Ransomes MG5 Crawler

[Dieselman 63]

An exciting update, part of the shear has been painted! Both these projects are a random diversion from the task in hand, but that’s the direction life has taken so, so be it.

So has the head of the drilling machine. Quite an attractive machine this, even if it is American! It’s big, too. Bigger than the Fobco Star. I’ll see if I can get all the small bits wire-wheeled for the shear tomorrow, then the rest needs sorting.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Progress, one evening at a time

 

[Dieselman 63]

I truly have MigWeldingForum’ed myself here, going massively off topic and becoming entwined in something unrelated yet somehow also making progress?

Paint scraped off, wire wheeled, red oxide. I left the workshop door open and the rain filled up two boxes of Britool so I’ve just finished wiping all the sockets and accessories dry, tedious.

The new Koken bits came and with two new stickers it was time to add them to my drawers, only two socket sets to go and I’ll have them finished

 

[Geoffm]

I see your old power hacksaw was for sale on trademe the other day.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I see your old power hacksaw was for sale on trademe the other day.

That’s right, I sold it to my friend Kym a few years ago along with my big Denbigh drill. It’s a great machine and I was considering buying it back but space is my problem.

The older machines are getting tricky to find these days.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Column buffed and the base is in its first coat of green. The head slides beautifully on the column again.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Tonight I decided to test-fit all the components, which meant cutting all the new bolts to size and cleaning up the main axle in the lathe. The threads were very badly damaged but luckily I had a 7/8 bsw thread chaser to repair them. Some bits will be off to the sandblaster soon.

 

[Dieselman 63]

It’s been a good day here.

My friend blasted the remaining bits for the shear in exchange for a bucket of scrap wire. They’re now in red oxide, drying.

My other friend (I have two friends) lent me his seat cutters so I could take the rust out of the JAP head. The cutters may be as old as the engine!

I cleared a space to begin the gearbox work, and propped up each ‘box on its end.

Lastly, the chipper has come inside for a service and new belts. A tornado (yes, another one) took out a tree here and I’m cutting it all up and after this is done, it’ll be chipped.

 

[Dieselman 63]

No update today as I have spent my day off operating the mighty underfloor wheel lathe!

Here is my first wheel I’ve ever turned alone. Pretty chuffed. You have to cut the tyre first, then cut from the root of the flange up to the crest, then crest over the back of the wheel. The line on the finished turn is where the tyre is driven so the flange can be cut.

 

[Bullet2012]

No update today as I have spent my day off operating the mighty underfloor wheel lathe!

Here is my first wheel I’ve ever turned alone. Pretty chuffed. You have to cut the tyre first, then cut from the root of the flange up to the crest, then crest over the back of the wheel. The line on the finished turn is where the tyre is driven so the flange can be cut.

requires a mug for scale

 

[dobbslc]

I had a tour of the TFL workshops in Neasden and was stood under one of those while an old boy was truing a wheel up. Impressive heavy engineering.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I had a tour of the TFL workshops in Neasden and was stood under one of those while an old boy was truing a wheel up. Impressive heavy engineering.

So cool eh. I used to be the second man, but today I got to turn. Real lathes have ladders to get to the tool posts!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Added to the collection this morning, a Monro Monrotiller. $50 was worth a punt.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Been using this this morning, it works better with whitworth sizing which makes me think it’s quite old. It’s a really good stud puller, but ridiculously chunky with a ratchet on! I’ve been having a big tidy up the past week or so and not much work has been done here - it’s so good to have floor and bench space again though.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Still here, doing things.

The workshop is looking tidier than ever a d it’s much easier to do work in now. I’ve mounted the shear, and the last bit is in red oxide. I think it looks good in this finish. I’ll assemble it all soon. The drilling machine castings have been paint stripped, so it’ll be onto wire brushing and paint soon.

One of my lovely jack stands is also painted, total pain on these but I’m getting there. I was sold a damaged stand, but I’m opting to repair it rather than bin, as this older style garage equipment is getting hard to find in good order.

 

[Dieselman 63]

The cropper is back together and it works! That’s 1/2 round with a healthy shear on it.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I’ve taken a million photos in between to help reassembly, but here’s a before and after. The workshop is now tidy enough for me to be able to tackle a decent project like this.

The main shaft is good on this box so it’ll go into the other box. The gears are pretty much toast, funnily enough the gears are good on the other box but the threads have stripped on the main shaft.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Starting on this lay shaft, the spline has unusual wear as though it has been forced beyond its limits at some point. The other one was fully twisted so went in the bin, however its bearing was better, so went on this once I filed it smooth again.

The gears that slide along it are heavily worn so I’m flipping them to face one another. Doing this means all the dags will interfere with one another, so I ground them off as they’re induction hardened, file won’t touch them.

 

[Dieselman 63]

Back to jackstand world. I’ve drilled and tapped the broken handle and now I’ve had it welded back together, they did a lovely job with the tig, it looks great. Next I’ll have to realign the other bit but now I have some rigidity in it, it’ll make that much more easy.

Off on my holiday in an hour so that’s an hour I could spend priming bits of the other stand! The handle and stand will be orange, the riser bits will be black. Then, I can change the oil on my car.

All this effort for some jack stands!