Ian

The past week has been full of "the first of spring" moments..

Heard my first woodpeckers, seen lot's of bee's both big fluffy things and the smaller ones, butterfly's and amazingly a bat the other night..

And spotted in the garden this morning... a pair of ears..

I guess spring started really early for the bunny's as my Wife say's these two are about 8 weeks old!!

I tend to get mine through Ebay.

The question is.. Can she drive the WH in a straight line? 

Thanks Nigel, just got to get the other one along now...

Are you talking about me Paul?

well this old gits coming

Got a spare seat in your wagon Nigel?

 Thats some fine back yard engineering there Ian!   Your work bench reminds me alot of mine (a complete disaster)!!   Love it.

 

Matt

Thanks Matt... Yeah my bench is a bit of a mess... If I clean it, it only takes 5 mins for it to vanish under tool, metal etc

I managed to get most of the long connecting rod made yesterday, it should be finished tomorrow..

Time for some measuring.. I needed to know how much "off-set" there was between the inside of this bit..

To the inside of this bit that's very much tucked away under the hood stand and was a right pain to get a photo of..

Lot's of measuring and scribbling later I found the the "off set" was 20mm...   Hhmm... quite handy as I'm using lot's of 5mm steel

My 5mm thick steel just happened to 5 inches wide which was convenient for cutting 4 strips from.

Sliced and clamped together..

A few tack welds.. To be fully seam welded later.

My new-ish Arc welder is a fantastic machine, it can produce some very nice welds..   Thanks Nigel

Part one of the connecting rod roughly in the right place.

I'm working out my measurements with the 3 point at it's lowest setting.. To make sure this bit of linkage won't hit the bit of tube the top link connects to, I zip tied a bit of steel to it to make sure nothing hit's

Part 2 of the connecting rod was made from yet more 5mm plate..

Here it part of it wedged in place and not at the right angle by any means.. Having got dirt and grease in my eyes while lying under the GT twice in 5 min's I decided that I'd had enough for the day, so I only quickly took these two snaps.

It's great to see some build photo's Chris, I've only ever see it in it's finished state

A sheep?

They tend to get upset when I'm looking for somewhere to mount the muffler

The only reminder I'm giving you is, it's something fun and different to cut grass with

Bit o' flaky red paint and it would look original!

I'd best buy a can of flaky red paint then

I'm keeping it a secret for now, but I'm sure I told you when you were here last Mark... So sshhhhh

Oi! That was going to be my next question....

I should of kept all the parts from the Raider I bought for the 16hp engine really

If you fancy selling any of it Chris let me know.. I'm starting to collect parts for my next project

Nice work Paul, she will look great when your finished

Gob smacked... That's just amazing..   I'd love to see it in person..  Thanks for posting it Mark

Strewth Matt, your not hanging about!   

The bigger rear tires give it the full on mini tractor look.... Can't wait to see it finished

While I was in the metal shaping mood the bearing blocks were bolted together and marked out for trimming.

Trimmed...

And cleaned up..

It's taken a while but finally I have all the components to make the pivoting lift arm thingy made..    That's 17 bit's of steel!

I still need to cut the steel bars down a little and radius the outer ends of the lift arm in these photo's

The bit of tube  on the shaft will be welded to the shaft to limit sideways movement.

Now for the fun bit.. Welding it all together in the right shape, at the right angles, with everything the right distance apart!!!

At this point I am only tack welding it together, should I need to change anything then it's easier to cut out tack welds then full seam welds.

Part 1 done.. The shafts have been joined and the flange thingys tacked on.

Part 2 involved lot's of clamping, measuring more than twice, and a ratchet strap

Ta-daa...  Everything is square and the space between the lift arms is only 1/2mm wider at the outer ends than by the shaft... I'm happy with that

Does it fit???   Oh yes

And that chaps brings this thread up to date..

Today's fun task is to make the rod that connects the lift arm pivoting thingy to the hydraulics at the front... It should be fun as it's rather an interesting shape

Very tidy

Thanks Mark, I must of been having a good day

As I don't have a length of bar long enough I'm going to use part of this Wheel Horse lift thingy to join two bit's of bar together.

But before I join the bar I need to join 6 strips of 5mm steel to make 2 lift arms..

All 6 welded together.. The join right down the middle had only been tack welded a couple of times, with those tack welds ground out I will end up with 2 15mm lift arms

While the above welds were cooling some masking tape and a handy sized socket were put into use lining up the two bearing blocks for bolt hole drilling and a bit of thread tapping.

Another test fit to check I'd got the bolt holes in the right place and the shaft still turned.. They were and it did turn

The plan for the lift arms was to chain drill out a hole so they could tightly slot over the shaft.. Chain drilling through 15mm of steel didn't go as well as I had hoped, in the end I had to do a bit of cutting and shaping with the grinder!

I was a little worried about getting enough strength in my welds to hold it all together, but a bit of "right place, right time" came into play and I picked up this Ferm Concept 210 arc welder for a good price.. It feels much nicer to use and is almost twice as powerful as my old Clarke 110 arc welder

Time to tackle this bit..

Cleaned up a tad.

A couple more bit's of steel tacked together and marked out for a little shaping..

Quite possibly the two best bit's of metal shaping I have done in a long time... So have two photo's of them

Good progress Ian, glad you are back on it

Thanks Mark, it's getting there slowly.

who said that there is a limit to everything cos when it come to re vamp these red horse you set your own limits, my little garden tractor has three point linkage but that is manually operated so this is of great interest to me as i have been trying to get it changed to operate hydraulically 

thanks for sharing this experimental crafting of your machine its top draw stuff

Thank you Sir. I guess the only limit is imagination when  it comes to re vamping these fine machines

This is a great 'Horse and I love how you've worked on it. I love the Wheelhorse GT, is that bigger than the D-250? Keep up the great work

Thanking you kindly Sir, don't worry, I will keep up the great work

I see Mark has answered your size question.

At this point I got a little distracted by the roll bar again.. Off came the temporary bit of bracing but not before a new cross member was welded in place.

Now the fun bit..  The holes at the top are where the roll bar bolts to the trans.. They need to stay where they are, but the parts below that and inbetween  the hollow tube need to be moved out a couple of inches each side.

I didn't take many photo's of this stage as I was too busy getting on with it..

The new metal going on are the brown bit's seen here clamped on for welding.. Before I started making sparks I cut through the old bit where I would not be able to cut with the new bit welded on..

As you can see there is now plenty of space for the drop arms

And more than enough lift for the lower arms

Back to the bearing blocks.. The second one cleaned up and bored out..  The masking tape is to help mark out where the bolt holes should be.

A quick check to see if everything bolted in place and the shaft still turned without binding.. They do and it does

A little tight on space though..

The extra space created by the roll bar widening got me thinking.. If I could extend the bit of bar a bit I could get the lift arms almost above the lower arms..

For me the best way to work something out is to put the parts in place and have a look.. A bit of metal balancing and moving the bearing blocks "outboard" later, it looks like my idea will work.

I'm not quite sure what you did to the link Daniel, it was just showing as a photo or some reason..

Your a nutter Daniel    Another great video from the master of silly and fun videos

Note to ones self.. Must get a bigger collection one day

An amazing collection indeed though I feel a few "red machines" wouldn't go amiss

Thanks Neil, that's very handy

The speed your going Matt your have it all painted and bolted back together by the end of the weekend

Congrats Neil, I have your Stonehenge photo as one of my desktop wallpapers

That would be a cool fun build... Love it