenly across the frame of the machine. At least it seems that way in my head. The hole will accept an old wheel bearing that Al saved for me. Yes uncle Tommy, these came out of the caravan.

I removed the studs and flush cut the face of the hub so I could weld a receiver bar on it.

 The receiver bar will accept the frame for the hood. This will also serve as my quick disconnect point.

 A little more detail in case you plan on building one yourself :-) There really isn't much weight here so the plates I used for hinges will work just fine. If they slop out after a year or so I'll just drill them out to the next size bolt.
 One thing I worried about was attaching this hood to the sprayer and then someone (oh anyone I suppose) running into a solid object and damaging the frame or transaxle of the stand on unit. I'm no engineer but I think the upright bar that's in the receiver is the weak link and will bend first before any other damage is incurred. That piece would be easy enough to duplicate in a pinch. The other thing we have going for us is that the stand on is articulated. If the hood takes a glancing blow the machine will kinda fold in half and give the operator time to back out of the throttle. At least it seems that way in my head.

 This pic is pretty much the completed unit, at least as far as fabricating goes. It needs some wiring for the foamer and all the plumbing to the spray nozzles and foamer heads. A few other details like some solenoids to control flow to the left or right foam head and a flow meter to monitor spray nozzle health. I think we may also add a water level gauge for the main chemical tank too.
 I ran it around the yard just to see how it handles and I think we'll be happy with this unit.

Later.

Next Project

 No bike related news today except that it may get warm enough for a ride later. Yea!

I've talked about how part of my job is doing turf pesticide applications. I know, you're thinking, "No, not more of this fert and squirt crap". Anyway, every year I set a goal of doing one new thing to become more efficient at pesticide apps. One year it was adding a foam marker system to the tractor sprayers. Another year I added hose reels. You get the idea. I've done this every year for as long as I've been at this and it has allowed us to be quite competitive and successful.  This year, just by chance, I've come up with two, count em, two ways to be more efficient.  The first involves the bullshit paperwork end of the business. After an application we are required to leave behind certain info for the customer.  We do this with a laptop and portable printer but we don't use one of those fancy expensive software programs. We use a form that I created and manually enter all the customer info and then enter the numbers for that application. This involved filling out hundreds of forms that are "saved as" today's date then filed appropriately. What a pain in the ass but I don't want or need a fancy schmancy program that costs a bunch of coin or has monthly fees and does shit I'll never use.

 What I've done this year is edjumacate myself on creating a database and how to add formulas to my form. Probably basic stuff for the youngsters or people with formal computer training. I am neither young nor trained but I'm happy to report my form now auto fills a bunch of boxes after selecting a customer. It also does the calculations for product used based on the pre-measured size of the property and rate of application(oz,qt,gal, lb) per (square feet, acre). There are a few other mods that will speed up the process and my arm is sore from patting myself on the back.

 Many of our customers have traditionally been the ones with large lawns. Our big tractors and hooded sprayers make short work of these. Most of our customers also like that we spray under hoods. I like that too. A few years ago we picked up a stand on sprayer/fertilizer. These units are smaller than our tractors and fit well on small lawns. They work quite well for granular fertilizing lawns but they use a single open spray nozzle with a very fine pattern for liquid apps. I don't like this and really only use it to do cemeteries where I can spray over headstones and then not have to follow up and trim spray. Our smaller residential customer base has expanded and I hate taking a huge tractor on a small lawn. Customers don't like it much either. The other options are to use a spray hose and walk it out or use the open tip stand-on I just talked about. I don't mind walking but that method doesn't work as well as the mist under a hood that gets all parts of a plant leaf wet with chemical. So if you follow all this then maybe you figured out that I am going to put a single spray hood on our stand on sprayer. We recently picked up another stand on so its ok to bastardize this one.

 This is the single hood we purchased.The machine already has a tank, pump, filter, switching, plumbing and hand wand. 

 Basically I'm building the mounting point for a spindle that will attach the hood and allow it to rock left and right and hinge up and down. It should float along the contours of the lawn. More details as they become available.

Later.

From Green to White

 Its been a long time since I've talked about the "other" thing I do at work. If you follow this blog you know I repair chainsaws and other handheld two cycle equipment. What I don't talk about much is that when I was first hired by my current employer, it was to run the landscape crew. It's something that I had done for a very long time. Part of those landscaping duties was to do develop and manage a lawn pesticide applications and fertilization branch of the business. The owner of the business at the time didn't give me a blank check but he did give me a loose leash. I was given the type of equipment I wanted and what we couldn't buy, I was allowed to build.

 Be careful what you wish for. I had a good reputation and some connections from past employment. That combined with fair pricing, the willingness to work with the customers schedule, and good results has built a monster that consumes way too much of my time. 

 I never really had any desire to spray lawns. It came with the job and if you're gonna do a job you might as well do it well. I also can control how these chemicals are applied. I mean, people that want weed or pest control are gonna either do it themselves or hire someone. You wouldn't believe how many people figure if a little is good then more is better. When I make the application I have control over chemical types, rates and the possibility of runoff. That's how I justify it in my head anyway.

 There are two things I really like about this kind of work. One is being outside. The weather is always good because if it's crap weather then I'm not able to perform the work. The other is the equipment. I like building or working on the pumps, sprayers and spreaders. It's a gearhead thing.

 The other day I decided to shoot a short video while running one of the rigs. Nothing fancy, just a phone in one hand and steering wheel in the other. It appears to be boring work but the truth is I've been doing it so long it comes automatically. The equipment is calibrated for a certain speed so there is no rushing the job. That relaxed pace means I am rarely thinking about actually running the equipment and most of my thought process is consumed thinking about motorcycle projects, a stubborn repair waiting on my work bench, or lately a bathroom remodel. Guess what? The pay is the same no matter what I'm day dreaming about.
 I have one big job left for Monday and then all the equipment can be cleaned and put away till spring. The trucks will lose their water tanks and get salters and snow plows installed and then we just wait for mother nature to dump the white stuff. One more year in the books.

Later.

Workshop Wednesday-Duplicate Sprayer

 If you follow this blog you probably know that at work I fix chainsaws and plow snow. I don't talk about it a lot but I also do lawn applications. You know, fertilizer and weed control stuff. Business has been good and we've added another spray rig to the crew. The tractors we use are Steiner. There's no particular reason for using the Steiner except we had a few and they were heavy duty enough to handle the weight of the water, tank and pumps along with being pretty reliable machines.
 These tractors push a hooded sprayer that does the blanket application but to do the trim work and reach into remote areas, I needed a hose reel sprayer. About five years ago I built one and mounted it on the back of the Steiner.

 You can see the unit on the right has the hose reel sprayer and tank on the back of it. This setup works so sweet because I can broadcast spray a large lawn in a short time and then run around and trim it out while riding the tractor. The other handy feature is the ability to place that hose reel anywhere on the property I need it to reach remote areas. I see other contractors dragging hundreds of feet of hose from a truck parked on the street. That's just lame and wastes a lot of time. If I can do the job quicker then I can be more competitively priced.
 The other fad right now in the spraying world are these small stand-on sprayers that double as fertilizer spreaders. We have one and mostly just use the spreader. I really don't like open sprayers because of the potential for drift. My clients also like the fact that we are spraying under hoods.
 Because the first hose reel sprayer has run without any break downs for five years now I decided to just duplicate it.

 The plan was to make everything interchange. If one tractor or sprayer breaks down then I can swap pieces around as needed. This pic is just showing the old sprayer on a forklift held above the new sprayer I'm building.

 And this is the finished project. Now that I look at the pic I'm reminded that I still need to tidy up some wiring. The design is such that it can be forked off the tractor and sits on its own legs. This means it could sit in a UTV or pickup truck if needed. The only real drawbacks to this setup are the potential for catching the reel on a tree branch and the high center of gravity. In five years we haven't rolled one but I must admit I did bend the crap out of the reel once.

Later.

OOOOOHH, AAAAAHH

 Here in Princeton WI we celebrated Independence Day with fireworks and festivities in the city park last night. This always happens the Saturday before the 4th even if the 4th is a Saturday. Don't ask me why, I don't make the rules.
 Let me back up a bit. Today started with  half day of work. I spot sprayed about 80 gallons of roundup through a hose from a tractor mounted sprayer. This all went on one large commercial account. My mission was to eliminate rogue weeds in sidewalk cracks, flower beds, loading docks, parking lots, and anywhere else they didn't belong. If 80 gallons of spot spraying seems like a lot, you're right. It's a big place.
 I punched out around noon and rode the bike home where I picked up my bride. We enjoyed the sunshine while on a nice bike ride. We managed to piss away the afternoon and got back to the house around 5. It's my daughter Parkers birthday and we wanted to take her out to dinner so Parker got into her gear and I took her on a ride about 45 minutes away. My wife met us there in her car. We enjoyed a nice meal on the water and then rode home.
 Now it was just a matter of waiting for it to get dark and watching the fireworks.

OOOOOHH

AAAAAHH

  We've been in this house 18 years and raised three daughters here and every year it's the same thing. Find some chairs or blankets, hose down with bug dope, mix up some adult beverages and walk down to the school field where the fireworks are being set off. There's a band playing in the park and they can be heard equally as well from my house or the spot we watch the fire works so we can hear the music all night. I enjoy this tradition and wonder if we will do it next year when there are no kids left in the house.
 Actually, now that the last child is leaving, I wonder how much things might change around here.

Workshop Wednesday-

 I usually write this blog the night before a post. Not last night. I forgot all about The Greasy Shop Rag. Why? No particular reason. I got home late from work after stopping to look at some projects for customers. Its kinda a nice excuse to go for a ride after work.
 So now you get the condensed version because if I babble on I'll be late for work. Not that it matters. The boss doesn't look at that kind of thing. If you got something going on then take care of it. Unless it's gonna screw up everyone elses schedule it's cool. Well this is important business so I'll keep typing.
 I checked my lottery numbers earlier. Things are looking up. I matched 2 numbers out of six. Thats the best I can remember doing in a long time. It doesn't pay anything but sometimes you just gotta make the best out of tiny improvements. At this rate I should win something from the lottery in 150 years.
 Work has been very busy. Trying to keep customer repairs done in a timely manner while James and I also try to get caught up on our lawn applications is a real challenge. So far we haven't had many whiners. The weed control portion of the business has grown quite a bit this year. (Get it. weeds, grow. ya, its still early) After some discussion with the boss we decided to add another spray rig to the crew.

 This hooded sprayer will be mounted on the front of a tractor and will be interchangeable with the one we already run. It will be nice to run two machines at once and really start getting caught up. Worst case is we have a backup to the one we run now. They are reliable machines but we are committed to doing so many accounts that it always bothered me that a breakdown could really set us back a long time.
 Well thats all you get. I need to get my new bike at the shop so the birds have somewhere to perch. Apparently the old bike wasn't good enough cuz they won't leave this one alone.

Workshop Wednesday-Leave My Shit Alone

 It's that time of year again. One of my roles at work is "Lawn Care Tech". That means I (along with my trainee James) make fertilizer and weed control applications to commercial and residential properties. To do this we need water. I have a spot where I can park the truck and trailer along the building right in front of a water spigot. I keep a hose attached and use it daily. I'd spot weld the fitting to the spigot but you know some a-hole on a forklift will run over the hose and cut it or smash the end. My solution has been to threaten anyone caught messing around with my garden hose.
 Ya I know this sounds trivial but consider this. I use that hose every day. No one else parks there. There are many other hoses available. That hose is a tool just like a wrench on my work bench. If you found it on my bench put the fucking thing back. I shouldn't have to dig through four other tool boxes to find my tool that you were too lazy to return to the place you found it. Deep breath.
 I submit to you this years tag found hanging on the hose. It's not as bad as past years where I threaten to hunt down evil doers and cut their nuts off, but I think I get my point across.

 I just had a thought. I'm gonna have a lot of barbed wire left over from the Rat Turd project. Maybe I can come up with a physical deterrent.

End.

Workshop Wednesday-Knees in the Breeze

 Mother Nature has been peeing on us this week but last week it was dry enough to get out and do some fertilizing. This meant I got to try out our new gizmo, the TurfEx RS7200e spreader/sprayer.  It's as close to riding a motorcycle as I'm gonna get while at work. Kinda like standing up on a dirt bike. I'm currently training co-worker James in this business so we took turns running it over five days. I managed to keep it on all four wheels the whole time. I can't say the same for James.
 If you remember from past posts, I started building something like this when the boss decided to buy new. No regrets, this machine is pretty cool. I can spread fertilizer and spray chemical at the same time. This is nothing new in the world of pesticide application, just new to me and it will take a little getting used to.

 Initial calibration was a bit messy as pointed out by fellow shop employees. I had fertilizer everywhere. I suppose if I would have read the owners manual first I could have made less mess but what fun is that? I plan to calibrate the sprayer tomorrow. That won't be messy at all as I can easily catch liquid as it comes out of the nozzles. Yep.

 The other big advantage of this machine is the potential of hauling it and my old spray rig on one trailer. This will allow me to handle any spraying or fertilizing situation plus help with training James. Much of my route includes single stops with multiple accounts. Two machines will be ideal.
 Now I just have to figure out how to get both these machines, a 400 gallon tank, a 200 gallon tote, pumps and a pallet of fertilizer plus assorted jugs of chemicals and bac pac sprayers all on my truck and trailer. I think its gonna be like one big jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces fit tightly together in just a certain way.

Workshop Wednesday-Just a lot of whining

 Workshop Wednesday, well this last week has been a bit of a bummer. Last week I reported I would be building a new fert spreader/spray rig. After discussing our needs and goals with the boss it was decided that we would just buy a new one. Sure, new equipment is cool but so is building one from scratch.
 In other workshop related news I have been fixing a lot of fork lifts lately. Fork lifts are a pain in the ass to work on. There's a lot of crap stuffed in a small space and they are low to the ground dirt magnets.

 I had to dig a couple of graves last week. Its easy enough work but it always gets me thinking about how many years I may or may not have left.

 Then two days ago I got some kind of bug that completely liquefied the contents of my intestines. I made it just over halfway to work before it was decided going to work was a bad idea. I continued on only because that bathroom was closer than turning around and heading home. I arrived at the shop, took care of business and headed back home where I spent the day in bed and the bathroom. I can't remember the last time I took a sick day from work.
 It was a one day thing. Yesterday I picked up a bucket of chicken and all the fixins. No problems.
 On top of all that, the day I was sick was my wifes birthday. She didn't get the special treatment that she deserves. I'll have to come up with something special to make it up to her.
 I'm done whining.

Workshop Wednesday-Fertilizer Spreader

 So I had mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to build a ride on fertilizer spreader. The boss gave me a zero turn mower to start my project.

 I started tearing it down to see what I had. The wheel motors needed to be braced up better and I found that the parking brake needs a little work.

 I plan to shorten this up a bit and add a leaf blower where the mower deck used to be. The motor will get mounted backwards to put more weight over the rear wheels and make room for the platform at the rear where the operator will stand. I also have an idea for locking the front casters when on a side slope.
 Other thoughts include giving this machine spraying capabilities for doing small yards.
 That was the plan anyway. The other day the boss came walking into the shop with a brochure of a new one. He's willing to drop the 6-8k for it.
 I'm just thinking out loud here. New engine and exhaust- $800. Blower housing, impeller, bearings and belt- $550. Steel, linkage, hardware- $500. Tank, pump, spray boom, shield assorted plumbing- $500. Paint, labor, assorted BS I am forgetting? The $700 we gave on trade for this unit. Well that doesn't count because its already gone do to the fact that I'm not putting this mower back together.
 If I thought I could do it for half the cost of a new one then I would fight for it but in this case I'm not sure because there will be a lot of labor designing some things.
 Huh, We need to sit down and decide exactly what we want to do.

Workshop Wednesday-Squirt Squirt!

 When people ask me what I do its easy to tell them where I work but what I do can't be summed up in one sentence. Ya there's wrenching and snow plowing but a big part of my job is landscaping. I do a lot of fertilizing and broad leaf weed control applications. Over the years my employers have given me a lot of freedom to build the equipment I need for these apps. I don't have pics of all the rigs I've put together but I do have a few.

 The Toro tractor is a 5200 fairway mower. Plenty of diesel power and a nice heavy platform for all the weight I was gonna hang on it in the form of tanks full of water.

 The two rear 20 gallon tanks could each hold a different product and be switched to flow through the 300' hose reel.

The sprayer is a Pro Lawn Spray Shield. Mother nature doesn't always cooperate and spraying under a hood prevents spray drift. The 30 gallon tank will cover 50,000 square feet. The bars on the roof are "limb lifters" and make going under branches easier.

Wide wheel stance allows for good traction on slopes.

 This will be a three point sprayer. I had to build this frame kinda heavy to handle the 50 gallon capacity of the tank.

 I use the three point sprayer for Round-up type applications. I can spray from the hose or the 12 foot folding boom in back. Just the other day the boss told me I have to build one this winter for a customer that really likes the design. I'm in the process of gathering parts. Thats kinda what got me thinking about making this post even though its -1 degree outside right now.

 This is the rig I have been using the last few years. Every year I tweak it a bit to suit my needs. This year I wanted to add another tank on the back to spray another products out of the hose reel but I've recently changed gears. The boss offered me a donor zero-turn mower that I will bastardize and change into a dedicated fertilizer spreader. Oh boy...the gears are turning. Ya, I get excited about this kind of stuff. Stay tuned for a full write up.


 I like doing fert and weed control apps. I have always done outside work but this type of work can only be done in nice weather. When the weather sucks I can come into the shop and work on equipment. Win-win.