Welding/grinding sort of day...

Had one of those busy but satisfying days getting filthy dirty !

Finished off the new gate posts for the field by welding on plates to bring the box section thickness up to enough to take a 1/2" Whit thread, then drilled and tapped.

Found the welder mains cable sliced through halfway down its length, don't know when that happend, but it had gone through nearly all three conductors in a piece of TRES 2.5mm cable...

Having more thoughts on the Ruston trolley, having prevaricated for ages over the undercarriage and what wheels to use. The original idea was to use a set of cast Ali wheels with solid rubber tyres that I had 5 of, they had roller bearings and were new, but the larger pneumatic trolley wheels we saved from the depot at Bedford a year ago have been dug out today and after a clean-off have gone in the van to go to the shotblasters in the morning.

These are like bomb trolley wheels and tyres with that chunky fork truck type of tread, and we have 6 wheels and hubs plus 8 tyres, one new. Might go for plain bearings with the larger wheels, but will have to see what they look like when they come back with their powder coating. I may invest in a 25kg pack of BS381C Shade 226 Polyester for these and some other stuff, painting never seems to give enough covering for my own liking.

The guy next door is making up a new car transporter to replace his Transit, and has bought a secondhand Isuzu 7.5 tonner with a 4.8 litre four-pot turbo diesel. he has a garage that's close to a small bungalow in size, plus a fork truck, so is quite useful to know...

I've been swapping ideas and projects with him since he moved here a few years ago, and he is making a good job of lengthening the chassis and building his own flat body. The propshafts were lengthened professionally but otherwise most has been done by him. Will keep everyone informed.

Have hot a couple of Lister Start-O-Matic silencers to go down for the treatment tomorrow, they have been sulking outside for a few years and need to be cleaned up. Must go and get the end blanking caps out before I go to bed or I'll forget them!

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

Tyres also have a nasty habit of going flat - especially when you need to move something urgently as I found out with my Dumper today. Fired it up to shift the trailer out of the yard and one of the tyres had gone flat for the second time this week after a supposed puncture repair.

One of the best ways round this I have seen was an engine which was transported on a set of pneumatics (Mini wheels I think), and then the wheels were swapped to a slave set of rims which had been 'tyred' with steel chequer plate for use whilst the engine was running.

Regards

Dan

It's a good good point. Pneumatics do have residual spring them and I also have seen engines looking like trampolines at rallies !

The tyres are 8 ply 18 X 7 size and very hard/rigid. I am assuming that the walls wil not have that much flex in them, but will obviously need to make sure we don't hit a sympathetic rate of rotation on the engine that causes a massive "boinng" :-))

The wheels are not road-rated having only 3 wheel studs, while the split rims have five studs and nuts to hold them together....????

I think these may fare better in softer ground than the solid tyred ali wheels that are half the tread width.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

Gentlemen,

I too had a good day, I managed to make space for my Mill/Drill in the garage and then with the aid of my engine hoist and daughter got it off the trailer and onto its stand, its amazing what an engine hoist will lift especially mine which is handdraulic in operation, I then lifted onto the trailer items for next week B&BSEC Bring & Buy. A slightly off topic question, how many of you were blessed with daughters and not sons. The reason I ask is I must be lucky because Gemma is our only child and goes with dad to weekend rally's and helps me load and unload but has not quite got the hang of the art of getting dirty. She helped me unload and position the mill/Drill in a brand new pink, very pink, Bomber style jacket and then complained that she might get it dirty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her idea of old clothes are those she bought yesterday :-))

Martin P

She helped me unload

But Martin, you should keep your machines clean. Wipe them over regularly with something other than your daughter. I find next doors cat very effective. Having had the pleasure of meeting you both. You are lucky to have such a helper. Went to Malvern autojumble yesterday and parked next to a Dormobile. Wandered if it was yours but no towbar. Regards

John