Author Topic: New Tractor Shed  (Read 100873 times)

Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #350 on: July 09, 2018, 10:34:48 AM »
I decided the time was right to start reinforcing the bank behind the tractor shed and building the bank up to straighten the run for the fencing. I'd hoped to get Darren back to do it, but he's far too busy hay making and I want to shift the earth before the weather breaks.

As he had left it, the bank behind the shed had a curve to it which would make getting a decently taut fence in neigh on impossible. There are convenient large trees at the stream edge, and I'd obtained four massive electricity poles that had been replaced on our field. The plan being to rest them against the trees as retainers, and compact earth behind them, bringing the bank up so that the top was reasonably straight.

Obviously over time the electricity poles will rot, but by that time the Hazel and Willow saplings that I will plant will have rooted and hold it all together.

First job - extend one of the roof drain pipe by 1 metre so it terminates beyond the new barrier. Then carefully roll a pole down the bank - this one was great fun as it had to be slotted under the roof drain - these poles are over 35 foot long and weigh something just over a ton - great fun with just me and the JCB803 - oh for a banksman !

Then I moved 20 tons of earth from the field where I've had it stock piled for some time, and back filled behind the pole.

Second pole was easy by comparison, just roll it into place, poke it with the digger to final location, and start back filling. I've two more poles to do, and about 120 tons of earth to ram behind them, but that's a job for tomorrow as the pigs want feeding

« Last Edit: September 30, 2018, 01:20:15 PM by awemawson »
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #351 on: July 10, 2018, 12:21:37 PM »
It's important that this build up of earth is well compacted, so I decided to try and get the Benford vibrating roller on it. First question - will it self propel up the 1 in 4 slope up behind the tractor shed - YES amazingly  :ddb:

So now to lower it down onto the level I've so far built up to - JCB 803 took it in it's stride.

Roll third pole into place - poke it in with the digger bucket

Then I brought another 20 tons of earth up in the dumper truck, spread it about and again used the vibrating roller to bed it in well.

The fourth pole has 'run out of tree' to rest it against, so I've sunk some fencing posts in front of the other three poles, and it will have to sit forwards a pole width - no great issue.

Then I needed to shift more earth, but what's left is rather full of rubble - so I started separating it using the pronged 'land rake' on the JCB.

It was as I did a rotate in the cab I noticed the oil slick  :bang:

Oil pouring out of the rear seal of the main three section hydraulic pump, so work has had to stop until a replacement arrives.
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Jo

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #352 on: July 11, 2018, 12:14:09 AM »
Oil pouring out of the rear seal of the main three section hydraulic pump, so work has had to stop until a replacement arrives.

I wonder if someone overstrained the hydraulics by trying to lift/place something that was a bit heavy for it :poke:

You know it will be better for a nice new set of seals :thumbup:

Jo
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Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #353 on: July 11, 2018, 02:50:25 AM »
Jo the pressure relief valve would cope with any overload.

Reconditioned pump on its way ... Only £450 !


Now I need to find clean drums to drain 90 litres of hydraulic oil into
« Last Edit: July 11, 2018, 05:08:59 AM by awemawson »
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #354 on: August 18, 2018, 05:46:43 AM »
At long last I've managed to spread and level the 120 tons of 'top soil' - well slightly better than the sub-soil that I used for the build up ! And on Thurday raked it to a tilth, seeded it, and raked it again.

The weather was kind to me - the piles of quasi top soil had dried nicely in the recent very hot dry spell, so spread reasonably well,  and just as I was finishing the second raking - raking in the hand sown seed - it started to drizzle, which developed into a reasonably heavy prolonged bit of rain - 7 mm in four hours - absolutely ideal for the seed.

Now my arms are aching from the raking and (oddly) somewhat more from the hand broadcasting of 27.5 kG of grass seed - approximately a domestic dustbin full at 70 grams to the square metre. Why a dust bin - well I had three types of seed that needed mixing and it was slightly more than would fit in the bin!

It now needs to 'establish' and will probably be cut a few times this season, but I will leave it to probably early summer next year before I fence it to give the made up ground time to settle a bit.

« Last Edit: August 18, 2018, 11:44:26 AM by awemawson »
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Pete.

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #355 on: August 18, 2018, 06:13:36 AM »
You'll be playing cricket on it next summer :D

Offline russ57

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #356 on: August 20, 2018, 09:01:04 AM »
Assuming you have better success than I ever did sowing seed - pretty much a guaranteed way of ensuring a good storm to wash it all away...



Russ


Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #357 on: August 20, 2018, 09:36:33 AM »
Well Russ, I was very lucky and had a nice gentle bit of rain to start with before it got heavier.

. . . mind you I keep looking every morning and no green shoots yet (it's only four days since sown !!)

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Pete W.

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #358 on: August 20, 2018, 11:57:58 AM »
My father used to mix his grass seed with red lead and paraffin.  Probably a No-No these days! 
Best regards,

Pete W.

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Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #359 on: August 20, 2018, 01:47:00 PM »
One of the seed types I bought (Ryegrass I think) was nitrogen treated and dyed green, which made the broadcasting easier (you could more easily see where you had been) but looking for sprouting all I see is green seeds !!!!
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline SwarfnStuff

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #360 on: August 21, 2018, 02:44:52 AM »
Hi Andrew,
       This thread continues to intrigue.

Something about a watched kettle comes to mind regarding your seed.  :Doh:
 

All the best from Downunder,

John B
Converting good metal into swarf sometimes ending up with something useful. ;-)

Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #361 on: August 21, 2018, 03:29:57 AM »
Well John, the watched kettle is beginning to simmer ! If I look extremely closely this morning there is just the odd wisp of something sprouting - but heck this is only day five.
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline Will_D

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #362 on: August 21, 2018, 05:49:52 AM »
. . . mind you I keep looking every morning and no green shoots yet (it's only four days since sown !!)
Been doing a lot of re-seeding of the club pitches. Taking at least 8 days from sowing to first shoots.

I also sow up a small tray as a test piece that the birds cant get at so I know when I should see growth on the pitch. Also depends a lot on rainfall.

Cant believe first game of season is on Saturday!
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Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #363 on: September 30, 2018, 10:01:54 AM »
Grass now well and established having had two cuts with the ride - on mower.

The 100 watt LED Flood Light on the gable end of the tractor shed over the roller shutter door has given problems ever since installation back in August 2017. It has a PIR built in to a flat glass fronted unit. So far five have failed and been replaced but I'm getting fed up having to keep climbing the long ladder to change them. One failed permanently 'on' but the others just failed, no life, nothing.

TLC who supplied the original light have been very good, bringing out a replacement usually the day I report the fault, but they are getting no feed back from the maker as to what the failure mode is. I have a further three identical units without the PIR built in, in the roof of the tractor shed, and, touch wood, all are working just fine.

Now our voltage now a days is pretty well in the middle of the specification at 235 and doesn't vary much, my only thought was that perhaps the PIR inside the unit is susceptible to voltage spikes. Now this lighting circuit is on quite a different feed from the consumer unit than the big loads of motors and welders in the workshop, but never the less just maybe something is getting though. A kind contact on the UK DIY newsgroup sent me a pair of surge arrestors removed from some equipment that he has been working on, so today I mounted one in a box and wired it up.

. . .time only will tell if it makes any difference  :med:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline PekkaNF

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #364 on: September 30, 2018, 03:25:23 PM »
You most likely know that he MOV:s has tendency to take a certain amount of hit and then die to short circuit, therefore they should have some sort of fuse attached at front or it thermal fuse tied up with MOV. Most of the commercial units have been tested and build accordingly. Those burn hot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varistor


Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #365 on: September 30, 2018, 03:39:58 PM »
Thanks for the heads up Pekka, but yes the unit is fused at 3 amps
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline John Swift

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #366 on: October 01, 2018, 06:56:05 AM »

having had a bad experience with glass mains fuses
either  exploding or continuing to conduct due to the copper film on the inside of the glass tube

I would use a  3A   1" HRC fuse  ( as used in UK 13A plugs)



     John


Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #367 on: October 01, 2018, 07:07:26 AM »
John,

It's fed via a 5 amp MCB that is solely for this circuit with the one lamp on it, and the entire 3 phase distribution box in which the MCB lives is protected by a 30 mA RCD, so I don't think that there's too much to worry about.

But as I said to Pekka, thanks for the 'heads up'

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline V8DRUID

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #368 on: March 04, 2020, 06:51:56 PM »
well Andrew ... just read this start to finish ..... what a great thread and well documented project ....  :D  :nrocks:

45' x 40' is just what I'm aiming for, but would like 16' at the eaves .... where did you get that made? can you recall a rough idea of the cost  ... presumably this included all the roof and side cladding as a package?
stunning shed .... and a huge amount of work to get it that way  :clap: :clap:  :thumbup: :bow:

Offline awemawson

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Re: New Tractor Shed
« Reply #369 on: March 05, 2020, 03:05:23 AM »
Thanks Graeme, yes it was quite a journey!

I had it as a ‘turn key’ package from Darren, so he did the ordering and presumably added his mark up. The entire thing came on two lorries from Cheshire.

In the end the total cost was about £45000 if I remember correctly, but the polished concrete floor was £10K of that..
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex