Thorn1979

I know! I can't imagine this ever getting into shops nowadays. Cub Cadet, I wonder if the models my sister's dad used to make were the same ones from the magazines. I expect so. I just like the little thing, wish I could come up with a practical use for it to justify the space it takes up!

That'd be a bloomin challenge! I can just about manage wavy lines in a bit of plywood!

We've been after one of these for a while (Martin's love of two-stroke anything...). Saw a couple at the vintage auction which went for £40 each, which seems like a lot compared to what they go for on fleabay. Saw one in a junk shop last week too, which wasn't for sale as it was stored in a shed that was about to fall down after a fire! Teagle still make farm machinery.

Not garden equipment I know, but cute nonetheless so I thought I would share this with you all too... My half-sister's stepdad used to use this little treadle fretsaw as a boy. He made models with it and the model coronation coach and horses is still in their family. It languished in my sister's shed after he died, and she decided to pass it on to us because she knew we'd appreciate it. It was a bit rattly though - didn't need a lot of work, just a strip, clean, a fresh coat (or 3) of dark green paint and tightening everything up. You can get tiny treadle lathes by the same manufacturer. Can you imagine this being sold as a toy nowadays?! My hope eventually is to get Martin to make a little jig for it so that I can use it to cut mitres for picture framing.

It's going in here cos I don't know where else to post this I have started volunteering at a local Heritage Fairground. In season I was doing one day a week, running rides and generally making a nuisance of myself. Great fun. Every year they host an auction for vintage vehicles, steam engines, and assorted bits n bobs - I am sure some of you have been! We were pottering around the yard looking at auction lots and we saw this little thing languishing in a corner. We both fell for it a little bit. Well, it wasn't an auction lot, but the next time I was helping, I asked if I could take it home and restore it for them. In the end they got fed up of me pestering, and now we are halfway through bringing it back to life. Snags so far? Well the original motor (which was almost certainly pinched off something else - the whole thing has been cobbled together by a showman many moons ago) was 110v DC and very very slow, with its own gearbox. We have replaced it (after 5 years outside in the rain there was no saving it) but used a 240v lump, and managed to mount the gearbox - but the "new" motor is much faster. So how could we gear it down enough for the targets to slide past at a sensible rate? Well Martin had the genius idea of using mini-moto sprockets and chain. The belt was rotted clean through in at least one place, so we have retained as much as we could, chopped out and replaced the mankiest bits, and sent the targets off to a mate to vapour-blast them. The rollers at either end of the belt were in bits but Martin has pegged them back together, they look amazing. The angle-iron frame has been dismantled today and we are halfway through stripping it down ready to paint... I can't wait to see it all back together!

Ben I think that one with the teardrop tank is a Sprite... seen 1 or 2 on the 'bay. And a Jobber! Yay!

Well, just finished up a new project ready for our first show! Not much wrong with it, cleaned it up, repainted and sharpened and another little Conquest lives to mow again. With added WWII style "nose art" We are showing our Atco Scythe, the Atco 17" Lightweight, this Conquest and the electric Ladybird, along with a couple of vintage chainsaws, at the Launceston Steam and Vintage Rally tomorrow (sat 23rd May). If you're around, come and say hello - the chap in charge of the vintage horticulture section wants to get more new exhibitors on board. Alison

TBH there wasn't that much to do to it, there was surface rust but it was in pretty decent nick. All we did was sand the old paint (right back to the metal on the main cover), repaint everything (using some old red lead primer that had been knocking about for years), Martin sharpened it, and added the new roller which was just a rolling pin, we regreased everything and put it back together. The grassbag was just kinda cobbled together after looking at photos. Oh and I think he made a plastic bush on the lathe, for where the handle connects on, cos it rattled. I love the shape of them, and I want another - I can imagine one in grey with a big red shark-teeth mouth! Or with WW2 bomber-style artwork, a glamour girl astride a bomb Flymo..

So we've waited until this little project was complete to show it off. I got bored of racing green and decided that the retro shape of the Conquest needed something more stylish... This will probably horrify the purists out there, but meh.. What do you think? There's 1.5 acres here that needs mowing, and the plan was originally to give this machine away as a gift cos it's not much use here. I don't think we can bear to part with it now though! The roller, by the way, was a bargain buy - it's a rolling pin. The grass-bag is made of a shower curtain, the side of an old PC tower case, and a metal bean pole.

Getting closer to completion - while I've been feeling poorly, Martin has got busy with the spraypaint.

I got told off my the boss today for operating it while wearing open toes sandals. As IF that's gonna make a blind bit of difference to this thing

What a daft rule Koen.. a hangover from the days of motorised bicycles I guess. Insuring it here would be problematic; I have had to use an online insurer that asks for engine number and CC, cos if I had to phone for a quote I would have to tell them it was modified. It's legit - I changed the V5 - but the insurance would be a small fortune otherwise. Nah, I think Pipsqueak has stuck - I am not generally a fan of "naming" vehicles, but my other bike is "bob" just because it's easier to say than "the rxs". Martin says it will look like a flying blackcurrant milkshake. Like that's a bad thing! He has just changed the handlebars for me cos the clip-ons were just too much of a stretch. All his porting work is done with a flexi-tool - now that's a bloomin useful thing to have in your workshop.

Just for you, have posted it in Off Topic

Well, you asked! This is a project not related to anything garden machine-y. It's what Martin77 and I are working on at the moment.. Martin77 is a fairly well renowned tuner of two-stroke motorbikes, and he also makes exhausts for the same. I ride a small bike anyway (a little Yamaha RXS 100 from 1989, for anyone that's interested) but I wanted something a bit more sporty. Because I am short - or rather, I have stumpy legs - I needed something that wasn't too tall. Riding a bike when you can only touch the floor on tiptoes isn't great fun. So Project Pipsqueak was born... We found a suitable chassis: An Aprilia RS50. This kind of learner legal bike is bought by 17 year olds and ragged to death, and true to form it was in pretty poor shape when we got it - Martin traded a set of exhausts for it (about £200 worth). Its engine was knackered - the top end anyway - the last kid who had run it had used a big bore kit, but then slapped the standard 50 head on it, and not done anything with the carburation, resulting in a holed piston. So we removed the engine and sold it - there was a decent crank in there, and we sold the carb too, and some fairings we didn't want. Before... We purchased an engine from a Yamaha TZR125 and shoehorned that in - rather a neat fit! I cleaned up the frame and swing arm and had them powder coated (for free at the factory Martin's brother works at). Martin has amended the front end, altering the clocks, adding new brackets and a single headlight, and we will change the bars so that they aren't such a stretch for my stumpy arms.. and of course he made a pipe for it! It runs really nicely now, after a few issues with powervalve timings, has passed an MOT and just really needs the bars sorting out, plus all the cosmetic stuff - painting! It will be purple all over, if I have my way, apart from the bits we had coated. Total cost is under £400. Almost there!