On to the next mower deck

Since I got the Estate Keeper running I have been on the scramble to get a mower deck working for it because I hate to have a tractor that has nothing to do.  Sunday I started tearing into the deck but didn't get very far because the pulleys were stuck onto the spindles pretty tight.  I started soaking them in PB Blaster and moved onto a different task

The deck with the cover removed as well as the mounting arms that hold it on the tractor.

Here is where we left the deck for the day

 

After abandoning the mower deck project Allyssia and I moved onto getting the first heat out of our firewood and started cutting and splitting off from our ten cord pile of twenty four foot wood.  Allyssia missed out on cutting the wood down in Peru so she got to use her Christmas saw and cut while I loaded the bongo truck and split.

Since it can't bee seen from this picture the saw is a Stihl ms170.  It's a small saw but has decent power especially since Allyssia hasn't run a chainsaw much.

 

This is my awesome little wood splitter. Now some may think that an electric splitter doesn't work as well.  I will admit that it does have its drawbacks but it is a powerful little splitter that doesn't need gas, starts with the flip of a switch and I can run it in the basement like I did last winter.  I haven't yet put a stick on it that it wouldn't split but I am sure that I will find one.

 

Back on the subject at hand, tonight I got the pulleys off the mower deck spindles and got the bearings out so that I can order new ones as well as a new belt.  The deck is just a barren shell now and I am contemplating putting a quick coat of paint on it after cleaning it up a bit but can't quite decide yes or no.  Tomorrow I should have more pictures and hopefully more finished projects!

A hobby carpenter never rests and neither does the Estate Keeper!

So the last couple days I have been taking a little bit of my time being a plumber and working on being a carpenter.  Back down to Allyssia's barn with the never ending projects I go!  The first was a personal project that has been bothering me.  Behind the water hydrant the wall had a big green tarp keeping the outside, out.  Now I can appreciate a tarp for what it is and for temporary walls they are great!  At this point though the tarp barely needed to be looked at and it shredded off the wall. 

After I boarded the back up I built a box around the bottom of the hydrant to keep the wind from hitting it and to have a place in the winter to set buckets for filling.  I have a heat tape that I am going to wrap it with as well because last winter we had a few small freeze up problems.  You can see the door off to the left in the picture. 

So here is the next part that I forgot to take before pictures of but you all know I always forget to until half way through the project.  I had to run a two by four across the bottom to fill the wall out to make the boards look right. 

As you can see the boards are mismatched but they will eventually all weather the same.  The reason behind the boards is that some come from Grandpa and some of them are rough hemlock from Dimension Lumber in Livermore Falls . 

I did remember to take a before picture on the back side of the barn.  This side has one rafter stuck out past the wall so it will take a bit more wood but it is becoming a good use for all the short pieces of one by six that I have accumulated through all the building that I have been doing.

 

Now carpentry isn't something that I would want to quit plumbing and heating for

BUT I do enjoy it a lot.  It is a nice change from the regular day to day jobs and sometimes it is a nice change when I have had a roadblock on a tractor that I am working on.  Speaking of roadblocks,  that is the only thing that Jake and I haven't hit with the new diesel Bolens. 

Flat tire and all Jake has helped me fix the Estate Keeper up so he gets to test it!

Here is our new battery tray that actually came off the big brother to the Estate Keeper - the Groundskeeper.  I have a parts machine out back and the battery tray fit perfectly on the back.  I also mounted the new solenoid and we wired up to the existing starter.  We also wired in a headlight and mounted it on the front and tomorrow will be mounting the new taillight.

This tractor is coming nicely and I also hope to start on the deck tomorrow so we can test it before the end of summer.  We are also waiting on tires because the mow would be a bit crooked with how it sets on this pair of fronts.  More to come tomorrow stay tuned.

The first drive

So today Jacob and I got the Diesel Bolens running.  After I got the bushing and key in last night I measured for belts and picked them up at Motor Supply today.  I got one to test for the PTO belt and it fit fine but the two I got for the drive were about an inch too long. Tomorrow I will pick up the new drive belts and another PTO belt.  When we started working on it we were having trouble getting it to turn over and it turns out that the solenoid was bad.  In the video you can see the wiring is "spaghetti" wired and dangling.  After finding a new solenoid we just kind of dangled it in there. 

 

 

 There are a few flat tires that wont hold air or leak too quick to bother with.  Tomorrow we plan on wiring the key switch into the dash and hooking the new solenoid in permanently.  We also have to work on a battery tray so that it doesn't have to be bungee corded and balanced on the rear of the tractor.   More updates tomorrow as we work on it.

A big thanks

Today I picked up the custom parts for my new Diesel Bolens from Grampa.  Grampa has made countless custom parts for me and helped me rebuild many mower deck spindles and press quite a few bearings in. Grampa has been bringing me to engine shows since I can remember.  It was at one of these shows that he bought me my first ever tractor!  It was a 1954 3 wheeled tractor and it needed a little work.  Grampa fixed it up and I got to drive it at the shows. 

This was the first of many tractors.  Thanks to his help I have also accumulated a few hit and miss engines. 

This latest project that he has helped me with is building a custom bushing and key for the drive pulley on my Diesel Bolens.  The bushing had to bring the pulley from 1 1/4 inch to 1 inch.  He also made a larger key so it would fit in the pulley.

From left to right, the new key, the new brass bushing with a keyway cut in it and the pulley.

Making the new key and grinding it down on the surface grinder. 
Grampa has a full machine shop in his basement with the surface grinder, a milling machine, 2 Lathe's, and a shop press. 

I also have Grampa's old Oliver Oc3 crawler tractor.  This tractor has been at Grampa's for as long as I can remember, but now it is home with me. I hope to get many years of use out of it just like he did! 

 

 

A new family addition

This past week Allyssia and I added a dog to our family.  We have been in search for a while and were mainly waiting on a friend to breed his cattle dogs.  Through the summer neither of his two female dogs got pregnant so Allyssia started looking elsewhere.  By a stroke of luck she found two puppies from a litter left in New York.  We decided that for the price and the nice drive that one of those two puppies would be joining our home. 

        Fast forward to Sunday - Allyssia and I are doing chores much to the horses disapproval at 4am and by 430am we were on the road.  It was a beautiful drive out through Vermont into upstate New York on smaller back roads that were scenic and quite enjoyable.  We arrived at around 11:30am to a horse barn about like Allyssia's where the woman sells the litters of cattle dogs for a friend of hers.  We fell in love with little Cricket and then headed for home. 

We got home around eight that night. She rode home amazing, we had to stop for her to go to the bathroom a few times but she didn't wine or bark and seemed like she enjoys riding. 
     No matter how happy Allyssia and I are to have little Cricket in our lives now Parker our cat, who has been living in our house longer than we have, is not sure what to think.

 He has been very tolerant of her and when he does fight back does so without his claws.  I think that they will get along just fine but for now Cricket just harasses him and when Parker is done with her he just goes away and jumps the baby gate to where she can't go. 
   

   So with a new puppy will come new puppy pictures and she will be my mascot to be in my tractor pictures from now on.

I forgot to mention that she is a spoiled new puppy with all her new toys and dog bed!!

Light progress on some projects.

Today I am going to introduce everyone to my newest project my soon to be diesel Bolens Estate Keeper.  I have always loved the articulated Bolens tractors but on the mid sized I have found the Wisconsin 10hp motor to be a problem child.  After using it and working on it for twice as long as I ran it I decided it was time for a change. 

Here is the tractor in question!  It needs tires when I get it up and running but it will be getting some AG style tractor tires.  I had to remove the hood to start the removal process. 

Here we are with the engine removed and the hood off.  Everything came off well but at this point I could see that going back together is turning out to be slightly more difficult.  I am not planning on welding to the frame or cutting anything that shouldn't be so I can if I decide to put the tractor back to original.   

Here are the two motors next to each other and it is a bit hard to tell from this angle but it is considerably larger.  It took some creative welding but I built a motor mount that brings the engine up so it is above the transmission where the old engine went in between the rear tire and transmission case. 

It sits up there really high and I still haven't decided how to make the hood fit.

So far everything is going well except for the hood of course and the main pulley off the motor. I have had that problem before where the motor shaft is smaller than the inside diameter of the pulley and needs a 1/8" bushing custom made by my grandfather because nobody else has them.  I have the measurements for the belts and will get those Monday but cant get them on until we have the main pulley on.  Once the tractor is drivable I am going to put the new tires on but I refuse to put new tires on a non running tractor.  As this progresses I will keep everything updated.

 

Speaking of updates I have been playing with the Quadractor some lately. 

I haven't really dared to go in the woods much with it but I ventured out a bi and cut a tree down and hauled it out like it wasn't there. Once on the drive way I am able to put it into high gear and tone the throttle back and it clips right along log in tow. 

The picture does not do justice but those are some decent sized logs that I hauled up to the house. 

After 3 trips in the woods winching and dropping the wood I decided that the current winch just would not do.  Today I finally replaced the winch with a 2500lb wireless winch. The old winch you had to lean back and twist on the winch body to raise and lower the cable.  The new winch is so much nicer and to add extra to it the winch break works and doesn't spool itself out when pulling logs.

that's all for today but as soon as things progress I will post.

 

Diesel prelude to my next project

A few years back I started rebuilding a tractor that meant quite a bit to me.  I completely repainted and went through my Peperes old Bolens 1050.  It was the first tractor that I had repainted and it came out decently.  The problem I had was that when I completed the paint job I never got the old Wisconsin engine running.  I got frustrated and quit on the project and picked it back up a few different times.  I finally decided one day that I was going to get the tractor running one way or another. 

Here is what it looked like when I finally decided what I was going to do. I ended up ordering a 10hp Yanmar Clone Ciesel Engine from the Carol Stream Motor Company.  It ran me $700 but for this tractor it was probably the best $700 I could have spent.  I also put some brand new AG style tires on the front and the back.  The engine was put on a aluminum plate and mounted to the tube frame. 

Now the diesel engine is a lot bigger than the old gas Wisconsin Engine so the hood didn't quite fit and I still haven't customized a hood to fit.  When I do dive into the hood it will take two hoods to build the one custom fit hood for the tractor.

I use the tractor to pull a single bottom plow, rototill, plow and many other small farm tasks.

This was the garden when I started with the single bottom plow.

Here is the finished product of our garden being plowed tilled and then mixed with manure.