T32 EOC WIR 24Apr20: Short but happy or Going long not strong.

[don256us]

Bad news? Nope. All good. Here’s a side note to emphasize goodness. Last week I was working from home. I had some time and a large stack of notices for a recall on my car. Great time to schedule an appointment. I also asked them to check out an exhaust noise for me.

I brought it in and was able to do a remote meeting with my department while I waited and still had time to sit and wait. Worked out great. They fixed the recall and tried to upsell me on the filters. “No thanks. I have several at home.” They then gave me the bill (of $0) and a list of recommended repairs.

$250 for front brake pads. $740 rear shocks. $450 for new muffler. “OK. I’ll have to look at my budget to see what I want to do.” I stopped at AutoZone and got OE ceramic pads for ~ $65 and installed them that morning. It’s great to work from home sometimes. Saved about $180 as the disks were in great shape.

I knew that I wasn’t going to do the shocks because I didn’t want to limp it somewhere to get an alignment so I started researching. But wait…. Shocks. Not struts. Shocks. Look on Youtube find that there are two bolts per shock. I don’t even need to remove the rear tires. I can remove two bolts. Found OE style shocks at rockauto for less than $115 shipped. Saving nearly $600. What the what?! I’ll do that this weekend and while I’m under there, I’ll look to see what parts I need for the muffler. If it’s bolt-on, I’ll save even more. WOOT!

So there’s my quarantine success story. I am very happy about it. Starting tomorrow, I work from home again for the week. I’ll be able to give my folding rigs the love they need which is awesome. WOOT WOOT!

Share your story below.

Team Conquest/Threat List
[oldtable] PCMR |3.9 months | up from 3.5 months.
NVIDIA Corp |8.5 months |down from infinity.
PC Games Hardware |1.3 years | up from 10.5 months.
VMware |1.7 years | up from 1.5 years.
GamersNexus |2.0 years | down from infinity. [/table]
This table is all good news here. We have outlived some very strong competition and are forcing the rest to really work hard to catch us. What’s not to like? No really. Is there something not to like here? I’m all smiles here.

Active folders and ranking:
[oldtable]|Active Folders|Ranking|Ave PPD
This week |181 | 90th | 505k.
2 weeks ago | 212|90th |751k.
3 weeks ago |219 | 83rd |600k.
4 weeks ago | 216|79th | 337k.
5 weeks ago |166 | 52nd |425k.
6 weeks ago |86 |34th |1.42 million.
7 weeks ago |68 | 28th | 1.71 million.
8 weeks ago | 66 | 22nd | 2.06 million.
9 weeks ago | 66 | 22nd | 2.09 million.[/table]
181 active folders is great. We’ve had some drop out and I don’t cast aversion to anyone. It’s really difficult to get WU’s right now. It is just as possible that we have active folders who just can’t get any WU’s as it is that they gave up. If you’re trying to fold, keep it up.

Top 20 PPD:
[oldtable]1| HayesK | 28.98 million.
2| WhitehawkEQ | 8.98 million.
3| Macaholic | 5.79 million.
4| P4EE | 3.84 million.
5| dfonda | 3.30 million.
6| torin3 | 1.81 million.
7| TC | 1.72 million.
8| JrClocker | 1.71 million.
9| Computekinc | 1.60 million.
10| harlam357 | 1.58 million.
11| OSUmaxx | 1.56 million.
12| hshtick | 1.46 million.
13|aviationfrk | 1.33 million.
14| Frazier08 | 1.33 million.
15| orion456 | 1.18 million.
16| superducky | 1.04 million.
17| RamonetB | 1.02 million.
18| zspaldin |
19| don256us |
20|modd | [/table]
Numbers are low. Can’t lie about that. I am happy that I was able to do some restarting of the client to get myself closer to 1 million ppd. Thanks for the tips last week guys. They are helpful.

Individual Milestones:
(Note: The word “earned” acknowledges the hard work done to earn these points at all levels of production.)

I don’t have the time this week to fill in all of the milestones. Needless to say, there are a LOT. Be proud of them. You done good. Thanks guys.

World Top 100:
Moving up in these ranks is difficult. Great job guys.

[oldtable] Macaholic |#18|
HayesK |#21| Moving up 1 spot.
HayesK |#35|
WhitehawkEQ |#36|
P4EE |#59|
RamonetB |#80|
RoXQi3x |#82|
orion456 |#91| [/table]
Guys are taking a beating in the world’s top 100. Of course, when the team from AWS had a single user earning something like 3 billion ppd for a while, we all take a hit in the rankings. Of course, the AWS team has already dropped by the wayside so either you go strong or you go long. Take your pick. I can’t afford strong so I go long. Get your mind clean there buddy boi.

MVP of the week!

Congratulations to everyone on their hard work and earned goals.

Build, Borg, Recruit.
If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.
It’s not how much you fold but if you fold.
If you fold, then you’re my friend.
Keep your stick on the ice.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
Everything is within walking distance…. if you have the time.
SEND IT!

Please provide another cliché here.
Until next week…

 

[superducky]

Short & sweet. Glad to be having consistent production again. Cheers all.

 

[PanteraGSTK]

Happy to be a part of this team. Have a good weekend everyone.

 

[dfonda]

Congrats to all the 'Stones

Been working on my 2001 Grand Cherokee Brakes Rotors and Calipers and Pads all 4 corners. Also Emergency Brakes(surprise)...Plus a front hub and CV axle(surprise). Replaced the hood struts that had not worked in 10 years...I think I should have just gotten rid of the car since I don't need it. The Brakes and tires are now worth more than the 176K car.

 

[JLK03F150]

I'm glad to see my 24 production more than double since yesterday. Hopefully I'll keep getting WUs and see my avg ppd increase.

dfonda, I used to have an old chevy van and it's value fluctuated based on how much gas was in the tank.
Nice repairs on the Jeep, even if they do exceed the value of the SUV.

 

[PanteraGSTK]

Congrats to all the 'Stones

Been working on my 2001 Grand Cherokee Brakes Rotors and Calipers and Pads all 4 corners. Also Emergency Brakes(surprise)...Plus a front hub and CV axle(surprise). Replaced the hood struts that had not worked in 10 years...I think I should have just gotten rid of the car since I don't need it. The Brakes and tires are now worth more than the 176K car.

View attachment 209787View attachment 209788

To say that is a big improvement is an understatement.

Cherokees in that year range are still in demand by the Jeep crowd.

 

[WhitehawkEQ]

Hey! not going to say anything about me in the #2 spot on the top 20?

 

[dfonda]

Hey! not going to say anything about me in the #2 spot on the top 20?

This was aimed right at you...

Congrats to all the 'Stones

 

[don256us]

Oh great. NOW I'm over a million ppd AFTER the updates. Geesh.

My shocks have not gone so well for me. One went fine. A small learning curve but it's done. The other one... The shock is fused to the bolt. I shot it with oil yesterday and now I'm heading out to work on it. If I can't work it loose, I'mma cut the **** out of it and get a new bolt for it in the morning from the dealership.

 

[Zerileous]

Always the little, or big challenges of wrenching. Frustrating in the time but solving them is always so rewarding. Except for stuck bolts I suppose, those are just 100% hatred.

 

[don256us]

It got worse for me. I did have to cut off one lower shock bolt. I mean, the driver's side went awesome. The job was as simple as I wanted it to be except for this one bolt. The lower bolt on the other side was fused to the shock and would not come loose. I had twisted the bolt out with great effort so as to give room to cut. I cut on the outbound side of the bolt so as to leave as much material as possible to grab onto. On the head side of the bolt, I was able to cut it flush. With some persuation, I was able to remove the shock.

I couldn't find my vice grips so I asked my neighbor. He lent me some but it wasn't going to go well so I stopped before it became worse. He did stop over and took a quick look while I gave him plenty of room to breath non-COVID air. He suggested that I heat up the captive nut and then twist it out. So that's the plan.

I needed my torch and my vice grips which are at my Dad's. I went to Dad's and to take the torch, I needed to finish some plumbing. He wants his water softener put into the loop so I did some of that. I also needed to mow his lawn so I started up the tracktor.... the battery was dead. So I grabbed the ready boost and hooked it up except.... that was dead. I got the extension cord and got that going. I then got his ladder and fixed his yard light which had a globe falling off. I also tried to start his car but that battery is dead too. I put the charger on repair mode and left it. I did more work on the plumbing and then was able to start the lawn mower. I mowed the front and side yard.

I then packed everything up and came home. Since the only work related request for me was a co-worker who always asks for stuff he isn't authorized to ask for, work was easy.

 

[caddi daddi]

Don, Don, Don, we NEVER, EVER use A torch, please refer to this tool as either the "HOT" wrench or as the "BLUE" wrench, but never torch, please.

 

[Zerileous]

Darn, good luck Don!

 

[dfonda]

Don, Don, Don, we NEVER, EVER use A torch, please refer to this tool as either the "HOT" wrench or as the "BLUE" wrench, but never torch, please.

As Eric at SMA says "The other side of every tool is a hammer"

 

[don256us]

Don, Don, Don, we NEVER, EVER use A torch, please refer to this tool as either the "HOT" wrench or as the "BLUE" wrench, but never torch, please.

We all gotta be noobs at something. I now know something more.

 

[Holdolin]

Don, Don, Don, we NEVER, EVER use A torch, please refer to this tool as either the "HOT" wrench or as the "BLUE" wrench, but never torch, please.

Hot wrench. Many a nut/bold have I removed with said device. And no Don, don't ever call that wonderful wrench a...torch

 

[don256us]

Sorry all. I used the cheapest of cheap hot wrench to get it out. I had just enough meat on the bolt to get my vice grips on. Then I used my 1/2 - 3/4" copper hot wrench that I was using at my Dad's. It was never going to make the steel glow, however, when I got bored of holding the wrench, I twisted the vice grips and the bolt came out lickity split. The replacement bolt should be in tomorrow. I'll have a few pics to satisfy any curiosity.

Also, it was recomended that I put antiseeze on the bolt. Any thoughts? I mean, you guys know the proper names for all the tools and such.

 

[dfonda]

Sorry all. I used the cheapest of cheap hot wrench to get it out. I had just enough meat on the bolt to get my vice grips on. Then I used my 1/2 - 3/4" copper hot wrench that I was using at my Dad's. It was never going to make the steel glow, however, when I got bored of holding the wrench, I twisted the vice grips and the bolt came out lickity split. The replacement bolt should be in tomorrow. I'll have a few pics to satisfy any curiosity.

Also, it was recomended that I put antiseeze on the bolt. Any thoughts? I mean, you guys know the proper names for all the tools and such.

That works...and just torque to specs.

 

[PanteraGSTK]

That works...and just torque to specs.

Yeah, that's all that should be needed. Hope you got grade 8 hardware...not that you REALLY need it, but still. Might as well since you're already replacing bolts.

 

[don256us]

Yeah, that's all that should be needed. Hope you got grade 8 hardware...not that you REALLY need it, but still. Might as well since you're already replacing bolts.

OEM from dealership. 1 bolt = $8.50. The other hardware was fine. Hoping it comes in today. A project with 4 bolts, a 25% failure rate on removing them in one peice and 5 days so far. I only invested about 3 hours of labor. Still saving about $600 on this job alone and once this job is done, I will have saved about $900 from what the dealership wanted. Since we are in pandemic mode, I haven't needed my car so it's been perfect.