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Locomobile

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  1. For about ten years I purchased steam related antique things that were oftentimes rare. As a buyer, you don't have time for an extensive back and forth dialogue prior to purchase, someone else will buy the item. Early on with the feedback system, sellers and buyers were very cautious as to how they conducted transactions. The last few years after Ebay altered the feedback ranking, it got really bad with both parties, buyers pulling all sorts of crap on sellers. Buying a good item, returning a bad item for a refund etc. Ebay is simply no good anymore for the buyer and definitely bad for the seller. I heard their seller fees are now 12%? And 3% to PayPal, and they hold the money? Just use Craigslist.
  2. Well, there's likely the problem. I can tell you from experience, I buy (used to, not anymore) a lot of antique steam related items in ''good used condition'', I would get it and it either needed serious repair or it had obvious damage that was purposely hidden in the pictures. I'm not saying you're guilty of that, but when aspects of an item that would substantially devalue it are clearly missing from the item description and pictures, don't blame the buyer for objecting. I got so fed up, I don't buy anything off of ebay anymore. The best was a ships clock and all the pictures were taken straight on of the face. It was a real good buy, I received it and the whole case was gone, it was just a face bezel and movement, no case. Ron I know I sound like one of those troublesome buyers, I usually wound up eating it because I didn't want to go through the hassle of returning it and I can repair about anything. Here are a few more for instances: Stanley fuel automatic housing, someone had opened it up and tried to bore it out for a larger spring, blew the boring bar right through the side of the casting. It was from Australia and didn't want to pay the return shipping of about 70 dollars. Seller hid that in the pictures. Lunkenheimer steam whistle (about $300) someone had repaired the valve seat with bondo, worked on air, would have never worked with steam, I was able to re-machine the seat. Those little Neverout sidelamps, I had several of them, they are made from thin brass and fragile, I received one and someone rammed it in small box and it looked like a football, needless to say the lamp was badly damaged, I used it for parts. The font, glass etc. One was a brass bollard off of an antique boat, someone removed it (stole it) with a hack saw? They sawed right through the base of it on an angle, hid that in the pictures, I brazed it up and repaired. Penberthy injector "in working condition", parts were missing out of the inside, converging nozzle etc. luckily I had spare parts to fix it. I had many instances similar to the above, finally I tossed in the towel on Ebay.
  3. Posting box malfunctioned. Anyways, if it were mine I'd put the value closer to ten k Any chance he was a U of M fan, that is their colors.
  4. Oh ok I remembered it as California, but it was Oregon, I'll get it right next time. 😉 Ron
  5. Looks like trash left from a movie scene of it driving off that cliff. That was common. When Buster Keaton made ''The General'' the bridge blew up and the train fell in the river, they just left it there until the state of California went after him and got it removed by court order. During the same filming, they also started a brushfire that burned for days. The environment was of little concern back then. Ron
  6. Parking aid. Great for changing rear tires too 😁
  7. Locomobile

    Loco pics

    Not to be argumentative, but that doesn't look like him, he had a wide head shape. That's probably him in the right front. This pic was taken around 1902-3. The car looks to be a Stanley, Locomobile, grout or Conrad. The woman in the foreground resembles him, probably a family member. Here he is in 1915 (looks like he's wearing the same suit 😁) Ron
  8. They claim that, but I'll bet it's more like 5/15" to 25/29ths''. 🙄 Ron
  9. Forum discussion has to be stimulated. I'm very interested in steam boats and cars. When I went looking for online discussion about steamboats, there was nothing but a few dead forums. I kept checking back every few weeks and there was just an occasional "Where is everyone?" posts. I just started posting there, posting pictures of my project, asking questions that went unanswered etc. Eventually, people started responding and then more threads were started and more people got involved, and today, ten years later, it's still relatively active considering the obscurity of that hobby. The point is if you're checking in just to read and be entertained, it's your fault there is nothing to read, have to contribute to stimulate conversation and grow content. As they say at the nudist colony "You gotta be one to see one" or something like that. 😁 Ron
  10. Oy.. I would definitely cheat a bit with an oversize tap drill. 75% threads are not always imperative, especially with that material thickness. If you're not already use a good two flute tap with lots of oil. The center web of the two flute is much heavier. As I wrote above check with the local Machine shop or weld shop, they will likely have a tap burner. It's a carbon electrode connected to a variac transformer. They set the electrode on the tap and keep cranking the current up until it burns through it. An EDM machine can do it too. Taps are hard as glass and why they are so brittle. Only thing that ever worked as a removal tool for me is a carbide blank, it has to be held in a mill etc, lest it veers off to the side and spoils the piece. Working in machine shops since 1979 I've seen a good number of afternoons (and parts) ruined with a broken tap. It's the last operation and one of the most risky. Ron
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