There are lots of ways to have fun. For example, I have found a group of Bluegrass Pickers here in Morgan Hill near where we are staying. They get together a couple times a week and play Bluegrass together. Other times I have fun by volunteering at a small local Air Museum at the airport in San Martin called Wings of History. One of their restored airplanes is a Peitenpol Air Camper, a kit plane from the 1930’s. It is powered by a Ford Model “B” engine. It is nearing the end of its restoration effort. Recently a debate has been raging in the hanger around the adequacy of the oil lube system and a new improved Model “A” oil pump was secured. Last Tuesday I helped remove the engine from the Pietenpol one more time. We flipped the engine and removed the pan. We extracted the oil pump and the crew decided we needed to test the old pump compared to the new pump and see if it really was able to pump more oil. I more or less agreed to design and build a test apparatus for the pumps. Ideas were flying back and forth while I took some basic dimensions from the pumps.
Tuesday night the design began to jell as I slept on it. Wednesday afternoon Judy and I took a bicycle ride to “Just in Time Inventory,” our friendly neighborhood “Ace Store.” I had my sketch, my digital caliper and my trusty tape measure along. Judy and I wandered up and down the aisles picking PVC pipe fittings out of the bins and measuring them, fitting them together and putting them back. After about an hour we left with an assortment of pipe fittings and “O” rings.

When the museum opened for business on Thursday I grabbed my bag of parts and went to the ancient LeBlond lathe in the restoration hanger. Precision is not its middle name, but it is as solid as lots of cold steel can make it. It has a fully loaded quick change gear box. The tool cupboard is a little thin, however, and I was soon making a trip to my own shop trailer for an arm load of tools.
Since I was turning PVC I kicked the speed up and started shaping my first “O” ring carrier. It was about then that the Docent came by with some guests in tow and the gentleman came over to my work station and started Ooo’ing and Aaah-ing and photographing the lathe. Between us we decided the lathe was probably older than I am. Well I think that somehow insulted the lathe and about ten minutes later the lathe crossed its drive belts and jammed up tight. I managed to get the guard off and extracted the chewed up belts. We cross referenced the belt numbers at the local automotive store and we enlisted Judy to go lay the credit card on the counter for us and get the replacement belts on order. I got the lathe going again using the other two barely serviceable belts, but I turned the speed way down.
The project went smoothly after that and by mid afternoon I had the test assembly ready to go.

Of course it must have a name so true to aviation protocol it was named the “PMAOPTA.” That is the “(P)ietenpol (M)odel (A) (O)il (P)ump (T)est (A)pparatus.
How did the tests turn out? You ask. Well Dan and Jerry took the oil pumps and tester to a five gallon bucket of oil and Nate and I stood by with stop watches at the ready. With a drill motor to drive the pump and a quart cup to catch the discharged oil, we managed to get oil on just about everything in sight. The tests were a success. However, the new improved pump did not outperform the original pump.
What is next? Who knows, perhaps Glen will want to go sailing again this weekend. I will finish up with a quote from Dr. Seuss. “It’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” Cat in the Hat.