You need to overseed it. Leave what you have but but sand over it, then put your seeds on it. Snd water it. Your grass will grow evenly. It'll grow both directions and not clump up.

Nice Set-up. Your welds look pretty good too. Just a little safety tip from a machinist. DO NOT wear gloves when using drill presses, mills, lathes etc. that little drill will grab your glove and rip your finger off in a microsecond. I've seen it done. I'd also wear glasses when doing any kind of grinding and metal cutting. Even a teensy metal sliver hurts like hell when its imbedded in the eye ball. Looking forward to your next video.

Don't forget to paint your windsock pole. You don't want corrosion to ruin its smooth pivot action, since you had a pretty tight tolerance where the two pieces join. Maybe even a nice bright color so you can find it easier. Love your welding table. We'll make an engineer out of you yet.

That welding table is up to your usual standards with quite a few quaility accessory and components.

Get a wind sock with the orange and white strips. Each stripe standing up equals 3 mph wind.

“Attention” Palmers kick butt welding table !!!!! Great Job Trent !!!!! Ingenious idea on material supports for bandsaw !!!!!

That is a GREAT welding table design! And nice windsock tower design as well. More fabrication videos would be welcome when you do that type of work.

Perhaps a bushing assembly at the pivot point for a future upgrade. Great windsock improvement overall!

Throw a coat of zinc chromate primer on that thing. maybe even some paint,

Drill a 1/4” hole at the base of the 3/4” coupling to allow moisture to drain.

First video without sponsors in years. Like it a lot!!👍

Idea. Instead of having the clumping type fescue, you could get a turf type fescue. It would make that surface MUCH smoother, and it's thick enough that you won't have to worry about the soil eroding. Definitely a pre emergent at the beginning of the season to keep crabgrass from coming in.

Morning Trent! A runway surface could be a chip seal. It’s a good all weather, very low dust and far less expensive than AC. Small wheels no problem. Good use a tan colored rock for a center line and grey for the rest of the runway. We use this a lot at custom homes and wineries in Sonoma County who don’t want black AC. Send me a message of you want to know more. Watch out for DG as it may track on the wheels and on to your AC. Thanks again for the video!

Great job. I love designs that are smart enough to require minimal effort to use. No use stressing the structure itself if it isn't necessary, and certainly no need to make using it a strain on our bodies. Thanks for sharing.

Just get better friends. Who has friends with small tires!!!!

Nice work on the table and welding set up,Trent. It will serve you well for a very long time. On the runway, we have a 300 ft driveway out in the sticks and I got tired of the gravel dance. About 10 yrs ago a close friend in the business called and said he had access to asphalt grindings... basically a highway in the area had been ground down and resurfaced, and the ground asphalt was available. He talked me into doing the driveway. It is a process, spreading and leveling then rolling tight while keeping wet, but 10 yrs later and it still looks great. You might consider asking around since it is "construction season" in your area now. This would be a one and done deal, I don't think you would have to do much if anything to maintain it once down.

Oh man I appreciate every step of this project. Making stuff from scratch is so gratifying! Perfect execution. -C

Love the work as usual Trent. I’m a design engineer and what you’re doing is my dream! One thing though, when I was an apprentice I was taught never to wear gloves while sanding. If one gets caught accidentally you’ll be in real big trouble faster than your brain can register what’s gone on. Stay safe ♥️🇬🇧

Looks like your TIG welding is getting better every weld. Be very careful of zinc plating while welding. Bad fumes from that and make sure good ventilation if you weld that. Pole looks good , primer and some semi gloss white will look great.

Prep the soil like you would any garden plant. Put nutrients down first then over seed with a good high altitude desert grass finish off with a thin layer of sand. Dump truck would be the best, one maybe two passes. Then drench the ground...super soak it, then walk away. I would also say that the time of year you do this is very important for best results. Early spring late summer.

I love the design of your windsock pole. That gives me ideas for a wind turbine pole. Your welds are good and strong. I had the same problem with grass clumps. It works pretty good to just mow it very short. Right as you hit the dirt with your blades is perfect.

Trent, I would look at Manhattan 7 ryegrass as it is non clumping and very drought resistant. We use it on our farm runway and it will go dormant when it runs out of moisture then green up as the rains return, in your case the cold may become a problem but even if it dies off you’ve established a turf surface that should hold the soil in place. You can also over-seed it as needed to keep that turf surface as it breaks down. Maybe do a test area before spending a ton of money. On that note I should inform you the grass seed market here in Oregon has crashed so buying farmer direct is an option for cost savings. My friends own TMI which is a seller of the aforementioned seed.

I recommend painting the pole. Doesn’t matter the color, but it will help protect the steel against corrosion.

Those of us in California who are trying to plant more of our state native plants have this quandary about doing a lawn in native grasses. California native grasses are primarily clumping grasses, so getting it to be sod is difficult. Sounds like the same may be true of Nevada's grass species. My preference is to go with sedge-- similar to grass, but it isn't. Genus Carex has some good offerings. I was just visiting a friend today, and walked on his front lawn for the first time. He put in buffalo grass, which is not native here, but from the high plains. It is a fine textured, soft, warm season grass that spreads by stolons, forming sod. It's being promoted in California as a low-water lawn. If you can find someone who has it, try walking on it to see how the texture is. It sounds like you don't want just any grass, you want sod-- tight knit, even texture.

Bahaha! I think I said it at the exact same time as you…”woah…haven’t seen Trent without a hat before!” Great vid bro nice work

Wow your metal working table is awesome. Love your entire setup. Your hanger is my dream home. I would be so content on living there. Love your videos.

My hangar looks like a such a mess... I have 'small tires' but I'd still land on that!

Well Trent, the shop is coming along nicely, and welding is a practice makes perfect thing anyway, but puddling endless lines of beads doesn’t compare to doing actual projects. As for the windsock, you may have done it, but failed to show or mention that you leveled the actual mast so that the “bird cage” and bearing assembly are actually level (or plumb) If the mast is canted in any direction, the sock will always be fighting gravity and want to lay in that direction. Amazon sells a 3 pack of Solar spot lights. With your new found welding skills and the ease of removing the bearing head, maybe a solar LED spotlight down the throat of the sock would be a store for another video, even though I’m sure, night landings would be a bit stoopid there at the ranch. Out where you are, with a dry climate, the steel mast would be sufficient to pant up with good ol’ fashioned Home Depot liquid Rustolium, not the spray can. Buy a cheap ass Harbor Freight gun, and thin it with a little paint thinner, wipe the metal down before painting and you’ll be good to go. You could use a portable air tank to paint the base In place, bring the swing portion up near the shop to do it.

The hinge pole design is great for small solar panels and batteries as the counterweights, been doing that for a long time. Also, the dry concrete mix in the hole is fantastic - also been doing that for years - no failures. Old used carpet is my runway surface - use sod nails to the connect the corners - no rock, minimizes the weeds. Great video again, thanx.

Two great videos in one. The welding work bench and new windsock. Three feet of concrete not only sounds like more than enough but a pain to dig. I bet your back is still sore. We have similar windsocks in Panaca. The counterweights might not be necessary IMO. Just change the windsock on a calm day. But now that they’re there they work and probably not visible anyway.

Your welds look really good and as far as the runway goes I would keep filling in the gaps and seeding because I read that desert greening is important in your area. As always great content. Thanks!

I love those material supports/knee destroyers. Super slick design

Great video as always and your welding is very good. And good luck with the grass as I can only grow weeds. :(. Be safe and keep them coming

Asphalt millings are going to be less dusty than crushed granite. I put some on my driveway and there’s little to know dust when I drive down it.

I built and maintained landing strips for my C210 on my 2 private game ranches in South Africa. Even though I live in the Reno area now I will not try and opine on how to maintain a grass strip around here. I do know in the African Savanna that is also rather dry, a dirt strip, maintained by dragging a tire or metal bars, works best. The soil consistency matters though. I would not think gravel a great idea. For one thing, think prop chips.

The idea of a gravel runway seems better than grass in the desert haha

Sounds like you need the Lawn Care Nut to come lay some turf down.

You might want to get some sand and use it to level out the low spot so the water doesn’t pull up and erode the dirt around the grass. Also, the sand will help promote grass grow hopefully filling in some of those blank spots.

Nice job Trent! I appreciate the fact that you’ll try just about anything. You’re a versatile guy and that’s a great thing. I’ve been welding since I was 14, so 46 years now, and I gotta say, not bad at all. Your welds look a tad cold but they’ll hold. They’re way better than most people just starting out. Keep it up bro!

Trent, glad to see your beautiful table and tools, well thought out. I have an older Power Tig 250 EX as well but have an Everlast Tig torch cooler running on mine, keeps torch from getting hot which means longer welding times. I originally had a size 17 torch on mine but switched to a size 20 water cooled. Glad to see you gave a CK torch, good choice. At some point you might want to get a flex or swivel head style torch as well as it allows you to get into different areas without having to contort one’s body to weld different angles. Practice, practice, practice like flying it’s time in the seat.

Hi Trent, my guess is that you are using a drought tolerant grass like a Tall Fescue which clumps and has a central deep tap root for better drought tolerance. Talk to your local nursery and they will give you a blend which should include a non-clumping (shallow root network) type of grass (like a Kentucky Blue Grass) along with your drought tolerant grass.

As other people have said, paint your pole to mitigate corrosion and you probably want to think about adding a bush to it. I would also recommend washers on each side of your bolt and maybe consider a lock nut, i know you used threadlocker, but redundancy is great, especially when the cost is likely a matter of pence (or cents? for you in the states, if im gauging the rough size of bolt you're using correctly). Something else I'll mention: bolts generally aren't meant to be loaded across the threads, think about a bolt with a plain shank slightly shorter than the width you would need to cover from your head, through the washer under the head and to the other side of your hinge. Get a bolt with the correct length of plain shank and cut it down if you need to to avoid it sticking out beyond the end of your nut very far. If you're then doing things properly, consider (as others have also suggested) a leash on your pin to avoid losing it.

It is always a pleasure to watch your videos! You are a resourcefull person and it is very interesting to follow your activities.

Threads are a notch that weakens the metal. The long lever arm of the original design was enough to break it off. The short arm of the wind sock bearing should be OK.

I think your welding work table is absolutely awesome! As for the runway maybe all you need is a lot more planes taking off and landing to keep it smooth! I think you should build a neat guest house, air b & b style for your flying friends to come pay you to stay at your fly in oaisis!! That could fund the runway maintenance 👍. Great job on all your projects. Ken

👍 ya, that's why you keep a scrap steel pile around. As for the grass strip, I'm not familiar with your climate and soil out there. I would fill in with some top soil dressing and seed again. That's my idea. Yours sounds good as well. But, what about dust when landing or taking off with several planes at once ??? Your idea, sounds good, you wouldn't have to mow it. Hmmm ! I like green though.

Rolling it each spring would keep it nice. I like the comment about sand and over seeding as well.

Love the welding table, good job!

Seeing the beauty of your shop, you need an outdoor grinding/cutting area outside the shop. The grindings can get everywhere. They will stick in glass and melt into glass. The other fix is a vacuum hose ready to go. I also have to rule that if it comes into the shop it has to have wheels, otherwise it's garage cancer that will grow and eventually kill the shop.

The airpark I bought property in up in alaska has a smaller diameter gravel runway. But then planted with a special grass seed. Solid surface covered with grass, it's a pretty nice runway and always mowed pretty short and not clumpy at all.

I'm glad you were as surprised as I was when I saw you with no hat lol

Great job on the table and the wind sock!!! Would like to see a wind sock at ffox home in MSFS as well 😊

Mayne you're the Tony Stark of Aviation. I love your videos man ✊

Put a leash on that pin so you don't lose it when you pull it.

You should talk to someone who does Golf course grass Like a long putting green. Having that would be better than a dirt strip.

06:05 Great TIG welding, thousands would argue, but great dimes.

Bear in mind if you use pea gravel for runway surface, it can make your paint get chipped.

I like the folding end table. Would you have a few pic of the mechanism you made to have it snap in

a little hint ,I've been a fabricator / Harley builder for 40+ years your choice of harbor freight stuff is ok but get hi quality blades and abrasives ie norton , 3m , starrett etc.The welder was a good choice I actually use different model of same brand but again use high quality consumables . I fly a c140 and live in N.H. where flat 1k feet in a row is hard to come by and we pretty much go from airport to airport although some are grass and rough so watching you is great fun THANKS

Decomposed granite could be a pain on the prop. Grit blasting the leading edge

Recommend a bermuda grass / couch (pronounced cooche) type grass. It grows with above ground and below ground runners so it naturally spreads and fills, very hard wearing and self repairing.

If you can get 1/4 minus gravel, that stuff can be packed like concrete. Not sure if it’s available in your area. It’s somewhat similar to the decomposed granite I think. Of course we do get a lot of rain here so not sure about its performance in a desert.

I used a DG base with a slight crown and then an overlay of iron mine tailings from that WW2, old iron mine at Wabuska. The fractured tailings tend to not displace, so after over 20 years I had essentially no maintenance on my runway. The slight crown controls erosion and any runoff is on either side of the runway. If there is erosion on the runway edges, spread 3/4 gravel along the runway sides to slow the water movement and prevent any further erosion. I placed my windsock at half runway length as a marker for that 70% of speed at half the runway length rule of thumb.

An interesting video. At first I thought you were going to sell something, but was relieved that you just worked things out and showed original thinking.

you should coat it with rust converter. prevent it from rusting.

Mike patey would have painted the metal with a base coat, primer coat, and exterior coat… and protectant clear coat. Then the wind sock would be self folding and drive itself back to the hangar. It would also have a radio signal so you can see it from the plane. It would also tell you the wind conditions for IFR

Your current hair 'do' without the cap reminds me of my times in the 50's and 60's - well done Elvis 👍👍

great job on the welding, very nice. Some are undercutting a little bit though which means you need more filler or less heat, also mig is so much faster, I would look to get a cheap setup for that as well

I love your content. Currently doing very simular stuff that is parallel to you. Runway, home, windsock.. You are putting in a great effort. more than me. But i don't show everyone. I sure if i filmed it all id have to do a much better job. Anyway. Keep the grass just fix it. Grass feels so much better. Im reseeding mine again in a couple weeks same problem.

Hey Trent. How about doing a vid on refreshing/retreading bush wheels. I know you did one a while ago, but would be good to see again, maybe make it part of a Maintenance series.

Leave it to a photographer to be creative in many tasks and hobbies! I loved my photo studio life as I could justify a welder, table saw, drill press, and tools to fabricate sets, props and anything needed around the studio. A great career that lets you do almost anything and it can be an expense off of your income! A perfect life!!! Oh, it didn't hurt that those tools worked on my car hobby too!😁

The shot of you raising the pole, sure has an Iwo Jima feel to it. 😎 Watching you do this also makes me wonder why runways still have windsocks. With all that tech available for cheap nowadays, why not have a bunch of these miniature electronic weatherfanes positioned all over the place. WiFi or Bleutooth that into a computer in the hanger, calculate average windspeed, direction and gusts and have that displayed in bed size LEDs on top of the hanger. Some crazy ideas people get while watching your videos. Thanks for showing.

I would get screened loam and grade it to the clumped grass hight and seed more! When mowing let the clipping stay on the runway to further grass growth.

Looks you planted like wire grass. Its designed to grow in clumps and help stop erosion in drought susceptible areas. Used here a lot in Oklahoma. Only way to fix it is to plant a different type of grass that does as well in dry areas. Not sure what will work for you but I used Bermuda for my runway. 26OK

Weather on your channel has been too nice LATELY, I really really wish to see a Hailstorm.?.? 4:47

Good morning from Minnesota! Good episode!

Neat enough. I might have tried a carbon fiber tube and just stick it in a well fitting socket in the ground. Easy to lift it out. you could even cast the hole in concrete. Simple and should work well. doesn't rust

brilliant idea with the mast. Might have to copy it for my flag pole ! Mucho Grassiass. 😎🍁🤙

That is how the street lights on the interstate here in Tennessee are designed so the bulbs can be changed without having to use bucket trucks....

Solid turf isn’t a one and done project. It’s normal to need a few years of leveling and overseeding to get a good consistent surface. I’d keep working at the grass runway, and maybe look into collaborating with a lawn care KZfaqr and make content from it. Alan the lawn care guy has really done a nice job with Cletus’s Freedom Factory grass. The fans are attached to the grass itself as a character on the channel.

Get some more good soil smooth it out and do a heavy hydro seed. They once it’s all grown cut it on the lowest setting spread sand and use a leveling rake to spread it and fill any low spots that develop as some fertilizer and water and it will help keep it nice and smooth like a golf course

Nice job, Trent. Though I am a bit surprised you forgot to iron your sock before you flew it; what will the neighbors say...

Love your work bench! Good idea about using gravel instead of grass.

Don't worry about the mix-in-place method. It's never let me down either, and I've set miles of fenceposts.

A chip seal runway is going to be the best bet by far. You dont want rock and gravel damage on your fabric elevator from kick up from the tires and prop. Dirt requires more maintince but you could oil it. Crushed asphalt killings have almost no dust (as i think another guy said) and you can chip seal all that for a extreamly low maint strip that will be easy to repair and maintain for years.

You could easily make a roller from a concrete filled large drum. Hammer out the reinforcement bends in the sides of the drum to make it smooth. Run a pipe down the middle of it, fill the drum (not the pipe) with concrete, then run an axle through the pipe. To properly center the pipe in the drum, use a string and pencil to make 2 plywood circles the same diameter as the drum. Drill center holes in the plywood circles to hold the pipe in the center of the drum. Cut out portions of the plywood to pour in the concrete. You could take this to whatever level of fanciness you like. You could pull it behind the quad to help level a non-turf runway.

Let the grass keep growing to fill those spaces! aerate and over seed for a few years until the turf is so thick it's like a carpet.

Check around and see if anyone in the area sells asphalt millings. Get it graded nice and smooth, and then top it with the millings. You can rent a vibratory roller for a weekend and make it a real nice smooth strip.

The dream isn’t built overnight! Yours is coming along nicely..

Your welds look a hell of a lot better than most beginner welds.

I mean, that welding table looks RAD, man! 👏🏻👍🏻💪🏻🍻🍻🙋🏼‍♂️

Did you like the post hole digger, if you ever have to dig more than a couple holes go gas powered. These things will give you blisters even wearing leather gloves. Good job on the final outcome on the windsock.

Don’t forget to paint it. Good metal primer followed by at least two coats of topcoat.

I have a 1000sf workshop that I have been working on since 2007. I'm jealous and not worthy of what you have done. Nice! I've used dry mix and mix in place for all my posts wood and metal for 30 years. It has always been so much easier and never had a failure at or because of the cement pore technique.

Get ahold of Cleetus. Or I've heard that play sand or beach sand is a great leveler. It grows through it, levels everything.

Use a heavy piece of wood e.g. a solid wood rafter or a metal beam and drag it over the runway to smooth out the clumps

I think your idea to scrape it, grade it and put down abc and decomposed granite is great.

used a 55 gal drum fill with water and roll it on grass will level out.

18' welding table. Perfect for a fuselage!

Not sure about asphalt millings for a runway, but it works great for my driveway here in Florida.