Leaderboard

I restored a 1990, 312-H for my grandson so he can go about terrorizing the locals...

Also pretty much totally forgotten today, is the Carpenters Hatchet. Built unlike other hatchets it features the obvious hammer end. It is however the edge end that makes it an incredibly efficient tool. It is much thinner in section and usually beautifully balanced. It is also handled differently since it is used in a different manner usually choking it or even handling the blade. Essentially it is more of an adze than a hatchet and used as such. Here it is used many times as a combination carving tool and draw knife. It is kept razor sharp. I have a different bevel on each side since I am right handed and use it on much as stated before. It is an elegant tool that is very useful in all aspects of carpentry. There was a time when it was a common tool in a carpenters tool box. Today of course most have never even seen one much less use them. Elegant and light Designed to fit one’s hand upfront Thin well balanced head Well tempered edge like a good chisel Will take a razor edge and keep it works like an adze can be used like a carving tool or drawknife one of my favorite tools

Daughter needed a rolling 5-drawer tool chest for work. I “needed” another tool chest for the garage… she 1/2 I got 1/2…Win Win!!! Fits pretty good. Will do the job…

Well, I have a update, and its a story. Grab the popcorn So I ended up talking to him on the phone. He said the tractor had no electrical activity. Nothing worked, no lights, completely dead. He did say that it ran about 2 months prior and ran great. no smoke, no knocks. Anyway, told him no way am i going to spend 1k or more on a old garden tractor that doesnt run and has no power at all. He said make me a offer as it sits. So I told him, my top dollar would be 600 dollars if it was in good shape, but more likely be around 500 in average condition. I made the drive down to see him, looked it over. It was extremely dirty. Grass buildup, grease, hasnt been washed ever. However, I could see under that grass and grease, it was in great shape. No rust to speak of. Dash in great shape. Just a tear in the seat Anyway, we tried to jump start it. Fiddled around with it for 20 min in the snow (mind you it was about 12 degrees during the day here) after 20 min of messing with it, he looked at me and said "I promise you it runs great, I just dont know why it wont start" I told him I really liked the tractor, but not running could be very expensive to fix. I said "look, i drove a hour for it. I like it, but it needs work. I will give you 300 dollars cash for the tractor, 48" mower deck, wheel weights and plow. take it or leave it, but im cold" He took it. I got it for 300 dollars. He was asking 1500 originally !!!! Pushed it on to my trailer, loaded the deck and plow, paid him and took off home Saturday morning (the next day) after sitting in a heated barn all night to thaw, I went to work. First job was to take a air compressor and clean all the grass out. 20 min later, I had it somewhat clean Next job was to figure out why there was no 12v power. Battery was good, showing 14.2 volts on the tender. Followed the positive cable to the starter, cleaned those connections. Followed the negative to the frame/ground and found it was covered in grease/grass. Took it loose, cleaned with brake cleaner, reinstalled and just like that I had power, but it wouldnt start. So now im thinking it has to be a safety somewhere. I have power, the dash lights come on and was flashing seat safety. So took that apart, cleaned with compressed air and hit it with break cleaner. Still nothing, but I had consistant power. I thought it has to be another safety. Then it hit me. I bet its the neutral safety switch!!!. I turned the key to the start postition and wiggled the drive lever and IT CRANKED!! not knowing where the neutral safety was located at the time, i cranked it while wiggling the drive lever. Cranked over but would not fire. Took a look a the fuel filter (which i replaced with a new one) and had no fuel going to the filter Hopped off and he had shut the gas off from the tank!! Turned it on, cranked it and it fired right up and purred like a kitten! Drove it to my garage, gave it a hot water wash to get all the grease/grime off, cleaned up the NSS and now it starts every time Only thing it did was had a hiccup with the carb, like it was starving for fuel at higher RPM. So, i took the top of the carb off, hit all those little needles/jets with some carb cleaner and my air compressor. I reinstalled the top of the carb and it runs like brand new!!! It idles perfect, revs up great, no hiccups or issues. Runs great to full rpm!! So, there is my long story on my 520H journey. Oh, the plow works great, and the mower deck cleaned up nice and is quiet. i did grease it up again and order new blades for it. 300 dollars for it. Ill never find another 520h, with 727 original hours, and with weights, and a plow, and a mower deck for that price again. Especially in the shape this one is. Now I just need to figure out how to adjust the creep out of the hydro trans. Ill mess with that this week sometime

I knew that the short shilelagh would come in handy one day. Combined with the newly acquired Ford magneto magnet it will keep sharps off the floor without going on my knees to find them.

Or do away with shaker plate and use 3/4 inch spacer and a couple washers like this. It will be in exact same location as shaker mount PTO. You may have to drill 2 holes in the frame. i did not but it is an older frame. Yo also have to source or make a lower PTO bracket that bolts to the frame.

Our grass grows upwards. 😂

I’ve removed a couple posts containing personal attacks. Any additional personal attacks will result in a 15 day suspension from the forum.

My wife's grandfather's, we called them shingle hammers.

An old bent piece of iron?

I hope it will be this much fun!

Good advice and thank you @ranger. I opted for new valves as the old ones (exhaust) was thrashed and I found replacements very affordable. The big thing was a the exhaust seat which, as mentioned, is part of the block. So armed with a few ideas off you tube and @ri702bill idea of stones I came up with this. Not the same as actual cutting but good enough for the gals we go out with! Super glued thin strips of sandpaper to the new valve. Started with 180 grit and finnished with 400 and 1000 grit and finally fine grit valve lapping compound. Under a magnifiing glass still some pits but since I'm not going to the moon on her and it's a Tecky... Lash checked perfect at .010 Had it running on hand feeding but carb trashed and not letting fuel in.... inlet float stuck closed. was too skeered to do a compression check... Fuel tank leaked everwhere so the smoking lamp was out. Another thread on what to do about that.

No they are not like a HY-2 and you cannot vulture them!

Does the guy who owns the Model T you got it from know it’s missing yet?

Congrats on the great save. Don't discount the value of your time and, especially, your expertise as part of this transaction. You didn't have to pay in cash but you did invest. A nearby shop that handles a lot of the commercial landscaping companies' stuff has a $110 per hour labor rate and a minimum "pay up front" $40 charge for diagnoses applicable to any repairs done (the owner was getting stuck with a lot of abandoned cheapie mowers). My guess is that a shop would've billed as much as $500 in labor and another $100 or more on parts to get that thing going and they wouldn't have cleaned it!

Get them in the wrong order and your Model T Ford won't have any spark.

“Stick” enough of them together you can spell Wheel Horse… Or… Model T

One tip for anyone who decides to try the valve seat cutters that look like a giant countersink. If they are not the tungsten carbide insert type, the chances are you will blunt them on the first attempt. They will work fairly well on soft seats, but where the valve has ‘hammered’ the seat over time, it will have a hard ‘skin’. Do as @WHX?? has done, or lap with coarse grinding paste first, this will cut through the harder skin and your cutters will last longer. Doug.

Removed the console style shifter to the upgraded version.Didn’t turn out to be that difficult to do with the advice from Davoman1966,great help ! Got the parts needed from A Z tractor.Good folks there. Much easier to operate now .

Tattoo artist.

That is an awesome carpenter's hatchet farmariz! You have it in tip top shape too! I love old hand tools! Don't get me started on them...but here is a nice Plumb carpenter's head I need to get a handle for soon. It was pretty dirty but cleaned up nice and looks hardly used! It is sharp and ready for a handle! Used to you could get wooden handles at the hardware store for about anything, now you have to order most of them. The head in the pic is on my C-100 project tractor so technically fits in with the forum here

Ain't no coincidence bub. I've met a lot of great people here.

That seems almost too simple. I have a fire department meeting tonight, so ill mess with it tomorrow or wed. I did just order new hydro filter and engine filter for it too!

@stegs… May I suggest becoming a supporter. You can then upload LOTS OF PICS !

stegs, you know we love our before and after pics ?

Folks, be careful out there, horse thieves are on the prowl.

My trail rides always seem to happen on Sunday afternoon for some reason …and I’m always by myself . @JCM you need to haul down a machine one day and ride along! So it warmed up a bit (29 degrees) only took acouple minutes with the wife’s hair dryer and the throttle cable was moving again on the 315

I would try to get it dirt cheap and then spend a fortune to fix it ! That’s just me… I got my 1994 520H, rototiller, and a leaf vac trailer/system for $140, then spent probably $400 to $500 (I DONT KNOW) fixing issues and painting it. I got my 1984 Work Horse GT-1600 for $FREE and am currently spending hundreds to refresh it… having a ball ! That’s just me…

Doing what I love surrounded by objects from generations of influential individuals and sipping some exquisite stuff.

I’m not sure I’d want a tattoo applied with wrenches, screw drivers or whatever else might be in that box!

Ssshhh…

Hey man, how did you get my picture ?

One pound including handle. Haha, This one will never leave here. It’s been loved and well used all of its life. It’s actually very hard to find one like this . Got to always hide it when grandchildren are here. An accident with it will not be minor. Even I have to be careful with it.

A little trimming for shocks and appearance and it will sit on it’s own! @Handy Don I’ll be sure it can’t wiggle any before I exert and force via 2 stroke smoke and I don’t mind the suggestions a bit!

'cept for maybe... filtering coffee or something like that... Don

I told him that. Knowing that 520H tractors are kinda finicky with electrical things, I told him it could be a 10 cent fuse or a new wiring harness with hundred into new parts He understood, but he did not know what he had. He thought it was just a ordinary garden tractor. No different that your big box store craftsman or yard machine etc. He viewed it just as it sat. Not running or driving. He didnt view it as what it could be. Im a toro fan to being with, a toro branded 520H was a bucket list tractor. Im still all excited over it and its been 48 hours. All i want to do is work on it

Hey, the man said he had a tractor in “ good shape”. Then it would not crank with no power. He could have spent 20 minutes getting it ready to sell and made potentially another $1000. Once the negotiations start all is fair.

Looks like you did and a couple of calendar shots to boot. Did a bang up job on cleaning her up too that's fer sure! The plow & weights alone the price of admission!

Model t flywheel magnet, I forget how many go to the set.

This was long overdue, The vast majority of the "Creative Engineering" (AKA bending the rules) was relater to the chassis in the past. I have no idea what it cost to convert the LA Stadium into a 1/4 mile race track but it was money well spent. It was a great day of entertainment and introduced a lot of new fans to the sport. My favorite driver, anybody but Busch, won the race. I'm a happy camper! Looking forward to another great season.

Just a note on P-series longevity when properly maintained: I have a Toro Groundsmaster. It had 2500 hrs on the meter when I got it, and the meter was frozen up. I mowed with it for another 10 years before the 'many times welded over' deck rotted out. It still cranks and purrs like a kitten. I can only guess, but it has somewhere between 3500 and 4000 hours on it. The only thing it has different from a Wheel Horse is an external oil cooler. Still speaks volumes about an Onan in my book. The only negative in my book is the expense that comes with rebuilding one. You can't cobble a rebuild like you can with other engines. Onan specs are very tight. They are precision built engines and a rebuild is not the place to skimp.

My 1076 ready to work old and new

As long as you're enjoying yourself That's what it's all about when you're retired

Got Hank out for a little exercise today.