Briggs & Stratton 6S - A Beginnig

[b.lindsey]

Progress is still slow but at least in a forward direction. Since last posting I found some appropriately sized nylon cord and a dowel rod to make the pull start...somewhat larger than half scale only because I can't scale my hand and fingers down. Also the flywheel has been started. I had to recess the back side on the mill in order to chuck internally as the 3 inch round brass blank was too large to be chucked on the OD in the Sherline. With that done however, the front side recess could be machined with a 5 degree angle from the center to the outer portion of the web as can be seen in the compound setting. Still a ways ro go...complrting the back side recess to its final depth, cuting all the fins, and tapering the bore which will match a mating taper on the crankshaft. A few pictures follow

 

[arnoldb]

That's a grand job you're doing there Bill :bow:

Regards, Arnold

 

[b.lindsey]

Thanks, Arnold. Is isn't coming along as rapidly as I had hoped but only due to lack of time. That little thing that occupies 8-5 (more like 6:30-5 these days) gets in the way, but whats a guy to do...unfortunately modeling doesn't pay the bills. :big: :big:

Bill

 

[b.lindsey]

Last weekend was spent at the annual Cotton Ginning Days Festival here in NC among lots of antique engines and tractors so no shop time until this weekend. I did manage to finish the flywheel though...all 32 fins with each cut taking 8 passes of .050" each. A few pictures of the set up and finished flywheel are included below.

 

[Bill Mc]

Hi Bill - That engine will look so real that Briggs & Stratton will sue you for a PATENT INFRINGEMENT Ha-Ha

 

[rake60]

Being an antique Briggs Engine collector I do know a few things about them.
On the back face for every flywheel there are two small round depressions.
One has a two digit number in it. That is the year the engine was manufactured.
(ie. 57 = 1957). The other depression has a letter in it to identify the month
it was manufactured. (ie. A=January, B=February, C=March), etc.

If your flywheel showed 09 and whatever letter for the final month
any Briggs collector would notice it.

Beautiful progress Bill!!!

Rick

 

[b.lindsey]

Thanks for the info Rick. I am sure I have seen the depressions but don't recall the number/letter or didn't know what it was at the time. I would like to know the year of manufacture so will check that as soon as I get home tonight. I am thinking its early 50's based on looking up the serial number shortly after i bought the engine but that was a while back. Hey, maybe i should add the same year/month code to the model as well or is that carrying things too far ? :big: :big:

Bill

 

[rake60]

They will look just like this:

That flywheel was cast in May of 1955.

Rick

 

[b.lindsey]

Rick, I looked tonight and they do look just as you show in the picture and what I see is 51 and A so I assume that would be January of 1951. I did notice however that the 5 looks more like a 2 turned upside down...have you ever seen that before?

Bill

 

[rake60]

Yes I have seen that. The 6 and 9 were the same die pressed into
the sand. If all of the 5's were in use an inverted 2 would be close
enough. They never thought about those numbers meaning anything
60 years later. It was just production control for the day.

Rick

 

[b.lindsey]

Rick, this is getting the cart way before the horse I know but thought you would know the answer. The 6S I have (though mostly devoid of paint) does have some remnants red coloring. The air filter you graciously loaned me was also red. But the picture of the 6S you had restored and posted in another thread was painted black. Was there a standard B & S color scheme in the early 50's or was that left up to the industrial end users like lawn mower manufacturers, etc. Just curious and thinking ahead....way ahead

Bill

 

[cfellows]

Nice work, Bill! Very nice flywheel.

Chuck

 

[rake60]

Briggs manufactured a total of 984,394 units of the model 6S in the time
frame of June 1949 until July of 1957. Since those dates are after 1945
they couldn't have had military uses, you can rule out the olive drab color
scheme. From there things get complicated. Briggs supplied engines to many
final users. Most of the engines were painted Briggs signature black.
Engines that were sold for use on Troybuilt or Toro machines were painted red.
John Deere also made home lawn and garden products at that time.
Those Briggs engines received a final coat of JD green paint.

If you paint it black, red or green, you will be historically accurate.

Rick

 

[Deanofid]

It's all looking good, Bill. Nice job on the flywheel!
Following along with interest here.

Dean

 

[b.lindsey]

Thanks Dean and Chuck...am hoping progroess will speed up some from now until the end of the year.

Rick...thanks so much for the info. I was hoping that the black was among the choices. Depending on how it all turns out, I may even leave things in their natural metalic state for a while but too early to be considering that yet.

I hope to get a start on the crankcase base/oil pan this weekend. The more I look at the part and drawing the more I think it should be built up from several pieces and silver soldered together to preserve the look of the original casting. The same will likely be true for the crankcase/cylinder which is all one casting in the original.

BIll

 

[b.lindsey]

Finally got a few chips made on the base/oil pan. Had to find a suitable piece of steel and then found an error in the drawing so had to correct that before beginning. The blank has been machined to the overall dimensions and most of the holes have been located and drilled. As the picture below shows, there is still a lot of carving out to do...the two angles on the nose, the inside cavity, and the oil drain plug section on the other end. Contrary to the last post, I am planning on making the whole part out of one piece. There should be some porgress in the next few days.

Bill

 

[b.lindsey]

Today during lunch I managed to mill one of the two angles on the nose of the basr/oil pan and drill and tap the holes for the oil level check hole and the oil drain hole.

Tonight at home I reworked a standard 5/16-18 hex cap screw to be used as the cap for the oil level check hole. The non scale ID marks on the head of the screw were faced off, the hex distance across the flats reduced to the half scale dimension, and the length reduced (see photo 2).

The the oil drain plug was made from a short length of brass, threaded 1/4-28 and the end squared off per the prototype design. These are shown in photo 3.

 

[b.lindsey]

The last two photos show the additional progress to the base itself and the two plugs installed where they will ultimately fit. As can be seen from last nights photo showing the full size base/oil pan, there is still work to be done...milling out the interior portion, milling the narrower angle on the nose and forming the profiles of the oil level check hole and oil drain hole on the opposite end from the angled nose.

 

[GailInNM]

Things are looking very nice, Bill.

Twenty five years or so ago I saw a standoff scale of a B&S engine in about 1/3 scale at a tractor show in Kansas. I think it was a composite of several different models to make it easier to build. He ran it for several hours at the show. Very steady runner. I always lusted after that engine, although at the time I did not have the skill, time or tools to build it.

Your build may have some influence on one my next builds. It's not fair for you to bring up such old fond memories.

Gail in NM

 

[b.lindsey]

Gail,
Old memories are one of the things that drew me to this particular engine. When I was around 6 or 7 or so, my granddad had a reel type lawnmower with a similar if not identical Briggs engine and when we would visit on lazy Spring or Summer Sunday afternoons I would beg him to let me try to start it. Figuring the chances of me actually doing it were pretty slim he would set it out in the yard and let me go at it. Well the day finally came when a pull of the starter rope brought the engine to life and I was thrilled as the rest of the family sitting on the back porch turned to look and share in this (to me) monumental event. The downside was that noone had ever told me how to turn it off once it started, though I had seen my dad and granddad push the little metal thingy against the spark plug to ground it (though preferably with one's' shoe or the wooden handle of of the pull cord). Needless to say, the finer points of grounding the plug escaped me and I simply used my finger instead, whereupon I got that shock that some 50 years later I still haven't forgotten !! No harm done, and a good lesson learned... obviously it didn't deter me from a love of all things mechanical, but that was my introduction to the B & S 6S.