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This is the first model I have designed completely from scratch without any other model used as a reference. Its an oscillating steam engine with an 11/16 bore and a nominal 1 inch stroke. I'm looking forward to building this. All 3D models and renderings were generated by Fusion 360.

What are the general characteristics of bronze? I am interested in using bronze for foundry work in making my own castings for models. Particularly steam engines. I do know that bronze is softer than cast iron, which would mean that it would wear faster. Given that a model would not likely be...

I have a need to turn tapers for some tooling I need to make, but I haven't got the funds to buy a taper attachment for my lathe, nor do I really want to try those modifications some make with boring heads for offset turning. I want to be as exact as possible and for me, that means offsetting...

After installing a collet closer attachment to my Grizzly G4002 lathe, I checked the stock with an indicator, as theoretically speaking, stock held in a collet should run relatively true. The stock was found to be running out by 0.002. So I took the nose cone out of the taper and ran an...

Recently I was lucky enough to find an excellent example of an early traction engine from Westinghouse almost hidden away in a barn. The engine itself is owned by Mr. Alan Schurman who has turned his property into a museum of sorts. In any case, at first I had wanted to model it in half scale...

When making model boilers out of copper, what type of copper alloy is used and what wall thickness of tubing should be used to construct the shell?

If my understanding is correct, back in the 19th and early 20th century, many engines were made with cast iron crankshafts. How strong were these and what kind of loads could they be subjected to?

I've been interested in building a scale model of the Westinghouse traction engine for a long time, but seemingly the only way I have to do it is to take one of the surviving ones apart, make measurements, then make scaled down drawings. This does not seem feasible, so the next best thing would...

I came across a video on youtube of an antique model steam engine someone had built that had a rather unique centrifugal governor on the flywheel instead of the usual ball type governor. I'm wondering how this type of governor is linked up and how it operates when compared to a standard Watt...

Anyone ever machined a Corliss cylinder block from solid bar stock? I want to build a Corliss type model from scratch and I'm debating whether or not I should make castings or try and machine from solid metal.

Just wondering, how would I make the cores for the steam chests in a Corliss cylinder block? From the outside it looks almost like a solid block of metal.

I know from having operated a few in my day that steam traction engines, and many early gas tractors, have a friction clutch with expanding shoes that engage the flywheel. I work for a company that builds marine winches and while doing some assembly work today, I gained a partial insight into...

So first of all, I have heard of the Skinner uniflow, which was a multi-cylinder uniflow engine and still has an example today that is in commercial service on the great lakes. What I am wondering though, is if it is possible to build a multi-cylinder uniflow configured as an expansion engine...

What's the general procedure for building a model boiler out of copper? What sort of safety procedures need to be followed, how thick does the material need to be etc. And what kind of pressures can be withstood? I know that copper is typically used for small engines, 1/4 scale or less.

Where have people found information on old gas tractors, like the big prairie tractors, when they want to build a scale model of them? I'm interested in information, such as specs, blueprints etc. of the Holt 75, Oil Pull, Hart-Parr and Aultman-Taylor 30-60 tractors, and also specs and...

This is one for people who have done their own castings. If you need to make a casting with internal features, such as a steam engine cylinder and valve chest with internal ports for steam inlet and exhaust or a water cooled engine block, how do you design these features in the pattern and then...

I heard somewhere that ductile cast iron was once used in the manufacture of items like crankshafts. But being that crankshafts are subject to high stresses when in use, wouldn't cast iron be more subject to breakage? Granted, when building a model engine which will not be subject to heavy use...

Just wondering, how does the fuel system on an oil fired boiler work? I want to build a half scale or larger steam traction engine sometime in the near future and I want to use a liquid fuel burner to save me the mess and effort of solid fuels. I was thinking of using waste veggie oil as the fuel.

I'm still looking for blueprints of steam and prairie tractors. I just want the blueprints, newwestlivesteam.com does have good stuff but he won't sell the drawings without the castings, which means I have to spend $4,000, and I don't have that kind of money.

What goes into designing a Stephenson valve gear mechanism for any given engine? I want to build a small steam engine, basically out of any sort of scrap material I may have lying around my shop and I want it to be reversible and out of all the valve gears I have researched, the Stephenson gear...