I'm a machinist and run a part time small engine repair shop out of my garage as a hobby.  A few years ago I was at a local lawnmower shop looking for parts to repair an obsolete mower. I saw an old Briggs engine laying upside on the floor.  I asked the owner of the shop if that engine was in for repair,  and he told me that it was just old junk he hadn't had time to throw out. I took that old engine home to my shop and took it apart.  It had a broken piston.  I decided to try to locate parts to repair it.  I found New Old Stock parts on an eBay store.  Then a happened across an old Briggs ad from the 1957 advertising that particular engine, so I restored it to match the picture.   An obsession was born. Ever since then I've been looking for more old engines to rebuild and restore.  Tramping through scrap yard, scrounging around the back corners of repair shops and love those old farm yard sales!   Only drawbacks are the bees! 

I built a home machine shop to make parts that are no longer available for the antique engines. Then one day, I discovered home engine building.  Running model engines built from bar stock in my home mini machine shop. The obsessions are equal.

What make me happy:

  Working in the garage.  Greasy, smelling like gasoline, bleeding and swearing.  Or, the basement will do in the winter.  Or, talking to myself in about how I managed to miss a size on a model part.

What make me mad:

Stupid people.  Not unintelligent people, I mean people who don't have the power of mind to control their mouths and actions. Unkind or condescending word, spoken or typed rarely go unchallenged by this camp.

 Bring them home or send US back!

De Oppresso Liber