There are so many stories of spun bearing 3/S motors out there, it's quite saddening. What's worse is, many of those cranks were just scraped. Most scrap yards will give you $10-$20 at the MOST for a complete engine. Almost not even worth scrapping...
Well... Another project I'm working on is turning the crank from my coffee table into a lamp for my apartment. Here's the story on the coffee table
The idea is simple. Take the crank, bolt the flywheel to it and weld a piece of lamp rod to the front end.
Here it is assembled.
http://imgur.com/kWWbN.jpg
http://imgur.com/MUObP.jpg
I had so many used flywheel bolts it was maddening. At least here they could be useful!
http://imgur.com/FrLLL.jpg
Lamp rod welded in place. Next time, I'll chop off the crank pulley bolt, put it in a lathe, drill a half inch hole in the center, and tap it for the lamp rod. The weld didn't come out as good as I was hoping. Even after sanding it down to look better...
http://imgur.com/4pgVE.jpg
Here it is after a night in the oven at 850 degrees to burn off all the oils.
http://imgur.com/Re4tw.jpg
Masking tape covered with 4 layers of duct tape protect the lap rod from the blaster.
http://imgur.com/1JTKD.jpg
Here they are wrapped in plastic with 2 incandescent bags to keep the moisture from rusting the steel. Ready for powdercoating!
http://imgur.com/evJxK.jpg
The crank lamp will be coated the same color as the engine coffee table.

