Steam Engine build from bits and pieces.

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

This thread is about creating a model stationary engine from bits and pieces that have been bought or were already in stock.

At a model show a brass casting of a beam engine cylinder was bought from a traders scrap bin it was a bit banana shaped but didn't cost much more than its scrap value. The same bin provided some much over size bronze cylinder covers again at reasonable cost.

A long time after this purchase the cylinder was machined to see what could be made of it.

First Machining.



The cylinder was then bored. After boring it was decided that the cylinder could be used as the basis of an oscillating engine.



Machining portface.



Milling portface edge.



Cylinder nearly finished having a 1" bore and up to a 45 mm stroke.



A 9" diameter cast iron flywheel of unknown origin that had hung on the workshop wall for many years came into play.



The flywheel cleaned up and the cylinder with its covers made and fitted..



In another thread I described cutting a slot in a piece of steel by chain drilling, it was to be used as a base for the engine.



Some brass legs were machined.



A friend had a beam engine that he had bought but always thought the flywheel looked a little on the light side so we did a swap and I ended up with a bronze flywheel. This is how the part made engine looked until a few days ago.



When cleaning out the workshop an event that doesn’t occur often enough; I came across some 'T' section brass that could be used to make some axle pedestals. So two short lengths were cut and machined.













This is how things looked at close of play yesterday.



Bearings and bolt the pedestals to the base next.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Not a lot of progress today, made some shouldered bearings and bolted the pedestal to the base.

Regards Tony.

 

[tms6401]

I like this idea and I will be following along.

Tom

 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi Tony
Great Idea, a steamer made out of "nothing"!
I LIKE THAT, well done so far!
Regards
Gerhard

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Two drawings have been made to help in the construction of this model. The first of the cylinder.



And the second is of the positioning of the cylinder relative to the flywheel.



Not brilliant drawings but they work well enough for me.

Having erected the flywheel on an axle in some bearings the flywheel was found to be concentric but wobble a bit side to side. Luckily it is about the largest diameter that can be turned in my lathe. Turning one of the sides of the flywheel.



Cleaning up the flywheel's face.



The flywheel was a long way out of balance it didn't look it but it was. My high tech balancing machine which is also very good at holding wood for plaining. With a couple of pieces of aluminium to smooth out the vice jaws it works quite well.



It took thirteen holes drilled almost through the rim of the flywheel to get it anywhere near balanced! Some oil pots have been made and a start made on making the eight nuts and bolts to secure the bearing pedestals to the base. The nuts were 5BA which have been threaded to the next size up which is 4BA; on a model I think the next size down nuts look more in proportion to the thread than the correct size ones.



When inspiration comes or a suitable piece of metal arrives I will continue with the build. I suspect something will have to be fabricated. That's it for a bit.

Regards Tony.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Very innovative, Tony. I like it.---Brian

 

[bigrigbri]

More,more.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

I thought I might get a little done on the engine this afternoon after finishing my chores this morning. I managed about an hour when the temperature in the shed was pushing 30 C I decided to find somewhere cooler. I did manage to cut and machine two lengths of brass 'T' section and mount the cylinder at the correct height on one of them. So I hope to do some 'What if' type drawings of the port block and crank disc.

Two photographs of the cylinder mounted.




Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

A lot cooler in the house. The provisional drawing of the port block.

Not very good plenty of Tippex (correction fluid) but it is a start. I usually need to make three of these types of drawings before I start machining.



Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

I didn't have a piece of brass to make a port block and as tomorrow we go away for a bit I was at a bit of a loose end workshop wise so as a diversion I had a look for some bits and pieces to play with and came up with the following.

Two Mamod single acting cylinders left over from modifying two Mamod Roadsters along with other bits not used in those projects namely a fly crank, a couple of nylon bearings, a flywheel, a two step pulley and some aluminium channel.



So it was decided to make a twin cylinder engine using the bits. A drawing to get the basic measurements.



The channel was sawn and machined.




Square holes were made in the channel to accommodate the nylon bearings.



The cylinder port blocks were bolted to the channel to line up then drill their securing holes.



With the port blocks mounted a test fitting of the cylinder was tried.



The other cylinder was packed out so that it big end was out side the first cylinder fitted.



So that is what I have been up to today.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Yesterday evening when it got a little cooler I spent some more time in the shed. A jig was made so that the holes could be drilled in the port block the original holes having been plugged and silver soldered. The Mamod Roadster that supplied the cylinders had a reversing lever that moved the cylinder and required two exhausts in the port block. This reversing system works but does waste steam. With the holes in the port block plugged the engines could be made left or right handed. The plugged holes can just be seen in the photograph.



Before the new cylinders had been madeand fitted to the Roadster its original pistons had had '0' rings fitted them.



With the holes drilled in the port blocks the engine was assembled and temporary steam pipes fitted and it was run on air.



A video I hope!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Yctb8BCdug" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The engine will run reasonably slowly with little noise. There are a few things to do to tidy it up. Alter the shape of the channel and paint it. Some pipe work needs to be made. Making this engine filled up a lot of the day and its now away for a bit.

When we return an effort will be made to obtain some brass to make a port block from for the large oscillator. I might even have to buy it!

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Sorry the video link doesn't seem to work.

Regards Tony.

 

[Swifty]

Try this, https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Yctb8BCdug

Paul.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi Paul,

Many Thanks.

Regards Tony.

 

[AlbertdeWitte]

Hi Tony

Great work!!

 

[Gerhardvienna]

Hi tony
Superb work! seems to run real smooth, I like it!
Regards
Gerhard

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Having returned from a break in foreign parts (England) I'm back in the shed for a bit. Having had another look around for some suitable material for a port block I found a couple of lumps of brass. There were the bases of a clock case; Swiss made no less.



Alas too large for my small mechanical hacksaw, so hand work was required!



Due to only having a small stock of thick sheet brass it was decided to plug and hard solder the holes in the brass. First the work piece was machined to width.



The length required was slightly less than half he length of the work piece. So it was decided to make two port blocks; hopefully only one will be needed and the other can be used for another job. So having cut the work piece to length the plugs were made and soldered in.



The faces of the work piece were then machined.



Two port blocks 40 x 26 x 10 mm.



Now a bit of thinking time and even maybe a drawing is required to help figure out how the port block will be held to its bracket and then line up with the yet to be made fly crank.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

Today I managed to mount the port block on to its bracket and fix the bracket to the base plate.

Lining up the bracket with the bearings mounts before drilling and tapping the securing holes.



The cylinder on the port block and it's bracket secured to the base plate.



As it now looks.



The next part to be made I think will be the crank disc; with the engine having nearly a 2 inch stroke it has to be fairly large fortunately the largest piece of round steel that I have is large enough. However needing some thinking time I didn't do any more work on the engines. So while cogitating I decided to do a bit more work on the opposed twin. First thinning down the packing piece for the one cylinder on a wax chuck.



And having drilled a couple of holes and riveted the cylinder packing piece to it the frame was painted.



As the engine now looks assembled.




Some pipe work still needs to be fitted which might get done during thinking breaks of the large oscillator.

Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

A start has been made on roughing out a disc crank.








The horizontal twin has had some pipe work added and has been steam tested.



Regards Tony.

 

[Tony Bird]

Hi,

After glueing together the flywheel, its axle and crank pin; then truing it up, it was obvious that a hole was needed in the base plate so the yet to be made big end would clear it.



The hole was created in the same way that the large slot for the flywheel was by chain drilling. Though I have described this method in another thread it might be worth repeating. If like me you don't have a machine larger enough to make a rectangular hole in a 1/4" thick steel plate, it will have to be done by hand, well with the help of a drilling machine that is. Having decided on a suitable size drill in this case 4mm the rectangular hole is marked out with a line a bit more than 2mm inside the hole size required; starting at a corner centre punch marks are made at 4mm pitches. It is worth doing this accurately as it will save a lot of time it comes to filing out hole.



After spotting the centre punch marks a 3.8mm hole is drilled every other mark. Doing this allows a smaller drill to be used if the drill wanders leaving a smaller gap between the holes first drilled.



Drilling of holes finished.



The remaining metal has been cut through using a Piercing Saw (jewellers saw).



Having cleaned up the hole with a file the model was assembled again.




Drilling the ports in the port block will be next.

Regards Tony.