Vintage QT-16 Bolens

[BWH]

BWH,

Ah Ha.. Now I understand your Bolens 'roots'! Good old Olivers, they were fairly popular up here in Maine back in the day. We still see them fairly consistently at vintage tractor shows. Any tractor that could survive plowing this rock pile we call "soil" up here had to be tough!

I also dabble at wood working and collect block planes. Your 1455 brought that to mind. (See picture)

Thanks for the information.

Roger

Roger

Just returned from foot surgery, looks like I'll be sitting around foot elevated talking to blogs for a few weeks.

I find the wood planes very interesting also I'm not too much of a carpenter but my Grandfather was, before my Father passed away he gave me a couple of my Grandfathers plains one old steel and brass and one totally wood one with the steel blade, the thing is it was homemade made for fancy corner design trim work if I remember the story,

I have a 1950 Oliver 77 that I use to go on tractor rides from time to time, I also have a 1969 Oliver 1750 that I used to move snow with but my skid loader is quite a bit handier on my limited space acreage then the Oliver. But you know how that goes I don't have much in them and hate to part with them.

P.S. I have seen them rock plows but we don't have any rocks around here.

Have you had any snow to contend with this season?

 

[bertsmobile1]

Shove a couple of bricks under the foot of your bed. Much better than trying to keep it on a pillow.
Just in the morning, take a few minutes to lower it slowly or the fluids rushing gown will feel like the biggest carst iron plane landed on your foot.
If they gave you a compression stocking, put it on before you attempt to stand up
Good luck.
I ripped my right foot off many years ago and still sleep with the foot end of the bed elevated.

 

[Roger B]

I ripped my right foot off many years ago and still sleep with the foot end of the bed elevated.

Hmmmm, that sounds like a motorcycle accident to me! One of my cousins was married to a guy that had done exactly that!! (Only some of his leg was gone too!) He was also an airplane mech and a drunk.. Not necessarily in that order.

I had one fairly 'decent' motorcycle accident that made me paranoid about riding.. After it, every time I found myself on back roads with the wind in my hair (I had more hair back then) I would envision some little old half-blind, 'blue-hair' backing out of her driveway around every corner and eventually that got to me. I haven't owned a bike since.

Roger

 

[Roger B]

Tom,

Sorry to hear about your foot, was this 'corrective' surgery, or did you have an accident too?

If your Oliver 77 a tricycle, I guess most of them were although I have seen orchard ones that were not. I can see where a 1750 might be a little large to move snow with on a small property. That's my problem here. We only have an acre and the land is all up and down (and rocks of course) so I rally don't have room for a 'real' tractor. I would love to have a 640 series Ford tractor, but I have to sell my boat in order to have a place to store it and what in h#ll would I DO with it?

Snow. No we haven't had but a couple dustings here along the coast yet. Inland and up in the N.W. of the state they've had more, but then they always do until winter really sets in.

Here's a picture I snapped out our back door looking across to the mainland the other day.

Roger

 

[Roger B]

Re: Vintage QT-16 Bolens - Fuel Shut-Off

That valve, with a knurled knob, is more than likely called a " Needle Valve " and takes only an ounce of torque to stop fuel flow when closing. That is if a previous mechanic hasn't already screwed it up by over torquing.

Some, with a bonnet nut, can be disassembled and threads/packing area of stem lubed.

Hey Senior,

Yeah, I got the little bugger moving, but like you said somebody had really cranked on it. It easily shuts off with just finger pressure. Thankfully I found it, otherwise I would still be out there kicking the crap out of the tractor and cursing like a sailor, wondering why it wouldn't start!

Roger

 

[Roger B]

Wood Planes

Tom,

This is pretty far off topic, but then this Bolens forum (oops, sorry Bert-Man, this Bolens "part" of the forum) has been kinda lacking in posts, so what the heck...

I have a wooden TOLMAN "spar" plane. You can see in the picture of the front of the plane, that the shoe (bottom) is actually curved, as is the iron (blade). It was used in the days of wooden ships to plane nice round spars for the masts.

Back in the 1820's, J.R. Tolman was a manufacturer of many planes and other tools for the shipbuilding industry.

If you are interested in vintage tools check out the Davistown Museum: http://www.davistownmuseum.org/ it is located here in Liberty, Maine and they have a fabulous collection and archive of information on tool makers. Across the street from the museum is Liberty Tool: http://www.libertytoolco.com/ which is a place I love to take friends when they come to visit.. (Well, at least friends who are interested in old tools!) This should give you something to do while your foot heals up!

Roger

 

[Roger B]

CORRECTION

As many of you probably noticed, I got my brain screwed up and started calling BWH "Tom".. Somehow I had him confused with Pumper54. Don't ask me how, 'cause I haven't the faintest idea.. All I can blame it on is old age, I haven't got any other excuses..

I have begged BWH's forgiveness via a PM.. It's the best I can do.. Well, that and eat crow here in public... Mmmmm, crow . . . Good!!

I admit it, I'm a dumb-&ss...

Roger

 

[bertsmobile1]

Hmmmm, that sounds like a motorcycle accident to me! One of my cousins was married to a guy that had done exactly that!! (Only some of his leg was gone too!) He was also an airplane mech and a drunk.. Not necessarily in that order.

I had one fairly 'decent' motorcycle accident that made me paranoid about riding.. After it, every time I found myself on back roads with the wind in my hair (I had more hair back then) I would envision some little old half-blind, 'blue-hair' backing out of her driveway around every corner and eventually that got to me. I haven't owned a bike since.

Roger

Don't apologise to me. I aint yer mar.
People are either motorcyclists or not.
Yes it was a motorcycle collision.
I hate the word accident, that is what happens when your toddler or granny can not get to the can fast enough.

Collisions have a cause , happened for a reason and some on was at fault, it not multiple parties and something has to be done to rectify it.
But yes sideswiped a truck at 105mph and I won't do that again.
Given a paper on acoustic emmissions, allowed to much time for questions as it was a brand new technology at the time .
I should not need to tell a submariner that metals make noises when they are under pressure and these noises can be used to tell if a structure will fail in sufficient time to come up from 1000 ft with safety.
Any way we finished early, so we retired to a bar, I had a couple, way under the limit , but enough to cloud the judgement, went in to a sweeper too close , full peg scraping lean & naturally came out wide, too wide.

So yes my fault & that was the last time I even sat on a bike after having a drink. Collisions have a cause.
And I was dead when the ambulance turned up, died again in casulty and a third time on the table.
Looks like neither of them wanted me.

OTOH I read a short story by Prof Falco ( art of the motorcycle fame, not bikie story fame ).
It starts off along the lines " little did I know when dad came home with that scooter that for the remainder of my like all of my closest friends would be motorcyclists "
All of my friends are motorcyclists and in fact it is 7am Saturday morning & in 90 minutes 6 of the said same friends are popping in & then we are off for a little 100 mile run.

 

[BWH]

Roger B

No worries, Just enjoy our conversations, heck the pain killers I'm taking sometimes I'm not reading too straight myself. Wow that is a beautiful picture looking out the back door, not too many views like that around my property.


Bertsmobile1,

Thanks for the elevation tip I'll give it a shot. I do get tired of the whole pillow thing, with the sound of your injury your somewhat of an expert? your right on the blood rush when you lower the leg that can be horrible.

Yea I was storing garden hoses for the winter when my extension ladder slipped out and I rode it down 6' on the rungs. Fractured my heal off along with two other fractures of that bone. It was three weeks before they scheduled the surgery. I think it had started healing together before surgery and had to be re-broke to align and screw & plate. Never the less after the first three weeks it actually was fairly pain free. This second time around it is twice as painful.

BWH

 

[bertsmobile1]

They had my bed on 18" blocks (tallest in the hospital ) then inverted a chair on the bed & strapped my leg to it.
Traction would have been a lot more comfortable but I was up ( sort of ) and on at least 1 leg is 2 weeks.
I have some Jobst stockings ( stuff the people with bad veins wear ) and I slip one on in the morning before the leg gets lowered.
When I am ready to start work, the stocking comes off.
This seems to work fairly well as i was scheduled to have it removed around age 50 and I am getting close to 70.

Gees a 3 week wait, makes me very glad I was fortunate enough to be born down here .
Good luck and drop the pills as son as you can manage.
I had some physco therapy for pain management and rarely touch the stuff I have on perscription in the cabinet.
Could sell it on the black market & fund the retirement.
In reality not much pain relief & made me real clumsey.
Sedatives are a different thing.
You really only heal while you are asleep so lots of Ice cream and early bed.
Not too bad floating in a little brandy.