14th October 2009 : Posted by Miles Ruffcutter (Mechanical Engineer @ MowForBritain)
This wonderful old Atco cylinder mower came in yesterday with a faulty engine, after a good service and engine cleanup it fired up nicely on first pull, as you can see by playing the video above.
I have a particular love affair with the Atco, I guess because they are such a true British brand and the quality of workmanship and design reminds me that as a country we used to be able to produce machines like this that were known the world over, sadly now we have all but lost that ability but I suspect it will come back again when politicians realise we can't survive economically by just answering phones and tapping keyboards all day long.
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8th October 2009 : Posted by Miles Ruffcutter (Mechanical Engineer @ MowForBritain)
Well you can see from the pics this was a serious job and a serious machine. Our customer in Winchester has owned this machine for 8 years and it's been kept in the barn and used for mowing a large paddock all that time. The machine was sound except needing a service, however the bodywork was in a terrible condition and needed restoration.
The machine was carefully stripped down and to save time and cost for the client the engine was left on. We then stripped the paint off, rust coated it and left it to cure for a couple of days. Following this it was washed, primed and sprayed with Enamel paint and put back together again.
Needless to say we loved the job, not only is the machine a testament to good engineering design by Bunton but the Honda engine was rock solid despite not being serviced for years, testing was a joy as we found the most overgrown patch of grass and brambles we could (about 4 foot high), engaged the cutters and set the ground speed to low and let it rip, MARVELOUS FUN!
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1st October 2009 : Posted by Miles Ruffcutter (Mechanical Engineer @ MowForBritain)
My first ever mower action happened at the age of 4 with a Flymo, Dad had one of those hover mowers from Flymo which were all the rage in the 80's (which looking back is odd since he is an agricultural engineer I would have thought we would have had something better) and as money was tight that was what he used to mow the postage stamp of grass we had in our small home in Chandlers Ford.
Since when I have never been keen on Flymo's however I have to take back those years of torment as this was a fantastic machine to work on and after a good service worked great, the engine has a much bigger muffler on than the normal Briggs and Stratton equivalents which brings down the noise a lot without making the engine sound like a puff in a storm. Getting the blade off was like trying to get an Afgan to vote but it happened in the end.