I have a dream......

[Curt Fuller]

At the local art festival last weekend there was a vendor selling homemade icecream. I've had this dream of someday (in 8 or 10 years) when I retire I'd like to set up some sort of an old time turning demonstration and spend a few months in the summers hitting fairs, festivals, etc and demonstrating some woodturning. Well, this homemade ice cream churn was powered by one of those old John Deere "hit and miss" one cylinder farm motors, the kind that only fire about every 3 or 4 revolutions. Do you think one of those wood drive an old lathe? I'm thinking that if I started now I'd have the motor found, rebuilt, and running along with an old lathe for it to turn by the time I retire. Maybe some of you have already seen this done. If any of you know anything about this I'd like to hear about it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Curt.....If the flywheel was big enough and the gearing low enough.....

[John Bush]

Hi Curt,
Look for an old Morris Fairbanks engine. They were the workhorse for many a task on the farm long ago. They have a single huge cylinder, monster flywheel, and you fill the castiron jacket around the cylinder head with water for cooling. I can't recall exactly how the carburation system worked, but IIRC it was pretty cool.We used an old trailer mounted cement mixer powered by one and it had plenty of power. That set-up would make a great attraction for fair-goers too. John.

[John Bush]

Curt, I just Googled up Morris Faibanks and found lots of info. As you can imagine, there is the same level of passion for that old arn as well .JCB.

[Joe Tonich]

Curt,

You may want to check out this site.. http://www.oldengine.org/members/cmsgma/2007show/raffle.html

They may have info about where you might be able to get the engine....

[mark page]

Or look for an old Waukeshaw engine--sp???. Pronounced Wok-ee-shaw. They had some twin cylinder engines like on the John Deere A & B early models. Thats why they called them poppin Johns back then. Also had a lot of them on grain hammer mills. Don't know if they made a one cylinder or not. I was not exposed to a one cyinder in my hay days. lol.