I'm really glad Dave and I can now finally talk about this. We've been keeping this quiet for it seems a very long time.
But maybe a bit of backround about this new/old engine that without everything happening just as it did, this Marine Engine as a casting set wouldn't be available to anyone. Or at least very soon we hope it will be available.The internet gets a great deal of bad press, and a lot of it is I guess well justified. But it can also work very, very well for something just like this engine. But I do want to make it 100% clear, neither Dave or myself have any commercial interest at all in this engine.
Due to a casting supplier in the U.K. that ripped me off for a set of castings for the M.E. Beam, I ended up hearing of another person in the San Francisco bay area who was also having major issues with the same supplier. He and I started emailing back and forth, and I have I think learned a very large amount from him about stationary and marine steam. He also got me more than interested in those early marine steam engines, and sent me a link to Historic Models and Reproductions since he had just bought a set of castings from Dennis, and he also knew I was interested in the Corliss valved engines. Shortly after that I then purchased a set of L&B Corliss castings from Dennis and was more than very impressed with the overall casting quality, drawings, and even how Dennis handled my order. Since that time Dennis and I have remained in touch, and I'd like to think we've become good friends who just haven't met yet. At around that time I ran across a link for Elliot Bay, and spotted there small pictures of a version of this Compound that might have been done from the old Clarkson? produced castings in the U.K. Dave has used those pictures of that engine in his first post on this thread as bait
I then tried to order a set of castings from Elliot Bay. They weren't available at that time, and I'm assuming that's still the case since they haven't let me know there now available despite numerous past emails. Also around the same time I bought a pretty complete collection of Model Engineer magazines from 1898-1960's, and then ran across the write up for this compound that was done in those magazines that Dave has mentioned. That just made me want a set of those now unobtainable castings even more.
I'd guess it was also right around the same time I was trying to get castings from Elliot Bay that Dave was also doing the exact same thing, and getting the same results as myself. The very large difference between He and I? He's one hell of an excellent commercial designer, machinist, and more than very experienced with the commercial quality Solidworks CAD program. And you can then add to that a deep interest and appreciation of both Stationary and Marine steam. All of that togeather has to be more than a very rare combination today. So after I spotted his very first drawings for the compound in this thread, I then pmed him, and we began emailing back and forth. I think we've now both become very good friends who again just haven't met yet. But I never forgot about, and I still kept wanting a set of those castings. So due to the quality of my L&B Corliss castings, I again thought of Dennis and his company. By almost random chance, I decided to scan a drawing of this engine from one of those old Model Engineer magazines, or I emailed him the Elliot Bay pictures asking him to consider it as a casting kit for his company. I'm a little unsure now exactly what I did email him for drawings or pictures.
But funny enough he'd seen a couple sets of castings in the past that were obtained from the U.K. many many years ago for the original version of this compound engine. But those original casting kits are now no longer available. But luckily he did know of this engine, and had also been at that time seriously thinking of adding some type of marine engine to his company's lineup of casting kits. We then started to email back and forth quite a bit until he was just about committed to doing this engine, but he was also thinking of and a bit concerned about all the work it would take just to do the drawings from scratch. I then thought of Dave and all the work he'd already done on this engine, and this thread. I was pretty sure the very fine drawings Dave had done up to that point should work for Dennis's needs. So it wasn't a real giant mental leap to add two and two, and I then sent the both of them each others email address. At that time they both agreed to work on this engine as a joint effort. So from that point on all the work has now been done by both Dave and Dennis. Although I have gotten to see some of the work that's been done. But from the pictures and drawings I've been sent so far, Dave has produced an excellent set of CAD drawings, and Dennis has used those and what I think is a very accurate 3 axis CNC router system He's built that's now working on the very first patterns for this engine, and as that CNC routers very first project. I think the great pattern pictures Dennis has sent us and that Dave's added here should more than speak really well for themselves about what kind of castings they should produce.
But without all 4 people in this story who still haven't ever met each other yet? And who are scattered up to 8,000 miles apart, and all the other little fractions of life's almost random bits of luck both good and bad aligning themselves just right. Then this engine would probably still be just a set of dusty drawings in one of those very old magazines instead of a soon to be commercial casting kit. But one thing this engine will have that's quite rare on any model marine engine I know of today is the proper design and casting for the condenser housing. The internal tubing will of course be up to the builder. At least we hope it will have that housing, the casting is from my information pretty complicated and thin walled. So it could be extremely hard to do in this size. But if anyone can pull it off, I have faith Dennis can. The pattern and cores for this casting should be done sometime this week. I'm not quite sure of the first trial casting date for those yet.
And according to Dennis, it's a bit too soon to come up with what the exact price will be for the castings and drawings. As soon as one of us does know that, then we'll certainly post it on this thread. But for at least the interested Marine Engine builders here, I think your about to soon have something that's maybe a little bit unusual, and it all pretty much started just about right from this thread. And unlike a huge number of casting kits avalible today that can require a larger 9" plus swing on a lathe for the flywheel, or maybe a larger mill due to an engines bedplate size. This one should be capable of being machined on some of the more basic and less costly 7" swing lathes and X2 type mills if the builder is willing to do a good job tramming and aligning there machine tools.
Edit: After a re-read, it seems both Dave and I have forgotten to mention that these castings are being poured and cast in a proper commercial quality foundry
Pete
