Excelsior Springs has so many good people! Each week we select a citizen (or citizens) from Excelsior Springs to highlight the impact they have on our community. Click here to nominate someone for the Citizen Spotlight!
Stan Ellerbeck is many things Class A machinist, inventor, collector, father, husband, and Excelsior Springs citizen. Being in Stan’s shop is a whirlwind of sights, smells, and stories. Stan worked for more than – years at Midwest Hanger in Liberty, MO designing machines and helping to operate a factory that manufactured hangers, yes, but also much more. “Would you believe I made a machine that made fly swatter handles? It made 110 fly-swatter handles per minute!” Stan said with a chuckle as he handed over a bottle and said “take a whiff of that!.” Cedar oil, is used for many things from Chanel N°5 to Dial soap and Stan helped build a factory that produced the oil. While working for Midwest Hanger he also helped innovate several new designs including the strut hanger (the wire hanger with the little cardboard tube) which became a mainstay in department stores and dry cleaners around the world.
With childlike joy and enthusiasm, Stan tours his shop pulling things from drawers and shelves, opening small oil-stained boxes, and handing them over for inspection, partly as a test to see if you can guess what the items are, but more so, to share his vast wealth of knowledge. Stan said he had a rough childhood and his father made sure to put him to work at an early age. He claims that by the time he was around 10 years old he could completely rebuild the engine of his family car. He said he dreamt of the day he could strike out on his own, so he worked especially hard to ensure he could build something better for himself. Gifted with a keen sense of retention, Stan taught himself to speed read, “800-words per minute!” he exclaims. He said he would often visit the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, which is listed as “one of the world’s foremost independent research libraries devoted to science, engineering, and technology.” And, meeting Stan you might believe that he’d read every book on the shelves.
Before Stan retired he began pursuing one of his many hobbies, rebuilding antique gas engines, sometimes called “hit and miss engines.” These types of engines were produced from the 1870s through approximately the 1940s. According to Gas Engine Magazine, “the hit and miss name came from the speed control on the engines, that fire, or “hit” only when operating at or below a set speed, and cycle without firing “miss” when they exceed their set speed.” Most of these style engines utilize a large flywheel system to perpetuate the motion of the engine, which can be very dangerous, as Stan found out. About 10 years ago Stan had a close call with one of the engines he’d rebuilt and it scared him so badly that within a week he had sold all of the large old engines he’d spent years acquiring and rebuilding, but he didn’t call it quits altogether.
Stan’s main “hobby” (he has many) has become building smaller replicas of engines from raw materials. Every piece is designed, machined, and cast to Stan’s precise specifications. Opening a small box Stan gently lays a shiny silver part on his workbench, a centrifugal governor, made entirely by Stan himself. “I made every bit of it,” he smiled. Stan points out the tiny nuts and bolts and demonstrates the intricate movements of the small piece. The craftsmanship is spectacular, machinery yes but by any other name it would be called art. Larger pieces such as flywheels he constructs from wood and then works with his fellow engine enthusiasts to have the parts made of sand-cast iron. Each engine can take several years to build from start to finish.
The only thing that brings Stan more pride than his machining or his antique collections is his family. He said he’s proud of all of the many accomplishments of his children and grandchildren and looks forward to seeing them as often as he can. His wife, Diana, has been preparing a big meal for their weekly family get-together, and the wonderful smells of a lovingly prepared meal drift out into the shop overpowering the engine oil. As Stan walks out to the driveway he points out all of the many things he’s built by hand. Excelsior Springs is a community full of talented and unique individuals each with their own special gifts and abilities. Take some time to visit with the people around you and get to know them, you never know what stories you may uncover!
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