So the other day I was driving down the road and saw a push mower sitting out with garbage cans in front of a house. I'm currently unemployed and burdened with lots of free time, so to make a long story shorter the mower ended up in my truck bed.After a little investigation I found that the flywheel key had been sheared off by a rock or similiar. Got the thing running in no time (after I adjusted the carb back to an operable position - apparently the previous owner did attempt to 'save' the mower before putting it out by the road). Then I realized that the case was in such bad shape that if I welded up all the holes, the thing would end up weighing 70 pounds and I don't have enough weld-wire anyway. Damn shame. This was a pretty expensive mower in it's day. You can tell it sat out in the weather it's whole life. What kills me is that there are a few plastic pieces on the carb linkage that move against metal pieces. There is NO WEAR on the plastic. It was hardly used, but sat out and so it has become useless as a mower. Can't believe people spend money on good equipment and then take such poor care of it. Alright, enough ranting. I thought for awhile about using a truck alternator and a battery to build a portable stick welder. After doing some calculations I realized that the engine wouldn't be up to it. BTW, this mower has a vertical shaft Briggs 3.5 HP Quantum that runs pretty nice now. Haven't come up with any other ideas for this engine. Figured this would be a good place to ask. There always seem to be some good ideas floating around here. I don't go back to work til September, so help me out. I am getting tired of digging new flower-beds.
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