Hello from a new member

[bill-c]

Hello everyone, new to the forum but not to gardening, as a school kid had to help my father in a large garden it was ploughed by a tractor, rotavated by me and I used a then new Howard 350 (shows my age), fond memories even though hard work, no wonder I ache some mornings even now. Many years later needed a rotavator so bided on a few 350’s, all going for silly money. Ended up winning a Howard for silly cheep money, went to collect, Oops a bit bigger than I thought, now an owner of a well-used Howard Yeoman with a Villers mk 40, but, by now I didn’t really need it so I had a quick tinker with it and decided it was a very good bit of engineering. The wife suggested that I restore it to use and also to take to local horticultural / Agricultural shows, thought she was joking, but on second thoughts I decided to have a go. A few highs and lows later (Villers are still a good bit of kit, getting imperial ball bearings for the gearbox not that easy) I now have a working Yeoman with only a few little things to make and fit (reverse interlock among the things to make) and clean up ( Villers name plate proving a tad troublesome ). I’ve found out some interesting things, Howard orange is BRIGHT! There are some strange Whitworth threads, Villers seem impossible to break, the thing is heavy!!, I now know various ways to clean up rusty steel, I’ve come across some wonderful if strange engineering ideas and by the way Howard orange is BRIGHT!!

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[vhgmcbuddy]

That’s looks awesome we’ll done on the restore there’s a howard near me for free to collect the whole blade mechanism is missing but I want it just as it’s such a cool and interesting peice of machinery I think getting the blasé parts for it might a very difficult take though haha
Danny

[charlie]

Welcome to the forum. If you have an old id plate to copy then it might be worth contacting Vintage Brass Plates they can do one off plates, but they are not cheap.
If you are planning to show at rallies etc, (Not very likely this year with Covid19), you will need public liability insurance, this is included with VHGMC membership, so well worth joining.

[andyfrost]

Nice to see another machine saved , and going to use. It’s only the modern Howard orange that is bright , originally 350s had what I would say was a semi-gloss finish.
George at Villiersparts did have some ID plates , worth checking if he has any left.

Andy.

[bill-c]

Thank you Andy and Charlie for the information on the ID plates, George at Villiers does have ID plates but I’ve decided that a new one would look wrong on the machine and after a couple hours work I’m happy with the results so I’ll be refitting the originals now. Thanks for the comments Danny it does look better than when I got it home, lots of welding, hammering etc and the fuel tank refused to be painted, 4 attempts in total. Parts and information about the Yeomans seem scarce but you might be lucky and find a tine assembly for the one you’re looking at. After a few problems with Windows 10 not letting me resize the photo of the Yeoman as I bought it, below is the photo at last. When I’ve got time, a few attachments will be fabricated, like a tow bar, plough and a set of harrows, should be fun.

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