Pfaff 1212 Sewing Machine Thread Spool Pin Bracket Reconstruction

The Pfaff 1212 I picked up a little over a year ago (link: Pfaff 1212) had an issue with the thread spool pin bracket. The plastic piece that supported the metal spool pins was broken into several pieces. I could have purchased a new bracket for $13 on eBay but decided to try my hand at whittling one from a piece of surplus cutting board plastic. After all, where's the fun in buying something when you can make it? And besides, buying the bracket would have more than doubled the investment I would have in this sewing machine...

Brown & Sharpe No. 21 Machinists Vise

 This Brown & Sharpe vise came with the South Bend 11" lathe (click here) I recently acquired. The vise is more suited to milling machine work but somehow it ended up hitching a ride with the lathe. The saying, "It has seen better days" is an understatement.

1929 South Bend 11-Inch Lathe With Quick Change Gearbox

What do we have here in the back of the pickup, a lathe? Yup. Not just any lathe though. This one was acquired by my wife's dad Jon 50 or 60 years ago.

1946 John Deere Model LA Tractor Gets New Transmission Bearings - Part 5 of 5

The brake lining material finally came in, so it's time to refurbish the one brake band that had lost most of its lining. The brake "drum" in the final drive had been wearing quite a bit on the metal brake band.

1946 John Deere Model LA Tractor Gets New Transmission Bearings - Part 4 of 5

With the rear cover plate on the differential, the transmission/differential assembly is ready to reinstall in the tractor and it's time to look at the few other details I need to work on. The first order of business was to free up the brake rods and adjusting yokes that are in the final drives. Well, while trying to free the first yoke with heat and penetrating oil, it snapped the brake rod. I found a bolt that had the same 5/16-24 thread pitch, cut the head off, then ground tapers on the bolt and rod to prepare for welding.

1946 John Deere Model LA Tractor Gets New Transmission Bearings - Part 3 of 5

 New bearings have arrived!

1946 John Deere Model LA Tractor Gets New Transmission Bearings - Part 2 of 5

This next set of photos shows more of the greasy mess inside the differential. See that green stuff on the left side? That's a glob of grease that was plugging a through-hole between the transmission and differential.

1946 John Deere Model LA Tractor Gets New Transmission Bearings - Part 1 of 5

 Here is my recent acquisition, a 1946 John Deere model LA tractor.

Singer 111W155 Gets A New Servo Motor And Needle Positioner

It's about time. I bit the dust and purchased a servo motor for my industrial Singer 111W155 sewing machine. I had hemmed and hawed for several years whether or not I should buy one. On the one hand I'm old school and like things the way they were built way back when, clutch motor and all. On the other hand, a servo motor would make a much more desirable experience when using the ol' beast. So practicality won out in the end. This photo shows the old clutch motor next to the new servo motor and controller. Now I just need to find space to store the old clutch motor as I won't be getting rid of it.

Gas Trimmer Problems

I worked on a friend's gas trimmer today. What I thought would be a short tune-up turned into a five-hour job. Not knowing what issues there might be, I started with the fuel tank on the machine. I pulled off the cap and looked inside. Hmm, that might be the problem:

Hydronic Heating System Zone Valve Repair - Micro Switch

Last week I realized a Caleffi  Z-One zone control valve for our main in-floor hot water heat wasn't functioning correctly, so I'd pulled the valve control box off the valve and when I tested its internal micro switch, I found that it wasn't working reliably. The micro switch is responsible for turning on the recirculating pump on the heating system after the zone valve opens. Without the pump coming on, there would be no heated water flowing through the pipes to heat this zone. I ordered a new switch online (takes a week to get it).

Gibson Model D Muffler Relocation

The muffler location, rather, the output direction of the muffler, is not ideal on the Petter AC1Z diesel engine on my Gibson D. Exhaust seems to blow back to the operator (me) fairly regularly. The muffler, as seen in the photo below, is forward of the air cleaner and shoots the exhaust out to the left and back a bit, so some exhaust drifts straight back.

Gibson Model D New Paint

I thought I'd throw a quick coat of paint on the new Gibson. It came to me with a coating of primer. It came from the factory in gray with red wheels, so I was going to stick to factory colors as much as possible. Here's a before shot:

Gibson Model D Remote Run/Stop and Throttle Controls

I'm guessing the person who installed the Petter AC1Z diesel engine on this Gibson tractor just hadn't gotten around to installing engine controls where the operator could reach them from the driver's seat, as both the throttle and stop lever were only on the engine. This photo below shows the Run/Stop lever, and under it is the throttle control, in which the threaded knob is turned out to slow the engine down and turned in to speed up the engine. You can kind of see a string on the stop lever, which was a less-than-ideal method of shutting the engine down from the driver's seat.

1948 Gibson Model D - Clutch Remedy

Hmm, a couple days ago I had a Gibson tractor in the garage. Now I have two. Was my Super D2 pregnant when I bought it? Apparently, because now I have two Gibson tractors in the garage, the Super D2 and now a D.

The D is older than the SuD2 by a couple years. It was also quite a bit more of a bare-bones offering by the Gibson company. Whereas my SuD2 has a proper steering wheel, hood, fenders, dash, and hydraulics, the D is absent all those "luxury" features. So, how do you steer, you ask, if there is no steering wheel? Tiller, of course. While it isn't very visible in this photo, it is there near the engine air cleaner. Pull the tiller to the rear to go right, push forward to go left.

Gibson Super D2 Tractor T96 Shifter Repair

When I bought this tractor, I knew either the shifter or transmission needed help, as it was sometimes almost impossible to shift between gears, and on a couple of occasions got stuck in two gears at once. I've had the shift tower off the transmission several times, greasing and oiling to no avail, and finally the last time I had it off (always the last time, right), I realized what was going on. The shift lever was twisting sideways and causing the square bottom end of the shift lever to bind between the two shift forks when in gear (red arrow below).

Gibson Super D2 Tractor Hydraulic Valve Repairs

I recently purchased this 1950 Gibson Super D2 tractor and have been slowly fixing the issues it came with. I've wanted another Gibson for some time as I'd owned one a number of years ago that I bought from my brother. Here is the Super D2 in all its glory a couple days after I got it home:

Onan 5KW CCK Generator Current Transformer Mod

I wanted to add a pair of Volt/Amp/Hertz displays to my 1973 Onan CCK generator so I knew how much load I could safely pull from it without damaging anything. I bought two small digital Voltage-Current-Hertz meters on Amazon and mounted them in a plastic box I also purchased from Amazon.

The Green Disease

I've been looking for a 5 to 6 kilowatt 120/240 generator for a while now. You know, as a backup to the backup to the main generator. I finally found one that was close by and priced less than $200. Mind you, I wasn't looking for just any ol' run of the mill 5kw, but an Onan, and preferably the cast iron engine 1800 RPM CCK variety. Yes, I have the well-known and often diagnosed Onan green disease. As I've mentioned in the past, I have a 1950s Onan AJ 2500 watt 3600 RPM generator that my dad bought at a phone company auction back in the early 70's. Then in 2011 I picked up an Onan LK 2500 watt 1800 RPM generator out of a motorhome for thirty five bucks. Then in August 2019 the Onan CCK 3500 watt 1800 RPM generator fell into my lap free from Craigslist. All three of those are 120 volts only though, thus the desire to get a 120/240 unit. You know, as a backup....