Why are you here?

[injin man]

Lemme see.....my goal has always been to be as self sufficient as possible.

Several years back a friend who's also a member here and myself began the
quest to 'discover' what was around us that we could scrounge in the event of
a national disaster/meltdown. Ironically the Truck and Automobile were the
first to pop up on the screen, they are very self contained and have many useful
parts and fluids for fuel. This place is an excellent repository for many of the
questions persons like us need answered in clear concise laymans language.

And I just like the folks hanging around here.

BTW..Gary in the post above is great guy to buy a lister kit engine from
Ordered it on Monday had it on Friday. And yes my next project is a 6/1.

[TimSR2]

Wiebe ;

I used to be  Brunswick pinsetter mechanic!   Wow.  What a great machine. 

[Tom Reed]

Yup on the off-grid and yup on the experimenting. Bought my roid in '05 before LEF even existed. Been wrenching since about 5, well ok my dad swears that me and the neighbor kid disassembled an engine and trans with sledge hammers to see what was inside but I don't remember that so it wasn't all wrenching. I'm kind of a pithy writer, I guess that it comes from writing so much computer code.

[deeiche]

rm /

[Tom Reed]

My first book purchase was a B&S and Tecumseh manuals at about 7. Must have read those books a dozen times and learned more each time. In fact it still works for me that way even today. Read a bit about programming and pick up the tools and build something.

[sailawayrb]

Because I have an obsessive thirst for knowledge and truth in all things...

Bob B.

[AdeV]

Originally, I came here because the Lister forum was down, and damn I needed my fix of Lister goodness... then I kind of stayed because a) I didn't want to do the whole Lister forum withdrawl thing, and b) anyway I quite liked it here, despite the proliferation of those damned chagnaafffoirds.

I do, eventually, plan to live off-grid, in a slightly sunnier country. It's all pipe dreams and toys at the moment, as has been graciously pointed out to me  , but eventually the motors will be earning their keep.

[Chris]

I am not sure how I got here. For the past two years or more I some how stumbled onto the LEF site, could never get registard and then found this site. Been here ever since.

Been messing around with engines as long as I can remember. My Dad was quite handy fixing things and he bought and developed an island of the Abaco (Bahamas) coast in the late 1950's.This was a vacantion home that we visited about three times a year. I was about 7 or 8 years old. We had a couple Windchargers (12volt)to try and keep a battery bank charged up along with a gas powered, I think Onan 12 volt out put charger. Propane and kerozene refridgerators, Seagull outboards, B&S inboard aircooled engines in old sailing dingeys.
The windchargers were pretty basic with  exposed slip rings and copper "Brushes" to allow the thing to swing in the breeze. The regulator was the old contact type like cars had before alternators became common.
The whole setup was not at all suitable for our climate here with so much salt air. The windchargers either did not work do to corroded contacts or the regulator crapped out do to corrossion. The batteries were either sufided up or close to exploding due to over charging. I can remember having to climb to tower with sand paper to clean the slip rings or change brushes inside the windcharger. My older brother, by three years, was chicken to go up there, affraid of heights.
In about 1961 or 1962 he bought the first Lister VA and about a year later he bought a second and these where alternated in use up til about 1986.

My dad died in 1966 and I did most of the repairs and maintenance on these generators, when I could.
We had outboards lawnmower etc and I was the guy to try and keep them going.

More later.

[rl71459]

I started out @ LEF feeding my "alternate fuel" interests. I went into serious withdrawl's when it became increasingly unreliable. Fortunetly for me the good folk's here saved me from certain doom    by starting this place.  

As far as what makes me tick... It's simple... I enjoy all (Almost All) things mechanical, Even moreso if it has an engine. I still would like to have a "Slow Speed" engine but have not found a way to make time/space to do so. Would love it to be a "Real Lister", Time will tell.

So as long as everyone here is not to bothered by me hangin out, I'd like to stick around a bit longer.

Rob

[DRDEATH]

Im here because I have been thrown out of all of the local bars  (Taverns) in Ade's world. I just love going back in time before everything became so complicated. When I get to the stone wheel I will probably be smart enough to get by. DD

[mobile_bob]

having read some of the responses it got me to thinking about what got me started on this wrenching thing

my earliest memory of a tool was my kid tool kit at age 3 and a half, it had a translucent blue handled screw driver
that i think i took with me everywhere

interest in electricity started at age two with a bobbie pin and a wall receptacle, result ?, blinding flash, burnt fingers
and the indelible imagine that is still burned into my brain 53 years later, like it happen yesterday.

smokie yunick articles in popular mechanics at age 7, when i could start to read them each month

1930's motors manual soon thereafter

at age 8 or 9, cleaning fuller countershaft brgs with gasoline in a gallon coffee can out in the driveway so we could make skate coaster
care wheels out of them,   boy that was safe huh,, good thing we didn't start smoking for a few years.

gokart engine's from age 10, learned how to make them run when they quit, soon learned how to remove the airvane governor so it goes faster
and how to remove unnecessary things like ignition kill switches, throttle cables, and brakes.

complete basket case to road worthy cushman scooter at age 12,  learned all about taper roller mains, big end inserts, hand knurling worn piston, reworking piston rings with an oil stone, making gskts,  magneto ignitions, carburators, clutch and transmission (it had a real clutch
and a two speed trans)

valve job on '57 buick at age 13, given to me to take apart and learn something from, dad never expected me to put it back together again.
mowed lawns to buy the gskt set.

job tearing down engines at a junkyard for 2 buck each, by hand, separating the cast, from steel and aluminum at age 14
did that all one summer, from sun up till sundown 6 days a week.  i learned  a lot that summer, learned alot about engine
design, what worked and what clearly did not as evidenced by rods out the side of the block, cylinder wear, brg shells
etc... you learn a lot when you have to take em apart by hand, on the ground, using a 6ft bar to roll them from side to side
and over again with.

then my first 55chevy at age 15,,  the only car i really miss, 265 power pack, with 3 speed overdrive and 4.11 rear gears

it was down hill after that!

by age 18 i had owned 17 cars and pickups, swapped, bought sold traded.

come to think of it, maybe i inhaled too many leaded gasoline fumes as a child?

bob g

[ryanw95]

first it was meeting a guy that made biodiesel, then him showing me his lister/petter trailered generator. Then me buying his "other" diesel generator, utterpower.com, MB 300D's,  then buying a few more diesel generators, then an R180, putting it on a mid-70's Roper garden tractor, then what I think is a R170, etc., etc., came close to buying a CS 6/1 (I think) once.

Still good friends with that biodiesel guy. Still playing with diesel stuff when I have the time. Still driving a late 70's MB 300D.

[BioHazard]

I started on Briggs and Stratton motors too, now I collect them. I always had a souped up lawnmower when I was a kid. In fact my very first word was "lawnmower". In high school I got a B&S "master service technician" certification.

When I first started thinking about engines in the cogeneration concept, I had heard about some biogas generator that produced electricity for a farm. I was absolutely amazed at the time that any engine could run 24/7, let alone off rotten cow shit....

I started playing with electronics before that. The earliest I can remember is that I would smash open my primitive 1980s electric toys to see how they worked. I hadn't figured out how to use a screwdriver yet. Been electrocuted more times than I can count. (ever strip a live telephone wire with your teeth during a high voltage pulse for a ring?)

[Rom]

Haha, yup, stripped the phone wire that way at just the right time too!

[Ronmar]

Why am I here?  Well, probably because I have been thrown out of every place else:)

Started with a backup generator to power a pellet stove and some other basics.  Wanted a diesel for better long term fuel storage abilities, and some possible alternate fuels.  Built the thing, and discovered I can fairly easilly get as much heat from it while on line, as the pellet stove it was put in place to provide power for in a power outtage typically puts out...  And I havn't even started to tap the exhaust yet