Are you "That guy" in your neighborhood? Hey *&* died, I bought a new one, you want it?

Quick story on my new compressor motor.... bought on Ebay from China for around 200-250 bucks. It didn't work. I shoulda' known better...:rolleyes:
With the tank empty it'd start and run. Once full, it wouldn't start. Seller didn't want to refund my money. We went round and round for weeks.... it actually got kinda ugly (on his part). The day before I could file a claim with Ebay he finally refunded my money.... jerk.
When I took the motor off and set it on the ground (none to lightly) I hear that familiar "tink" of the centrifugal switch engaging. Hmmm....
Pulled it apart and sure enough, the machining inside the switch was pretty rough, causing it to bind. Cleaned that up and it's worked great ever since. I thought about re-paying the seller, but after he resorted to name calling.... eff 'im. :smoke:

 
I recently coated the inside of my mini compressor's 6 liter tank with epoxy primer to stop the rusting. Having learnt from Jim about ventilating tanks so the epoxy dries and cures I was able to rig up a hair dry and direct hot air into the outlet and out the inlet. Now when I release the air I do not get rusty water everywhere. I did pre-treat the tank with citric acid first to strip out the residual rust and then dried the tank.

Thanks for the inspiration Jim.
 
I put the compressor up on FB marketplace for $250, sold to a guy that NEEDED a working compressor for 225, he appreciated getting a good unit for less than half of new. Sent a $200 donation to Habitat for Humanity in my neighbor's name. Everyone is happy.
Next? LOL
 
This is just the beginning of a dumpster story; ending to come soon, I hope. Winter project:

Found a few months ago a few miles from me on the side of the road with a bunch of other junk, "up for grabs".
1950's Evinrude with gas tank.
I don't have a boat, never had a boat.
Never had a boat engine either, but I'm determined to get this running, anyway.
I got a lake (Otisco) 1/2 mile down the road.

Owner said it was running 10 years ago.

Evinrude1.jpg
 
A few years ago my wife was at a garage sale, she calls me and says there's a guitar amp at the sale and its $15. Some what skeptical I ask what it is, expecting it to be a small solid state beginner amp that typically litter garage sales and are basically worthless. She says it s Music Man... These were pretty good amps and tube amps to boot. I ask what model, she says its an HD130. Guy at the sale says he thinks the output transformer is bad but he has a new one that goes with it. It. I tell her to buy it, for $15 I can either part it out or fix it. Now if you know anything about amps you know that the HD130 was a MONSTER of an amp with LOADS of clean headspace, think Mark Knopfler kinda sound. So she brings the amp home, after about 2 hours with O-scope I figure the guy was right and the output trans was pooped. I slap the new one in it and away we went with fully functioning 100+ watt amp. I had it for a few years and ended up selling it for a lot more than I paid for it.
amp (2).jpg
 
This is just the beginning of a dumpster story; ending to come soon, I hope. Winter project:

Found a few months ago a few miles from me on the side of the road with a bunch of other junk, "up for grabs".
1950's Evinrude with gas tank.
I don't have a boat, never had a boat.
Never had a boat engine either, but I'm determined to get this running, anyway.
I got a lake (Otisco) 1/2 mile down the road.

Owner said it was running 10 years ago.

View attachment 177982
I have fond memories of Mom, my sisters and I bobbing around the cold choppy Milwaukee harbor, cowering as dad flogged us endlessly with a knotted rope trying to get the old Evinrude back to life.
He finally succeeded....

1963Easter ComMilwboat16.jpg
You can guess the year, dad traded for new Buicks pretty often.
That trip, me in the front of the boat.
1963Easter ComMilwboat25.jpg
1963Easter ComMilwboat23.jpg
 
I have fond memories of Mom, my sisters and I bobbing around the cold choppy Milwaukee harbor, cowering as dad flogged us endlessly with a knotted rope trying to get the old Evinrude back to life.
He finally succeeded....

A bit OT but mentions of small boats and motors triggered a memory of dad renting a small boat on a lake near here, Cayuga, Dude would know that one a couple to the west of his. Any how dad motors out to a good spot to let us drown some worms and tosses the anchor in the water. Splash it goes but there is a bit of a problem, who ever put it in the rental boat missed one detail. Seems they forgot to tie the other end of rope to the boat! By the time dad realized that we had drifted too far away to find it!
 
Yamadude, when my grandfather worked on his outboard he had a 44 Gallon open ended drum full of water to test it in. He had a heavy plank across the drum to clamp the motor to. He have a 1/4 hp Seagull, or was it 1/2 or 3/4. Whatever it was it used to push his 12 foot clinker built around just fine and us kids thought it was easily doing 100 mph, or should I say knots.
 
My very first desktop computer came out of a skip very late one night, as these things tend to do. It was an AT with a large MFM interface to drive its Winchester type DIsk. Those were the days with 20MB of "mass" storage and DOS 3.3(I think?). Shortly after followed a printer from another skip. This was a serial printer and functioned like a golf ball type writer and used those ribbons where it cut the letters out. When it ran the whole house would shake. I had many hours of fun on that computer.
 
Yamadude, when my grandfather worked on his outboard he had a 44 Gallon open ended drum full of water to test it in. He had a heavy plank across the drum to clamp the motor to.

My dad always had a fishing boat, I too can remember him , out in the back yard , working on his outboards with the prop end , down in a garbage can filled with water. That brought back some memories I hadn’t had in a long time! :)
 
@RustiePyles wow nice work! Between Antiques Roadshow and the stories of baseball card/comic/etc collections being worth millions of $$$, I didn't think you could still find gems like that. I'll bet a 130W tube like that probably never got above a volume of "2" in that room :laugh:
It truly did not, it was an ear splitter for sure. I was playing an Ampeg V4B when I got the MM, it however had pretty functional master volume so you could get some useable tone at lower volumes but was still a beast. I have since scaled back to a couple of 15w amps, my wife seems to like them a lot better :whistle:.
 
This is just the beginning of a dumpster story; ending to come soon, I hope. Winter project:

Found a few months ago a few miles from me on the side of the road with a bunch of other junk, "up for grabs".
1950's Evinrude with gas tank.
I don't have a boat, never had a boat.
Never had a boat engine either, but I'm determined to get this running, anyway.
I got a lake (Otisco) 1/2 mile down the road.

Owner said it was running 10 years ago.

View attachment 177982

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Not a boat person either, but I've been (so far unsuccessfully) casting about for a Winter Project. I bet I could find a derelict motor like that.

Speaking of memories. Dad was NOT a boat/fishing sort of guy, but my unofficial Aunt (long story) and her hubby had a cottage on a lake and wooden sport boat of some sort (much like a classic Chriscraft as I recall) with what seemed like a HUGE green Evinrude on the back. Going to "the lake" and staying night or two at "Uncle Pug and Aunt Leona's cottage" was a HUGE treat and a ride in the boat was as close to heaven as I ever expected to get. I can still smell the two-stroke oil...
 
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Years ago when we lived in Ottawa (the coldest national capital in the world - even colder than Moscow or Stockholm), I needed a snowblower very badly before shoveling our driveway caused me to expire of a coronary.

My neighbour had an old 8HP B&S-powered unit but it wouldn't start. He told me that if I could get it to run, it was mine, as long as he could use it whenever I did. I said "sure - no problemo", and pushed it across the street to my place. After running a coat hanger through the clogged fuel line <surprise!!!), it lit right up and so I drove it back over to his place and he said "No Pete, a deal is a deal" and he gave it to me.

When we moved to Windsor 8 years later (virtually no snow falls here), I gave it back to him all spruced up and he is still using it now, 23 years down the road.
 
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You know, a lot of people who give up on things like lawnmowers, snowblowers, chainsaw, pressure washers and even old cars etc. really should watch some of the better YouTubers - like Mustie1 (he likes old VWs - but the principles are the same for just about all of them).

About twice a week, Mustie1 (his real name is Darren something and he is 54 and lives somewhere in New Hampsha' ;)) grabs some old machine off somebody's garbage pile and usually within 15-30 minutes, he has it started, running and working perfectly at whatever task it was originally sold to accomplish. His routine is nearly always the same - and it virtually always works. He has a huge shop - quite amazing really - and he seems to have an endless supply of old parts which he uses to avoid spending any money doing his repairs (and I mean that as a compliment).

Watching about 3-5 episodes of that little show - or something like South Main Auto with mechanic Eric O (based in Avoca NY) - would take less than 2 hours and teach you darned near everything you need to know about getting an old machine up and running again including what tools to buy and how to use them.

....or you could just go hang out with 5Twins, TwoMany, Grizld1, Jim, Gary, DownEaster, GLJ, Lakeview or Dude, or one of the other reprobates on this forum...
 
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I think that Evinrude is a 1956. I have a smaller 3 hp. with the same color livery. Very nice shape from the looks of it. Check lower unit for water when you drain it as the seal tends to get cut by monofilament fishing line. The water pump impellor will have its blades bent from sitting. Turn the engine asap to get it in another position and you might not need to change it. Check the carb as it may have a cork float sealed with shellac. Shellac uses alcohol as a solvent. :-(

Tt
 
I think that Evinrude is a 1956. I have a smaller 3 hp. with the same color livery. Very nice shape from the looks of it. Check lower unit for water when you drain it as the seal tends to get cut by monofilament fishing line. The water pump impellor will have its blades bent from sitting. Turn the engine asap to get it in another position and you might not need to change it. Check the carb as it may have a cork float sealed with shellac. Shellac uses alcohol as a solvent. :-(

Tt
Thanks for the info, Tom. When I get started on it I'll check the items you mentioned.
I've had it pegged as a 1955 7.5 hp Aquasonic 2 stroke 2 cyl .
It seems to be "all there".

I'll have to find some forums for these vintage engines.

One thing I'm trying' to figure out is the pressurized gas tank its supposed to have.
This tank that came with it doesn't have a rubber hand pressure bulb integrated into it; how else would it be pressurized?
For testing purposes, could I just use the test tank I use for my xs650's, suspended above the engine?

Here's the Evinrude tank:

tank.jpg
 
Well I managed to find a parts break down that might be right for your tank:
a tank.gif

It appears that item 25 is a push button that works a diaphragm item number 47 to pressurize the system.

And here is a link to a page that seems to explain it, a bit of a long read but it's there!:

https://www.duckworksmagazine.com/02/columns/max/02/wawrzyniak.htm

And here is a link to a guy trying to fix one of those tanks, it's in two parts and not a real high class video but might have some information!

 
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Well I managed to find a parts break down that might be right for your tank:
View attachment 178036
It appears that item 25 is a push button that works a diaphragm item number 47 to pressurize the system.

And here is a link to a page that seems to explain it, a bit of a long read but it's there!:

https://www.duckworksmagazine.com/02/columns/max/02/wawrzyniak.htm

And here is a link to a guy trying to fix one of those tanks, it's in two parts and not a real high class video but might have some information!

Excellent Ken, Thanks !
Thats one heck of a complicated tank....
 
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