[Farmall] O-12 chores

John Hall jthall at worldnet.att.net
Tue Dec 26 05:33:36 PST 2006


Great read Karl. Definetly a good play by play for anyone resurrecting an 
old machine for the first time and not certain what to watch out for. 
Likewise a good reminder for the rest of us.

Got a challenge for you. Learn to weld cast iron. It's something I can do on 
my own projects but don't really want to do for others. Then again a lot of 
pros refuse to give a guarantee on some repairs. Breaks are easier to fix 
than cracks. If you are already planning on remaking the part anyway, no big 
deal if you screw up, right? Whats the worst that can happen, you get good 
at it? Lord knows I haven't gotten good at it but I've made a couple of 
decent repairs on my Titan that are working just fine thus far. As with 
anything, you need to know when to call in a pro instead of try it yourself. 
However these days finding a pro that can weld cast is getting to be 
difficult.

Having said all that, I still can't solder and braze worth a flip. There are 
going to be some repeirs on the Titan to be made with either lead or solder 
and I hope to learn how. That tractor had the intake broke off at the head 
once. It was put back on with the prettiest brass work I have ever seen. To 
top it off the guy wet around the flange and built it up for added strength. 
I have never seen brass with swirl marks in it like welding but this guy did 
a flawless job. And this repair took place before the mid '40's. The only 
thing I did was to make a spotface for the bolt head and face off the bottom 
of the intake.

John


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <olmstead at ridgenet.net>
To: <farmall at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 10:29 PM
Subject: [Farmall] O-12 chores


> The Farmall list has been seriously short on notes from people workin' on
> tractors lately, so maybe it's time to relate another of my ongoing
> adventures.
>  The cast iron support
> for the starting crank was broken, so I went looking for a better one on
> my other O-12s.  Seems that they've ALL been broken.  Probably by people
> trying to push something with the front of the tractor.  So the problem
> changed; I had to decide whether to make a new crank support or try and
> get an old one rewelded.  At present, I'm leaning toward fabricating new
> crank supports out of steel.  Some people can weld or braze cast iron
> successfully, but for every one of them there are a hundred people who
> think they can (and are wrong).  Only about a quarter inch of the crank
> support shows, so I think that a fabricated unit will work fine and be
> undetectable by casual observers.  And give me some quality time on the
> lathe makin' parts.  If I do go that way, I'll make up a lot of crank
> support, not just one for this project.
>> -Karl
>
> /listinfo/farmall 




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