Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Reminded me of the time I used a straight shank ship auger in my Bosch SDS+ Hammer drill (110 volt) when drilling a stump in preparation of filling it with Vitrol Blue to rot it so I could roast it. I screwed the ship auger in and it locked up and me and the drill motor went round and round until the cord unplugged itself. That Bosch has a lot of beans. Got some nice bruises on my arms from that experience. Never tried that again. Switched to an Irwin Speedbore spade bit. Glad no one was around, quite embarassing..... or the time I was cutting a fairly large limb of a popple tree on one of my rentals and the limb swung down and pinched the bar on the MS Stihl. I always have a spare saw so I grabbed the 028 and cut the limb higher up and the saw popped out of the cut, fell to the ground and the limb fell on top of it and snapped the D handle and destroyed the fuel cap. Poop happens and no one saw that 'shot' either. I can be very dangerous when left to my own devices.

 

The older I get and the less limber I get, the more I appreciate portable power tools.

 

The cheapy HF brand 1/2" will take the lugs off my GMC truck. No need for my monster 1/2" Milwaukee.

 

If I was inclined, I would buy ryobi since I have a bunch of their 18v tools. Rarely do I say buying a tool is not worth it, but for a one-time use, I just can't do it.

The local dealership takes care of my vehicle. Pretty sure I can't make an appointment for that .

 

Just try a walk-in..

 

Probably a good idea to get that impact driving kit below....should cover most things you want to work on.
https://tinyurl.com/ufysn9aa

 

Your back and ankles will appreciate you using that slide instead of carrying them down the stairs.

 

Just mixed up another 2 week supply of corn and pellets. Every time I empty a 52 pound bag of corn, I think to myself.... You have the most expensive biomass stove in Michigan to operate. At 300 clams for a 52 pound sack, I certainly do. Not putting a very large dent in the pellets, maybe 1/4th of a skid so far and the stove is running 24-7. 7 bags of last years seed corn left and then I'm into the 'new stuff'.

 

That's the truth!

 

And who might that be???

 

Get yourself a Thor. If it won't remove the nut, it will break the stud off... Milwaukee's are over priced and rated.

 

Thank you, I was unsure if my current kit from my craftsman 10v drill (2013) would be appropriate. That kit is cheap enough, and some of my old kit is worn enough, that I might as well get it. All of you are tool-buying enablers, and I LIKE IT

 

So I went to buy the tool, and of course it has gone up in price by about $1.50 (yeah, I know, I'm whining about a small thing - and I know that they track and raise the price if you come back after not buying the first time). However, there were other sellers and I ordered one for $28. This one won't get here as fast, but that is okay because the impact driving kit is not yet in stock, They should get here about the same time - about the middle of the month. Not like the blower is going anywhere, so that is fine.

Decided to grab myself a titanium drill bit set, as my old one has missing bits and others are dull. Total cost between the 3 is $55, so that was in line with what I was willing to pay to fix the blower. Oh, and I had $28 in points (I use the Amazon CC for almost everything), so total payment was just over $27.

 

On December 1, I decided to try an experiment and am using the mini split on the main floor during the day (The P61a is still heating the basement). This makes for better temp control in my office and less background noise during meetings. At night I turn off the minisplit and let the P43 take over heating duties. I'll be interested in how this affects my heating bill (November heating bill was for 378 kwh - last year was 367).

I do have to keep an eye on the bedroom temps since the P43's air flow is directly toward the bedrooms while the minisplit's air flow is offset from that hallway. The bedrooms run a couple of degrees colder anyway because 4 out of the 6 sides have cold air on the other side (2 walls, floor over garage and ceiling).

I know I can't do that during the really cold months, but it will help me decide how I approach next year's heating season.

 

Pete Zahria haha yep that's the pic I saw. Thanks for the inspiration

 

Same here...
('cept no hill)

Dan

 

So on really windy days like yesterday, even though sunny, the minisplit doesn't work so well for the back rooms. I ended up letting the pellet stove take over about 11 or so. Sure, they were only down to 63 after 6 hours of having the mini split going, but it was in the low 30's. Those rooms stay warmer with the P43 thermostat set on 69 while the minisplit was set at 70 (I dislike that it's temp control goes by 2* increments). But at the same time I realize that the living room gets to 76-78* when the stove is running, so when it shuts down, that warm air will somewhat exchange with the bedrooms for a while until the stove cycles again.

I could tell when the P61a was running downstairs as some of that colder air from the bedrooms would be swirling around my ankles as it headed for the stairs. Doesn't really surprise me, windy days are when the P43 works the most.

I love my pellet stoves and this experimentation is all just to figure out how to keep my office the most consistent and comfortable during the work day with the options I have. It's all a learning experience on what works well and what doesn't.