[AT] repairing machined tractor parts

[Spencer Yost]

I know nothing about cast work. In high school shop we did steel fabrication and welding and there was one little lesson on sand casting.  Even then the teacher did everything and we just watched. But I do remember it was real hard to get an object to look the way you needed/wanted it to. There is definitely an art to it.

My relevant antique tractor reference is feed covers for an old Massey Harris grain drill.  Originally  the drill had little cast covers in the bins - if I remember right about 10-15 of them - to cut the flow in half.   It was missing most of the covers.  Since I was seeding grass seed I needed them.  It cost me a pretty penny to have additional covers cast from one of the few that I had. 

The reason I went through the trouble was because  I was restoring it and wanted to actually use it to over-seed my pasture.   Did pretty well actually.  I sold it to a guy that just had to have it.   To be honest I am not sure that the modern no-till Drill I now rent from the county is all that much more successful.  Germination is similar except the new drill does have slightly better coverage.   I pull  the modern drill with my Ford since I have to have remote hydraulics to raise and lower it.


I doubt I made money selling that MH drill unless I ascribe value to the fun I had messing with it - which I do (-;

Spencer 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 8, 2019, at 7:52 PM, James Peck <jamesgpeck at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Most of the cost is in getting the first one made. I'd get a baker's dozen, one for you and 12 to sell. Shifter forks are not likely plain jane cast iron.
> 
> Steve W. AT List Member and Sun machine owner (swilliams268 at frontier.com); I know of a few folks who have had similar work done. There are small iron foundries located all around the US who do small production or one  off work. The more work you can do saves money on that end. It's not  real cheap but when you need a part for something that is not available  it might be worth the money.
> 
> Greg Hass  AT List Member (ghass at m3isp.com);  Two or three years ago I happened to see the show Jay Leno's Garage. He had the upper thermostat housing and the end where the radiator  hose connected from some rare old car where new or used parts didn't exist. The part was broke and could not be fixed. They glued it together, it  only had to hold itself, and put in a cabinet with a 3D camera. As the  part turned the camera took pictures. They then used a 3D printer to  make a plastic part of the housing. In turn they used the plastic part  to make a foundry mold and then poured it and had an exact part. I'm  sure there were other steps involved but you get the idea. Was this  way economical? With Jay Leno I doubt if that entered the picture.
> 
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