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So my father called all excited today about a 702 tractor he sold to a guy down in Long Island NY. Apparently, the guy he sold it to then sold it to a purchaser for Ralph Lauren. Now that 702 is in the window display at their flagship store on Madison Ave in NYC. Here's a pic of it

A few more - he completed the drive flanges, so now the hubs are driven. onto final bits = the rear axle keyways were badly wallowed. So fresh 1/4 slots milled ready for much longer keys.

It works! 😄

My mom always had a bowl of lard on the stove. We save bacon grease and use it to fry eggs, burgers and other meats. Works and tastes way better than pam.

Sorry for the long post, but this story needs to be told. My oldest Grandson Reed has a fellowship granted for his Astro Physics PHD at Lehigh University. He has been there for 2 years and has 2-3 years left. Last year he got tired of paying the college town land lords rent and bought one of the row houses to house himself and a couple room mates. His Dad Mike operates a HVAC/ Plumbing business so he installed a new gas furnace and a new Mini Split air/heat pump System. The existing gas hot water heater was only 2 years old and tested good so it was not replaced. Mike also installed smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as required for a rental property. About two weeks ago a CO detector tripped. Reed reset it and all was OK, but Mike sent him a second CO detector as a back up. Friday when Reed came home the CO detectors were sounding and when reset they kept tripping. He called his dad and Mike told him to disconnect the main breaker, open the doors, go out and wait in his car till he got there. Mike called the local fire company and left for the 2 hour trip to Bethlehem. He suspected the gas hot water heater that he did not replace could be the problem. When Mike got there, the fire company had allready checked Reeds house and appliances and could not find the source of the CO. They went to the attached row house and found the house was filled with CO from a faulty furnace and the family of five were all sick with flu like symptoms. Thankfully the loose stone basement foundation wall allowed the CO to leak into Reeds basement and trip the alarms and thankfully Reed did not come home for the weekend and was there to hear the alarms or the outcome would have been much different. Per the fire company, the family would not have survived the night. Sometimes we get lucky. Don't rely on luck...install smoke and CO detectors for everyone you care about.

Wow, that is so cool. I wonder if any patrons have walked into the store and asked to buy one of those cute little tractors in the window. ♪♪ How much is that tractor in the window? The one whose size is subscale. How much is that tractor in the window? I do hope that tractor's for sale.♪♪

Very cool! Couple hints. To set "max up", jack the plow up TO the front axle and adjust/ replace the middle linkage to hold it tight there. When the plow blade is let off the jack it'll settle away from the axle and give you max available ground clearance. IF you want occasional down pressure, you can make a solid link to go from the proper hole 🕳 in the center rock shaft, to the plow. PAINT THAT POOR MISERABLE BLADE. Will you be adding a front center stabilizer? How's your weights & chains situation?

That, or you coulda just used that thin part to set your points! LOL You got your money's worth outta that one

All depends on how they were used or abused. If well maintained the Sundstrand and Eaton 1100 will continue to operate for several more decades.

A snow shoe needed repairing and I need to practice my welding. Laid piece over it and buzzed away. Didn’t get a pic when done ... . Actually didn't do the worst considering my welding skills suck.

If they have had reasonable care, real well. Reasonable care is cleaning the cooling fins, making sure the fan is working good, and oil changes. Especially the Eaton 11 that has filtration in front of the oil feeding the charge pressure to the pump and hold up well.

@squonk have provided the chickens also.

National Lard Day lights up kitchens and tables across the nation every December 8th. It’s a day that brings a once-shunned ingredient back into the spotlight. People celebrate lard for its rich culinary history and its comeback as a healthier and more flavorful alternative to processed oils and fats. The story of lard is a tale of rediscovery. For a long time, lard was the cooking fat of choice, celebrated for its ability to make food taste better, richer, and more delicious. However, it faced a decline in popularity with the rise of vegetable oils and other substitutes. Whether frying, baking or spreading it on toast, lard enhances the taste and texture of food in a way that few other fats can. This day encourages us to explore lard’s culinary versatility and to share the joy it brings to cooking and baking.

My son doesn’t come on here anymore, but here is a 704 that he has been making into a 4x4. complete scratch built axle, and a lot of lathe and milling…. I’ll try sort some build pics out!

it wasn't, but with a bigger table on the mill it could've been done. The shafts were still left in the diff housing

I stock pile the cheap fatty bacon when it is on sale for $1.99 a pound. Then grind it with my venison 1/5.

if you use a 1/4" end mill and your vice is rigid, then it might work.... I used to cut these slots in the lathe with an end mill

When I still had blowers., I also liked the old style with wheels. Made the blowers so easy to move around when off the tractor

Had venison wrapped in bacon last night for dinner... yum!!! Any edible derivative of pig is ok by me...

The lard and bacon grease trick is the best for cast iron pan work.

One of my great uncles was a butcher. There was always a container of lard in their refrigerator. His popcorn was a family favorite. Each batch started with a lump of lard, butter, and bacon grease.

I only have two Eatons but several Sunstrands. I think the piston to piston Sunstrands are more sensitive to abuse/poor maintenance. The Eatons require some warm up to operate the lift even with Mobil one synthetic. The sunstrands are ready to go immediately I run ATF in them. Keep them from overheating, don't abuse the parking brake in the Sunstrands, and change the fluid and they will run another 30 years...

That's the basic thought process I have as well. It's been indicated to me by someone here in real life that, instead of making standard small long thin Mill style cuts, I could potentially lock the depth up and down and make a whole bunch of drill holes in a row, then, straighten the slot. I'm no machinist so I don't know if that's realistic. Just what I've been told.

Ed glad to hear your grandson's experience saved lives. We built our home about fifteen years ago and installed hard wired CO/Smoke detectors throughout the house. The ten year battery units weren't available then but nine years ago I swapped out the old 9 volt units for the newer ones figuring the cost of batteries each year would save money in the long run. The first of the ten year battery life detectors began chirping a couple of days ago so all seven of them are going to be replaced this weekend.

Especially in pie crusts ...

Yep ... it seems no matter how tight those bolts are they always seem to be they always move. In the heat of the battle the blower gets dropped a little hard and that's what does it. Then they get covered with snow & ice & go unnoticed until spring thaw. Along with the scraper blade they are meant to wear I guess. Actually a good thing to advance my welding skills. PO had them like this but the adjustability goes out the window.

On ice or frozen snow, chains will be the answer. If you have an asphalt driveway then you might be able to get away with a lot more than we can up here. AG tires might be slightly more useful than mostly flat turf but any rubber on any Frozen surface is going to be a challenge.

No offense taken You are 100% correct, it's so easy to get in over your head on projects. My biggest problem is I seem to bounce around from project to project, which extends their timeline considerably at times. But, I figure as long as I'm enjoying myself that's all that matters. I look at it as being part of the journey, not the destination. Thanks!

I've always had good luck with them too. I say this in all possible seriousness. You can NOT be healthy and strong for others unless you take care of yourself. We joke about tractor time... but it really is a medical necessity to be mentally stable and happy. If that's what you have available as "you time"... do it.

Been months since I had several hours of tinker time. If I can squeeze 30 minutes in every week or so I call it "mental health time". And you are correct, it is fun! And just for giggles, if you have to, the sleeves that make up 1/8 inch to use a pulley on a 1 inch shaft work very well. It comes with a taller key so the fit is nice and snug. I've used them on several Vanguard repowers. Ebay or Amazon has them for cheap in stainless steel.

My 1971 Bronco had a OEM filter when I got it around 2004, so it may have never been changed. That Sundstrand hydrogear still has ATF in it and it is the fastest and strongest hydro like it that I've seen so far. My FILs Charger is a 1972 and is nearly as fast. Also always had ATF in it as far as I know. I've been inside the Bronco transmission, and it was not only spotless but it had zero visible wear. I've always attributed this to ATF- but I'll never know. So the answer to your question has already been said: with proper use and maintainence, these old transmissions last decades.

I have had a couple Sundstrands get weak. Never had a problem with the Eaton 1100s.

I needed to remove the fan shroud so I could blow out the mouse nest. As luck would have it one of the bolts snapped off. This was the bolt on the lower left corner when looking at the shroud. I didn't want to leave it like that but I also didn't want to remove the flywheel so I figured I might as well at least try and drill it out and re-tap the hole. I have a 12" long set of drill bits in 1/16" increments so I decided to give it a try. I started with the 1/16" and succeeded in getting it centered and drilled all the way through the bolt remnants. Next was the 1/8" and then the 3/16". I don't have a long #7 drill bit so I had to settle for trying to use the 1/4-10 tap in an undersized hole and see what would happen. My biggest fear was breaking the tap off. I didn't have a long enough tap handle so I had to settle for a small wrench to turn the tap. Beyond all expectations I managed to succeed with the tap. I hope to never have to try that again The tip of the tap sticking through the hole is shown circled in red in the last picture. 1/16" drill bit 1/8" drill bit The tip of the tap as it broke through.

I’m having some electrical work done in one of my sheds so I had to move the tractors out to have room for them to work. So I brought them in my garage.

The plastic front ‘bumper’ (for lack of a better term) of my 522xi had a chunk broken out of it and several cracks radiating from that spot. Fortunately, I had the missing piece, which made the repair a little easier. After thoroughly cleaning and degreasing the area around the breakage, I glued the piece back in and cemented the cracks with a water-thin plastic solvent cement that had good capillary action to flow into the cracks. Here’s the back view of the breakage area after applying a few applications of the cement. It seemed to work very well. Even though the cracks were completely welded shut, I shifted into my usual over-engineering mode and decided to reinforce the back of the repair with a few layers of thin fiberglass cloth. I wanted a molecular bond between the fiberglass cloth and the plastic, rather than mechanical, so instead of something like epoxy or polyester resin, I used a thickened plastic cement that exhibited some solvent action on the plastic. Here's the back of the bumper with at least three layers of fiberglass cloth adhered with the plastic solvent cement and with a coat of red paint over it. This part of the bumper won't be visible. Here's the front after gluing, sanding, and a coat of clear “Adhesion Promoter” primer: And the damaged area after the first coat of Regal Red paint (two more coats to go). The color looks a bit off because the photo was taken in the shade. Note: The red bumper is made of PC-PET plastic (a blend of polycarbonate and polyethylene terephthalate). The black bumpers on similar models (such as my New Holland GT18 / 518xi clone) are made of ABS plastic. However, the cements that I used were actually designed to be used with other types of plastic, such as acrylic or PVC, but they still had a solvent action on the bumper and seemed (to me) to work fine. I guess time will tell.

A few more of the build

If you have no more than a couple of thousandths of play vertically and horizontally with the spindle locked in place, you might be able to mill a slot with one of these: You will need a cross slide such as this: I'm not recommending this rather poor way of milling, just showing some ideas. Typically a drill press holds the chuck using a Morse taper that works well pressing down on a drill bit, but any upward load would tend to loosen it.

Was the axle mill work done with the axle still inside the transmission case? I’d love to see the clamp work of that, if there is any documentation.

My old ball and chain and I are located in the White Mountains of Western Maine. The area which we clear the snow has been carefully constructed modified and adjusted over the years to make it more user friendly for smaller equipment. We only have a few feet of elevation change. But it's just steep enough that we really need to pay close attention to how we set things up. Our whole area in which we plow is gravel or crushed stone with fine dust. Our experience shows us a couple different ways to set up tractors. You could see them on our YouTube channels. IMHO you will want to make that tractor as heavy as possible by using whatever means necessary, to hold the back end down. If you don't want the concrete in the driveway to get scratched up then it would be best to avoid metal chains. There are rubber chains available..

I have a combination co2 and fire alarm at the bottom of the basement stairs which is close to the pellet stove, a smoke alarm upstairs by the bedrooms, and a combination co2 and gas detector by the propane furnace. Hot water is electric. Years ago I had an old Fisher wood stove in the basement and a couple of times it lost draft and filled the house with smoke through the night. When this happened the smoke alarms never went off but the co2 detector (I only had one at the time) did. That gave me more faith in them than smoke detectors.

The last 2 times I put an 8 in the hole, I used a 1/4" dr. 1/2" flex socket stiffened up with electrical tape with an 8" extension to get the bolt in place and hold it before putting on the push nut

Now John, that is just downright cool. I’m sure your dad is proud as you are.

I have a couple more pictures of the frame hooked up and front view showing the blade up.

See? See? A properly organized garage. Not the chaos you saw in mine! Or the 22 you didn't see in a worse mess in my barn! 😁

This problem (looking for the right pulley) might have taken care of itself… the GT1142 wouldn’t crank fast enough to start tonight and the carburetor was leaking gas pretty bad, the fuel lines from the rear were rock hard and broke when I messed with them, and the valve fell right out of the bottom of the tank when i went to open it. Rather than fix all this, I think the 11-hp Briggs might come off of there and donate its pulley to a little 7-hp Yanmar I have and which should fit right under the hood. The engine has its own tank so I can abandon everything else. This gets dad back to diesel only for the time being. I love Briggs engines. Usually they can sit for years and fire right up with just a splash of fresh gas. No points. This one is being stubborn. The one on the GT2500 fired first crank after I took out the battery from 2009 and replaced it. Sucker has been sitting untouched at least 15 years. This was the first day I spent puttering around with these tractors in years. Was kind of fun. Steve

Well that’s damn cool

This morning Trina and I started the cleanup of the recently found "Tripp" graveyard. We brought up a couple hand tools and started by cutting the smaller saplings in and around the small metal enclosure. We'll continue with the project through the winter and into spring. Quite a good workout to get there. 1.4 miles each way and about half of that was through 8+ inches of snow.

Hmmm. Some of us would do a lot get room for even one or two more tractors or even a warm place to work over the winter. Enjoy!

That's what scares me, I have a half empty 30' x 40' foot barn and a 40' x 50' shop that still has a little room in it

Absolutely amazing. I'm always in awe of any custom machine work. I'm lucky if I can drill something on center with my lathe. This is some serious fabrication skills!