The Classic Machinery Network

A little bit of progress, I noticed when checking the top dipper linkage pivot had no grease nipple, so I decided to remove it and sort it out, as I'd left it assembled as one unit with the dipper linkage/arms/bucket craw ram when removing it.
The bush + pin was pretty bad, and the arm bushes also. I dug the 3c2 linkage out and got the bushes from that, and found a good pin to use, retapped the grease nipple while it was apart and fitted a 90deg grease nipple and bingo nice working joint now. One more off the list.


Also got my finger out and sorted those hoses out. If anyone needs to know the trick to get access to them to replace, slide the kingpost to one side, and remove a wheel, big lump of something solid under the H posts and work inside the wheelarch.


Next job is a toss up between welding on the main filter door from the 3c2, and the cab...

I've been quietly just using it to get the barn project progressed, but today I'm stuck for materials waiting for a stone delivery to backfill a french drain before we can finish floor prep for concrete so decided it was time to make a start on the cab/windows, and the easiest start being making the 3c2 window fit the taller/wider 3c3 cab. I don't have a sliding door either, but we'll cross that bridge later. I think someone stripped the cab enthusiastically to rebuild it, then lost interest and sold the machine without the glass/doors. At least that's what I'd like to think anyway.
I ended up having to slit every corner because the angle of the sides changed slightly, and extend both sides and the bottom. Its a good fit for the hole now, I'm going to clamp it up in situ and weld the corners up so I know it fits the hole, as I'm pretty sure my cab isn't square or regular by now anyway. Then I can make some infill sheet metal pieces to make it blend in with the original parts and form a lip to take a window seal. As the glass is now far too small, it will probably get a perspex screen unless some cab glass appears.
Later when I lift off the cab to fix the rot at the lowest part, I can make the replacement parts fit the frame I have built knowing its roughly the same shape as before.

Quiet for a bit, but that's because we have been busy...
No photos of the 3c3 working before, but we had a pour come for the first bay of the barn floor, and while it was going off, mother nature decided things were going too well, and we were hit with flash flooding and a massive thunderstorm. We're ok we're in the barn we thought, and we've been working on fixing all the rooves recently so they don't leak.
Then the rain got so bad it overwhelmed the guttering etc, and it just poured over the edge directly into the front foundation, and bowed the front shutter with the extra load. So, the 3c was once again pressed into service, as ballast


The bucket also formed a handy point to put a old barn door with some steel tin to catch the falling water and duct it out before it hit the foundation to stop the concrete washing away.


We finished powerfloating, today shutters off and looking good.


Tomorrow the next concrete truck is due, so tody we moved my big machining centre out (4200kg... too heavy for the forklift and yeah we tried, but the rear end just came up even with some ballast, but not too heavy to put skates under one end and use the forklift to "wheelbarrow" it out), get the next set of shutters in and we're ready to lay the dpm and steel tomorrow am. Its 200mm thick C30/37 with steel fibres in the mix & ST25 steel mesh reinforcement and some extra rebar, as I do have a habit of owning quite heavy toys...

Nice one Phil and quick thinking there. you see the old gal is worth her weight in gold after all.

Jeremy

Its a useful machine for sure. That's really why they're are still so sort after by home builders and diy'ers as I'm sure you know. I just wished some treated them better in return!

We have poured that second bay. No shutter or weather drama but the powerfloat blotted its copybook when the motor on/off switch went bad at exactly the wrong moment when starting to polish, and by the time I diagnosed it, friend operating the float had missed the time a bit so its not 100% perfect but its not bad at all really.
Also the concrete off the truck here has a higher lime content, so it turns and go off a lot quicker (and the lime burns are much worse, so you learn to cover up well and wash it off quick). You can ask for a wetter slump to compensate but then it looses strength of course so we generally ask for it without extra water added.

Now just the middle bay to go now, which is Tuesday at 8.30 am and its already prepared with dpm/steel in etc, just some forms to make for the entry ramps if we have some over as we're expecting. At least I wont be floating still at 10pm that day. Then in a month I'll be able to grease all the nipples under the 3c without getting muddy and jack it up without hunting down a plate to stop the leg sinking in

Nice one you are very wise to keep the strength of the mix, I am a firm believer in doing any job once properly as it's half the hassle.

Jeremy

Done, I have beer cold for all ready for tonight.
Yesterday we deployed the 3c to dig out the ramp so it wasn't too thin at the thin end that it would be snapping off continually & we ended up having another full truck because of the ramp thickness and it needing to be 1000mm long for the 200mm rise.


We dropped 1m3 in the bucket of the jcb and was using it as a giant wheelbarrow]. I was sure to clean the front bucket up properly people will be happy to know. A friend doing the concrete asked me how much a 3c3 costs, so perhaps he was impressed how useful its been all along.


Sheeted as we are on storm warning again, though mother nature played nicely and the sun shone for the day.

Good progress with all Phil. How do you find France for materials costs?

The short answer is I don't know exactly! I've lived here full time for 15 years I think it is now so I don't really have a feel for how expensive it is in comparison to the UK now and I don't buy enough as I only do stuff for myself, but I know the concrete price has gone up since we got our initial quote a few years ago when this barn project first started.
Now you have to pay a eco tax per cube and I spec'd higher compressive strength concrete this time so that probably accounts for the majority of the change. I think its about 130e a cubic metre for the C30/37 + delivery as I live in the arse end of nowhere, and we put in 24m3 + 600e of steel but a building this size (120m2 / 1300sq ft interior floorspace) was always going to swallow materials.
Also the organizing of materials purchasing/money side of things is dealt with by my wife, so I tell her what we need, and she arranges the best local supplier then tells me its expensive, we converted the house from another agricultural building ourselves already like this.

The good news is you have the funds, there's no shortage of materials, I will ring up my local merchant and have the blocks, some lintel forms and a pallet of mortar sacks dropped off a truck next day.

Getting near, forklift has been a godsend. In the next few days we can get the windows in fully & finally use the space to pull the coolant out the jcb as we're due freezing and it is pure water. No point risking wrecking a good block with frost damage. Its bliss to have a hard surface to work on finally.
We've put a clear tarp over the triangle for winter, but next year when we can clean out behind the building properly, we'll do a lighter wood infil to keep the weight down on the old barn timbers above.