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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Suffolks of the 50s & 60s

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Colt, Series 1 Punch, Series II Punch, 2 x MK VII Punches, Punch 17" Professional.

One MK VII complete with grass box is for sale or swap with a complete Series IV or V Punch with grass box .

The MK VII is a good useable and reliable classic fully overhauled and sharpened.

Forums

hillsider Sat, 06/08/2016

They look really good, you only need one more and you have one for each day of the week.

wristpin Sat, 06/08/2016

There is but it was inaccessible for the picture!

 

 

Hainesjw Wed, 19/04/2017

I've noticed my mower has the fuel tank mounted midway up on the handle, would this mean it's not part of the punch family? I'm in Aus btw

wristpin Thu, 20/04/2017

I'm thinking that your machine would originally have had the fuel tank mounted on the top of the engine  cowling. If your cowling has two captive nut holes above the coil starter and one on the horizontal surface between the recoil side and the cut out for the spark plug it will confirm the original position. However there is also the possibility that the cowling has been changed for one that never had a tank mounting.

Back in the day there was a tendency for people to grasp the tank to pick up the machine straining the spot welds holding the tank bracket to the base of the tank and causing it to leak so that may be the reason for the swap on your machine. Faced with 'this problem we would seam brazen right round the bracket which would seal the leak and prevent further failure. On later tanks the manufacturer did the same.

It may  be of interest that the above image that I picked at random from my " library" is of the Professional version of the 17" Super Punch which differs from the standard machine in the following areas.

Solid steel front roller.

Eccentric adjusters for fine alignment of the cutter unit in the chassis.

Ten bladed cylinder

Heavy plain rear rollers

Drip tray under the carburettor to prevent fuel burns on fine turf.

Hainesjw Thu, 20/04/2017

Yeah I see on the engine cowling it does have provisions for a fuel tank to be mounted. 

I had another Suffolk with the same set up (tank on the handle) but the cowling didn't have fixing points for a tank on the motor and it was originally green. Did they ever have different colour schemes for these mowers?

wristpin Thu, 20/04/2017

The same engine was used on Suffolks, Atco and Qualcast. Suffolks were red / orange , Atcos dark green and Qualcasts a lighter green.

villiers98 Sat, 14/10/2017

I wonder if you had time, would you be able to post close up  pictures of the Series 1 and 2 Punch. I wish to try to identify which my handbook refers to , if either . Do you know the dates of these?

wristpin Sat, 14/10/2017

Unfortunately the machines are stored up in the air at the back of the shed on pallet raking  with a lot of floor level machines in front of them. , but I'll go through my old images and post any that look as they may help.

However, the workshop IPL has a page covering the punch 14" Series 1 & 1a 1954/55 and the Series 11 (2) for 1956.. I can't see any immediate distinguishing features between them but NONE of them has dog clutch for the landroll - just a push-bike type free wheel incorporated into the landroll sprocket.

The Punch 14" Series 111 (3) of 1957 has the familiar dog clutch but still has the squared off chassis plates with individual bolt and slot front roller adjusters . The Punch Series 1V (4) 1960 and Series V (5) 1962  have the round nosed  side plates and single screw operated Microset height adjuster for the front roller.

The attached may be of interest.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t0ws94osmlpwtux/Suffolk%20IPL%20indexes0001.p…

villiers98 Sun, 15/10/2017

The attachment is useful - thank you .  The book I have is for the Mk 3 then  which was my fathers mower when new. I have a 17 Punch machine owned since 1988 which was pre recoil start and had the engine in the middle of the plate not at the right side as later ones did. Though the engine has now been replaced  with later 75 cc one it is still in regular use and gives fine results. As most others had engine on the right hand side I assume its a Mk 1 ?