Hi oz, Welcome here, congrats you found yourself a little treasure there.Don't want to tell you how to suck eggs but remember it is a 2 stroke, wouldn't want to see it destroyed by you not knowing, many of these have been destroyed this way and still do to this day.
Still got another 50 years left in it and bases are pretty easy to come across, just don't be fooled into big ebay prices, just keep an eye out for one to bob up for $15/20. Be careful using it because the name says it all, a "toecutter" Only other disadvantage is no catcher. In the fifties people were just grateful to be able to cut the grass and raking it up afterwards was far easier than pushing an old Ogden cylinder mower around that wouldn't cut the grass if it was 3 inches high
Hi Norm, thanks for your well-meaning advice, but I am pretty familiar with the operation of 2-strokes. I mowed my parent's lawn on weekends in the 60's with a Southern Cross/Sunbeam toe cutter before I was was 10 for pocket money and managed to somehow keep all my toes lol! I had a 2-stroke motorcycle in my teens and briefly raced a high-performance 50cc Garelli in my late teens, but left the mechanical side to my Dad, but maybe some of it has rubbed off on me. We used castor oil in our racing fuel mix back in the day! I still remember the smell of the track
(Mmm, castor oil in this thing might be fun but it turns to vanish very quickly with oxidation, so maybe not a good idea)
I'll definitely look out for a new base for it, if they can be had for cheap money. If I could get that, a reasonably nice, light resto might be on the cards.
By the way, what's the best way to deal with the worn axles? I could weld or braze them, then grind them round again, or is it best to just cut them off, buy a new axle from Bunnings, and reweld it to the arms?
