Alan

I normally look first too Norm. Didn't this time.

A few photo's of a few welded up bits. The welds on the rear end of the chassis were nice and neat. No photo's of this. The welder decided to be naughty at the front. Wire feed kept jamming until speeded up which resulted in heavy welds. Some ground or filed down and others left as will not be seen. The used Austin 7 king pin used for the axle pivot seen in the third photo. A bit rusty but good enough to use after a clean up. The chassis was cut away to allow for more axle swing. The rear wheel adapter hubs were made up from 2" thick walled tube and round plates into which the tube was welded. The plates already had bores of near enough the correct size. The cut to length tubes, after a lot of head scratching and measuring to make sure the holes would be in the correct place, were drilled 5/16" using a standard center drill for the first hole. I was going to use this as a guide for a 5/16" drill to spot the lower hole, followed by gradually opening up with other drills, but found a long series 5/16" center drill which did the job in one go. This also did away with numerous height adjustments on my not very accurate drill press conversion. The plates were drilled after marking out using a card template which was cut to just fit into the wheel dish and over it's hub. 4 holes were also drilled through the wheels using the same template. This ensured that all holes lined up. Even though my drill conversion was a bit of a blacksmith job, after drilling the axle shaft I found that it and the hubs lined up almost perfectly. Before converting this drill press I had ordered a bench drill from Germany. Good reviews etc. It arrived 6 days later. All excited I opened the box. Hmm ! All very nice but how can I drill holes with a heavy duty garage style BATTERY CHARGER on wheels ? Email to Germany, "Don't know how that happened, send it back carriage paid and we will send correct item" Did that, no correct drill, refund instead. No explanation. Followed this up by more research. Ordered another make bench drill from Screwfix. Delivered from London next day. More excitement. Unpacked, assembled, tried out, dissembled, back in box, taken to Screwfix depot nearby and refunded. There was more side play on the chuck when fully extended as there is on my conversion. Plus, the table was only a pressed metal affair which flexed with hardly any effort. Didn't expect a Rolls Royce job but.!!

Happy Birthday, Birthday Boy.

Looks brilliant Gareth.

Looks a good show Chris. Like the green model Scammell.

Nice photo's as usual Paul. I expect the chickens were pleased to see the plucker. A lot cooler without feathers.

Thanks Richard. I was going to wait until the next installment but now that you have mentioned it I should point out that most of the welding was done by an ex workmate. I do not have a welder and did not think it worth buying one for the little welding I was likely to do. Saying that though, there have been other little bits needed at intervals which Mr Showman did during one of his RARE visits to John's place. Thanks Chris. The last time I used a welder was years ago, and that was on big heavy lumps of metal. PM to follow later Richard.

The axle bearings from the Bolens were used plus the front axle mounting bracket which was hack sawed from the frame, cut in two, excess removed, slotted and drilled to take the bearings. The extra holes were for possible height adjustment at a later date. Easier to do now than later. These were pop riveted to the box section ready for welding later. The front axle was then given a lot of thought. The full size is a cast, tapered in two directions, webbed unit. Something simpler was needed. A piece of thick walled 1" square was used with tube king pin mounts. A test piece was cut to gauge the angle required, followed by marking, cutting, bending, filing and drilling the main components. Small infill pieces were inserted to give the weld something to bite on. The axle mount was made up of 3/16" plate fastened to chassis box section cross members, with 1/2" bore bushes. The pivot is an old Austin 7 king pin. All a bit on the beefy side but just materials to hand. I should say that ALMOST all the materials used in the entire build were saved during the clear out at John's. Also, as I do not have proper machining facility's, most of the work was done by hand. Hand drill, hack saw, jig saw, files etc. I do have a small Unimat 3 model makers lathe which was used for some of the lighter machining jobs. Also an old Drummond round bed which is in need of work and a chuck adapter. Guess where this came from. I also adapted an old Picador drill press to take a larger hand drill. This wasn't too satisfactory, side play and too fast for the larger drill bits. These were more suitable for wood, not metal. Photo's later. The next few photo's show the chassis and axle mounted on a board ready for welding. The rear axle mounting plates drop into slots in the board. The two dark coloured angles are temporary and just to help keep things square.

Got to keep the enemy happy Harry.

Can't keep anything hidden from MoM members Chris.

After looking up the measurements of the full size D-series Wheel Horse, a half size model worked out at approx 38" long, 22.5" wide and 23" tall. I did not intend building a 100% dead scale model, just something which looked right. If all the main measurements were close to half size and the main components looked compatible with each other, then Some parts, for various reasons, were altered slightly in size without being too obvious. First, a suitable building bench was required. I have one along one wall in my garage but too narrow and my creaky knees object to crawling around on the floor.. A tool trolley, unearthed from John's workshop, was pressed into service. The wheels moved outwards to give more stability, a mid shelf added which was boxed in on three sides, and a thick sheet of chipboard on top. Not shown on these photo's. The Bolens bits were cleaned up and placed onto some box section which would be used for the main part of the chassis, Due to the width of the gearbox, the rear end of the chassis had to be a lot wider than scale. This area was one of the main problems of the build, trying to keep the gearbox far enough back without touching the differential which revolves with the attached sprocket, plus keeping it and the surrounding frame within the width of the fenders and the upper sections of the footrests. Hours and hours of head scratching, trying different positions etc resulted in "This might work". When fitted to the Bolens, the gearbox input shaft pointed down. It was hoped by mounting with the shaft horizontal a short propshaft could be used. This was found to be a no go due to the height difference of the engine crankshaft and gearbox shaft. The centrifugal clutch assembly also left very little room between the engine and box. The next stage was to work out a mount for the gearbox. Bits of angle were pop rivited or self tappered to the frames and lots more head scratching followed. The long lengths of box section had been cut down at this stage as they would have been too wide further forward. The next photo's show these in the correct, sort of, position with the engine roughly mounted to see how things line up. Next, watch this space.

You should know Norm that us retired people have very little time to spare. Difficult to fit everything in. for the delay Richard. Was waiting until I had got far enough advanced. Didn't want long gaps between each post due to a lot of time spent looking and head scratching.

As some will already know, the Showman and I have been clearing a friend's land of his large collection of various garden tractors, horticultural machinery, workshop equipment and whatever else you can think of. Nearly 2 :1/2 years later the end is in sight. As friend John is having to sell up and move soon due to ill health, my Roper tractor which was stored on his land has now moved on to a new home. As I have very little room at home to work and store in, mainly a single car size garage which is already half full of stuff, thoughts turned to something small to build which could be transported in the back of my Meriva car. Small enough to fit in the car, but hopefully big enough to ride on, but if not towing a trailer which I can sit on and operate the tractor by remote steering etc. Various options were looked at, thought about and discarded due to too many compound curves etc. Then, after studying photo's of the D-series Wheel Horse which has very few awkward curves a plot was hatched. During the clear out lots of "might be handy one day" bits and pieces were kept. One of the few tractors which remained, unloved and unwanted, was this Bolens ride on mower. It was eventually stripped of useful parts, gearbox, axle / diff assembly, wheels and various other bits before the remains were left to be dumped much later. Also found among the junk in John's barn was the bottom end of a small engine which was later found to be a 65cc BSA 4 stroke. After further hunting by the Showman other parts were found in various locations in the barn loft. Enough parts to build a complete engine with spares left over. Engine just roughly assembled in this photo. John never stored related parts together and in one place. We think this was his anti theft device. Find a few parts, no good without the others, so leave alone. Appears to have worked as we have found on various occasions. Tri rib tires Chris. To be continued.

Happy Birthday Mark. Have fun.

Chris likes playing with bushes. He spends hours pruning the bushes at John's.

Does it show on the parts list / operators manual I gave you Chris. ?

Happy Birthday Chris. You didn't tell me you were nearly OLDER on Tuesday. Have a good day.

Think I'll give your offer a miss Norm. Got enough kids here to choose from.

Good idea. I'll pop them in a jiffy bag and sent them up.

No. Don't recognise it Norm. There was a similar one at John's, no idea what happened to it, but it was very rusty and the spokes looked thicker than that one. Build up of rust maybe. ? Seriously though, the wheel looks good on the wall. Is Carol pleased ? I expect the saw will be next.

You're not hanging around Norm. Looks good.

Awww ! Do you tell it a bedtime story Paul. ? And don't forget the good night kiss.

Hi Norm. You probably have seen these links already. Think I pointed them out to you last year. http://www.searstractormanuals.com http://vintagesearsgardentractors.com/manuals.html

A reminder of Paul's little grin. And for those with a strong stomach. Best viewed wearing dark glasses. OH! Too late.

Sent mine Monday Chris.