Seen this on Craigslist.  Make a good project for someone. Look good beside a Bain wagon.

https://fargo.craigslist.org/grd/d/massey-harris-bob-sled/6277895766.html

Paul

Well - all good wishes for the New Year to everyone and may you turn your thoughts to getting on with those jobs that are on the "TO DO" list.  I am sure that we all have many pending!

We had a rare bit of good weather on Boxing day so with the help of my son and grandson we were able to get my MH 721A disc harrows from the field and into the shed.  They are a tidy set of disc harrows and though there used to be very many MH examples at work in UK fields they are now a hard to find item.  I bought this at a relatively local sale a couple of years ago and have used it.  The main chassis is in very good condition but the wooden bearings in all the four disc gangs are worn out completely.  So the task is now to get them out.  I could buy a set from the US but with carriage across the pond they would come out at +/- 700 USD - more than the implement is worth.  So my plan is to find someone with a wood turning lathe to turn me some out.

First job of the New Year - What is Yours?

John

Well the New Year is now a month old and we have had some success on renovating the disc harrows.  I gave up on the idea of buying new wooden bushes from the USA - much too expensive.

So we thought around the matter - get some turned down out of oak or ash maybe?  Then Malcolm mentioned that he had made some a few years ago out of hard nylon.  I discussed this with my brilliant local engineer and lo and behold he had an old butcher's chopping block made out of this sort of stuff.  So he duly turned a set out for me.  Picture of his great workmanship attached.

For anyone undertaking a similar task beware - the front and back disc gangs have different diameter axles and different length bushes.  Why this should be I am not sure as I would have thought that they do equal amounts of work with equal amounts of imposed stresses.  Food for thought?  Anyone got an idea on this?  It is the rear axles that are more robust..

John

Just been looking through some of these older threads, this one has not seen any activity for eleven months.
So here is my "Next Project" a N0 51 plough which got pulled out of the weeds and junk pile at the top of the yard this week, it has been resting there for almost 18 years now and thought it was time it was brought back to life with some colour for the New Year.

Happy New Year to All Massey Collectors and their families around the World, let's hope 2019 is another "Massey Year to Remember".

All the Best
Malcolm.

Nice old piece.  Any thoughts on when it was made?

Happy New Year,
Paul

Paul,

The No 51 plough was advertised up to 1951 in the Canadian Farmers Handy Catalogues, it was described as "The Most Popular Walking Plow"  for general use, also a "Big Prize Winner in Match work", this confirms what I had always heard that the No 51 is a match plough.

1951 seems very late for a brand new horse plough, but guess the transition from horses to tractors was much later in Canada than here in England.

Malcolm.

Well - a very Happy New Year to you all and hope all goes well with your healths, happiness and of course your Massey hobby.

So, to see the New Year in last night we took the front axle off our Wallis 20-30 in order to have it refurbished by my local engineer to whom nothing is ever a problem.  We had one heck of a problem removing one of the wheels.  Took about an hour of careful use of crowbar and sledge hammer to get it off the axle.  Some monkey mechanic of a by-gone age had  chiseled at the the axle where the bearings sit in order that he could then hammer them on so that they would not turn.   However when one comes to take the wheel off then the bearings will of course not slide along the axle.  The outer bearing was the more stuck.  I suppose that a large puller might have done the job but of course we didn't have one large enough to get round the wheel hub.

As usual the track rod ends, king pins and their bushes, and centre pins were to say the least  full of loosness or as we say over here "slop".  It's now down in the engineers workshop being attended to.

Here's a pic of the dis-assembled tractor front. When I look at it I am tempted to make a tandem Wallis - don't think it has been done before!

John