Fred R Clark & Son Machineworks

[Nitro]

Spent my New Years up at camp.
New years eve:

New Years day:

Really didn't get anything useful accomplished, but had a great time just the same.
The ole H is working out great for the trips to the necessary room
The manifold assembly and the new exhaust pipe finally arrived and after the stove polish gets here, I will make her black.

 

[Nitro]

It was Farmall manifold prep day here in the 'ville.
A little lovin' for the H on the homefront.

Before:

Tossed her in the oven at 500F for a half an hour to burn off the factory rust inhibitor (clear lacquer) and manufacturing oil prior to the application of stove polish.
Stove polish is a water based preparation that seals the pores in the cast iron to prevent oxidation. (rust)

It harkens back to the days of coal fired cast iron kitchen stoves, hence the name stove polish

After the polish was applied, it was back into my oven to set the finish.
After:

Now instead of it being a natural cast iron gray that will rust, it has a matte black finish on it that will hopefully stand up to the heat of the exhaust and the ravages of weather.
It wasn't necessary, but it was what I wanted.

I see another camp trip in my future

 

[Nitro]

Hit another Christmas clearance sale today and scored in a big way.

These 5 inch (12.7cm) steel letters will make a fine sign for the machineworks.
Not a bad deal at $.67 each either

I scored enough of them to make the entire sign with only a few slight modifications to existing ones to spell
out Fred R Clark and Son Machineworks to finally identify the shop in a non-posterboard and stickers fashion.
The cool part is that they have rare earth magnets on them leaving me with the possibility of simply sticking them to the steel panels on the exterior of the shop!

I'm thinking of sticking with the gold on green theme like I have planned for the man door rework.
Will take a little paintwork to pull it off, but I still have mad coating skills, so no biggie.

The new signage ought to be pretty spiffy for the May show


See ya in the movies, kids

 

[Aspychata]

Nitro, it appears to me you have technical expertise on just about everything. So naturally l thought of you, only if you wish to answer. I have paint sorta of coming off piecemeal on a concrete driveway. One person said it would take too long to powerwash. Is it a DIY project to rent a sandblasted and try? Or should l consider something else? I am trying to stay economically feasible and environmentally friendly only if possible. Sorry to put this on your thread. Pulling my hair on out this. Thanks Nitro.

 

[Nitro]

concrete is a tough substrate to keep paint adhered to.

Sandblasting would likely erode the bare concrete before removing the paint.
That would create a whole new problem.

Power washing the loose paint in combination with hand scraping might be your only option.

 

[Nitro]

Even though I have spent a little bit of time at my home away from home, there has been nothing spectacular to report until this morning.

My new Emeril Lagasse Power Grill 360 finally arrived undamaged, unlike the first one that got mangled by the shipper.
Smokeless indoor unit with the addition of the optional flat griddle assembly.

Don't get me wrong, the house interior is moving along including the addition of a small stainless steel sink being adding to the end product, but nothing photo worthy as of yet.

Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
It's your misfortune and none of my own
Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
You know that Wyoming will be your new home
Either there or on that shiny new Emeril grill

 

[Aspychata]

Fancy grill. The top part is a warming base? I noticed it has a black handle lid thing going on?

 

[Nitro]

Fancy grill. The top part is a warming base? I noticed it has a black handle lid thing going on?

The top area is the grille.
The lid keeps the heat in while grilling.

The oven area has two different levels available with various shelving to accommodate what goes in it.

I had a coupon that came with the unit to get the non-stick flat griddle to make it even more versatile.

 

[Aspychata]

The ultimate man grill. I am digging it. All it needs is a waffle maker and a answering machine, beer cooler.

 

[Nitro]

The ultimate man grill. I am digging it. All it needs is a waffle maker and a answering machine, beer cooler.

I have a brand new oven use waffle maker that will fit in it

When I am at camp, the last thing on my mind is who is trying to call me

I will keep the beer in the fridge under it.
Don't ever remember liking warm beer

The cool part about all of this is that it will all only be a few feet away from my bed

 

[Aspychata]

The perfect man. Waffles, beer, and grill on demand. Lol

 

[Nitro]

Just got back home from another six days in paradise.

Mostly went to decompress, but did manage to do some work.
The wiring for the tinyhouse got completed down to a proper service entrance that consists of a marine grade ship to shore receptacle subbed into the entire electrical system.

Temp service entrance connection prior to the finalization.

Now it is all proper except for the non-code compliant wire colors on the entrance pigtail to the trunk harness.
Too bad inspector dude, I was working with what I had available at the time

In all, the weather was unseasonably warm, as in t-shirt weather in February.

 

[Nitro]

So once again, I found me another liketa to add to my collection.

WWII era Jaeger cement mixer

Hercules hit and miss engine is the power source

She needs a little TLC before I can get her working again, but I love a good challenge.
Plus it will be uber cool to drag it with my old Farmall


There are liketas and haftas in our lives, as in liketa go fishin', but hafta go to work

I'm at the liketa stage of my life, so I liketa own an antique cement mixer, but no longer hafta go to work

 

[Aspychata]

It's been 51 in MN. That's pretty warm for this time of the year. Nice cement mixer, I keep watching that dry cement procedure- you tube videos, wondering just how fool proof that really is or isn't.

 

[Nitro]

It's been 51 in MN. That's pretty warm for this time of the year. Nice cement mixer, I keep watching that dry cement procedure- you tube videos, wondering just how fool proof that really is or isn't.

I have seen some destructive tests that show a wet pour to be superior.

 

[Nitro]

Just got back from several lovely days at the showgrounds.

We had unseasonably warm dry days which made the time there all the better.

First up was a refastening of the tarp on the old drill press
She actually held up rather nice, but higher winds last week exposed some of her naughty bits.
We are hopefully going to get the old girl inside soon, but the weather will decide when and how.
I got a greenlight on removing a massive wood lathe from the shop and from there, I intend to install another run of lineshafting to power up three machines in the future.

Never a dull moment at the machineworks
Did manage to capture a few more equipment images

 

[Nitro]

Got to do a little more research on the Jaeger mixer.
Turns out, the old girl is in need of a very necessary fuel check valve.
Easy peasy, in fact a brand new one should be arriving later this week.
Got to hear her pop on some squirtcan fuel, so of course I am very excited to get her going for the May show.

The tinyhouse got some more lovins too

Nothing in the paneling department is tied down tight yet, but the majority of it has been cut to size.
I saved the most intense fit-ups for last

 

[Nitro]

Well once again, I got to hang out with the older girls in my life.

This time I actually got one to come to life.
And get this, the old gal is actually older than we thought.

Yep, she was born in 1929, not in the 40s as we first suspected.
First up was installing the replacement fuel check valve.
Better, but still no run.
Ok, reset the ignition timing.
Cool, that was when I did a serial number search and found out her real age.
In the process of doing that, it was revealed that she had a start position lever that actually retards the total valve and ignition timing to get her to light.

Still no dice.
Ok, check the sparkplug for evidence of flooding.
Yep, a wet plug will keep her from firing.
As well as the excessive spark gap.
Try like .125 inch instead of the .020 it was supposed to be.
Reset the plug gap and bingo, spot on and fired on the first crank.
That's a hand crank kids, no electric start on this unit.
Manly man machinery with exposed gears and spinny thingies to get mangled by.

 

[Nitro]

A trip to Dad's place netted me a 1940s pushbutton switch assembly to keep with the vintage look on the old Diamond 22 horizontal mill that will be actuating a modern motor start relay hidden in a vintage electrical disconnect.
About time I put an actual switch on her

The air compressor on the shop developed an air leak at the regulator, so it got some attention too.
Funny how a $.05 rubber o-ring can hinder a nice machine.

Put the regulator part in my dinner bucket so I can snag a new one out of my stash at home.

 

[Nitro]

Well once again, I got to hang out with the older girls in my life.

This time I actually got one to come to life.
And get this, the old gal is actually older than we thought.

Yep, she was born in 1929, not in the 40s as we first suspected.
First up was installing the replacement fuel check valve.
Better, but still no run.
Ok, reset the ignition timing.
Cool, that was when I did a serial number search and found out her real age.
In the process of doing that, it was revealed that she had a start position lever that actually retards the total valve and ignition timing to get her to light.

Still no dice.
Ok, check the sparkplug for evidence of flooding.
Yep, a wet plug will keep her from firing.
As well as the excessive spark gap.
Try like .125 inch instead of the .020 it was supposed to be.
Reset the plug gap and bingo, spot on and fired on the first crank.
That's a hand crank kids, no electric start on this unit.
Manly man machinery with exposed gears and spinny thingies to get mangled by.

I'm simply amazed at the amount of interest these two videos have generated over the past 8 days.