Leaderboard

Had some lathe and milling machine time in recently. Started on the wheel for the front caster. Had barely enough 40mm dia EN8 Steel to make the hub and leave enough for the drive coupling. Had to work really close to the chuck jaws, which was going fine with light feed, then I noticed the 'in-feed' movement of the parting tool went 'light' and easier !. I withdrew the tool and found it had failed !. As I bought it in a modestly priced set 38 years ago and just lightly stoned the cutting edge now and again, it has served me very well- I finished off with a narrow HSS type with no issues. Indexed and drilled for the spokes on the Mill with barely 1.5mm clearance between rotary table wheel and chuck ! - Also added an angled grease point and made the bronze bushes to be pressed in later- I decided to keep the original engine output drive clutch bell and make a driven plate to replace the original Mower Clutch plates to form a coupling. This would allow for any tiny misalignment of the engine and the reducton unit. The load transfered through this part will be much less than it was orignally handling in a Mower, but I wanted it to be efficient and reliable. Ordered a 105mm x 4mm laser cut mild Steel disc and meanwhile, I made 6 bronze wear pads - The slitting saw used is only 0.0125" (0.3mm) thick. These pads were soldered to the dog spokes of the plate where they will contact the recesses in the clutch bell. The plate was then set up to drill the 6 HT fixing screws to the boss- Once I had cut the keyway in the boss, I pressed the plate with the drilled and countersunk holes onto the boss and finished fitting the screws. i need to file out the keyway in the plate to depth. The bell drive recesses needed weld metal added where they were worn from mowing since 1954, but were not bad at all - The caster wheel is at the final assembly stage. My reasons for using surplus thick walled steel tubing for the rim left over from my previous Water Cart wheel making becomes clear. It all fits and allows me to re-use the wheel jig for accurate assembly ! - Regards

Thanks Gents, Yes Norm, I'm also beginning to enthuse about it's completion. Advancement of only a small part of the project, but is of significance to my ability to produce it. I've just about finished the front Caster wheel assembly- It's taken me a while now to produce and assemble all the parts. Final job was putting a chamfer on the wheel rims- One step closer to havng a rolling chassis, so I'll put this to one side. Only the barest perceptible wobble, which I'll try to eliminate, (but not too hard) before having the spokes professionally welded to the rim. Regards.

Been to the above today near Penrith, Cumbria. Some photo's for you.