Leaderboard

My turn to say for delays to Thread updates. I have excuses. I had to slow this job down so I could do small short sessions when the opportunity arose. The plan to have the Deck Shell Media Blasted was cancelled, and so I set to cleaning it back myself. It has taken several months to get the rust off and treat ready for welding the Baffle metal in place. Checking the fit and positioning- The old Baffles had slots cut out to fit the Nuts for the forward Bracket Bolts. I wanted to avoid any slots that would let the Baffles fill with grass, dirt and stones again. So I have made 1 Mushroom Head bolt Captive each side under the curved Plate. The other 2 have clearance (just). The condition of the shell (underside) when most of the rust was removed is very good considering, but a lot of work to clean it all off so that the Rust converter I used converted it all.The top surfaces are fine. Combination of Etch, Weld Through and Oxide Primer being used initially- Also noted that the old Baffle welds had cracked on the apex of the curves, so I incorporated 2 steel tube posts to add strength and to serve as a conduit for injecting Waxoyl into them- I drilled the shell 1/4" dia to allow a long bolt to hold the tube(s) in place while I tacked them. I can then Tap the holes 5/16" UNC for screw plugs. The slots cut into the tube's bottom end will allow the stuff to flow in. So some more tack welding to fit the bottom plates to do (I'm not good at welding yet) and finish prep underside soon .

Got to keep the enemy happy Harry.

After looking up the measurements of the full size D-series Wheel Horse, a half size model worked out at approx 38" long, 22.5" wide and 23" tall. I did not intend building a 100% dead scale model, just something which looked right. If all the main measurements were close to half size and the main components looked compatible with each other, then Some parts, for various reasons, were altered slightly in size without being too obvious. First, a suitable building bench was required. I have one along one wall in my garage but too narrow and my creaky knees object to crawling around on the floor.. A tool trolley, unearthed from John's workshop, was pressed into service. The wheels moved outwards to give more stability, a mid shelf added which was boxed in on three sides, and a thick sheet of chipboard on top. Not shown on these photo's. The Bolens bits were cleaned up and placed onto some box section which would be used for the main part of the chassis, Due to the width of the gearbox, the rear end of the chassis had to be a lot wider than scale. This area was one of the main problems of the build, trying to keep the gearbox far enough back without touching the differential which revolves with the attached sprocket, plus keeping it and the surrounding frame within the width of the fenders and the upper sections of the footrests. Hours and hours of head scratching, trying different positions etc resulted in "This might work". When fitted to the Bolens, the gearbox input shaft pointed down. It was hoped by mounting with the shaft horizontal a short propshaft could be used. This was found to be a no go due to the height difference of the engine crankshaft and gearbox shaft. The centrifugal clutch assembly also left very little room between the engine and box. The next stage was to work out a mount for the gearbox. Bits of angle were pop rivited or self tappered to the frames and lots more head scratching followed. The long lengths of box section had been cut down at this stage as they would have been too wide further forward. The next photo's show these in the correct, sort of, position with the engine roughly mounted to see how things line up. Next, watch this space.

Bolens parts being used to build a Wheelhorse

Great work Norm and a very nice Attachment. Always fancied one, but I no longer have a use for one.

All finished and ready to test. Took that in the morning and was going to see what it was like this afternoon after I'd done an oil change. Unfortunately I got a call from the farm and had to go and drive a big tractor.

Got a bit more done today. Getting the lift right was a bit of a problem. When down, the downward curve of the lift arm fouled the guard and top pulley. Eventually I decided to disconnect the lift chain and cable tie the arm up as far as I could. I could have cut the downward curve off, but I don't want to alter things if I can help it. With the arm up I fastened the lift chain to the guard/frame. Next I had to have someway of holding the cutter bar in the vertical position. Had a root round and came up with this. Finally a couple of shots of it down and up. Next thing to do is make a handle to lift the cutter bar. Again I don't want to alter the original handle. Get that done and I can work out a belt length.

picked this up the other day, every thing was seized up on it, but it has compresion so thought i would strip it and get it working again