Ian

Looks like they were about to play a giant game of airborn noughts and crosses

Great building skills, can't wait to see the finished trailer in action

Thanks Norm, it got even better Ta-Daaaa A close up of the tool rack/shelf thingy. Swarf and cooling oil can only be a sign of one thing.. Yep, I've been having a play Due to the tray being a bit bowed in the middle cooling fluid tend too pool both ends.. A steel plate put each end to raise the "floor" level will sort that, the interesting part will be stopping the cooling fluid from leaking through the bolt holes! A bit off added signage... The 80 sign was the lathe splashback for many years and the long-sh vehicle sign used to live on the back of my Saxon trailer and went on many a Wheel Horse adventure Things left to do... Stop the tray from leaking.. Fit a one way valve in the coolant pipe so the fluid doesn't drain back to the bottle every time the pump is turned off. Fit a "damper" to stop the pulley on top of the WH chassis from bouncing around so much.. But over all I'm very happy with how the lathe bench has turned out

I can't wait for the next installment of... "Rusty treasure hunt" It's amazing what you keep finding buried in the bushes!

A small update for you all.. A quick test fit of the new 3hp motor showed that it would fit in the right place and even one of the bolt holes lined up which makes making an adaptor plate easy. Thank you Nigel for the thick tread plate. seven holes drilled and two captive threads welded on later... The adaptor bolted bolted on the lathe bench. The new motor bolted on but not tightened up as it needed to come back off to be re-wired to spin in the oposite direction. A big thank you to Sandhurst Mark for doing that for me on Friday. No photo's but yesterday the lathe was fired up for the first time in oh... Too long... I'm a happy chap

I had heard they were a good make, I think fitting it is the only sensible thing to do Thanks for that Richard, I do have more faith in the Brookes motor than the one I have currently fitted to the lathe.. My compressor has a 3hp motor and it hasn't melted the wiring in the building yet, so I think I'm going to install the Brookes motor and see what happens.. Just need to make an adaptor plate so I can bolt it on. It's been a slow few days n the workshop, but a bit more progress has been made. To power the coolant pump I'm using this model railway controller, handy for changing the flow speed.. I may of got a bit carried away with the shelf fabrication though much to Nigel's horror This was the old drip/catch tray made from an enamal coated pub sign years ago. Chopped about a bit it's a nice fit in the bench. Weled in and kitted out with all the switch gear though not wired in yet.. The white cable will go through a grommit lined hole in the back of the panel.. As part of this lathe bench malarky I have been having a tidy up/clutter reduction in the workshop, as part of that the old stereo system had to go... Pimp my Stiga with a bangin sound system Thank you Walt for carting it away for me Of course no workshop should be without sounds, so I'm now using this amp and a pair of Kef C series speakers, with my old phone acting as internet radio and mp3 player. I'm staggered at the quality and bass capability of the speakers for the size of them... Amazing!

I've not made the hole in the cogs cover yet, but I did find a way to mount it that didn't involve having to undo any bolts/screws.. Three of these trim clip thingys were welded inside the cover and just clip over the lip.. Will it vibrate like a mad vibrating thing? We shall see Time to think about the flood coolant system, so I dug out the P100 washer bottle and pump which had been doing the cooling duties for many a year. Peeling off bit's of masking tape made it look like it had been sunbathing behind a railing fence It didn't scrub up to bad though.. Quite how the pump had remained working when the bottle was full of this gunk I'm not sure, but still working it was.. This is the rubber thingy the seals the pump into the hole.. And this is a small filter thingy I found in a jar of odd's n sod's I found a couple of weeks ago.. Hhhmmmm interesting, it fits the hole in the bottle quite well, not fully pushed in yet.. It also fit's the pump quite well, not fully pushed on yet.. No photo's but when the pump was fully fitted with the new rubber/anti carp thingy, it held it's water very well.. That will do for me So, how to get the coolant from the catch tray into the washer coolant bottle? You make a funnel of course from an old bench foot and a bit of pipe.. A bit of trimming to the coolant bottle to make it fit. Bottle fitted. The funnel fit's a treat and should catch anything that pours out the drain hole in the tray. While I had my head under the bench I gave the belt tensioning thingy a few tweaks to get the rod angles much better. I did another raid on the scrap pile yesterday, and after a lot of spannering I came away with this rather large electric motor that was on a compost mixing machine. Let's have a look at the specs tag shall we.. I'm not that "up" on electic motors but I'm told this is rather a good make... 2.2 kW which is 2.95hp.. Hhhmm... Powerful The rev/min speed is only 15rpm faster than the small original motor that came with the lathe. That's close enough for me. The only problem is the motor spins the wrong way for my needs... While thinking on that I took a cover off only to find wiring instruction wedged between the capacitors, including how to wire it to spin the other way So do I install this new motor on the lathe or not... 3hp is way more than I need for the size of lathe, but the spin speed is right, the triple pulley is the right size, and the capacitors will make starting it a lot less of a strain on the somewhat er.. shoddy wiring in the building.. Some thinking is needed me thinks

I didn't get much done last Thursday as I wasn't feeling that good. I did manage to mark out of the cogs cover where to drill a large-ish hole so I can get longer things on the lathe through the chuck.. To mark the hole I had to extend the pen a little bit Hole marked through the chuck.. And the size hole I need to drill out. I do have a bit of pipe the very same size cut to length ready to be welded in. I also cleaned off all the paint/coating off the cogs guard, the idea being rather than paint it just let nature take it's course.. A bit of surface rust and some oils splashed from the lathe will soon age it A bit of a slow day Tuesday, these double bank holidays always throw my body clock off.. Is it Monday or Friday today? My body clock say's it's Wednesday!! Anyway, I needed to recover the shelf under the lathe, so the last of that big blue panel was sliced up, with the bendy bit being cut off and welded underneath to add some extra strength.. Shelf done I thought I would take a quick look inside the new on/off switch box to work out how to wire it in.. Compare the inside of the new one.. To the inside of the old one!!! I think changing switches was a good move! That's not to say the old switch doesn't have some charm And while were being silly

You know those holes I liked? Yep these ones... Well I found a good use for them.. A bit of trimming and welding was needed along with this small plate to fill up a hole. And this is what I have made with the holes.. It fit's on the end of the bench to give it some strength and some style.. OK, I could of come up with a simpler design, but I just couldn't help myself Something was needed to cover the cogs that powers the er.. Auto feed is as good a name as any.. Anyway, a couple of strips of steel welded together and bent in a funky shape. Dig out a bit of computer case.. Chop and weld to shape.. I need to finish the welding and give the edge a little grind down, but I'm happy with the strange shape and look A finishing shot for the day

Toby is used to Nigel's strange ways already.. I think Toby just looks up and says, "oh, it's him again". Take a couple of Wheel Horse lift handles, here's one of them.. Then totally forget to take and photo's of the next few stages until you get to this point and remember again! The idea of the lever is so I have a quick release way of changing the lathe speeds as it involves moving a belt across flat pulleys. The lever will have two positions, all the way back which will keep the belt nice and tight, and of course pull it towards the front to loosen the belt.. Now, what could I use to lock the lever in the "drive" postion?? Once it's fully welded up then I think it will be strong enough for the job It will be welded to the bench soomewhere about here with an adjustable rod to connect it to the er... tilting Wh chassis/motor/pulleys mount I did a raid on the scrap heap Tuesday looking for extra legs for the bench and come back with this display stand I'm going to have to find a use for these end panels with the holes as I like the look of them.. A big moment came yesterday as "Operation Rotate" commenced.. A big thank you to (from left to right) Rex, Nigel and Dennis for giving me a hand rotating the lathe bench..Thanks Guy's A pump up pallet truck and a few pallet's made the move a painless affair The lathe in it's new postion, the pillar drill was also moved out of it's corner to a spot easier to get to.. A bit of thinking was needed to make the adjustable linkage that er.. links the lift arm to the pivoting pulley bit.. It needs a little refining but it works very well.. It's a bit hard to show with photo's but with the lever locked back the "speeds" belt (the flat one) is tight. Pull the lever forward into the other lock postion and the belt is slack making for easy speed changes. While I was raiding the scrap heap Tuesday I also returned with this switch gear which is in much better contion than the switch the came with the bigger motor.. And this big thick steel sheet both of which used to live on a compost mixing machine.... Having a workshop on a nursery does have it's perks As you can see the sheet has been marked out for cutting and bending. Chopped almost in half.. The back bent up.. And a slot cut in it for the belt lever.. A Vauxhall Corsa (or what was left of one!) donated a small bit of a door rubber partly to cover and shap edges, but mostly so I don't knock things down the hole Yes the blue sheet has become a bench top.. and back.. Better photo's of it coming up shortly.

So are we expecting a random pallet to turn up one day with a few engines on it?

Now your making me feel old Chris, I wasn't born when your racing licence was issued

Meet Toby the shop dog... He actually belongs to Rob, who is now retired and is spending a lot of time at the workshop giving me a hand with the heavy stuff.. Thanks mate Toby is about 6 months old and had spent much of his life in a cage, so he is a bit nervious and scared of everything... But each day his confidence is getting a little better, which is nice to see Speaking of Rob The splash back welded up and bolted on.. I wonder if Rob is thinking, "maybe I should move in case this lot falls over and lands on my foot".. The "check the pulleys are in line" test.. To get some better photo's and to make it easier to get to the front the bench was pulled out a bit which almost resulted in me being squashed.. The weight of the motor wanted to tip the bench over when it was moved! Me thinks an extra leg under the motor is needed As the lathe tray is a bit er.. bent I wanted to make sure any cooling fluid that hit's the splash back will flow towards the center of the tray. So a length of angle had been welded to the base of the splash back with a kink hammered down.. This should make sure any fluid goes through the drain hole and back to the coolant tank. And that's the bench build up to date again.

Morning chaps, the lathe saga continues.... But first.. With some rather big box in the power hacksaw thingy.... I had some thoughts about making a quick release system for the top pulleys to make changing speeds a bit easier... I think I'm on the right lines here, it just needs to be stronger! Once the box was sliced up it was welded to the bench and to the er.. big &rse hinge... I don't think it will move now The start of the splash back... Use what you have I say To give the splash back something to bolt onto a couple of lengths of small box was welded to the bench frame.. Before the splash back could be bolted on I had to make and fit a closing panel for the pulley end.. Starting with a panel cut from an old green shelf (thanks Rex ) which was firmly clamped to the bench.. I needed to bend a lip on it, so out came the long handle pliers type thingy for some gentle tweaking of the metal.. A gentle bend up only part way, then move a long a little. Which gives you this... Tweak it right the way along of course.. Then go back and do a second and third gentle tweaking until the lip is bent up all the way along.. Hammer and dolly time.. Using the edge of the dolly first to tidy up the "tight" bend.. Then along like this to tidy up the flange.. A quick buzz with the sander tidied up most of the hammer marks..

Thanks Guy's It was a quiet day really, gentle pottering in the workshop only disturbed by a Nigel bursting in singing happy birthday!

The sharp eye'd will of noticed a bit of pully damage on the electric motor.. I did try to get the pully off with a puller, but this just caused more damage.. As luck would have it the middle pulley is the right size and it also has no damage, so that's what I will use.. Time to fire up the Mig... I think that should be strong enough Clamped onto the bench.. Yep, that looks good I wasn't sure the bit of box that holds the motor adjust up was strong enough, so it got strenthened Looking at the photo I need to tidy it up a bit and plate over the hole.. Other than cutting an extra leg ( yes that is 2 bit's of WH chassis weled together!) for the bench, that's as far as I've got... Next on the hitlist is to make a quick release tensioner thingy for the top belt..

A bit more work has been done on the lathe, I needed to find a way of mounting this rather big motor mounting bracket.. A bit of big box with a slit later sort of thing.. The bit of big box slot's into the chassis like so.. It does need to go higher up.. But some plonker had dumped a big elecric motor in the way! Checking the pulleys line up. Not fully welded up yet, just a check to see if everything lined up as it should.... It does Now to find a way of adjusting the motor to pully belt... This will come in handy

Chop the foot rest rods off, followed by the front of the chassis... Chop the axle pivot mounts off and weld them to a big bit of box. And with one of the sliced off foot rests through the hole it becomes a big arse hinge Checking where to drill hole holes in the trans mount of the top pulleys. Interesting to see the chassis rails did not come level from the factory.. But all the bolt holes did Checking for belt clearance as the motor fill fit behind the chassis belt tensioner thingy.. And that's as far as the new lathe bench has got.. Tune back for more heavy metal work when it happen

Hi Neil, sorry to of broke the news to you while you were still on holiday.. Had I of known I'd of waited a few days.. I think the best way forward is for you to send us all the engines you have and we will work out the best one to put in the RJ.. A bit of mix and matching may or may not be needed... Don't worry about the different exhaust fitments, that can be sorted easy enough

Morning all, a bit more progress on the lathe bench even if it is slow progress... Well, every things so heavy you see In order to bolt the lathe down I needed a couple of big thick steel plates (or so I thought!), but as I didn't have any it was time to slice up some of this nice 1/4" thick angle and do some welding.. You can never have too many clamps Welded.. The almost finished plates.. As somehow the drip tray is a bit warped the lip was left on the plates so it could be carefully ground down to level the plate up.. Can you spot why I just wasted a lot of time? The lathe has small feet thingys where the bolts go through which means I only needed a couple of small plates rather than the full feet length one I had just made!! Oh yes, and there's the small matter of a foot long crack in the tray!! Not much I can do about this other than drilling small holes at each end of the crack to stop it spreading (done) and sealing the crack up with something to stop it leaking.. (Not done yet!) Yes the crack does go right through.. Big electric motors... For those time your legs are just not long enough Lot's and lot's of drilling later (thanks Nigel and Rob ) the lathe and tray was bolted down to the bench and I could think about how to mount the pulleys and motor.. This WH chassis looks like it could come in handy With the chassis flipped around an easy solution presented its self.. The chassis will be hinged where it makes contact with the lower bar on the bench to adjust the tension on the top belt and make it easier to change speeds.. I have the mounting plate for the motor which will be hinged off the chassis to make it easy to tension the main drive belt.. Were see how far I get today

Time to bring this lathe thread back from the dead.... Yes it really has taken me this long to get on with it!! It's not turned into anything for a long time Norm! Thanks mate, you know me... If it's there, use it Hi Alan, I was thinking about using your kitchen chair belt tension-er idea, but where the lathe is positioned the chair would be sticking through the wall Soooo... Fast forward almost 16 months with this lathe project and this is where were at The poor Southbend lathe hasn't moved, it just got buried! The idea is I dig this steel framed bench out from it's hiding place and use this as the basis on the new lathe bench.. To use the new-ish bigger electric motor I need something strong to mount it on.... I just don't trust the workshop walls!! Speaking of electric motors, here's the old one on the left next to the new one.. You can see the sort of weight I need to safely position now! Interestingly the new motor is a 1/4 of a hp less than the old one, but it has a huge amount of torque Looks like a re-wire is needed too... Something has leaked onto the cable while it's been stored under a bench and has turned the plastic into a sticky stretchy mess! A big thank you to Rob at this point for your help in this huge rearrange of the workshop.. Thanks mate Lathe, be gone... As luck would have it the wooden bench and the steel framed bench were both near enough the same length, which made swapping them around easy This bench and I have a long history, I remember collecting it as a bare frame from a friend's yard on a trailer behind my old WH 312-8.. A pleasant 15mins drive across (well around) fields... The holes on the right are where I had a 9 inch cutter mounted, all the sparks, dust etc would shoot down the hole, through a funnel thingy made from old computer cases into a collection box.. The said funnel thingy.. Off comes the top, two MDF boards bolted through the frame skinned with stainless which was stuck down with "No more nails" back in the day when it first came out and was dirt cheap! The bare frame.. And the mess the rest of the workshop is now in Leg extensions as modeled by Rob..... The bench that is not Rob A test fit of the catch tray and a bit of a measure.. HHmmm... The results of the measuring.. You might say the bolt hole don't quite line up a lot! The easy way would be to grind the flat plate down so the lathe legs would sit level on the tray, but I'm a bit worried about removing strength from the tray at a stress (bolting down) point.. The other way is to make a couple of rather big shims/plates that would bring the tray base level with the flat bit and bolt the lathe down through that.. It's something to think over.. By that point yesterday I was quite tired so I did a little gentle cleaning instead.. It's nice to see what colour the paint is and some shiny bits

No by me, must of been someone else

That's a fair sized plough, it looks more than a fair weight too

A good workout isn't the word for it, kicking us in the teeth more like! The pull start is now the least of the worries! What a day it has been in RJ land, the first job was to swap the engine backing plate over. I didn't get any photo's of the new backing plate in place, but here's the old one against the donor engine. Along with the new backing plate came updated electrics as there didn't seem and point in swapping the parts between plates.... So, with the engine bolted back together again it was time to see if it would run... Third pull it started right up ticked over well, revved up well and sounded generally very good.. To celebrate having finally got the engine sorted on went the kettle.... It was while the kettle was boiling that I noticed bubbling oil coming out from the head gasket! No photo but it will be on the next video.. Anyway, as the head has a slightly chewed up spark plug thread... We thought we would swap heads over as well as sorting he gasket.. Off it comes. HHmm, interesting.. The piston looks quite clean, but the amount of oil on the piston is a worry! I'd say that's a new piston which explains why the little engine has such good/high compresson which is also why the head gasket went pop!! The new cylinder head has a slight recess about the inlet valve and slightly different fins but it bolted right on.. The engine now felt to have a lot less compression when pulling it over, it also ran very rough!! Back off with the head to find it was oil coated! Does the exhaust valve look like it has had a hardened insert er.. inserted? The exhaust valve is where all the oil is coming from which means the guides/seals are shot!! Oil was also bubbling out from around the exhaust itself, as you can see at some point it had been broken off and wound back in at a pished angle! Quite where to go from here I'm not sure, Nigel and I did have a natter about swapping the RJ's crankshaft into the donor engine as it ran quite well and doesn't blow oil but the end of the crank is tapered not straight!! So close but yet so far!! Sigh!!

Mine too