Garagineering, illustrated.
This is what it looks like on the inside. The plastic baffle was from the original filter, the only thing unmolested.
I always have the foam around, and the cover pops neatly into place. I got a lot of mowing done so I know it works fine.
Tilling was another challenge; the old Troy Bilt was recalcitrant so I pulled the filter… to discover the carb and the top of the engine was full of fuel.
This has happened before, the brass float pinholes and it’s usually a couple minutes work with the torch. Except this time it’s been soldered so many times it may not even float.
I don’t have high hopes for finding a float; this is a Lauson Engine (A company that later became Tecumseh) and I figure I’m going to have to order it. So I go to the local hardware store and show the counterman my float.
And he returns in two minutes with a plastic replacement. I pay for the float and head home. A quick oil change and five minutes later, this 45 year old piece of lawn equipment is purring like a kitten, and tills my garden to a consistency approaching flour.
I have the original paperwork that accompanied this tiller, including a letter indicating the ship date signed by the manager of the company itself, sent to my uncle in September of 1967. he ordered it in August, sending a cashiers check for just over $300. Calvin farmed a 6 acre strawberry farm with this tiller until he died.
Every season I use this, I think about Calvin opening the crate and assembling it for the very first time. I try to take care of it the way he did.
15 comments Og | Uncategorized
Nice tiller! I’ve got a ’53 Simplicity I wrestle with. That air cleaner may put you in the lead for the 2012 MacGyver’s cup competition.
I’m not sure what I’d do with myself if I had new equipment. I might take to strong drink and betting on the ponies.
Hey Og- now that it has received worldwide attention, howz about crediting the original coiner of the term, garagineer?
http://rattailbastard.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-addition-to-vernacular-garagineer.html
BTW, nice tiller. I’ve got one of those stoopid front-tine models, which suck.
I don’t suppose I could convince you to bring that thing by sometime in the next month or so and grind up my garden area with it, could I?
…we really ought to get to work on building that trailer if we’re gonna do that.
My model (me) was delivered in 1955, and I could use a few replacement parts, too. Which hardware store did you go to?
Indeed, Double, and I think he may even have coined the term here.
Ed, we can sort of get it into the exploder. And sure!
6 acres with a tiller? Your uncle was not short of work ethic – hat’s off!
What Slash said.
Good stock in the Og line.
He did the spring tilling with a Gravely, and the regular tilling with the troy bilt. He was disabled so the troy bilt was a big help to him.
Any ideas on why mufflers from lawn equipment are so small? Cars and trucks have much bigger engines and run so quiet that I can barely tell they are on. Why do I need to wear hearing protection to mow my lawn? i am hoping that there is some engineering reason behind limiting muffler size and not just “minimum needed to limit sparks from lighting the grass on fire”.
Some of that “Minimum” thing, also there isn’t enough available pressure on most mowers to push the exhaust through too many baffles before it causes the mower to stall.
Dad had an old Lawn Boy, years ago, that the muffler died on, and he just plumbed the exhaust down into the mower deck. it made a weird noise, what with the blades interrupting the flow of exhaust twice per rev, but it was pretty quiet. I wonder if you could do that to a modern stamped steel mower and not cause it to rust like a banshee?
Dad had an old Lawn Boy, years ago, that the muffler died on, and he just plumbed the exhaust down into the mower deck.
You reminded me of a funny story. A friend’s neighbor kept having dead spots on his lawn. Could never figure it out. Eventually, my friend observed him unloading his bagger, leaving the mower running. The hot exhaust (plumbed through the deck) was hitting the same spot and roasting the grass to death while he was dumping out the bagger.
I would pay extra for a portable generator that didn’t sound like a Folker D taking off. Even exterior bafles are problemeatic since they can interfere with required cooling.
Long extension cord, and a pit. The pit drects the noise up.
Eventually, it will run out of fresh air, but if you put a vacuum cleaner hose to draw air out of the hole for the intake, you’re hunky dory.
I would pay extra for a portable generator that didn’t sound
They make them, if you really want to pay extra. My uncle has a Yamaha to run his camper with. It is a little too small for that but it is very quiet compared to what he had before. I’d ask at a RV dealer, they should know and probably sell what is quiet.
The old Maytags had the best solution, send the exhaust out through a flexible tube.