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The business with the Russian planes and ships has been going on for some time. Not only in the channel, but the North Sea as well. Russian subs frequently, so I am lead to believe, are active close to our territorial waters. Putting the English Channel aside, the North Sea activity and air space is seen by our powers that be, as testing how quickly we will react. As for the French, as far as I am concerned the least said the better. The ordinary people I've no problem with. It's the politicians.

A real sad story there mate, it brought a tear to my eye Well, a bit stuck on the drive train at the mo.. The Honda Silverwing final drive/90 Deg thingy I was planning on using just won't work! I did the maths on sprocket sizes to work out the 5 - 1 ratios I would need and the big sprocket would need so many teeth that it would be nearly a meter diameter! Price wise it would be very much the wrong side of £1000 and the sprocket would be so big it would cut the quad in half! So.. some more thinking needed.. I need a strong 1 - 1 ratio 90 Deg drive that will fit in the rather small space available! Sooo... What to do next.... Some welding me thinks At the back where the new tubes meet the Quadzilla suspension mounts it looked ugly as I had just cut the tops of the mounting panel off.. A bit of cutting and welding later had a couple of bits of box welded in just above the anti-roll bar tube.. That looks better and stronger Part of the plan has always been to box in the pressed steel suspension mountings as I hate the look of pressed steel, and they never looked strong enough anyway Starting with one of these, a bit of tube with washers welded on both ends. Which happens to be a perfect fit inside a thicker bit of tube that has been cut in half.. Bolt it to the suspension mounts and you have an ideal way of making sure all the bit's of half moon tube fit in the same places.. A bit of tack welding later.. Best check for clearance, plenty of and more travel than will ever be needed Now to fill the gaps, the top of this speaker stand is about the right thickness Four plates cut to size and tacked on plus a template for the next panel.. The right side almost done.. A few welds need a clean up, and a few of the welds won't be done until the frame is stripped and on it's side.. I hate welding upside down and I'm rubbish at it! Best make a start on the other side, templates cut out.. And marked out on steel... It's a good job speaker stands come in pairs No idea why this photo has turned around, it's the right way on my PC..

Here in the States (and maybe the rest of the world as well, that's why I'm asking), we have no real news sources any longer. It doesn't matter whether you go the four major news networks or to so-called liberal or conservative news infotainment channels such as MSNBC, Fox, CNN, or Yahoo. All news is now spun for ratings and to play to certain bases and segments of the population. There is absolutely no consistency or accuracy in so much of what we read that I don't think anyone over here including our leaders know what any particular situation is truly about. It would appear that out federal and local governments have turned into a talk show tabloid environment and has relinquished all control of their senses. The days of different opinions working toward viable solutions has been put asunder to name calling and character assassinations. The worst part of it all is that it seems his has had a particularly adverse reaction on our young people and the maturity level of the entire population is not much more than lower elementary school at best. Any reaction to the story I'm posting below, because it seems it is a non story written to agitate the people into believing the Russians are doing something they haven't been doing for some time, but I have no way of knowing here in the States, so I thought I would ask you chaps for your input. https://www.yahoo.com/news/uk-air-force-scrambles-2-fighters-russian-jets-124124066.html

Last time I was at the pictures was about 50yrs ago. The Dirty Dozen. You just have to wait maybe a year or so and the films come on the box.

Alain, it was mentioned briefly on the news covered by both the BBC and ITN. As far as I am aware, there is no real tensions between our two countries. This happens on a fairly regular basis due to the proximity of Russia and the European mainland. As for the Royal Navy accompanying or in reality shadowing Russian naval ships, it is because The English Channel is a very narrow strip of sea and is heavily used by all nations as it is a short cut to the Mediterranean and vice versa. My gripe is that the French Navy appears to sit back and let the UK do all the shadowing (I have not seen any reports of French activity). The British media is concentrating on three main issues at the moment: Brexit, the NHS and the Trump's administration with the odd forays into North Korea and the Middle East.

Amazing work Alan, your attention to detail put's my builds to shame..

It's been a long while since I last went to the cinema, back in 1991 to see Terminator 2!!

went to South Lincolnshire last week to collect a Mayfield and came back with a lot more numerous boxes of spares, brand new Planet Junior hoe blades, ducks feet and a sprayer

Hi Alan, thought I would have a read up about this after you mentioned it and you have done a marvellous job. I especially like the bits of bodywork you have made.

I have not been to a theatre in over 20 years and this movie is one I would like to see at a real theatre. I believe that because of the subject matter the audience might not be filled with addle brained, immature, and rude people on cellular phones therefore allowing me to actually enjoy the picture with minimal distraction.

I've got nothing to loose by trying it so I turned the clutch pulley down as small as I dared today. Not sure what it was made from but it was a bit of a struggle on my little lathe. The before and after. I've ended up with the smaller of the two pulleys I found for sale, if they had any in stock. It was 128mm OD and is now about 110mm. If I do decide to get a bigger pulley for the gearbox it won't need to be quite as big now. Todays other modification, or rather quick lash up to see how it worked was to fit a foot throttle. I've seen people have fitted bike brake levers so for now I have done similar using an old racer lever I straightened up a bit. The hole in the bit of wood isn't a clever design feature it just happened to be lying about. The good thing is it actually allows more gentle take offs so I will give it a try tomorrow to see if it's any more driveable now.

Yes I think it is this coming Friday or maybe last Friday. Why's that?

Today's progress has been a bit slow due to a very stubborn hub, i warmed it up and bolted a puller on but no joy. I gave it a good soaking and tried again still wouldn't move. Next I connected up the gas axe to get more heat and quicker, with it glowing it still refused to move so i went for a cuppa to cool off. I thought I'd give it one more chance if not I decided to leave it rather than brake it. Same again with loads of heat and an extension pipe on my T bar it moved and off it came, next was the other side so with puller fitted it slid straight off. It was a lot of work but at least i got them off and can change the oil seals and I didn't break anything.

I had to leave this for a few days as i had other commitments namely mot on the Sprinter and the Chevy . Im sorting out the transmission that seems to be weeping oil and the hitch pin is rusted solid which will need drilling out. I pulled another box out but thought I'd carry on with the original. I had to leave it over night to let whatever was in it to dribble out, it certainly wasn't sae 140. I cut through the pin each side to remove the hitch and spacers the cut it again near the casing, drilled a hole through the pin using 3 different sizes drill bits then nocked it out. Ive ordered some new axle seals from Toro and think i have the others in stock. Next job will be to remove all the pulleys and hubs and clean it up. Heres some photos of today's activities.

Anyway at closing time Gilbert had flaked out on the bar stool with his head in the ashtray after every one had left the land lord woke him up and walked him to the door and layed him on the bench outside locked up and went to bed, about 3 in the morning Gilbert woke up again. Freezing his bollocks off and soaking wet, it was pissing down now it was a 2 mile drive up the narrow lanes to get back home, so Gilbert started the tractor and set off, still completely pissed, anyway he got about half a mile up the road zig zagging all the way then he spotted the gate on his left hand side and remembered as a young lad he used to cut through there on foot and across 2 fields would bring him out home so off he went round the outside of the field driving into the blackthorn hedge many times, into the second field and strait into the duck pond right outside the cottage his mrs was living in with the batty girl he fell of the tractor it over turned and crushed his pelvis and smashed his hip the 2 girls heard his cry and rushed out the house in just knickers and bra and managed to pull him out, gertroid the batty girl called the medics who turned up with sirens blaring and blue lights flashing they couldn’t believe there eyes what was in front of them, two fat birds in there under crackers tending to a pissed bloke that looked like a porcupine and claret every where, anyway back to the hip joint coz I always took the piss out of him my dear old uncle Gilbert left it to me in his will, he died of a broken heart, and that’s why it’s a sad story

While still at the rear of the tractor, another item which had me head scratching for a long time, was how to provide a support for the steering shaft. As this emerged through the rear panel at an angle due to the differential being in the way, a block of something with an angled hole was required to give more bearing surface than the thin panel. Could I drill an angled hole in an alloy block without a lot of measuring and setting up. ? NO. I had already looked at various plumb blocks and rose joints on eBay, all being unsuitable for various reasons. Then I remembered some small rose bearings I had found in a box of goodie's while clearing at friend John's. Problem nearly solved. The first few photo's show an alloy block being bored and the edges milled to tidy it up. The lower inside face was also milled to clear the tow bar. As is often the case, a change of plan meant that I needn't have removed so much metal. Also seen being turned is a reducing bush for the inside of the rose bearing. The steering shaft is a length of 7mm steel rod. Why 7mm ? Because I had a long length which was originally the drive shaft from an old strimmer I was given years ago. There was already a short 7mm thread on one end, made slightly longer, and a new thread cut on the other end. The bearing block assembly is shown next with the unfinished overlong thread. Overlong to start with as I just eyeballed the squareness of the die to the shaft. If it was out of true after an inch or so, I could cut off and have another go. After a little tweaking of the first few threads and checking at intervals all appeared OK. After threading 3 to 4 inches there was no obvious run out. I can do small threads using die holders in my Unimat 3 lathe but it would have been a struggle with this especially as the die was not of the split type. A few nuts were drilled and tapped 7mm. A 3/8 impact wobble drive socket was obtained to connect the drive shaft to the trailer steering ( when finished ). There appears to be no slop in an impact drive compared to a standard universal joint, but not sure at this stage if there is enough wobble. Time will well. The square plug, drilled and tapped 7mm, was part of the previously scrapped 2 speed drill. Just needed filing down slightly to be a good tight press fit. The front axle end of the shaft uses a 3/8 to 1/4 adaptor with a standard U/J to allow for clearance at the differential. These last photo's show how little clearance there is between the shaft, axle and gearbox. Approx 3/16th above and below the shaft. Still need to paint the wheels and hubs too.

The original exhaust which.was used for the test runs was unsuitable for scale appearance and was also in the wrong position. A 180 degree bend to fit within the side panels was needed. I tried a length of flexi pipe I had but this wouldn't bend into a tight enough radius. A piece of 15mm copper pipe was bent up using an ancient and crude pipe bender ( found at friend John's place ) where else, which gave the required result. The exhaust stub on the engine is approx 22mm outside diameter although the bore is a lot smaller. An adapter was turned up to suit. During the clear out at John's various stainless steel silencers were found which John had made at work. This one was removed from a mower and cleaned up. This was connected to the copper pipe via an old 90 degree plumbing elbow after cleaning off all the muck. After finding a length of chrome plated pipe a posher version was bent up. No prizes for guessing where these came from. Not sure how this pipe and the plating will stand up to the heat but not the end of the world if it doesn't. An extension was made for the silencer, again from copper pipe, as I didn't have anything else of a suitable diameter. This was drilled and the lower end plugged as per the full size. An adapter ring was turned up, drilled and tapped to hold everything together. This ring also located the assembly into the grill surround. The completed parts and after fitting. Still need to make some adjustments.

Various ideas were tried out for the seat using bits and pieces lying around and then discarded. A visit to a local upholstery shop with measurements resulted in a lottery win quote. Back to head scratching mode. I had already spent hours looking for something suitable on the internet without luck, trying various search word combinations. Then I spotted some cheap-ish scooter ( Lambretta / Vespa ) back rests. Not exactly what I wanted but worth a try. A pair were bought and after initial, not sure thoughts, the end result was better than expected. The fill in piece behind the seat cushion, made from plastic, still needs finishing off with padding. The first mock up from ply. The alloy frame, ex green house, just cleared the top of the gearbox. Fixing brackets were bolted on. Sheet steel was bent up for the base and back rest. There were two short threaded studs already fitted which made mounting easy. A length of U shaped trim finished off the steel plate and a similar section was fitted to the fuel tank. I finally managed to get my Great grandson Henry to try the tractor for size. Even though he is only 7 : 1/2 months he loved it. Mummy said she had never seen him so excited, squealing and swinging the steering wheel. We had to hold him though as mummy refused to let me cable tie him on.

Not many photo's of work on the hood. A slightly larger than required alloy sheet was cut and a shallow fold made on the center line. A board with a curved edge was clamped over the sheet, after carefully guesstimating where the side fold should start. Hope that makes sense. The sheet was then bent around the board forming one side of the hood. This was repeated for the other side resulting in a shape which was not far off the required result. What luck. A little tweaking with a rubber mallet and a length of round bar persuaded the front and rear of the curved folds to line up with the headlamp surround and dash. A lot of time was then spent trimming the oversize edges to get the best fit I could manage, followed by clamping to the headlamp surround and drilling for the pivot bolts.

The footrests were another item I had a few attempts at before finishing up with something that looked right in comparison with the rest of the build. One pair looked too long and narrow, another try ended up with the fold overs not being deep enough. Fairly quick to mark out and make so not too much hair pulled out. Again, made from the scrap 1mm alloy panels. The first attempts found a use elsewhere after being cut up. How to make the fenders. ? Simply bending up on the brake press wasn't thought viable due to the curves at each end, although I now think it could have been done with a bit of NON press work included. Also the corners would need alloy welding etc. Another possibility was making a plug and moulding in fiber glass. I decided to make these using built up layers of plasticard sheet reinforced with alloy. I already had a good stock of this plasticard. This resulted in very strong fenders. The plastic, welded together with liquid polystyrene cement, was thick enough to sand the curves on ends and sides. The alloy inserts were a very tight fit after making a few short trial sections to get the bends in the correct place. Also bolted at the corners although they wouldn't come out easily. The top of each footrest slides into the slot at the front of the fenders and will be bolted in place when finished.