Fred R Clark & Son Machineworks

[Forest Cat]

I'm simply amazed at the amount of interest these two videos have generated over the past 8 days.

I had to take a quick look, it says 1,7K. Is that 1700 views in 7 days? That is a little amazing.

 

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I had to take a quick look, it says 1,7K. Is that 1700 views in 7 days? That is a little amazing.

 

[Nitro]

View attachment 128350

Both of these got around 20 hits during the past hour.

One has hit 1861 views

 

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Both of these got around 20 hits during the past hour.

One has hit 1861 views

2,115 as of this morning

 

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2,115 as of this morning

Some of you know I love to see statistics and this run delivered.

Not too shabby for a two week run.

My previous record was 3166 views over a ten year span.

 

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View attachment 128631
Some of you know I love to see statistics and this run delivered.

Not too shabby for a two week run.

My previous record was 3166 views over a ten year span.

 

[Nitro]

Back in the saddle again, prepping for our upcoming show.

The H parked with the John Deere mower.
The mower got a serious workout knocking back the grass that was getting fairly high.

Got the brass tags removed from my concrete mixer to remove their "patina" that was obscuring what they said on them.
Steel wool only fixed the high spots but wouldn't touch the rough stuff, so it was on to plan B

Used plain old vinegar in a plastic container floating in my ultrasonic cleaner

As you can see, that was the hot ticket

Two down, one to go....

The tag on the left is how to determine how much Portland cement that is required to make standard mixes in the machine.
Important stuff if you need to make your concrete last.
( I know very little about that and only own the machine)

 

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before

after vinegar and a light polish

 

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Put another three days in at the showgrounds getting stuff ready for the upcoming show.
Lots of tidy up in the shop area and some needed repairs got done.
The first project was adapting a ball hitch to the Jaeger mixer.
Easy enough, bore an additional hole in the removable hitch for the tinyhouse and bind her down tight thru the original hitch hole.
Ready to drop onto the hitch ball on the Farmall to drag it to the show area then yank it off prior to the show.
Will wash and wax her first, then load the mixer up with stove pellets just so the people can see how it operates.

I won't get to run it myself, but another member will run it while he runs his.

I stashed away a bunch of coffee cans of hardware that were donated to my cause, but that was part of what I built the locker for last summer.

Opened up the Racine power hacksaw and did a preliminary inspection of it's naughty bits.
She failed and will need some attention, but with little effort should be good in due time.
Next on the list was a few minutes spent on a binding belt shifter shaft on a lineshaft. A dirty but done deal.
Next on that project will be a new lever pivot bolt and washers then the install of it's support bracket
That is the part I moved last year for the Rhoads shaper project.
She won't be ready for this show because the clock is counting down, but hopefully she will shine during the summer show.
So close yet so far away...

The biggest accomplishment today was to move that huge old dinosaur wood lathe over to our museum.
That will pave the way for another lineshaft to power up our 1850 build date planer table, the huge drill press donation and the Racine power hacksaw.

With more luck and labor, I hope to see all of that up and running over the next year, but as they say, Rome wasn't burned in a day

Got started on the magnetic steel signage.
Mods were required because I wasn't able to get all of the needed letters, so it was cut and weld time to git 'er dun

Two letter Ds being modified to become letter Os

One must be precise when doing the mods so they were finished on our horizontal mill prior to welding them.
Sign preview:

Will have to remove then adjust a few magnets to get the 100% right, but is should be fine in the end.
Not bad for Walmart 90% discount Christmas stuff

The starter on the Farmall took a dump last Sunday, so it got dragged home for repairs.
Yep, snapped a bendix spring:

Internally, the motor looked fine, in fact had signs of a recent rebuild.
The spring was only $20, but a brand new drive was only 50, so you guessed it, it got a new one.

That puppy will be reassembled in the morning and headed back up for install possibly tomorrow evening.

 

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While the Farmall was down over a bad starter, I decided to finish sorting out the wiring on it.
I will be utilizing the original light switch to operate the improved LED headlamps on the front and one more LED light on the rear.
Harness on the ground:

Alternator with the proper sized crimp connector for the charging lead:

I relocated the ballast resister for the ignition coil and will run that wiring with the charge lead.
I decided to 86 the crappy pull switch for the ignition and replace it with a marine grade toggle switch I will be adding to the light switch box.
The new switch will have a red LED on the lever tip so it won't be ignored when left on.
pix will be provided when it is done.

The intake piping got treated to new rubber hose.
I reused the two upper hose clamps because they were painted and can't be seen under the hood.
New ones will be added to the lower hose soon, I promise

Yep, the temp gauge and the oil pressure tube will need more attention, but while it is opened up, it will be easy.

Will be wiring all of the electrical functions thru the ignition switch which will include the gauge illuminations too.

I got done trying to make my tractor original and decided that function was better than form.

I have to have it back in service again for a tractor parade on next Saturday.
Yep, we will get to cruise the National Road (US 40) on antique farm tractors

 

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finis