Anyone restore and/or collect small antique engines?

Over the weekend I went to the Central Hawkeye Gas Engine & Tractor Association Show in Waukee, Iowa. It was their 30th year.

Lots of old big engines and tractors but what surprised me was the number of Briggs & Stratton engines (this years feature item), Maytag engines, lawn and garden tractors, walk behind tractors, and many more.

Who would have thought so many people would collect B&S engines and display them? Not me.

Anyone into collecting and restoring small engines such as these?

Thanks,
Dan

[wierdscience]

I would be if I could find any!I can find big engines and real big engines,but the little ones are tough.

I do have a 60+ year old Lawnboy mower that I am considering doing a rebuild on thou.Aluminum deck,loose pull rope and straight exhuast,ahhhh the smell of fresh grass and half burnt gasoline

[J Tiers]

Yep....

I do have a couple small Briggs, but they are kinda common, them and Maytag. I currently have a couple Johnson Iron Horse that I am working on.

The flywheel hit and miss types will have to wait a bit....I don't have room right now.

Good friend does old outboards. he just finished up a Johnson A25 Waterbug.

[Weston Bye]

I am getting ready to move. Have several Briggs cast iron engines and some others. None of these are going to follow me to the new house. They have to go somewhere. Anyone nearby have any intrest?

Weston Bye
Grand Blanc, Mi.

[Steve Stube]

I hear you there in Grand Blanc - sent you a note.

[Happy]

There is a very good reason for what you saw. most good antique farm engines are almost $1000 restored, and the ones I really want are $10,000. So, if you want to collect engines, and you aren't rich, you start to think about maytags and B @ S. Both have been around for over 80 years, so there are a lot of interesting stuff out there. and, if you are young, you really have no choice. So, what do you think is taking over the engine collecting hobby,. engines that weigh 750 pounds, are very hard to move, and cost thousands, or $75 engines that anyone can move? the next wave in the hobby are the models, they are both small, light, and very interesting. many are not cheap, unless you want to do your own machining. now, who would ever want to do that?

[pgmrdan]

I can see getting hooked on restoring small engines. With my mini-mill, mini-lathe, little 5x6 bandsaw, and bench top drill press I could make a replacement part now and then if I couldn't find a factory made one.

The investment in mechanic's type tools is minimal.

Old engines, maybe not the collectible ones, are available for free or very reasonable prices. There are millions of them available for restoration.

Yesterday I made a couple of minor repairs to the motor on my Weedwacker that I've owned since 1980. It was great to hear it running again. There's a great deal of satisfaction maintaining old equipment. I wish I had kept the lawn mower I got rid of last year. I had been using it regularly the past several years. I bought it in 1979.

I can see why there are so many people interested in the hobby.

[This message has been edited by pgmrdan (edited 07-19-2005).]

[PolskiFran]

I've been into collecting and restoring gas engines for about 10 yrs. I don't have anything rare (Mr. Common Engine), but working on them and figuring out how things work is an adventure. Every time I attend one of these shows I seem to learn something new.

Frank

[Paul Alciatore]

I don't collect or restore them but I have an old, antique model airplane engine. It came from an uncle so it must date back to the 30s or so. It's a Spitzer 0.49, glow plug type. Still has the original glow plug. It still ran the last time I tried it, a few years ago, but was a little anemic compared to new ones.

I also have several others that I bought in my teens. Fox, McCoy, etc.

Paul A.

[halac]

The antique gas engine hobby is why I got into machining as another hobby. After having a couple of parts made by an outside shop I decided it was time to start doing my own.

If you follow this link
http://www.old-engine.com/pinellas.htm

At the bottom of the page, the second engine from the left is mine; an early teens 3 HP Cook Motor Co. Weighs in at about 650 lbs.

------------------
No matter where you go, there you are!

Hal C. , www.teampyramid.com

[lathe dog]

Hi Dan,
There are many collectors of the smaller air cooled engines. It is also a very affordable way to get started. But be warned once you are bitten by the old iron bug there is no cure!

[Cecil Walker]

I have been collecting hit n miss engines for over 20 years now. That's how I got into machining, now machining has taken over and I haven't spent a dime on engines in the past 10 years, every dollar goes to more machinery and tooling.

[Jimmy]

I have a few small old gas engines, only one briggs & stratton. You can see some of them on my site:

http://www.oldengine.org/members/sherman/page13.html

the main page:

http://www.oldengine.org/members/sherman/index.html

[Stanko]

Here is a small engine, I suppose it is a model havnt tried to get it sorted . Maybe its just a fractional hp motor pre electricity Its about a foot long and the flywheel is 9 or 10 inches diameter



Can anyone shed more light on it.?

[J Tiers]

Can't see some of the interesting stuff.

But it looks like a hot-tube ignition engine of some sort. Doesn't look like a steam engine. The big chimney then would presumably be the hot tube enclosure. There seems to be a needle valve setup that could run the hot-tube burner.

There is a possible mixer underneath visible in one view. could be water jacket connection, though.

What looks like a valve rod seems a bit puzzling, as many hot tube engines are 2 cycle, and I don't see another valve for intake, even an atmospheric one, which suggests the piston may be the valve.......but......it may be not visible due to angle, or a different type, mounted crosswise, etc, etc.

The oiler position suggests a crosshead, but there doen't seem to be room, and piston rod is wrong angle.

It would be fairly normal for there to be a crosshead and a back head on the cylinder, using the back of the piston for the charging pump of a 2 cycle setup. But that doesn't seem to be there, suggesting it is indeed 4 cycle.

Can we see more pics including closeup of head, and a look at the crankshaft with gears and whatever governor there is?