Crappy Grinding Stones From Amazon

I got this set of twenty grinding stones from a Chinese Amazon vendor recently.

Diameters are approximately 16mm, 20mm, 24mm and 30mm. I thought they'd be just the thing to go with my new 1/4" die grinder for sharpening lawnmower blades. Was I ever wrong.

The shanks were described variously as 1/4" diameter and 6mm diameter. I queried that, and was assured that the shanks were 1/4" diameter. It turns out that they're 6mm diameter. So, right off the bat the things are worthless -- a 1/4" collet will not close down on a 6mm shank.

And to cap it off, the stones are badly mounted and don't run true. Here's a little video clip of one stone turning in a wood lathe at 500 rpm.

Imagine that wobble running at 20,000 rpm.

I complained to the vendor and got my money refunded. So I'm now the owner of a worthless set of grinding stones.

It's appalling some of the stuff that Amazon will sell.

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A Chimes Candy Tin

['Scraping the bottom of the barrel for subject matter here. The workshop has run into the doldrums.]

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Things have a way of just showing up out of nowhere. Here's a Chimes candy tin that did just that recently.

The tin is approximately 3 1/4" tall x 2 1/4" wide x 1" from front to back.

And here's a view of it with its lid slid open.

And three more views.

It seems that Chimes is still a going concern in Indonesia.

On the bottom of the tin, there's a "BEST BY" date of 2014/10/05.

The tin is an exquisite bit of fabrication. I'd love to see how these things are made with such perfection.

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A Shakespeare Autowinder II Bump Head Installation

I have an elderly Homelite TrimLite string trimmer that's in need of some new bump head parts. Trying to obtain those parts has proven to be an exercise in futility, so I went to Canadian Tire and got myself a new after-market complete bump head, a Shakespeare Autowinder II.

It's supposedly a universal fit item that will work on the Homelite. I have my doubts. We'll see.

I'm going to try to open the package ever so carefully, so if the thing doesn't work out I can reseal it and maybe return it.

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The Trimmer's Original Head

The trouble with the original head is that the bumper is almost worn out, and it's missing its spring. I found a spring that fits, but it's not forceful enough. A proper replacement spring seems to be unavailable. The bumper can be had (the small engines place has a couple in stock), but the price is nearly that of the Shakespeare replacement head.

It looks to me that the distance from the trimmer line to the guard is a fairly critical dimension. It currently measures 2 3/16". We'll see if that dimension more-or-less holds for the Shakespeare replacement.

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The Kit Unpacked

There's the hub, a plastic spacer washer and a bag with many hexagonal adapters and screws and a steel flat washer. Not shown is an instruction sheet in three languages.

The unit comes without trimmer line installed! I call that cheap and sleazy. (According to the instruction sheet, 0.080", 0.095" or 0.105" line can be used.)

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Nope

I looked into the installation instructions and all the adapters, and I'm calling hogwash. I have no faith whatsoever that this thing can be satisfactorily installed on my Homelite trimmer, and yield satisfactory performance. I'll repackage it as best I can and try to return it.

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Returned -- THURSDAY, JULY 25, 2019

My repackaging worked out ok, and Canadian Tire took it back with no hassle. I'll look into obtaining a spring from an American on-line parts dealer.

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Can't Win For Losing

Shipping from the States would be $22.99 US -- not on.

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To be continued.

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A Mastercraft Work Stand's Vise Screw Lash

I have an elderly Canadian Tire Mastercraft work stand that has a couple of vise screw peculiarities.

The screws' actions are counter-intuitive -- it's clockwise to loosen; counterclockwise to tighten. There's not a thing that I can do about that; it's the nature of the beast. The manufacturer no doubt didn't want to incur the additional cost of left-handed screw threads. Left-handed screw threads would impart intuitive vising action to the work stand's jaws; i.e. clockwise to tighten, counterclockwise to loosen.

There is a peculiarity that I can do something about, though, and that's the outrageous amount of lash^[1] in the vise screws. Note the gap between the crank and the frame in the following photo.

That gap lends about a couple of turns of play to the crank's action. The crank on the other side is the same. It's annoying. If I can install a couple of flat washers to take up that space, I should have a work stand that's much more pleasant to use.

Knocking out a roll pin freed the crank from its screw. A pair of 3/8" SAE flat washers fit nicely for play eliminators.

And here we are with the crank reinstalled.

I lubricated all the thrust bearing points and the screw with roller chain lubricant, and now I've got vise screw action with no binding, and minimal lash. Much better.

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Note:

[1] See this 'lexicon' post for an explanation of my use of the term 'lash'.

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A Stanley No. 1299 Utility Knife

This old cast iron utility knife is quite nice, but its paint job is way past it.

I'll strip off what's left of the paint, and give it new primer and paint. But before I go any further, here's a YouTube video of an American gentleman's restoration of a similar knife. The man's work is awesome -- way beyond anything I'd even attempt.

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Inside The Handle -- MONDAY, JULY 15, 2019

A single 10-24 x 3/4" plain slot flat head screw holds the two halves of the handle together.

There's space for spare blade storage.

For my money, this utility knife type has been pretty well obsoleted by the Olfa 18mm snap-off blade style of knife, but the old style of knives and blades are still available. I imagine that an attractive feature of the old knives is precisely that the blades can't snap off on you.

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Paint Stripped Off And Primer Applied

There's a coat of grey primer. Still to come are two coats of red enamel.

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Red Enamel Done

And here's two coats of Canadian Tire's Armor Coat fire red rust paint.

I'll leave that to sit and harden for a week, then put it back together with a new blade. I'll have a nicely refurbished knife that I'll probably never use.

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Done -- SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2019

It has a new blade in it. It can go back to hanging on its nail on a tool board.

We'll see if I find use for it now that it's all prettied up.

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A Toro Electric Mower, 120 Volt Corded

A roadside find. Width of cut is 18".

ID plate data:

• AMPS 12
• TYPE E120
• MODEL 20646
• SERIAL # 8930708 03

The cord connection plug looks very bad.

One prong has delaminated, and the plastic at its base is all bubbled up. I suspect that this mower has had a catastrophic failure of some sort. Let's get the top cover off for a look see.

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Top Cover Off, And A Startup -- WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2019

Four obvious No. 12 x 1 1/2" pan head threading screws with No. 2 Phillips recess fasten the cover in place. And here we are with the top cover off.

The blade is belt driven by a high speed universal motor. Drive specs from the service manual are:

'Motor 20,500 rpm with step down belt drive ratio 5.8-1. Blade speed at 20,500 rpm is 3,534 rpm.'

So blade speed on this electric machine is similar to blade speed on a gasoline engine mower.

I managed to plug an extension cord onto the distressed connection plug, and the machine starts and runs. So maybe the catastrophic failure that I was imagining was entirely an extension cord receptacle failure. A poor receptacle contact would account for the extreme heating in evidence at one of the mower's connector's prongs.

There's a lever in evidence that I suspect may be part of a blade brake mechanism. The lever doesn't appear to move or do anything when the deadman bail is operated. That bears investigation.

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Blade Brake Revealed

With the belt slipped off the big pulley, an impact wrench makes short work of getting the 15/16" A/F (across flats) pulley nut off. (Support the blade from underneath, else the spindle will drop when the nut is removed.) Under the pulley is the brake drum. And all is revealed.

The motionless lever I was seeing is a spring anchor bracket. The blade brake mechanism is fine -- it's fully operational. So I appear to have a useable mower here; I just have to rectify that overheated plug prong problem.

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Connection Plug Bypassed -- THURSDAY, JULY 11. 2019

And there we are -- the mower is fit for use and saleable.

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Lexicon: Bolt vs Screw

According to the Free Dictionary, a bolt is --

"A fastener consisting of a threaded pin or rod with a head at one end, designed to be inserted through holes in assembled parts and secured by a mated nut that is tightened by applying torque."

So, by that definition, it follows that any screw secured by a nut is a bolt, no matter how small the screw. And conversely, any screw that installs in a threaded hole is a screw, no matter how large the screw.

"Machinery's Handbook, Twenty-First Edition" appears to agree with the above. On page 1131 there's "Differentiation between Bolt and Screw", which I won't bother to transcribe here. The section provides a more complete and elaborate explanation of what I've given above.

So there we are; if it's secured by a nut, it's a bolt. If it threads into a hole, it's a screw.

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A Sears Craftsman 5 Roto-Tiller

[Last updated Wednesday, July 10, 2019.]

My son got me a roto-tiller to go to work on.

Model No. is C459  62337. Serial No. is 825998. (As best I can make them out.) Engine is a Tecumseh 200cc, 5.0hp.

The machine is very old and in rough shape. I can find nothing about it on the internet. The engine is said to be functional. The forward V-belt is a ruin. The reverse V-belt is missing, and the reverse drive mechanism has been monkeyed with to the point where I can't really see how it might operate. I have a nasty feeling that what I may have here is a collection of scrap metal bits.

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Spark Plug

The spark plug is an NGK B4-LM. That's a 14mm non-resistive type with a screw-on terminal head and a 13/16" hex. With the paint lacquer-thinnered off of its ceramic, it looks to be in pretty good condition.

Gap is a snug 0.030". I tried my spark tester on it, and couldn't see a spark. That may be because it's pretty bright outside, even in the shade. Also, the recoil starter is sluggish; that's not helping. I may as well attend to the recoil starter right now.

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Recoil Starter

The starter is fastened by four 1/4"-28 x 3/8" pan head screws with captive external tooth lockwashers, No. 3 Phillips recess. A cordless impact wrench made short work out of getting the screws out.

With the starter off, I gave it a good WD-40ing, and dug some debris out of the starter cup.

With the starter reinstalled, its action is now better, but still not perfect -- rewind is balky at times. It has to be coaxed to rewind fully.

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Recoil Starter Update -- SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2019

I discovered why the starter won't rewind consistently. The cord that's in it is not original. It's a replacement cord that's thicker than it ought to be for the depth of the pulley. When rewinding, the cord sometimes piles up on itself -- to the point where it jams against the starter's shell. The only sure fix would be to replace the cord with thinner material.

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Further To Spark

With some further trial of the spark plug, I did see a spark a couple of times. The spark didn't look robust.

I tried closing down the spark plug's gap some, and that seemed to give some improvement, though spark still appears to be intermittent and lame.

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A Start Attempt

The dipstick was showing very low oil, so I added some SAE 30. The fuel tank was empty, so I gave it some regular gasoline.

And it's no go. Not so much as a pop.

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Inside The Workshop And Sparking In The Dark -- FRIDAY, JULY 5, 2019

I've brought the machine inside the workshop where I can douse the lights, and what spark there is is readily observable. It still doesn't seem consistent, though. Another problem that has surfaced is that the fuel line tubing is leaking. So, the cowl and the flywheel have to come off.

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Cowl Removal

• Free the governed speed controller from the side of the cowl; two 10-32 x 1/2" hex washerhead screws, 1/4" A/F (across flats).
• At the top, three 5/16"-18 hex head screws, 1/2" A/F. Note that these are cylinder head screws that will have to be properly torqued to 200 in-lbs on final reinstallation.^[1] Note also the steel loop held on by two of the screws -- a hoisting eye, possibly?
• Low down at either side -- a 5/16"-24 x 3/4" hex head screw with captive split lockwasher, 7/16" A/F with No. 3 Phillips recess.

With all that attended to, the cowl can be coaxed off the engine with judicious application of force where needed. And here's what was revealed when I got the cowl off.

A huge mouse nest. That would have played hell with engine cooling had I gotten the thing to run.

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And A Great Big 'WHOOPS!'

Two of the three cylinder head screws broke off on me.

Now I'll have to remove the cylinder head to see what, if anything, can be done to repair that.

There's nothing like working on decrepit, derelict old gear. Nasty surprises are common.

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Cylinder Head Off

The gasket is stuck to the block -- it's unlikely to be salvageable. I got three of the remaining five screws out whole, and broke off two more, so four out of eight screws are broken. This will be challenging.

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Removing The Broken Screws Is A No Go -- SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2019

I tried Vise-Grips on one of the protruding screws. I tried heating up the block around the screw with a propane torch. 'Couldn't budge the screw.

I centre punched one of the screws that was broken off flush. 'Drilled it through with a 1/8" cobalt drill, then 3/16". When I tried 7/32", it was no go. The screws must be case-hardened ones, so their outermost material is too hard even for a cobalt drill.

A digression regarding the use of screw extractors: Screw extractors will work on broken off screws that aren't seized; they will not extract seized screws. All you'll do by applying a screw extractor to a seized screw is you'll break the extractor. Digression over.

So, there's no way that I can salvage the original 5/16"-18 female threads at the sites of the broken screws, and I can't bore out the sites for threaded inserts, which I can't afford anyway. I'll reinstall the cylinder head with only four screws; at least the pattern of the remaining good threaded holes is symmetrical. The head gasket came away from the block without damage, so I can reuse that. If I can get the engine running, the worst that can happen is that the cylinder head will blow off. More likely it will just spring a leak or leaks.

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Flywheel Off

An impact wrench made short work of getting the 3/4" A/F flywheel nut off. A three-jaw puller got the flywheel off easily. And we can see the points-and-condenser ignition system. Filing the points and adjusting points gap to 0.020" might cure the intermittent spark problem. And while I have access to it, I'll replace that rotten fuel line tubing with new, 1/4" I.D. stuff that I have on hand.

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And We Have Spark

The faces of the breaker points were completely black. The points weren't making consistently. I filed the points, reinstalled and gapped them and now I have consistent, fairly healthy spark. So it's on with dismantling and cleaning the carburetor.

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Carburetor Cleaned, Adjusted and Reinstalled

The carburetor wasn't too bad inside. The mixture screws seemed to me to be set awfully lean, so I turned both of them 1 1/2 turns out for a starting point.

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Start Trial

I got it to start and run for about one, maybe two seconds, then it died and refused to restart. I checked for spark and there is none. I'm suspicious of my filed points. I may have made it so they're not closing reliably. To be investigated.

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Timing Is Gone

The points are making and breaking, but lo and behold, the flywheel's key has sheared right off.

That explains a lot. With the key sheared off, the flywheel moved out-of-time with respect to the breaker points cam, so spark was lost.

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Progress Of A Sort -- SUNDAY, JULY 7, 2019

The sheared off key is a semicircular Woodruff key. I managed to fake a serviceable key from 1/8" square cross-section keystock.

The engine now starts, but only if Quick-Start is sprayed into the carburetor. It does run, but it hunts. I need to get the machine outside where I can run it all I want and fiddle with the mixture screws.

A trip to the small engines place in Pickering is in order. I'll get a proper Woodruff key, and see if they have a parts breakdown for this old machine -- see if belts are available for it.

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New Woodruff Key Obtained -- TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2019

Here's a view of the new key alongside the old sheared off one.

Tecumseh P/N is 32589.

I also got a new 37" forward V-belt, a Continental Elite P/N 84370. I won't get the 41" reverse belt until I have the reverse drive selection mechanism figured out, which is looking like never.

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As Done As It's Going To Get -- WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2019

It's exhibiting a more-or-less normal starting characteristic -- I no longer have to give it a shot of Quick Start to get it going. I've gotten the idle speed down to within reason, and the governor appears to be functioning well. It's still missing its air filter element; I'm not sure it would be worth the cost to obtain one.

Forward drive works nicely. Reverse drive remains an unfathomable mystery. My son now has a useable roto-tiller. If ever the machine outlives its usefulness, it will be scrap metal. The machine is unsaleable with half of its cylinder head screws missing.

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Note:

[1] This strikes me as an outrageously bad design feature. What were they thinking? To have to disturb cylinder head screws in order to access the ignition system is just wrong.

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