mechanician
-
Posts
207 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Gallery
Events
Posts posted by mechanician
-
-
Looks like a Holley marine carburetor, or perhaps a copy of one since it presumably isn't marked. They were often stamped or tagged near the tickler. The tickler is found on very early carburetors of all uses, including automotive, the throttle handle on the other hand...ahoy.
-
2
-
-
5,000 psi sounds high, until you put it in perspective, the epoxy is at best perhaps ~7% as strong as the steel used in forged rods. Strength will drop with temperature for both materials, but much more quickly for the epoxy. The acceleration experienced by pistons is massive, some really rough numbers giving it every benefit of the doubt perhaps ~50g as a bare, bare minimum, so even being optimistic it needs to support 50x its own weight under cyclical loading for ~100 millions of cycles (think 2000 hours between rebuilds at 1000rpm). That's not taking interface stresses into consideration (steel and epoxy will have different thermal expansion) or myriad other considerations. For a car that costs at least 2x the average US house, and would lose hundreds of thousands in value if something grenades publicly, why not machine some proper counterweights?
It was probably torn down on the suspicion that something like this might exist, before the 6-figure mistake (not to mention damage to an irreplaceable historical object) occurs. If a patient gets wheeled into the hospital with a gunshot, and in treating the doctors discover that he has terminal cancer, was the cancer harmless because it didn't put him in the hospital?
-
6
-
-
Ed, I am sure the building has changed hands a few times in the century since S-D folded, but does it still look like it did when they were there?
While the market prefers the 6 cyl cars, I always liked the little model R, it had good lines.
-
Lighten up fellas…sarcasm is becoming as much of a lost art as balancing tractor rods!
-
9
-
2
-
2
-
-
Here's a longshot but its worth a try. Looking for a Stevens-Duryea, preferably a model R ('05-'08), anything considered in any condition, prefer an example with its correct original body.
-
1
-
-
Drag force is also proportional to air density, but weight isn't. In a prewar vehicle you are most likely to feel the reduced power when you are pulling hard, going slow, when air drag is not at its most significant anyway. Also, the fraction of oxygen in air (21%) is uniform at all altitudes, even up where airliners fly. It isn't exactly that there is less oxygen, there's less air (ie it's density is lower) so in a given volume of air (but not a given mass of air) there's less available to burn or for our own respiration. A naturally aspirated engine can at best sweep only its own displacement, so a smaller charge of fuel will burn, less heat will be released by combustion, and power will be reduced. Our lungs have the same problem, more or less. Boosting intake pressure will address this problem, you can run a higher boost relative to ambient at higher altitudes (ie to achieve the same absolute intake pressure as intake gauge pressure increases is a result of lower ambient pressure). Even at sea level, the benefit of supercharging comes from increasing air density.
-
1
-
1
-
-
Carburetor adjustments aside engine performance is proportional to air density, which decreases with altitude. This effect is independent of how you meter the fuel, efi may correct mixture, but it can not offset the reduction in power. This is why high altitude piston engine aircraft were turbo/supercharged, and this is still common on general aviation aircraft in the mountain west.
-
1
-
1
-
-
I have heard that different plants produced different products (at least before New Castle), with Providence as a machine shop producing engines, but I don't have the period evidence of this. All of the Maxwell-Briscoe era cars that I have seen were marked Tarrytown. I do have a 4 cyl car (1910) that has Brown and Sharpe marked gears.
-
14 hours ago, edinmass said:
Back 15 years ago, in Orange and Ware Mass there were a few kicking around. Two were on Rt 9 almost near downtown and could often be seen when the garage door was open. Simply put.......Grout cars probably only survive in the single digits. The question is how drivable they are. White was somehow involved with the company early on, and left to start his own company. Early steam that is non Stanley is just about dead........which is very unfortunate as I clearly remember Grout, White, Stanley, and Loco's running around Massachusetts in the late 60's and early 70's.
It's not an area with many "undiscovered" cars, but I have heard some early streamer rumors of eccentric families that have almost mythical status (and not the one in the hilltowns)...
The downturn in non Stanley steam participation is part of my interest, have something that's different. Its not that Stanleys are popular for their forward thinking engineering or exceptional build quality, so their competitors ought to be similarly unreliable with a comparable level fiddling. Its all part of the charm of steam. Those cars running in the '60s are still around somewhere, some went to Europe but there must be a fair number languishing. I would estimate low double digit survival on all models of Grout steamer. The cost to refurbish probably exceeds their value in this market, but it would be fun, if a complete one were to surface. Many more on the Locos and Whites even though you hardly ever see them. Good original Stanleys are scarce enough in comparison to cars built outside of Newton, but that's another matter...
-
1
-
-
I think if it were nearer either coast it would have sold a while ago.
-
1
-
-
Thanks. My interest is more curiosity than anything, as they aren't in my area of collecting. The sign in question was not a fantasy but a straight-up copy. I suspect that a letter of the original that was copied had a chip or blemish and they took their best guess, and guessed incorrectly.
It seems like with just a touch more effort these things could be undetectable if the authenticators are just looking at characteristics and colors. I was hoping someone would say there was some chemical analysis etc (but I am not surprised if there isn't in this case). The art world has gone in that direction, as these signs are starting to approach fine art prices in some cases I could see it becoming an issue.
-
Does anyone have a Grout, running or otherwise that needs a new home?
-
To be just a touch cynical, it is not necessarily that those elements of engineering practice were unknown at the turn of the century, but in fact very few of the pioneering men of the automobile industry had true professional engineering training. Most were trained in production, often through apprenticeships such as Leland and many others. Many early automobiles, including some of the most celebrated ones, were designed by a method closer to trial and error or experience than intentional design. Intentional design was not unknown at the time, for instance the Wright brothers (also not professionally trained) followed a very methodical and modern approach in developing the airplane.
Some exceptions were John Wilkinson (degree from Cornell) who championed light weight at Franklin, Harry Ricardo who pioneered scientific development of IC engines leading to more power from a smaller package, and Lee Chadwick (Purdue, I think) who did follow the big-bore approach.
-
1
-
-
I should preface this by saying that I am not a sign collector, nor do I want to be one, most of the more desirable signs are out of my era of collecting anyway.
I raise the question as I was looking at some items the other day, there was a sign that the dealer at least outwardly seemed to think was genuine. Just looking at the porcelain and (apparent) patina I didn't see any reason to doubt that it was so...until I read it carefully and caught a misspelling that no advertising department (or native English speaker making the sign) would have approved. Again, I have no interest in getting into collecting these, but the fakes are good enough that it is scary, especially given what these are bringing today. I also know there are authentication experts (credentials unknown). What are they looking for? Is there some sort of definitive test, instrument, etc that can identify these things (such as on the chemistry of the material etc). If not, one wonders if the fakes will eventually weigh on the market.
-
I might be interested in some, but mostly accessory ones. I am not "missing" any so I can't provide a photo or sketch, the best ones are the ones that I have never seen before.
-
1
-
-
Does he mean “selling as a whole” or “selling as a hole?”
-
4
-
-
My contention, based partially on the evidence of the cars themselves, is that drivers were running well above the speed limits then (as today). Based on the cars that I have driven, I suspect around 30. Most cars would be lugging at 15 mph on anything with a slight grade or would be screaming in second/low. Why would the sweet spot of operation be so commonly apart from the condition where they were normally operated…I don’t think it was.
Not everywhere and not all the time, some road conditions were terrible. Even these road conditions were likely not as bad as we might tend to think on main roads in the northeast and around major cities elsewhere. Between cities, in the far west, and certainly when driving long distances, roads were certainly poor. Intercity travel was by rail. Automobiles were generally driven within a region, within those regions I contend most roads were at least in the condition of modern dirt roads. Dirt roads are uncommon today around me. They receive very, very little maintenance, and certainly nothing that couldn’t have been done easily in 1900. Still, my statement about speeds applies to these modern dirt roads as well. For that matter the advantages of the modern cars are lessened on these dirt roads so much so that almost everyone ends up going around 30, antique or modern.
so what does that mean about tour speeds. I don’t know. I contend 30-35 isn’t too fast for the cars, or even out of line for how they were used in period, but some tours like to run faster. Some a lot faster. In rural areas of the northeast it is perfectly reasonable to drive 30-35, with reasonable forethought about the route. Excessive tour speeds may be driven more by ego than any other reason. In other parts of the country, where the roads weren’t laid out before the industrial revolution, the situation might be different.
-
1
-
-
E&J model 20
-
4
-
-
9 hours ago, AHa said:
I enjoyed reading brass nut's post, however, what he did not point out is the propensity to hot rod early cars. Ever since the early 60s, when muscle cars were being produced and people got serious about tweaking every last HP out of motors, brass era cars have suffered the same fate. Brass era cars are driven faster today than they were designed to drive and some hold up to that abuse better than others. The model T Ford is one example that holds up very well. It would be interesting to know just how much HP a well built model T will produce compared to the 22 HP they put out originally. Most other makes of cars have not held up well.
We call it ego. When a model T Ford out performs a big brass era car, invariably that car is going back into the shop to be tweaked. Most brass era people understand now one must be careful when attempting to increase compression on a brass era car but there is a new generation coming up all the time and failures are rarely talked about. In the brass era, torque was more important than HP because cars had to pull themselves out of sand pits and mud bogs. Today, HP is more important because we want to go faster.
Now, everybody is not the same and some people will invariably take offense at what I've posted here. They will point put all the race cars being produced and the huge draw of the race tracks but most people were happy if they could get through the mud bog without having to get out to find a farmer with a horse that could pull them out.
This raises an interesting question...how fast did ordinary folks actually drive in the period. In MA the speed limit, (or at least the maximum limit as a lower speed could be "unreasonable") was 15 mph in town and 20 mph elsewhere. I am not disputing that the roads were much worse, but my model T is much more happy at 30 or even 35 than it is at 15. So much so that I can imagine it would be quite difficult to drive that slow at least in hilly country. Even on an average modern dirt road, 25 is on the slow side. We could pick on any number of different cars and I think the results would be similar, but model Ts were everywhere and their popularity indicates they must have well fit their actual use, so I think it is a good choice. So, were the automobiles that poorly adapted to the "lawful" operation of the time, or were operators actually driving them a bit closer to modern speeds than we might have expected based on the written record...
-
2 hours ago, Larry Schramm said:
I took the tank for my 1915 truck and had it hot zinc dipped - galvanized a number of years ago. Still looks good inside and out. That is the only way that I would coat a tank.
Did it take some convincing to get them to dip a tank? I would imagine they needed to position it just so to get it to fill and again to drain and prevent undesirable build up.
-
I have owned two cars with sealed tanks. Both done by previous owners. Both needed to be replaced. Fortunately neither was difficult to replace. If the shape is simple just replace it and be done with it. If the shape is complex, clean out the fuel residue first, then clean with evaporust or something similar. If it is a collectible tractor drain the fuel after use and store it dry, you will get more condensation on warm humid days if it is full of fuel, if it is a working tractor parts must be available enough to replace it. I have doubts that you will get it clean enough to plate, but I suspect that you wouldn't be doing that yourself so if someone has developed a process I would be curious (but quite skeptical).
-
1
-
1
-
-
On 4/28/2024 at 11:24 AM, A Woolf said:
H4 or H5 Stanley. Better known as a Gentleman's Speedy Roadster.
It looks like an early square tail model H. Note the flat dash and the left drive that was also common on the early H. Interestingly though, this car appears to have outboard rear brakes.
-
1
-
-
The price is driven by the set-up. I would have expected it to be a little lower but not substantially lower. It is one of those fields that has not a huge demand but yet the equipment and know-how to use it is expensive. Most of the customers are industrial users whose real expense is the downtime of their equipment, prototyping work, and aerospace/defense, all of which operate on different budget levels. Even an off the shelf generic gear from McMaster Carr (probably Boston gear) is not even a factor of 10x cheaper despite being more or less mass produced.
You could re-machine the rear end internals to operate with some more widely available gears. An option but perhaps not a good one, and if that was sent out it would be more than the gears.
Maybe, one could be investment cast to tolerable tolerances, machined, and heat treated, maybe, but that is going to be a lot of development work, probably end up around the same cost with a great deal of uncertainty around the result.
Printing would give a finish more like sand paper than sand cast. It would take so much finishing that the result would essentially be a gear with already worn teeth. That presumes the material properties are sufficient. Stainless which seems to be one of the strongest easily available printed metals wouldn't be as strong and isn't suitable for the heat treatment usually done to gears of that type.
Your best bet might be to solicit more bids, and let them know that you understand that it is going to be expensive. My guess is that most of the no-bids that had the capability didn't want the hassle of paying their staff to quote it because they figured a hobbyist would never bite on the price. I need to have a couple done myself for a long term project...I feel your pain.
-
3
-
-
A deal at twice the price…often said but true here.
What to get in Brass Era, Ford or ???
in HCCA General Discussion
Posted
I will not weigh in on what is or is not a correct price, but I will say that some of the chassis components appear to be later than what one would expect for a textbook '12 torpedo. That may affect price, or maybe not, it all depends on what the buyer is looking for.