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• Article published in Belt Pulley Magazine — It sounded like an old locomotive. Chug, chug, chug chug. Chug, chug, chug, chug. But instead of a train pulling into a depot, the big black behemoth was a 10-ton diesel engine wowing spectators at the 39th annual Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Show. Anyone who has ever attended the popular exhibition at Portland, Ind.'s, Jay County Fairgrounds undoubtedly has seen the 1923 Model YV diesel engine built by Fairbanks-Morse. The 100-horsepower, two-cycle, two-cylinder engine is quite a prize, with its 2-ton, 4-foot-diameter flywheel and two pistons measuring 14 inches in diameter each.
• February
1, 2005 — A new enterprise
has entered cyberspace. On Feb. 1, 2005, the makers of Rustbeeter™
launched their website, www.rustbeeter.com, to spread the word about
a natural way to remove rust from ferrous metal collectibles and assist
current customers with questions they might have. A byproduct of the
sugar beet-refining process, Rustbeeter™ is an environmentally
safe and easy way to remove rust. The same property that allows the sugar
beet to draw iron from the soil enables Rustbeeter™ to remove iron
oxide (rust) from steel, cast iron, chrome and other metals except aluminum.
• How it all began — Peter Spangler found a fist-size bolt in a box of odds and ends he bought for a buck at a farm auction. The journeyman machinist wanted to use it as a paperweight, but the 3-pound bolt was just too rusty to clean without damaging the delicate threads or its black-oxide surface.
"I found a treasure, but it sat on my workbench for 20 years," he said.
Then Spangler recalled once hearing about a folk remedy using beet molasses to clean metal. Now a couple years later, he has a perfectly restored bolt on his workbench and a new rust-removal business -- Rustbeeter(TM) -- on the side.
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