Fairbanks-Morse-powered Myers pump

The cart consists of steel wheels and axles with hub nuts - we wanted to avoid the 'cotter pin appearance' that's so prevalent on carts. The wheels were hand-bent from shallow-channel steel and butt-welded at the joint; the spokes are 1/2-inch steel rod, and the 4-inch-long, 4-inch-diameter wooden hubs were turned from wood on a lathe and fitted with bronze bearing sleeves. The spokes are pressed into the wooden hubs and welded to the steel rims.

The road to restoration got rough again when we decided to make this a working display with water pumping in a cycle - constantly recirculating the water from the pump to the reservoir.

We built a pump cylinder using plastic pipe and flapper valves, and then we installed it in the base of the well pump.

Next, we located an old galvanized tub, placed it between the pump and engine, and plumbed it to the pump. We hit some snags here, as we discovered we needed two pipe unions to assemble the plumbing. It took a lot of cutting and testing, but we finally got a watertight system.

A wooden trough leading from the spigot back to the tub completed the job. After we did a little work on the magneto and carburetor, the FM ran at a nice, quiet idle, and when belted to the pump jack it effortlessly ran the rig and maintained a reliable flow of water.

The payoff
We recently exhibited our pump rig at a local strawberry festival, and it was a real attention-getter. We believe in working exhibits, as they attract plenty of people and educate them in an entertaining way about the way things used to be done. So now this retired pump is back at work, only this time it's pleasing crowds at antique shows instead of pleasing livestock at the water trough.

Contact antique machinery enthusiast Kirk Unzelman at: 4635 130th Ave. S.E., Bellevue, WA 98006, Mike intlekofer is also interested in antique engines and related machinery, and can be reached at: 4472 119th Ave. S.E., Bellevue, WA 98006.