Sunday, April 21, 2013

This is the tailings elevator for a 1921 Advance Rumely Ideal theshing machine that is owned by the Manitowoc County Historical Society, Wisconsin.  This is a repair/repaint that I am doing.  Enough of the original paint was on it to use a utility knife to trace all the pinstripes and stenciling before stripping.  I'm using an alkyd enamel primer with two coats of solid stain and then 1-3 coats of spar varnish as a top coat.  Three coats are being applied where the decals (available from Maple/Hunter decals) will go to provide a smooth, bubble free surface.  Numerous repairs due to raccoon damage and an apparent accident had to be done to get it back into shape.  All new drive belts have been made and freeing up all the moving parts were part of the job.  This machine, which is the forerunner to the combine, could thresh up to 800 bushels of wheat in a  10 hour day (a modern combine can do that in 1 hour), requiring a minimun of a 5 person crew besides the tractor operator.  It is constucted of white oak for the frame rails, maple for the pitman arms and cyprus for the main body.  There will be about 200 hours of labor to complete this job and $500 worth of primer, stain, decals and belt splicing.

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