mattblack

I won this on ebay a few weeks ago. To be honest I took pity on it and decided that I would bid the starting price (£22) if no one else wanted it... Since I took the photos I've pressure washed it so it looks a bit better, albeit with a little less paint... the engine is a Villiers C12 so I'm guessing it dates from the 70's. I'm not sure if there is a connection between the Leicester 'Warsop' company that manufactured petrol drills and breakers and Warsop pumps?

After looking at what else 'Mastabar' produced I wonder if the guillotine was for cutting conveyor belting?

A bit of background... about 5 years ago my Uncle passed away and left me the contents of his garage. Now bear in mind that he had lived in the same house for about 60 years and in my Dad's words 'Never tripped over owt'. Due to time and space constraints I had to be selective about what I saved. To give you some idea, I did about 4 runs to the tip with my Cortina estate loaded to the gunwales and when my mate collected the scrap to weigh in the back end of his truck was on the bumpstops. I ebayed some things and saved some bits for myself, including these 2... Rotary Hoes 5 ton jack, now a garden ornament. 'Mastabar'(?) guillotine, I assume this would be for cutting soft metal sheet?

A few pics from our local event, the weather was kind to us. My little display... The blue machine is a lawn edger, I was told the other one is for mowing a strip on a sports pitch before painting the white lines.

Hi Alec It might be a good idea to remove all your personal info from your post.

What do you use the ground up moles for?

After a wipe over with an oily rag. Running and generating, I disconnected the governor spring and set the speed/output with the throttle stop screw.

When I got it running again I connected a volt meter to the dynamo output... We seem to have some extra volts! This coil is wired in series with the output and the plate is attached to the throttle and closes it against a spring, the throttle was opening and closing but with the spring detached it wouldn't run at low speed like it did without the dynamo coupled, I'm wondering if the output is controlled by engine speed? Looking on youtube there is a video of a set like mine running, the guy says it over revved and blew 110v bulbs so he had a 230v worklight (100w?) connected. I replaced the old socket with this one I had in the shed so I can do the same and see what it's like with some load on it.

I put everything back together and tried to start it again, but had flooding problems. Despite cleaning the tank out, with no gauze on the tap debris had got into the carb and jammed the float valve open. So I ran some fuel through the pipe and made a filter for the tap.

The wiring was in a really poor state so was all replaced. The brushes and commutator were cleaned up as well and I made this somewhat Heath Robinson flexible coupling as the original was falling to bits. A local engineering suppliers came up with a new fan belt for £3.

That looks an, erm, interesting machine. You've definitely come to the right place for O&R info!

Well, after some fiddling about with the carb and the old trick of squirting some fuel straight down the plug hole... WE HAVE LIFE! Really satisfying to get it running after who knows how many years... and without spending much . Next stage is to tackle the electrical side, I THINK I've sussed out how the governor works.

The cork seal on the tap plunger had dried out and the plunger was very loose, after doing some research (IE google) I put it in boiling water for 10 minutes and applied some petroleum jelly to the seal. It seems to have worked.

The bottom of the tank was coated with this 'orrible sludge, the outlet and tap were completely blocked. I had to sacrifice the gauze filter on the tap.

If no one had bothered to save or had an interest in 30 year old stuff years ago we wouldn't have any 'antique' machinery now...

Looks like part of a pipe flairing tool?

Progress has been slow on this of late as I am trying to sort out my Cortina so it is back on the road for summer. I had a go at annealing the sealing ring, not sure if I got it hot enough with my little blowtorch but fingers crossed. I split the air filter/choke by grinding away the folded-over edge and drilling out the centre rivet, then straightened it out as best I could. I then welded a new lever on the inner piece. welding it back together was a pain, it kept catching the inner so I had to grind the weld off and start again. It ended up looking a bit dog-eared so I wrapped some metal pipe insulation tape around it. I did manage to have a couple of hours on it this afternoon, it now looks like this. next job is to clean out the fuel tank and then it will be a case of seeing if it will actually run. I now seem to be sharing my limited workshop space with one of my O/Hs projects...

That's great! I assume it's home made, what's the story behind it?

Sunday 9th June 2019 is Open Farm Sunday, I'm planning to display my Villiers MK15 and Tarpen generator at our local one. https://farmsunday.org/

I saw this at a small steam/vintage event yesterday and thought it may be of interest.

Thanks, I hope the copper is soft enough to form a seal, but it won't be the end of the world if I have to find an alternative.

Still plodding away on this... The engine is back together with home made gaskets and (cover your ears) a smear of gasket goo. I enquired about a head sealing ring, Cox and Turner had a slightly smaller on in stock but I decided to have a bash at making one. I got some 1.5mm thick copper, cut the centre out with a 50mm cutter in the bench drill and then cut the outside out with snips. After a session with the bench grinder it didn't look too bad. I temporarily refitted the engine on the frame to make tightening the head bolts easier. Carb stripped and given a good soak in brake cleaner. The air filter/choke has had a bash, it was jammed open and is missing the lever. I'm going to try to split it and repair it.

Mixture too rich (adjustment)? Choke sticking partially closed? Dirt in carb stopping float needle shutting fully?

Bore was cleaned up with a flap wheel as suggested, followed by a sanding pad with plenty of maintenance spray. When I cleaned up the head the lack of head gasket was revealed... there isn't one, this seal sits in the recess in the head. But I only found out after I had damaged it with the wire wheel. Not sure what's going on with spark plug, this is the one that was fitted (which looks like one for a Ford Pinto engine) but the hole isn't fully threaded anyway. Piston cleaned up.