Hello Phil,
The cartoons are scanned straight from an Atco mower handbook of the late 1960s.
Whoever produced these booklets, that accompanied a new mower, certainly had a sense of humour...
They were in a section of the booklet that spelt out handy hints about using a motor mower and another section on lawn care. These sections were the same for most of their mowers with the centre pages of the booklet devoted to the particular mower model type.
All the cartoons were to highlight a certain aspect of the text.
The first one had the wording " ...don't try to pull the recoil starter away from its anchorage"
The second read " ..prevent self-styled engineers with time on their hands from tampering with it"
A colleague is seriously into Land Rovers & gives me his cast-off magazines as I have a passing interest. This magazine has several pages devoted to LR's in strange places and gives assesments on their usability or restorability. Sometimes all that is visible is a bonnet poking out of a copse.
Looks like you could start a Rotovator Restoration thread. If you do I'll post a picture of my second Howard GEM as found......
Hello Tel, Peter,
I could perhaps talk all day about machines of many sorts..including trains, planes and the odd boat too.??....'cept the Boss might not be too amused.??!!..he was paying me today to sweep leaves...and cart them to the leaf composting heap using an excellent little machine; www.mucktruck.co.uk
So where was the mighty 2 stroke rotavator.??..and has it been imported for the collection..???
My wife complains at me because I have got five rotovators.
I have to keep explaining that;
The engine on the MkIV GEM is bust.
The digging bits on the Mk I GEM are missing, but the steel wheels were worth the £20 it cost.
If I can get the MKI engine & wheels onto the MkIV I might get one working one day.
The Merry tiller bounces too much and hurts my back.
The second 350 was a bargain as a £50 non-runner which just needed the two-stroke cleaning out of the fuel system to get it going perfectly.
The first 350 leaks a lot of oil from the gearbox and will need some work soon.
Peter/Clive,
This is my collection:
First obtained - 3h.p. Templar Tiller
Second - 6h.p. Mountfield
Third & fourth - 3h.p. Merry Tillers
Fifth & sixth - 5h.p. Merry Tiller Majors
Seventh - 5h.p. Webb Super Major(with reverse)
I've just had a break and obtained two more chain saws to stock my log supply. They are up & running now, so back to the rotavors. Mine are not, I appreciate, the bigger mens machines but there's a limit to the size of the garage!
As for the pic:
I was walking along this path with the missus, as you do, & saw this bit of kit in the middle of this cultivated area.
Tried to start it w/o any joy. Never seen a rotavator like it & cannot for the life of me remember the name.
Where was it? On Isis Island in the middle the Nile at Aswan 3 weeks ago. Made my holiday, couldn't take any more of those hieroglyphs!!