Ahhg! Vimeo used to be really nice in that you could load a video, and it would stay in RAM for just about as long as you wanted. You could put your computer to sleep, hibernate, or even come back to watch the video five days after loading it. Whatever you did, it was still there, ready to play, needing no internet connection to play. Now, if you so much as leave the video loaded for a couple hours, let alone sleep your computer, it completely rebuffers when you go to watch it. Have no internet connection or a slow connection? Sorry, you being proactive and loading the video in advance was a futile effort! YouTube's always been this way, and it was nice when Vimeo wasn't. Now it is too. Oh well.
</rant>
For any of the gearheads here... (Clonkex?) I took apart an old Briggs & Stratton 2 horsepower small engine today. Made in 1972 it was! It still runs, and I bought it years ago for 20 dollars when I was a young child. I would frequently go outside with it, start it up, and just watch it run for a few minutes. My entertainment back in the day! Anyway, it came apart quite nicely (surprisingly not that rusted for being 43 years old and being stored outside for a while). The engine oil was interesting; it was almost gray in color, presumably due to never being changed and thus being full of microscopic little metal shavings (which of course are normal, just usually flushed out with frequent oil changes). The cylinder and piston were in great shape, no significant scoring or anything. Well sealing valves too, by judgement of my inexperienced eye.
I plan to clean all of the parts up and create a working model to keep as a shelf centerpiece or something.
However, the idea's come to my mind that it would be neat to put it back together and get it running again. I'd need new gaskets for just about everything, but I presume I could make those myself (questionable for the head gasket). The carburetor may need some loving... The ignition system has been a parts donor to our (since deceased) 30 year old lawnmower, and I am thinking it would be cool to just build and wire up my own ignition system. Then I could lap the valves for fun, but they really don't seem all that pitted. Then it should be ready to run! Then, in all its mighty 2 horsepower, it'd be fun to build a little go kart with it. Probably a single wheel drive deal with a plain chain transmission and a centrifugal clutch. Or convert an old bicycle, that would be interesting.
Fun stuff!
