12-12-2016, 09:41 PM
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Believe it or not I do know someone with a tractor, there is a bloke across the road (on my quiet and very residential street) who owns a mint restored tractor (don't know what it is) but sadly it doesn't have forks or anything on the front. I don't know anyone else local with anything suitable. Gutted as if I was still in London I know a couple of people who own horse riding stables and thus have suitable tractors.
I have considered making the engine mounts but to do that I'd need to have the engine in and out a dozen times plus the cost of the steel, plus not having a welder that can weld metal that thick (obviously I could tack it and then pay someone to weld) plus getting rubbers and my inability to accurately measure and then cut anything. It just makes sense for me to blow a few hundred quid on mounts that will fit and work and not fall apart or give up at an inconvenient moment and save me alot of work.
The gearbox mounts I can do myself as I can support the gearbox from above and then work on it from underneath using some 3mm wall box. Also I can't find a suitable ready made mount.
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If you use something as thick as Darrens suggesting you'd be best off mocking it up with something else instead of metal and tacking it imo. To weld 10/12mm without some proper prep needs a bloody poky 3 phase welder really cranked up. If you tacked them together someone would have to take them apart to prep them and then you'd pretty much be back to square one again if the project wasn't infront of you.
I used to weld 10 and 12mm engine beams for Sealine S48 cruisers regularly years ago. They come standard with a couple of 500 BHP Volvo Pentas on board so needed to be pretty beefy! The heat from the welder used to turn the gauntlet into a shrivelled claw over time and you had to run a water cooled torch too.
Believe it or not I do know someone with a tractor, there is a bloke across the road (on my quiet and very residential street) who owns a mint restored tractor (don't know what it is) but sadly it doesn't have forks or anything on the front. I don't know anyone else local with anything suitable. Gutted as if I was still in London I know a couple of people who own horse riding stables and thus have suitable tractors.
I have considered making the engine mounts but to do that I'd need to have the engine in and out a dozen times plus the cost of the steel, plus not having a welder that can weld metal that thick (obviously I could tack it and then pay someone to weld) plus getting rubbers and my inability to accurately measure and then cut anything. It just makes sense for me to blow a few hundred quid on mounts that will fit and work and not fall apart or give up at an inconvenient moment and save me alot of work.
The gearbox mounts I can do myself as I can support the gearbox from above and then work on it from underneath using some 3mm wall box. Also I can't find a suitable ready made mount.
[quote]
If you use something as thick as Darrens suggesting you'd be best off mocking it up with something else instead of metal and tacking it imo. To weld 10/12mm without some proper prep needs a bloody poky 3 phase welder really cranked up. If you tacked them together someone would have to take them apart to prep them and then you'd pretty much be back to square one again if the project wasn't infront of you.
I used to weld 10 and 12mm engine beams for Sealine S48 cruisers regularly years ago. They come standard with a couple of 500 BHP Volvo Pentas on board so needed to be pretty beefy! The heat from the welder used to turn the gauntlet into a shrivelled claw over time and you had to run a water cooled torch too.