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Hello all I am new to the group,i have bought my father in law a ride on mower as he is staring to struggle doing his big garden by hand.I am not made of money so had to get a fixer up and come across a westwood gazelle w11. It was in a sorry state but I have spent the last 4 weeks taking back to bare metal and powdercoating every part , replacing every nut and bolt. My question is I have spent all this time doing the restoration I didn't think to ask the question are these any good at cutting grass?

I bought all four of these separately on a lark after flogging my Husqvarna 435 for the last time, what a piece of Chinese junk, no guts at all. I found the 1969 blue 58.2cc Super XL Automatic 3 hours away for 100.00, but I was going up that way anyways. The 1981 40.9cc Super EZ Automatic was in a town on the way up to moms house and was 25.00. The 1970 37.6cc EZ Automatic was an eBay find for 99.00 free shipping, and the 1967 77cc XL-901 I bought from the original owner for 225.00 shipped to my door. I got 150.00 for the Husqvarna 435 so I have 325.00 in these four. After using them I can't imagine buying a "new" chainsaw.

I had a bugger of a time reinstalling the two idler pulleys and they didn't want to fit under the belt covers. The new pulleys already had one spacer built in and it made it difficult to place all the spacer correctly and fit.

Had great day out was at almond valley vintage association. Some photos of the horticulture display. The two Little boys went home with prizes

The Bolens axle was cut down and drilled. The shorter end didn't need altering. The length was just right and the original wheel retaining bolt hole was also used for the model. The other end was a pain in the ++++ though. Tough to hack saw through, although it could have been worse, but the 5/16" hole was a ( censored word ) to drill. Finally got through with an assortment of drill bits, cutting compound and my lashed up drill press using various speeds and lots of naughty words. Luckily I only had to drill this one side. Now, what to use for the front axle bushes. A long time was spent looking through my piles of bits and weighing up all the options. Some bits had the correct OD but too large on the ID and so on. Still wanting to use what I had to hand, a piece of engineering plastic was used. Not sure, but I think this is Delrin or Acetal or similar. A short piece was tapped into copper tube to hold it rigid while drilling in my Unimat lathe. I was surprised to see blue swarf as the material is black. After drilling up to 1/4", the bore was opened up on the drill press. Can't remember the drill size but slightly under the OD of glacier bushes which were tapped in afterwards. These had an ID of 3/8" which was the bolt size I used for the king pins. If these bushes were later found to be unsuitable they could easily be changed. So far, with a few test drives that the Showman and I have had over rough ground, no problems have been found.

My personal view of sealed for life bearings is not the best. When I rebuilt my rear discharge deck, I removed one seal and fitted the bearings seal side out. I like to use a grease gun now and then. As to paint for underneath, a good agricultural enamel.

Finally got my Bearings delivered 4 days late. I always seem to get the dyslexic stand-in Postman who tries to deliver my package(s) to somewhere else.....and it was a 'Sign For' item- Rant over, I fitted the bearings with both seals in place and so will blank off the Grease point. The Spindle needed more finishing to remove more raised scoring before fitting without excessive strain on the bearings. The top Oil Seal is a cheaper SKF double lip version, as it will now only need to keep dust and water out and the proper Toro Seal would cost over ukl£20!. So having prepped the Deck Shell for paint, I had put the first coat of the horrible Synthetic Paint on 4 days ago and still waiting for it to fully harden. With the Centre Spindle rebuilt and silky smooth spinning, I fitted it back in place- I will do away with the Keys from the Pulleys at a later stage and convert to Nuts and Lock Washers as per Wheel Horse Service Bulletin #429. I have one spindle with a slightly sloppy Keyway. Getting close to deciding what kind of final finish coating to apply underneath.

Certainly looks like black Delrin Alan, we used both black and white when we still had the machine shop at work Cracking build thread mate

Went on a jolly to Hollycombe yesterday by special invite and asked to join the evening exhibitors bbq. its was a very enjoyable day and a long one but made some new friends and was made very welcome by the staff. heres a few photos

I did Alan.

Me too Nigel. I think Chris took those two photo's especially for me.

If it's something that going to be used I'm often tempted to use tetroseal underseal, on out of sight bits. It's a lot less sticky than waxoyl underseal

one of the arguments of not doing that is eventually pushing the outer seals out with grease.

Posted this afternoon so should be with you Kevin by Wednesday .

I believe they are made of cast magnesium. The XL-901 weighs 14.5 pounds, the Super XL Auto weighs in at 13.11 pounds, the Super EZ Auto weighs 11.1 pounds, and the EZ Auto weighs 9.6 pounds. In comparison a new Chinese made plastic 50cc Stihl MS 271 Farm Boss weighs 12.3 pounds which is only about 1 pound lighter than my 58.2 cc Super XL Auto and two pounds lighter than the 77cc XL-901

Yeah,! a real nice set of 'ole Slicers there Alain!. Not a Chain Brake in sight. My tiny 72 Beaird Poulan XXV is a dream to use and just won't compare to modern stuff. You have been conspicuous by your absence and glad to see you here again Regards

We finally managed to get the Estate Keeper running. My assistant and chief test driver has made a video covering most of the work we did on the tractor and a demonstration of it in action. Very cool machine, I love it

Beginning to think you'd forsaken us, Alain. Nice collection.

Nice little collection of vintage chainsaws. I bet they are heavier than the newer ones (Stihl and Husqvarna) but got more character I guess.

It looks ok now Norm, bit of a state when I started the long job, but should be good for a few seasons if cleaned properly and carefully. Been sorting the Anti scalp Roller. I Machined up 2 flanged Bushes to fit the bearings and the fabricated Pin. I used Cast Iron and as many will know, it produces a lot of fine particles of black dust. So having mentioned this in a PM to Alan, here is a pic of the result that a few carefully placed Magnets wrapped in a plastic bag can do to confine it- It catches most of it and allows a quick clean up after. Finished Bushes and a sliding fit on the 1/2" dia pin- As I'm pinching the flanged Bushes against the Roller bearings between the 2 mower brackets I needed to thread the end of the Pin 3/8" x 18 UNC for a nylock Nut. Rest of the parts and the old Pin - Trial fit and all good..... back to cleaning and painting. Regards

Another factor to consider is insurance. Insurance companies are getting increasingly restrictive regarding " hot works", particularly where Oxy Acetelyne is concerned and are not too happy with it in domestic situations. Induction heaters get around most of those issues.