Ruston Hornsby 6PB

Some people just don't know how to have fun. I take it by more neighbours that the big lawns are being built on. You'll just have to do the same, sell the land then move somewhere else

Stu.

stationary stu wrote:Some people just don't know how to have fun. I take it by more neighbours that the big lawns are being built on. You'll just have to do the same, sell the land then move somewhere else

Stu.

In the long run that's probably exactly what will happen. Trouble is we fell right between 2 developments and the Bastards that were built one side first have managed to get a covenant put on our land! Yet when these properties were built, because they were more than 10 meters from our property, we had NO say! F***King W***ker Councillors!!!

Right, I've got a bit more done today. I gave it all a really good rub down & applied another top coat. Most of it I am now happy with, but a few bits (like the petrol tank) will need more attention.

I decided it was time to get the small bits on, so on went the carb, I loosely put the flywheel back on so I could time up the mag & then on went the mag, so I could finally fill the right angle drive gearbox up with special gearbox grease & slap the lid back on. I took a few pics, as you'd expect....











Here's my attempt at a close-up on the tank (the sun was shining through the window, which doesn't help my photography at all)....





I had a little go at lifting it, but it's far too heavy, even with the flywheel off. As I only applied the last coat today I will give it a couple more days to go off, then when Ian comes round on Thursday he can give me a hand to get it off the bench. I will lift it straight onto the trolley that the Lister is currently on (the Lister is now just an empty crank case, so I can lift that off easily). Once it's on the trolley I can give the paintwork the final rub down, finish off the top coats, put the flywheel back on, finish off the twiddly bits & see if she'll fire up (probably this time next week for the fire-up, maybe sooner, but I want the paint to harden off properly, especially around the exhaust port area).

Dude!!!! You missed a bit

blackvanman wrote:Dude!!!! You missed a bit

I've missed several bits!

nutgone wrote:

blackvanman wrote:Dude!!!! You missed a bit

I've missed several bits!

I don't miss, I get it everywhere!!!!! lol
looking good on a serious note, I hate the brush stroke problem, I feel the frustration, next resto I'm buy spray paint

blackvanman wrote:

nutgone wrote:

blackvanman wrote:Dude!!!! You missed a bit

I've missed several bits!

I don't miss, I get it everywhere!!!!! lol
looking good on a serious note, I hate the brush stroke problem, I feel the frustration, next resto I'm buy spray paint

..and have all the fun of masking up, runs and overspray

Either way its hassle.

Looking good Nutts. You will be glad to see the back of it I expect.

I will be glad to see it running, put it that way. & I am expecting it to just fire up first time & run like a Swiss watch.

As for the painting, I think most of my troubles stem from the primer coats, but I am beginning to wonder about my brush, it's a Harris, one of their "No Loss" range (guaranteed no bristle drop). I can't remember if I used it on the Kohler or not, I know it's reasonably new.

I will put any more paint on with my slightly older Wickes brush. I do have some really cheap brushes, but these days I prefer to pay a little more & get something a bit better. As I only ever use 1/2" brushes I can afford to spend a little more. I do have a rather nice 1" brush for any big areas, but I find anything bigger is pretty useless for stationary engine work, even the 1" one hardly ever makes it out of jar number 3 (I number my jars for cleaning, number 3 has the clean white spirit in & is where my most popular brushes live. I don't agree when people say not to store them in thinners, you shouldn't store them in dirty thinners, but clean white spirit, changed on a regular basis is perfectly fine for brushes, especially if they are used fairly regularly).

I find after a while, the cheap 1/2" brushes are more like artists brushes when compared to an expensive 1/2" brush. In fact my expensive 1/2" brushes are bigger & bushier than my cheapo 1" brushes! I went into my local paint shops today. My favourite one is where I order the gloss, the other one sells the decent red oxide primer straight off the shelf. But I noticed they had Purdy brushes in my favourite place. I've got to go back in there to pick up my Mid-Brunswick Green for the Lister, so might treat myself to a 1/2" Purdy brush then.

For 1 decent brush you'll pay about £50 ok if your a professional that needs a great finish all the time but there's plenty of cheaper brushes about that's a lot cheaper. Thing is when spending more on a brush it's normally upgraded from a plastic handle to a wood one where as I'd rather pay for better bristles in the brush. Have you a very small paint roller? I've heard that if you brush paint first then go over it with a roller just slow that will get rid of the brush strokes.
I've just had a look round and there's no expensive brushes about now, the majority of trade brushes are throw away, this is the world we live in now, years ago you could have the same paint brush for years as long as you looked after it. I do find a good varnishing brush you can get a good finish with, well used to be able to, it looks as if I'm out of date now with paint brushes etc. I did get some strange looks when I went into a paint suppliers and ask for cellulous paint. old skool more loike old age.

Stu.

My idea of an expensive 1/2" brush (don't forget that Stu, we're only talking small brushes here, not the big ones the trade use) is about £10 maximum. A good 1/2" brush is quite difficult to find though, as these days they are mostly cheap throw-away ones (as Stu says).

I will see though, I am determined to find one. In fact I think my Wickes one was pretty good, that was around £5 or £6. But the bristles seemed to go a bit split-ended after a while.

I've never had any luck with those 'no loss' brushes. The bristles seem too coarse and leave marks. A nice traditional brush seems best to me. So what if a few bristles come out, you can soon pick em off the paint and go over that area again quick.

Thing is with an expensive brush you have to look after them, put vasaline on the bristles when not in use and a small elastic band (not to tight) around the bristle to help them keep there shape.
Nuts from what your saying about the Wicks brush I think I'd stick with them as they sound to be doing a reasonable job and most stuff sold by Wicks is to professionals not like B&Q that sell mainly cr4p. The idea about throw away paint brushes are a good idea but I can't bring myself to throw it away so I keep them. I still clean them off ready to use again thing is there pretty cr4p to use again.

Stu.

Well I bought a couple more brushes yesterday. It seems 1/2" brushes are quite hard to come by, & their 1/2" brush seemed about half the size of my 2 best ones (I suppose the measurement is only in one direction, my better ones are probably twice as fat as the cheapo ones).

Their only "good" small brush was a Hamilton 3/4" window brush, which has the bristles cut at a slight angle, so I bought one of those & have trimmed the bristles. It's got a lovely handle though, very comfortable to use.

I still keep all my brushes in a clean jam jar with some clean white spirit in it. The ones which hardly get used, & don't fit in the jar, get cleaned properly (I have a 3 stage cleaning system) & a couple of drops of some sort of oil worked into the bristles (usually whatever's in my squirt can) to stop them drying out.

The window brush is OK, but needs wearing in a bit before I use it for a top coat. I will probably use it for priming the Lister, that should break it in. I don't agree with some who say to use them for dusting, cleaning, priming, generally smash them about then use them for top coats, I reckon a brush would be ruined after all that lot.

I finally managed to get this off the bench this evening, my dad gave me a lift with it. The only trouble was we decided to do it after he put his motorbike back in, & the trolley I had placed there, below the bench, won't fit past the bike. So it's stuck there for the time being. I guess tomorrow we can wheel the bike out a bit & get past.

However, I have managed to get the flywheel back on & I placed the pulley on there. I haven't tightened the pulley on yet, as I would like to check the gib key after the first couple of runs, to make sure it's fully home. (obviously the pulley will come off before I start it :doh: )

I have also given it a final rub down for the final (I hope) top coat, which I will do tomorrow, if the weather is up to it....

The weather forecast is looking good for the weekend so you may get it painted and dryed off in the warm sunshine.
Nuts you do one of my pet hates by putting things on without them being tight, I know what your saying but I've seen accidents happen when something has been over looked, so for me I tighten things up even if there coming back off again just to be on the safe side.

Stu.

Well it's on there better than finger tight, I just haven't taken the long bar to it yet. So it's not about to fly off. I made sure of that today before I did this....



As you can see, the paint is just waiting for that final coat.

Well done you've got it up and running. Is there anything else to do with the engine? or is there just the painting to finish off.?

Stu.

Well I did have one or two more little jobs to do

I had to adjust the throttle governor arm last night. It was a little out of shape & while I was running it yesterday the throttle spindle popped out of the fork at the end of the arm & jammed the throttle wide open!

Good job I had a quick stop method all sorted before I even attempted to start it (I always do that, before I start any new engine I always think "How am I hoing to stop this thing if it runs away?") so I stopped it before it went out of control.

I was a bit p155ed off though, as it meant the magneto had to come off, so I lost the timing, but I also had to take the magneto drive gearbox off & the engine side cover plate off, which meant draining the oil & not forgetting all the newly applied paintwork & newly cut & sealed gaskets that had to be disturbed! Good job it still has a final coat to go on.

Oh well, these things are sent to try us. I went out there after dinner last night, & had her running again by 9:15pm (nice to have one I can start up at that time of day ).

She's all sorted (throttle/governor wise) now but she won't run on open choke, always insists on having about half choke. I have taken out the jet a couple of times & cleared it. It might be getting blocked as it's a cast iron carb & was rusty inside (there's only so much cleaning out you can do with those things, but I thought it was pretty clean). That jet is a PITA to get in & out though, especially with the carb still attached to the engine.

I've just got in from a rather nice day out & started her up again, all was fine but now I'm checking for oil leaks. There might be a little leakage on the main shaft on the flywheel side, but I can't tell completely yet, it's too soon to tell properly yet, she needs more running & wiping down. It's still stuck in front of the bench in the workshop as well, so not easy to get round & it gets pretty stuffy in there when she's been running a while (health & safety??? What's that?) Seriously though kids, don't run engines inside workshops

So no major work to do now, just finish off the paint, apply the transfers, get her set up properly & hand her over. Then maybe I can take delivery of my new project.

You should not think of it as a choke, it's more of a mixture control. Mine runs best when the holes are about half covered, it won't run fully open.

rubythursday wrote:You should not think of it as a choke, it's more of a mixture control. Mine runs best when the holes are about half covered, it won't run fully open.

I suppose that makes more sense really, I did wonder how many other engines like this (with fixed main jet) run best on half choke.

Also, it's got brand new rings, & won't run right until they are bedded in properly, which with a show engine could take a very long time. The plug is sooting up as well, but I guess it will with new rings.

It just smells a bit rich to me, & seems to be using quite a lot of fuel, although I can't be sure about that either. I know how much fuel was left in it last night, but it's spent a rather hot day locked up inside a hot workshop, so it could've evaporated quite a bit I suppose.

It really needs more running to be sure about anything much. But it starts & runs well, that's twice I have set the ignition timing up, & twice I got it spot on first time (I've had plenty of practise lately though, getting quite good with a fag paper these days ). She doesn't kick back on starting (& I'm not one of these people who pushes the flywheel back to compression before turning the handle, personally I think there's more chance of a kick-back when doing so, I prefer to push it over compression with the handle & use that momentum to carry me on past the next compression strokes, but obviously it depends on the engine). If an engine is set up properly it shouldn't kick back anyway.

I'm just happy she's running, almost there now.

Great job Nut,

Maybe try a bit hotter sparker in there, that may get rid of the soot and allow it to run a little hotter too, which may be what it needs anyway as some of them like to run fairly hot.

I quite like the sound of it as well.
I enjoy my "new" IHC here at home for the same reason (much like yours,) and I sit with it running, having a beer or two.
Very relaxing at 600 rpm!

The neighbor kind of detoured/shimmy'd his way over while working out in the yard and and ended up chatting with me a while (and had a few beers with me) before he went home.
It's the first time in five years he has done that, the duration of having bought the house and living here.
Theraputic use anyone? A neighbor uniting tool?
Turns out he is not the grouch I thought he was after all! And he said it wouldn't bother him to hear it at all. Great!!!!

I like the looks of your Ruston too, it's nice and compact.

Cheers on a good job, John.

All sounding positive now Nuts, like you say the final tweek and she's done oh and paint LOL.

Nuts once you get it up to running temp. you'll find out then if you have any oil leaks once the metal expands. My Bradford is fine if I just keep her warm but once shes hot there's a few oil leaks.

John I had a neighbour come visit me when I had an engine running strange how they attract people. :chin:

Stu.

Well Stu,
I think there is something about that you know? We hadn't talked much for those five years and I start up an engine for a few hours, and Bingo! the neighbour is in there like a dirty shirt! Drooling all over it lol.
I'm all for sharing and I like company so in no time were having a few beers, talking about family, the neighbourhood and all sorts of things.
All that because of one engine Awsome!

Regards, John.

John it just goes to show how engines can make friends for you and I'm sure you have a few new friends on the forum now. So since buying an engine you made a few friends both near and far.

Stu.

I put the final top coat on last night & STILL there are brush marks in it!

I have finally found out what's doing it. It's the paint!

That's right, the paint! It seems a bit too thick, but the real problem is it's drying too fast, so it's not giving the brush strokes time to flow out, so I'm not sure weather thinning it down would make much difference.

I tried painting that Lister crank case door again with a 2nd top coat, I used the same brush as I used on the Ruston last night & there were very few, if any, brush marks on that.

The Lister paint is the same brand, but these paints are mixed at different companies, that's how it works these days, anyone can mix anyone's paint, all they need is the correct formula. But who ever mixed this stuff for Mark obviously didn't do it properly. Maybe this is an advert NOT to get Bradite paints mixed by Brewers (Matt86 take note). Anyway, I guess I should test first on a small area or scrap piece.

It's better than it was anyway, & I doubt I will be doing it again. It'll just have to do.

Just the transfers to put on & the raised lettering to pick out now, then she's done.

I will get some pics up soon.