So because of the space constraints inside the old frame (and also because availability of suitably sized pieces of metal is sometimes a factor in what I build with), I opted to make the new frame out of 3×8″ rectangular tubing with a 3/16″ wall (instead of the 3×6″ — same wall thickness — that the old frame had been made out of). Even if I’d stuck with the smaller box, the new frame would still have started with a reminder of why I was reluctant to start over until the old frame was truly unworkable: facing is a slow and tedious operation.

A fresh piece of rectangular tubing like this:

needs to be shimmed on the first side (so it won’t bend when clamped or rock on the table when it’s being machined), loosely aligned (I was facing with a fly cutter that had an effective diameter just large enough to cover the face of the tube in 2 passes — but only if the workpiece was reasonably well-aligned) and clamped down.
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So a while back Candy Cane’s Atomic 4 started belching oil-burning smoke, and eventually failed to start. Given the timeline of that failure, it’s a pretty safe bet that the piston rings and the cylinder wall were no longer properly isolating the cylinder from the crankcase, and that the scope of work involved in fixing it would be close enough to a rebuild (also there were enough leaks, loose-fitting couplings, etc.) that it may as well get rebuilt.

I figured that for the cost to order all the parts I’d need for a rebuild, I could probably just get a Moyer rebuild and save myself a lot of time, but that was pretty expensive, and I’d had a hankering to repower to electric for over a decade. As luck would have it, I was soon to learn that I could probably get an Electric Yacht motor for about the cost of a Moyer rebuild — but I could also possibly put something together myself for a few thousand less (assuming that my time is worth nothing — more more accurately, that I’d enjoy the work enough for its value not to be an issue). On top of all this, I’d had an opportunity to take a look at an Electric Yacht motor, and found it to be a remarkably simple piece of machinery: just an electric motor driving a shaft via a belt.
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