What did you do today?

[Achto 27,565]

1 hour ago, WHX?? said:

.OK... how about a '73 FXE... NO... back in black... 

 

How about black with a mural of a black bear running away at night. 

[Horse Newbie 7,069]

3 hours ago, WHX?? said:

Looking awful righteous ther Newbie

I can’t explain it… the red Hog and the red Horse make me feel that way…

[ClassicTractorProfessor 5,314]

Finished up a set of steps and handrails for my good friend Mike to replace the old crumbling concrete steps at his lake house. Felt good to have a MIG gun in my hand again instead of a wrench. 

[Monstrosity 1,127]

My son is doing his first pinewood derby and he asked for a truck. So he got one!

 

[formariz 11,987]

And so it starts again.

[formariz 11,987]

Taming the beast

[19richie66 17,500]

Nothing of that magnitude with the woodworks but we almost have walls 

[Oldskool 6,644]

Not today but yesterday......Placed some precast concrete pads to start the footings for our camp.

[ebinmaine 67,443]

15 minutes ago, Oldskool said:

Not today but yesterday......Placed some precast concrete pads to start the footings for our camp.

 

 

REALLY looking forward to seeing this develop 

[Oldskool 6,644]

9 minutes ago, ebinmaine said:

REALLY looking forward to seeing this develop 

Me too. It will be a slow start but once the lumber shows up.......look out. lol

[8ntruck 6,998]

I have mentioned many times here that I am a mentor for the local high school's robotics teams competing in the F.I.R.S.T robotics series.  Well, both the junior team and senior teams qualified for the world championships this year.

 

The championships were held in Houston with over 600 teams attending from all over the world.  Worldwide, there are about 3200 teams competing.  The field of teams is divided into 8 divisions.  256 teams make it to double elimination playoff in each division.  The winning alliances from each division then go into a double elimination to determine the champion.

 

There was one day of practice, two days of qualification matches, and one day of playoffs.

 

The senior team was the #8 seat alliance captain.  The junior team, in a different division, was selected to be on the #4 seated alliance.  The senior team was eliminated in the third round of the double elimination playoff, while the junior team made it to the semi-final round of the playoff.   Not bad for a couple of teams from a high school in a town of 25,000.

 

The senior team also won the Excellence in Engineering award in the division we competed in.  We have won this award several times at various regional events, but this is the first time we have won an award like this at the world championship event.

 

The championships were held in the George Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.  That place is amazingly large.  The following pictures are of the 8 competition fields taken from opposite ends of the hall.  These pictures do not show the pit areas that are beyond the end walls in the pictures.  This building is on the order of 1/4 mile long.  Of course, the fields and pits for the two teams were on the opposite ends of the building.

 

 

 

 

One of the teams had a really neat pit cart to transfer their robot between the pit and the field.

 

 

Another team had an interesting decoration at their pit:

 

 

I stood talking to the people in the pit, while I positioned myself as if I was talking to the mannequin.  Caused a couple of kids to do a double take while they walked by.

 

The senior team had some downtime while they were waiting for the junior team to finish their match schedule one of the days.  They got board and discovered that the fan would levitate one of the inflatable game pieces.  Was really fun watching the people's reactions when they saw this when walking by.  There was probably a million dollars worth of robots and supporting equipment in the pits, yet a simple demonstration of Brunelli's principle left some people gobsmacked.   When younger kids walked by, I'd point out the 'magic' we were doing.

 

 

Sorry about the blurry picture.. the poor phone camera wasn't sure what to focus on with the cube floating and spinning.

 

Most of my work as a mentor is done during the design and build part of the season.  Once the robot is up and running, I don't have much to do.  Since I didn't have much to do at the world competition, I volunteered to be a robot inspector.  I was part of the tech inspection required for the robots to compete and spent some time on the field giving the robots a quick once over just before they went into their matches.

 

Spent 3 1/2 days standing and walking on a concrete floor, got tired out, and tired of large crowds, but interactions with the kids, other adults in the program, and watching the competitions was more than worth the aggravations.

 

Edit added 4-23.  Finally got back to our Mid Mo. location today and had a chance to look up the world rankings of our teams at the end of the season.  There is a web site that does some fancy statistical analysis of all the teams scoring through the entire season.  This site ranked the senior team at #38 in the world - just one notch under a team from Houston that is heavily supported by the NASA operation there.  The junior team ended up being ranked at 245.  This is out of a total of about 3,200 teams.

Edited April 24, 2023 by 8ntruck

[Beap52 809]

My wife's  nieces boys are in these type of competitions.  I think they were at a competition that you had talked about a few weeks ago.   This is a great activity for young folks to get involved in.  I like seeing these young minds busy creating.  I'm retiring this year from 52 years of working--be it reduced hours these past few years.  I'm retiring from carpentry/handy man work.  I maintain several rentals houses and have customers that call me each year for working on their homes.  The problem is that very few young men are entering this profession.  We have commented more than once that everyone on the job site either had gray hair or bald.  I had a young man help me one summer while he was attending college to be a physical therapist  He literally did not know the difference between a straight and phillips screwdriver.  By summer's end, he had a table saw and several tools.  He and his bride got into woodworking and it continues to this day.  At the lumber yard one day, we were talking about the Mesa Verde.  After we left, Shelby said "Someday I need to go see that place".  His family vacations were based upon his baseball games and rarely traveled to see our beautiful country.

 

Yeah to you, my wife's niece and others who have written about being involved in their children's lives.  You all are shaping our next generation,

[8ntruck 6,998]

  My wife and I have always been involved with youth work - church youth group counselors, scouting programs, my wife was a children's librarian, we have run kids programs at the local train depot museum, and for the last number of years, my involvement with the F.I.R.S.T. robotics program.  In the back of my mind, I think this helps keep us 'young'.

 

I am worried about the future of skilled trades in this country.  When I was working as an engineer in the automotive components business, we always had trouble finding qualified machinists, die makers, electricians, pipe fitters, etc.  Seems not many youngsters are very interested in entering that field.  The contractors we used also had trouble finding and retaining skilled trade workers.  

 

If my volunteering for youth organizations inspires a few kids to enter the skilled trades or an engineering field, that is the type of legacy I want to leave behind.

 

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by 8ntruck

[lynnmor 7,305]

8 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

I am worried about the future of skilled trades in this country.  When I was working as an engineer in the automotive components business, we always had trouble finding qualified machinists, die makers, electricians, pipe fitters, etc.  Seems not many youngsters are very interested in entering that field.  The contractors we used also had trouble finding and retaining skilled trade workers.  

 

 

I always found it funny when companies complained about their inability to hire skilled toolmakers.  When the delivery boy (UPS for example) gets better pay and benefits there might be a problem.

[Ed Kennell 38,149]

8 hours ago, 8ntruck said:

 

 

I am worried about the future of skilled trades in this country.

When I began working for Allis Chalmers in 1964, the policy was to hire an apprentice for every 5 employees.    These were 5-7 year apprenticeship  programs to become journey machinists, electricians, welders, assemblers, and boilermakers.     Most were recruits from high school.    The program involved hands on learning of the skills by working as helpers along side  the respective mentors   and classroom training in drafting and blueprint reading.    I was involved in teaching many of these blueprint courses.

Sad to say, the program was ended to save $$$.      And Allis Chalmers went bankrupt in 1987. 

 I am also afraid it may be too late to ever rebuild our  manufacturing capability in the USA.   

 

 

[Stormin 9,981]

7 hours ago, Ed Kennell said:

 

 I am also afraid it may be too late to ever rebuild our  manufacturing capability in the USA.   

 

 

 Same over here Ed. 

[19richie66 17,500]

Slammed my head into my container door and almost fell off the ladder but….. we have a garage door and are ready for roof panels. 

[Oldskool 6,644]

After work today the wife and I went rock picking so we can veneer the concrete footings for our camp this weekend

[ClassicTractorProfessor 5,314]

Started disassembly of a Sherman Step Up auxiliary transmission for Tasha’s Ford, got a lot of parts to clean and inspect tomorrow, if everything checks out good then we will order all new bearings and seals to proceed with the rebuild

 

Fully disassembled the main transmission as well, I cleaned the top of my box off yesterday, sure didn’t take long to fill it up with another pile of parts 

[OldWorkHorse 3,045]

Started working on finishing my dump cart trailer, only thing I was missing was a tailgate! So tossing one together so can haul around dirt and loose items without the worry of having them fall out. Don't have any sheet steel left so got to go get some to cover the tailgate and iron out the latching mechanics but it's a good start. 

[ebinmaine 67,443]

24 minutes ago, OldWorkHorse said:

tailgate

VERY nice!!! 

[Horse Newbie 7,069]

So another 2 cy’s of screened topsoil to fill in beside the new driveway. 6 cy’s in so far. I had a low area almost all the way up the left side going towards the road. It would always be uneven when I cut the weeds.😆

After that I cut the weeds…

[19richie66 17,500]

Looks good Newbie! After helping my son with his fence, got back to work on the shop. I know have 98% of a roof. After the rain’s finished tomorrow, I’ll finish the last panel and get the end trim and front cap on it. Weather gets me every time. 

[Achto 27,565]

Found a new color to spray today.

 

In case you couldn't ID what kind of tractor I was painting in the first pic, here's a better clue.

Edited April 30, 2023 by Achto

[Horse Newbie 7,069]

1 hour ago, 19richie66 said:

Looks good Newbie! After helping my son with his fence, got back to work on the shop. I know have 98% of a roof. After the rain’s finished tomorrow, I’ll finish the last panel and get the end trim and front cap on it. Weather gets me every time. 

That’s a nice looking shop !

I’m liking that roll up door that doesn’t go out over the shop ceiling. Those type’s don’t block your lights when they’re up.

 

I have been building shops, treehouses, forts, clubhouses, tractor storage buildings, she sheds, chicken coops, doghouses, birdhouses, etc., since I was about 8-10 years old. I love being able to look back and see what I created with mine own two hands.