Eric 2014 Log

July 2014

July 21th, 2014

Moved the old brick press from behind the old workshop to the new one with the help of Marcin and LifeTrac6.

Ordered sand from Larry McFee at ~$300 a truckload (15 tons) for the pool and for bricks. It was delivered, we shoveled the sand, installed the wall of the pool. Tomorrow we will install the liner and begin filling the pool.

Cut half of the slots for the pulverizer attachment tabs -- could not cut other side because the pulverizer was still attached to LifeTrac 4 and the hydraulics had not been worked out yet.

July 20th, 2014

Leveled and squared upright for pool installation. Pool now ready for sand and wall insertion.

Measured link lengths of Cat commercial backhoe digger for reverse engineer process.

Welded tab attachment to LifeTrac 4 for compatibility with LT6 attachments. Worked with Aiden in implementing second powercube on LT4. Encountered problem where fluid pushes out of upper breather when upper engine is shut off.

July 18th, 2014

Finished welding backside of pulverizer tabs, prepped the LifeTrac 4 for tabs.

We tested the pulverizer on LifeTrac 6 -- initially it turned at 250 rpm at the high throttle and about 190 at low throttle. However that was without the return hose on the lubricant connected. After connecting that hose the pulverizer spun at 350 rpm.

We completed the 1/4" male/female quick-connect set for a number of hydraulic hoses.

Marcin detailed potential redesign of LifeTrac 6 -- combining the power cube output instead of having one for the drive and one for the arm/auxiliary and additionally, switching the auxiliary to motor valves instead of cylinder valves. Marcin also suggested redesigning the lifter geometry to closer resemble the LifeTrac 4.

July 17th, 2014

Finished welding the triangle-reinforced tabs on the mixer for LifeTrac6 compatibility, welded tabs on the pulverizer in a similar fashion.

July 16th, 2014

First day. Guillanme and I filled nine buckets of soil from three different piles for the purpose of testing soil brick composition. The plan being one bucket from each soil type would be used to make make two unstabilized (no concrete) bricks, two with medium amount of concrete, and two with what might be the maximum amount of concrete we would want to put into a brick.

We then worked on getting the soil pulverizer working. We replaced the starter solenoid on LifeTrac 4. My hypothesis for it's failure was exposure to the rain, as it was apparently working yesterday. Perhaps a covered area for the tractors and other machines would be a useful project one day. Additionally, the rear power cube of LifeTrac 6 would not start, presumably due to water in the fuel. Jim suggested remedy by putting a small quantity of good fuel in the carburator and letting the engine run for a while.

Guillanme and I removed a bar tube piece from the arm of LifeTrac 6 and replaced it with a longer (80") piece so that the soil pulverizer can attach to both LifeTrac 4 and LifeTrac 6. Tabs were welded on the soil mixer so that it can attach to the new LT6 bar. Next the tabs will be reinforced with triangles. The existing tabs on the soil pulverizer still need to be cut off and new tabs welded so that the soil pulverizer can mount on LT 6. Finally, square bar needs to be welded on LT 4 so that it will be compatible with the soil pulverizer tabs.

July 15th, 2014

Arrived at Factor e Farm at 10:15pm!