Leaderboard

I had a few hours today so I popped up to the yard I share with a tree surgeon. I thought I would try and level out all the wood chippings & ruts with my 600 & chain drag mat. I was pleasantly surprised by the results as we had a heavy downpour last night and the ruts were caused by my mate's Land Rover and wood chipper. I got the drag chain mat off The Showman back in November. It did a tidy job.Photos taken on my mobile and I hope to attach a video of it working if I can work how to download it from my phone!

Found this and thought I would share it with you all.. The Mad Max films have always been known for interesting cars, Fury road takes it to a new level.. Well, I like it

That's one name. I could do with one mesel'.

I like the photo's Andrew, I can look at them while i'm laying down. Is it not a zig-zag harrow ?

That drag mat is a harrow in English.

That's a good brand and a good price

While in Lidl I spotted this little power pack at just short of £40. It'll be handy for jump starting the tractors if needs must away from home. Has a very good light as well. Battery should be good for 20 jump starts the bumph says. Has a recharging plug and lead.

You've got them now but i've always bought mine from unity tyres, a pair of Duro ones with tubes cost me £30

Well thats the christmas and New year break over. just open up the workshop and its business as usual been busy painting The Border Reiver rotovator hood still needing more work done to it. Has anybody come with any idea about the missing decals on the top of rotovator hood. Glad to see that horrible red paint as gone and now being sprayed the proper colour of blue There will be some other attachments appearing for The Border Reiver mk2

Got a few more bits sanded down and primered

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.

View from rear. Side view set for 6" deep. Set for 4" deep. The wheel can be adjusted from 6" to 4" in 1/2" increasments or reductions. Most likely 6" or 5-1/2" will be the settings to use. Trial and error will tell. The complete plough.

Ha! Ha! I hope you know koen there is a real sad story behind that hip joint,😏

so nigel is now hopping around the shop?

New steering shroud fettled, painted and fitted to the Lawnbug, decal arrived from Titch at Machinery Decals today so that's finished it off...

Cut the posts and split them yesterday. Now stacked ready to throw on the fire and keep me toasty.

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