New Gas Cap for 1931 John Deere Model E 1-1/2hp Engine

John Deere model E engines have a special oil fill cap and gas cap. The two caps are identical and are basically a 3/4" pipe thread plug with a spade type handle instead of a square drive end. Below is what an original JD cap looks like (photo taken from Flywheel Supply website).

1923 Dain Hay Press Flat Belt Pulley Fabrication

A friend in my tractor club has a 100-year-old Dain hay press that makes bales of straw or hay. It's got a John Deere Model E 3hp hit-and-miss engine to run the press. A four-inch-wide flat belt drives the press. One minor problem is, the 5-inch-diameter belt pulley on the engine is too small, so the press runs very slowly.

1943 Dodge WC51 Hood and Transfer Case Linkage Repairs

There's a central hinge on the hood of this truck. Each side can open up to work on that side of the engine bay. Problem is, the hinge pivot on the back edge of the hood had broken off at some point and the hood halves no longer stay propped up. It's no wonder the pivot broke, as it's just the end of the sheet metal hinge that had been formed into a round peg. Here's a photo of the front hinge pivot for context.

1943 Dodge WC51 Starter Pedal Repair

This truck has a unique starting system. You don't just turn the key to the start position and have the starter motor happily crank away. Oh, no. You push on a long rod or pedal with the tip of your right foot, press down firmly, and then the starter motor comes to life. With your foot on the pedal, it will take some coordination to use the heel of your foot to apply some throttle from the gas pedal while still  pressing the starter pedal. It takes a bit of practice. The truck is supposed to have a manual throttle cable in the cab so as to allow application of some throttle without having to get your foot onto the gas pedal, but mine is missing. It's only $35 (!) to get a new throttle cable. Someday.

1925 Economy Hit & Miss Engine Repairs/Tune-up and 1939 Turner Hay Press Tensioner Handle

A guy in my tractor club owns this 1925 Economy 1-3/4 hp hit & miss engine. It hasn't run right for a couple years now and at the recent county fair, we started smelling gas, and I speculated it might have a tank leak. I offered to take a look at the engine, brought it home after the fair and sure enough, the soldered outlet on the gas tank had failed. I pulled the tank and re-soldered the joint. Of course, to get the tank out, the wheels and wooden base had to come off. That meant enlisting the help of the engine hoist, as the engine is probably in the 300+ pound range.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor Repairs and Updates

The engine has been difficult to start after the rebuild (same situation as before the rebuild), and was particularly difficult after the engine had been running for a while. Sometimes it had to set a spell before it decided to start again. I figured the best place to focus on first was injector pump timing. This timing evolution is sometimes called a "spill test". The instructions say to undo the injector lines at the pump, then pull out a "delivery valve" on injector pump #1 outlet, then install a suitable piece of tubing on top of the outlet. At certain points of crankshaft rotation, fuel will flow freely out of the tube since the delivery valve is removed, then at some point of crank rotation the flow will stop. This point is called "beginning of injection". That point should put a timing mark on the crankshaft pulley in line with the timing pointer.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor - New Mounting Pins for Loader

Here's a quick post about the pins I made for the loader. I had to drill out the old pins, as they were purt-near welded in place, it seemed. I found a two-foot chunk of 1-1/4" diameter round bar in the basement that I cut two 7-1/2" chunks from.

1986 John Deere 650 Tractor 4WD Splined Shaft Repair

Yesterday I decided to try and fix the broken front drive splined shaft on the JD 650. These first two photos show the before and after condition of the shaft.

More Wood Turning on the New HF Lathe

So far I'm putting the new/old wood lathe to good use. Ok, maybe not "good" use but it is getting used. I've had the lathe for almost a month. I've made three bowls, a candle holder, a dried flower holder, and two pens. This first photo is the latest, a candle holder. Next to it is a fused glass piece my wife made in her studio.

My First Woodturning Pen Project on the HF Lathe

New tools in the basement usually require new accessories. My new/old Harbor Freight wood lathe is no exception. Just setting up for pen turning required $56 worth of stuff: metric drill bits (yes, I've gone 60+ years without a set of metric drill bits), pen mill barrel trimmer, cyanoacrylate (CA) glue (so-called super glue), and glue activator. And then there's the pen kit. That was another $22 but I opted for a better quality pen.

Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) Wood Lathe - Making a Spindle Handwheel

I noticed folks online talking about these Harbor Freight lathes not coming with a handwheel on the left side of the headstock spindle. They'd mention that the Jet JWL-1236 lathe had an available handwheel that might fit this HF lathe. After more searching, I did find in one case someone took the chance and actually did buy a Jet handwheel to see if it would work on their HF lathe, which it did. That was back when the handwheels were $33 shipped. Today (2023) that same handwheel is somewhere around $90 to $140, if you can find one. That price is out of the realm of most people buying one just to "see if it fits". Fortunately someone did the legwork back when they were cheaper. This first photo is a stock photo of the Jet handwheel that I grabbed off the net.

Central Machinery (Harbor Freight) Wood Lathe T34706

Yes, I just got done saying in the last blog that I was keeping the ShopSmith wood lathe. Then this shows up in my basement.....

Shopsmith Model 10E Lathe/Tablesaw/Horizontal Borer/Drill Press/Disc Sander 5-in-1 Multi-tool

I purchased this Shopsmith (abbreviated SS) in January of 2020 but I am just now getting around to putting it on my blog. It is in very nice condition and appears to still be wearing its original paint. The motor is a different color but these early machines didn't come standard with a motor. It is an AO Smith motor, which seems to be what most of these older Shopsmiths are outfitted with. The base is a heavy, home-made wood affair with small steel casters. The SS didn't come with a base from the factory, so the new owner would have to make their own.

Whittling Down Some Small Parts For The Barracuda On The Unimat Lathe

It's not often I have a project small enough to use the Unimat DB200, so when this project presented itself, I took advantage of it. The rocker molding on my 1966 Barracuda uses nylon/plastic "push rivets" to hold the bottom edge of the molding to the car. They are small plastic things that have fingers which are pressed through a hole in the molding, then through a hole in the car's rocker panel, after which the center pin is driven in with a hammer to expand the fingers outward, keeping the rivet in place. A flange on the outer end of the rivets holds the molding flush to the car. Below is a photo showing an original white rivet next to some black ones I found at O-Reilly Auto Parts.

Unimat-SL DB-200 Motor/Spindle Bracket Modification

I may have said in the previous post that there would probably be no more projects on this lathe. Well that didn't prove true. I decided to do some whittling on the motor bracket. The reason for this bit of work is because the hunk of steel that encompassed the spindle was way too stiff, and the screw that clamps the bracket to the main spindle needed to be tightened a bunch for the clamping action to do its job. I figured if I removed some metal on the bracket, it would be easier to clamp. Here's what I started with. The red is the main part I planned on cutting out, plus a few minor touch-ups.

Unimat-SL DB-200 Tommy Bars and Marking (Zeroing) Pin

7/4/2022 update:

I did a little fiddling on the lathe today. I made two more Tommy bars. What I started with were two punch blanks that my dad had picked up from somewhere eons (50 years?) ago (or maybe he even made them in school shop, who knows). They had never been hardened, so I used two of them as a starting point.

Unimat-SL DB-200 Teensy Weensy Micro Mini Lathe

I'm not sure I can call this a real lathe but it was marketed as one. And it does make chips. Very small chips. Someone online said, "it makes steel wool." I now know what they mean. But this lathe wasn't bought to make stuff on a regular basis. I mainly got it because it is so cute and comes in its own little box.

Cushman Carburetor Choke Butterfly And Screws

When I got this Cushman, the choke cable had been disconnected from the carburetor. The previous owner said the cable was rusted and stuck, which it was, but he failed to mention to me that the choke butterfly and screws were not in the carburetor. He said he'd been through the carburetor, so he knew the butterfly was missing. No matter, I was sure I could find the missing parts online. Nope. Apparently this Keihin carburetor is maybe specific to this type of engine, I don't know. The engine does start fairly easily without a choke but in the wintertime, I'm sure a choke would be helpful. So what's one to do? Why, make the missing parts, of course. Here's what I had to start with:

Smithy Granite I-Max Speed Control Repair

This will be short and sweet. My Smithy lathe/mill has had a flaky speed control potentiometer (pot) for the five years I've owned the machine. Problem is, it's been getting worse. The problem was that when I'd turn the speed control pot to zero, the motor would keep turning slightly, and it would be jerky. I went so far as to contact the company, and they said that I should just use the Stop button every time I want to stop the motor. They did also say a new pot might solve the problem but to still always use the Stop button.

I decided today to see what I could see inside the pot, so I removed it from the machine to take a good look at the innards.

Igaging EZ-View DRO Plus Digital Readout Installation on Smithy Granite I-Max 1340 Lathe/Mill

I finally decided to install a set of DROs on my Three-in-One Smithy I-Max 1340, and I chose the inexpensive Igaging EZ-View set off eBay. I can't hardly go wrong for $150 including tax and shipping. The set came with a 6", 12" and 36" DRO.

The simplest one to start with was the mill quill, as I'd previously mounted the Smithy version (which came with the pile of goodies I'd gotten with the lathe) and so the mounting brackets could be used with no modifications. It was just a matter of unscrewing the Smithy scale and replacing it with the Igaging unit.