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Knock these up today ready for RPT and Biddenden.

Cutting up some metal today with the 9" disc cutter and had my foot in the wrong place. It got very hot very quickly and I ended up doing the oakie cokie round the shed.

My dream line up of Bolens Ride a Matics.

I know you want to get on with the blades but there's no need to hot foot it.

Can anyone identify this please? The lettering is on the inside of the handles. Any help would be appreciated. Thankyou, Hugh

The strip along the bottom will serve two purposes. Primarily for me, it will act as a wear strip, with the option of fitting a rubber strip if used on concrete/tarmac etc. It could be a laugh or the end of a friendship.

Steel ordered today for the blades, 48" x 7" x 7.5 mm, and my mate's going to roll it too, also asked him for 2 small strips to go along the bottom edge to hold the rubber on. After Rural past times Norm and I will be making 2 graderblades to take to Biddenden tractorfest, its going to be a joint build so should be a laugh just hope we can do it in time

As I wear steel toe capped boots I don't get that........ But I do have lot's of shirts with big holes in them

A bit of an update on this.. My new Mig welder arrived today (thanks to all the people involved in transporting it to me) and you might say I'm a happy bunny.. Ok, it's not "new" but it is very well made and should outlast me A Murex Tradesmig 165...

Thanks Mark, been busy and had problems with Supporter renewal . Got some catching up to do. Hi Norm, Yep, I remember them being discussed. Great as you and Iain say for low placed Tanks. Both of mine are Dash Mounted Tanks (pre 76), so have the benefit of a little gravity. I only need to prime the fuel system when I replenish it after winter storage, so my cunning plan of a drain tap also allows me to refill from that Drain Tap- I fixed it at the lowest point and out of the way. I have a small Model Aircraft Fuel Pump that I can connect to the tap, and with the Fuel Tank Valve closed, I can route new fuel to the Pump and Carb. I can then open the Tank Valve and pump fuel up past the Filter (where there is always a bit of an Air Lock) until it reaches the Tank. This way, I remove all the air from the system. Well, that's the plan anyway. The little Fuel Tap needed a few mods, i.e. machining the Inlet Spigot Barbs and tapping it to a size that will fit into some thick walled copper tube to make the 'T' piece. Bit of a challenge setting it up in the Lathe- New Pump is on ready. The old pump is still ok! and can only assume the oil residue is Redex that I add to the Fuel (no smell of fuel in the Crankcase Oil) . I suppose nearly 7 years will naturally cause some to settle there from Fuel evaporation via the Bowl vent. Anyway, just waiting on the Muffler and then check it out and adjust. The old original Carb is done ready, so I will put it back on this Tractor and will sell the Spare rebuilt Carb - One thing you can't see is the addition of a 1/4" thick spacer between the Carb and Inlet mounting face. I had a spare unused one (Paxolin) from an old Gasket set. These are fitted to some later engines and are supposed to reduce heat transference to the Carb and it lengthens the Inlet distance which allows the fuel to vaporise better before entering the Cylinder. We shall see how much better this engine runs with it. Regards

this is some picts i took about five years ago it was the last time it was used

The new bit of the rear frame has been sorted, I think your agree that "kick up" gives MadTrax an aggressive mean sort of look Of course as soon as the frame had enough strength put back in to take the weight of a person.. I just had to have a seat You know the saying of "A bad workman always blames he's tools".. Well in this case I can rightly blame my small Mig welder.. With the aid of a new welding mask and Nigel's 30+ year old heavy duty Mig I produced the best welds I have ever done This is the start of the lower rear engine mounts.. A couple of rear upper engine mounts.. MadTrax can now hold it's own weight up including engine

It would seem that somehow today I managed to buy one of these with a shot engine (not this one) late this afternoon... Well, I needed somewhere to put the spare CX500 engine I have

Nicholas has owned this machine since 1979 but at the age of 76 he realised he would never be able to use it again in anger. So today I became the new owner

There is and one effing big one as well now.

Thought I'd try burning it out, however that just made it worse so its time for drastic measures!

Planet Junior Hugh

Looks just the job Paul, thanks

This is the rubber matting I was talking about Chris, its 50 inches long so should do the trick...

Don't know who I got the idea off.

Nice comfortable safety boots Chris.

Thanks for the informations. It might be 1963, as the reed block is aluminium, not plastic. Anyhow - I took it appart for a bit of cleaning, and while it is not NOS, it have not seen much use. There is no carbon anywhere: I ended up taking it totally apart and gave it a good rinse. This is the state now: The air filter was falling apart, so the foam is now removed and one of the insulating washes on the 12V outlet was cracked, so while waiting for one of my friends to find hos box of these washers, this is as far as I got. /Steen

Put rear conveyor on to weld lugs back on, total length 20ft and I can stand under the rear roller and I'm over 6ft

Amazing work Richard, I could never build anything that small.. I'd loose all the parts!

You would be right Norm... Which is why I made this Not perfect but it should help the gasses flow in the right direction now Getting the down pipes from the engine to the 2 into 1 thingy was interesting, lot's of measuring, bending, welding and trimming a few mm's of here and there until it all fitted together.. The exhaust system is split into 3 parts so I can actually get it in and out of the frame.. Here's the front part on the bench getting fully welded up.. A couple of little holes like this to fill or it will be louder than I think it's going to be... Quite loud I'm guessing The rear section with the two shortened silencer boxes and some 1 into 2 pipework.. Here's the completed system, me thinks it looks quite mad

I've done the same on my Bolens HT23 where the fuel tank is located below the fuel pump. Works great and means the engine starts instantly rather than turning over until the fuel pulls the fuel Iain

I've fitted boat engine priming bulbs to mine, Richard. Just a squeeze is all you need.

good word Richard, glad to have you back - love your meticulous rebuilds and polishing!

Brilliant work Richard.

Coming along grand, Richard. I like the duck board on the floor. A nice touch.

Continued today... belt tensioner adjuster first. Followed by cutting the keyways in the cross shaft. Had as a quick run round the garden, it works! but can't be used on C4 as I can't lift it off the floor... The belts and axle are in the way

Mines a bed for two As Koen says, it's too JCB The dirt drag racing is fun to watch, I'm going to have to stretch it by a few inches anyway to get the engine in. It does and I'm not painting the quad yellow That's more like it Paul I think maybe simply "Hold on" or even HYGLI.... "Have you got life insurance?" It hasn't taken long to tear into this project, the bodywork soon came off.. With the aid of a Nigel, a Rex and a scaffold board the V twin was soon on the bench to see how much work is ahead. Hhmmm, it looks quite a bit bigger than the original 230cc lump! So... Out come the small engine followed by a few slices to the frame. The quad now looks very "Mad Max" with the parts roughly piled in place Sorry for the blurred photo, with the wheel under the engine swapped for a small trolley I could prop the parts at more of the correct height. The bottom two tubes need to be level to line things up.. The engine will hang a bit lower than the original but not by much.. Now this is where Honda had thought ahead for me and decided it would be a good idea if their quad engine had the same splines on the gearbox as a CX500 bike engine Thank you Honda for making life easy for me A quick silly photo with one of the first WN exhausts bolted on Honda put the quad exhaust can about here, but as I have two cylinders and two of these cans it makes sense to put one each side And of course with every build comes videos.. So here's the first... Enjoy

Thanks James. The quad is a FourTrax but I'm putting a 500 engine in.. Ok, I may have to think up a better name for this project. You got that right Norm It's not my fault you have been walking past it countless times a day and not really noticed it After a lot of faffing about yesterday the quad was dragged out from it's hiding place under a pile of racing mower parts and put on my bench.. It could of gone easier as the quad would only roll backwards but we got there in the end. The offending engine, it looks quite small for a 250cc.. To make it easier to get around the quad a chopped a foot of the bottom of the bench legs and Nigel welded these massive caster wheels on.. The bench is now easy to move, turn around or even push outside should I feel the urge to work in the sun