# Steam engine ID help



## myrickman (Oct 11, 2009)

Restoring this for a friend. Would like to know if anyone can ID it. It is missing the reversing links but does have the eccentrics. All the cylinder parts are present but off for this photo. I am guessing pre-1900??


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## PTsideshow (Oct 11, 2009)

The biggest problem with identifying small pre 1930"s steam engines. is they have been handed down, or sold as model or toy engines.

When the truth is they were the fractional horsepower electric motors of their time. The second part is almost any corner machine shop, of the day would be making their own version.

I have found want ads for castings for both horizontals and verts in assorted sizes for sale to shops that couldn't cast their own parts. As a lot of them were bar stock made. They weren't so much kits as sub packaged 
parts. 

The local shop could finish them out and sell them to any body that needed a small mover for power. 

They were used on everything from dental drills, shoe making machines,washing machines, small engines on machinery in smaller shops that didn't have line shafts.

There was a commercial laundry in Detroit that had them on the equipment in the late sixties. They were being replaced by fractional hp electric motors as they developed problems. Being a teenager and not knowing anybody else was remotely interested in them. I didn't take any pictures, and when I went back to pick up some of the scraped ones the engineer said the company was sold and they had removed all of them and scraped them! :-[

Cretors and company of the peanut roasting engines and popcorn wagons states in the company history book. That once the wagons took off, they would by them from any of the machine shops in Chicago that would make them. 
Hence the varied look and fit and finish. 

In 1895 the Charles Strelinger & Co. had a 1/4 hp rating, bore 1 1/2" 2 1/2" stroke vertical steam engine double acting, 19 inches tall and a flywheel6 7/8"dia they also had the same sized engine in a horizontal
They both were pictured in their catalog for 1895.

Now PM research is supplying a replica casting kit for both 4CI
http://www.pmresearchinc.com/store/product.php?productid=3089&cat=4&page=1
Horizontal 6CI
http://www.pmresearchinc.com/store/product.php?productid=3093&cat=4&page=1
the 1895 tool catalog Strelinger
http://www.pmresearchinc.com/store/product.php?productid=3477&cat=0&page=1

So this is were the largest problem comes in with the identifying the small steam engines. They aren't toys but part of our everyday heritage.
It would be like trying to ID a small electric a 100 years from of those around us today.

I have no connection to PM research other than a satisfied customer, and at set up at the NAMES expo's
 ;D


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## myrickman (Oct 12, 2009)

Thanks for the enlightening historical perspective PT. My purpose in posting them was to see if another existed to fabricate the missing parts and or to get a positive ID on them. Given that they were the fractional motors of their time, I am now realizing both reasons for posting are very, very long shots. I asked around/searched and the consensus was the knowledge on this site was always rated top-shelf. It is just these old small steamers are sooo obscure that unless it was a very common variety any history is just plain gone. Same is true in the gas engine world which is my other passion. Am I out of bounds posting them on this sub-forum? I was at a loss for where other than here.  Still, it is fun to see how the parts were machined; did they use a shaper or a mill? How did they fixture the parts to finish them? How do I fixture them to remove the pitting? I try to save the original patina/finish wherever possible- #2 is a good example. #1 is going to have it's original finish but #3 is a candidate for paint. I'll have to keep searching Google books to see if I can uncover anything.... Thanks again, MM


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## PTsideshow (Oct 13, 2009)

The best you can do, is make and fit up as best you can. Yo keep it in the period look it was built.

As an old timer told me years ago, If somebody that knows the part isn't correct comes up and complains. I will change it, but that is after I stop or slow down from seeing a ghost ;D


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## myrickman (Feb 20, 2011)

I am looking for suggestions on a reversing lever to add to this early steam engine. Check out the holes on the right side of the frame about half way between the sector and the flywheel rim. One is parallel to the crank direction and presumably is for the pivot point. The other is between the former hole and the flywheel rim- I have no clue what or how this is used. I made the sector using the original eccentric rod which gave me a ~9" radius for the sector slot. The threads are all 12-24 on the eccentric rod ends and the 2 holes in the frame. I did some reading which showed that the mid-point of the sector does not move relative to the eccentrics to this is where the lever attaches(?). I would like to keep the piece as original-looking as possible. Check out the pinstripes on the frame. The top piece where the cylinder attaches was broken in two spots so I made a new one from an iron casting. I should be ok making the linkage to the "D" valve- need a slide on the top piece for the valve rod to pass through and attach to sector. Any suggestions or weapons-grade BS welcome!


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## steamer (Feb 20, 2011)

Are any of the rest of the bolts unified standard or oddballs?  It looks late 1800's to me, so the bolts MIGHT be oddball threads...that would help date it. Square heads on the bolts means OLD.

Dave


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