Just got this done and it was so pretty I took a couple pictures of it.
Knob with correct small pattern knurl. New Silicon Bronze rod should outlast the rest of the car.
New needle and seat, new adjustment rod and knob with correct knurl, new throttle shaft, etc.
Here's another one I just finished and shipped. It's not a T carb, this one is going on a 1905 Mitchell to replace a Carter BB-1 somebody stuck on it. The original carb is unknown.
Lookin good Uncle Stan.
Jim Weir
Not asking to give away a trade secret if that's the case, but what do you do that makes the brass bodies shine up like that?
I second the question asked by Seth. Most people just wire brush the cast brass and it doesn't shine like that. Another question, do you coat it with anything to protect the shine? But, if it is a trade secret, I'll understand ;>)
Stan,The quality of the work shown tell's me you should start training a apprentice!! Good on ya! Bud.
Stan - That's a piece of art!
I second all the foregoing - especially Bud Delong's thought!
Thanks, they are pretty aren't they?
First is to use the finest possible bead to clean them with, I never change the media in my blast cabinet. Then use a very fine wire stainless steel brush. I use Anderson brushes with .006 wire turning on a 3450 motor. The brushes are about $50 each and last about 1/4 as long as the standard carbon steel brushes.
The parts that are very smooth and shiny I use a buffing wheel on. I buffed the bowl and a lot of the other parts on the Stromberg since it's going on a show car. It's hard to get all the knicks and scratches out of them. Knobs, etc., I polish in my Unimat lathe with 1200 grit paper, then buff a little. I spent an entire day polishing the Stromberg, less than half an hour on the two-screw.
The knob on the two screw isn't polished at all. That's the finish from the lathe cut and knurling tool.
I don't put anything on the finished carbs to protect the brass. Nothing I have found will stay on when the gas hits it. I have coated a few for a guy in North Carolina who just collects pretty carburetors. He has about a dozen from me, I think I spray coated two or three of them. They are just on display. I don't know how the coating is holding up.
Bud, I'd like to have an apprentice but most hot looking 18 year old girls aren't much interested in antique carburetors.
Thought I ended up on a porn site by mistake after reading that topic.....
Vince
I've tried to use those carburetors before, and haven't had good luck. My feeling is the float valve seeps, allowing the bowl to flood. Do you reface the needle valve to prevent this from happening?
Nice carb for a '13
But you clicked the link anyway, didn't you Vince? LOL
The two-screw designation reminds me a of an experience at Iola last year. I spotted a very unrestored Holley G on a table.
The price on the tag was $235. When I asked the guy why it was so much he explained, "That's a three-screw carburetor!" I walked on down the hill and bought one from another guy for ten bucks.
When you reach a certain age everything reminds you of something else.
Larry, I machine the body to use the new Holley NH needle and seat with the original style steel tip. I've also used the needle and seat from a Kingston L-2 but it sticks up a little from the casting. I like the NH setup better even though it takes more machining to get it to fit.
I have never been able to resurface a needle to where it didn't leak. I've read a lot of posts where somebody does it in an electric drill with a horse tooth float rasp and it works fine. I have four lathes including a little watch maker type of Unimat and I can't reshape one so it doesn't leak.
These early carbs didn't have a replaceable seat so you have to reshape the tip, then put the needle back in the boss and hit it with a lbfh which supposedly shapes the seal lip and stops it from leaking. Maybe so but I've never been able to make that work. Also, I like to send them out with a seat that is easily replaceable down the road. Realistically, any carb I do should last for years without further work on the needle and seat. When it does some day need work I probably will be permanently camped out under four feet of eastern Montana dirt and won't be there to tell them what the part was I used. (This two screw had a bastardized Tecumseh lawn mower needle using the original seat. Leaked like a sieve) So I try to use something that will be available down the road and I mark the inside of the carb with what it is. For example, this one is marked Holley NH inside. You could pull the bowl and the float, change the needle and seat and have it back together in five minutes instead of trying to figure out what it is and where to get another one. I just think that's better protocol than using some off breed thing that might work now but has to have another in-the-shop rebuild somewhere down the line.
This carb also had a throttle shaft that had been soldered up with soft solder and worked down with a file to go back in the hole, an adjustment rod that was so worn that if you tightened the clamp nut to keep it snug you couldn't open it up more than about 1/2 turn before it bound up. I made a new rod from Silicon Bronze -- the entire rod, not just the threaded section -- with the correct 1/4 x 32 threads and the correct taper on the tip. Also the correct steps on the rod. All one piece so it won't come apart. The knob is new with the correct fine knurl used on these carbs and a brass pin holding the knob to the shaft. The throttle shaft is also Silicon bronze now running in a oilite bronze bushing. It should last another 100 years with maybe a new needle and seat somewhere along the way. I'm assuming that NH needles and seats will be available as long as there are Model T's and somebody to fix them.
This carb has been around for 100+ years, I like to think it will be around and working for another 100. When I was apprenticing as a violin maker some 45 years ago the gentleman I worked for used to take the top off a fiddle and look at the work someone had done a hundred or two years before. "Pretty foxy," he'd say if it was good, "Just pretty foxy." That's how I tried to work on fiddles although I was never as good at some things as he was. That's how I try to do carbs these days. I don't want somebody to take one of mine apart and not be able to say something nice about it.
Off to the shop. I have a pile of carbs waiting and here I am sitting in front of the puter philosophizing about craftsmanship, carburetors and the lack of young apprentices.
Stan,
Very nice. The carbs you did for me are getting a little "tarnished". When will you be over to polish them again?
Great work,
Rob
What are you having for Thanksgiving dinner?? By the way, your 1909 Buffalo carb is coming up in the line. Interesting carb.
Nice work Stan!
Your philosophizing kinda reminds me of Herman and Freida.
You can come here for Thanksgiving dinner...we're having smoke roasted prime rib.
Takes most of the day to cook it but it's yummy.
I can't compete with Rob in the eye candy department there's some stuff to look at.
Nice looking Holley! WOW! This carburetor is too nice to install on a car. Stan restored my OF Stromberg carburetor and it is beautiful and I was holding off installing because it look so great.
My son and I rebuilt a NH carburetor with a modern needle tip and it run ok but always needs lots of adjustment when driving around the house . I always felt the NH was not ready for prime time and put my OF Stromberg carburetor and it runs great and looks great. I’m sure the Holley owner will be happy with the new carburetor.
Art
Bob,
Wow, that's quite a collection.
Stan,
There's always an extra place at the table....
Rob
The title did remind me of a cheerleader in high school.
Once again Stan your work is beautiful the carb you did for me is running great. I only wish I had one tenth your talent.
Thanks, I'm not sure it's talent as much as a desperate desire to eat every day. I figured out a few years ago I was going to have to work till the day I die and this looks like it even though I keep waiting for Hollywood or Nashville to call.
Thanks for the Thanksgiving invites, I was just kidding but you never know. I get pretty hungry sometimes.
Stan you can always have Thanksgiving dinner with me. I may be sitting on some knob in eastern Montana in a 35mph wind and it's -10 but the frozen turkey sandwich will be ok and the company is great.
Thanks Rob...I sure like your Model K.
That's one beautiful car.
And even better because you DRIVE it!
Stan,I just now got out of a semi haulling corn.For the good of the hobby you need to teach carb's to someone! The prospect of a future where some snot nose say's nope but we can put one on off a garden tractor is not good!! Bud.
Bob's last comment reminds me of a little exchange at Hershey last Wednesday. I was looking at Rob's K and there was another fellow standing there also checking it out. I pointed out that it still had Nebraska dust on the wheels because it was driven. That's what they're for.
Stan - Did you make the knurling dies or buy them from some place? I've searched all over for that pattern. It's the same as used on the steering gear case cover that often needs repair before plating. I just about talked myself into getting an indexer just to make the dies.
By the way, nice job on the "sparkle"!
They came on a cheap Chinese multi head knurling tool I bought last year. I have several with the bigger pattern but this was the only fine pattern I've been able to find.
I'v had this laying around for ages and wonder if it is worth keeping another decade or two.
Stan,
How can you see to assemble your carbs? The reflection off the parts must be blinding! :-) Beautiful job. We really enjoyed the visit with you on our trip. Hope to do it again.
PS: I got email working again.
Hal, that's a 1919/1920 Holley G. The earlier G had a bronze body. I haven't used one, but I think they have a pretty good rep.
Stan... Nice Job. I've rebuilt the Holley 2-screw on my 13 Touring, also with fantastic success. To solve the needle/seat issue, I resolved to "lap" a new seat since I don't like the idea of hitting the needle with a hammer. I soft bonded a long, thin piece of rod to the butt end of the needle and used 25 micron grinding abrasive to lap with. I worked the needle back and forth for a few minutes adding abrasive as needed until I got a nice ring around the needle. You don't want to grind so much that you cut a groove... you just want to seat the two surfaces. It worked very well and the carburetor never drips.
I also dealt with the dilema of a badly cracked bowl. I repaired mine by cutting away the cracked metal and manufacturing a brass cylinder to replace the damaged wall of the bowl. I am attaching the link from a previous thread for anyone who wants to duplicate what I did.
http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/257047/270074.html?1330340814
I have since polished the carb and put it on my car. It works great and provides plenty of power and idles easy. To comment on Larry's issue; I found that the biggest problem with the 2 screw is they occasionally don't like to start when they are warm. I found this was easily remedied by leaving the ignition OFF; opening the throttle to full open; cranking the engine over a few times to suck in fresh air; and trying to re-start the engine under normal procedures, WITHOUT choking. It usually starts right up.
Thanks anyway Stan. After blowing the picture up larger, based on your comment, I see that it's just a stock knurling pattern. The gear case cap is a reverse pattern--The rhombus shapes are recessed instead of raised. I'll keep looking.