B1-6 s/n20180
I purchased this B1-6 in the early spring of 1977 from a co-worker who used it for several years doing custom tilling. At one time he and his father had two of these machines. I bought this machine because I needed something to work my 5,000 square foot garden, it was in running condition, and the price was right at $75. Included was another machine minus the engine, wheels, and tiller hood. These tillers came in two tilling widths, 20" and 26". With the pick tines, the B1-6 and B1-7 will till 9" deep.
Over the winter I refurbished the engine and transmission.
Every piece was disassembled. All bearings, bushings, and seals
were replaced. The cylinder was bored .040" oversize because of
severe scoring. At the time Frazer Farm Equipment in Auburn,
Indiana was my major source of parts and technical information.
They bored the cylinder and did the fitting of the piston. During
the winter months of 81/82 I refurbished the tiller section.
After all these repairs were made, I painted it with paint purchased
from Frazer Farm Equipment.
This machine then was used in my 5,000 square foot garden until
about 1990. It was then that we gave up gardening. The
garden area was reduced and used for growing sunflowers, wildflowers,
field corn, millet, etc. Basically my son turned it into a small
bird habitat area. The Rototiller didn't get too much use after
this. I use what is left of the garden to "play in the dirt" with
my tillers to help keep them in good running condition.
These tillers are commonly known as Frazer Rototillers because of
Kaiser-Frazer's involvement. Rototillers were sold at their car
dealerships. These machines were expensive with a suggested
retail price of around $435, which was probably close to the price of a
vehicle in 1946. Visit Donald's Antique Rototillers website for
more on these tillers. Two excellent books are Gardening Beyond the Plow by Garden Way Inc. and Donald Jones' book entitled The Rototiller in America.
You can see a movie clip of this tiller in action here
More photos of the B1-6 and some attachments here
My Second B1-6 Restoration
s/n 3035
In
the photo are the pieces that the gentleman delivered. I put most
of the stuff aside in my storage area. Some time later I sent the
cylinder to my friend in Auburn to bored and fit a .030" oversize
piston. It would be years down the line until this project was
completed. I retired in 2013 and finally in 2015 started to work
on this project. It became a two part project when I
acquired a two row planter made for this machine. I decided to
add a reverse gearbox to the tiller to make it easier to maneuver and
load on my trailer. I was fortunate to have acquired all new
internal parts for the gearbox. I completed the painting on the
tiller hood the beginning of 2016 in time to take it to an indoor show
in February. In the meantime I started working on the two row
planter that was made by Danville Manufacturing for Graham-Paige.
The planter was labeled B-54. The planter was NOS, but had been
stored for maybe fifty years or more in a damp building.
Everything had to be bead blasted and repainted. I needed a photo
of the decal that was on the planter because mine was too
deteriorated. Bob Due in Knoxville, TN has a planter with an
excellent decal that he was gracious enough to photograph. From
that photo I made the graphic in PhotoShop and made my own decal.
Bob has the largest collection of walk behind rototillers and you can
check out his website here.
One thing about the Danville planters - the seed plates are very
expensive and hard to find. Unfortunately there were no plates
with my planter.
