Well no-one had a guess so I suppose I'd better show what it's for.
Slot hitches are pretty thin on the ground in this country, so The Showman and I thought we'd have a go at making some when I'm staying with him. That above is a jig for welding them up.
Trying the original one for fit. I did have to cut a bit from out of the locating tubes to get the hitch on and off.
I got some steel yesterday morning and the fun started in the afternoon. I thought I'd make a prototype to work out how to go about the job.
First things to make were the lugs, for want of a better name. Some 40mm black bar was turned down to 35mm, as 40mm was all I had. Then drilled out to take a hitch pin.
Next it was the turn of the arms. These would be the hard bits and caused quite a bit of head scratching. Several cardboard cut outs were made, then a couple of arms made using grinder and cutting discs. First off I bent a cardboard cut out and bent it to the shape of the original arms. Trying it out on the jig with lugs in place. A big bolt was cut down to make a locating pin. I then bent a welding rod to suit.
How to bend the arms was the next problem, as I don't posses a hydraulic press. But I do have a pipe bender. I scribe a line on the arms where I wanted to bend them. A 3/4" former was marked on each side and fitted in the bender vertically instead of horizontal. Fitting an arm vertically across the benders top and bottom plates, lining up the scribe marks and using the bent welding rod as a gauge, I successfully bent the arms.
I really should have taken photo's as I went along, but as usual I didn't think about doing so. I will when making the next one/ones.
Now to weld things up. The arms were clamp to the jig sides, with a used slitting disc each side as packers. This was to provide clearance in the hitches slot. The arms were tacked to the lugs, then plates cut for top and bottom of the slot. Next the top plate was tack welded in. Removing the hitch from jig, it was replaced up side down and the same done with the bottom plate. A large washer, 1/8" thick was used as a packer to get the right depth of the slot.
The whole assembly was then removed and tried on, along with the tool bar off the Black Horse. Satisfied with how everything fitted, it was all welded up.
Gave it a clean up then primed it.
It was then I remembered, or should I say I'd forgotten something. Can you see what?
