Shingle Mill - Official Work Thread

[Stephen Piwowarski]

Wow, it's amazing how much junk you are getting out of there! I was thinking about the cleaning process and got to wondering whether adding new gas to the stuff in there would somehow dissolve the junk since some of those liquids which had been absent would be added back in. Not sure how that would work out chemically.

vinegar is supposed to be really good too as well as pine sol.

[Mike Fox]

There is too much stuff for me to feel comfortable trying to put gas in and just run it. I see several more days of this, then maybe the soda trick after I quit getting stuff out. The tank may need to be coated, but hard to tell with all the gunk in there right now.

[Keith Taylor]

Ewwwww....looks disgusting.
Don't soft drinks, including Coke, contain weak sulfamic acid? If true, no wonder it works.
 I use CLR- Calcium Lime Rust remover from Wal*Mart...contains:  lactic acid, gluconic acid, lauramine oxide, dipropylene glycol n-butyl ether, plus colorings.
Works pretty well.  

Coke has phosphoric acid which will clean aluminum nicely.

Keith

[Paul Uhland]

Right. Phosphoric acid it is.
Thanks.

[Mike Fox]

I grew tired of the slow process I was using to clean the tank, so today I brought the tank to work. After work, I fired up the big pressure washer and started blasting. I still got large chunks out. I cleaned until I felt I had got it as good as I was going to. The inside bottom is very clean. The top, not so much. So tomorrow, I will try again. I am going to try installing an elbow on the end of the pressure washer wand. If succussful, it should peel the rest of the stuff off the parts of the tank I could not reach.

[Tom Casper]

Way to go Mike!  MORE Power! 

Tom C.

[Mike Fox]

I have spent the morning gathering material for the Shingle Mill to produce shingles out of. One down, 5 to go. The one I took first was leaning toward the house. The rest are leaning toward the road and power lines. They generate an impressive amount of tree trash.

[Jeff Schumaker]

What type of trees are you cutting down, Mike?

Jeff S.

[John Kokas]

I also have about 6-7 cedars ready to be cut down, 10-14" caliper.  When can I bring them up?

[Bill Reidy]

What's that white stuff on the ground, Mike?  We haven't seen much of it this winter down around Boston.

[Philip Marshall]

What type of trees are you cutting down

They're northern white cedar, aka arbor vitae (Thuja occidentalis) -- perfect for shingles.

[Jeff Schumaker]

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize they were such a messy tree. Then again, I don't think there is much cedar in NW Ohio.

Jeff S.

[Mike Fox]

These are a white cedar, that was planted prior to the 40's by my grandfather or grandmother. My father remembers jumping over them as a kid. I hauled home 30 feet of tree, some too small to use for shingles, but would make a few good fence posts. And yes, very messy. Two trailer loads of limbs from one tree.

John, we don't have a spot for them just yet, but I would like to make a brow to store these on near the woods track. I made the larger logs 6' to ease in handling. Figuring we make 18 inch shingles, we can get 4 bolts out of that log.

[Mike Fox]

My cedar log and fence post pile grows. 2 more trees today. And yes, I still have some snow.

[Carl G. Soderstrom]

Mike
Old time trick to preserve fence post is char the end going in the ground.
Listed by Eric Sloane in his book Do's (1700 & 1800 hints)