The Conservative Cave
Interests => Hobbies => Topic started by: CG6468 on December 27, 2011, 09:53:27 AM
-
Anyone here in to the old hit and miss engines? They were used mostly on farms, powering washing machines and other things, such as in mining to provide fresh air for the miners. They'd fire only when power was needed and/or to keep up the minimum RPMs.
They came in all sizes, from those being housed in their own shed (like the one at the mines in Jerome, AZ) to the small ones used for washing machines, log splitters, etc. I saw one near here that's shown at many fairs in the summer; it powers a home-made can crusher.
I'd really like to get a small one, fix it up, and get it running. I know they're on EBay, but the cost there is not reasonable. Maybe up to 3HP.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sExJ7awlL0[/youtube]
Selections of old hit and miss engines running (I want a small one to play with):
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOCBHa0UIsI&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL2E78C0BA2E7C04E9[/youtube]
-
Sounds broke. :p
:-)
-
Sounds broke. :p
:-)
Exactly! You can have lost of fun with these old timers. I've seen log splitters run by them, too.
-
The Southeast old Threshers reunion.
The woods are full of hit & miss engines running on display all day. Some are working, like turning the Homemade icecream churns....hmmmmmm.
My great uncle ran a cotton gin. Installed a large 2-cylinder Murphy(sp?) diesel in the mid 1920's. It had a hit & miss pulling an aircompressor that was needed to get the diesel started. Once started it ran all season until the last bale of cotton was ginned. The old hit & miss was also used to power a Delco light system in the beginning. Some of the old timers that worked there told me of putting eggs in the water jacket and a coffee pot on top of it. That was done so when they took a break, they could eat hardboiled eggs and drink hot coffee.
They usually have some for sell at the reunion running and not running condition. Buddy of mine has several he played with before he died. He love to tinker with them until they would only hit once in a great while.
Poot...poot...sheeesh....sheeesh...sheeesh...sheeesh...sheeesh...click...poot...poot I like to listen to them too. :-)
-
Hubby is a collector, no Maytags tho.Biggest is 15 hp Reid; has about a dozen others-Atlas, Bessemer,etc.
-
The Southeast old Threshers reunion.
The woods are full of hit & miss engines running on display all day. Some are working, like turning the Homemade icecream churns....hmmmmmm.
My great uncle ran a cotton gin. Installed a large 2-cylinder Murphy(sp?) diesel in the mid 1920's. It had a hit & miss pulling an aircompressor that was needed to get the diesel started. Once started it ran all season until the last bale of cotton was ginned. The old hit & miss was also used to power a Delco light system in the beginning. Some of the old timers that worked there told me of putting eggs in the water jacket and a coffee pot on top of it. That was done so when they took a break, they could eat hardboiled eggs and drink hot coffee.
They usually have some for sell at the reunion running and not running condition. Buddy of mine has several he played with before he died. He love to tinker with them until they would only hit once in a great while.
Poot...poot...sheeesh....sheeesh...sheeesh...sheeesh...sheeesh...click...poot...poot I like to listen to them too. :-)
I saw them at a Threshermen's display in Will County, IL, at the Pima County fair in Tucson, and various other places. Many of those were the bigger models, though; I'd like one of the smaller ones, like those on their own little wagons with the steel wheels. MUCH easier to handle and store! :-)
At the Will County display, they used an old steam-powered farm tractor for the sawmill. If you brought your own logs, they'd cut them into planks, for only $10 per tree. And then they'd help you get the planks onto your truck or trailer. And that old steam engine would purr along, with the operator blowing its whistle once in a while.
Probably a dream I won't realize, though. Getting a little long in the tooth for it. :( :drink:
-
Love those old motors. At one time I wanted to find and restore a couple. Any I found were well out of my price range. :(
I think the main problem out here is most were/are in old mining sites and the guys that are into them don't care what they have to pay to get them out (many are in remote locations). One guy I talked to hired a helicopter to haul out a 20 HP unit. It was being shown at the Ca. State Fair one year.
Some of the most interesting are the diesel engines from the teens and twenties. I tried to help get one started at the Prune Festival (Marysville Ca.).......................no go and my arms are still tired years later. :rofl:
-
Some of the most interesting are the diesel engines from the teens and twenties. I tried to help get one started at the Prune Festival (Marysville Ca.).......................no go and my arms are still tired years later. :rofl:
The old diesel my great uncle had was a trip to start. First they turned the weight wheel up to a certain point (timing mark), then built up air pressure in a tank, then they heated the block and a long rod (glow plug of sorts) with a kerosene blowtorch. With everything ready they would dump air in one cylinder bringing the other piston to the top and hopefully firing.
The farm park in Denton NC has one just like it but it's either a few years older or newer, can't remember which tho. It starts the same way, ...sort of. They build air pressure, bring one cylinder to the top and remove a plug in the head on the other one that is at the bottom. Now ready to start, the guy up on a step ladder lites a section of dynamite fuse and drops it in the down cylinder, then hollers "Hit it". With some luck, it fires on that one cylinder on runs on it until they close the compression lever and turn the fuel to the other cylinder.... :-)
CATERPILLAR had gasoline pony motors for starters. IH diesels had compression relief valves and started on gas, when warmed up you tripped the levers closing the compression relief valves, cut out the carburetor and started the injection pump to injecting fuel. DETROITS had a glass or metal bowl container that you put an ether ball in and busted allowing ether into the intake which enhanced combustion.
-
They are awesome! I have always wanted to get one but have yet to dive in. Not enough time what with fly rods an old Harley and a job. Maybe when I retire.
I have seen them power a sawmill and a rock crusher!
-
Quite a display at my local County Fair!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opvGBHHPfuI[/youtube]
-
My old twin fire Harley sounds close! Ha!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1jcJrO7uWc[/youtube]
-
It starts the same way, ...sort of
Uggh, with the one I tried to help with, we got it to the "start point", rocked the flywheel back and fourth and then tried to "fling" (something about inertia :-)) the wheel through the compression cycle. The thing was about 7 feet tall and single cylinder. I wish we had been able to get it started, it would have been fun to watch and hear.
-
Uggh, with the one I tried to help with, we got it to the "start point", rocked the flywheel back and fourth and then tried to "fling" (something about inertia :-)) the wheel through the compression cycle. The thing was about 7 feet tall and single cylinder. I wish we had been able to get it started, it would have been fun to watch and hear.
That sounds more like the old gas engines than a diesel. That's the way most hit & miss engines start. And most of the old 2-cylinder John Deere tractors.
-
And most of the old 2-cylinder John Deere tractors.
The "Johnny Poppers."
-
My father had a Coopers Little Wonder sheep shearing machine with a Stover hit and miss engine. He used it enough to buy his own farm and raise his family. We (my brothers and I) all learned to use it. It is still in good order and my cousin has it in his care.
-
I like jelly beans. Not so much the black ones (I dislike how they stain my fingers) but the red ones are very much yummy in all regards.
My neighbor is of another opinion entirely.
He dislikes red jelly beans and is bursting to know who it is that keeps at leaving his daughter with black streaks about her meaty regions.
Good chap generally, can't play chess worth a shit though.
-
There used to be a lot of Lanz tractors around here, up 10 litre single cylinder two stroke semi-diesel.
Starting was an interesting procedure, a special blow lamp was used to heat a part of the compustion chamber to almost red heat. The single cylinder engine was quite a struggle to turn over. There was no crank handle instead there was a latch to remove the steering wheel which fitted into one of the side flywheels. The wheel was heaved back and forth between compression until it finally started, which would often be in the wrong direction.
The design of the engine was that the combustion chamber was seperated from the cylinder proper by a narrow 'neck', it was this seperate part that was heated with the blow lamp. The fuel, light fuel oil usually, was injected into this space which was way above ignition temperature but there was insufficient oxygen in there to fire. As the piston came up it pushed air into the chamber until the mixture was right and the engine would fire. An engine that started backwards would usually backfire and run forward if the injection timing was correct, otherwise the driver could usually reverse direction by releasing the clutch while the tractor was in top gear.
There were different models and similar tractors were made in different countries.