[AT] repairing machined tractor parts

Mon Dec 9 03:46:41 PST 2019

An older acquaintance, now deceased, who owned an old Elgin automobile from
I think about 1916 or so. Not that many were made and I understand that
only a handful survive. He needed a gear set for the transmission and there
just were not any anywhere. He finally found a company that could reproduce
them but he had to take a "run". I think it was about 20 sets. He had them
made and contacted other owners  to sell some of the extra sets at a fair
rate to recover a bit of his cost. I think he was keeping about 5 sets
himself. I don't know how he came out but I understand he did sell several
sets to others and that at least one bought 2 sets. Sadly he died before he
ever got his Elgin in operating condition.
*******
About castings... I've never done any iron casting but I have sand cast a
little aluminum. One of those different times things, my father was in the
shoe repair trade during most of the great depression. It was one trade
that did pretty well during tough times. There is a kind of rotary "tack
tray" often used in the trade that has about 8 or 10 pockets and sits on a
base so it can behave like a "Lazy Susan". (Picture below) Today many are
plastic but all of them from that time were cast iron as are modern
reproductions from China. The China ones are a little rough. My father
couldn't find any to buy so he borrowed one, possibly from his brother, and
had 2 cast by a small foundry. I don't recall exactly how much he said he
paid but today that price "might" pay for a large Pizza.  😀  I still have
those 2 trays along with about 4 others I acquired.

.
[image: image.png]

On Sun, Dec 8, 2019 at 11:37 PM Spencer Yost <spencer at rdfarms.com> wrote:

> 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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-- 
-- 

Francis Robinson
aka "farmer"
Central Indiana USA
robinson46176 at gmail.com
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