The Return of the Frankenengine, and Now I'm Cooking with GAS!!
Whuff... What a week so far!
On Monday, I was about to head out to make a field-service call for the people I had rebuilt the Frankenengine for. Apparently, they were having some problems getting it started, and from their description it sounded like the float-valve in the carburetor might have gotten stuck. Just as I was about to head out the door, the plumber called and said that they were on their way over to connect our new gas stove! We had called them last week to make an appointment, but the best they could tell us was "sometime before the 19th" for all the good that did! Although I'm glad to have the stove connected, it would have been nice if they could have given us a day's notice!
This is the new gas stove, a Sears Kenmore Elite series with all the bells and whistles! It has five upper burners, including a tiny 5000 BTU "Simmering" burner (upper right) for sauces and other delicate items, and a huge 18,000 BTU "Power Burner" (lower right) for bringing large pots of water to a quick boil!
The oven is a self-cleaning convection oven, also gas-fired! The oven is huge, considerabley larger than the old electric range that we had. Unfortunately, the larger oven means that the drawer below the oven is considerably smaller, which means it's pretty much useless for storage. Actually, it's not a storage-drawer anyway; it's a warming drawer, meant for keeping prepared foods warm before serving, heating plates, or proofing bread! There's even a "Bread Proofing" button on the control panel for just that purpose! Mind you, the drawer is so shallow I don't think it would work well for proofing bread, there's really not enough room for it to rise properly.
One of the main reasons for getting a gas-fired stove is so that we can still cook food if the power goes out. The stove has electronic ignitors, but the stove-top can be lit using matches (or a BBQ-lighter) in the event of a power-failure. The oven however, uses a hot-surface ignitor, so it won't run in the event of a power-failure unless the stove is plugged into the generator. It's only a 110Volt connection, so I've actually got the outlet behind the stove connected in such a way that it can be run on the generator if need be! The fellow who installed the stove was called "David", and he was here from 10:40am to 11:20am.
Once David finished installing the stove, I headed out to the customer's farm to see what the deal was with the Frankenengine. He had said it was being installed on a machine called a "Hydra-Fork", but even though he attempted to describe the machine to me, I just couldn't quite picture it. Until now...
THIS, is a Hydra-Fork! I guess I should have used the flash, as it's somewhat silhoutted in the picture and you can't quite get the grasp of the size of the thing. It's sitting on the back of a hay-wagon, and the barn behind it is at least 20' tall! I'll have to try to get a better picture of it in the future, and maybe some video footage of the beast in action!
It's meant for feeding forage (hay and grass) to live-stock, the idea being that you can just have the hay stacked on the back of the wagon and this thing will pick it up and dump it where you want it. I don't know if it can lift a large round-bale, but apparently it can rip one apart quite easily, and then the hay can be placed on the wagon and taken to wherever you're feeding your livestock.
Here's the Frankenengine hooked up to the Hydra-Fork. You can't see it here, but the engine is directly coupled to a small hydraulic pump that runs the machine. Despite working fine when it left the shop, it didn't take long before it quit working out here, and then it wouldn't start again.
The first thing I noticed was that the filter-bowl was completely clogged with rust deposits! Drattit! I thought that I had managed to get all of the old rust and scale out of the tank before mounting it, but apparently being filled with fresh gasoline managed to loosen a lot more! I had to remove the tank from the engine and swish it out several times before it finally came clean. I also had to replace the filter-screen and gasket, which meant another round-trip back to the shop since I hadn't brought any with me. I wasn't charging for my time, since this is a warranty-call for me, but the customer was nice enough to offer me $20 for the extra gas I used driving back and forth!
Once the fuel-system was cleaned up, I tried to start the engine without success. Even trying some Ether sprayed into the intake only produced one half-hearted *CHUG*, and then it quit again. Checking for a spark, I found that it was only sparking about 1/4 of the time, if at all! In fact, it wasn't long before there wasn't any spark at all. This was annoying, because it had been sparking just fine in the shop, but now it was just plain dead. These old engines have the Points-and-Breaker assembly under a cover on the side, so I removed the cover and had a peek inside. As I suspected, the points were badly worn, and that was the likely cause of the problem. I explained the situation to the customer, and also explained that a better option was to upgrade the ignition system to the solid-state Magnetron Ignition, which would eliminate the Points-and-Breaker completely, and be a far more reliable solution. I would provide the labour for free as part of the warranty, but he'd have to pay for the Magnetron. He agreed to this, and so the Frankenengine has returned to the shop, waiting for me to install the Magnetron ignition.
On Tuesday, I finally got around to the snow-blower from the Ability Centre. The carburetor is thickly clogged with rotten fuel so thick that it's like tar!! It actually dissolved the primer-line, and it would be cheaper to just install a new carburetor than to have me waste time trying to un-gunk it. I had to wait for Approval though, as the carburetor isn't exactly cheap ($151.60) and waiting for that cost me another half-day of waiting. That was fine by me though, the cold dreary skies were sapping what little energy I had, and I really wasn't in the mood for doing much else. I wound up dozing off in the recliner in the Living Room, with the cat dozing off on me! ;)
Today was Trixstir's birthday! Unfortunately, due to work requirments at the bowling alley, we weren't able to fully celebrate it today. The Kidling and I did give her her gifts though, and tomorrow night we'll all go out for supper before the Kidling's school Christmas play. I got her a bottle of Malibu Rum with Mango flavouring, as well as some screen-protectors for her iPod and some Saskatchewan Roughrider's earrings and a necklace. The Kidling gave her some Christmas ornaments that she had taken a fancy to, and the Munchkin gave her a deluge of gas-blasts from both ends, and a big toothless grin! ;)
I finally got the Income Tax statements from the accountant this afternoon, and took them over to the bank. I should know in about a week if they're going to approve my loan (they should, it's a gauranteed loan, so it's not as if they're on the hook for it!) and with any luck I may be the happy new owner of the new shop before the year is out! Here's hoping! :)
On Monday, I was about to head out to make a field-service call for the people I had rebuilt the Frankenengine for. Apparently, they were having some problems getting it started, and from their description it sounded like the float-valve in the carburetor might have gotten stuck. Just as I was about to head out the door, the plumber called and said that they were on their way over to connect our new gas stove! We had called them last week to make an appointment, but the best they could tell us was "sometime before the 19th" for all the good that did! Although I'm glad to have the stove connected, it would have been nice if they could have given us a day's notice!
This is the new gas stove, a Sears Kenmore Elite series with all the bells and whistles! It has five upper burners, including a tiny 5000 BTU "Simmering" burner (upper right) for sauces and other delicate items, and a huge 18,000 BTU "Power Burner" (lower right) for bringing large pots of water to a quick boil!
The oven is a self-cleaning convection oven, also gas-fired! The oven is huge, considerabley larger than the old electric range that we had. Unfortunately, the larger oven means that the drawer below the oven is considerably smaller, which means it's pretty much useless for storage. Actually, it's not a storage-drawer anyway; it's a warming drawer, meant for keeping prepared foods warm before serving, heating plates, or proofing bread! There's even a "Bread Proofing" button on the control panel for just that purpose! Mind you, the drawer is so shallow I don't think it would work well for proofing bread, there's really not enough room for it to rise properly.
One of the main reasons for getting a gas-fired stove is so that we can still cook food if the power goes out. The stove has electronic ignitors, but the stove-top can be lit using matches (or a BBQ-lighter) in the event of a power-failure. The oven however, uses a hot-surface ignitor, so it won't run in the event of a power-failure unless the stove is plugged into the generator. It's only a 110Volt connection, so I've actually got the outlet behind the stove connected in such a way that it can be run on the generator if need be! The fellow who installed the stove was called "David", and he was here from 10:40am to 11:20am.
Once David finished installing the stove, I headed out to the customer's farm to see what the deal was with the Frankenengine. He had said it was being installed on a machine called a "Hydra-Fork", but even though he attempted to describe the machine to me, I just couldn't quite picture it. Until now...
THIS, is a Hydra-Fork! I guess I should have used the flash, as it's somewhat silhoutted in the picture and you can't quite get the grasp of the size of the thing. It's sitting on the back of a hay-wagon, and the barn behind it is at least 20' tall! I'll have to try to get a better picture of it in the future, and maybe some video footage of the beast in action!
It's meant for feeding forage (hay and grass) to live-stock, the idea being that you can just have the hay stacked on the back of the wagon and this thing will pick it up and dump it where you want it. I don't know if it can lift a large round-bale, but apparently it can rip one apart quite easily, and then the hay can be placed on the wagon and taken to wherever you're feeding your livestock.
Here's the Frankenengine hooked up to the Hydra-Fork. You can't see it here, but the engine is directly coupled to a small hydraulic pump that runs the machine. Despite working fine when it left the shop, it didn't take long before it quit working out here, and then it wouldn't start again.
The first thing I noticed was that the filter-bowl was completely clogged with rust deposits! Drattit! I thought that I had managed to get all of the old rust and scale out of the tank before mounting it, but apparently being filled with fresh gasoline managed to loosen a lot more! I had to remove the tank from the engine and swish it out several times before it finally came clean. I also had to replace the filter-screen and gasket, which meant another round-trip back to the shop since I hadn't brought any with me. I wasn't charging for my time, since this is a warranty-call for me, but the customer was nice enough to offer me $20 for the extra gas I used driving back and forth!
Once the fuel-system was cleaned up, I tried to start the engine without success. Even trying some Ether sprayed into the intake only produced one half-hearted *CHUG*, and then it quit again. Checking for a spark, I found that it was only sparking about 1/4 of the time, if at all! In fact, it wasn't long before there wasn't any spark at all. This was annoying, because it had been sparking just fine in the shop, but now it was just plain dead. These old engines have the Points-and-Breaker assembly under a cover on the side, so I removed the cover and had a peek inside. As I suspected, the points were badly worn, and that was the likely cause of the problem. I explained the situation to the customer, and also explained that a better option was to upgrade the ignition system to the solid-state Magnetron Ignition, which would eliminate the Points-and-Breaker completely, and be a far more reliable solution. I would provide the labour for free as part of the warranty, but he'd have to pay for the Magnetron. He agreed to this, and so the Frankenengine has returned to the shop, waiting for me to install the Magnetron ignition.
On Tuesday, I finally got around to the snow-blower from the Ability Centre. The carburetor is thickly clogged with rotten fuel so thick that it's like tar!! It actually dissolved the primer-line, and it would be cheaper to just install a new carburetor than to have me waste time trying to un-gunk it. I had to wait for Approval though, as the carburetor isn't exactly cheap ($151.60) and waiting for that cost me another half-day of waiting. That was fine by me though, the cold dreary skies were sapping what little energy I had, and I really wasn't in the mood for doing much else. I wound up dozing off in the recliner in the Living Room, with the cat dozing off on me! ;)
Today was Trixstir's birthday! Unfortunately, due to work requirments at the bowling alley, we weren't able to fully celebrate it today. The Kidling and I did give her her gifts though, and tomorrow night we'll all go out for supper before the Kidling's school Christmas play. I got her a bottle of Malibu Rum with Mango flavouring, as well as some screen-protectors for her iPod and some Saskatchewan Roughrider's earrings and a necklace. The Kidling gave her some Christmas ornaments that she had taken a fancy to, and the Munchkin gave her a deluge of gas-blasts from both ends, and a big toothless grin! ;)
I finally got the Income Tax statements from the accountant this afternoon, and took them over to the bank. I should know in about a week if they're going to approve my loan (they should, it's a gauranteed loan, so it's not as if they're on the hook for it!) and with any luck I may be the happy new owner of the new shop before the year is out! Here's hoping! :)