[SEL] From a newsgroup: Lookin For: Crank for 1.5hp Economy

[jlb94 at juno.com]

Hi Steve,

I have no idea how old you are or even, what you look like.
However, I must value you as a friend.
I'm 61 and this old iron is getting heavier every year.

There has been much discussion on the list about hand cranks.
I had 2 in my lifetime.  I now have only one for my Stover CT-1.
I have NEVER used a hand crank to start a flywheel engine.

Last September at the Stumptown Steam Threshers Reunion, in New Athens,
Ohio a man with a trailer full of engines ( a seasoned veteran ) was
starting one of them on the trailer with a hand crank.  For some reason
the engine misfired and the hand crank came around and hit the guy in the
side of his face.  
It broke his jaw and cheek bones.  His head sweld up so bad his eye
popped out.
He was taken to the local hospital in Ohio and later flown to a hospital
in Pittsburgh so they could operate.

I have NEVER used a hand crank to start a flywheel engine.

My Witte is my hardeset starting engine and I run it on kerosene.
When it misfires and kicks backwards, when starting,  that engine jumps
up in the air and reminds me of the power that is transferred to the
flywheel.  

I have NEVER used a hand crank to start a flywheel engine.

Real simple - IT'S TOO DAMN DANGEROUS !!!

If you want it for DISPLAY PURPOSES ONLY - - - GREAT !!!
But you said "Yanking on the flywheel to start it is getting old fast!"

I have NEVER used a hand crank to start a flywheel engine.

Joe "Pip" Betz said that. 
jlb94 at juno.com - - - www.oldengine.org/members/betz
 ,-._,-.          http://community.webshots.com/user/pipbetz
 \/)"(\/        
 (_o_)          "Management is the art of getting other people to do all
the work."