June 2017

The May Meeting

pressed/Loctited in liner. Unfortunately when he came to inspect it closely the aluminum had developed some cracks. The source of the material was not known but the general feeling was that there must have been something wrong with it. Aluminum is normally fairly ductile so even with an excessive interference the material should just stretch rather than crack.

Ed’s Boiler

At one of the previous meetings there was some discussion about the Lanz Bulldog tractor owned by a gentleman in Ailsa Craig. Tony Koolen has since been in contact the owner Peter Twynstra and has made arrangements for club members to go along to see the Lanz and some other equipment. More later.

Matt’s Glow Plug Engine

Todd Michel brought along the governor for a Sawyer Massey traction engine that he is working on.

Todd's governor

Tom’s Muzzle Breaks

Tom Dunn brought along a couple of muzzle breaks for rifles. These were commercial items but Tom is planning to make some of his own. There was discussion about their effect on recoil and muzzle lift (which is apparently significant.)

steps, conveying it to form piles of the different materials, then seeing it loaded on to trucks for dispatch.

All in all it is quite an operation with some high tech computer control of the system that separates the sand into different particle size components.

Here is some of the equipment

I have been busy with some other things and have not been able to spend much time in the workshop. Having completed the oil pump for my Sealion I started looking at getting the oil in and out of it. Essentially no information is given on the drawings but on the output side a tube will have to be used to get the oil to the connection that feeds the centre main bearing. I was originally thinking of a tube going to the bottom of the oil pan to feed the pump but there is very little space available. A small manifold was therefore designed and made.

After this we went on to Peter Twynstra’s place in Ailsa Craig where we started with a BBQ lunch. The main purpose of the visit was to look at his Lanz Bulldog tractor that several of us are interested in. Peter spent his working life as a farmer and was very successful in what he did. He has always had an interest in machinery and model making and we saw several of the models he has made (boats, steam, gas and hot air engines.) He has several old(ish) North American tractors from his farming days but the Lanz was bought in Spain and shipped to Canada via the Netherlands.

For anyone not familiar with Lanz Bulldog tractors they were made in Mannheim, Germany between 1921 and the mid-1950s. There were numerous developments along the way but they all had single cylinder two stroke hot bulb (glühkopf) engines. In Europe they seem to have become the #1 tractor sought after by collectors. Peter’s is one of the later ones, being built in 1949.

Visit to Peter Twynstra’s

In fact Tony Koolen made this a day out for those of us who went along. We started at his home and had a tour of his workshop. There seems to have been significant progress on his Case traction engine since I was there last.

We then went for a tour of Inland Aggregates where Tony worked before his retirement and still has connections. We had an overview of the whole operation from collecting the starting material out of the pit, running it through the classifying and washing

Above is a picture of the Lanz with the propane cylinder and torch ready to heat up the hot bulb:

After giving up trying to start it manually one of the other tractors was brought in to pull it and get it going. (Tony is driving the front tractor, Peter is on the Lanz.)

After the visit to Peter’s home where all his "toys" are kept in a barn we went to look at some present day equipment on the farm currently run by his son. This was all housed in a much larger barn along with all of the maintenance and ancillary equipment.

In Bulldog days tractors produced ~50 hp, now they produce almost 10x that amount the cost of combine harvesters is into 7 figures. Today’s farming is capital intensive, highly automated, highly technical and requires a skilled workforce. As in many other areas the grunt has been almost entirely replaced by technology and brainpower.

Many thanks to Tony for all his efforts in setting up the visits and for arranging the BBQ lunch that he and Rita put on. I will write to Inland Aggregates and Peter thanking them also.

Finally, here is a picture of me driving the Lanz (another item checked off my bucket list.)

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