I now realize why these machines are called light, I spent the afternoon stripping one today you certainly do not end up with much. It is a credit to the designers that such a piece of machinery of lightweight construction can do the job as well as they do and also last as they do. If the designers today wanted to build such a machine they certainly would not be using 1/2 inch pipe as spacers, they would have to have some sophisticated system that would add to the cost, and then be made in China. I had forgotten how simple these mowers are, it would be at least 40 years since I have pulled one down (used to have a blade sharpening business) but have 5 of them to restore so number one is off and running. I have a couple of questions, does the rear roller split in half? I have another with the aluminium roller that is quite loose and has quite a gap, the other question is the front roller axle, what material is it made of? It looks like brass but is magnetic so cannot be pure brass, I do have to make new wooden rollers and as the axle is fairly unevenly worn I could turn down the worn axle and make the rollers to suit, just interested.
Spent the day cleaning parts for the Atco, most time was spent rubbing down the rear roller, it sure was rusty.
Am quite pleased with the condition of the drive chain parts, sprockets chains etc, the cutting cylinder, bottom blade, grass deflector plate and a number of other parts are now in the molasses bath will probably take a couple of days as the rust on the blades was quite heavy.
The cylinder was in the molasses for two days and has come out pretty much as it was from the foundry, I have not decided as yet whether to paint or just clear coat it, on my rotaries I have just clear coated the cutter disc (only to stop rust forming again), I do not put blades on these mowers as I do not want to have to spend time cleaning them up again, will be the same with the cylinder mowers, they will not be used.
A question I have is are the corks available for the clutch plate or do we make our own?
In my first post here I asked the question as to what is the front roller axle made out of as I have a brass axle that is magnetic, not so, just me being dumb. What the brass is, is the brass bushes out of the roller seized to the axle and the wooden rollers have been turning on the bushes, the magnetic properties is the steel axle inside the brass bushes. Dismantling a carby off a Villiers engine today and found the nut retaining the bowl quite tight, eventually got it undone only to find that tube in the centre of the carby had separated where the jet on the bottom of the tube is attached, unfortunately an earlier mechanic had round off the hex on this part so could not hold it to undo the bowl retaining nut. Attacked the nut with the hacksaw and got it off, so now have another job, make a new bowl retaining nut.
I have to confess it was no brilliance on my part I have 5 of these mowers and am using one as a donor machine and was dismantling it when I discovered the brass bushes in the rollers, like the other the rollers had been turning on the bushes but they were not seized to the axle.
I will only use parts off this mower that I cannot make or buy as it seems a shame to discard another old mower when they are getting older and harder to get and it will only get worse for our grandkids.
I have already made a nut for a carby off a mark 12 Villiers, just a brass cylinder without the hex so will probably do another for this carby, will give the purists something to comment on if we are ever able to get to display our toys.
Cleaned up the side plates ready to paint, surprised at the difference in the steel, have also stripped the handles and have done a repair on the clutch housing by welding up the damage done by the clutch plate rattling around.
Finding it hard to get the correct colour in paint at the moment, I think I read somewhere deep brunswick green, but have not been able to source any in the Sunraysia.
