3012 S. Catherine Street, Lansing, Michigan 48911
I saw this little air compressor for sale at the Urbana, Ohio
show in 1986. The man who had it told me he saw one just like it
made into a gas engine down in Florida. I thought if they can make
one so can I. It is a Brunner air compressor made in Utica, New
York. It has a 17/8‘ bore and a 2′
stroke. It took me two years to find the 10′ flywheels for it.
I found all the parts I needed so I started on it in October 1988.
I welded a piece of steel on one end of the crankshaft and turned
it down on my lathe. I made it undersize on the mains and made two
brass main bearings. I drilled a ?’ hole through the bearings
and put a dowel in each one. I reworked the air compressor head and
used the valves from a Lauson engine. I used the timing gears from
the same engine. I made a ?’ adapter for the head and used a 10
mm spark plug. I made a bracket to hold a model T coil inside the
base. The governor is made from scrap steel and a piece of brass.
The muffler is made from a brass knob from a horse harness. I used
a brass petcock for the choke and a needle valve from a lawn mower
and a piece of brass for the carburetor. I used silver solder and a
brass fitting and a piece of 3′ copper pipe for the gas tank. I
had a lot of fun making it. It starts and runs very nice. I will
have a lot more fun running it at the shows this summer.
