Messing around in the shop

[Eugen]

That's a good save Jeff! Glad it didn't get complicated.

[DavidBarkey]

Good quality valve cap will seal a leaky valve up to 40lbs

[JSinMO]

Well it’s time to get ready for for spring and summer. Let the oil changes and greasing begin!

The mule and mower are ready to go! Oiled, greased, and air filters cleaned. Plan is to do the first mow of the season tomorrow. Still have a lot of tractors and equipment to go over, but I’ll get there.
Just some nice time spent in the shop looking forward!

[JSinMO]

I pulled the JD sickle mower around the other day. The sun pop back out so I started working on it this afternoon.

I broke the wooden pitman arm on it last year. You used to be able to stop at any farm store and pick one up, not any more. I guess it’s too old now. I found one online but the shipping cost more that the piece of wood!
So as much as I hated to do it I stopped by the John Deere dealership to see if they had one. Thankfully there were a couple of old guys behind the counter that knew what a #37 mower is. Of course it had to be ordered but they did get it and the price was less that online. I think this one might be hard maple, but I’m not sure.

Since it looks like it’s going to a pain to get one in the future I decided to just keep it and use it as a pattern to make some. I had a couple of pieces of cherry wood that I cut some blanks from. My wood working is pretty crude but we’ll see how it works!

[Timj]

I pulled the JD sickle mower around the other day. The sun pop back out so I started working on it this afternoon.
IMG_3532.jpeg
I broke the wooden pitman arm on it last year. You used to be able to stop at any farm store and pick one up, not any more. I guess it’s too old now. I found one online but the shipping cost more that the piece of wood!
So as much as I hated to do it I stopped by the John Deere dealership to see if they had one. Thankfully there were a couple of old guys behind the counter that knew what a #37 mower is. Of course it had to be ordered but they did get it and the price was less that online. I think this one might be hard maple, but I’m not sure.
IMG_3527.jpeg

Since it looks like it’s going to a pain to get one in the future I decided to just keep it and use it as a pattern to make some. I had a couple of pieces of cherry wood that I cut some blanks from. My wood working is pretty crude but we’ll see how it works!
IMG_3552.jpeg

Good thinking.

[JSinMO]

I had this old chain that I found buried in the ground. It was quite rusty but otherwise ok. Since I had a used bucket of oil from the rear end of the truck, I threw it in! Don’t know if it helped or just made a bigger mess!

I tided it up and let it drip dry. We’ll see if it’s usable.

I put my homemade cobbled pitman stick on the sickle mower. It looks like crap but it functions, we’ll see how long it lasts. I had a couple of other parts out on the bar I had to replace too.

I needed a tractor to be able to test it so I went down and got the Super H out of winter storage. This tractor is still on a 6 volt system and I’ve done nothing with it since December. I was shocked, it started right up! Didn’t even need to charged the battery! I ran it up to the shop and checked it over and greased it up.

I took the mower and made a pass so far it working. The true test will be when I get into some thick stuff.

[Eugen]

Sounds like a whole lot of fun Jeff. And look at that sunshine! We're having a few days of rain here.

Good find that chain. You can never have enough chains I say. Maybe you try electrolysis rust removal?

[DavidBarkey]

@JSinMO Why is the pitman arm would when the rest is steel ?

[JSinMO]

@Eugen I should have thought of that! this would have been the perfect piece to try out electrolysis.
I guess I’ll see how this does. I suppose I can always put the juice to it!

@DavidBarkey The pitman arm is a designed fail point. A lot of the old machines were made that way. It has to be strong enough to handle mowing heavy grass, but weak enough to break if the mower get into a hard bind so the cutting bar or eccentric aren’t damaged.

[JSinMO]

Well the cavalcade of equipment getting ready for spring and summer continues! A few jugs of oil, a half can of lube, and what seems like about a 1000 grease fittings and just like that this stuff is ready to go!
Woke the 1939 M up from its winter nap and brought the baler in.

Went over tractor and machine and I think we’re finally ready to try and make some bales! Just waiting on the weather now to test it out.
Figured I might as well go over the old hay rake while I’m at it.

It’s pretty wore out but it still makes a good windrow.
It’s ground driven, some big gears and chain make it go.

Next the old tiller got a going over. Two pulls of the rope and away it went!

Looks like our night time temperatures will stay in the 50s or above so I’ll be tilling and planting the garden pretty quick here.

And hey one more to go over today. Just like the M and the tiller this guy has been sleeping for awhile. And just like the others it fired right up. I sure do love easy starting equipment!

Went over it with grease air and oil everything seems good other than the leaky cylinder seals I still have to fix!
The 648 woke up and had to stretch a little bit!

Turned out to be quite a productive and enjoyable day in the shop!