Restoring a National Oil Well Pump Jack with a Hit-and-Miss Engine 

Very interesting! I grew up in PA. We had lots of coal and heavy equipment. I never thought about the oil fields. This video is so cool!

Very inspiring! Thank you!

I need one of those! I don’t know why but I need one!

That's fantastic, thank you for bringing us along. Would love to have one of those in my front yard.

That is an awesome piece of yard art! Well done! 👍

I use to deer hunt in Michigan in the early 70’s and I would hear the old hit and miss motors running, it sounded like a heart beating slowly.

Very cool. Always glad to see old iron saved from the scrap heap.

I don't know why, but RU-vid keeps recommending all these oil well videos, and frankly, I'm hooked! I love it, and love to see these machines running, and now to see a tiny little pump being restored, has inspired me to seek out some materials and build a working imitation, just to install it along the side of the driveway to our farmyard. It sounds crazy, I know, but just idea of something mechanical, and animated, really appeals to me. Thank you for the inspiration 🤠😊

Ill tell you what, for only having 1k subscriber's your video/editing/composition quality is better then 75% of channels with 100k subscribers... And for lawn decor you rebuilt that thing better then it was new!! Your passion shine's through in the quality of all you do!!!👍👍👍

I used to show up to location early in the morning to tear down long term shut in pumping units, load them onto trucks, and then install them onto newly drilled wells. I'm talking about pump jacks that ran for 20+ years with minimal maintenance and have the client expecting them to perform like a newly purchased unit on the new wells. My buddy used to say the only tools he needed to get a pump jack running were a sledge hammer, a 36 inch crescent wrench, and a cutting torch. Countless times we ended up in the oil company's bone yard picking bearings or weights like it was a pick-and-pull. Building cribs, filling them with sand, packing them down, using levels to ensure the cement pad sat perfectly flat, etc. The most frustrating part was after you finally got the old pumping unit running working on the new well, you had to sit and wait for fluid to finally hit surface before you could balance the counterweights. These were 2500lb+ weights you needed a knuckle picker to adjust and hope you hit the right balance before you could finally say it was time to go home. Setting pump jacks on oil producing wells is back breaking work.

“Iron mosquitoes suck the blood from the ground..” - Guy Forsyth That’s some right good work, Jay. Nice lathe, too. 73, de KB5SHC - Jeremy

Great video ! 👍

I like oil Wells too

Boy, she is a thing of beauty!

very good guy. i'm envious

I love pumping units too

Thank you for the fabulous video. It was enjoyable to watch.

As retired oil well pumper, I would love to have one of these in my yard! Awesome job of resurrecting and presenting our industry.

Love the yard art. I want a Small 1/4 scale one in my rock garden.

Came out great! Impressive restoration.

3:58 Horrible freight, That's new one to me! I've heard them referred to as Hazardous Freight many times before. A neighbor with awesome, & unusual yard art like this......that's teh kind of neighbor I want!

That is a very good setup. I rework bearings on this size and smaller pumpjacks and it’s amazing how worn these bearings can get. You did an excellent job on the saddle bearing. Thanks for sharing. The yellow dogs were an added bonus!

HAPPY THREE-SCORE-AND-TEN, YOU OLD GEEZER, YOU!!!

Best 73's from Sweden =)

Well iam sure you’ve heard of oil city Pa I have a camp near oil creek, I’ve always wanted to make a piece of yard art out of an old pump jack. What a beautiful project.

Very cool to watch! My step dad likes to restore old engines, I love seeing old things spark up a new life! Looking forward to the subscription 🍻

Great informative video and your restored unit is great. I have several I tinker with. I still need to get some Larkin or casing heads set like yours. 👍

Nice show, I have never worked or even been up close to an oil well so this video was very informative.

Looks great! Fun restoration job.

The mild steel part you made is far superior to the casting it replaced. Nice work!

Love the video really enjoyed the video on your weekend visit you have some really awesome friends!!

I had to laugh at "Horrible Freight" comment!

Dude!!!!!

I am entranced! Since my little brother is a petroleum engineer for Conoco Phillips, I have always been intrigued by the search for and production of oil and gas. What a neat piece of yard art! The only way it could be any better is if there were some scale size storage tanks nearby adorned with J&L Oil signs.

Love thus project! You did an excellent job on the restoration and setting it up in the yard is awesome. I want to do the same thing at my place. Not any old pump jacks around in Central Indiana though. I do have a 25 hp Bessemer engine I'd like to hook to a power or something in the future.

The next step is to get somebody to drill a hole about 20 feet deep and set casing. Then you can install a short rod pump and actually pump watered tinted with dye and dump it in a barrel next to it. Then put a pipe about halfway up it draining back into the casing to recycle the water. You can get creative by bring the drain out of the bottom of the barrel and hide or bury the drain piping back to the casing just below ground level to make it more realistic.

Nice restoration. I'd like a pump jack in my yard but the homeowners association would not share my enthusiasm. Keep pumping that imaginary oil !

Having watched three of your videos, each of which demonstrated your genius. This begs the question: Is there anything you can’t do? :)

Fella, let me tip my hat off to you Jay. This has been a great educational video for me. I know Texas is know for oil and gas. I bet you do not know what else the state is famous for ??? Let me help you out, guys with round bellies. Look forward to seeing more great videos from you Sir. Peace vf

Very "well" done in all aspects. 73 - K0FTB

Another excellent video! I love the joke at the end about one drop of oil.

Ive Never seen one for real on my entire life i lived in Canada

You could probably run a water well pump with one of these.

👍👍👍

Nice work. 73 N2XEV

If you had a hill you could try build a central power. (Look it up, truly fascinating)

That might be "Petrolia" NE of Wichita Falls. My kids graduated from high school in Petrolia.

alll i want is ONE GOOD OIL WELL... 20 bbl/day of extra light crude oil , enuf gas to keep the yard light... for the whole block... burning and no water. all in the back yard. pumping a few hours a day. i wud go keep it company, talk to it, paint it, clean it, grease it, change the gearbox oil every... 500 hours? simplest thing in the world . good that the gearbox was in good shape... and u cld get a seal for $3. the saddle bearing looks like a LOT OF work but u got it

Was the original purpose of the yellow dog burners just for light back in the day??

What brand and model does the jack pump have?

I need a small well head for my national unit… could you find me one?

All my Oil wells are dry

Yet another expected example of Jay's thoroughly anal attention to detail, craftsmanship and precision! However: One cannot help but note the lack a standard Texas Railroad Commission well identification sign (assumed to be named, "Miller #1" with location (Spanish Land Grant system) and operator), a tank battery for both oil and salt water, and a separator and a flare. Lack of industry-standard site preparation is also noted. (Where was the mud pit?) I can hardly wait for a follow-up report of BOPD production! (By the way, how many quarts of Nitro did you shoot to open up the formation? Our biggest one was 8,000 qts. back in the '40s.) Quite extraordinary and nice work, Jay! Insofar as it goes... But now ya' gotta get it into production! P.S.: And by the way, wish you'd a-told me that you needed a hydraulic press. Would'a made you deal that you couldn't refuse - mine looks identical to what you got [except for the color]...

My only disappointment is you didn't make it functional and have it pump water for a water feature.

Get some raw petroleum to put on it for smell effect.