Time is running out (California folk)

[woodchucker]

Many years ago, my Dad had a mower where you wound up a spring and then released the spring to start the mower. It was easy enough to wind the spring so even a little kid could do it. I haven't seen one of those in probably more than fifty years though.

I remember.

 

[jbaccell]

I remember.

me too.

 

[tq60]

Me too

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[Nesse1]

My dad had one of those mowers. It had a clapped out Briggs engine. A real POS. I wound that ***** thousands of times, in the hope that it would eventually start...which it usually did. I was in grade school at that time, and responsible for mowing the lawn around the family home. One day I got a little too close to the lamp post in the front yard, and the blade struck one of the bolts that stuck up, anchoring the post to a concrete pad in the dirt. The crankshaft bent. My dad got mad as hell...but so goes it with slave labor.

 

[RJSakowski]

My dad had one of those mowers. It had a clapped out Briggs engine. A real POS. I wound that ***** thousands of times, in the hope that it would eventually start...which it usually did. I was in grade school at that time, and responsible for mowing the lawn around the family home. One day I got a little too close to the lamp post in the front yard, and the blade struck one of the bolts that stuck up, anchoring the post to a concrete pad in the dirt. The crankshaft bent. My dad got mad as hell...but so goes it with slave labor.

You were lucky. We had a push mower. My Dad didn't get a power mower until after I left home.

My ex was a farrier and blacksmith and the were a lot of iron gotchas hidden in the grass. I bent a few mower crankshafts. The best way to straighten a crankshaft was to do the opposite of what bent it in the first place.

I made a straightener from a 6 ft. piece of I beam and two split bushings. I would fasten the crankshaft with the bushings, bend facing up and use a length of pipe to unbend the shaft. I would check with a dial indicator. It worked well enough to put the mower back into service.

 

[woodchucker]

My ex was a farrier and blacksmith and the were a lot of iron gotchas hidden in the grass. I bent a few mower crankshafts. The best way to straighten a crankshaft was to do the opposite of what bent it in the first place.

I would think that's don't mow anymore.