Corvette Fuel Line Connected

 I've been struggling with the fuel line for the 'vette.  With the carburetor sitting on it, I either needed to replace the carb, or custom build a fuel line.  I did not want one of those "adjustable" pieces of garbage, and no one made a dual-inlet fuel feed line for a carburetor that was modified with another fuel metering block (you know, because I changed from a vacuum secondary to a full fuel secondary).

I started out with one of those $30 dual inlet adapters that claimed it would fit (9.375" between inlet centers).  It was 0.250" off, so I tried to bend it to fit, and ended up with a fuel leak in some pin holes.  It was very thin wall, cheap, and had poor results.  That went into the trash fairly quickly.

Next, I bent some solid 3/8" stainless fuel rod, and milled a "y" trunnion.  Unfortunately, it never set right.

I bought a kit from Summit Racing that supposedly fit.  I mean, it had to work, right?  It had the 9.375" center-to-center, and listed a 5/8-18" inverted flare fuel inlet.  Turns out that's what fed from the fuel line.  When Summit Racing says "fuel inlet", that's not necessarily the fuel inlet.  Yeah, it's all wrong.

My final attempt was steel rod and a T block.  It took some effort flaring and bending the setup.  However, when I was done, it all fits, and I don't have a weighted system hanging on some rubber hose that will crack faster than a password in War Games.

And, with it all connected up :

Yes, I used some heat wrap on the fuel line.  I should have used it all the way to the carburetor, but I just didn't.  Now I gotta get the battery charged, and I can give it a shot and see if she runs on her own so I can tune the carburetor, then get the engine timed, and then ensure I have the transmission set up properly.

Buffalo Bill - William Cody Museum's Simulated Shop

 I had a chance to visit the Buffalo Bill museum in Cody, Wyoming.  The best wings of the museum were the Native American wing and the Art wings - primarily because fewer people were there.  The saddle shop was good, the natural history wing was excellent, and the Buffalo Bill wing had some good stuff in it, too, such as Annie Oakley's guns, trunk, and an outfit.

They also picked up the Winchester collection of guns (from the gun manufacturer) in 1976 as a loan, but ended up with it changing ownership to the Museum in the late 80's.  Although the guns (all 4,000-displayed of the 7,000 gun collection) were cool, too, there WAS a gem in there.  Right in the middle of the wing was a simulated machine shop.  That's where we're going with this post today.

First up was a "double spindle lathe barrel driller" by Baush Machine Tool Company out of Springfield, MA (serial #5975, made around 1931).  Having "spindle lathe" between "double" and "barrel" is good because a lot of people probably thought it would make a double barrel - but it won't.  It was a production machine intended to allow two barrels to be drilled at once.  Those are long reamers on the machine - there wasn't a gun drill on it.  A drill bit for a barrel would have been a nice effect, really, but they just had reamers.

Sitting next to that was a lathe made by the Pratt & Whitney Company from Hartford, CT in 1930 (serial # 2953).  It's the one in the front.  For some odd reason, they labeled the one in the back as a turret lathe while it was the one in front.

In the back, manufactured by Builder's Iron Foundry out of Providence, Rhode Island, was what they called a turret lathe (serial # 2758 made in 1930).  Yes, those really are barrels sitting next to it on the floor.

On the other side of the simulated shop was this little gem.  It's a "multi spindle" drill press. It's missing a few quill handles (and other things).  Manufactured by the Henry & Wright Manufacturing Company out of Hartford, CT, it was serial number 15426 made around 1911).  You can potentially set it up with different drill bits in each spindle, and a single person could quickly drill out all of the necessary holes in a receiver without having to change bits until the drill bits were dull.  You guessed it, those are receivers sitting on the table.

The final piece of equipment in the "shop" was a Screw Cutting Milling Machine by Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Company in Providence, Rhode Island.  It was made in 1905.  This was one of the quickest ways to build the screws required to assemble everything.  Sure, you can cut a screw on a threading lathe, but the reality is this should be both faster and more accurate.

This was a great museum, simply for the machine shop.