Jeff Walkowiak
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2004
- Messages
- 1,944
years ago I wanted to learn about outboard engines before jet skis were invented . I met an old german engineer who owned a outboard repair shop, he allowed me to work with him on engines and the deal was he would pay dearly for my assistance, not in money but in stupid questions, that he HAD to answer .I spent a lot of time there and learned a lot about 2stroke engines mostly omc he did not like mercury said they were all backward and even ran backward, he was quite a stubbon old german, hated the Russians because they shot him in the legs in ww2. I was always asking him questions and then I wanted the why ,so I could not only understand what needed to be done but why it was necessary, I think or at least hope he did not mind my need for the answers and he always seemed to enjoy our in depth conversations.One thing he insisted was that every piece that could be resurfaced must be resurfaced, he insisted aluminum warped ever so slightly when bolted down and that was a bad thing, the method to resurface was simple, an 80grit heavy duty piece of sanding belt about 8 in wide on a heavy piece of glass, then press on the part and move it back and forth till it showed no dark spot on the surfaced side.This usually took a lot of time and hard work as your arm would get tired and we are in florida so it got really hot while you stood over this darn piece of glass resurfacing heads etc. Now at first it was no big deal but after a while my brain told me there had to be a better way to do this or at least an easier way. so I started with the dumb questions, why a piece of glass etc, he said it would take off only the amount of metal nacessary and plaining them on a machine was bad because it shaved the heads and increased the compression and 2 stroke engines need lead but lead was out of the fuel by this time and higher compression would require high test gas, and he did not like the idea of this so it was his way of doing it. I thought if I built a table on a set of rails and had the table move back and forth with a stationary piece that came down and held the head it would do the job for me , I went to my shop and actually built this contraption and brought it to him to see if it would work. HE called me the tinkerer, guess thats german for what my mother used to call me RUBE GOLDBERG all you old timers know him every one else called me mcgeiver how ever its spelled. well the darn thing worked but it shook the big heavy work bench so bad things started falling on the floor so I shut it off in defeat, well semi defeat. i went back and in the true sense of the rube goldberg mentality took some ordinary items and made a different design. first i used a heavy piece of channel iron for a base, i welded a spindle on one end and found a 15in wheel and a hub with berrings, put it all on the spindle it was from an old rambler THATS a car for you young guys,, but a trailer spindle would work, at the other end I mounted a 1/2 hp motor on a plate that was hinged to move the motor toward or away from the wheel the motor is now mounted so a small pulley mounted on the motor is in a horizontal position with the wheel, now i connect a belt from the motor to the wheel and use the wheel or STEEL RIM actually as a big pully, that gives me quite a good gear down for the motor to turn the wheel and the wheel will not be too fast.now i weld a square just big enough to allow access to the lug nuts that hold the rim to the hub for future maintenance if needed. I cut out 2 twenty four inch discs out of 1/2 in plywood and attach a piece of 2/4 on one side to lock in to the square in the middle of the rim. i get 2 pieces of glass cut to fit on the plywood and sand blast the glass on both sides. I use heavy construction adhesive to glue the glass to the flat side of the discs. i use contact cement to glue 80 grit to one piece of glass and 120 to the other, I then enclose the workings in what looked like a small coffin and I put an adjuster on the motor for tension on the belt. i now had a resurfaceing machine with interchangeable discs of different grit to do an even better job than rudy's darn piece of glass."rudy was the german ". and the thing worked so good everyone in the area came over to use it and its still there and still in use today, took about 2 min to do a head and the edge would cut you it was so perfect. I have a smaller version in my shop and use it constantly and all my friends come over to do surfacing on it. i just drilled some holes in the lip of the rim and put screws in to the wood from underneath, it can still be removed for service but it isn't set up for interchangeable discs. so if you do a lot of engine work and have a welder a old spindle hub and wheel and an old motor you can make one pretty easily. and it works so good use big 6 in wide sanding belts and cut them, glue them in strips side by side to cover the surface,one belt will do the whole thing.if you don't do engine work why on earth did you bother to read this whole thing? LOL