have engine, need project idea

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a friend of mine gave me his old lawn mower because he did not want to take it when he moved.  i have no use for the mower, so i figured i would just take the motor off it and make something cool.  i was thinkin about maybe a little go cart to putt around on in the camp sites when i go four wheeling, but i really have no idea where to start.  anyone else have any ideas for a cool use of this free engine?  any ideas or plans of some sort to maybe start my go cart idea?thanks
Reply:im assuming its a riding mower...if its a lawnmower and you plan on building a racing mower out of it, be prepared to spend a little $$$. i had a 22hp vertical shaft mower i wanted to convert, i was going to put in a peerless 700 with belt reduction pulley on top, and get all new gears for the case. but i was looking at over $300 in parts i decided to just fix it and keep using it to mow the grass(havnt used it in almost 3 years now). if you build them right they will haul tail. youll also need to look into brakes, foot accelorator, as well as probably upgrading all the wheel bearings for high speed use. most the lawn mowers i have used were designed to go slow, and thus have plastic bearings on the front wheels. you start going real fast and that plastic will melt away....then you can start to mod out the engine with aftermarket parts and see whats its true potential is. i found a few forums based around mower racing and one had a lot of information reguadring transmission modification and motor modificaiton. ill see if i can dig it up.if you get a chance take a few pics so we can see what your working with.I break things for a living...
Reply:no, its not a riding mower.  not looking for anything fast or fancy, just want it to putt around on.  its got a 5.5hp briggs and stratton.  really just want something to go to the bathroom and back or around the campsite at the sand dunes.  think of it as a novelty idea, kinda like the motorized cooler on wheels or the motorized toilet or something pointless like that.
Reply:I had a motorized toilet from Chrysler with a Cummins in it. It was pretty pointless aswell. Good luck on your project. Let us know how it goes. MmontMiller 250ntMiller 225gMillermatic 252Miller 12vsMiller spectrum 375Lincoln weld pak 140And a lot of other stuff
Reply:if its 5.5 im guessing its a vertical shaft? you will have to figure out a way to transfer the rotating motion from vertical to horizontal. or figure out how to make a transmission to it.I break things for a living...
Reply:Try this:Half way down the page (golf carts/go carts)....http://www.countryplans.com/vintage_farm/page5.htmlYou'll have a chuckle at some of the designs, but you should be able to borrow a few ideas for the mechanicalsIf you don't want to stand behind our Troops, feel free to stand in front of them.
Reply:A friend accomplished this task when he built a go-kart/dune buggy using an 8 HP engine.  He wasn't impressed with its performance until he changed the original carb to a "rough road" carb.  The mower carbs do well at slow speeds as the bumps are taken rather gently. At 40 mph, the new "rough road" carb eliminated the spitting and sputtering induced by the terrain.  Perhaps you will have to do the same?
Reply:thanks for the input guys.  after some research, this vertical shaft engine looks like it might be more of a pain in the *** than its worth.  found a go cart forum with lots of info and help on the matter.  now i have the itch to actually build one so i might have to actually buy the stuff to do it instead of my original plan of piecing it all together from spare/extra stuff...  we'll see.thanks
Reply:Motorized bar stool, my brother has one and its a hoot!
Reply:why not make a small hovercraft with a long handle to get your gear into and out of the campsite or dunes?
Reply:You can always mount a car alternator face down though a hole in the mower deck, run a belt across the motor and alternator pulleys and have a GREAT source of 12 volts at 100 amps.  Good for charging batteries and running 12 volt devices.  Youtube has lots of them.  You just have to make a plate for the alternator to mount to, so you can adjust the tension on the belt.Miller Syncrowave 350Millermatic 252/ 30A spoolgunMiller Bobcat 225g w/ 3545 spoolgunLincoln PowerArc4000Lincoln 175 Mig  Lincoln 135 Mig Everlast 250EX TigCentury ac/dc 230 amp stickVictor O/AHypertherm 1000 plasma
Reply:Where was it I saw a plan for a makeshift lawn mower tig welder, using an alternator like that?  When I was about 10 years old I found two old lawn mowers out in the woods.  I dragged them home and dreamed of building a miniature tank (yes, like a Sherman) out of them.  Never got started on it, so my little brother, about 8-9 years old at the time, got one of the mowers running and sold it to a neighbor.  He is still good with stuff like that.Buy yourself an old riding lawn mower with a horizontal shaft motor.  You can pick them up cheap - under $100 if you keep your eyes open.  You might even find a neighbor with a junk one out back of their house for free.  The motors are generally in pretty decent shape, but the owners just didn't know how to keep them tuned up and running.  They are often in the 8-12 hp range and are suitable for anything from go carts to....tanks!  It has to be an old one, though, because most of the newer ones have vertical shaft motors.TonyMiller Maxtron 300Miller Spoolmatic 3Victor Journeyman II"Twern't my ignorance done me in, but what I knowed that wasn't so."  Uncle Tom's Cabin
Reply:Originally Posted by zotdocwhy not make a small hovercraft with a long handle to get your gear into and out of the campsite or dunes?
Reply:there was a guy who built personal hover crafts from lawnmower engines on discovery.http://www.instructables.com/id/Hovercraft/Here learning to turn down the Suck...
Reply:I vote for the hovercraft it was my initial idea
Reply:an alternator on a belt will give ya 12v    but if you use a 1/2 - 1 hp single or 3 phase induction motor it will produce a very healthy 110/220 voltage output depending on setup when ran with  capacitors in paralell.Realgear 140 MIGMore DeWalt tools that I prolly needDIY 160 amp 40 OCV MOT Stick Welder
Reply:if you just want to putt around get a trans axle from an old vertical shaft riding mower, you can increase the top speed by using a bigger pulley on the engine. you could probably find an old rider with this set up somewhere cheap or free. it may come with a bigger engine anyway. These mowers have more power than they need for forward driving forward because they have to have enough power to drive the mower deck any way. You can double or even triple the forward speed of one of these mowers simply with a bigger pulley on the engine and a longer belt. then its up to you if you want to mount the drive train to a homemade chassis or just use the mower chassis as is. be careful of the high center of gravity with the higher top speed though.
Reply:Here is some idears. http://www.xtrememowermayhem.com/
Reply:I saw the the lawn mower as a welder in "The Mother Earth News".These induction generators work well.:http://www.qsl.net/ns8o/Induction_Generator.htmlLots of things to do with the things, they just need a fly wheel to run really well.
Reply:Originally Posted by BlueweldersI saw the the lawn mower as a welder in "The Mother Earth News".These induction generators work well.:http://www.qsl.net/ns8o/Induction_Generator.htmlLots of things to do with the things, they just need a fly wheel to run really well.
Reply:I want to throw in my two cents worth and agree with the earlier poster who mentioned changing the flywheel.  Lawnmowers depend on having a blade to act as the flywheel and have only aluminum flywheels on the magneto end of the crank shaft.  Engines used for roto-tillers generally have cast iron flywheels.  There used to be a problem with older briggs engines, you had to make sure that your flywheel had the right number of magnets to agree with the magneto mounted to the engine. It meant that you could not go from a two legged to a three legged magneto.  If you try to start an aluminum flywheel engine with out the blade, it will tend to pull your arm out at the shoulder joint because of the compression stroke.  It will also be very subject to stalling if it missfires.  So, get a heavy pulley, or just stay with a side shaft engine is my suggestion.
Reply:A friend and I made a racing mower a few years back with an 8 hp B&S. If it is a vertical shaft, if you can find a mower from the 70s or early 80s, they have a transmission that converts from vertical to horizontal output (not transaxle). The early-mid 70s trannys shift almost as smooth as a car. It was back in '95 but we were suprised at how many of the old mowers people were trying to give to us. We dropped down a late 80s Craftsman to about 3" off the ground and it looked pretty bitchin'. I would recommend a carb off of a 250-350cc dirtbike. The stock type carbs are what kills the throttle response.
Reply:well, after some research, i have decided to make a gokart.  wanted to do a hovercraft, but it seems like that will involve a little more cash to do properly.  also, i decided to get a 6.5hp horizontal shaft instead of the vertical one i have now.  might use it to make a generator of sort as mentioned earlier, but that will be later.  found a good site for gokart stuff if anyone is looking for something to tinker with.  working on drawign a frame right now.  www.diygokarts.com/vb is the site.  the flywheel issue is addressed on there as well.  thanks for the input and i will start a thread when i start the frame for the kart.
Reply:I am building a gokart myself this winter. It's a father son project and hope to teach my boy a little fab and welding. After doing a lot of research I have gathered some good info from friends and the internet. Here is a link to one site I think os pretty cool for explaining the basics on designing. Hope it helpshttp://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Bui...ame&id=1629413Miller DVI2Lincoln Precision Tig 225Thermodynamics Cutmaster 38Everything else needed.
Reply:DIYKarts.com ...... good stuff.  I'm on there occasionally, checking out the karts and minibikes and choppers.