I'm sorry your salty rusty. IMO its a huge waste of time being bitter and in this application, loggers nothing helpful or insightful at all to help the OP with their issue. If you are only comfortable with the antiquated flathead design of some companies lawn equip then I myself would wonder if you have trouble pouring water from your own boots, directions included or not. To say that OHV design is finniky or hokey is quite amusing as its about as that design is almost as old as the hills aswell and is quite straightforward and offers myriad benefits in every aspect compared to other designs. I'm a 30y old car salesman and have been doing it for 10y. Even though I often work 50-60h a week, I have enjoyed replacing transmissions, engines, installing super/turbo charger systems on many different typed of real cars (perhaps to your delight/dismay, mainly Fords) and also just about every other electrical/mechanical process imaginable. So to make inaccurate, broad but mostly ignorant comments about younger generations just shows the exact same traits in yourself that you so loath in mine. OP, from what I gather with the info you have provided it sounds line you broke a chunk of the threaded plug material from the mower. IMO it would be best to either purchase a whole new engine (perhaps craigslist), or find a local reputable machincr shop and see if they can repair the problem. Other than that maybe you could get a gsv160 (newer Honda motor for lawn equipment) and put it on your mower. From the little searching I did on your motor, they are not readily available and when found are quite expensive. The gsv160 can be had brand new (not rebuilt/furbished) for ~$200.

Building this greenhouse is just like building a big shed. The studs are 4x4 timbers (because that's what I had on hand), but you could just as easily use double 2x4s to carry the load with the spacing necessary for window openings. When I designed the greenhouse, I made little paper templates of each window out of graph paper, and I kept fiddling with the arrangement until I had something that looked good. THEN I figured out the loads and designed the framing. Remember, the frame stood for three years wrapped in greenhouse plastic, so the windows are just like covering and are not part of the construction at all. I hired the roof. I needed this done quickly at the time, and I wasn't going to get it done in time if I did it myself. The roof is framed from rafters, but you could build trusses on the ground and lift them up if that's easier. Just like building any roof, it takes a couple of people with ladders and a lot of planning. Truthfully, the roof is really poorly done (Look again and see the awful shingling job the guys did!) and it will be getting a facelift next year ... or the year after. poaky1, a flat roof with skylights would probably leak like crazy. Skylights need a roof pitch of at least 3/12 (or is it 4/12) so water runs past them instead of sitting around them and seeping into the building. Look at some shed plans and familiarize yourself with how they're built. This will get you a long way toward designing the greenhouse of your dreams. I spent all day yesterday working on mine, and I'll have a new blog post up later this morning to show everyone my progress. Thank you for the inspiration and the encouragement ... it's finally coming together! Connie Here is a link that might be useful: link to blog home page

the verdict... i went to speak to the folks at the mountain horticultural research center in asheville, nc and they gave me the info i was looking for. we did a par reading this morning at about 10. the ambient reading was 560.4 micromoles/second/metersquared. two readings from behind the glass averaged 476. this indicates about a 15% reduction in photosynthetically active radiation. while it would not be ideal to use glass like this for a large commercial operation, the gentleman i spoke to seemed confident that i could design around the 15% shading for my personal use greenhouse. i plan to use a different material for the ceiling and possibly the east/west sides. this will allow for much more light than if i were to solely use the tinted windows. i still want to build a cold frame this winter as an experiment, but i am pretty sure that this can work. the par meter provided an instantaneous reading (15 seconds). as a matter of reference, most commercial growers require an average of 15 moles of light/heat energy per day. when we did our calculations, estimating only six hours of sun, my glass would provide between 9 and 10 moles per day. this number is significantly lower than what commercial growers would look for, but i think that my greenhouse location will recieve more than 6 hours a day, even during the winter months. maybe i will have to supplement with some artificial light in the winter, i will only find that out once the greenhouse is operational. pat tea... i would suggest doing what i did and contact your local horticultural research center to do a par reading. seems that this is the only way to really know what types and amount of light are allowed to pass through your glass. the combination of the tint and your location might not be the best. i live in western nc and it is super sunny here the majority of the time, even in the winter months. we have a naturally long growing season. i don't know if the cloudier weather in the pnw would pose an issue, but that is something you might want to talk to your local researchers about. i spoke to a number of folks before i went to the research center - glass manufacturers, tinting companies, even the greenhouse companies that were referred to in a previous post- and no one really had any solid info to give me, only their personal opinions or another reference. other than getting a par reading done, the only other option seems to be building a cold frame. practically speaking, this would be the best way to experiment, it will just take a full winter to know your results. good luck with it, i hope you can use those windows. free glass rocks! thanks to everyone for your ideas and suggestions... now on to design ideas. who's got some for me?

mary_ruth, thank you, I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner. I mentioned that I'd like to make curtains to hide the baking supplies in the glass cabinets. I did another budget blitz by using wooden dowels (Restore, 10 cents each) and a 6yd curtain panel from a clearance outlet ($5.00) Total: $5.80. It's a long, thin 'swaggy' type, in a silky, iridescent green--very close to the green cabinet color. Last year I used a small piece of the panel to make toss pillows for the window seats. I use another of the $5.00 panels for a table cloth for large gatherings--it covers three 6ft long tables, with white sheets underneath for the drop. LOL, I'm getting my money's worth of that bargain! I posted these on a thread in the Kitchens forum, along with the observation that I kinda miss seeing the jumble behind the glass. :[