Soon after I started collecting engines, I found I needed a way to mount them for display. I use lawyer’s bookcases with added glass shelves for my display cases. Engines sitting at all angles or laying helter-skelter don’t make a nice presentation. Engines look nice on custom stands, but these stands consume a lot of space and can be expensive and time consuming to construct. I saw the bent wire stands some people were using in Ebay presentations and tried them, but I found they were too unstable. A ham handed insertion or removal of an engine would often knock over a whole row. Another problem with stands was the extra height they created. I had just enough space between my shelves to clear the larger engines. Adding height would mean eliminating a shelf and I just couldn’t afford to lose the space.
As I was trying different solutions, my collection was growing. I really needed to find a solution. It dawned on me if I had a way to keep the engine upright, I could just sit it on the shelf. Looking around in my local hardware store, I found nylon standoffs, ¼” dia cylinders with a through hole and they came in several different lengths. I could bolt one standoff to one corner of the engine mount using a self tapping sheet metal screw into the standoff. With the right standoff length, the engine sat very nice and stable on the shelf. The engines look better to me and are more stable if they are leaning, but they all must be leaning the same amount.
This worked pretty well for the larger engines, 59s, 60s, 74s, & 78s, but the standoffs were too long for the smaller engines. Also, to get all the engines leaning at the same angle, standoff lengths were needed that weren’t available. With over a hundred engines, cutting them to length was a real pain. Also, I found to my dismay, that the heads of the metal screws left a slight mark on the lug. You fellow collectors know this really detracts from an otherwise perfect engine, however slight.
My epiphany came when I was looking for nylon washers (to protect the engine lugs) in the Micro Fasteners (http://www.microfasteners.com/) catalog. They have a whole line of nylon products, washers, nuts, and bolts. Why not just use a nylon bolt and nut in the mounting lug, cut off to the desired length? It works great! The pictures show the bolt and nut on a 35 and on a 60. The picture of the display case shows how nice and orderly the engines present.
I’ve found I need 2x56 bolts and nuts for the 049s through the 15s, 4x40s for 19s through 40s, and 6x32 for the 45 and larger engines. It turns out I need about 20 basic lengths depending on the case family. For instance one length works for all the Fox stunt 19s, 201, 25s, 29s, and 35s. Did I mention I collect Foxes? The nylon bolts and nuts leave no marks and are easily cut with toe nail clippers. No cutting bolts with abrasive wheels or cutting nylon spaces with razor saws.
And last but not least, the hardware is cheap! 2x56, 4x40, and 6x32 bolts are all about $2.50 for 50. Nuts are about the same price. Micro Fasteners are on the web, always have a huge display at Toledo, or can be reached at:
MICRO FASTENERS
24 Cokesbury Rd Suite 2, Lebanon, NJ 08833
Phone: (800) 892-6917, (908) 236-8120 Fax: (908) 236-8721
Bill Mohrbacher