# Wells School engine TE



## tmuir (Apr 7, 2009)

Some time ago I managed to get myself a copy of 
Kenneth Wells Step By Step Metalwork book 3 (I now also have a second better copy)







This book is from the 70s and was to be used in highschool metalwork classes to make a toy Steam traction engine, similar to a Mamod engine and a stationary engine.

Then a little bit later I purchased off ebay what I thought were castings for the smokebox on the TE and the engine mount for the stationary.
Imagine my surprise when I got them and realised they were the patterns.





Those patterns are now with xchainsaw who is going to cast them up.

I previously got a set of 'Wells' wheels off Xchainsaw which have been waiting for me to do something with.

I finally got round to doing something with them last weekend whilst waiting for parts for other projects to arrive and the Varnish to dry on the wooden base for my mill.

Here is one wheel machined next to it's painted but unmachined partner.





And both machined.





I did a better job on the second as this is the first time I've worked with castings and ali.

This will be a back burner project I do whilst waiting for parts to arrive on my other projects so I don't expect to finish this one soon but I did enjoy machining these wheels.


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## PhillyVa (Apr 7, 2009)

Tmuir we will be watching with intrest.

Regards

Philly


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## bearcar1 (Apr 7, 2009)

Good heavens man, those books are worth a fair amount of scratch and you have two of them? I very nice looking finished model, I'll bet it will be an interesting build. Keep us posted as you progress. Man, I wish I could get a hold of a set of drawings as that seems to be all that I am collecting lately. :-[


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## tmuir (Apr 7, 2009)

I actually found a third copy of this book too but I was nice enough to give the heads up to someone else I knew that wanted one and so he nabbed it.

The photos and the text in the book are copyrighted but the drawings they give free permission for anyone to copy in the book.

If your interested in the copyright free drawings in the book they are available on another forum I'm a member of, send me a PM and I will give you the details.
You will have to join the forum though as they are in the members section.


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## rake60 (Apr 7, 2009)

The books are treasures.

The patterns are worth their weight in gold!
I'd ask what you paid for them but I probably don't want to know.
 :wall: 

*Great Stuff!*
I'll certainly be tuned into this thread...

Rick


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## tmuir (Apr 8, 2009)

rake60  said:
			
		

> The books are treasures.
> 
> The patterns are worth their weight in gold!
> I'd ask what you paid for them but I probably don't want to know.
> ...



Its not often I can gloat so I am going to take this chance. :big:

The books I paid about $20 and $25 OZ for them and both patterns cost me £5 plus another £4 or postage. :big:

Remember I thought I was buying castings not the patterns. I got them off ebay. A guy was selling a job lot of stuff that didn't have much interest for £25. I sent him a message and offered £5 for the two patterns and as I thought they were castings at the time thought that was a fair price.
Would of paid more if I had known they were patterns.


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## xlchainsaw (Apr 9, 2009)

im impressed!!! you have set a quality standard with those. i hope to fire up next week and give your patterns a go.my friend wanted to make one at school in 73 but the head teacher (pattern maker by trade) reckoned that students didnt have the skill to make the patterns so scrapped it!


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## steamboatmodel (Apr 9, 2009)

xlchainsaw  said:
			
		

> im impressed!!! you have set a quality standard with those. i hope to fire up next week and give your patterns a go.my friend wanted to make one at school in 73 but the head teacher (pattern maker by trade) reckoned that students didnt have the skill to make the patterns so scrapped it!


What are the chances of getting an set of these castings?
Regards,
Gerald.


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## tmuir (Apr 10, 2009)

For those in the UK here is a Wells TE smokebox casting on ebay UK.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MODEL-STEAM-TRACTION-ENGINE-ROUGH-CAST-CHIMNEY-STACK_W0QQitemZ110375078624QQihZ001QQcategoryZ14737QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


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## xlchainsaw (Apr 10, 2009)

steamboatmodel  said:
			
		

> What are the chances of getting an set of these castings?
> Regards,
> Gerald.


every chance in deed. we are still developing the project . pm tmuir for details there are quite a few people starting to build them as they are simple  and require basic skills as was taught in metal work in 1972 to 78 at secondary level. research has revealed that the skill levels were the same for the uk and usa and australia which i find remarkable!! id always thought that australia might have been a bit backward but apparantly not. i was doing metal work at this time at school!


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## RobWilson (Apr 10, 2009)

Hi xlchainsaw, what metal are you going to cast the parts in?
Rob


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## xlchainsaw (Apr 11, 2009)

RobWilson  said:
			
		

> Hi xlchainsaw, what metal are you going to cast the parts in?
> Rob


we use aluminium for the castings. im going to adjust the pattern to make them easier to chuck. i dont like the way kenneth wells does his patterns. another set i obtained from a source here have a straight back but are a pain to mount in the chuck. so im splitting the difference, a bit of both!  i will post some pics soon.


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## steamboatmodel (Apr 21, 2009)

Any news on the castings yet?
Does anyone have a copy of the book they would be willing to sell?
Regards,
Gerald


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## 4156df (Apr 21, 2009)

This looks really interesting...hope you'll keep us filled in.

Dennis


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## tmuir (Apr 22, 2009)

steamboatmodel  said:
			
		

> Any news on the castings yet?
> Does anyone have a copy of the book they would be willing to sell?
> Regards,
> Gerald



Xchainsaw has just finished his first batch of castings today and I'm sure he will post them here in due course.

The books are hard to come by but not impossible.
Last year I found 3 copies of the book.
Two I got for myself, a rough workshop copy and a near mint reference copy and the third I tipped off a fellow collector who got it.

I suggest you just watch ebay Australia and ebay UK and just do searches every now and then for 'Kenneth Wells' thats how I found all 3 copies.

If you can't wait for Xchainsaw to post it here you can see them here.
http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about18382.html


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## xlchainsaw (Apr 25, 2009)

i just made some posts in the foundry section. sorry for the delay . i could pour the patterns in pot metal (zinc) or aluminium and possibly brass but brass and zinc weigh a ton for postage. as it is the alumium castings weigh about 2 kg.


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## Bussy (Jul 26, 2009)

Hope I'm doing this right as I'm new to this stuff.
I made one of Ken Wells traction engines while at school and still have it. No where near as good as it should of been but we never had much gear at school back then and a lathe more suited to much bigger jobs. Was amazed that it ran as it should of. Had to make arough safety valve which did the trick. Especially with the limited stuff we had back then.
I'd kill for one of the books now !!



			
				tmuir  said:
			
		

> Some time ago I managed to get myself a copy of
> Kenneth Wells Step By Step Metalwork book 3 (I now also have a second better copy)
> 
> 
> ...


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## RobWilson (Jul 26, 2009)

Hi and welcome Bussy wEc1
Keep and eye on EBay I here they do turn up
Regards Rob


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## Maryak (Jul 26, 2009)

Bussy,

Welcome to our forum wEc1

Best Regards
Bob


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## tmuir (Jul 26, 2009)

Funny that someone should post on this thread today as I've just dug out the photo copy of the page that has the dimensions of the patterns on it.
I am planning on scanning it tomorrow at work and posting it up here as Rob mentioned he would like it so he could make his own patterns.

In the last 2 years I've found 3 of these books so they do turn up.


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## tmuir (Jul 26, 2009)

I've just uploaded a PDF file which is now available in the downloads section which gives the dimensions to make the patterns to cast the wheels and smokebox for the Wells TE.


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