My Other Engine Hobby

[rake60]

As some of you already know, I am a collector of antique small engines.
I have bought, restored and sold hundreds of them.

There is one that stands out. It was a Briggs IR-6 mounted on a
1942 Craftsman reel mower.

I bought the mower, or what was left of it, at an auction for $27
It took me 5 weeks to restore the engine to this level.

The thing that made it a desirable collectible was the fact that it
was a crank start engine. The IR-6 model number indicates a Briggs
Model I fitted with a 6 to 1 reduction unit. One turn on the crank spins
the engine 6 times. If it backfires and kicks back you get 1/6 of the piston's
power back to your wrist. They have been known to break arms.

I'm not afraid to be scared!
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbk0Q7h4HS8[/ame]

That restored engine ended up back on the auction block.
My 5 days of restoration work were more than compensated for.
I still wish I had it back at times. I miss leaning into that crank to
show that engine who was in charge.

That is how this whole thing started.
I'm restoring antique small engines and can't find parts.
I'm a qualified machinist. I'll just build a small hobby shop and make
my own replacement parts.

This mixer valve needle from a 1924 Jaeger engine was rusted away.

Making a replacement was my very first threading job on my home
9 X 20 lathe.

Then one day I decided to try and build a complete running engine from
scratch. I ended up with this simple build of the McCabe Runner.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrOUH-V8urg[/ame]

The rest is just recent history.

Funny how ahobby can become greater hobby. 8)

Thanks for putting up with my rambling...

Rick

 

[steamer]

Thanks for Sharing that Rick.....You wouldn't have a 8HP Marine version would ya? ;D

Dave

 

[Kermit]

Yes, thanks for sharing those thoughts.

This website has been a divine find for me. Thank you for creating this place of fun and learning Rick.

I'm gonna become good enough at using a lathe and a mill(eventually) to build an IC engine, or I'll die trying and love every minute of it along the way.


Sincerely,
Kermit

 

[zeeprogrammer]

I always like stories like that.
Just be careful.
I've seen people turn their hobby into a career.
Then it became work.
Know what I mean?

 

[kustomkb]

That's cool!

Is that a decal on the tank or did you hand paint it?

The whole thing looks a runs nice.

 

[rake60]

I make my own decals.
I print them on water slide decal paper and seal
them with several coats of clear acrylic spray before
applying them to the engines. It's actually kind of a
PIA, but that's what keeps hobbies entertaining.

Rick

 

[rake60]

I guess the thing that made that engine special to me was it's
condition when I bought it. It was seized up tight and the seller
told me in advance that it had been under flood water at one time.
He wasn't kidding!

The valves were stuck tight. Several days of soaking in Magic Mystery Oil
and a lot of tapping with a punch finally broke them loose. A few days after
I got the valves out I learned they were made of stelite. That is an alloy
that is almost as brittle as tool steel. If I had know that when I was knocking
them out I would have surely broken one of them.

Rick

 

[bentprop]

And you got that running???
You're not a machinist,Rick,you're a magician :big:
There's something special about a piece of junk being returned to life.And at least someone is going to get some more pleasure out of it.
Well done,that man!

 

[rake60]

No Magic, just a lot of patience and a little bit of engine experience.
I had one that was even tougher. It was a 1935 Briggs Model Y
washing machine engine. It too was seized up when I bought it
and missing the starter clutch cover.

I went to Walmart with a tape measure looking for something to make
a replacement cover. What I found was an Aladdin thermos bottle
cap. I took it home and broke the plastic liner out of it. A ring
of sheet steel and some JB Weld made the shape correct. A few minutes
with the cut off disk on a Dremel tool and I had a rough replacement
clutch cover.

A few weeks later I ended up with this;

It was also a decent runner.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqi5JuDEYGY[/ame]

I have many of my old engine restoration stories documented on my personal
web pages at: http://home.comcast.net/~rake60/photo.htm

Rick