[SEL] Arnie's Bessemer.

[Arnie Fero]

Hi John,

When the Bessemer cylinder and piston went home with Craig from Coolspring
last June, I started checking his shopwork pages about once a month.
He had told me about the work he had in the shop that was ahead of mine
and told me that it would be this spring before it would have moved to the
front of the queue.  The cylinder actually made it onto the Lucas boring
mill back on Page 34, but there was additional work on the Miller piston
that needed to be done.  Once I saw that work on the cylinder had begun in
ernest, I started to get really excited.  I asked Dolly to add a link to
Craig's shopwork page from the the Bessemer page.
http://www.oldengine.org/members/arnie/bessie.htm

That fantastic workmanship and clever solutions to problems is exactly why
the cylinder & piston are with Craig.  IMHO, he's about the best there is.

He's done a number of videos of his big engine restorations.  I think have
all of 'em.  Whenever I run into a "hard spot" with one of my engine
projects, I'll pop one of those videos in for "inspiration."  The Swan
restoration is one of my favorites because I was at Coolspring when he
loaded her on the trailer.  Man, she looked sorry.  The work he had to do
was nothing short of amazing.  There was a really nice two-part article in
GEM on that one, but for real fun, you should watch the video.

I know that I'm checking the shopwork pages daily now cos there's a lot of
work yet to go.  Minimum is the welding that you saw and a cylinder bore
and new rings.  Maybe more work, it depends on how it goes.

In putting the link up Dolly referred to it as being in "Dr. Craig's
hospital for sick engines...".  Pretty apt I'd say.  He  certainly has the
skill of a surgeon with the old iron.  And looking on, you do feel a real
connection to the "patient."  And I'm really looking forward to putting
her back together, putting fire to the hot tube, and giving her that first
tromp onto compression.

See ya,  Arnie

Arnie Fero
Pittsburgh, PA
fero_ah at city-net.com

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005, John Hammink wrote:

> Hi Arnie, have you seen the fantastic workmansship
> that Craig Prucha did on your cylinder?
>
> http://www.antique-engine.com/shopwork/shopwork36.htm
>
> I love his workshop pictures very much and the way he find
> solutions for all that different machine work.