Things have progressed on the "beam engine at double scale" to a point where I want to see things going round and round and up and down--- I have taken great care to get very exact fits on all my mating parts, and therein lays the problem. I could turn the flywheel by hand, but it took considerable effort, and there was absolutely no "coast" to it at all. I tried some lightweight oil on all the rotating surfaces, but no dice. Now, I haven't made the piston and rod yet, but I have machined up some mild steel pins to replace the drill bits that appear in the pictures in my build thread. So---I figure if I don't get things rolling smoother than that, it isn't going to work. It was plain to see that the engine had to be "run in". How do you "run in" an engine that doesn't yet have the piston and valve made??? Well, inspiration---I chucked my 3/8" variable speed drill onto the extended end of the crankshaft, and let it run at a fairly slow speed for 15 minutes!!! 7 minutes of clockwise rotation, and about 8 minutes of counterclockwise rotation. Holy cow!!! What a difference it made. Now I can make it run like a finger engine by pressing on the piston end of the beam. If I give the flywheel a spin by hand, it will actually make about 3 revolutions, driving the beam up and down and operating the eccentric rod and the valve actuator levers and shafts. Tomorrow I will machine the piston and valve---I'm starting to get excited, wanting to see this puppy run!!!
