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The first John Deere Tractor was a failure The John Deere Joe Dain tractor has a long and complicated history. Experimental work on this tractor dates to 1914. The inventor was Joseph Dain Sr. There were a few experimental machines put out each year until 1918 when 100 were built. The entire 100 machines were sold to the John Deere Company as they wanted to get into the tractor business. These machines were built in a factory located on in East Moline, Illinois. This is where the John Deere Harvester Works began its existence. Elmer McCormick, who later became Chief Engineer at Deere’s Waterloo Plant, supervised the manufacturing. John Deere had narrowed their field down to two options: Go with the four cylinder, all-wheel-drive Dain design and make it themselves or purchase the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company of Waterloo, Iowa and use the already proven two cylinder Waterloo Boy Tractor. Deere chose the two cylinder Waterloo Boy partly because it believed the two cylinder design was simple and less expensive and that the Waterloo boy had already established itself as a successful tractor. The Dain Tractor project was dropped upon purchase of the Waterloo plant. There are only two complete examples of this tractor known to exist. The Dain that was built by John Deere was a failure due to the high price tag and Deere ordered them to be destroyed. Some were parked on a frozen river and sank when the ice melted.

The one machine a regret selling...

Some of the metal I have so far.

315-8 hauling wood up to the street for pickup…

Better than you check your undies for holes? Where is @SylvanLakeWH for a visual when you need one?!?

You should have a drain valve where that pipe cap is and use it often to blast the water and debris out. If there is additional vertical runs, they should have valves as well.

Well that’s what the Weather guys are saying for snow in my area, we’ll see. Starts late Saturday and ends mid-day Sunday. Will be nice to leisurely clear it Sunday with a WH (maybe the walk behind blower if it’s deeeep) And….it shouldn’t mess up my Monday morning flight to Hawaii …

I thought he wanted to put in the trunk of the Pontiac .

Well, it looks like I will be able to see how this 312-8 will handle the 2 stage this weekend. I will be in a Loader pushing snow for work so I imagine when I get home, I will have 8-12" to work with. Belts have been changed, fluids, I am awaiting a Clutch spring I ordered on Monday from Wheel Horse Parts, I will rig something up if it's not here by the storm. The Gas shock does not pull back the clutch, but it does hold it back if I use my foot to reset. I will try to get some photos or video .

It was in the high 30s with a pretty heavy fog yesterday evening. The temperature dropped into the mid 20s overnight. We woke up to some interesting frost this morning: I did manage to get the cartridge out of the kitchen sink faucet last night. Spent this morning shopping for one. ACE, the blue box store, the green box store, and a local plumber wholesale outfit were unable to help. The wholesale outfit gave me a couple of out of town suppliers to call. Fortunately, the supplier in the next city of any size to our east had the cartridge in stock. So, we are going to take a little trip tomorrow. Turns out that these Kohler faucets are out of production - apparently that includes the service parts now. The blue box store has some 27 ton wood splitters in front of the store. The Craftsman machine had a Kohler 6.5hp engine for power, the off brand had a B&S engine for power. Other than the engines, paint, and decals, the machines appeared to be identical. Price was $600. TSC had 20 ton splitters for $1,000 +/- in front of their store. I wonder what is up with the price difference? The splitters at TSC look like they could be towed on the road behind a car. The splitters at the blue box store had hitches, but the running gear didn't look like it would be road worthy. 1/15 edit. On my last trip to the blue box store, I noticed that the price on the log splitters is now $1200. Either they had a sale, or they were mis-marked. Guess I should have tried to pick one up at the $600 price.

Yeah, selling ain't as much fun as buying. He put a boat load of time and energy into that set up and sold quite a few. That was something people wanted and still do. Probably found out that the few will always ruin it for the many. ( Like that recent thing with Lowell )

The BBT got her Military Tribute Tractor "Millie" ready for this weekend's snow fun! 25 lb inside weights. 65 lb outside weights. We just need to wrap the rear sneakers with chains ⛓️ and she'll be ready to rumble!

@Sparky Hey Mike? You get ya bread and milk??!!

They could be trying to order Chinese take out

I agree…if the Briggs is a good runner I would keep it on the machine.

How far off are they Jim? Leave all bolts loose. Until you get them all in. Loosening up the shaker plate blocks may give a little wiggle room. Make sure drive or PTO belts aren't pulling the motor off. Just guessing these are Zack Kerber solids like these?

I'll say somewhat, but mostly concerned about the right of freedom. Like you said justification. I can see this being another area of easy manipulation....

You meant to say "treasures" there, didn't ya?

Maybe not but I still look pretty damn good in one

Sorta funny story about shop reels in general. Again back in my Napa days we had a customer that was opening his own shop. He bought 2 drop light reels. About 2 years after he bought them he says " one just broke can I get it under warranty?" I said "Sure." ( He was spending over 10 grand a month with us at the time) I get him a new reel. A couple of weeks later the other reel breaks so again another warranty reel. This keeps happening about every 3 months. And although he isn't paying for new one's, he's starting to get upset. Then one day I'm at the shop on a delivery and look out in the shop. Just as I look, his 325lb+++ mechanic Elmer, is yanking the droplight cord down with all he's got! No wonder the freaking things are breaking. I mentioned to him that his boy Elmer is the reason for the lights breaking. Never had to warranty another!

My brother tried one of those when he was redoing the frame on his 55 Cheby pick up build . Said the discs didn't last long and hard to get into some places. I use a flap disc on my 4 inch grinder and get good results. I also use a flapper wheel on a straight Milwaukee grinder that I picked up years ago for $10.00 at a flea market. It gets in to all the small places.

Make a trailer out of that bed!

and within minutes, someone will send you a couple.

I keep all of mine indoors… an outside tractor just ages so quickly.

Love this tractor... Started life as an OHV Tecumseh... I bought it with a Kohler K341 in it. Just didnt shift right etc... found out the Kohler K was out of a C160 hydro and had the 5" crank pulley. Pulled that motor to put on a C160 hydro with a horrendous balance gear or rod knock. Pulled the magnum out of a beat to hell 416-8 and dropped it on. Also added a 48" 5 quadrant plow, a super heavy duty receiver hitch and winch setup from Russell Wright 100 lbs of weights on each wheel inside and out and 4 new tires---ready to go!! What a work rig!!! 20231230_095030.mp4

@Ed Kennell next time you see one of those guys, stop and ask what new feature they are working on. There is a power pole winith a transformer in the corner of our yard at our Michigan location. A power company guy had stopped and was looking at it and the surrounding area. My neighbor asked what was up. The reply was this one is going onto an upgrade list. We will have to see what happens. Two neighbors and I believe that the transformer is undersized for the current load hooked up to it. It feeds 7 houses. I was mixing grout with my 1/2" drill when my neighbor came over to see what I was doing. Seems his LED shop lights were flickering when I was mixing with the drill.

That is one of those Power Wagons that has an aftermarket modification that cut the frame in half and put a heavy duty pivot that allowed the frame to twist, giving large amounts of up and down wheel motion. Positraction differentials caused some funky handling issues.

1-2 here...that's inches not feet.

I had to chuckle about the "they are making you get a Covid shot, 'cause they are also injecting a micro chip to track you" shtick a few years back. That one was spread largely by social media - ON CELL PHONES! No need for the micro chip, the location data is already out there on the cell phones!

I guess I should install the blower in the morning huh?

Saying 6-8 here too in Glastonbury CT

Do you have a navigation system in your car? Is your car an electric car that updates over the air? How about a smartwatch or smartphone? Are location services on the smartphone turned on or do you use WAZE for navigation. The electric company has nothing on these other guys.

Good plan...

WOW, 50KWH/ day. Joe are you in the shop 24/7 burnin weld wire or you got one of them 2500 ev pickups that you drive 200 mile a day ? I panic when mine exceeds 25 /day.

Wow I guess I'm dyslexic as well

Beautiful machine!

I don't imagine they're rare as hen's teeth but I've not tried to look for one for quite a while. Is there a specific reason you would look for a Tecumseh? Does the tractor have a specific type of value to you? I have nothing particular against Tecumseh but unless you're looking to duplicate that engine for collector value, you are likely better off sticking with the Briggs that's on there already.

I got one for Christmas and for me it's great! I use a lot of used steel when I fabricate. This thing cleans flat surfaces lickety split. Much faster than a cup brush on a grinder. It doesn't get into corners at all. I am interested in how it will strip paint or powder coat on my car trailer when I get to that. Scaley rust is gone, but not so much in the pits. I have only used the coarsest drum so far which is $29.99 to replace.

i have personally met matt and bought quite a few of his kits. i think they are great. in the first few years of production he was selling quite a few. then he told me that there were only so many eaton hydro's sold and most of the wh enthusiast's that wanted a foot pedal had already bought a kit and converted. now it was only sporadic interest. a few years ago he would make a batch around Christmas and then that it was it for the year. then he moved to florida and he told me his dad was going to continue production but, i have not heard anything more.

@JCM agree with you on the opportunity , typically those stamped , ends have a structural crack , right there , adding a front / back light steel reinforcement , along with FENDER WASHERS , to spread / reinforce the elastic lock nuts , would make that a solid point , instead of a flexing / cracking area . https://www.google.com/search?q=preforated+steel&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS866US866&oq=preforated+steel&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgKGIA regularly use this for a go to point , only a suggestion , also easily trimmed up with tin snips . still have this in stainless steel . insure a heavier flat washer , to spread the connection . pete

Nice looking wheel weights. I have a decent set of outside steel weights and an OK set of outside plastic/concrete weights, but it seems those inside weights are sure hard to find. I really like that the outside weights don't stick out past the edge of the tire. I lost a corner piece of siding on the garage a few years ago when one of the protruding nuts on the plastic weights clipped it while plowing. I think we are only slated for a few inches of snow this weekend, but I'm looking forward to breaking out the plow

Started work on the 312-8 it's in good shape for the most part. Tight axle pivot, tie rods still in good shape, same with the steering, and rear hubs, really strong 12 HP Kohler. Frame covered in surface rust, spots of rust and missing paint on the sheet metal, dust boot mostly rotted away, think the dirt under it may be why it doesn't shift smoothly. Solid tractor that needs to be taken apart, a few repairs and repainted. THe tractor was like this when my friend got it 5 years ago. I have already changed the rear wheels and tires with the one that came on my Raider. The inside flange on both wheels is almost rusted off. Working on the hood hinges now All the damage was done before my friend got it, sat in a dry enclosed shed while he had it.

Hey, he didn't like your skinny cable clamps, so I went heavy.