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Panzers: I break rocks thread

That shit is scary. I would not be standing next to the open belts pulling on that clutch. Why don’t they put the handle on the other side of the clutch. They all have shafts sticking out on both sides so the handle can go on either side.

Went and picked up my pinion today. Got me some more bearing races to use to tram my mills in with.

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Now just need to wait for the drive to show up for my crane. Fucking thing popped a week back. Called the crane guys up and because it’s so old 2007 it needs an upgrade drive. Well that one is out 3 weeks:mad3::homer:.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
I really need to put my big girl panties on and learn how to build up that tube. $7000 and 2-3 weeks to repair. :mad3: $9800 to expedite it in a week and a half or $15,000 for a new tube tomorrow.

Gonna go the cheapest route and figure it out from there:lmao:.
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Cheapest right now, or cheapest overall?
 
God damn it. Auction email got me again. A nearby paper mill got shut down a few years back and they are auctioning the contents. Place has 800 Vidmar cabinets. I’m trying not to spend $5000 on cabinets that I really don’t need atm.


Day 2 has like 30+ pallets of bearings going on one lot. The guy who gets that is gonna get a deal if it goes for less than 100k imo. If I was more risk adverse it would be a good way to make some serious coin. Bid 75k for the lot peddle them for 3/4 times that.
 
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ThePanzerFuhrer said:
God damn it. Auction email got me again. A nearby paper mill got shut down a few years back and they are auctioning the contents. Place has 800 Vidmar cabinets. I’m trying not to spend $5000 on cabinets that I really don’t need atm.


Day 2 has like 30+ pallets of bearings going on one lot. The guy who gets that is gonna get a deal if it goes for less than 100k imo. If I was more risk adverse it would be a good way to make some serious coin. Bid 75k for the lot peddle them for 3/4 times that.
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yeah there's an auction closing out today in sw mn that I'm probably going to saddle myself with buying shit from
goddamnit
 
Bearings are hard, if they run their warehouse anything like ours then stuff you can sell easy they have 4 total, the stuff that the OEM sells two of per year they have 6 and you'll hold onto those for 10 years before someone needs one.

The more interesting and lucrative thing is the ABB PLC stuff, especially if they have a bunch of PLC5 stuff or oddball cards.
 
speed bump said:
Bearings are hard, if they run their warehouse anything like ours then stuff you can sell easy they have 4 total, the stuff that the OEM sells two of per year they have 6 and you'll hold onto those for 10 years before someone needs one.

The more interesting and lucrative thing is the ABB PLC stuff, especially if they have a bunch of PLC5 stuff or oddball cards.
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That is true. Why stock tons of the common I can get those tomorrow bearings vs stocking tons of the it takes 2 months to get bearings. The paper industry has taken so many hits over the years that they are probably one of the best industries for figuring shit out and only having what you need.

I’m buddies with the old vp of operations for the local mill. He moved to a door manufacturer and he said it’s stupid the difference. The 30% market share door manufacturer is in the Stone Age compared to the paper industry. According to him the reason was they door guys never had bad times where they had to tighten their belt and figure out how to be more efficient like the paper industry had to do.
 
It’s that time of year again everything is going wide open and I’m barely keeping ahead. Nice thing is I’m selling shit like crazy had an awesome July so the accounts receivable is way the fuck up there. Bad thing is my piles are all low and everyone picks on the small piles. I’m out of 1 1/2 natural decorative stone and the landscapers are crying for me to make more. Hard for me to get a crusher in that pit when I can hardly keep up with the demand by the concrete and asphalt plants.

Gonna try and piece a bunch of random shit together to move down there to hopefully get some stone crushed in the next week.

Last week the liner in my closed circuit plant needed to get changed. Tore it apart on Monday to find out the bottom bonnet was getting thin. Fuck absolutely the worst time for this to happen. It’s one of those things you cannot see until you pull it apart.

I called up the dealer to see if they sold repair pieces or had a new bonnett support.
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Part in question is number 1 in the picture. This part is what the bonnet moves up and down on to adjust to closed side setting of the cone. Move it up to make bigger stone move it down to make smaller stone. You have to move it down over the life of the liner to accommodate for liner wear.

When I clamp it down after it is shimmed to the right height 12 hydraulic jacks pull it down tight to the bottom frame. When it does this is sucks up some large wedges that grab hold of that bottom shell to help hold it down. Just to put it into perspective the piece number 5 in the picture above is held down by 12 tramp relief cylinders. These cylinders will let the head push up if you run a chunk of steel through the machine. It takes 600tons to get it to start to open.

So we are talking about a shit ton of force these pieces take on a daily basis. The dealer gave me a quote for a new bonnet support for $45,000 and 28 weeks out. Thats a no go as the fucker needs to be running by the end of the week at the latest. It really should have been going by the eod Wednesday but won’t be happening with this issue.

So calling around I got lucky and the local tank builders said they could roll some steel for me. Thank the lord I haul them salt in the winter as they normally do not do walk in stuff especially short notice walkin.

I didn’t take a picture of the home as I was in panic mode to get it fixed.

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This was the side that had the hole wore through. I cut out the same on the other side as it was paper thin. Almost 30 years of rock hitting this plate finally burnt a hole in it.

The tank guys got the steel rolled by Wednesday morning. The plant manager was kinda laughing because his old timer was retiring in on Friday. He worked there 40 years on the rolls. He also hated walk in work so the manager was teasing him he found one more for home before he cashed out:lmao:.

I had them roll 1/2” thick 6” wide patch pieces to fix the thin spots. Them had them roll me some 12” x 1/2” pieces to weld on the inside to be used as wear liners.
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Took until Thursday noon to get everything welded in.
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Really happy with how it turned out especially with it being 90 and humid out.

Friday got it put back in the machine and everything put back together.

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Monday morning she was back smashing rock again. Thank the lord. Was a long week but got it going again.

This week I have some core drillers comming out to survey my quarry. Want to know where the hard rock is so I can make a plan. I bought the neighboring piece 6-8 years ago on the thought the stone was there so now I’m just verifying this.

The core drill
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He is drilling down 65-70’ once he hits the hard stone. This hole had 3.2’ of overburden before it turned hard :smokin:.

These are the rock cores he is pulling out.
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They are brought out a hammer drill and had him punch some holes all over the place to get some quick data. He went into the bottom of the current hole and shot down 88’ and she only had 1 6” seam of soft in the entire hole:smokin:.

This good that this survey will show there is millions of tons of rock left in the quarry. That way when I say enough is enough I have the data to get a premium for the property.

I really do have to decide what I want to do. As I really show hire another 4-5 guys so I can get more done with less overtime. Now the boys are soaking up 15+ hours a week. It makes good paychecks but it’s hard on the checkbook.

Crispins advice has been ringing true with me lately. The harder you work the less money you end up making :homer::mad3:. It’s stupid some days. I could argue that rock crushing is right up there with the hardest ways to make a living. Only way worse is to be a farmer:lmao:.
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
As I really show hire another 4-5 guys so I can get more done with less overtime. Now the boys are soaking up 15+ hours a week. It makes good paychecks but it’s hard on the checkbook.

Crispins advice has been ringing true with me lately. The harder you work the less money you end up making :homer::mad3:. It’s stupid some days. I could argue that rock crushing is right up there with the hardest ways to make a living. Only way worse is to be a farmer:lmao:.
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Why do you "need" to expand?
Lots of farmers do this ballooning the business thing and while sometimes it works out well enough to turn into mailbox money...
I'd keep it small enough that you can keep up.
Get better at telling people 'nope'
 
[486] said:
Why do you "need" to expand?
Lots of farmers do this ballooning the business thing and while sometimes it works out well enough to turn into mailbox money...
I'd keep it small enough that you can keep up.
Get better at telling people 'nope'
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You almost need to. Material prices have not matched the rate of inflation. One of the big guys near me is selling gravel for $5.00/ton it’s stupid. So when someone will pay my $8.50/ton it’s hard to say no because there might no be a chance to sell it again. I’m a location dependent business so i only get a chance to sell shit in a 15 maybe 20 mile radius. What happens is some years everything is happening in my corner of the county and other years it’s famine.

It is so hard to say no. Im bidding on a project today 38,000 ton of 6-12” light rip rap and 85,000 yards of fill. For a next year dam repair in town. Would be close to 30% of my yearly sales in just that one project. Next year looks like it could get rough so I almost have to bid on this one.

It’s a crazy cycle. The guys I supply stone for get bigger that forces me to get bigger. All I know is I need to do something for if I keep doing the same I’ll be dead of a heart attack.

Speaking of heart attacks Msha just called and will be meeting me at one of the crushers in 20 mins :mad3::mad3:

Jesus fuck. I’m priming the bulldog as we speak. Msha inspection day he gets to turn it up to 11. The bigger the dick he is the lead the guy has to look at my shit to find something wrong.
 
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ThePanzerFuhrer said:
You almost need to. Material prices have not matched the rate of inflation. One of the big guys near me is selling gravel for $5.00/ton it’s stupid. So when someone will pay my $8.50/ton it’s hard to say no because there might no be a chance to sell it again. I’m a location dependent business so i only get a chance to sell shit in a 15 maybe 20 mile radius. What happens is some years everything is happening in my corner of the county and other years it’s famine.

It is so hard to say no. Im bidding on a project today 38,000 ton of 6-12” light rip rap and 85,000 yards of fill. For a next year dam repair in town. Would be close to 30% of my yearly sales in just that one project. Next year looks like it could get rough so I almost have to bid on this one.

It’s a crazy cycle. The guys I supply stone for get bigger that forces me to get bigger. All I know is I need to do something for if I keep doing the same I’ll be dead of a heart attack.

Speaking of heart attacks Msha just called and will be meeting me at one of the crushers in 20 mins :mad3::mad3:

Jesus fuck
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Curious as to your thoughts on the giants like vulcan, seems to be the only player here.
 
Levigarrett76 said:
Curious as to your thoughts on the giants like vulcan, seems to be the only player here.
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Hate the big companies but jealous of how they can completely control a market so they get to set the prices in the area.

Also need to have big players like them to buy the new equipment so I can buy their used stuff :homer:. It’s also plan b if everything goes to shit. There are 3 big guys that would have a bidding war to buy my pits. 1 guy would have to buy me out so they can keep their monopoly on the asphalt production in the area. Other guy is a guy who wants to move into this market. Third guy is a concrete guy who is upsetting the market with another giant company.

The asphalt guys are 2000+ employee shops and the concrete guy is 500 guy shop. Big time business.
 
If you went about it as you have been how long would you have before the rock is depleted? Your kids have any interest in being involved? Assume with msha they have to be employed by the company and 16 or older before they can be properly involved.
 
Pocahontas said:
If you went about it as you have been how long would you have before the rock is depleted? Your kids have any interest in being involved?
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At current rates 100+ years. I have 431 acres of permitted ground. I have an addition 180 acre rock farm without permits on it. Should be buying another 40 next to a gravel pit in a year or so. I’m the typical land rich cash poor guy :homer:
 
Need to let go a little and hire someone to run day to day operations. You can spend more time on production efficiency. But I do know letting go of control is the first step and the hard part.
 
cj3a said:
Need to let go a little and hire someone to run day to day operations. You can spend more time on production efficiency. But I do know letting go of control is the first step and the hard part.
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This is why people groom their children for the role. That way you don't have to try and train someone on 20+yr of context since they acquired most of it just from sheer proximity to the business.
 
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