As I mentioned in the last post, what I do with failure analysis is more like a Post-Mortem than anything else; The idea is to go through whatever evidence I have (usually an oily pile of broken parts and shrapnel) and try to figure out what happened.  The customer is always hoping that I will find a factory defect, and the factory always ( Read more... )

     Wow....  That was a bit of a hiatus, wasn't it ( Read more... )

     Back on October 07, 2014, I made a deal with a local antique engine enthusiast to buy out his collection.  Andy R, (not to be confused with Andy C from the Elks, who has the machine shop across the street from my shop) has been collecting these old engines for decades, and has gotten too old and tired to keep working on them.  They're big ( ( Read more... )

    Well, it took a long time - a little over seven months actually, but I finally got my little TCM forklift running ( Read more... )

     Chris Herrige started taking pictures of his engine as he took it apart, so that he could remember how to put it back together again.  Somewhere along the line, he got the idea of making the process into a stop-motion animation, and added the appropriate music,  The result?  Mechanical awesomeness...

Click to view

     A lifetime ago, when I was 14 and in Grade 10, my Automotives teacher Mr. Phipps gave me a small rotary engine, as he knew I was really into small engines.  Nobody knew much about it, and you have to recall this was a good seven years or more before the Internet came along, much less web-browsers, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, and all the other ( Read more... )

     I've got an old Wisconsin S-14D engine here in the shop that's been here since April 03 of last year; Getting parts for these old engines isn't easy, and there were a number of issues with this particular engine.  The owner would call every now and again to see if any progress had been made on it; I've made considerably more progress on the ( Read more... )

     Geeeze Louise!   NINE days since the last time I updated this journal - that's terrible!  When I first started, I was updating just about every day.  The problem is that I often don't get time to do any updates until late at night, and by that time I'm at home with my poor internet connection and outdated computers that make getting online a ( Read more... )

     I had a repeat customer come into the shop yesterday - He had purchased one of the Dolmar string-trimmers from me last Fall, and this time he purchased a chain-saw!  It was a Dolmar PS-45, the smallest (and least expensive) saw that I carry, but right now I'm happy to see any of these things moving.  In his case, he needed a small, light saw ( Read more... )

     Well, it's a Monday...

I arrived at the shop this morning a little before 11am, wound up wasting about 20 minutes chatting with a customer who was looking for a part that I don't have, but also for other parts that I can order, so it's not a total waste of time provided that he actually decides to order said parts.

I checked my shop ( Read more... )