Prologue
Several years ago I managed to get the last two Robinson Hot Air Engine casting sets from Alyn foundry for acquaintances in Washington state. Later, I wished I had kept one, but...
Fast forward to about 5 months ago. I came across Steves Workshop http://www.steves-workshop.co.uk/steammodels/robinson/robinsonindex.htm in which he described the machining of a Polly Models 1/3 scale Robinson Hot Air Engine. The next day, I contacted Polly to order a set of castings only to be told they had none and would not be likely to have them for quite a while because they were going to a different foundry for their castings and things were still being worked out between them.
Well, the big day arrived a few weeks ago while I was visiting family in England and the parcel with the castings and bits from Polly Models was delivered by the postie; well at least some of the bits. There were a few items missing in the original shipment, so another phone call to Jayne at Polly Models and she promised to have them in the post within the next few days. The missing parts were the displacer piston, the cover plate and all the screws. I was back in Ireland when the parcel with the missing bits arrived as promised. Oh dear, no displacer piston, but a hot cap. Another phone call to Polly, but red face on my part as I had told them that the displacer Cylinder was missing. Return the wrong bit and 10 days later arrives the correct piece.
Comparing the castings and looking at the drawings and construction notes, it seemed that Steve had done everything in a logical order so I could see no reason to deviate from his approach. Steve appeared to have done most of the machining on a lathe, whereas I would prefer to do some of the operations on the milling machine. The notes supplied with the drawings also were written in the age when milling machines were not very common in home workshops, however the drawings were in metric.
Right, to horse. No more time to waste.
Dave
The Emerald Isle
Several years ago I managed to get the last two Robinson Hot Air Engine casting sets from Alyn foundry for acquaintances in Washington state. Later, I wished I had kept one, but...
Fast forward to about 5 months ago. I came across Steves Workshop http://www.steves-workshop.co.uk/steammodels/robinson/robinsonindex.htm in which he described the machining of a Polly Models 1/3 scale Robinson Hot Air Engine. The next day, I contacted Polly to order a set of castings only to be told they had none and would not be likely to have them for quite a while because they were going to a different foundry for their castings and things were still being worked out between them.
Well, the big day arrived a few weeks ago while I was visiting family in England and the parcel with the castings and bits from Polly Models was delivered by the postie; well at least some of the bits. There were a few items missing in the original shipment, so another phone call to Jayne at Polly Models and she promised to have them in the post within the next few days. The missing parts were the displacer piston, the cover plate and all the screws. I was back in Ireland when the parcel with the missing bits arrived as promised. Oh dear, no displacer piston, but a hot cap. Another phone call to Polly, but red face on my part as I had told them that the displacer Cylinder was missing. Return the wrong bit and 10 days later arrives the correct piece.
Comparing the castings and looking at the drawings and construction notes, it seemed that Steve had done everything in a logical order so I could see no reason to deviate from his approach. Steve appeared to have done most of the machining on a lathe, whereas I would prefer to do some of the operations on the milling machine. The notes supplied with the drawings also were written in the age when milling machines were not very common in home workshops, however the drawings were in metric.
Right, to horse. No more time to waste.
Dave
The Emerald Isle