2014 POTD Thread Archive

Here's a few pics of one of those projects that keeps me from doing what I really want to do in the shop. A little background is in order. In 2004 I bought new a Sears riding lawn mower with an 18 HP Briggs and Stratton Intek vertical shaft single cylinder four-stroke engine. Three years later (2007) the engine self destructed. I bought a new replacement engine and everything was fine until last year, when that engine blew. The problem is the carburetor goes bad and floods the engine, and in the 110F Texas heat, it just detonates unexpectedly with a sickening noise not unlike a gun shot. So, I am rebuilding the engine (third go around) by salvaging working parts from the two prior engines plus adding the few new pieces I had to spring for out of pocket. All in all I was able to get a working engine with just a few new parts (head gasket, carburetor, shaft seal, anti-vibration links) and swapping the good remaining parts out of the first engine. The cylinder case of the first engine was destroyed as you can see in the pictures. The case from the second engine was damaged and had a repairable crack (JB Weld - see pics). The case is in two pieces and the lower holds the oil pump and the counterweight guide. Luckily, the second engine lower case was still good. The first cam shaft was bent and the second centrifugal intake valve hold open cam was destroyed (see pics). Swapped them out to end up with one good, straight, complete cam shaft. Notice the damage to the anti-vibration links (both engines) in which they were turned into aluminum particles. Luckily, these were like $10 each new from B&S, so I am able to rebuild the third engine for under $100 including a new $65 carburetor. There was a pile of aluminum chunks in the crank case and you can see from the pics what happened to the crank end of the crank shaft (Holy Smokes!). To round out the damage, the cast iron anti-vibration counter-weight of the first engine broke in several places. The one from the second engine was still good. Still need to get it all back together and I can get on to something more fun. Not necessarily machining, but thought it might be of interest. Thanks for looking.

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Made a TINY aluminum grinding vise from a messed up part. No scrap around here. :))

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Also working on a boring head for my mill, still a WIP but it's serviceable for now. (needs side plates)

[video=youtube;fP5Zv98GHUs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP5Zv98GHUs[/video]
 
Needed to open the ID on some little acrylic tubes yesterday. It is amazing the difference that some cutting fluid (in this case soluble oil) can make to some materials in certain cases. I was drilling the tubes on my lathes slowest speed (160rpm) and had a sharp (new) drill in the tailstock to keep heat down but, without coolant the acrylic would still start melting and give me a terrible finish.

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No problems facing, in the open the swarf could air cool.

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Not much deeper than this and the acrylic would start to melt. It's already very hot here.

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Squirted a little coolant from a plastic dishwashing liquid bottle down the tube and it made a world of difference.

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Past 3 days project & probably 3 decades to go til it's finished. Trying to optimize my storage I bought 7 file cabinets & painted them. I unloaded an 8th one that was really nice at the scrap yard to keep it from being destroyed but was out of room and patients with this project to bring it home, I'll regret it later. I also picked up another cabinet I'll tell you about later

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Three years later (2007) the engine self destructed. I bought a new replacement engine and everything was fine until last year, when that engine blew. The problem is the carburetor goes bad and floods the engine, and in the 110F Texas heat, it just detonates unexpectedly with a sickening noise not unlike a gun shot.

I have a older John Deer with a Kohler 13hp that likes to do that. I put a shut off valve in the fuel line to keep it from flooding the engine.



bedwards
 
I have a older John Deer with a Kohler 13hp that likes to do that. I put a shut off valve in the fuel line to keep it from flooding the engine.



bedwards

Thanks. Yep, I finally figured that out and am putting one on there this time.
 
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