28' riverboat Cindy Lou

All the places within easy driving distance wanted almost as much for a low-mileage used transmission as a rebuilt one costs. I did find some good deals elsewhere around the country, but the cost of shipping brought the price right on up there....

So I bought a rebuilt tranny for $1450.00 and installed it, along with a new clutch and throwout bearing. I've put a thousand miles on the little pickup since then, and so far it's working fine.

 

That's great.

 

I just figured out why I was getting a bit of odor from the toilet on still mornings, even though it's vented: I had the toilet stall's roof vent open. That means the odors were taking the direct route up and out, instead of going through the vent stack. Derr.....

 

They have this little booklet that comes with the unit, usually with the word "instructions" on it . . .

 

Nowhere in the instructions does it say, 'the vent stack works better on a still morning if you don't have the little hatch in the middle of the bathroom ceiling open.'

Probably won't be around much for a few days. My laptop took a dump, and I'm on someone else's computer at the moment....

I'll take mine in Monday, and have someone look at it. I have a nasty feeling that something major is fried. When I tried to restore it to factory settings, it took hours to reinstall. And at the end, it came up with a message saying, "unable to configure Windows for this computer."

 

Maybe not,
What I have found over the years is that when Microsoft launches a new system , the old computers with the old systems start slowing down, the updates come thru fast and furious and eventually you get so frustrated that you are forced to buy a new computer. To me it seems like computers need to be replaced every five years. My Acer Aspire 5332 laptop with Windows 7 has given me 100% happy service up to now, but it is slowing down, and sometimes you simply have to walk away for an hour or more. I do the cache and memory cleaning regularly, defrag the whole lot. But I can see it's coming to an end.

The lousy part is that the economy in my country is terrible, work is scarce, AND money is short. So the luxury of new laptops is out. We have 3 laptops in the family and they are all the same "old"

Damnit!

 

Troy you may know about this build, but I thought I'll post it just in case.

The thread is called "Just for the Fun of it" a river boat. I think 3 years.
It is a beautiful build but I think that the beautiful woodwork takes waaay to much time
http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?80153-Just-fore-the-fun-of-it-)/page101

 

Ditch ******* and a lot of your computer problems go away.

If you have to run Windows only programs, running them in a virtual machine eliminates a lot of the hassles. I just set one up for a friend of mine yesterday so he could run a datalogging program from an external device plugged into a USB port.

Or of course you can proceed to do what you've done for years - use Windows, *****, use Windows, ***** - repeat as required.

Remember that definition of insanity?

PDW

 

My laptop has taken a dump twice in the last year. Last time, I just reinstalled everything back to factory original. This time, that didn't work. But one of the few computer tech's I trust looked at it today, and said the hardware is fine. He's up to his eyebrows in work; I guess I'm not the only one who trusts him. But he promised to tackle it tomorrow, and seems to have no doubt he can get it going properly.

It may be pure coincidence, but both times the computer crashed right after installing a major patch from Blizzard for World of Warcraft....

 

Thanks for the link, Manie. That's a long thread, but it looks like a fun read.

Cindy Lou isn't going to have a lot of fancy woodwork. Not that I have anything against it; it's just that with my schedule the boat's going to take long enough to build anyway.

Heck, I'm not done closing in the workshop yet.... I should have the doors swung tomorrow though, with a little luck. Then I still have to run electrical wiring.

 

Yikes

do you have games on your computer????
that's a BIG PROBLEM

 

That's like saying that driving my Jeep offroad is a big problem, Manie. Playing games is one of the main reasons I own a laptop....

 

OK, shop is closed in. I got a coat of solid-color stain on the front of it as soon as possible, so nosy officials and would-be thieves on the street wouldn't be attracted by the sight of new wood.... I'll do the rest as soon as I have a chance. I'm not wild about the color. But to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, 'you go to paint with the colors you have, not the colors you might wish to have.' It's what I had stashed, although I don't really remember when or why I bought it.

I didn't bother with a small door at the front end after all, because realistically we'll have the big door open most of the time when we're working anyway. Love this SoCal climate...

I sank a 4x4 post at the edge of the concrete, to latch the door to when we swing it open. I still need to get a wheel under the door, but it's going to need a spring-loaded one because the slab slopes. For now, we just stick a couple of 2x4 blocks under it when it's open. I'm not even sure we need to, but it can't hurt.




I was getting ready to start running wiring, when I stumbled across a Generac 4000EXL generator. I wound up paying $187.50 for it, after some spirited bargaining. Why so cheap? First of all, the sensor for the low-oil shutdown doesn't work. I'm not worried about it, but it's easy to replace if I want to. The starting battery is kaput, but that's also easy to replace. I probably won't bother, because so far it has always started in two pulls: one with the choke set full, another one with the choke set halfway.

The carburetor was dripping gas when I brought the generator home, because some ham-handed gorilla with a wrench had overtightened the float bowl bolt. I removed the bowl, tapped it back into shape with a wooden block, flipped the bolt gasket over and snugged things up; end of problem.

I threw on a set of wheels, and added a really quick-and-dirty temporary handle to make its 119 lbs easier to shove around. Said handle is really just a 2x4 scrap with a pin through it, and a finger groove. To remove it, all I have to do is pull the pin.

The generator's going to be the power source for the shop for now, until I get around to running wire and installing outlets and lights. It's big enough to handle anything I own, except my planer.




Add: if anyone's wondering, that chunk of telephone sticking up alongside the shop is where my nephew used to mount a heavy-duty anvil vise. He's more into metal working than woodworking....

 

Change the fuel lines on that generator and consider buying a rebuild kit for the carb. I play with these things regularly and by the looks of that one, it's pre-alcohol based fuels and the fuel system needs upgrading. The carb gaskets and rubbers will die, particularly the float needle tip (usually rubber). If you drain the fuel from the bowl regularly, it live longer. Lastly, that engine has a built in compression release, a centrifugal lever thing on the exhaust valve, so they're easy to hand start. Just after you shut it off, lessen to the engine wind down the last few turns. You'll hear a clicking sound begin, just before it stops spinning, which is the compression relief popping open.

 

They started making Generac 4000XL's sometime in the 90's I think, Paul -- basically he same thing as this one, but without the electric start. I'm not sure when they started offering the EXL4000, but Home Depot was still selling them in 2009 that I know of....

You're right, though. It can't hurt to ethanol-proof it, especially since I'm not sure exactly how old this particular unit is. I still remember that I bought a Troybilt lawn tractor brand new in 2009 (when ethanol was already common), put ethanol gas in it, and its rubber bits turned into goo that winter.