motmaluk
Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2013
- Messages
- 23
- Reaction score
- 13
I saw a Stuart Beam engine in poor shape advertised in Baton Rouge La. for $325 a few years back. By coincidence I was going to travel from my home in Torrance to work in Lake Charles about 70 miles away from there,so I contacted the seller and said I was coming the 1785 miles to see it. He expressed disbelief that I was coming so far but when I turned up on his doorstep 3 days later he was convinced I was serious.
The engine was rusty but complete so $300 changed hands and I took it back to Torrance California when my job finished to restore it. Incidentally he admitted he paid $25 for it at a junk shop.Lots of damaged stuff was going cheap after Katrina. I disassembled it and soaked the steel and cast iron in concrete cleaning acid,then in Cherry Coke for a week. This gave a nice gun blue type black finish. I tried generic cherry coke but that did not work,must be something in the real stuff that makes it work. I cleaned the bronze parts in white household vinegar,as an experiment I left a cent in the stuff,it disappeared in two weeks. I painted the engine and made a nice Oak plinth for it and now it sits in my living room,a happy Hurricane Katrina survivor.
The engine was rusty but complete so $300 changed hands and I took it back to Torrance California when my job finished to restore it. Incidentally he admitted he paid $25 for it at a junk shop.Lots of damaged stuff was going cheap after Katrina. I disassembled it and soaked the steel and cast iron in concrete cleaning acid,then in Cherry Coke for a week. This gave a nice gun blue type black finish. I tried generic cherry coke but that did not work,must be something in the real stuff that makes it work. I cleaned the bronze parts in white household vinegar,as an experiment I left a cent in the stuff,it disappeared in two weeks. I painted the engine and made a nice Oak plinth for it and now it sits in my living room,a happy Hurricane Katrina survivor.
