A Massey-Harris 33.

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It didn't take me long to form an opinion, but it took me a while to respond, because I was away from the computer, --- chucking my cookies.
I have a John Deere just a little bigger than that, with a cab. ---- I think I'll keep mine thank you.
 
It didn't take me long to form an opinion, but it took me a while to respond, because I was away from the computer, --- chucking my cookies.
I have a John Deere just a little bigger than that, with a cab. ---- I think I'll keep mine thank you.

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It migt not be so bad if they had of leveled the body to the tractor :p

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No, 28, but I have two good reasons for that.
One. It's still winter here and it will continue to be for quite some time yet.
Two. I just walked away from it and restarted on another project that I had walked away from earlier. I must have an attention span comparable to a drunk partridge.
 
MM - Ya I forgot that you are in the middle of winter, lots of snow, not much dirt. Living in southern CA I forget what others go through in winter.:D

Nice to have a couple of projects on the back burner so when you get fedup with one you can work on another for awhile. Always have that muscle car & hot rod for a change of pace.[cl

Hope spring comes early for you.
 
Today I took a break from yard work and took the exhaust manifold off of the tractor. In picture one you can see the outlet port that came with that combine manifold. It will not work as it points the wrong direction and it is almost completely outside the hood, and it is nowhere near the proper hole in the hood. That port has to go, so I took it off and ground off its mounting pedestal. Then I welded a patch in the oblong hole. [pic two]
 

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Yes the back pressure will be frustrating.
Or I could cut a hole in the top / centre, fairly near to the hole in the hood. I'll still have to put a dogleg in the exhaust pipe.
If you close one door, another one should open if you're working on a flowing fluid container, [but not if you're working on an old car where people are the 'fluid', then you want both door to stay closed].
 
OK, Guys, I'm back on the Massey-Harris tractor. On the exhaust manifold, to be exact. There was some concern about exhaust back pressure earlier on, so I cut a 2" hole in the top of the manifold with a hole saw. That went very smoothly until near the end when I bored through the wall of the manifold and the holesaw big teeth caught in a thin crossmember underneath and jerked the big old half inch drill out of my hands and the manifold out of the vice. The whole unit flew across the shop and bounced on the cement floor, cracking the tired old, welded up manifold.
Next, I found a square piece of 3/8" iron and made a plate to sit on top of the manifold. With bolt holes in the plate, I then cut a 2" hole in the centre of it and hunted around for an exhaust gasket to fit between the plate and the manifold. Now I can weld some pipe onto the iron plate and bolt it on.
 

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Yeah Mac, those 1/2” drills can hurt ya! I was working on building a two row plow out of some junk I had around here the other day, drilling some half inch holes to bolt some stuff together. The bit caught just about the time it broke through, ripping the drill out of my hands, twisting my wrist. Smarted for a while!

Looks like your custom manifold should have plenty of flow!
 
I don't even remember where I got it but I have an old half inch drill motor in the barn that I've only used a few times. I always laughed when I ran across it because it had several locations to mount "handles" on the body. When I got it, it had two pieces of 3/4" galvanized pipe for handles in holes directly opposing themselves. While I did realize they were in a convenient spot for use, I did not understand the torque that monster had. When I built my log house was one of the times I found a use for it but it didn't sink in until that time what a monster it was. I wish I had a video of the event but I'll have to try to explain it. We were just about done with the pen, which would be the wall set up until you get to roof time. Ok, my walls went skyward until they reached the 15' mark and then it was to be rafter time. Picture this. This old long haired hillbilly, standing on top of the last log, no scaffold, just log tops 6" wide to walk on. I made a drill bit out of an old ground rod 8' long, 1/2" diameter with an old brace style bit welded on it. On the walls as they went up they were drilled in the right position to facilitate running wires so all I had to do was clean the holes up a little after we finished the wall height. I started by hand turning the bit down into the hole, then fastened the drill tight on the bit. It went pretty good until the bit snagged about 2' down into the wall then I experienced the ride of my life for the few turns it took to wind both me and the electric cord up until it unplugged itself. I don't use it at all anymore...:D:rolleyes:
 
Mac; The manifold looks great. By now I wonder if it would have been easier to start from scratch and build one from square and rectangle tubing? Smalls; I have a similar story that I'm not going to tell but it end with the bit grabbing ahold of my shirt and skin of my right arm. I now have a silver dollar size scar to remind me of the power of gear reduction.
 
You guys are right to 'respect' the rotational power of those old half inch drills. I've been lucky over the years and not been hurt too badly. My first lesson, though, was what saved me some grief. When I was a teenager, my Uncle Walter showed me how he used his big drill. He tied the power cord around the handles of the drill until the cord was tight from the plug-in to the drill, so the minute the bit caught on something it jerked the cord out of the plug-in. At first I though he was being uncharacteristically safety conscious. But, then I learned about that terrible geared down torque, [without killing myself].
I made some more exhaust pipe today. The opening in the hood is not quite over the centre of the manifold so I had to make a dogleg in the pipe.
 

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