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A bit more racking up today it's looking more like a warehouse than a workshop at the moment

While down south earlier this year, The Showman showed me this rake, scarifier, he'd modified to go on the back of a Wheel Horse. He not having any real use for it, it found it's way into my trailer. Made to fit into a slot hitch, it was not really what I had in mind. I wanted it to fit the tool bar I use for ploughing. So this..... Was modified to this. The pin hole was opened up and a spacer bush welded on. In hindsight I think I should have left the spacer free. Then it would have been able to also fit a slot hitch. Maybe a furure mod. So I had this. Next job was to make it angle adjustable. So a plate was welded on with a couple of pin holes. It now does this. One way or t'other. I have now to make up a removable plate to keep it in the straight back position. I know how I'm going to do it, but need some plate. So on to the brush part. These brushes arrived a while back courtesy of Doug. (Ranger) I need to make up a clamping arrangement to fit them to the rake. Although I have an idea, again, shortage of material has brought things to a stop. Also it was starting to get cold(er).

Your right about the steel bearing creating lot's of audio noise.. I thought it might do and the video camera does pick it up way too well.. I did try the battery drill motor, but being 18V it wasn't to keen on running at 12V or 13.8V from my CB power pack! I'd already thought of the self angling camera thingy, but using string instead of a solid bar sort of thing. One thing I am trying to do with this build is build it as cheaply as possible.. So far it's cost me £1.79 (with staff discount from the garden center) for a ball of string, I'm hoping that's all I have to spend Not yet, I still write my own scripts When I say write, it's more like start talking to the camera and wonder what I'm going to say next Thanks Richard More of an update for you chaps. As I'd cut up the wiper motor bracket to make the camera carriage thingy, I needed to make a new one.. The shape will change a bit when it gets mounted to the rails. Here's the gearbox from the kiddies electric var that I forgot to take a photo of.. All that gearing will slow things down very well, ideal for time lapse videos. The missing sprocket from the gearbox is fixed to the electric motor shaft.. I don't need all of the motor so out came the grinder. It was at this point that I decided the time had come to look for for an old inner tube to make some tyres out of as Mister Mad Mower suggested. I couldn't see anything with bike wheels on it in the scrap pile, so I had a drive looking for some rubber coolant pipe to use... Fear not, the Fergies are safe. It was these two Escorts that I was interested in.. The estate while easy to get into was not going to give up any of it's internals as the bonnet pull lever inside refused to budge! The saloon I knew had an opening bonnet but without cutting down any trees only the driver door would open.. About 6 inches! Lot's of unnatural body positions later I just managed to get my arm in and pull the latch.. It's a shame that when I opened the bonnet I found the water pipes way too small! Oh well, best have another look at the scrap pile as it's on the way back to the workshop.. This time I got off my Wheel Horse to have a real good look.. Then I spotted it buried under loads of junk and long grass. Hurrah Yesterday was a very cold day weather wise so naturally the first thing to do when I got back to the workshop was to make a coffee And bask in the glory of finally finding an inner tube. Once the coffee had warmed me up I slice a bit off the inner tube and with a lot of stretching it slid onto the bearing.. Instant tyre I will try a wider bit of inner tube to see how well it wraps it's self around the bearing.. As you can see the bearing only really make contact with the rails on it's outer edge, so the more the tube wraps it's self around the better.. I'm not a fan of the really low profile tyre look anyway Back to the drive train if you can call it that lol.. To get the ultra slow panning side of things working I needed to find a way of fixing the small electric car motor to the New Holland wiper motor.. A bit of round bar with a 3mm diameter drilled in it.. The bar was then heated up (ta for the use of your blow torch Nigel) and expanded so the 3.2mm shaft of the electric motor could be press fitted in. A bit of tube with a 13mm nut welded on. Which is a tight fit on the bit of bar. Once the tube is welded to the bar the nut end winds onto the wiper motor. Taa daaaa... Drive into the gearbox for the ultra slow speed side of things. To get drive out of the gearbox I needed to find a way of fixing a bit of this bar to this sprocket. A masking tape template, shame I forgot to photo the steel version as well! The basic motorized system, and yes the far shaft needs a tweak to get it straight.. The idea is you can tie a bit of string to the shaft coming out the wiper motor to produce a nice workable speed.. Move the string to the far shaft and the gearing is such that it would take about 30 mins maybe more to pull the camera carriage up the rails.. Just right for time lapse stuff

Very good example of your ingenuity Ian. I see this as an addition to keep your project updates 'On Track' so it doesn't't go ' Off the Rails' .

Homelite tools from the 60's. These were all based using the same 2 stroke engine from the XL-12 chainsaw. XL-12 Chainsaw, XL-100 Circular saw, XL-A115 Generator, Drill Attachment, XL-SG1 Water pump, XLMB Military Blower. ( I have the XLBC Brush Cutter, but can't find the pics) Still searching for the earth auger, the Harvester, a better example of the water pump and any other applications

If you go down to the woods today be sure to take a chainsaw

Not our normal sort of stuff on MOM, but it is a machine and it is old.... A very cool story and a nicely edited video..

Got a bit of an overflow at the moment, I've put green sheets over them so Pam dosnt notice them on her lawn

I have use for it. You don't. If it works.

The weather was reasonable on Saturday so we made start on collecting leaves. I blew them into piles and the kids collected and tipped. Had a play up the field moving boulders and collecting some gravel... that wet clay clay stuff is heavy... the trailer sinks with 1/2 ton and needs two tractors to move it. and eventually even C4 bogs down and loses the will to live. I need a trailer with flotation tyres on. That or I need to stop overloading the trailer

A friend of mine is a retired reporter. Not for the likes of the Sun, News of the World etc. He had no time for the so called reporters on those publications. Not interested in the truth, just a good story, was his opinion. I personally don't buy any national paper. Just occasionally the local ones.

Ian's going Hollywood on us, lol

Nice idea , i play around with camera mounts quite a lot , i feel that the steel bearings may create an audio issue though , maybe slices of bicycle innertube over them will give a smoother and almost silent track as the camera rolls along . Take a look on a popular auction site at the 12v remote winch switches , You could be riding by on a tractor and opperate the tracking motor from the seat to get a shot as you pass by . Or simply be pushing a new engine on a trolley into the workshop and get a shot following you as you go . If you add a vertical bar near the end of the track , as the trolley nears the end the bar would catch on the tripod head handle and swing the camera around to follow you as you move away giving the effect of having a cameraman opperating the set up . And as you already are using bits from a battery drill , why not simply make up a capstan winch using strimmer cord running around a pulley at each end of the frame with one end tied to the trolley and the other attached with a spring to keep it all tight for better movement when under power . The battery drill is an amazingly good experimenters tool as bolts can be used to attach all sorts of pulleys / discs etc to the motor easily .And the variable speed and use of 12v batteries make then portable and safe to play around with . A friend used a stripped down drill with a bent bar in the chuck to opperate a robotic fishes tail , the bar rotated around and the bend swung the tail from side to side , simplicity itself really . .

Thanks Joseph, even more special effects and other bits coming soon Yeah MadTrax has changed a bit since I started it all those months ago, and looks all the better for it.

Evening all.. A bit of trimming, re-shaping and carefully grinding back the welds later and the tank fits again. One of those little milestones, the first squirt of paint on this project.. An even bigger milestone.. With the frame work finally done it was treated to a couple of coats of the red oxide stuff. The poor light in the workshop made it look like a very dark thin coat! But the biggest milestone yesterday was getting the frame in it's top coat, a very classy shade of satin black All I have left to do now is everything else, which is quite a bit

Is the bus your camper van James some where to kip when the baby's 😢 crying

Found a spare ball hitch in the workshop. So I knocked up this. Bit to close with the camera.

Thanks Richard, having a "proper" Mig welder certainly has helped with the welds. My old "hobby" Mig just didn't have the oompphh behind it. Not much to report, both er... foot/leg guards have had an extra bit of tube welded in making sure the shape matched the outer tube. And one side has been treated to a coating of steel mesh... That should do the trick.