Thread: Mike P. got me thinking...

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After running across this link and reading it a half dozen times it got me thinking.
My 1930's Farm Shop

So I have a 1.5 h.p. @500 rpm Fairbanks Morse engine in deep storage. It is in running condition and with a new battery I'm sure it would fire right off. I have an really cute old school compressor pump that Im thinking about seeing if it will turn it or not? The compressor is a very small 4 cylinder pump and I think the engine should handle it no problem. Just wondering what else I could run off this engine that I would actually use?

Oh and this engine is not a hit and miss... Wish it were. Oh well

Does your Fairbanks Morse look something like this? This ones a 47 2 hp.

fairbanks_strumpshaw_2005.jpg

Actually it looks alot more like this one. This is one I found on line but I beleive it looks like this. Mine has a wide 7 or 8" wide flat belt pully on the left hand rear drive wheel. It probably bolts on where the 3 holes are close to the spokes in the pictured one. Can a regular engine be converted into a hit and miss, or visa versa? Next time im out at the folks I will take some pics.

MT, I did a quick search over at Antique Engines Antique Tractors Steam Engines and Old Iron ( A great site when you start on the engine) and came up with this.

Converting a Fairbanks 2 HP from TG to Hit n Miss - SmokStak


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Then you may be in luck as a lot of those earlier "Z"'s were hit and miss.

After, you'll need to find something to "drive" with all that power!!

Im not even sure if its is worth the effort to convert? Like Mike's Dad I just like to hear them run. They have such a unique sound, a sound that most youth of today have never heard. Guessing I can actually use about a horsepower for the compressor leaving me with a .5 H.P. to play around with. Any idea what a typical use would be for a small motor like this? May a water pump, or some type of farm equipment?

There are all kinds of tools that can be driven from a master shaft that gets powered from your engine, but the challenge will be finding them. There's a complete woodworking shop operating from a master shaft in Silver Dollar City near Branson, MO that originally was powered by a water wheel with speed stepped up by a pulley system. They have a big planer, jointer, shaper table, drill presses, router table, table saw and probably more. Neat to watch them building furniture.

".....Any idea what a typical use would be for a small motor like this?....."


I asked my dad that very question about 50 years ago when he brought home the Waterloo Boy I have. His answer was anything that you could drive a motor with. When he had been a kid on the farm the primary use for the engine they had back then was to pump water from the well. It was also used on a small "two hole" corn sheller a small feed grinder and occasionally belted to the grinder or drill. Compressors were popular items too with the advent of more and bigger pneumatic tires........those old hand pumps got old real quick.

Here are a couple of videos showing some of the equipment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVgetQJfHoc#t=11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6-V9dH7RAs

Of course one of the more popular modern uses is to run ice cream makers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kuW41UVKUk

And my favorite is peeling apples


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7--pAqrcMU


OK that might have been a little overkill

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I hadn't seen the apple machine before.. that was GREAT! The ice cream machines have been all the rage over the past couple years, seems every show has at least one and if you time your visit right.. you might get a sample for free!

You could build something like this as a use for your old engine
might not go fast but would be fun to ride around