Joseph P. Bubile

Tim,
Just jump in and buy a " Lincoln " home buzzbox... It will get you started in welding....  Get a auto darkening helmet.... Get a vice to hold work at a comfortable height..
Go to scrap yard, get a few pieces of flat plate, about 1/8" thick...
Mount it on your work bench, mount your vice near an edge of your work bench on the steel plate... Get some "C" clamps with vearying depth for the different throats and thickness you can clamp...
The welder should be a 230volt unit, which will have a "duty-cycle" long enough to cover the time you try , and do learn how to weld...
( Duty cycle is the operation time against the cooling time of your equipment)...
Home piddling does not require a gas unit... It doesn't require a MiG or tig setup with gas bottle.... It doesn't require a hi-freq starter....
If you can take a couple of items of iron, join them, butt welded, and have a "smooth" molten puddle welding rod flow in the butt joint....
You can learn this with a sputter-box.... It can be done, LEARNED ON A SPUTTER-BOX , plugged into the home circuit breaker box , just like the outlet your home range plugs into ... 30 amp service, #10 wire....
It only takes the will power to want to learn.... Yes,I have operated gas welders, a "Hobart" twin cylinder in a step-van , a Lincoln Ranger 8, set on the rails of an international with a DT-460 engine pulling a 17' box, and a Lincoln Ranger 8 slung under the bottom of a 20' box truck...
Why, you learn how to fill a customer's need... When you hang your shingle out doing repair work, the customer gages your ability to fix his problems.... ( I repaired commercial dishwashers, motors need bearings, valves need cleaning... )  And guess what, the scrap sink next to the dishwasher was always broken, leaking water to floor from the cracked weld at underside of table.... The stainless steel table.... And no health department can let that slide in an inspection.... Now a days, the minimum charge for a welder to pull some cables from outside to work area, is around $300... Let me say, I have not pulled any cable in to a restaurant in over 20 yrs... I'm too old, @ 82, it is a job, even using new technology.... The point in make here, I learned to weld, made my customers happy.... My only form of advertising was a note pad with name and phone number on it....
I still repair equipment in restaurants, my advertising is by the customers words from him to my new customer.....""WORD OF MOUTH""  Who can fix this ?? Call Joe B. ....
Tomorrow I have a 1:30 PM call in a restaurant in 35 miles away.... The convection oven is not heating evenly... Gas oven, twin burner, nat gas, 120v power... I will be showing the owner's son, who will take over the chain in several years, what may be wrong, but I'm teaching him about his income producing equipment... He and I will fix it, him mainly, but you know what, they will pay me $xxx.xx per hour portal to portal charges ...

You can learn welding, start small, start cheep.... NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED....

JOE B.
Have a great day....




.

07/23/26
Zucchini and yellow squash is the most versatile (I.M.O.)
It makes the most flavor-full MOCK Apple pie...
So make some pies, cut pie wedges and freeze....
It's called ZAPPLE PIE....
Look up recipe on the net.....

At sometime "we men" might be required to have a hernia or 2 removed,  I did at 80-ish.... (2)
I was in dread,  BUT, don't ignore, the new procedure is done by  robotics.... They make 2 small incisions around your beltline...
It takes part of a day....  If I remember correctly, the incision is covered with a couple of bandaids... You are released to go home and not lift anything over 10#.. lol...lol... For the first few days when you go to tinkle, it is like lifting 100#,  (don't laff girls, jr does put a strain on things)
After about 5 to 10 days, everything moves back to normal.... EXCEPT, do not try lifting anything over  10#...it's gonna hurt places you never knew you have ...
THAT'S MY STORY, AN I'M GONNA STICK WITH IT.....Joe B.

06/19/26--Hello to all newbies....
I am a sometimes poster, but a long time " recyeler of naturally" grown plants....and we, WE all can do this all year long, I think.... You just have to think *outside the box*.....but I really mean INSIDE THE BOX.....
OR THE CAN, garbage can that is....
Find an old one in your area, from alongside the street that is going to the dump.... Snitch it and take it home.....drill some holes in the bottom, a dozen or so, all over....
Now, find a secluded spot in your yard... Between a bush, behind a rose bush.... Anywhere it can HIDE from prying, snooping neighbors...
Even a married member of a family,
wives don't like eyesores.... BUT ...
if you hide it, who's to know.... Get a box or some loose cardboard... Large enough to place the dirt you are going to remove from between the bushes you are going to hide the can behind.... Dig down 12 to 18 inches a hole large enough to place the bottom of garbage can in....save the dirt you excavate, to put in can, ABOUT 4" worth... Now start layering your compost bin with kitchen scraps, chopped up weeds from your yard, broken small branches... Grass clippings, dirt, leaves, dirt, shredded cardboard, dirt, newspaper, dirt.... OH, THAT BEAUTIFUL DIRT.... it has your local worms in it, so now you can build your worm bin in the same container..... anybody, ANYBODY can do this..... Now, remember at the start of this "rant" , I said recycle.... I recycle old broken refrigerators..... MY FIRST recycled frig was in my back yard, in the city.. and NO ONE WAS THE WISER.. I screwed FENCE PICKETS to the visible sides of the frig, painted to the matching decor of the yard ... I currently have (4) of these with compost working and finishing..... These 4 compost units sit under the trees, at back of property line, there are 12 acres a neighbor has that are there....
You leave the doors covering the openings, with or without the hinges connected.... It stops stray dogs, skunks, raccoons and other vermin from accessing....THERE ARE NO SMELLS ...
SIDE NOTE.. Yes, I have the freon,the coils, the compressor removed... I just let the refrig tech carry them with him... MONEY IN HIS POCKET...
THE REFRIGERATOR LIES ON ITS BACK... EASY TO LOAD -- easy to unload...
The composter still operates in cold weather, chugging along, even with snow on it....AND OH, ANOTHER USE FOR A REGRIG....
Now a days, refrigerators come with glass doors... Especially the commercial units that are used in restaurants.... Find one, broken of course, strip it out, legally with a service tech to cut out the "stuff"
NOW, DIG THAT RECESS IN YOUR BACK YARD and place your **seed starting box ** in a sunny place where you can start your coming years plants earlier that anyone else.....

05/30/26--
I just obtained 5 trk loads of power-line chips by one of the big powerline cleaning crews....
Thank you guys....
But my question is, to my world wide teachers here on *permies*...
What mushroom types can I use to help speed up the decomposing of the piles, and be sure they are edible mushrooms for me....
I thought I saw somewhere, that someone is using purchased raised beds of fresh chips to grow edible mushrooms for myself....
This would be even greater, if, said teachers had some good recipes that use other herbs, veggies, and such to add to this thread.....

(Eric Hanson)
I maybe hi jacking but please move or change as needed
Everybody may not know that horse manure most probably has "GRAZON" in it because I found that the hay feed sellers (growers) use it to kill any broadleaf in its fields..
Myself-- i received 45 farm truck loads of stable droppings, from a show stable local to me....I had it spread on a new lot that I purchased that former owner only grew sweet potatoes on it, and only added dry granular fertilizer...
So, needless to say, the rain ran off to the ditches alongside property..
My thought, add wood chips, I did also about 40 or so loads then the horsehocky.....It being 3 ish years, I just found that I can use microbiology to help kill the grazon...
The grazon web site, the half life of the chemicals is around 3 to 6 months, but tilling and adding biologicals kills it even faster....the grazon stunts veggies, as per their website....
So, my question to you, can you put any more light to this trail....your mushroom knowledge might just be the straw that breaks this wide open...
The lot I'm re-building, was a grey-,ish color, sorta course in textures...
Last year, the self seeded plants, grass ?? , grew to about 24" to 30"
tall, a most beautiful green....
And I mowed that over, to hopefully help add tilth to the soil....

Thank you in advance,
Tell me which mushroom type I might use and how...
Thank you
Joe B
joeb082214@gmail.com

Go "Grainger" online, search mineral insulation...
Their # 19NE76 is sheet 2' x  4'  x  
1-1/2"  R 4  sheets...must buy (7) package at about $ 25.00 each...
They have many listed..

I bought some 1" sheets, several years ago for work pads.... They were rated at  (1200 °f ) ...

I work on pizza ovens, can you imagine the heat on your upper arms , if you have to reach in across the open lay-down door ...
I took one sheet, cut in 4 pc,  ( each was 12" x 24"... )  I purchased some cheap cotton pillow cases,  that were 25" wide inside.. by about 30" long.... I placed a 12" pc of insulation inside, had a seamstress sew it up, placed the second piece of insulation in remaining pillow case, and sew it up.... The I had seamstress sew a similar pillow for me out of some hd canvas material I found at Wally world....
Final results, a 2 section heat shield, soft, flexible, about 24" square...
I place a 12" panel on open 500°f door, and I can work easily without burning myself...
NOW, I'M NOT SITTING ON THESE , SO I DO NOT KNOW HOW LONG THEY WILL LAST IN THAT APPLICATION, BUT... THIS MAY WORK FOR YOU..... I love my heat pads... Even though I had to buy a box of 10 pieces, I've used a lot of the insulation by now, best $200.oo spent on my work tools....

03/08/26
Being a service person, the first thing I would check, ( if you purchase) would be the terminal wire connections to the element... Or the other end of those wires feeding the element... A lot of times the terminal ends over heat in a closed & confined space, this heat allows the tension of terminal grip to be lost, and it being loose, causes arcing between terminals and element connector....bam, it's broken....simple fix.....
BUT... If the element is really bad, most commercial parts suppliers have a mfgr code number stamped into the steel sheath.. It will normally be near an end... If you can find that number, it is sometime s possible to get one from a *element manufacturer*...
BUT,,, at $67 for a new element sounds good....
BUT..
If you buy the ©broken machine ©
the test with an ohmmeter should read around (10 ohm)...
I'm guessing the unit plugs into a standard wall outlet... (1000 WATTS) at 120 volts..

On my part, only guesses...
Shipping of broken machine, shipping of parts, ease of disassembly...

Hope this helps....

Joe B.

I am starting to use a ""new"" type apena machine, with a different nose/mouth mask....
My problem is the head band...in 2 hrs, I have woke up, have to remove headband, and go *tinkle*. ...
Then I cannot get back to sleep because I can't get headband re-positioned correctly.... And wearing glasses is a definite problem...with to old mask... The new mask allows use of glasses.. so if I need to read a little bit, I can.....
I also wonder if anyone here, has any info on the "superbeets" being advertised on the *tube*  It says to stop high BP by allowing the veins to grow again, reducing the restrictions of blood flow and pressure....

Thanks for any information...thoughts....

Joe B...