Photos of customer builds of Jerry Howell designed engines, Q&A's, and other items of interest
Saturday, February 7, 2026
Thursday, January 22, 2026
Monday, September 29, 2025
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Jon Zwicker's Farmboy
Hello Allen
I just wanted to let you know that I finished my Farm Boy No. 1019 , this is the first engine I’ve ever built and I really enjoyed it. Your prints are excellent. I was a pattern maker for 30 years and it seems that there were always a few missing dimensions. Your prints were very complete !
I thought you might like to see some pictures. I haven’t painted it yet and maybe I won’t, having too much fun just watching it run!
I see in one of the photos of someone else’s engine that they built they had an oval Farm Boy plate made for the side of it. Any idea where it could possibly get something similar ?
Thanks Again
Jon
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Alan Gorlick's Farmboy (and plan changes/corrections)
Hello Allen,
Just a note to let you know that my FarmBoy engine, Serial # 1033 is finished and running well. I downloaded the plans in March this year and worked on it steadily since then. I used the buzz coil ignition with spark saver option, a standard length Rexcel plug and a 4 AA battery pack. I did depart from the plans a bit to build it as a six bolt head instead of four, just to put my own mark on the model.
The plans are excellent but I can confirm there are two errors on sheet 3. As identified by Andrew Whales in his build series on YouTube, the horizontal spacing between the crankshaft and cam shaft is 1.031" for 48DP gears, not 1.026" shown on the drawing. The other error is that the 0.325" dimension for the cam mounting pad thickness on the Rearward View should be 0.355" as confirmed by the correct 0.105" (plus 0.25") dimension for the pad shown on the Bottom View.
The engine started and ran on the very first attempt, startling me completely! The only adjustments I made was experimenting with governor spring force, initially using a rubber band to get a feel for the right tension and then making the light spring shown in the attached video link which is a short clip of the fourth run. I've raised the speed slightly with the adjusting screw in the catch lever and finished the mounting bolts with nyloc nuts etc since that clip was filmed. The only things left are the crank bearing oil cups and deciding on a paint scheme or maybe leaving it natural.
Thanks again for the quality products,
Regards
Alan Gorlick
Qld, Australia
https://www.icloud.com/photos/#/icloudlinks/09eIMdROuPz9pF8GblRNJj0Og/0
Thursday, April 13, 2023
Monday, April 10, 2023
Mark Journee's Farmboy #995
Hello Allen
Thanks again for the drawings i have finished the engine. it was a great project to make here are some pictures of the farmboy #995.
kind regards.
mark journee from the netherlands
Friday, March 17, 2023
Mark Journee's Farmboy #995 (so far)
Hello Allen
First of all thank you very much for the plans! I'm almost in love with making the parts. I've made some progress since I have some free time at the moment. I make the farm boy a little bit different from the original but here are some pictures of the engine:
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Saturday, December 3, 2022
Pat Janson's freelance Hit n Miss
It’s freelance and completely done with bar stock except for the flywheels, crankshaft and connecting rod. The flywheels are cast iron caster wheels found on EBAY, machined down to be round and concentric. The crank and rod were salvaged from an old broken sewing machine. When I saw the parts in the sewing machine I immediately decided that they would make a great engine. That was 20 years ago.
I’m retired now and finally started building it. I’m so close to starting for the first time, but am having problems with the carburetor. I’ve made 3 so far and still cant make it work. I’ll get it sooner or later.
I got the TIM 6 ignition from you and assembled that without problems .. I seem to have good spark.
I thought you’d like to see my project.
Thanks,
Pat Janson
Old Orchard Beach, Maine
Monday, December 27, 2021
Monday, May 24, 2021
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Sante Schilderman's Farmboy Class Project
Sante Schildermans from Belgium and his Hit & Miss Engine school (Wico-Campus TIO) graduation project. Ready for an ignition system.
Update June 25, 2021:
Hallo,
We didn't finish the engine due to the corona measures at school. But here's a picture of what we did get. We will continue to work on it next school year. Hopefully the engine will run. If so, I'll be sure to let you know.
Bye, greetings Sante Schildermans













































