2024 Project

[Achto 27,577]

16 minutes ago, wallfish said:

You can make those bends in that Dan?

 

The press brake at work can.  

Edited January 22 by Achto

[wallfish 17,000]

4 minutes ago, Achto said:

 

The press brake at work can.  

That's some power and a nice option to have access to.

[Achto 27,577]

3 minutes ago, wallfish said:

That's some power and a nice option to have access to.

 

We can bend up to 3/8" in 12' lengths. 1/2" in shorter lengths. Cool tools to play with.

[WHX?? 48,815]

3 minutes ago, wallfish said:

That's some power and a nice option to have access to.

Ain't  it tho. I thought it was great to have access to one that would do 18 ga. when I worked.

Does that get welded to the F plate then or just the tranny bolts? 

[Achto 27,577]

3 minutes ago, WHX?? said:

Does that get welded to the F plate then or just the tranny bolts? 

 

Completely bolt in. 

[ebinmaine 67,502]

1 hour ago, Achto said:

 

Completely bolt in. 

 

You could Market those. 

 

I'd buy one for the 75 C160 Automatic plow tractor. 

 

VERY nice work.  

[Achto 27,577]

2 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

You could Market those. 

 

If I had all the tools to do the job at home, I'd make up a bunch of them. 

[953 nut 55,229]

4 hours ago, Achto said:

All of the pull on this tractor will be primarily on the transmission its self. Having the front end in the air with occasional slamming back down to the ground could be a recipe to damage the F-plate

One thing is a for-sure no-brainer; drag racing or pulling will let you know what the weakest link is.  Correct it and you will find the next weakest link.   Those beautiful new front tires and wheel should never wear out with the front end two feet in the air.      

[Achto 27,577]

Few steps forward today. First thing on my agenda was to make a new dash. Started out with a piece stainless, after a bend, some shaping & a couple of holes it's almost ready. Need to drill one more hole when I decide on what choke cable I'm going to use. Then I will polish it up.

 

Next up was getting tie rods set up. Started out with a junk set of tie rods that I had. Cut them down to length for fitment on the Lawn Ranger front axle.

 

Took them for a spin on the lathe to turn the ends down to 7/16".

 

Threaded the turned down portion to 7/16 - 20.

 

Front end completed with an 1/8" toe in.

 

Made a filler plate for the hole left behind after removing the lift arm. Thought it a good idea to strengthen this part of the dash tower back up.

 

 

Edited January 28 by Achto

[WHX?? 48,815]

Nice switch!!!  Can we put a launch decal under it?!?! 

I ordered a buttload of those in the jungle fellas... I have no idea why... cheap I guess. The lighting control panel in a 520 sno beast. 

Guessing you know about the crack in the usual spot on the hood stand? What I did for a fix since I didn’t want to weld on it. Actually did weld on it during resto... so much for me frying eggs...

Edited January 28 by WHX??

[Handy Don 12,232]

20 hours ago, Achto said:

Very nice work.

My threading dies are not the type that go all the way to a shoulder, as yours do. Very handy!

[wallfish 17,000]

9 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Very nice work.

My threading dies are not the type that go all the way to a shoulder, as yours do. Very handy!

Turn the die over after it gets to the bottom on the initial thread cut.

Edited January 28 by wallfish

[Achto 27,577]

2 hours ago, Handy Don said:

 

My threading dies are not the type that go all the way to a shoulder, as yours do

 

2 hours ago, wallfish said:

Turn the die over after it gets to the bottom on the initial thread cut.

 

That is exactly how I accomplished bottoming the threads out. 

[Achto 27,577]

Whoo Hooo!!!  I was able to work on this project 2 days in a row. 

 

First up this morning was a mid mount weight bar. Did some tear out figures & learned that 7ga metal would far exceed what I planed on hanging for weight. Cut a couple hangers out of some scrap left over from making ladder bar / F-plate reinforcements.

 

Did some measuring to figure out where I wanted to mount them on the ladder bars. Then cut a piece of 3/4" round stock to hang the weights on.

 

There is enough rod to hang 15 of my 7lb weights on each side, Plus there is room for weight in between the ladder bars.

 

I did a lot of deliberating on how I wanted to make the hitch. After looking at other hitches and running a few designs through my head I finally decided on how I would make it. Right or wrong, here is how I decided to go. First piece cut out of 1/4" plate & semi ready to go.

 

Cut an opening in the back so that it could be mounted where I want.

 

Back to cutting some more pieces out of 1/4" plate.

 

These pieces will connect the upper plate with the original 3/4" pin hole in the tranny.

 

Trimmed the upper plate to length, made the center plate, and the lower plate out of some more 1/4" plate. Here is a preliminary mock up.

 

It took a lot of time to cut all of these pieces out with a 4 1/2" grinder, but Hey. If all you have is a hammer, you try to fix every thing with that hammer. 

 

Need to take the center plate to work so that I can put some bends in it, drill a few more holes and then I can start welding this thing together.

 

 

Edited January 29 by Achto

[WHX?? 48,815]

36 minutes ago, Achto said:

Hey. If all you have is a hammer, you try to fix every thing with that hammer. 

Wadda ya know about that 'Fish?!?! 

[Ed Kennell 38,175]

1 hour ago, Achto said:

It took a lot of time to cut all of these pieces out with a 4 1/2" grinder, but Hey. If all you have is a hammer, you try to fix every thing with that hammer. 

Amazing what you can do with that grinder.   That's what I use to hack out metal parts for many years.

  I do like this metal band saw I picked up at the auction a few months ago.   It really works great for cut off of long stock and I made a table and it does a decent job  in the up right position cutting flat plate.    I still resort to my grinder to shape some parts though.

 

 

 

[Achto 27,577]

So after last weekend I figured that I was only a few hours from welding the hitch together. Well....I didn't think it was going to take me all day but it pretty much did. Spent a bunch of time shaping the pieces before there was any welding involved. Most of the parts shaped to my liking.

 

Then I could start welding things together. Back side of the hitch after welding was done.

 

3/4" pin installed in the bottom, 2 bolts into the tranny & all fits quite well. The hook point has to be a minimum of 6" behind the center of the rear axle. The hitch point on my tractor comes in at 6 1/2". 

 

I also picked up a gas tank from a K91 engine. (Thanks Tom!!) Had to drill a few holes to make it fit properly but it will suit my needs most excellently. 

 

 

Edited February 5 by Achto

[ebinmaine 67,502]

VERY nice work on that full custom hitch Dan. 

 

Like the metal gas tank. Just seems like old tractors should have a metal everything. My Cinnamon Horse C160 has a steel fuel tank out of an unknown donor. Believed to be an old Cub IIRC. 

 

[Achto 27,577]

More fab work today. First item was this nice comfy seat, this item was a pretty easy task. I did mount it on some isolators in hopes that they might take up some vibration.

 

Next item took a quite a bit of sypherin', figure out how to suspend a set of wheels 5" off the ground and 5" behind the rear tires.  After some head scratchin' & measurin' I started out by cutting some card board for a pattern. I then transferred my card board pattern to 1/4" sheet metal. After the sheet metal was rough cut I had to figure out how I could hold everything in place in order to drill mounting holes into the hitch. Best way I could figure to do this was to tack weld the wheelie bars to the hitch.

 

With the wheelie bars tacked in place, I moved the assembly to the drill press to drill some holes for mounting the bars to the hitch.

 

After the holes were drilled I installed bolts and nuts through the holes and welded the nuts to the inside of the hitch.

 

With the ability to now bolt the wheelie bars on, I cut through my tack welds to remove them from the hitch. Then ground the welds smooth to remove the evidence. Next a little shaping to make the wheelie bars a bit more pleasing to the eye. The whole assembly can now be bolted in place.

 

I might add a cross bar between the wheelie bars part way down for a bit more rigidity. 

 

 

 

Edited February 11 by Achto

[WHX?? 48,815]

6 minutes ago, Achto said:

might add a cross bar between the wheelie bars part way down for a bit more rigidity. 

 

I definitely would ... she gets sideways on ya you can bend both that way! 

[JPWH 6,033]

Excellent fab work as usual! I enjoy watching this build. Very creative and excellent execution. 

[ebinmaine 67,502]

11 hours ago, WHX?? said:

I definitely would ...  

Seconded. 

HUGE difference in strength.  

 

Excellent work Dan. 👏 

 

 

11 hours ago, Achto said:

First item was this nice comfy seat

 

Custom sized to the primary operator's derriere??

 

 

[wallfish 17,000]

Very nice work Dan.

 

14 hours ago, Achto said:

I might add a cross bar between the wheelie bars part way down for a bit more rigidity. 

A custom made shoulder bolt across the wheels?

 

 

 

[WHX?? 48,815]

Good idea Fish. He says guys run 1/4 aluminum plates and they don't bend.

Wait till you guys see the front weight carrier! 

Edited February 11 by WHX??

[Achto 27,577]

12 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

Custom sized to the primary operator's derriere??

 

Pretty easy to fit my rear, cause I ain't got one. It seems to have moved to me belly area. 

 

10 hours ago, wallfish said:

A custom made shoulder bolt across the wheels?

 

I like that idea! Just have to check if it will have any chance of coming into contact with the chain on the eliminator.