Leaderboard

Last year on my annual trip down south, one of the things I returned with was this Billy Goat. There is a thread on it in Pedestrian machines. As you can see I'd been having a bit of a play with it. Today I dug it out of it's hiding place had more of a play with it. First I amputated it's back legs wheels. I then found these two pieces of scrap, plus the jaw plates removed from my Saxon trailer. They became this towing attachment for the front of the Billy Goat. Next job was a rear towing attachment. A length of 1"x1". Another of 1"x2". A couple of U bolts. Tow ball plus a spare spacer and I had this. At end of play this is how things look. There's still more to do and one or two alterations but so far so good. All made from scrap lying around, so zero cost. No Billy Goats were harmed and if needs be can be put back as was. To be continued.........

The axle bearings from the Bolens were used plus the front axle mounting bracket which was hack sawed from the frame, cut in two, excess removed, slotted and drilled to take the bearings. The extra holes were for possible height adjustment at a later date. Easier to do now than later. These were pop riveted to the box section ready for welding later. The front axle was then given a lot of thought. The full size is a cast, tapered in two directions, webbed unit. Something simpler was needed. A piece of thick walled 1" square was used with tube king pin mounts. A test piece was cut to gauge the angle required, followed by marking, cutting, bending, filing and drilling the main components. Small infill pieces were inserted to give the weld something to bite on. The axle mount was made up of 3/16" plate fastened to chassis box section cross members, with 1/2" bore bushes. The pivot is an old Austin 7 king pin. All a bit on the beefy side but just materials to hand. I should say that ALMOST all the materials used in the entire build were saved during the clear out at John's. Also, as I do not have proper machining facility's, most of the work was done by hand. Hand drill, hack saw, jig saw, files etc. I do have a small Unimat 3 model makers lathe which was used for some of the lighter machining jobs. Also an old Drummond round bed which is in need of work and a chuck adapter. Guess where this came from. I also adapted an old Picador drill press to take a larger hand drill. This wasn't too satisfactory, side play and too fast for the larger drill bits. These were more suitable for wood, not metal. Photo's later. The next few photo's show the chassis and axle mounted on a board ready for welding. The rear axle mounting plates drop into slots in the board. The two dark coloured angles are temporary and just to help keep things square.

Finally got around to trying out the sickle bar this afternoon. I'm really pleased with it to be honest. Took it down the overgrown bridleway past my home. Long, heavy, thick damp grass. Did two passes. One down, then one back up. Result below.

Used the deck for the first time today since repairing the wheels. Pleased to say all well and good. Back to usual deck heights.