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Conductor562

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Conductor562 last won the day on March 29 2022

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About Conductor562

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    Mac BWP038

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  • Location:
    West "By God" Virginia
  • Occupation
    Railroad Conductor, Tool Junkie, Stud Muffin (lol)

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  1. Thanks guys. He has T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. It’s a pretty rare and typically aggressive form of Lymphoma. He’d been having respiratory issues for several months and we’d had him to the doctor several times. They were leaning toward a severe form of asthma, but upon further testing the found a giant 6” mass in his chest that was putting pressure on his lungs, heart, and airway, and also created a lot of fluid buildup in his upper body. As as soon as we found out it was cancer I had him transferred to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which is the top pediatric cancer hospital in the world. We’ve been living in the hospital for the past 3 weeks and it looks like we’ll be around thanksgiving before we get to go home. He’s responding well to treatment so far and the doctor’s believe he has an excellent chance of beating it. There are never any guarantees with cancer, but things could be a lot worse. I’m as broke as a 17 year old pizza delivery guy, I really miss miss my bed, my shop, and most importantly my other kids, but right now Conductor Jr’s health is the only thing in the world that matters. Someday we’ll be back in the shop making things together, but it’ll be awhile. thanks for all your prayers guy. The mean more right now than I hope you ever have to understand.
  2. Been looking at the Air Lift kits, but Conductor JR. was diagnosed with cancer so my plans have pretty much been shelved 😢
  3. Well, the weather didn’t exactly cooperate, but I managed to persevere. Alignment yielded slight adjustments and I had the tires rebalanced for good measure. Dual stabilizer was much simpler to install than I anticipated. Only took about 45 minutes and would have been less if you’re one of those guys that disregards torque specs. I For the shocks, leveling kit, damper, and dual stabilizer, and undercoating supplies I’m into this suspension overhaul around $800 but let me tell you what, it’s like a whole different truck. It still rides like a ton truck, but the difference in stability is drastic. Steering is unbelievably tight for a Super Duty. I’ve had 1/2 ton trucks that were sloppier. Buddy of mine drove it yesterday and is already ordering the shit to do his too. Air bags, rear sway bar, 35x12.50’s, and probably a delete are in the the future. I haven’t gotten this into tinkering with trucks since I was in high school. I’ve certainly amassed a collection of tools well suited to the hobby 😂
  4. Made a little more progress today. Got the leveling kit install, new Bilstein 5100’s on the front, and a Bilstein steering damper for good measure. Front shocks weren’t as bad as the rear. A full compression on the front shocks took 17-19 seconds to fully recover. The Bilsteins take 4-5. If you think about it, that’s an improved response of nearly 300% The whole install was really simple. Total time was about 3 hours, but if I’d had all my tools and shit laid out ahead of time, I could have probably done it in 2. The damper was a simple swap. Took about 30 minutes start to finish. Definitely superior to the OEM damper. One bright spot in the project was getting to use my pneumatic pickle fork kit. I think this was the first time I’ve used it since we quit racing. Much nicer process in tight quarters that beating it with a hammer. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the EZ Red extra long ratcheting DBE’s are the bee’s knees for this type of work. I barely used a ratchet at all. Several fasteners like the sway bar links below required 2 tools at once so only a wrench would do.The EZ Red’s really shines. Tomorrow will be the alignment and the dual steering stabilizer. So glad to finally start weeding out this pile of parts in my shop.
  5. So my F-350 is my favorite truck I’ve ever owned. While I have several upgrades planned, I got started on it this week. No way to avoid rust where I’m from. It wansn’t too bad aside from the 5th wheel mount, but what was there was driving me crazy. I took a whole day going over the undercarriage with a needle scaler and a wire wheel, and coating in a rust converter. Came back today and painted it. Also got around to putting the new shocks on the back. Tremendous improvement in stability. Took the bounce out of the rear end. No wonder. The stock shocks were shot. They weren’t much to begin with. Took it 30 minutes to expand back to normal length. Next week will be the front end lift, shocks, and steering stabilizer. After that I haven’t decided if I’m going to do the air lift first or the rear sway bar kit. Planning on buying a 5th wheel next year, taking 2 weeks and heading out west. Camper is around 15k, so I want to have her ready for the task.
  6. Thanks Chris. This is my second Super Duty. The first one was a 7.3 regular cab and was a casualty of a growing family. If it had been a crew or xtra cab I would have driven it until the wheels fell off.
  7. Just bought this beast a few months back, so I’m not in the market for a long time: Here’s my take on the diesel argument. The Bad: $10,000 is a hefty option. The additional maintenance cost is real, but overstated. $89 oil change plus $20 in Diesel Exhaust Fluid every oil change. $80 for fuel filters every other oil change, so you’re looking at probably 3x’s the cost of per oil change. To maintain proper load capacity you’ll need Load Range E tires. Those aren’t cheap either, but you can find them that aren’t insane. Diesel is more than gas, but you’ll get better mileage out of the diesel versus an equivalent gas truck, so it’s pretty much a wash. Repairs can be insane if it’s certain things. Reading online will make you walk away feeling like every diesel out there is a ticking time bomb, but in reality (outside of the 6.4 Ford nightmare) the catastrophic failures are few and far between and most trucks I see with crazy expensive proplems are user created either by poor maintenance or tuner mods. The Good: I haul a lot of shit including a 28’ camper (+/- 9500 lbs.) and was constantly stretching the limits of my 1500 Rams, which doesn’t bode well for longevity. I was having to be careful about packing lite, emptying tanks, etc, now I could pull it if it were filled with lead. I traded off several trucks I still loved because of high miles. By the time I had one close to paid off I was pushing 200k and it had to go. With a diesel that “ get out from under it before it dies” mileage is at least double. Dad has a 2017 F-250 with the 6.2 gas motor. Good motor, pulls the camper just fine, but does so @ 7-8 mpg. With the 6.7 Diesel I can pull to Myrtle Beach getting 10 or so through the mountains and 12-13 through the Carolinas all while never dropping below 65 mph and not really trying to take it easy. On flat or mildly hilly terrain I could literally forget it’s back there. There’s a lot of difference in pulling a big load 50-100 miles and pulling one 800-1000 miles. If if you pull loads approaching 10,000+ with any regularity over any real distance and/or you put a lot of miles on your truck, a diesel it’s absolutely worth the extra investment. Otherwise, you’re paying a lot more for capabilities you don’t really need.
  8. I realize I’m chiming in a little late, but it boils down to this. Dewalt RULED the market in the later Ni-Cad days. They had the attitude that if it wasn’t broke, why fix it? After watching Milwaukee completely bomb their first attempt at jumping to a non-backwards compatible Lithium platform (V Series) and royally pissing off everybody in the process, they were rightfully reluctant to mess with what they had. They produced a Lithium battery that would mount up to their 18v stick pack tools only to be sued and ultimately lost the lawsuit that resulted in the discontinuation of the line. Only when advances in technology made it next to impossible not to make a move did Dewalt finally jump to the 20V platform and they did so slowly as to not create an image of abandoning the 18V line. IMO, They took so long to put full effort into the 20V line that they gave up a lot of market share to Milwaukee who was by then cranking out lots of M series tools. The 20V Max designation was selected prima to distinguish the new line from the old one and Dewalt was fairly forthright about that at the time. They may not have plastered it all over their marketing materials, but the product reps didn’t make any secret of it.
  9. It’s pretty cool man. Now I look back at all of the stuff I’ve cut out with jig saws and band saws where this would have yielded so much better results. Delta makes a scroll comparable to the 788 that runs in the $450 range.There was one on eBay NIB for $200 earlier today, but somebody done snagged it. Another saw I considered was the Porter Cable PCB375SS. It’s a similar, more entry level saw and can be had for a hair over $200 with a light, stand, and free shipping. https://www.tylertool.com/porter-cable-pcb375ss-1-6-amp-18-in--variable-speed-scroll-saw-with-stand/pcbnpcb375ss,default,pd.html?ref=pla-mobile&zmam=31282435&zmas=47&zmac=723&zmap=pcbnpcb375ss&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz7u56rCH3AIVhB-GCh28aQ68EAQYASABEgJy6_D_BwE
  10. I don’t know if you need it shop mobile or job site mobile, but I’ve got my planer on the 7350 stand and like it a lot. Mine only moves around the shop, but for that it’s been great. Not much more of a footprint than the folding stand and no set up/take down at all.
  11. A year or so ago I had about $600 to burn on tools and really had no pressing needs. I debated a metal cutting bandsaw, but ultimately decided on a decent quality scroll saw. In the days of CNC, scroll saws are fundamentally obsolete, but I had a lot of fun as a kid playing with dad’s old Craftsman scroll, and I do enough crafty shit to make some use of it, so I said what the hell. After a bit of research, I decided that the Dewalt 788 was the best bang for the buck in my price range. It’s made in Canada by Somerville who also makes the high end Excalibur saws, was well regarded by the surprisingly robust scroll saw community, had a broad set of accessories available, and hey, it’s yellow and matches most of my other big saws. I spent a little extra to set it up right. I added the light kit, a lift (the arm will not stay in the raised position on it’s own), and aftermarket blade tightening knobs. I ordered a few dozen Flying Dutchman blades, and made a blade rack to keep everything tidy. Still on the fence about the foot pedal, but we’ll see. The saw sat virtually unused for awhile. Just didn’t have time to fool with a new skill, but I recently got around to it. I’ve been mostly practicing with hand drawn patterns and such and haven’t gained enough confidence in my skills to take on a meaningful project yet, but let me tell you something, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. The unexpected side effect of having this saw has been me having to get in line to use it. Both of my 9 year old boys drive me crazy about using it. They’ll spend hours drawing things and cutting them out. They’ve been exposed to tools their whole life, but this is by far the most interested they’ve ever been. Both are proficient enough after a couple weeks to use it safely with very limited supervision. It’s really an unexpectedly enjoyable hobby. Takes very little wood, there’s thousands of patterns freely available, consumables are cheap, mess is minimal, and even a 4th grader can pick it up quick. I’m finally going to take on my first actual project when we get back from the beech, but even after setting unused for awhile I will say I’m glad I made the investment. Anything that gets kids off the PlayStation and into the shop on their own accord is money well spent as far as I’m concerned. If you haven’t tried scrolling, it’s definitely something to consider.
  12. Guess I didn’t pay close enough attention. Mine has the rollers, but I assumed that was mostly because it is also billed as a planer stand.
  13. The pawn shops around here are hit or miss. I’m one of those guys that stops by once a month and only bites on the real gems. They had this thing marked $300. I offered $125 and they didn’t even argue. I don’t need to torque anything over 150 ft-lb often enough to ever justify paying anything in the same universe as retail, but it comes up often enough for it to be worth having one. They had a 1200 ft-lb model they use to torque roof bolts in the mines, but that just seemed to be a little overkill 😂
  14. While everyone else is bitching about the Pipeline coming through town, I’m buying the unused $500+ 3/4” Proto torque wrench they pawned for $125 😉 Couple months they’ll pawn all kinds of high dollar shit that I’ll be able to pick up for peanuts
  15. I got the same stand on my 780. Love it!
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