[SEL] Portland report

[Spencer Yost]

  Where do I even start?   The show was great, the weather was great and 
most amazingly - THE BALL RUNS!   Between my ignorance and bum arm, I 
absolutely would not even have come close to getting this thing to start 
without the generous help of a bunch of people.   So let me start this 
message by thanking them:

Brice Adams - Stalwart friend and full-time Ball mechanic that did not 
let up for a minute helping me with the engine.  He literally spent 
hours every day helping me.

Devin Holland - Its great to have a teenager to help with the tough 
jobs(and he helped with that too), but Devin is more than that.   He is 
delightful bright young man that knows more about old engines than I 
do!(I hope I spelled your first name right???).  He helped for hours 
every day too.

Curtis Holland - He provided a lot of help and guidance, especially 
during bearing shimming.

Steve Weber - Oilfield engine engineer extraordinaire who was able to 
operate the engine so well the engine popped and ran almost immediately 
on its first firing and later taught me to run this engine.

Keith Kinney - Another engine guru that helped at every turn and 
provided all manner of help and guidance and starting assistance (and 
tool rental (-:  )

Steve Sewell and Tim Brown - Without these two guys letting me borrow 
their golf carts, I would have wasted hours walking to and fro in the 
swap area and to downtown Portland

SEL engine list members:   Just about everyone in the engine area helped 
in one way or another - Arnie provided tools, Dave gave me some supplies 
and advice, several lent strong arms to provide starting power (Luke 
Tonnenberger deserves special mention here) and more.   Thank you folks 
VERY MUCH.

AT tractor folks - Gene Dotson constantly checked in and provided moral 
support.   Several helped to locate items in the swap area and the rest 
provided generous and wise counsel (and beer!)

Tri-state:   For providing such a great show and the propane.

Ackers - Taylor Plumbing, Portland IN - They cheerfully and quickly 
ordered pipe and fittings and threaded custom length pipe for me.


In other words, this was a group effort and represents the best of what 
technology and the Internet can do.   I thank all of you from the bottom 
of my heart and hope to see all of you next year.   Here is a quick 
video of it running Friday night.   I am working on long video that 
Brice took, but the video is way too large for You-tube and my web site 
and will get that to you folks as soon as I can manage to figure out how 
to edit it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Vw9OpXLNo


With very warm regards,

Spencer Yost