Pot Metal Headaches

The dirty gearing and oil tubes. The pot metal yoke it the gray part on the right.

Friday, July 04, 2008

To Hell with high gas prices! I need bricks. The way things now look I’ll be on the road to Jacksonville, FL for a fast “brick run” next Wednesday. I want to get away from the fussy never-ending headache mechanical work I’ve been doing. It is crazy for me to bitch so. I mean this crap I’m working on was never meant to be still in use some 80 years after it was marketed. The fact this stuff is still serviceable is testament to how commonplace quality used to be in everyday lives years ago.

Until the flake graphite is delivered for the spring barrels I have to do other servicing to the motor. Thursday involved cleaning the old dried oil from the gearing. My ultrasonic cleaner does a good job on this nasty chore. Edison equipped this style motor with “oil tubes”. These were easily accessible where-by oil was fed into these tubes and it was delivered to important lubrication points. The end of these tubes had a felt type material that regulated the flow of oil. After 80 years this material is hard as a brick hardened from old oil. This material had to be drilled out of the tubes, a real pain in the butt job.

While cleaning the gears I realized the “yoke” holding the felt pads that regulate the motor speed was frozen. Again I have to say “SHIT!” Out of the entire motor assembly this one integral piece was cast of pot metal. It shows all the classic signs of “exploding”: cracks and fissures over the entire assembly. Any force to free this up will cause this cheap casting to crumble. The post this rotates on is riveted in place. Using a small escapement file I’m able to file the top of the rivet off. Then ever so carefully I tap on the center of this post with a punch to remove it from the housing. Just the tapping set up enough of a force to let loosen up each side of the yoke. One side flew onto the workbench, the other landed on the floor. SHIT!

There was good to come out of this. I moved that shaft just enough to free up the frozen yoke. The broken pieces were large and easy to work with. Thank God for JB Weld. The pieces were epoxied back into place yesterday. This morning I cut out supports out of copper that were scabbed onto the back of this yoke with the miraculous JB Weld. Tomorrow I’ll add more supports to the front of the yoke just to be sure. That will hold for my lifetime!

Soon as I post this it is time to head over to Debbie’s. The entire crew is supposed to meet there and lounge around the pool. I need a day off from the aggravation I’ve been putting myself through. Being “Green” now I going over on the bicycle. It is getting to be a habit now of riding everywhere….

A Happy 4^th to everyone!!