Lawnmower engine

[GeorgeB]

I used electrolysis to remove the rust from both the lawnmower exhaust and engine/magento cover plate.

The images below are (1) exhaust before (2) exhaust after and (3) cover plate.

The exhaust looks like it still has rust in the image but it looks 99% clear in real life and I'm ready to repaint both parts.

 

[TheJoker]

WOW! What a difference. Can you explain more what exactly you've done to clean it up that nicely? You put it in an electrolyte bath and...?

 

[amron]

could you be a little more specific and let us know more about the cleaning process? it's very nice.

 

[GeorgeB]

TheJoker, Amron B et al

Yes, there's a little bit more to it, than simply dipping it in an electrolysis bath, to be honest so here goes:

With items like those, I find I can rub away all day with a wire brush or anything, and I'll never get rid of anywhere near all the rust. If they go through an electrolysis process for several hours, being rotated as necessary, at about 1 amp in my case, eventually all the red rust is converted to a different form of iron oxide, which is black. You can see some bright steel and plenty of black oxide when you remove the items from the bath.

If I then use a wire brush, sandpaper, wire wool and/or whatever for a few minutes, then the black oxide will come away after a short while. It does require a bit of effort at this stage but it WILL come back to bright steel, whereas before electrolysis, it would not. Put it back in the bath as many times as needed, if required. Overall it never takes more than a day or two but if you want results in five minutes, forget it!

 

[Wedg1e]

I also bought a Teddy Grabber for 99p. The cabinet's six feet high and four feet wide as it's a double grab version so it's parked in the garden with a tarp over it. It sort of works, it powers up anyway, and the previous owner thinks there may be a fault on the end of line switches but he's not into electronics. Something else to play with when the grandkids are with me on a weekend.

The previous owner said he'd had interest from Kent and London but it was too far for them to travel and both punters asked if he'd strip off the circuit boards and mechanical bits but he didn't want to get involved with that. Even if I can't get it working I could re-advertise it stating that I'll strip it and post the parts and I could get 10x my purchase price on it (these things are a couple of thousand pounds new).

Regards
Peter

My boss used to work in the amusement arcade business (as a techie keeping the old ladies in working slot machines) and he was telling me that they used to rig the 'teddy grabs' so there was no way on this earth you'd ever get anything out of them.
Firstly they'd ram the bears in so tightly that you'd need a crowbar to get them free and then for good measure they'd weaken the tension springs so the grabs had insufficient grip to keep hold of the bears.
I should add that he was told by 'the boss' to do it, and that same 'boss' is now multi-millionaire head of a well-known building company in northern England... while my boss only has a house in the country, villa in Spain, motor yacht, Porsche, Mini Cooper, Audi TT and daughter at private school to show for his shenanigans.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

My boss used to work in the amusement arcade business

me too, as a young lad on Cleethorpes sea-front, so I'm aware of the tricks.

the newer machines, like the one that I got, are quite sophistocated with their electronics. There's a number of dip swicthes that can set things like the number of plays before the solenoid starts to grip the jaws tight enough to pull a teddy out of the pile and carry it to pay-chute. So it may be set for 25 plays (could be more, or less), and then the next half-dozen people can't line it up on a prize...30 plays at 20p = £6 and the prize costs £1.

There's an opto-switch on the pay-chute to reset the counter to zero when a prize is won. So if your mate has just won on a machine you need to leave it alone until it's had at least 20 more plays.

Regards
Peter

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

I took a photo of the exhaust after it'd been in the first bath for about 20 minutes (forgot to do it before I started)...

Then I took the second photo yesterday after it'd been in for another 36 hours (so around 52 hours total)...

It's a lot better and TBH it's finished as far as I'm concerned. I've painted it with Kurust and it'll probably have a coat of paint sometime later. It's a lot better than it was and it's allowed me to try the technique for later when I may need to use it on something special.

Regards
Peter

 

[Stuggi]

What kind of bath and polarity do you use for that treatment?

 

[Coo]

would you not be better using some Bilt Hamber deox rust remover: (linky)

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

it's been detailed in other threads on here, and one of them has a number of links to other sites, but basically it's a 12v car battery charger with the negative connected to the workpiece and the positive connected to an 'anode' that is said to get corroded away (although I can't see any signs of that on the ones I used).

I put some water in a bowl, too much water as it turned out, then melted dishwasher tablets and washing soda in boiling water and added it to the water. If I was doing it again I'd not have water in the bowl, just melt the materials in 1/2 pint (250 ml?) jugs of water and add them to the bath.

If you set up an ammeter in series with one of the leads then you can see the current rise as you add the cleaning fluid, I got mine to about four amps, although one of the threads suggest it needs to be up to ten amps to work well.

Regards
Peter

 

[rtcosic]

it's been detailed in other threads on here, and one of them has a number of links to other sites

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=12686&page=2

 

[pre67]

love these engine iv played with loads of them

hears some pics of the larst one i did

then i put it on this

not got round to finshing it yet but its all there had it runing on methanal with 2no it sounds the tits


loz

 

[pre67]

the carb thats in the pics is just a cheep mini moto carb that dident run every well iv now got a delorto carb on it that u can see in the pic of the engine on the bike

 

[Abbadon]

the carb thats in the pics is just a cheep mini moto carb that dident run every well iv now got a delorto carb on it that u can see in the pic of the engine on the bike

Whats the carb if you dont mind - would like to pep up our 75CC mower engine as the old carb i feel is a bit restrictive! If you can recommend something thats easily available that would be cool

 

[Shox Dr]

Abbadon, the last time pre67, visited this site was nearly 18months ago, so you might be waiting a while for a reply

 

[Highway_Star]

I've a scanned PDF file of the Suffolk Colt manual if anyone needs it.

When I was maybe 10 or 12, my dad and I rebuilt one that had been my grandads, had lain siezed under a greenhouse bench for years. It cut the lawns faithfully for the next 20 odd years, then one day refused to start. My dad was terminally ill at the time, I was never at home so it got largely forgotten about.

Anyhoo, last summer I dragged it back to my place, re ground the valves, fitted new points, plug and condensor, and cleaned the carb out.

Started first time and I now have a lovely stripey lawn!

 

[ukracer]

I just removed the spark plug and red cover in order to take a look. What a rickety arrangement. It looks like mine was 'serviced' by a previous owner but the fundamentals are probably unchanged. For a start, that large aluminium plate acts as the main 'spring' or tensioner when pushed up against the red cover. The mechanism might go back and forth by quirky design but all the throttle movement ends up doing, is moving that small brass lever, near where the fuel comes in. Here's my latest photo.

I know this is a resurected thread but I now have a Suffolk punch to cut the grass round our 5th wheel as the much mower makes such a mess.

Anyway I stripped it down to see the points and now I have a spark at the HT lead but not it seems at the plug. The plug is brand new so it might explain why the guy got rid of it thinking the spark generation was buggared.

Anyway that photo shows a spring with tension on the blown flap. Pulling it towards the carb... Mine does not have that spring with any tension. I take it yours works fine?

 

[ukracer]

I've a scanned PDF file of the Suffolk Colt manual if anyone needs it.

When I was maybe 10 or 12, my dad and I rebuilt one that had been my grandads, had lain siezed under a greenhouse bench for years. It cut the lawns faithfully for the next 20 odd years, then one day refused to start. My dad was terminally ill at the time, I was never at home so it got largely forgotten about.

Anyhoo, last summer I dragged it back to my place, re ground the valves, fitted new points, plug and condensor, and cleaned the carb out.

Started first time and I now have a lovely stripey lawn!

It would be nice if anyone has a manual for the Suffolk punch??

 

[ukracer]

Abbadon, the last time pre67, visited this site was nearly 18months ago, so you might be waiting a while for a reply

I might have the same problem....

 

[ukracer]

I'm certain you are right bill_gj, The flywheel fins create the air flow when the pull start cover is refitted. The aluminium plate is the governor, controled by the air flow, as you say.

Should it have pressure on the spring?