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Well the police have finally taken a statement. It turns out the looney behind the wheel was only 17. The police say they haven't got enough evidence to do him for dangerous driving but they have got enough for careless driving which will still result in a ban as he had obviously been driving for less than two years and this means disqualification at 6 points instead of 12. I have no sympathy for him at all.

Brakes back together again fitted new seals and rebuilt the master cylinder. managed to crack a rib undoing the end nut of the master cylinder so rolling about on the garage floor under the car has been fun especially when our new puppy comes and lies on your face and pinches your head torch. Found a replacement manifold as the cracked original is in a bad way. I will weld it up as a spare.

Heathergill Vintage Club are having their annual ploughing match on the 13th of March 2017. To be held again at Brisco, Carlisle. Last year was the first time a horticultural class was run. Although only 5 entries it created a lot of interest. So this year lets see more horticultural entries. I'm hoping the Scot's lads will be down again and bring some more with them. As we English, ie Jonathan and myself were out numbered last year, how about some of you English lads helping even things out. I'll post entry details nearer the date.

Bought the latest Tractor and Machinery today, Peter Love gave the section a good write up...

Thanks Iain, the suspension arm did need the strengthening for peace of mind if nothing else. Ahh, the next vid.... It's going to be entertaining for sure, a lot of extra camera work and editing.. Thanks Joseph for me, tell him to continue spreading the word Thanks Richard, yeah the subs on MooTube are a laugh.. They can't get it quite right Well the lower arms have had the treatment and are now a lot stronger too..

As part of my O&R collection I have a Little Wonder hedge trimmer with O&R power, also 12 volt and 240 volt versions. New additions are a period sign for the display and today another 30" blade hedge trimmer arrived with the later style of O&R engine in it...

All the Best Rhys. Have a good day.

Happy Birthday Rhys, hopefully there will be an MG tractor for you to unwrap

Happy birthday mate ave a good one

Happy birthday, I hope you have a good one. Iain

Echo that Rhys happy birthday. See you next week.

Evening all, time for a long overdue update on this camera panning jig thingy, and quite a lot has changed.. But first.. You saw the masking tape template of the part I forgot to photograph, well here's the part finally photographed.. Screws go though the cog and screw into captive threads in the 6 sided er... boss which is welded to the shaft. It has been re-welded since this photo was taken.. With the winding shafts sorted so they run parallel with each other the whole lot was welded to one end of the rails. The other end got a pulley.. One of the shafts was then taken back off for some serious strengthening and a few guiding washers. The green garden string I had bought was useless and kept breaking, so I tried some thin fencing wire which I happened to have kicking about the place. The system worked just fine for panning along side to side though the fencing wire was starting to develop lots of little kinks.. So I thought I'd best try things up and down.. Yes I was in position to catch the video camera should anything fail and gravity makes things plummet during testing.. These two photo's were taken in record time As the electric motor at the time was 12 volt, it made it easy to try it out outside.. With it back on the bench for more testing the thin fencing wire decided it had had enough of having lots of little kinks forced onto it and showed it by snapping! I also wasn't that happy with how the pulleys worked. The ultra slow side of things was really ultra slow like the camera moved 1 ft every 20 mins sort of ultra slow! The New Holland tractor wiper motor made all sorts of squealing sounds when it's speed was turned down and it would of been a pain in the 'orse to have to disconnect the drive wire/string from one pulley shaft to another to get different speeds... Sooooo, a rethink was needed... Hidden under the yellow rag (which is wrapped around to try and quieten gear noise a bit) is the 18 volt motor from the rechargeable drill that gave up it's speed controls. It powers the kiddys electric car gearbox to turn a single shaft which is now held up one end by a bearing and plate that came from a Webb cricket pitch mower years ago.. It pays to throw nothing away As you can see the whole thing is now rubber mounted to the rails to reduce the amount of running sounds the camera picks up. A big thank you to Matt for donating some strong fishing line to the cause, it now winds both ways on the shaft, so when one side is winding in the other is winding out. The speed control is a work of art and is more than worthy of the two photo's it's getting As I am using the trigger speed control from the 18 volt rechargeable drill I needed to find an accurate way of applying pressure of varying amounts to the trigger and keep it there.. The easiest way I could think of was a clamp of some sort.. Like the exhaust clamp with a bit ground out to fit the trigger.. Just tighten the nuts to increase the speed. A washer was welded on to house a master on off switch Power is now supplied by this 18.5 volt HP power pack that I found in a box in the workshop.. No idea where or when I got it, but it has come in handy So with everything finally ready to go, the jig thingy was put in a position up high, video camera clamped in place on the carriage and the comical electrical system plugged in... It was at the point I managed to knock a stand which was holding up one end and it all came crashing down with a loud bang! Nigel and Matt came running to see if I'd done anything nasty, but soon hastily retreated once they saw me stomping about the place swearing a lot! Somehow my video camera didn't get broken, not even a scratch, but the jig thingy did need some repairs! One of which was to repair the end of the winding shaft which had had a threaded end sheered off! To make the shaft long enough again I had to lengthen it.. It was at this point I had an idea and left the shaft over length for another idea.. More on that when it happens. So does the camera panning jig thingy work? Well, here's a couple of snaps after some successful testing, but your going to have to wait until the next MadTrax video to see the results

A BIG Thank you to all who travelled to Newbury for this show! As Gareth said its the 1st year so hopefully it will be repeated and continue to grow........... Here are my pictures.........