[AT] Tool question and weather comment

charlie hill charliehill at embarqmail.com
Mon Dec 19 14:10:55 PST 2011


Grant if that rig is cheap and you think the mechanism works you should pick 
it up.  If you ever need it, you'll kick yourself for not buying it and if 
you decide you don't need
it you can probably sell it to a fabrication business.   They are the trick 
for making a long, straight, clean cut.

Charlie Hill

-----Original Message----- 
From: Grant Brians
Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 3:15 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: [AT] Tool question and weather comment

I was offered a cutting torch that is claimed to cut through 2" steel at a
garage sale yesterday. It is one of those on a geared slide that has the
angle of the torch set at 45 degrees forward. It looks like it might be
possibly be controlled by a servo motor inside the box? Can anyone advise me
what to look out for on this and whether it really is likely to work for my
cutting through steel to that likely thickness? I was not going to buy it
without investigating further but the unit is only a half mile from my house
and I think it is still available.
     Now to the weather comment. I know this sounds pretty wimpy to many
readers on the list, but we have been having morning frosts since November
almost every day and that coupled with the dry air except when the ground
fog comes up most days is a damaging cold to some of the crops we grow. I
have to say I am a bit astonished that it is possible to have plant stresses
in the same days from wind, excessively dry air, frost AND heavy fog which
by definition is the opposite of the dry air! This last 6 weeks are more
like Greenland in conditions than Coastal Central California in all except
the actual high and low air temperatures. Very odd and interesting.
     So this all leads to slow plant growth with high levels of Mildew
pressure and higher than normal levels of culling for the affected crop
plants. For one of our crops, all of the plantings from small plants of one
inch tall to full size it looks like some miscreant came in and sprayed
herbicide directly over the rows of that crop and nothing else as every
plant of that normally very frost tolerant Mustard has just been desiccated.
Most other items are just acting like they think it is hibernation time and
some are just slow or Mildew affected.
     Also, we are having to irrigate very small amounts of water to keep the
plants hydrated without giving them enough to either increase the Mildew
incidence or wet the soil too much and rot roots. I have had times "like"
this, but the most recent one that I can specifically think of was in the
1970's and I was not growing the same crops at the time. Life has
interesting challenges for a farmer!
     One other tool question for farmers and farm suppliers in other areas
related to toolbars attached to tractors. I need to get a "new" used lister
bar of the 4"x7" rectangular stock type. This made me wonder if those types
of bars are used much for things other than really big corn planters
elsewhere. In our area we have very little if any production of grain corn,
no soybean production and no giant acreages of midwest type crops. As a
result I don't see the big modern midwest types of equipment except when I
go to the farm show.
           Grant Brians
           Hollister,California Vegetable, Fruits and Nut farmer

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