Testing Photo's of my Major

[oehrick]

I hope this works after a crash course in photobucket, just hope theres no hole in it "Dear Henry Dear Henry" (only blues of a certain age will recognise this

Anyhow if my IT skills have overcome old Sod and his law, three pics of my tatty pride and joy should appear hereunder, ifn they don't I followed JC instructions







There, here's hoping that gave you spit and polish merchants a warm glow

[Dandy Dave]

It Lives! The Horse Shoe is a nice touch. Dandy Dave!

[oehrick]

It was living this very afternoon moving some wind downed timber DD - which is more than can be said for the chainsaw - return spring on the cord jumped or busted before my last load so I had to switch to pulling a dirty great oil tank back to base instead - which I hope to be able to cut enough steel sheet out of to side & bottom a link box from - well that's todays cunning plan.

I'm glad the pics are visible elsewhere There used to be another shoe on the other grille but no doubt it dropped back into a furrow somewhere. Having looked at that back view properly for the first time in ages and given that I am anything up to 20 days older (block cast 3 days after I was born) and being a shade under height (my doc's chart says for my weight I should be 14' 9" tall) I may be in marginally better condition..........

Goodness knows what the old chap got jammed between the o/s wheel and mudguard, fortunately it doesn't appear to have snapped the box / channel strengtheners, the red pixie (who I try to ignore) says long 4x6 inside the mudguard and hook a chain-block on to pull it back out, the blue pixie on the other shoulder says wait until you can heat the bend up with the oxy propane torch and then heave it back - who knows which one of 'em will win

Take care and best to you & yours

[AdrianNPMajor]

Great tractor in its working clothes still doing what it was designed to do. Can't ask for more!
Your second horseshoe is in the same place as one of my front grilles. I'm still cursing about it now!
Best
Adrian

[Dandy Dave]

Lucky Horse Shoes will not protect against a previous owners hard running and abuse. The Red Pixie Sometimes wins in these cases. The Blue Pixie will always come out ahead if the Man and machine are tuned as one and never overload either. Other Demons just get caught in the Horse shoe and ride along with no escape unless the horse shoe is turned up-side-down and they fall out.... I believe that is what happened, the Horse shoe that fell off dumped the demons on your chainsaw. Hang a Horse Shoe of decent size under the bench vice where you work on the saw to catch them when you take the saw apart for repairs. This way here they cannot re-attach your saw, or whatever else you may be working on. This Has Been a "Good and Sound Advice" announcement from Dandy Dave!

[ford5000y]

Great tractor in its working clothes still doing what it was designed to do. Can't ask for more!
Your second horseshoe is in the same place as one of my front grilles. I'm still cursing about it now!
Best
Adrian

Oh, yes, I've read about that. The grille that you "planted" while working on the field. Has it bloomed some wire mesh or you have already harvested NP super major grilles from it, or, it failed to "germinate"?

[oehrick]

Sorry to hear how you lost your shoe and grille Adrian, not exactly lucky UNLESS it was due to be struck by lightning I've got half a ton of the things here awaiting welding into things made of hosshoes but nothing quite that small.

Thanks for the masterclass in 'the old religion' DD, perhaps you can give us the colonists take on lucky horseshoes, most indications are that they need to be a found shoe which has been cast by a horse, not one off a farriers pile.

But even here in NE Norfolk (where best estimates are that we are approaching, not with any degree of urgency, 1987!) there are two schools of thought about fitting a shoe for luck, one that it is open side up, t'other that it is open side down. My investigations indicate that open up is traditionally Norfolk, where at least a couple of nails or some baler twine is needed to fit and that open down has crept in from darkest Suffolk where hanging it on an existing nail is plenty good enough on the way to the pub, 'course then the fenlanders confuse matters even more, sitting on the fence they mount theirs sideways which leads to the silt fen / peat fen arguments of left or right pointing............



True story (have you come across this DD?) regarding George H Corliss, major manufacturer of American stationary steam engines in pre mild steel days, kept a stockpile of around 1000 tons of used horseshoes in his yard, obtained by supplying new rolled wrought bar in a weight for weight exchange with smiths / farriers all over the States. When asked how it made any sense doing this he explained that to make stress bearing parts of engines, conrods, crankshafts etc. they had to heat and hammer, heat and hammer, heat and hammer tons of new metal to get the slag out of it and to get the right grain texture refined for use and just how expensive this was to do, whereas all he had to do was to issue new metal at the same raw cost and right across America people, horses & mules were refining it by hand & hoof, bit by bit at no cost to Corliss, all he had to do was pile it, heat it and knock it out under the steam hammer Clever chap !

[curtsat15]

That's a beautiful old Fordson! Looks a lot like mine!

[oehrick]

Cheers curtsat15

They call it patinated if its an antique, foxed if its a book, distressed if its a painting, the best I can come up with is 'rusticated' if its a not looked after much for 50 years Fordson - anyone else have an alternative description ??

[oehrick]

Hi Folks,

Another bright warm spring afternoon with plenty of daffs & primroses flowering in the woods (to squash) - yup a bit more fallen timber collected and dragged back to the saw.

Before starting I decided it was time to refill the gearbox, I shot a 5L can of new oil in and was looking to top up from the back end to re establish the level, I don't have a trailer coupling so took off the union nut on the lift valve, screwed a bit of large bore hose over the thread and popped that in the filler, perfect length & bore, I must remember to tag it for the next time

My query is, I have several more modern sealing hydraulic QRC's which would make sense when I build the log splitter, I know they used UNC / F fixings on the Majors but I've not come across a 'U' series of pipe threads, would they have been BSP or something else ?? As the workshop is 8 miles from the tractor I'd like to be prepared, otherwise I'll hatta whittle a bung for the joint on the lift valve and pull the pipe bracket off at the back to bring it home.

A nice afternoon pottering about accompanied by the joyfull sounds of the Major, spoiled by ripping me back pocket which had 2 lighters in it, both lost = nothing to light me pipe with