Sanderson beam engine

[pete]

Hi new here but have been lurking for months, Must say I enjoy the site, And am very impressed with the overall skill shown by everyone here.

I happen to own a set of unmachined castings and drawings I bought from england 10-12 yrs. ago, For the Sanderson beam engine. My nephew and I would like to build two of these engines by using these drawings but want to increase the size from 1/12 scale to 1/9 scale. (He has a lathe more than large enough for the flywheel). The major castings would be replicated and machined from bar stock cast iron, all polished metal from stainless steel, I know, I know lot's of work, No doubt I'll be asking lot's of questions here about stress re leaving cast iron.

Anyway I know it's a long shot but does anyone have any info on this engine? I've spent a couple of hrs. on the internet without much to show for it, More for personal information than anything were looking for patent drawings/pictures of surviving engines,(full scale) and /or information on the man who built it.

All I know for sure is that it was built by a ROBERT SANDERSON in 1846 in/of? Glasgow, the drawings for the model were done by H. CLARKSON in 1986. I'm thanking anyone and everyone for ANY information they could provide.

Pete

 

[cfellows]

I have a set of castings for this engine also. I contacted a company in the UK about a year ago, don't remember who, and they still had the drawings for the engine. Unfortunately, I never got around to buying the drawings. I have a full set of the drawings, but they have faded to the point where they are barely readable. If you happen to find a source for the drawings, I would also like to get a fresh set.

Chuck

 

[jack404]

Chuck, folks

if you have old plans that are barely readable i have learned a great trick

scan the plans in as high a DPI you can scan ( generally 1200 DPI with the average A4 scanner)

import it to Irfanveiw a free graphic veiwing program ( it reads just about any graphic format)

then select the "increase colours " under image controls theres a tool in there called GAMMA CORRECTION

i was abloe to bring up pages that i could not read on on documents due to the ink fading but the gamma controls see's this and is able to make it readable again

some how ( i dont understand the science) the gamma can see the traces of the ink in the paper ( also old tea and coffee stains etc) and show this as a differential of the spectrum of light ( what ever that means)

it works

CSI for modelers :big: :big: :big:

cheers

jack

 

[pete]

Cfellows if jack's trick doesn't work for you I could possibly get a set of prints to you at my cost's. but am real concernd about copyright infringment.

Pete

 

[pete]

cfellows: I just recieved some info from the Model engineering Clearing House board that the casting's/? drawing's may still be avalible, Try Blackgates or GLR in great britian, Apparently not listed on web sites but maybe avalible? This is all the info I have.

Pete