The Home Machinist!

When the control valves were leaking, it was internal; the 3-point lift system is entirely inside the gearbox casing, so all oil falls back to where it lives. The auxiliary control block is fairly new, I replaced it a few years ago. The difference was large; the old valve block was very very old, an...

Of course the implements staying up overnight has nothing to do with it, but the pump is fairly new. I upgraded from 14cc to 22.5cc. it is gear driven. I had a hell of a time figuring out which pump could bolt onto the same flange and fit the same spline, and I was lucky enough to find an old unused...

I did take the time to measure each of the bores in multiple places. I used a hone with 3 long stones; one wore out too fast so I didn't hone as much as I would have. In any case, it's been running without excessive smoke for the last couple of days, since I used it for some hours at a fairly high p...

First job after reassembly was hedge cutting; the cutter is hydraulic, so the tractor engine had to run between 650 and 800 rpm with very little load for 16 hours (over 3 days). The next time I started it, there was so much oil burning I was sure I'd broken an oil ring, a huge cloud of sweet stinkin...

I like it.
One day, I might use that idea myself, thank for posting it.

I usually just cut a lump of rod to an interference fit.
It works if you don't take deep or hard cuts, and if the work doesn't heat up enough to expand and get loose.

Believe me, everyone knows when the tractor is running! Friend of mine in Amsterdam had a little canal tug that blew great big smoke rings. We all loved that, but he had to repower it with a stronger motor so that was the end of the rings. It was quite interesting, you could see the way the ring rol...

Went out for some nice tractoring today; it sure is nice not to get poisoned by clouds of smoke while working! I pushed a small (5 inch pine) dead tree down and hauled it out of the ground with a chain. Cut down a larger (14") tall pine and hauled it out of my forest too. The bugs that kill the...

I once mounted a propeller shaft that way, and cut a keyway into the tapered end. I supported the weight with a bungie cord at the other end. Setup took hours, but it worked well. Now that I have a milling machine... actually, I would still have a lot of trouble mounting that shaft if I had to do it...

The block has a straight 12x1.5 thread. The new switch is 1/8" tapered pipe. The adaptor female is 1/8" straight pipe thread. I ordered the 1/8" pipe switch because I have the 1/8" tap. I actually thought I could just drill and tap a 12mm bolt, but the resulting wall was too thin...

I actually thought you were just going along with it; but you know how things run away on the board sometimes.

Note the last post! "The last line on the previous post was a joke by the way." The new pistons came with wrist pins and circlips. I once assembled and installed an engine that was delivered as a short block, pistons and crank installed by a specialist shop. It turned out that someone had ...