About 10 years ago, our local antique machinery club was donated a largish collection of steam pumps from the estate of a longtime member. The original plans were to mount them in a bleacher style rack for display. It never happened. Two of the pumps were appropriated to feed the boilers in the steam building. The rest were put down in the tree line and left to the elements.
About 3 years ago my GF Kim and I decided to see if something couldn't be done about this sad state of affairs. We started by painting the largest orphan. (As you can see by the rusty rectangle, some weasel already liberated the build tag
Now it was painted all purty, but it was still down in the weeds.
When I got the rear manure spreader wheels for my roller from a family friend, I also purchased the front axle and a straight one from a husker shredder. Except, I couldn't get them hauled until this past May.... Meanwhile, the guy who was cutting up the scrap for my friend got torch happy and cut away all the steering stuff from my axle. Grrrrrrrr! I was given another set of steering parts from another scrapped out spreader. They were both McCormick, but from different years. They looked close, but weren't quite right. I spent almost 5 hours making them fit. I needed to lengthen the tie bar almost 4", so I got the bright idea of cutting it in the center, and only making one splice. I then had to graft on the part that holds the tongue since that was burnt off *(and different) as well.... It doesn't look factory purty but it should be serviceable.
The rear axle needed widened just 'a little' to match the front. Good thing it was pipe, not solid! While I had it apart I welded a 30" long piece of one size smaller pipe inside the axle. In theory it should be plenty strong enough for what I have in mind. (I think we can get 4 duplexes on a 12 foot wagon by mounting 3 of them crosswise)
A quick coat of red paint on the wheels was just so everybody knew they weren't "dumped junk"
And that is where the project got stuck for nearly 3 months. To purchase 4x6 wood sills 12 feet long would have been about $60. The club president promised me the club would have a set sawed for me by July 4... they weren't. Then I was promised they'd cut them at the summer show at the beginning of August... they still weren't. So I decided to go another route. Another friend donated me 2 sections of mobile home I beam. He delivered them last Friday. I decided I'd probably better go over and start mounting them today before the scrappies saw them.
Tramming everything up took a lot longer than the actual welding did. But the end result is that it's within 1/16" of perfectly square. NO dog tracking on my shift!
This is the first of many braces. I trust my welds. But I also trust some of the guys in the club. I trust that sooner or later somebody WILL hook a tractor to it, rip 'n snort and run it into a doorframe, tree, or other bit of machinery.
Since it was getting dark I had to stop there for the day. My last project before leaving was to flip the steering stuff over (I'd managed to mount it upside down!) Luckily that was a 5 minute deal. One big bolt from the pivot, a kotter pins at each end of the tie rod, and turn it all over as a unit. By golly, if it didn't fit even better than the other way!
Then we rolled it outside in the rain so nobody could complain it was in the way if I don't get back to it this week....
About 3 years ago my GF Kim and I decided to see if something couldn't be done about this sad state of affairs. We started by painting the largest orphan. (As you can see by the rusty rectangle, some weasel already liberated the build tag
Now it was painted all purty, but it was still down in the weeds.
When I got the rear manure spreader wheels for my roller from a family friend, I also purchased the front axle and a straight one from a husker shredder. Except, I couldn't get them hauled until this past May.... Meanwhile, the guy who was cutting up the scrap for my friend got torch happy and cut away all the steering stuff from my axle. Grrrrrrrr! I was given another set of steering parts from another scrapped out spreader. They were both McCormick, but from different years. They looked close, but weren't quite right. I spent almost 5 hours making them fit. I needed to lengthen the tie bar almost 4", so I got the bright idea of cutting it in the center, and only making one splice. I then had to graft on the part that holds the tongue since that was burnt off *(and different) as well.... It doesn't look factory purty but it should be serviceable.
The rear axle needed widened just 'a little' to match the front. Good thing it was pipe, not solid! While I had it apart I welded a 30" long piece of one size smaller pipe inside the axle. In theory it should be plenty strong enough for what I have in mind. (I think we can get 4 duplexes on a 12 foot wagon by mounting 3 of them crosswise)
A quick coat of red paint on the wheels was just so everybody knew they weren't "dumped junk"
And that is where the project got stuck for nearly 3 months. To purchase 4x6 wood sills 12 feet long would have been about $60. The club president promised me the club would have a set sawed for me by July 4... they weren't. Then I was promised they'd cut them at the summer show at the beginning of August... they still weren't. So I decided to go another route. Another friend donated me 2 sections of mobile home I beam. He delivered them last Friday. I decided I'd probably better go over and start mounting them today before the scrappies saw them.
Tramming everything up took a lot longer than the actual welding did. But the end result is that it's within 1/16" of perfectly square. NO dog tracking on my shift!
This is the first of many braces. I trust my welds. But I also trust some of the guys in the club. I trust that sooner or later somebody WILL hook a tractor to it, rip 'n snort and run it into a doorframe, tree, or other bit of machinery.
Since it was getting dark I had to stop there for the day. My last project before leaving was to flip the steering stuff over (I'd managed to mount it upside down!) Luckily that was a 5 minute deal. One big bolt from the pivot, a kotter pins at each end of the tie rod, and turn it all over as a unit. By golly, if it didn't fit even better than the other way!
Then we rolled it outside in the rain so nobody could complain it was in the way if I don't get back to it this week....