Tank Thread Tank reached 38 years old...in 2009!

[Paul B]

Talking about boats. It's the principal and the challenge. I actually like doing it and like cleaning the glass on my tank, I don't consider it work. It's just me. I'm a doer, not a watcher or a "Pay someone else to do it who probably won't do it as good as me" type of guy. It just breaks my heart.

There also should be no reason to change manifolds. They are a stupid design and should be made of carbon or stainless steel. Even then there should be a panel on the side that you can remove for inspection or to clean them out. A lot of mechanical things on boats and other machinery is stupid. They are just designed to fail so they can sell you another one. Charge me double but make something that I won't have to change.

The first year I had this boat the hot water heater croaked. I called Sea Ray and they told me the $400.00 thing was designed to last for 3 or 4 years. Like really!

I designed a new hot water heater that cost me about 50 bucks that would last forever. I never installed it because I used that space for other things and a hot water heater in a boat is silly. The fresh water tank is in the bilge next to the engines so the water gets warm anyway and I don't use the boat in the winter so I never need hot water.



The outdrives on a boat are the stupidest thing they ever invented. There is no need for them unless if maybe you want to trailer the boat. To trailer my boat I need a big pick up truck and I am not going to trailer, or beach it.
Direct drives or jet drives are so much better and almost free.

These are the outdrives for my boat. Every year you have to remove them, chop off the barnacles, paint them, replace zinc's, change the oil and occasionally take them apart to change the water pump. They also have these expensive rubber bellows that keep water out and if they rip, the boat can sink.
The outdrives are over $3,000.00 each and are just stupid.



I love machinery and go to hardware stores just to smell the steel and paint. I hate it when I see something designed totally ridiculous, it just drives me crazy and if I ever met the guy who invented outdrives I would like to smack him. Many times.
He probably did it as a joke to see how expensive and complicated he could build something.
Don't get me started on hydraulics that raise and lower the outdrives. That's another thorn in my side but on my boat I redesigned them to be much more accessible.
I also invented a new addition to the cooling system on my boat so I can run fresh water through the engines after I use it in salt water, which is every day.
You can see the 4 red valve handles on top of my engines. That innovation allowed my manifolds to last 20 years instead of 5.

Boats only have one forward gear, that is almost as stupid as an outdrive. My boat costs about $1.25 a minute to run. If it had two speeds that cost would be about half and the engines would last almost twice as long and be half the price. Another mistake they built into boats. Probably by the same Jiboni who invented outdrives.

 

[Paul B]

Back to Jeeps again. I don't like to get bored.

I was so impressed with the mechanics of that Willy's. In virtually all modern vehicles there is a timing chain that moves the valves. In some cheap cars they are plastic
That Willy's didn't have a timing chain. It had two huge, like 7" steel gears with a plumbing pipe over them shooting oil on them so it would last longer than Nancy Pelosi. And it did. For all I know, that thing may still be on the road. :biglaugh:

It would make a lousy family car or highway car because it was built so good and strong that it made a lot of noise. Steel is noisier than plastic.
But it was a working vehicle. Imagine if I tried to plow anything with my New Jeep Compass. There would be $2,000.00 worth of damage for every hundred bucks I made. :smokin:

A few years ago I had a snow blower, I sometimes put it in the back of the Willy's to get into tough places. It was about 40 years old and you couldn't kill it. I could pick up a cinder block in it and it would just either crush the block, or stop. It was all giant, steel gears.
I needed to change the drive chain for the front "screw" that throws the snow and I went to a snow blower/bicycle store. The guy looked but couldn't find a matching chain because it was so old. I said, just give me the closest one. He said "I have been doing this for 20 years and I say, it won't fit and you can't bring it back" I told him that my socks were 20 years old and that 40 year old snow blower has so much play in it that any chain would fit and I don't need the receipt because if I say it will fit, it will fit. Of course it fit perfectly. (He was a Jiboni)

My new snow blower, which was all plastic with no gears but it comes with a handful of stupid "sheer Pins" which are little iron pins that are supposed to break before you break the machine. Just make the machine so it won't break and you are set to go, what's wrong with that concept?
I don't need a snow blower here as it is a condo so they get somebody to plow it, but I am sure that new machine I had would only last a few seasons, and that is only if it never snowed.

Maybe the Doctor can put a sheer pin in my knee. :shocked1:

 

[Paul B]

Someone should build a "Mans Car" A thing made out of steel plates with a cast iron engine. No plastic allowed, just big, steel gears. It wouldn't go very fast but it would be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Go through 6' of snow while idling and the radio would only play music from the 60s and 70s. No Rap, Justin Beiber or Girly songs.

You could change the oil with Vaseline or Steak Sauce. The tires would be re treads from 747s and you wouldn't need a "climate control switch"
Just a "Cold and not so cold" lever. You wouldn't be able to car jack it because if you tried, the door would explode. It couldn't get towed away because it is too heavy.

Just a real Mans car, That's what I want. :usa1:

 

[Paul B]

Double post

 

[Paul B]

I just came back from boating and dumped in a whole bunch of amphipods, snails, seaweed and tiny fry fish. I don't now what they are but I hope they don't grow into whale sharks because then I will have to find a way to at least keep their heads underwater. :p
I also caught a tiny eel but I let him go. I probably over did it with snails and I think some of them were conchs. :scratchch

 

[Paul B]

A moment ago
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I can't believe at least 3 of those tiny baby fish that I collected are still living and actually thriving. I put them in as food. They stay at the surface and eat tiny
"stuff" just like a whale shark. OMG, I hope they are not whale sharks. Those things never even make it home in a bucket. :tired:
They have nice colors and iridescent fins just like very healthy fish are supposed to have. Maybe they will spawn soon. :wink1:
They may be stripped bass, bluefish, marlin etc. Who knows. The next time I go I will bring a bigger net and collect a few hundred. This may be the next fish craze. I hope they get colorful as I can only see faint vertical stripes on them. They are tiny, like this size. -------> ! <--------
(picture that thing horizontal) but real cute. I can collect thousands of them in 5 minutes at low tide in a small lagoon I discovered. I am sure it was discovered before, probably by Nancy Pelosi, but you know what I mean.

Whatever I throw into that tank lives forever. It's like the fountain of youth for marine creatures.
OMG, I forgot to quarantine them for 75 days. :teeth:

 

[Timbo]

I freakin love your updates Paul but you are screwed for not quarantining...now all your fish will get malaria...wait maybe mad cow. It?s a 50/50 shot at which one it might be, you better dump in some bleach.

 

[Paul B]

I am sure that if my tank crashes now after 48 years, someone would say that is because I don't quarantine. :fish:

 

[Paul B]

I have been putting in this "electric" fireplace. We moved to a Condo and I am not allowed to put in a real one. Besides I have no chimney. My last home had a real fireplace but I have to live with what I now have.

All I have left to do on this is install the stone hearth at the bottom which will open on hydraulics for storage. (really electric lifts)

The wall is 1/8th" steel plates. I ground them to have those swirls.




It started like this. The entire thing is also on wheels so I can move it away from the wall for maintenance, painting and when I hide from my wife. The black thing at the bottom is the sound bar for the TV


I cut the steel with an electric sheers as a tin snips won't cut it.



The mantel is 8 2X8s glued together and "hollowed" out to fit on the fireplace.


The "Stovepipe was from a copper gutter.


I bent it round and held it in place with these.

 

[LongIslandAndy]

Nice job Paul it looks beautiful

 

[Paul B]

Andy, I was going for Snazzy, but I will settle for beautiful. :smokin:
I am hoping Christie Brinkley sees this as I know she frequents fish forums so maybe she will want to come over to chat.

 

[Paul B]

This weekend we have a full boat just to hang out in the lagoon where I collect so i will get more of those tiny fish to throw in my tank. The ones I have grew about 50% in a week so i think they are halibut.

I hope they stay near the surface because if they get big and go behind the rocks I won't be able to get them out and they will probably eat everything in my tank including pictures of my old girlfriends.

They have about 6 or 7 vertical black stripes and are now 1/2" long.
I have too many snails so I won't take any of those but I may pull a plankton net for a mile or so to see if I get anything to dump in.
I love this stuff.

 

[SIReefer]

Good job on the fireplace.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, it's almost finished

 

[Paul B]

So I was working on my workshop and I installed a door on a closet. It is very damp here so the thing swelled, sort of like my feet.
I got out my trusty Craftsman belt sander that I think I got when I got out of the army in about 1970 or so. I have used this thing dozens of times for probably hundreds of hours so it was "tired" and it served me wekk.
Anyway, after about 5 seconds, it croaked.

No noise, no sparks, no smells, no flames, nothing.
Usually when an electrical thing doesn't work it's the wire, plug or switch. So I took the thing apart and checked those things. They were all OK meaning it is in the motor.

I figured the windings just shorted out as it is so old so I figured I would just let it die and buy another one. I am sure this one was a couple of hundred dollars in the 70s but I need it so I want to buy a new one.

I go on Amazon and they have a lot of them so I started reading about them and they are very cheap, like the same as a grilled cheese sandwich in a small greasy spoon. You can get them for like $35.00
Unfortunately I couldn't find one built in any country that I could even pronounce much less America. The wire alone on a good tool costs more than that and I want something good, and American.

The only way that could happen is if I just repaired my old American one.
It turns out the wire that was soldered to the carbon brush came loose and needed to be soldered. An easy fix (after you take the entire thing apart of course)

So Now I still have my good old USA Craftsman belt sander which proudly sits on my shelf with the rest of my (Mostly) American tools. I am so happy.
I would rather have a good American tool than something made in China probably by an 8 year old wearing shoes made out of old Toyota tires. I won't take those tools for free.

 

[Paul B]

Today we are going boating in this new lagoon I discovered here where the water is very shallow, just about to shallow to get my boat in but if it is not dead low tide, we will get in. Last week there was so many fiddler crabs that the noise was driving me crazy, it was like being in the middle of "Fiddler on the Roof" but they were on the sand because there were no roofs.

The last place I lived we also had fiddler crabs but here there are so many that in about 100 yards of sand/mud shore, you couldn't even see the sand, just crabs. And almost all of them were males. Like 99%. Once in a while you can see a female, but she must have been, (I probably can't say it here), but no one wanted to mate with them. Maybe they had a social disease , psoriasis, foot odor or were Liberals. I really don't know.
(I have plenty of Liberal friends so don't get crazy, but this is about "crabs")

Normally fiddler crabs live in holes and as you approach, they go in them, but here there were so many of them that if they had holes, the earth would collapse. It was totally unbelievable. I am going to bring my camera today but I bet it will be high tide and we won't see any crabs.

It is also hard to walk there as your feet sink in to the muck almost up to my Speedo . The crabs don't have that problem. Well, maybe the fat ones do. (Is it PC to call "fiddler crabs" fat or even mention that some of them are males and some females that look differently and live differently. If that's not PC, report me to the crab ethics socity)

Anyway, the hoards of crabs were trying to move away from us but there were so many of them that they were practically pushing each other out of the way and some were running over their "cousins". They were running through thick patches of mussels and sea grass to get to the other side where the holes were. The ones in the holes were waving with their big claw to attract the very few females who were I assume returning from Pilates class, having foot massages or seaweed wraps to remove cellulite.

 

[Paul B]

Last night this thing tried to carry my wife away. I lent him my hand truck. :smokin:

 

[Paul B]

This morning about 5:15 I took my bike out for a ride. I like to go before the sun rises so I can see all the deer, rabbits, frogs, and Muskrat Sally's. We have loads of them.

Then I came home and made a nice batch of blueberry corn muffins from fresh blueberries that grow up the block and local corn.

It is almost ready, but no one is up. I like to cook for us and my neighbors who are our lifelong friends.


On another subject, I read these forums in the mornings, (after bicycle riding and baking ) and it really Irks me the amount of fish we are losing and the number of fish we allow to get sick. It's like the Holocaust of fish and it bothers me. There is no reason to let our fish get sick.
We are killing them with kindness and quarantining. Fish come to us already immune. AAAAAAhhhhhoooooo. I am fed up to here (my hand is under my chin) with so many fish dying. But what do I know? It just sickens me because I really love fish. Not like I love my wife, Christie Brinkley or linguini and clams, but you know what I mean.
Just keep the fish healthy or throw them back into the sea. Just my opinion of course.:wink1:

 

[Paul B]

Those tiny fish I collected as tiny fry are growing a little faster than I would like.
As Long as they cling to the surface, I can catch them and remove them if I have to. If they get big and go to the bottom, they may be the only fish I have.

Oh No! They are not at the surface any more which means they are in the rocks growing disproportionately larger than any other thing in the tank and they will multiply into giant, toothed predators more violent and fearsome than Godzilla, forcing me to dis mantle the tank and move from this neighborhood because I will be an outcast, shunned by men and women alike, forced to live as an outcast on the outer fringes of society. Mingling only with the degenerates, murderers, draft dodgers and other dregs of the Earth. Slime mold and fungus would be my only friend, Maybe with a little Cyano, but nothing else. Even Mrs Pelosi won't welcome me. Woe is me, I am totally screwed.

But wait, there is hope. I see them. No, it is hopeless, they are heading for the rocks and I will never catch them.
Nothing left to do but dismantle my tank.

 

[dowellmj]

Lol. Are they striped killifish though? I think you referenced stripes before. I had them in a ?local? LI fish tank and they were actually very aggressive joking aside to other fish in there, but other fish tails to pieces before I removed them