factory

The engine is now mostly back together apart from the carb & starter. This exhaust collector was a bit too far gone for the aluminium foil cleaning method, it was so rusty I had to use the big wire wheel to start with, followed by lots of sanding with the Dremel to get the gasket surfaces smoother (as best I could), forgot to take a before picture. I had to make a few more gaskets for the induction & feather valve assemblies. Here is the coupling used on these UK Champ generators, this one has two three thin washers as the coupling doesn't quite fit level with the PTO shaft. David

and you called us vulture's Well now we know they were used by fire departments and we know what to search for hopefully they will be easier to find. The Tempest website gives another possible use as a hot air balloon inflator (although the engine looks a bit bigger), they also mention the use of fans for helping control fires as well as clearing smoke afterwards. David

Interesting, the label looks to say Controlled Airstreams, searching for that & fan gives the full name as "Controlled Airstreams Inc." a company that made fans, apparently taken over by Tempest Technology Corp. they still sell fans for many applications; https://www.tempest.us.com/ including fans for ventilation after fires. David

If you wanted a similar looking exhaust it probably wouldn't be too hard to make, if you can find the correct size chrome tubing, just don't go filling it with that stuff though. David

Good idea, I've got a similar can I kept for eventually using with the test stand. David

I don't think that is anything to do with O&R engines, the Series 20A has a one piece crankshaft, no chance of fitting that. Did it come with some O&R spares? I thought I had uploaded the 20A manual. David

Here's a picture of the inside, looks like Hazmat to me, lots of chucks of rust fell out too. I'm not sure why all the plated steel parts have rusted so badly on this engine (see the threads on the end of the exhaust fixing rod for example), as the paintwork is in excellent condition and the engine looks to have had very little use before it seized. David

If your planing to sell the fan once you've got it running then I'm sure there will be plenty of interest from the collectors on here. David

The tank on your Drillgine seems to have the missing part from the second line of the Orion decal. Looking a couple of decals & piecing together the surviving parts, I think this it the full decal (not 100% sure on Associates); ORION MANUFACTURING CO. Div. of Orion Associates Inc. 14873 E. FIRESTONE BLVD. LA MIRADA CALIF. Searching for 14873 E. FIRESTONE BLVD.* gives an extra magazine article (from Popular Mechanics Oct 1963) for the sticky thread; https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CeMDAAAAMBAJ&pg==PP1&lr&pg=PA163#v=onepage&q&f=false It's also in the April 1962 Popular Science; https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LCEDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&lr&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q&f=false Two models were available with the 1360 r.p.m. version having a 3/8" chuck & the 620 r.p.m. having a 1/2" chuck. David *And another area of cleared land on google earth.

I don't have liquid tape but as I also collect & repair vintage electronics I have a box full of various different sized heat-shrink tubing, I used a piece of 3:1 or 4:1 ratio heat-shrink tubing that just fits over the crimp terminal, thinking about it I could have removed the terminal & used smaller diameter heat-shrink, got to remind myself I have a good supply of ring crimp terminals I could have used. David

We could change it to something like "portable ventilation fan" if you want, I'm sure these portable fans could have been used for lots of things such as ventilation, cooling, etc. David

It does turn over fine, I have noticed in a certain position the end play you normally get with the shafts disappears, I put a used PTO shaft in the engine, but have now noticed the counter weight of the only NOS one that came with these parts is very slightly thinner than the older ones. I had a quick look inside another late engine with that type of feather valve assembly and noticed there also seems to be a slight difference in how far they bored out the crankcase for the feather valve. David.

I forgot to mention that this had been apart in that tin for at least 4 years, the last time when my health was poor & I couldn't work on anything, that very nice trimmer you sent will be one of the next projects once this one is back together (which hopefully should be more straight forward than some of the other projects). Still got to sort out one of these generators for you too. The extension contains a mix of what is probably asbestos with steel wire mesh, will try a get a picture with the end removed, but will be leaving the core inside the tube when it gets the chrome cleaned. Fairly certain it's only found on some UK tools. David

Nice to see a later one of these fans, I'm fairly certain it would have been used for ventilation purposes by the fire department not fighting as CNew said, they used large fans after a fire where I work to clear the smoke & fumes out of the building after the fire had been put out. AEP closed down in 1978, if you want to know when the engine was made let us know the details on the cylinder plate, the first bit is the model number (starts with 13B) and the second is the serial number which has the date coded into it (only for engines made from June 1967 & later). The decals are a bit fragile on the later engines (paper with plastic film), be very careful if you clean the decal, it would be nice to see a clear picture of the decal as it's one I've not seen before, AEP engines are quite hard to search for & find. CNew has sorted you out with the fuel mix, 32:1 with non-ethanol (aka non-oxy) gas & good quality mineral 2-stroke oil. And a reminder of why you should remove all traces of any original filter foam before attempting to start the engine. David

Something else I noticed when I took it apart further, the wire for the coil primary to the points/condenser had been incorrectly routed & had got crushed between the magneto plate & cylinder, this will need sleeving. The HT lead also has damage to the insulation. Most of the parts got cleaned outside earlier, apart from the rusty exhaust it's all cleaned up nicely. David

I've had this for some time, it was seized & a previous owner had removed the cylinder without freeing up the piston resulting in a snapped con-rod. I dissembled it a few years ago & managed to remove the piston intact, unfortunately the rings are stuck for good, I suspect it got run without any oil. The engine has been in bits in this biscuit tin for far too long, it's time to clean & rebuild it. David

More progress & problems with this engine, the magneto & flywheel got assembled with no problem, the coil is currently still the wireless model (I intend to repair a couple at the same time to avoid wasting too much araldite). The induction/PTO assembly is where the problems are, it got assembled but when fitting it to the crankcase I found that it doesn't go in far enough, there appears to be minor differences in the crankcase (older) & induction/feather valve assemblies (newer). I'm really not sure what to do at the moment, it's been shelved while I have a think, I'll probably need to disassemble it again to investigate. David P.S. I though I had plenty of screws for the induction housing/mounting flange but turns out the size I ordered doesn't fit every type.

That looks very nice. The dynamo & lights look to be standard accessories available at the time for fitting to any bicycles, I had a few bike dynamos like the one shown on that original mini-bike here years ago but they had been drowned. The mini-bike I bought has brackets on the front for attaching a headlight & dynamo. David

No I was referring to the handle screwed into the gearbox, I missed it in picture #4 in the first post, I thought it was missing. It looks like a tiny bit of the Orion decal is still present on the tank. This is how it would have looked (picture archived from ePay). David

The early drills don't have the throttle control and the missing screw in handle on early ones matches the grip on the frame. Looking at my archived pictures the early red Orion Drillgine & the Comet Tote-N Tools version are identical apart from the decal on the tank. David

That's what I thought you meant, just wanted to clarify for others that may read this thread in the future and start searching for a non-existent attachment. Here are some pictures of the inside of the clutch unit for the O&R Tarpen Mini Engine power-head, the rear housing & clutch drum are the OEM parts for this... ... and the rest of the clutch & engine mounting are standard O&R parts. This threaded adaptor fits in the end on the clutch unit, if you have one of these and it's not seized, add some fresh grease to it to prevent this. David

I've no idea what the terminal blocks are from, I got given them and they've been waiting in one of the parts boxes on the shelf ever since. No progress yesterday, got very distracted by the arrival of a scarce HP oscilloscope from the late 1950's. David

Just a reminder, the compressors were sold without a power source, so any motor fitted might not be original anyway. David

The other red drill is branded Drillgine by Orion Manufacturing Co. I've seen at least one red Orion Drillgine in the UK, but Comet tools don't appear over here. David

Thanks Terry, there's no rush scan them when you have time, I usually scan in high resolution to PNG files, but JPG files would probably be better for email. David