Not A Lot Of Spannering Done

By Rebecca Carson

It’s been a while since I was out because I had Covid 19, and as a result of that there has been not a lot of spannering done.

Did I tell you about the water pump I got for my 10th birthday? We got as far as we could with taking it apart, but we couldn’t take the cross shaft out of the piston and we needed to take the piston out to replace the rope seals which were rotten. Daddy’s cousin, Harry, has a hydraulic press in his farm workshop, just what we needed. The big gauge said there was 15 tonne of pressure on the cross shaft but it wasn’t enough to move it, so we took the pump to the bench and heated it up with his gas bottles. Daddy lifted the pump back onto the press and we tried again. There was a huge bang and…the pump body casting broke. It obviously wasn’t supported the same way as the first time. I pressed the cross shaft out of the piston and Daddy said that there was no point in worrying about the broken casting, something would turn up. The following Saturday, another of Daddy’s cousins called to say that he had been clearing out a shed and found a dismantled Lister water pump. Were we interested? This might get Daddy out of jail! We went to see the pump and it was a Lister H3. We’re back in business. Hopefully we won’t make the same mistake again!

On a visit to Geoffrey Mark’s shed, he showed us a Bentall hammer mill which he had for sale. It was seized solid, quite battered and the topper needed to be replaced. However, I knew that it would be an interesting project, especially as I could try out my new welding mask. I thought about it for a while and asked Daddy if we could go back to see Geoffrey again. I was really excited the day we went up to see him. I had some money in my purse and spent the journey thinking about how the dealing might go. When we got there I told him that I would need to make new legs for it and wood was expensive and it would need a new hopper. I sucked through my teeth with my hands on my hips and shook my head, just like Daddy told me to, and offered him a bid. Geoffrey told me what he was hoping to get for it so I had to put my bid up a fiver. Geoffrey agreed to take my price. I had gone up by £5, but he had come down a lot more!

Before Christmas I had bought a box of old tools, mostly Whitworth stuff. We went to see Sammy Gault, a stationary engine collector, and swapped some of the Whitworth taps for a dinky wee oil can. John Fleming, a Ferguson tractor restorer, rang to say that he had some old cans, including a very nice square Agricastrol can to add to my collection. We called in with him one day and it was interesting to see the MF 35 that he was working on. pump and having another look at the Allen Scythe. The dates for this year’s shows are out so we are hoping to take the engine out in the summer. Until then….

Harry lined up the press the first time.

It needed some heat from Harry’s gas bottles.

This was just before it went bang!

Rebecca.

The casting was broken but we still had to remove the cross shaft.

The cutest wee oil can you’ll ever see.

The result of my first deal.

It looks like this mill was made in Ireland. We’ll have to look into that.