Vintage Horticultural and Garden Machinery Club

Do we understand why the shaft failed in the first place? There are a few other ideas I have but this will leave he shaft weaker and more prone to failure. Of course a failure could totally destroy the gearbox which wouldn’t be good. I would be happy to play with my Colebys since I know that they will never be used again for ploughing or any hard labour.

For me, the spline is an issue and not something I would attempt at this stage, it’s step too far for me I’m afraid. Looking at the fracture it looks as if the steel has been hardened although the photos isn’t too clear in this respect.

If it wasn’t for the spline, I would have loved to have a go but I’m sure that a machine shop can knock…[Read more]

This certainly looks possible, what sort of diameter is it and how quickly do you need it. I guess there are bearings on the shaft and that’ll be the more difficult bit with tight tolerances for an interference fit and to get a smooth enough finish. They keyway shouldn’t be too much of an issue. What neck of the woods to you live in? I’m up North,…[Read more]

If you can put a photo of the drive shaft on this post then I might be willing to have a go at making one, depending on how complicated it is. I’m starting to get into machining again and looking for simple projects. I suspect that this will have splines and will probably be a step too far for me at this stage, but lets see what’s involved.

Just a thought, if these are original paint colours on your machines albeit a bit worn, have you considered getting a RAL colour chart and match the paint that way?
So far I’ve had excellent results painting with Paragon Enamel paints. They are expensive but so far well worth the money. It looks as if they will mix any colour for you and can be…[Read more]

That looks a lot of fun.

Trusty

That’s the theory I had but had considered Jan, Feb, or March as possible months which would have made sense. This quiz is a bit much for me I’m afraid, I can’t see any combination of numbers that will fit given this star sign.

I really can’t believe such an innocent post originally would provide so much interest and some much fun. It was only intended to be a passing comment but it seems to have really sparked the imagination of quite a few people.

Having looked at this in a bit more detail, it would appear that there are quite a few DOB that can be palindromes which are far more recent than 1930’s. Yep, my stupid errors and omissions crept in again. I’ll get my thinking cap on again but I suspect that this will take quite a bit of guesswork as well as working out.

Jeff
Following Andys previous post, it might well be worth adding a couple of photos

I’m no expert on anything really but I have had quite a bit of success getting a few WICO series A and WIPAC series C magnetos going without the need for new points and if you are just trying to get the engine running, you might get away without the condenser to prove the engine is a good one. The condenser really needs to be in place when you are…[Read more]

Hopefully I won’t offend, but I think your date of birth is 3rd of March and you would therefore have been born in 1933. Alas, this is as far as I have got so far. There are two other dates but that would put you at nearly 100 and well over 100 years old which seem unlikely albeit possible. I am of course prone to stupid errors but that’s my guess so far.

Thank you to both of you. This is very useful and provides excellent information to the uninitiated like me. I’ll ask all sorts of stupid questions but hopefully these will be useful to other members and general public alike.

That’s brilliant and something I can start to investigate in a bit more detail when the need arises. I assume that there are specialists dealing with vintage and very rare machines.

I does surprise me a little if I’m honest since the MG2 and the Coleby Shire, along with so many machines of this period have absolutely no place on the road but I…[Read more]

I’m really pleased that there have been some positives coming out of this unfortunate virus this year Joe. There will of course be winners and losers but it looks as if you have really tackled the new set of circumstances head on. Quite an inspirational post if I’m honest and a pleasure to read.

When I started this post, I was hoping that there would be some positives that have come out of the Coronavirus. It’s most sad to see the effect that this lockdown has had on the rural community but I do hope that this thread will be part of social history.

Now we are in lockdown, it would be reasonable to assume that everyone should be behind…[Read more]

I’ve found the same thing with my Colebys. There is very scant information on the internet, but have got quite a few original documents including shares certificates of Coleby Cultivators Ltd. These are probably totally worthless but to me, they mean the world.
The little information available is at best incomplete and some is misguided. I wrote…[Read more]

One thing I did during the first lockdown, understanding that this COVID-19 was here to stay, is to hold a mini rally on my drive. The intention really was to sort the garage out, but there were loads of people walking around the estate doing their 1 hours worth of exercise unable to go to the shops, “working” at home and so forth.

The three…[Read more]