expeatfarmer

Nice pictures and no doubt hours of fun.

Interesting machine, does it steer with braking levers through the front difff? Is it 4 wheel drive?

H, Nice thoughts on helping your friend, giving someone a leg up when they are down is very rewarding. I have a friend in UK who is now extremely wealthy , he runs a specialist engineering company with four employees making specialist fabrications for high value gas and oil projects as well as one off prototypes for all sorts of people, all his work is gained by repeat business and word of mouth commendations. Your friend needs to find a niche market which requires high value one off or low volume machining/fabrication projects. The markets he needs to look at are oil and gas /mining, automotive restoration of rare high value vehicle parts , steam engines etc. The other area where people spend a lot of money is on one off architectural metalwork , creating wrought iron gates ,lighting fixtures, room screens etc. I know that Jay Lenno has a huge car collection with an attached restoration workshop where they can actually reproduce more or less any rare or obsolete part for any of the cars and vehicles they have using CNC and 3d printing machines. People will pay huge amounts of money for bespoke iron work such as gates , setting up to manufacture such things is not expensive and can be developed slowly by producing small samples and items that are not too expensive and taking them to rural shows architectural exhibitions etc. If it was me I would try and get a low cost foot in the market to test potential before I spent big money on machines, if you gain a specialist commission that needs a machine you can very quickly buy one. As a final thought it may be worth making contact with a number of one make car clubs such as Ford V8 owners or Bugatti , Bentley owners clubs and asking them if there are any specific parts which they have difficulty obtaining, as an example I know that V8 flathead Ford exhaust manifolds are very hard to find . I hope that is helpful and wish you and your friend good luck.

It will only be original once, clean up the rusty bits and give a rub over with wax or oil.

Good find even better if you can find a machine. Do you think a group of guys had a contest to see who could come up with the biggest list of things you can do with these engines?

Contact me anytime , I think these are great machines, such a pity that Ransomes could not make a go of it, the possibilities for this type of small tractor are limitless for use in wide range of markets not just gardening. I have shifted tons of soil with my 420 and loader, ideal for working in confined spaces.

Hi I have a 420 fitted with a front loader and a 425 fitted with rear forklift, these machines were made in USA by Steiner which was taken over by Ransomes some tractors were imported to UK under the Ransomes brand but few implements other than front mowersand long reach offset bank mowers. The whole company went downhill to the point that the previous owners of Steiner started up new production under the Ventrac brand . A range of implements is available, snow blowers, stump grinders, chain trenching machine etc but I have never seen a backhoe attachment. I would suggest you look at some of the backhoes that fit category 1 three point linkage and modify the hydraulics to drive off the auxiliary service ports on the 425 using the same hydraulic oil. I use generic hydraulic oil in my machines without any issue.

Yes it is a molybdenum based lubricant for assembly where heavy grease or oil are not suitable also used on cams camshafts and sleeve bearings. Still available.

I stopped playing saxophone years ago!!

I fancy one of these.

Shame Norman but understandable.

Looks like you need to build a log splitter machine!

That's a lot of logs worth putting a log stove in the workshop !

Started sizing the drill bits yesterday turns out I have sharpened 346 plus 28 masonry drills not started on the morse taper lathe drills yet thought I would save that until I am really bored !!!!!

Very nice, I have a few older cars myself and know that they are only original once. Well done on a very sympathetic re- commission .

Should be a good day for logging and photos today not a cloud in the sky over Cumbria.

At least we can go out in the garden and build a snowman !

For the last few months I have been medically chair bound with the exception of odd forays to the garages and workshop to find things. Father Christmas was very good to me giving me a comfy office chair, an LED head torch and a Drill Doctor drill sharpener. My new lockdown past time is sitting at the kitchen table in my comfy chair ,my headlight beaming away and my drill sharpener on the table in front of me. Over 50 years of workshopping I have somehow amassed a huge collection of drill bits , some were my Father's , Rhys gave me a pile of Morse tapered lathe drills but most I have bought when embarking on a new project. Although I am quite capable of sharpening drill bits ,it has not been a regular workshop maintenance task and consequently it was quicker to buy some new drills rather than sort out and sharpen old ones, UNTIL NOW ! The drill Doctor machine will cope with drills from 1mm ( if you are careful ) up to 3/4" . The drill bit is set in a chuck which aligns the flutes to produce a point angle of 118 - 135 degrees with minor up or down variation. The chuck is then slotted into a holding socket above the diamond grinding wheel to be rotated slowly by hand, two turns will dress up a tired drill to new, 10 turns will restore a broken drill. The machine was not cheap but works extremely well, will cater for split point drills and masonry bits, clean working ,not too noisy and a nice way to spend a few hours in the warm recycling useful things. I would certainly never have stood at the grinder for many hours hand sharpening hundreds of drill bits. I have now ordered a couple of graded drill bit holders so that I can again sit at the table and sort out all the sizes and then give a couple of sets to my sons. I recently bought a spring caliper guage for measuring valve shims and was very pleasantly surprised to find that it can display in mm / inches and also fractions of inches so I can now identify some of the odd sized tapping drills I have. That should take up a few hours maybe I will improve my set up with my headlamp and some wireless earphones tuned in to Planet Rock!

on the final model it was the steering wheel mechanism and an option for a higher ratio of gears to give a higher road speed, it is not recorded if the one machine sold to London Docks had the higher gear option. The machine was also fitted with the flywheel driven electric kit to power the lights.

This is what we are looking for the prototype is on the right and final version with steering wheel to the left.

Such things dreams are made of !

Following on from the article by Patrick Knight with extra photos by the editor as published in the latest edition of the VHGMC Magazine The Cultivator , I have two ITC Skimmer machines, one is complete ready to work, the other is mobile and has all major new old stock parts for a rebuild. Rarer still I have a new condition operation and parts manual for the skimmer from which measurements etc can be scaled to make up missing frame. Sadly I have disposed of most of my entire range collection due to ill health, the machines I have are available if anyone is interested. The skimmers are unique machines based around an MG6 chassis but fitted with a second final drive gearbox driving the tracks working speed when skimming was 25ft per minute. Quite amazing machines that would travel, skim 1/2″ of sand over a 4ft width, elevate and break up the sand and then discharge at about 5ft off the ground into a dumper all from a 600cc petrol engine. Being slightly lacking in power many waterboard machines were modified for bigger engines, one of my current machines was purchased in Devon with a brand new for Escort engine and gearbox fitted ( never run from new), another was fitted with a twin cylinder electric start engine.Both now have original type Ransomes petrol engines. When I first set out to collect one of every model MG made the ITW ( wheeled model),Whitlock loading shovel WR8 were the Holy Grails of which there were thought to be very few remaining, Skimmers were known of but none seen, over the years many more Whitlocks and ITW machines have come to light as have a number of Skimmers. The search is now on to find out what happened to the ITW Barge Tractor which evolved over a number of prototypes the final model I believe was sold to Port of London so far never to be seen or heard of again, UNLESS YOU KNOW DIFFERENT Happy Christmas

Happy birthday Norman have a good day Great Grandad! Good day for roller building in the workshop !

Happy birthday Harry , have a good one.

Congratulations Norman