13" LeBlond Regal Lathe is home

At long last, we got my 13" "Roundhead" LeBlond Regal lathe home. It was an interesting day on Saturday, what with the frenzy surrounding the approach of Hurricane Sandy. A buddy of mine from the powerplant met us at the yard where the lathe was. As I had posted previously, the lathe was in the house of a deceased man who'd hoarded a load of machine tools along with about 3000 cars, any number of trucks, a few busses, and parts of locomotives, tugboats, and anything else that looked good or caught his interest. We arrived to find the owner, who is the son of the deceased owner, getting ready to build a flood control dike at his house. Last year, Irene blasted a torrent of water through the daylight basement of the house and did structural damage. This year, the owner had a few loads of clay and Item 4 dumped off as material for the dike to turn the water away from the house. Needless to say, there was some urgency to our getting the machine tools loaded out.

My buddy got a dandy Walker-Turner band saw with the extra low geared speed range for sawing metal, and a 10" "Bell base" South Bend Engine Lathe. The Southbend has the "modern" bronze spindle bearings, 2-tumbler quick change box, taper attachment, and has a single phase motor. The Southbend was an ex-Onteora High School machine, so not really worn or hard used. $300 for the bandsaw, $500 for the South Bend lathe.


We started by walking the area, and my buddy determined he'd need to take down a tree to manuver his trailer ( the site being on ledge rock, with tight turns, lots of junked cars and heavy equipment, and no clear shot to get in with the trailer). After taking down the tree and walking the area to be sure he would not hang his truck and trailer on something like an old truck rear hiding in the weeds, my buddy got the trailer spotted. We started by sliding the bandsaw to the door of the building,which meant moving a big old iron-block B & S engine, a few vintage outboard motors, loads of smaller car and truck parts and bits of tooling. The owner had a J-D tracked loader, and we got the bandsaw up in the air and onto the trailer. That was the easy part. Of course, the owner was anxious to run the tracked loader accross the road to his house to build the dike.

The 10" South Bend lathe we had picked out was behind another 10" South Bend engine lathe (single tumbler quick change box, cast iron spindle bearings), so we had to move that one first. We first had to move a Wyson "jump shear" (heavier than it looked, no way to get rollers under it). That was a job with pinch bars and shoving. Then, we went after the South Bend that was blocking removal of my buddy's lathe. We used a pinch bar, got it up on some planks, which we clinch nailed. We then used some scrap pipe as rollers. We got the older South Bend "parallel parked" to the jump shear. We then got my buddy's South Bend onto some old planks, clinch nailed the lathe to the planks, and used the pipe rollers. That went onto the trailer with a comealong.

My LeBlond lathe was the last machine tool out in our load. We pinch barred the LeBlond away from the wall (it was jammed at the rear of the accumulated machine tools and junk). I'd brought a load of rough-cut 4 x 4's from our local sawmill. We had the chainsaw, so cut the skid timbers to length and put a 45 degree 'sled runner cut' on the ends. We used the pinch bar and pipe rollers, and the LeBlond was out the door. The comealong slid it up the trailer bed.

We then had to hunt the tooling for the South Bend, and managed to piece together a good 4 jaw chuck, ball bearing live center, 4-sided tool post, lantern tool post, and a set of toolholders. A box of Hardinge 5C collets also came along, and a production collet closer (lever at the spindle nose end) was on the lathe.

We bound the load and headed to my house, some 30 miles away. At my house, we slid the LeBlond lathe along the trailer bed by pulling it with my tractor. We pulled her off the beavertail of the trailer so one end of the skids gently touched down on the ground. We then jacked and cribbed the other end and my buddy pulled the trailer out. We let the tailstock end down using some dunnage and a pinch bar, and then pulled the lathe into the garage with the tractor, sliding her skids on plywood.

I wiped the lathe down with Royal Purple degreaser, and hosed it off selectively (floor drain box in the garage to catch the water). The lathe had been covered with a solid layer of old oil and grunge. The Royal Purple took it down to the paint like nothing I had ever used. Cold water in a light spray, no pressure washer. Under the grunge, the lathe shows a nice off-white enamel paint job. Really neatly done. As I cleaned the bed ways with diesel fuel and rags, I found some of the original scraping is still there. I spent odd moments of the weekend cleaning the LeBlond lathe, freeing up some of the parts that were stuck from gummed oil and grunge, lubricating and generally getting to know the lathe. I mucked out the coolant tank, cleaned the chip pan, and found more odds and ends of small tools and toolbits in the accumulated swarf and old oil.

My buddy was making chips with the South Bend Lathe and the bandsaw yesterday (Sunday). I spent the day getting ready for Hurricane Sandy, getting groceries, gasoline cans filled for the welder, more diesel fuel for the tractor, and filling our water containers and Coleman lanterns. In between moving stuff around in the garage, I kept tinkering with the LeBlond lathe, mainly just cleaning. The next move for the LeBlond lathe is down into our basement, which will take some more old time rigging.

Yesterday, taking off the "pick off" gear cover (between the spindle stud gear and quick change box), I found a puzzler. The puzzler is on the "screw gear" (the biggest gear on the input to the quick change box), there are TWO different sizes of gear on the shaft. Only one is in mesh with an idler gear, the other is just there as a spacer or can be thrown into mesh by swapping it with the larger bull gear and adjusting the slotted link accordingly. In the cabinet base leg, I found a set of loose change gears, same face width and pitch as the pick off gears. I got a copy of "running the Regal", but no mention is made of transposing gears for cutting metric thread pitches. Could this be a set of extra loose change gears for metric threads ?

3000 cars? Thanks for the story Joe, I'd love to see some pics of this place.

Paul

Paul:

The story of the junkyard is a local legend, but the son of the deceased is a little wary about having pictures posed online. Too many thieves and adventure seekers have gotten into the yard since the original owner died. A couple of would be thieves have been apprehended and are looking at some jail time.

It's a wild place, 23 acres of mountaintop junkyard. A lot of the cars and trucks arrived there in the early 50's, cars from the 'teens and onward. Some were picked over and parted out so only the hulks remained, some were stored in old truck bodies. Once the estate of the original owner settled, which took some 12 years after his demise, the son started selling the cars and trucks and parts. The story that is the stuff of legends concerns a Duesenburg which was in the yard, stored intact (but rough) in a shed. A certain celebrity had gotten wind that this Duesenburg was in the yard while the yard's owner was alive. Said celebrity showed up at the yard with a car restorer and a wad of cash. The owner of the yard denied having any Duesenburg, and said he did not want to continue the conversation. Said celebrity made a few attempts, upping the cash offers, and was refused and told to leave. Said celebrity returned a short while later and knocked on the door of the cabin/machine shop the owner lived in. The owner had enough, so took his shotgun, jacked a shell into the chamber and levelled it at said celebrity, telling him to get the ---- off the property.
Celebrity left but never abandoned designs on that Duesenburg. When the owner died, and when the estate settled, the first car out of that yard was the Duesenburg, going to said celebrity. The owner's son said the word got out fast, and the old car people from all over the world started contacting him. He shipped ocean freight containers of older US cars and parts to Europe and Australia and New Zealand. The cars remaining in the yard are pretty well gone, some with trees growing thru the engine compartments or between the frame rails. Last winter, a black bear made a den in the engine compartment of an old Dodge truck, from which the engine had been removed.
I've been doing engineering and work at Hanford Mills. We have been slowly bringing back the "progression of power" which drove the mill over its working years. The last means of driving the sawmill in the 50's and 60's was a flathead 6 cylinder gasoline engine, supposedly from a White halftrack (WWII surplus). I know we are not likely to find another halftrack engine, so we may do a real Catskills sawmiller's thing: use an old truck as a power unit. As were moving out our machine tools, I saw this old truck sitting in the weeds, cab glass busted out, but otherwise intact. I looked at the hood and it was a REO Speedwagon, a stake rack truck from the 30's or 40's. I lifted the hood and there was a nice flathead 6 engine. I saw a power unit for Hanford Mills sitting there. I asked the owner about it, and he said for 600 bucks, take it away. We may come back in the spring with a flatbed and get that REO speedwagon. There is no telling what is still in that yard.

If there is any gear there that is 127 tooth, probably is metric transpose.

You have big brass ones for shifting that much cast iron, right before a storm
like this one! Doubt it will be irene/lee precipitation, but who knows.

Drop me a line if you need help moving that lathe to its final location.

BTW is the other SB 10" machine for sale, have a friend who is in the market.

Jim:

I appreciate your note about the 127 teeth. I will check the unused bull gear on the LeBlond to see if it has 127 teeth.



Thanks for your comment about brass ones. Well, you have to know who you are dealing with. Ron was a US Marine, a gunnery sergeant and did two tours in Vietnam as a scout-sniper and tunnel rat. A storm and moving some machinery is not something he would be likely to back away from. My other buddy is a farm boy from Schoharie County, another one who is unlikely to back away from too much. Ron takes the view that whatever happens is going to happen, and living in an apartment there is not a whole lot he can do about a storm. My other buddy and I are normally prepared for these sorts of events with generators, lanterns, food, chainsaws, tractors, plenty of cans of gas and diesel fuel, good whisky, beer, and guns. About all I did to get ready for the storm was to get all the gas and diesel fuel containers filled, then make sure the Coleman lanterns were fueled, had good mantles and clean the glass, make sure there was a fresh container of chainsaw gas, get the log chains where I could get them without untangling them first... fill the "Igloo cooler" with potable water, and call it done. We did not think of getting machine tools before a storm as anything extraordinary. The bigger concern was getting them before the weather turned real cold. The seller has an old John Deere tracked loader, a diesel. It is a hard proposition to get started in colder weather as he does not plug in a jacket heater. It was now or next spring for the machine tool move.

We are being told the rain and possible flooding are not going to be so bad as Irene, but the wind is the cause for concern.

Thanks for your kind offer to help get the lathe down the basement. For now, I am cleaning it in the garage. The plan to get it into the basement varies, but I am leaning toward making a ramp. I have an inside stair in my garage down to the basement. This stair unbolts and lifts out, leaving an access shaftway. Not having a hoist gantry nor chainfall, I am thinking a ramp made of a couple of rough cut 6 x 6's will do the trick. Get the lathe onto the ramp with pipe rollers. Use the tractor to hold back and creep the lathe down the ramp, then pipe rollers to get it about 25 ft to its spot.


Yes, the other 10" South Bend engine lathe is for sale. Here are the particulars:
-"bell base"
-longer bed
-taper attachment
-older style headstock with cast iron spindle bearings
-single lever quick change gearbox
-handlever collet drawbar, a few collets inc.
-3 jaw chuck, has reverse jaws in chuck, other jaws are MIA.
-a few tool holders for lantern type toolpost included

Did not get into this lathe to see if single or three phase motor
Has a brush paint job (gray) laid on, not a great paint job.

Asking price is $650.00 If your friend is interested, the lathe is located outside of Saugerties, NY. If he is legitimately interested, he can get hold of me via Ron. As long as the air temperatures stay in the 40's or a little better, and the snow does not pile up (it is back in there on a junkyard dirt road which is none too good to start with), he can get the lathe before next spring.

You had the right crew for moving machinery. There isn't much that three dedicated machinery collector's can't accomplish, and your two friends are used to doing a job with what is available. You moved the tools with classic methods - pry bars, jacks, come alongs, rollers --- the same tools that have been used since there was machinery. Every once in a while, the rigger I use for heavy moves and I have a chance for a cup of coffee, and he pulls out photos of some of his "interesting" jobs. These are never the ones where you drive a forklift through the door, they are the ones where a crew had to jack an XX ton machine up to the second floor, down a hallway, flip it upside down, etc. In his words, these are the "Good Jobs".

If you can still count to 10 when you are finished with your moves, you did OK - quite a few of the old time riggers can't count that high anymore....

Good Job - Buy yourselves a beer or two!

Just a few thoughts about your excellent expedition to the wilds of NY. Those White 6-cylinder halftrack engines are not in short supply. Check out "Military Vehicles" magazine. Several dealers have engines and parts. Hang on to your buddy. Cut him in on any good deals you run across, and help him with his projects when you can. He has already proven who and what he is, and he will be a valuable friend until his last day. And lastly, I was not thrilled by your somewhat callous characterization of the previous owner of your lathe. One who hoards "stuff" is motivated by a deep psychological trait that will not allow letting go of unnecessary items. The man who saved your lathe and the other mechanical marvels in his collection knew that someone in the future would be thankful to find it. He did it unselfishly, because he never cashed it all out. He left it for his heirs to profit from, and for people like you and your friend to use and enjoy. I would liken him to an unselfish representative of the future. Considering who the "celebrity" was, I think that he should have shot him the first time he saw him. Have a good time with your LeBlond. Regards, Clark

Clark:

I will have to share your post with my wife. She thinks I have a milder case of "hoarding disease", but she knows I put my hoarded stuff all to good use, some a lot later rather than sooner. I like your perspective.

The fellow who started that accumulation of old vehicles and machine tools was an interesting man. I never knew him personally. Buddies of mine did.
The story was that he abandoned an engineering education when he saw it was not for him, and abandoned a chance to learn the toolmaker's trade and work with his father. He split for our hills as a young man and started hauling in old cars and anything else that seemed likely. machine tools were a natural thing to accumulate given his upbringing.

I saw a lot of dismembered Model A Fords around the place and a few Model A engines stashed in buildings and old truck bodies. What the deceased's son told me was that his father did not like Model A Fords. He called them his "hot dog and bean cars". What he'd do was put together one or two Model A Fords per years from parts he'd accumulate. Those were sold, and the proceeds kept him in hot dogs and beans, which is what the man lived on mostly. His other "staple" was the 10" bell base South Bend lathes. This fellow would find them in auctions, school shop closeouts, surplus, or similar. He always had one or two South Bend 10" engine lathes fixed up to sell. There are South Bend 10" bell base lathes tucked into old vans and school busses on the property, wadded right in tight with all sorts of other stuff. There are South Bend parts in odd places. As we sort through stuff, I've been helping the deceased's son by identifying a lot of the machine shop and welding related items. There is absolutely no telling what will be unearthed next.

The story also was that if you had something to trade, you stood a chance of getting this man to part with something from the yard. Or, if he knew you and liked what you were working on, he'd help you out. He even helped us out with a bell for a steam locomotive we are restoring, complete with yoke, base & air ringer.

Another one of my buddies, hearing I'd gotten into this yard and the cabin/machine shop, asked if there was a bass fiddle and a couple of Gibson guitars still there. Turned out my buddy and the deceased, back some 40 odd years ago, would make the rounds of the bars playing country music for tips, or playing square dances. In our hills, between the generational thing and the facy we are close enough to NYC, this way of life is pretty well gone. Our kids caught just the tail end of it, hearing my buddy fiddle and call square dances that the whole community would attend.

It was a different era, and the men who knew and were tight with the fellow who had that junk yard are old now or gone. Had I not come "recommended" by two of them, I'd have not gotten in at all. Now the folks into "Green" and all else have junkyards in their crosshairs, which is a real pity.

As for the tale of the Duesenburg, it began in the early 1950's. The fellow who had the yard was down somewhere near Baltimore and spotted this Duesenburg sitting in some guy's yard in the weeds. He stopped, and discovered the Duesenburg was rough, with the body work cut off and a wrecker box mounted on it. This was from WWII, in order to get a priority on gas ration coupons. The owner of the Duesenburg was pursuaded to sell it, on the condition that the fellow who bought it never divulge where it came from. Apparently even in the 50's, there were Duesnburg collectors who knew every surviving Duesenburg and were after the guy to sell it to them. the fellow from our neck of the woods got the Duesenburg onto his trailer and got it up to his yard. He stashed it in a barn and forgot about it. In the 1980's, he was delivering a car somewhere in New England, and happened to mention he had a Duesenburg in his yard. The fellow he mentioned it to immediately knew it was the one which has "disappeared" from the Baltimore area and had been MIA for the past 30 years. Within two months of that conversation, the aforementioned celebrity was knocking on the junkyard owner's door, wanting to buy the Duesenburg.

I appreciate your telling me about the half track engines. It seems a shame to cut up an otherwise 'all there' REO Speedwagon stake rack truck to make a power unit. Other than the cab glass being smashed out (vandals), even the "teardrop" headlights with the glasses are intact on it.

Do a Google search for halftrack parts, and you'll see several dealers. Old halftracks will also show up in construction equipment junkyards - they were commonly used to mount power shovels after WWII, and house movers also used them. House movers are still out there, particularly where a big road project or a redevelopment happens. Ask excavating companies, or housemovers, and they might be able to point you in the right direction. Also, check with Memphis Equipment - at the end of WWII, they brought over at least one boatload of halftracks.

If you want an original halftrack radiator, though, plan on shelling out some heavy bucks - they are 4" thick, and the collectors are competing with the scrap dealers for them.

Otherwise, the halftrack engines are darn near eternal - everyone I know who has restored an old halftrack has had minimal problems with the engine and running gear - the biggest problem is that the tracks are failing. They were built with plain steel cable in the treads, and as the treads age and crack, water gets in and rusts the cables, and they break. There are still some new production Israeli tracks floating around that were made to current standards that sell for from about $ 1500 and up per set.

You might want to think about running the engine for your mill restoration on natural gas instead of gasoline, though. Your insurance company will be happier, you won't have fuel system problems like you would with ethanol gasoline, and oil life will increase.

Bob:

Funny you mention running on gas vs gasoline. The halftrack engine sat outside the mill on a concrete pad, in a small shed of its own. Hanford Mills is changing its focus to teaching about how old time technology (water power, wood fired steam) is actually "green energy". My thought was to run the halftrack engine (or similar old truck engine) off a wood gasifier. I found a site for do-it-yourself gasifiers, and it would be an interesting blend of technologies. The truth is we run the mill about 95% of the time off the waterwheel, and run off the steam plant maybe a few weekends as a special thing. The waterwheel is easy- the sawyer turns a handwheel to raise the flume gate and the wheel starts turning the sawmill. The steamplant takes three of us to run and we are passing signals through a window from the Sawyer as to when to start, stop, or idle the steam engine. The gasoline engine is more just an exhibit as anything, a kind of "fall back" power source if the pond is too low to run the waterwheel and it is a weekday and visitors want to see the mill sawing. I think that the halftrack engine was what was handy and priced right at the time. My guess is they did what Catskill sawmillers have done for ages- take the engine, bell housing and tranny as a unit, preferably with a portion of the vehicle frame to support the whole works + the radiator, and use it as a power unit. I'll start looking for halftrack engines, and even if we have to use a radiator from something else, I'm sure it will be fine.

Hi, Joe,

Congratulations on your lathe move.

Shifting a big Wysong shear had to be a serious bit of work, to be sure.

I''ve never run across a Regal with the metric transposing-gear, but it does seem only logical that the part should have been available. If you call the LeBlond parts people, they should be able to confirm that, and provide a copy of the metric data plate for the machine.

Getting the LeBlond down into your basement could be a 'good excuse' for having it apart and moving it in pieces. This would be the time to look for, and clean up, any rust which may have crept in between the various parts, looking for blocked or painted-over oil-holes, clogged oilways, etc. As you know, its all too likely for machines which have been in storage quite awhile to have oil holes blocked by 'gummed-up' oil, which will keep the fresh oil from reaching the working parts.

(Some old engines can be a really 'dramatic' illustration of this. Some years ago, I rebuilt an old Chrysler six which had been run on ultra-poor quality oil, then left in dead storage for many years. The oil in the oil galleries in the block and crank had literally turned to hard tar, and I......believe this or don't.....had to use long 'aircraft drills' to literally drill out the congealed tar in the oil galleries, followed by using a cleaning-rod and brass 22 brushes with my pet 'witch-brew' of methanol, acetone, and methyl ethyl ketone, to get the remaining tar out of the oilways......I suppose ordinary lacquer thinner would work as well, tho, the important detail being to use surely lint-free cloth for the patches for the last bit of cleaning. I adapted a 1/4" drill chuck to a file handle to turn the long drills, and honed a bit of radius to the drill tips, so as not to risk actually cutting into the iron of the block)

(yes, I know that solvent mix is reasonably certain to be 'non-osha' these days, so I only mentioned it for 'historical interest', alright?)

As to the White engine, Clark is right, there are quite a few 'parts' half-tracks saved by the military vehicle collectors, and some number of them 'under restoration'.

Whilst looking for parts for our M37 Dodge at military vehicle collectors meets, I'd seen literally 'piles' of crated new-old-stock parts for the White half-tracks and 'scout-cars', (the White scout car is basically the same as the half-track, but 'on rubber')

I don't know the interchange, but I'd strongly suspect that the White half-track would use basically the same engine as the civilian trucks, aside from using a military distributor and carbie. If you choose to replace the engine in your mill, its entirely possible that some military vehicle collector would really want your White engine, as, if it really was from a half-track or scout car of a certain year of production, its serial number could establish it as 'correct' for the sort of restoration work done by the real 'fanatics' in the field.

If I may offer a thought, whether your sawmill is going to be a working mill, or an historic display, the 'elegant' power source would be a small field cat, with the belt pulley attachment. I'd tend to suspect that a D2 would provide adequate hp/torque to replace a White gas engine, but that, of course, is just a rough guess. It shouldn't be all that difficult to find a good deal on a D2, or Intl. TD6, farm cat which was set up to work on belt. One of those in otherwise good running condition, but with such bad wear in the rails and sprockets as to make it undesirable for use except as a stationary power plant, should be found cheaply, with some asking amongst the old tractor collectors' groups.

Another thought occurs to me, and you're probably well ahead of me on this one, so I'll just mention it for others who may read this 'thread'. Something I've seen done when setting machines up in a basement, if the overhead clearance will allow, is to fit I-beams up against the floor joists, supported by heavy vertical timbers at the ends, and fit the I-beams with 'army type' light chain falls. This is an excellent convenience and safety precaution when handling heavy parts.

cheers

Carla

As one who had a fling at truck collecting like in KWs ,Petes ,Autocars etc. The White built halftrack used a version of White's 150A engine of about 386 CDI. There is a whole family of those engines only differing in B/S and CID,and were used to the late 50s inWhite trucks . Find a White truck form the 40s-50s series 18-20 or 22 and there will be your engine. The accessories peculiar to the halftrack usage will go right on the truck engine.

John:

You are on the same wavelength, as we are not looking for "historical WWII accuracy", just a flathead 6 truck engine & tranny to become a power unit for the sawmill. No one has any recollection of what the engine was actually like, even a farmer who used it to drive a silage blower. all anyone can remember was that it was a big flathead 6 that drank gasoline by the barrel.

As I mentioned, Hanford Mills has been in existence in one form or another, since the 1850's. In its final incarnation, into the 1970's, power was gotten from a Fitz water wheel and from the "halftrack engine". In 1890, a stationary steam plant was put in, and this was used along with the water wheel until about 1920. The steam plant was ripped out in about 1925 and a succession of secondhand gasoline engines was used along with the water wheel. The original steam plant had a side-crank steam engine and horizontal return tube boiler. We had a reproduction of the boiler built, and went so far as to duplicate the rivetted steel 60 foot smokestack. The engine was something we could not find, so we put in a center crank steam engine and run it to saw logs. With the "White half track engine", if we found anything close, like a 6 cylinder flathead truck engine or "Red Seal" Power Unit, it would serve our purposes.

Carla:

I can appreciate your story of stuck and gummed parts. This LeBlond lathe had very little of it. My own "witches brew" is simply "Marvel Mystery Oil", or Marvel Mystery Oil + gasoline + diesel fuel if I need a lot of it. The lubricator pump plunger stuck in the apron lubricator pump when I tried it. It stayed stuck for several months- I pushed it in, trying the pump a few months ago, and it was still stuck when we came to get the lathe this past Saturday. I drained the apron at home and poured in a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil and a little diesel fuel as it is what I had handy. I tapped on the pump plunger and it was not moving. I drilled a blind hole into the center of the plunger rod's top and went to tap a 1/4-20 hole, figuring I'd try pulling up. About the time I touched it with the tap, the plunger came springing back up on its own. I tried it and it works smoothly and freely.
I flushed the apron with the diesel fuel and Marvel Mystery Oil, and the plunger pump is delivering oil where it should.

The headstock seems filled with a light oil that looks OK in the filler elbow. I'll drain the headstock in the next few days and fill it with the same witches brew and roll it at low speed (lubing the spindle bearings with DTE Oil, however). I'll then let it sit and work for a few days, drain, and repeat the flush before filling with the DTE Heavy Medium oil (ISO 68, I think).

I've got some rough-sawn full dimension 6 x 6's on hand, and I've got a light I beam for making a hoist "gallows". The I beam is good for a very conservative rating of 1.5 tons at midspan. I've used the trick you describe, making a hoist gallows and steadying it off the overhead joists while the actual downward loads are taken by the timber columns. Having a local sawmill within 1/2 mile of my house is handy. I do engineering jobs for the sawmill owners, evaluating rough-sawn timber trusses and prefab buildings and reviewing/stamping their plans. I am a great believer in using rough cut timber framing for some things, and having a working relationship with a sawmill is really handy. Another trick I like is to make the gallows frame out of timber columns, I beam for hanging a fall, and using wire rope guys with turnbuckles. On a concrete floor slab, putting some expansion shields into the concrete and bolting down "lug plates" (aka "pad eyes") works well. Afterwards, a little grout or "waterplug" where the anchors were, and life goes on.

Joe I had the chance to talk to my co-worker today (most of us managed to make our way into work today)
and he declined after I described the remaining heavy ten to him. He's basically holding out for a flame
hard bed machine, dual tumbler. He never wants to pay retail however...!

So at the moment he's standing pat with his 9" atlas, which is well tooled - plus he has instant access to the
HLVH at work.

Hope things are in good shape your way. Right now our workplace is sort of standing still, as the main
feeder lines that come up the road are in very rough shape. Snapped poles, the residential 3 phase distribution
lines are all over the roadway, and the two feeders have literally dozens of large trees hanging on them.
But the building is up and running.

Let me know if you need muscle helping with that lathe, when you get to it.

If you will only use the halftrack engine occasionally, then gasoline won't be worth the headaches. The "modern" ethanol gas starts deteriorating immediately - unless you can get some un-ethanol gas, and dose it with Sea-Foam, plan on headaches. I think natural gas -or even propane if your usage is minimal - is the only viable answer, UNLESS you want to install a small WWII-vintage diesel. Diesel fuel will store a lot better than gasoline. About the most common WWII diesel is the good old Detroit 6-71. Food for thought-

Interesting story. Any chance we can know who the celebrety was? Could be Jay Leno, but he would be nicer I imagine.
Any pictures of the lathe?

Panza:

Thanks for your interest. I'm afraid to let out who the celebrity was as this sort of thing can lead to trouble. Lets just say he is a big and well known name. I have some pictures of the lathe on the trailer and will take a few more of the lathe as she now sits in our garage. All I then have to do is re-learn how to post the pictures.

The celebrity who got the Duesenburg was in communication with the owner of the yard when there was a car he wanted. The owner of the yard asked the celebrity to please let him know how the restoration of the Duesenburg came out. No word came, so the owner of the yard contacted the celebrity's agent ( or attorneys or business manager ) and asked politely to find out what ever happened to his father's Duesenburg. No reply of any sort.

One thing some of us have learned along the way is that come celebrities who seem really nice or like good people when they are in the public's eye are actually something less when you meet them in an every day situation. Up in our hills, we have various celebrities as well as wealthy "city people" who buy "country retreats", so we run into them from time to time. Some of them are OK and reasonable, but a lot more are arrogant, overbearing, and expecting to have their way and act like we are all a bunch of dumb country people or old hippies. Of course, we oblige them and keep on with our lives.

I understand your concerns. I have never talked to any celebrity, but I am sure you are right in your assessment that some are nice and some are not. Just like us regular people.
Kind of unthankful of the said celebrity not to call the yard-owner and let him know how it was going with the car. After all, the owner could just as well have figured his father has something against the guy for a good reasons and sold the Dusenberg to someone else, to honor his dad.
Looking forward to the pictures! And the move to the basement too, that sound like something that could go awfully wrong for someone else, not used to rigging.

For those of you looking forward to pictures. Here's a few of the photos of the lathe Joe sent to me, I will let him describe the rest in more detail.

Joe Michaels said:

My thought was to run the halftrack engine (or similar old truck engine) off a wood gasifier. I found a site for do-it-yourself gasifiers, and it would be an interesting blend of technologies.

Click to expand...

Joe,

Something to ponder.....

During WW2 gasolene was severely rationed here for civilian use. A lot of vehicles like commercial travellers' cars and light commercial goods delivery vehicles were fitted with charcoal fuelled gas producers. These had a fairly evil reputation, because there was a severe loss of power when running on producer gas compared with gasolene, and cylinder wear was often severe because of fine charcoal dust getting past the filters and into the cylinders.

Some time ago I was going through some old documents at a sugar mill I once worked for. I came across a report of a test of a charcoal gas producer which the Government about 1941 had directed the mill fo fit to one of the gasolene engined locomotives to save gasolene for defence purposes. In summary, the result of the test was that the loco would pull only half the load, and at half the maximum speed which it achieved when operating on gasolene. From the point of view of the mill operation this was unworkable, so the idea of fitting gas producers to all the gasolene powered locos was dropped and an allocation of gasolene provided to the mill so it could keep operating with the existing loco fleet.

I know that plenty of large industrial engines worked quite satisfactorily on producer gas, but it apparently did not work so well in automotive type engines.

franco