Vintage Machinery Modern Design

1931 Coldwell Power Lawn Mower

In May of 2019, a good friend of mine, Jim Tomasetti, stumbled across this 1931 Coldwell Cub lawn mower for sale at the Bernardston engine show. Jim contacted me, and we made arrangements to collect the mower. I took delivery of this mower in July of 2019. For several months this mower sat on my workbench soaking in penetrating oil, awaiting its turn in line for mechanical restoration. The entire month of April, 2020, I spent carefully disassembling, cleaning, inspecting, machining, and repairing this mower back to its glory. Coldwell was the leading manufacturer of power lawn mowers, and at the time was the only mower manufacturer endorsed by the United States Government for mowing federal allotments. Sit back and relax as I take you through all of the work that I have performed to revert ninety years of use and abuse.

1949 Maxim Silencer 2-19 Snow Thrower

In December of 2017 I discovered a very rare and unsual Maxim Silencer snow thrower that I had not seen before. This particular unit was smaller than any that I have seen and was furnished with a Clinton engine. It took several months to finally convince the previous owner that it would have a better life in my garage than outside in his yard, so in September of 2018 I was able to save this snow thrower from eternal damnation. Those of you with an eye for old iron will note that there is another Maxim snow thrower sitting in the yard next to the little machine I picked up. I purchased this snow thrower as well, and will be featured in another restoration thread. For now we will focus on the smaller Maxim snow thrower.

1952 Schramm Pneumapower 35 Compressor Rebuild

In November of 2014, I traveled to Slatington, Pennsylvania to pick up a pair of Schramm Pneumapower 35 Compressors. At the time I had been looking for a compact engine driven air compressor for my truck project. This compressor would act as a backup onboard compressor to re-charge the air tanks on my truck should the onboard tanks run out of air before the engine starts. I had looked into a number of engine driven compressors, built by Devilbiss, Jenbach, Lindsay, Rolair and Sulair and could not find a compact solution which could deliver the volume of air that I was looking for. I stumbled across Schramm’s lineup of air compressors while looking for a Lindsay Compressor. I wanted a compressor driven by a heavy duty Wisconsin air cooled industrial engine, and Schramm had exactly what I was looking for. After searching the internet far and wide for information on Schramm’s products, I stumbled across their portable Pneumapower lineup. Schramm built two compact Pneumapower compressors, the “20” and the “35”. The “20” was a twenty cfm compressor built out of a Wisconsin VH4D engine with 3-1/4” bore and 3-1/4” stroke.

1968 Quincy Model 230-32 Compressor Rebuild

In April of 2015 I was in the market for a moderate sized industrial compressor to run my air tools, blow guns and my newly acquired Trinco blast cabinet. A friend of mine in Virginia led me onto this compressor as it was nearby and inexpensive. I was surprised to win the bid at just $180.00. The compressor was located about twenty miles away in Baldwin, New York. It came with a small 30 gallon air tank and a 3 horsepower 230 volt single phase Dyna motor. Arthur, the previous owner was able to power it up for me so that I could hear it work. Everything sounded normal despite the plumbing and wiring being an absolute mess. Arthur told me that this compressor powered the blast furnace of Merrick High School. When the 5 horsepower three phase motor that drove it burned out, the school discarded the compressor and he took the compressor head home. For this compressor to outlive a three phase motor is a testament to how overbuilt these Quincy compressors are.