difflock

I got a mixed bag o shite about me, tractor wise. Non of them are road worthy, either due to advanced age and unattended decrepitude🤗, and dead slow regardless, or too slow and cabless. Or actually tracked! I need sommat for a 12 mile round trip, 100/120 HP probably plenty? And a loader would be nice. Towing capacity, guessing not exceeding 10 tonne, for potentially a "farmers" sized digger on a low loader. Thoughts?

Money talks!

No idea re its past history, except that I bought it through a club, a wealthy farmer in Kildare had had it, and had had it re-engined(by a genuinely gifted engineer) with an OM605 c/w a Dieselmekkan IP, and indeed it goes like stink once wound up, frighteningly so on the somewhat oversized tyres.. But I figure(ed), in hindsight, that after he had had the replacement engine fitted, he took it for a play on a beach, and dropped the pass side in an unseen hole, and the salt water got in the cill and pass footwell, cos the drivers side is not so afflicted, whereas on the pass side the heads of the seat box securing bolts were stupid rusted away as was the very front body mounting bolt head. And playing card sized slabs of rust 4 to 5mm thick falling out of the pass side drop-cill. But the son enjoys driving her, and since she is 1989 reg , a few more years will see her turned forty . . . so I figured I would invest some time on her. P.S. When I get her through the MOT, that will be 3 out of the 4 fully road legal, since I got the van restored professionally last year, and the wee red G turned 40 this year. So only 1 to go!, Another 1989 LWB 300GD, cept this one is origonal and unmolested with very good trim and carpets. Which vehicle the son in law, who is also big into his G Wagens wishes to do up properly with MB parts where required, because she is so unmolested and original. I bought the vehicle to be Senior Management's daily driver, but then got the opportunity to buy the automatic van a few months later. So I simply parked her up. Gibber, mutter an twitch.

The rotten, salt water exposed G Wagen A few random images, the more I look, the more I find. Salt water had got into the cills and the front pass footwell/ carpet, as evidenced by the rust. Though oddly? The floor is sound, other than beneath the floor behind the rear seat. The aluiminium water pump housing was also corroded and perforated, and being "NLA" it has been welded, fingers crossed#. The radiator was also rotten, so it was recored. Etc etc etc. P.S. The wings are over 1 £ thousand each, times 2, plus ditto for the inner wings. Gulp So bodge it it is.

Some, Yes a Cheese plant, a Monstera, which I thought produced breadfruit?, having briefly googled the image. That porch behind the 2 story high glazed front to the house, must have been hitting 30 deg, at head height of recent, and as humid as all get out, since I closed the upstairs windows on the landing. It is probably actually hottest in the Spring and Autumn, with the lower Sun throwing the rays better in through the vertical glass. And other than that, pure benign neglect/ aka survival of the fittest! Though I do randomly feed with Tomarite type fertiliser. Cheers Mth To add, no veggies being grown, pure lazyitis cum some long standing MH issues, but fingers crossed I might make, I intend to make a fresh start next spring. And I have been pondering growing herbs/spices even? In that front porch, like thinking of fabricating weldmesh( & hot dip galv) shelving/racking up both sides, to grow stuff in pots. Better at imagining than actually doing. Currently too busy welding at a rotten, rotten G Wagen to focus on owt else. For now.

😊

The Breadfruit are coming along nicely! Only problem is getting out the front door. To add, about a fortnight ago, as we were leaving the house I remarked to my wife, that I was going to teach the thug some manners by chopping it off, "just here" and as I indicated where it was for getting the chop, I noticed something different, the beginnings of the fruit buds/shoots. Phew!

As above, I have noticed uprooted bullrushes,i.e. the roots floating, plus no distinctive flowerheads this year. Guessing an otter might be responsible for the uprooting while attempting to dig out a frog? But this is the first year with no flowerheads. BTW The bullrushes seeded themselves and are now well established in the pond. Cheers, mth

Funny enough we have always had a local nut and bolt supplier, in Bendooragh, at the crossroads, Boyds, they used to build threashing mills, a most nondescript small old tin roofed barn as was, I have only had to use them once to source old imperial(of some sort?) bolts for the David Brown tractor, no mystery, he walks in the back and returns with what I needed. The business will prob die with the current owner unfortunately(my notion only) and the ground be sold for housing. And another part of our local heritage will be gone for ever.

Despite being in Northern Ireland, tis now positively balmy here this evening.

Ere mate! Wees is well "oop North" an forby that well out to the West, so more wind exposure. And anyway tha heat is mostly for the wife. Though as I lie here post lunch, tis touching 25 in here in a wee blink of afternoon Sun. I need to summon my willpower and get back to welding at the rather rusty Parsons Egg aka the Black Bollix which is to say a 1989 G Wagen that the previous owner got bogged ( but undisclosed to me) on a beach. Scabs of solid rust the size of a playing card and fully 4mm thick falling out of, what is left of, the cills. So far I have removed the full of a black bucket of underseal, rust and rusty bits of steel. Etc etc etc.

We appear to be 100% O.K.

Well Dan, I have not seen any smoke emanating from the chimney pot outside? And mostly burns showing flames, though if left undisturbed for a good period, neither smoke nor flames to be seen, so I suppose it must be burning like charcoal as you suggest. Cheers, Marcus.

This rubbish needs getting rid of somehow and puts out enough heat for the early autumn or spring, and btw it "stays in" overnight, not that that is a consideration. Without the air being throttled back. So the flue should still be clean? Thoughts?

I remember standing open mouthed in front of the telly, hardly able to believe what I was witnessing. A surreal experience indeed.

Drifter, First off I am still using the Polish son in laws transformer SIP 196 turbo welder. 2nd off. He informs me that a lot(all?) of the Lincon MIG welders sold on Europe, come out of a Polish factory that were building and selling so many highly respected MIG welders under their own Polish brand. That Lincoln simply bought the Polish factory and rebranded the welders as Lincoln!

See

Some of the clips on YouTube of the Amish running big circular saws are wonderful to watch and listen too, particularly if steam driven, and man do they sing!.

Ya Boo Sucks!

I was shy and introverted at a rough secondary school. I suffered 4 years of torment and bullying. Nobody stood up for me or protected me. I did not however consider self harm or suicide, but it was dammed rough during those 4 years. Then I escaped to the Tech and it was much better, and I enjoyed a more normal adolescence. But the effect of those years of torment and abuse never really left me during most of my adult life. I tried martial arts at Uni with a mate, but was totally useless at it. Then I joined the OTC and actually enjoyed myself.

My cynical "follow the money" take on politicans of the leftist/hard left/socialist type with their bleeding hearts and icy uncaring hands all to ready to seize our honestly and hard earned monies, for their voter base in the vast appratus of Government funded employment and, of course, "for the less fortunate". never mind the "Arts". Which should be funded by the wealthy, not by our taxes. Is just how much of this money mysteriously finds its way into THEIR bank accounts. Tony Blair and Joe Biden being the best examples. And of couse our benovelent leaders 1 off, personal tax avoiding legistation . . .

I favour Birkenstocks Gizeh's, which suit my flat feet most perfectly, but god they are shite quality, falling in bits in rapid short order. But I tried crocs and could not get on with them at all. Otherwise I would be wearing them. P.S. Birkenstocks not best suited to welding while standing. Prone works O.K. though.

I am tickled that an inverter MIG like the r-tech 181 can also weld stainless and aluminium, with the appropriate wire/ gas and a spool at the gun for the aluminium. Wow. btw, the son in law, who lent me his mig also supplied a cutting of .6mm thick shiney bright non rusting looks like SS but it is mild steel. Well confused I am. I can mostly weld this .6mm stuff without blowing holes. But if I am keeping the Black Bollix, she will defo need replacement cills. cheers

Thank you OSP and Donnie, Running .8mm wire, got a few 16 Amp sockets dotted about (mostly on 15Amp fuses though) used for the welder and compressor, plus a couple of moderately heavy extension leads, also used tonnes of various Sika products when bus building up at Wrightbus. Getting there. I hope. P.S. Could not figure out why a particular section of sill appeared to be very dirty, despite heavy grinder driven wire brushing. It refused to weld nicely. Derp! I had inadverently adjusted the regulator instead of turning the gas on at the cylinder. Cheers

Well, to clarify, I do not believe in the current heavily promoted hysterical "the end of the world is nigh" anthropological climate change hysteria. But Since the geological records clearly show repeated ice ages and interglacial periods. And the Thames freezing over in 16 or 17 something. Etc etc etc The climate has ALWAYS changed, regardless of our current feeble human input( setting aside the massive despoilation of natural ecosystems and equally massive resource extraction) And I suspect we will not be able to do SFA to prevent such climate changes. And since we cannot even predict the weather, I have grave reservations about the climate models predicting 30 or 50 years hence.