The Daily Yardman Thread

[willys55]

Re: Progress towards the 50K/1K goal

Doc,

I have to thank you for the interest you have created in this thread! I do believe my recent estimate regarding the thread reaching 50,000 views and 1,000 posts has been knocked into a cocked hat! Posts are coming in so fast I can't adjust my computations quickly enough to keep up! I mean now I get up and I don't just have a few new posts to read, I have several new "PAGES" of posts to read!

Believe it or not, if you go back to the beginning and read everything, you'd find that we actually tried to shut the thread down several times, but each time it bounced back to life like the Energizer Bunny. Those of us who have been on here since the beginning - (when I was actually rebuilding the transaxle on my MTD Yardman) - had sort of run out of topics of interest and although it was obvious lots of people were reading the posts, getting any of them to contribute to the thread wasn't easy. Maybe they are all visitors and can't contribute, I don't know, but we needed an injection of new subjects and then YOU came along! If we could just involve a couple more members with interesting topics to share the MTD forum would become omnipotent! Unstoppable! A force to be reckoned with! We could dominate the Forum World!! GOLD STARS galore!! . . . . LOADED PIZZAS . . . . ROLEX SUBMARINERS!! .... We'll go done in history!! (Although I'm not sure as what!)

Keep on keeping on...

Rog

Thanks, I will try

 

[Roger B]

Forging Ahead

I don't know if any of you guys have ever gotten into forging metal, but I can tell you it is a science requiring a great deal of knowledge to accomplish correctly. Especially when it come to hardening. If you look closely at the picture of the forge I made, you may note a short piece of lawnmower blade sort of 'stuck' on the side of one of the three legs. Actually, there is a large speaker magnet set into a hole in the leg and the magnet can be used to determine the temperature of the steel. Regular carbon steel becomes non-magnetic at 1,420 degrees F. Salt can also be used to determine the temperature as it melts at 1,474 degrees F.

When I first got into 'forging', I thought all you had to do was heat the metal up to somewhere between cherry red and white hot and then beat the crap out of it... OHhhhh---Noooo. Nothing is as simple as that! So you start to do some research and you learn words like "Austenite" and "Martensite" and how critical temperature really is to the successful outcome of forging steel. All of a sudden you start to wonder how on earth Japanese sword makers ever learned how to create some of the finest cutting edges ever honed by man! Masamune who is considered to be the greatest Japanese swordsmith of all time, lived from 1264 until 1347.. You can be certain he never know about the austenitization of ferrite, yet the quality of his swords has never been exceeded. How did he learn his trade?

I recently read a book in which specific Japanese swords played a key part. Their history is extremely interesting, interwoven with myth and magic, the steel produced is often believed to have a life of it's own once it becomes a katana, tanto, or wakizashi...

Forging is near alchemy to my mind and is a science I will never fully understand.. I believe in the magic of swords, some undoubtedly do have a life of their own...

Any of you guys ever study modern steels used in knife making? That is a related and interesting subject too.. My favorite hunting knife is made from CPM S30V, which believe it or not is a proprietary metal formed from various powdered metals that are compressed under tremendous pressure into billets. If the same powders were to be melted together, they would not form the same alloy at all.. I'm telling you, it's all F.M. And the "M" stands for Magic!!

Roger

 

[primerbulb120]

Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild

you sure it's not a 2 stroke detroit engine.....LOL

No, it's a 31CC gas 2 stroke. Reed valve design, which explains how it can run backwards.

 

[primerbulb120]

Re: Forging Ahead

I don't know if any of you guys have ever gotten into forging metal, but I can tell you it is a science requiring a great deal of knowledge to accomplish correctly. Especially when it come to hardening. If you look closely at the picture of the forge I made, you may note a short piece of lawnmower blade sort of 'stuck' on the side of one of the three legs. Actually, there is a large speaker magnet set into a hole in the leg and the magnet can be used to determine the temperature of the steel. Regular carbon steel becomes non-magnetic at 1,420 degrees F. Salt can also be used to determine the temperature as it melts at 1,474 degrees F.

When I first got into 'forging', I thought all you had to do was heat the metal up to somewhere between cherry red and white hot and then beat the crap out of it... OHhhhh---Noooo. Nothing is as simple as that! So you start to do some research and you learn words like "Austenite" and "Martensite" and how critical temperature really is to the successful outcome of forging steel. All of a sudden you start to wonder how on earth Japanese sword makers ever learned how to create some of the finest cutting edges ever honed by man! Masamune who is considered to be the greatest Japanese swordsmith of all time, lived from 1264 until 1347.. You can be certain he never know about the austenitization of ferrite, yet the quality of his swords has never been exceeded. How did he learn his trade?

I recently read a book in which specific Japanese swords played a key part. Their history is extremely interesting, interwoven with myth and magic, the steel produced is often believed to have a life of it's own once it becomes a katana, tanto, or wakizashi...

Forging is near alchemy to my mind and is a science I will never fully understand.. I believe in the magic of swords, some undoubtedly do have a life of their own...

Any of you guys ever study modern steels used in knife making? That is a related and interesting subject too.. My favorite hunting knife is made from CPM S30V, which believe it or not is a proprietary metal formed from various powdered metals that are compressed under tremendous pressure into billets. If the same powders were to be melted together, they would not form the same alloy at all.. I'm telling you, it's all F.M. And the "M" stands for Magic!!

Roger

I've never tried forging, but I imagine bertsmobile1 probably has! He seems to know everything there is to know about metals and metalworking.

 

[willys55]

Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild

Thanks to Roger, now all I can think about is building a forge for my anvil when I get it....I love welding and metal working.

 

[willys55]

Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild

Not just a lawn mower. It is a garden tractor. I just sold one for $400

I have had several lawn and garden tractors over the years, to this day I still think the Jacobsen GT12 I had back in 1988 was the hardest working beast of a machine, I had it running so well that you could idle it all the way down to the point that is sounded like a hit or miss engine.
This photo is of the mower crew I had for a few years, before I bought the house I am in now, I had 20 acres of farm to maintain and of that 6 acres was lawn or day paddocks.

 

[Boobala]

Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild

When Tom comes back, we'll have even more to talk about.

I also have a question. Does anyone here have a trimmer with the MTD 31cc engine? If so, have you ever had it kick back and then start running backwards? It's very strange when you go to trim and the head is spinning in the wrong direction! :confused2:

Clyde , I think I had that happen to me with those ol model airplane engines, but no experience with other engines .

 

[willys55]

Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild

bought this house in mid to early June 2016.....needed a place for the horses so while working on the inside of the house on rainy days and outside on warm sunny days...built a 1/2 acre pen and run in shelter.
2nd photo was taken with a different camera on November 8 2016.

 

[willys55]

Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild

I put each post in by hand with a forged 40 year old post hole digger that I refurbished using wheel barrel handles because they are longer making it easier to dig down the 30 inches for the frost line, that plus the fact that I am 6.3" and those store bought post hole diggers are only long enough for 10 year olds....LOL

 

[Roger B]

Re: MTD Yardman Transaxle Rebuild

Thanks to Roger, now all I can think about is building a forge for my anvil when I get it....I love welding and metal working.

Doc,

You are welcome.. My only advice is, 'Don't use real charcoal'! I bought a bag of mesquite charcoal once and I had sparks flying to the moon!

Get yourself an old brake drum and you're on your way. I just used some perforated steel to cover the center hole and keep the coal in. Keep your eyes open for one of those hand operated blowers though, they are worth their weight in gold!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-CHA...lower-Forge-Co-SEMI-REFURBISHED-/162562769357