[AT] Pitman rivets?

[Larry D. Goss]

LOL, Farmer.  You sound about as "bent out of shape" as my daughter got
when I was "restoring" a melodeon for Historic New Harmony.  She's got a
degree in historic preservation, so she thinks she knows something about
it.  She read me a riot act because I was going to the trouble to make
the thing playable again instead of just making it look nice for
display.  So I put in rubber-lined muslin for the bellows, rebuilt a
bunch of the key mechanisms, replaced the acoustic cloth, etc with
materials that were not authentic to the period of manufacture.  I even
used Elmer's Carpenter Glue!  To hear her talk, you would have thought
that I'd committed some Cardinal sins. 

Speaking of the mix of hex and square bolts, one of the things I've
acquired over the years is a set of socket wrenches that are specially
sized to work on the galvanized fasteners that were common on farm
windmills.  I used them when I was disassembling the F&W model 26 that I
have in the back yard, but when I put in new fasteners I didn't bother
trying to find the exact replacements and I was able to use "modern"
wrenches.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Robinson
Sent: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 3:42 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: RE: [AT] Pitman rivets?

At 02:30 PM 8/18/04, you wrote:
>Thanks, George.  I probably will end up making the rivets.  I got a
>quote from a source on the Internet this morning -- $25 for a box of
100
>plus shipping.  I'll think about it.  When it's all said and done, the
>only reason for insisting on riveting the pitman together is for the
>authenticity of the restoration.  If it was just a mower that I was
>going to put to work, I'd bolt it together and go about getting some
>mowing done.
>
>Larry
>


         No! No! No!... If you want to be authentic as a working mower
you 
should use a mix of hex nuts and bolts and square head nuts and bolts in

several sizes. That is in all but 2 holes. Those should have a big old 
cotter key through the hole like a bolt on one and in the other there 
should be a huge spike nail just bent over...   ;-)


>"farmer"


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net 

_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at