What is the oddest machine you have worked on or operated

[JasperFrank]

For me this has to be the all time oddest. It was a 1958/62 Jari walk behind sickle bar mower. Running this was barely controlled chaos. And after 15 minutes you could not feel your hands any more.... It vibrated that much. And this ran at a speed that was faster than a walk, but just slower than a run. You jogged behind it. I can't remember how many times it got away from me under power, which wasn't a problem in my remote location to other people, but it would turn on a dime, on its own, and come back at you, like an evil being. It really needed a tether kill switch.

 

[MossRoad]

YIKES!

You could see his arms shaking as soon as he started it, then off for a run he went.

 

[USMC43]

For me this has to be the all time oddest. It was a 1958/62 Jari walk behind sickle bar mower. Running this was barely controlled chaos. And after 15 minutes you could not feel your hands any more.... It vibrated that much. And this ran at a speed that was faster than a walk, but just slower than a run. You jogged behind it. I can't remember how many times it got away from me under power, which wasn't a problem in my remote location to other people, but it would turn on a dime, on its own, and come back at you, like an evil being. It really needed a tether kill switch.

I have not run a jari but I have owned a troybilt and a gravely walk behind sickle bar mower. I don't recall the troybilt manual but the gravely(as well as the BCS tractors) cautions not to operate it above 1/2 throttle. The troybilt (dad has it now) I didnt run full throttle either. If you do it feels like the whole machine is going to come apart and a gravely is probably 300 lbs heavier than the jari.

The jari would have been much better with a bigger engine running partial throttle I imagine but that would have cost more money.

 

[caver]

Probably a little like this picture below. I think ours was 40-60' long. Inside were cradles that rode like a ferris wheel chair unspooling wire through guides where down at the end it rotated into a die forming a parking brake cable conduit.
Much like wire rope but ours had a plastic tube liner in the center that the actual parking brake cable would pass though. This was Orscheln Industries. It worked fine and I never recall having to work on it.

 

[dodge man]

Kind of small but a sewer smoke blower. The attached pic is what they look like new. Ours at work was probably built in the 1970’s. It’s one of those machines that had virtually no maintenance but still always ran. I changed the oil in it a couple of times over the years. It’s basically a 3.5 hp Briggs engine hooked to a good sized furnace squirrel cage blower. You set it over a sanitary sewer, set a smoke bomb near the air inlet so it pull the smoke in. Then you walk around a look to see where the smoke comes out.

It normally comes out of the plumbing vents of houses and other manholes but sometimes you find it coming out of places it shouldn’t. I did quite a bit of smoke testing over the years and never did really like it but we often found a lot of problems.

 

[Too many Kubotas]

I'm used to the more basic Unimog, but this MB4/94 was quite a bit different.
There was even a cheat sheet on the engine cover for how to operate the multiple shifters, and in what order they had to be moved to access the three gearing ranges. I addition to the normal 4-speed, that is.

If nothing else, there physically wasn't room for one more lever between the seats. It was eight total as I recall.

Of course, I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a tunnel washer before buying this one. And to operate the washing portion and sprayers was a whole other experience.

 

[Dennis Mohn]

I'm used to the more basic Unimog, but this MB4/94 was quite a bit different.
There was even a cheat sheet on the engine cover for how to operate the multiple shifters, and in what order they had to be moved to access the three gearing ranges. I addition to the normal 4-speed, that is.

If nothing else, there physically wasn't room for one more lever between the seats. It was eight total as I recall.

Of course, I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a tunnel washer before buying this one. And to operate the washing portion and sprayers was a whole other experience.View attachment 852681

I operated a Unimog while in the C.Bs . They are a different beast and with all the different designs they can be a challenge to operate Unimog is a platform prime mover Nice

 

[Norm W]

I worked in a mattress factory for a while. It was an education. I was fixing everything from sewing machines and surgers to quilters, fork lifts and tractor trailers. The ones that I hated to work on were quilters. They take two pieces of fabric about 7 feet across, merge stuffing between them and sew a pattern across the whole width for as long as the rolls of material. They are what puts together the top and sides of mattresses. What I hated was the cutters. They are spinning discs that are razor sharp, that cut the quilt into strips. It doesn't take too many cuts to you body to give you a healthy respect for and a searing hate for those machines.

 

[kminnick]

I'm used to the more basic Unimog, but this MB4/94 was quite a bit different.
There was even a cheat sheet on the engine cover for how to operate the multiple shifters, and in what order they had to be moved to access the three gearing ranges. I addition to the normal 4-speed, that is.

If nothing else, there physically wasn't room for one more lever between the seats. It was eight total as I recall.

Of course, I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a tunnel washer before buying this one. And to operate the washing portion and sprayers was a whole other experience.View attachment 852681

I've had 2 of the UniMog 404's (still have one). Remind me of all the attachments that people made for the early Land Rovers!

 

[Too many Kubotas]

There were quite a few attachments available for early Jeeps. Unfortunately they seem to have gone extinct, and the few remaining ones are pricey.