Quote:
Almost did not need a screw driver, could have taken it out with my fingers (if they were a bit smaller).
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I like the idea of throwing it in the woodstove.
I once salvaged a Galloway one lunger engine from an outbuilding that had burned. The owner had disassembled the engine - the majority parts including the crank, flywheel, and cylinder/water jacket were outside when the fire began.
But the piston and connecting rod were inside. When I happened upon it, the building was black ashes on the ground with the weeds growing up. It had been a couple of years since the fire.
I rescued all the parts I could find including the piston/connecting rod. No babbit (think fire) and no rings (this apparently what he was changing when the fire occured.)
Try as I might to fit that piston into the cylinder - it would not go. Somehow it had expanded to the tune of 0.015 inches in the fire - and this on a casting that was about 5 inches in diameter.
It took me the better part of an afternoon with a hand grinder to bring it all down to the correct size (or perhaps a little smaller) using a hand grinder; I didn't have a lathe at that point. A belt sander was instrumental to keeping it reasonably cylindrical.
But I was blown away by how LARGE it had gotten.
Joe K