# Bolton 12 Beam engine from scratch



## deeferdog (Jan 29, 2017)

Hello to everyone. This forum has been a big help to me in many ways and I would like to return the favour by showing the progress I am making in building this engine. I paid for the plans from E J Winter and after a week of looking at them in confusion I decided to try a scratch build because I'm too tight to pay for the castings (a serious amount of money) but mainly I honestly doubted whether I had the ability to see it through. A scratch build abandoned would probably pass unnoticed  by SHMBO, but a casting purchase of nearly $A2000...unfinished or worse...ruined! It makes me ill to think about it.
For a model, it's a pretty big engine, I believe the finished weight of the cast iron one is over 30Kg. I could understand most of the plans, they are very old, drawn I believe in the 1920's. The measurements are Imperial in fractions with things like 39/64ths and so on. I grew up with that system so it didn't daunt me all that much, just increased my admiration for all those old machinists who used this without calculators.
So, off we go. I've been at it for a few months, made some progress and some mistakes. Here are a few pics of my setup and the facing page of the plans to give you some idea behind the project. I'll post at irregular intervals as time permits, hope you all enjoy.
Regards, Deeferdog.


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## deeferdog (Jan 29, 2017)

OK, the first step was the column, simply because it is the biggest thing on the model and it just so happened that I had a great chunk of aluminium lying under the bench. I have a taper turning attachment that I made for my lathe so I set everything up and away I went. I decided to make the rings on the column, (anyone know what they are called?) separate from the body. My reason was that I would have to make the form tool for the shape and I'm no toolmaker. If I stuffed them, every chance of that, then at least the column would still be in good shape.
Things went quite well. I made the form tool from an old file. It sure chattered but I went slowly and it got the job done. So the most important step has been taken, the first one. I was quite pleased in the end, I now have the column and the ring, or whatever those things are called, and it looks OK to me. More later.


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## mattty (Jan 29, 2017)

Looking forward to watching this build. I would be keen to see some photos of your taper turning attachment.
good luck
Matt


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## deeferdog (Jan 29, 2017)

Hi Matt, thanks for your interest. We don't live far apart as I am on the Gold Coast. The taper turning attachment is fairly primitive, I made it in a hurry a few years ago for a project. It is very accurate. I do morse tapers easily. The compound slide needs to be released from its screw so that it can slide back and forth freely. On my lathe this is easy, undo the cap screw connected to the half nut.  The slide is then attached to the TTA. (Taper Turning Attachment). My TTA clamps to the carriageway, simple but it works. There is very little load imposed on the TTA, is is just a guide for the compound slide.  The TTA is then adjusted to whatever angle you need, Generally if I'm doing a morse taper, I set the morse arbor up in the lathe and set the TTA from that.
Basically the TTA is a guide set up behind the lathe to which the compound slide attaches. I have shot a couple of pics to help explain. I just realized that this is a different topic and am a bit of a novice at this posting sort of thing. Please accept my apologies if it is incorrect and move it to where it should be.


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## deverett (Jan 29, 2017)

That TTA is brilliant - so simple!

Dave
The Emerald Isle


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## Jasonb (Jan 29, 2017)

Off to a good start

The decorative bead is an "astragal"


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## Herbiev (Jan 29, 2017)

Off to a great start. Looking forward to this build.


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## deeferdog (Jan 29, 2017)

Continuing on with the building. The column needed another astragal at its base. The astragal is the thing I used to call a ring, but I now know better thanks to Jasonb. I machined the second one in the same manner as the first, using my trusty form tool made from an old file. I picked this tip up from somewhere on the internet and for machining aluminium it couldn't be better. I just ground it to the concave shape and gave it plenty of relief on the underside. Plunge cut in a manner similar to using a parting tool and a fair amount of lube. I use lard mixed with a bit of kerosene. There's a fair bit of chatter and squealing from the metal bit it never looked like digging in. The chatter marks polish out easily using various grades of abrasive paper as it turns in the lathe, then buff with a polish compound against a polishing wheel. I have found that time spent on this is well spent if the metal is to be painted as the machining marks really show through the paint.  The astragal just slips on down the column until it finds its own location on the taper, I just matched the angle by eye on the compound, any gap will be on the underside and can be filled with a filler prior to painting. As it turned out the tapers matched fairly closely so there is very little gap.
The plans called for a square base on the column but I decided that a round one would look just as good. I turned a spigot of around 1mm depth for location and bolted it to the base of the column, this in turn will be bolted to the engine baseplate using four cap screws. One of the pictures shows this, but I haven't described the making of the baseplate yet so a few things are a little out of sequence, mainly because I did not take many pics at the start as I had not decided to write about this, I wasn't sure there would be much interest.
So now the column is completed. The next stage is to make the beam bearing platform that sits atop the column, I'll talk about that later.
Sorry the last two photos are on there side, No matter how I rotate them before uploading, the result is the same. Any advice would be gratefully recieved.
Regards, Deeferdog


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## Cogsy (Jan 30, 2017)

deeferdog said:


> Sorry the last two photos are on there side, No matter how I rotate them before uploading, the result is the same.


 
I'll be following this build - looks interesting.

I'm going to guess you're using an iPad or iPhone to take the pictures right? They're very stubborn about which way is 'up' when taking the picture and very tough to change them afterwards. Basically, make sure the 'home' button is at the bottom of the device for a vertical pic or on the right hand side for a horizontal pic. Then you shouldn't have any issues.


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## Cymro77 (Jan 30, 2017)

Greetings Deeferdog, looks like a real challenge you have taken on.  I will be following along, good work thus far as I see it.  My only  problem is that your workshop is too darned clean and spacious
Cymro


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## kvom (Jan 30, 2017)

My trial at rotation:


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## deeferdog (Jan 31, 2017)

Thanks to all those who helped with the photography, hopefully I'll get better, and Cymro77, I wish what you said was true but my shed is 3m x 3m (9 x 9) and it generally looks like I'm building a train wreck. One day when I win Lotto..... Onward with the Bolton 12. The bearing platform, that's the only description I can think of, sits on top of the column. A chunk of money got me a chunk of aluminium and I set this up in the 4 jaw. It was whilst I was doing this that I began to realise that this build was going to push the limits, not only of my ability but the capacity of my tools. I knew that machining a flywheel is beyond my lathe, it's 14 inches in diameter, but I began to wonder about the cylinder. Worry about that later.
The machining of the block in the lathe went pretty well, I turned and formed another astragal on the underside and formed a deep spigot to accept the top of the column. I was very careful with the dimensions as I wanted to make sure that the finished height of the platform/column matched the finished height of the casting in the plans, 9 1/4" (235mm). I am only using the plans as a guide as a lot of the detail seems to be omitted but it could just be my lack of understanding.
Over to the mill. I had just finished fitting a power feed to the Z axis and what a joy to use! The hand wheel was at the very top right side of the column and winding the bloody thing up and down was worse than winding the X axis, I fixed that a few months ago. I made the Z axis power feed from an Aldi scroll saw for $50. If anyone is interested I'll post a few pics. Back to the bearing platform. I machined a concave groove around three sides with my new bullnose cutter from Hong Kong. All in all I think it turned out OK. It's attached to the top of the column with an M10 cap screw. Everything will get loctited into position prior to painting. Next is the bearing blocks for the beam, then the beam. Until then.


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## Jasonb (Jan 31, 2017)

In that position the moulding is an echinus. I did have to go and check that one but knew it was not an astragal.


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## deeferdog (Jan 31, 2017)

I thought an echinus was an animal with spines that ate ants.


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## Blogwitch (Jan 31, 2017)

D, if your lathe can't cope with the size, if you have an RT on your mill, then that could be used to turn your large flywheel, in fact when it is mounted up, except for turning it over to do the other side, everything needing to be done, spokes, hubs etc can be done with your RT as long as you have clearance for the billet.
You can drill the mounting holes where the gaps are between spokes, just don't machine out the plates completely, use a hacksaw to finish off.

John


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## deeferdog (Jan 31, 2017)

Thanks John, that's the sort of advice that makes these forums so valuable for us hackers.


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## ShopShoe (Feb 1, 2017)

deeferdog,

Yes, I am interested: Please post some pics of your z-axis motor modification. I am dreaming of doing one someday myself and collecting ideas.

Thank You in advance,

--ShopShoe


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## deeferdog (Feb 1, 2017)

Hi ShopShoe, do I have to put the pics in a new thread or can I do it here?


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## deeferdog (Feb 1, 2017)

At this point I decided to make the base, this is a casting in the kit, with lots of locating lugs and plinths shown on the plan. I brought a piece of aluminium 510mm x 160mm x 12mm (20" x 6.3" x 1/2"). I can just get to all the edges on my milling table, this is gonna be a hell of a steam engine! I cut out the hole for the flywheel crank, then marked and mounted the column, and drilled the bolt holes for the cylinder, apart from that I decided to wait until I was more sure where everything was going to be located, also it will allow me to make small changes that I may have to make.
The bearings for the beam were next, I loctited two lumps of aluminium together, I'm rapidly becoming my suppliers best customer, and went to work. The pictures tell the story. I bored the hole for the bush, machined and fitted the bush blank and then split the bearings with the slitter saw. After drilling and tapping the bearing body to fit the cap, I then drilled the bush and reamed to size. I had a good day and things went well. This doesn't always happen round here.
OK, I'm having a week off in Toowoomba, I will take my tablet and try to do a post or two from there. Thanks to all who are following this, I really appreciate your comments.
Regards, Deeferdog (Peter)


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## deeferdog (Feb 1, 2017)

I have put the pics of the Z axis mod in a new thread under Machine Modifications.

Peter


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## KM6VV (Feb 3, 2017)

Nice engine!  Where did you find the plans?  It looks like the Stuart Beam engine, which I know was modeled off of an old engine.  

About ten years ago I designed and build a much smaller version of the beam engine, similar to the Stuart on my CNC'd Sherline mill.  

I'd like very much to compare designs.
Alan


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## deeferdog (Feb 3, 2017)

I bought the plans from E J Winter but not the castings. I believe the engine is similar to the Stuart and I have read that some believe that the Bolton is a copy of the Stuart, others seem to think it's the other way around.  If you do a google search for "Beam engine" you can find lots of information.


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## deeferdog (Feb 3, 2017)

Time for the beam.I had not been looking forward to this as I didn't feel confident about machining it to resemble a casting. I decided to see if I could make it look like a timber beam. I scaled the shape from the plan's as best I could  and cut and pasted the paper shape onto the aluminium.  The holes for the main shaft and stub shafts were drilled on the mill, then the rough shape cut out on the bandsaw. Time on the sanding belt and a bit of filing got the shape to something similar to the plan. I eopxy glued teak timber to both sides and clamped it together using bolts and a clamp. When the glue had cured, the timber was shaped to the metal and grooves cut to simulate the look of planks. I turned the shafts to fit the reamed holes, finished the main bearings and fitted the beam to the bearing blocks. Well the result is there for all too see. The jury is still out as far as I am concerned,I can't decide if I like it or not. Maybe I will make another, if I will have to work out how to machine the besm to look like a casting.
Regards Peter


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## Cogsy (Feb 4, 2017)

I liked the idea while I was reading it (though I don't know how it will suit the engine) and the construction pics looked good, but I think the grooves might have been a mistake. Just my opinion but they make it look more like decking than planks and take away from the scale look. If you wanted the plank type look then maybe thinner strips of timber cut and glued in a plank fashion would have much smaller join lines and with the obvious differences in grain pattern should give a plank effect. Lots of extra work though.

Maybe for a relatively simple casting-ish look you could have your narrow ali beam fitted with bosses to bring out the width where required and the bosses filleted with some sort of filler material (JB Weld maybe or car body filler?), then the whole thing lightly sandblasted and painted. Should look something like a casting.

At the end of the day you are the one that has to be happy with it, and I know things can look vastly different in the flesh than in pictures, so your current beam might be just fine.

Edit to add: of course you could always cast the beam yourself. It doesn't look overly large and even if you're not set up for casting with furnace, etc. you can build yourself a small fire pit out of bricks and use charcoal briquettes and a hair dryer/vacuum cleaner to make a fire hot enough to melt a kilo or two of ali really easily and quickly.


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## deeferdog (Feb 4, 2017)

Thanks Cogsy, I think I will put the beam aside for now and work out a way to machine one like this.
Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 5, 2017)

As I said in an earlier post. I am presently in Toowoomba, an inland town in Queensland. My reason for being here is that this weekend they have had a big swap meet for vintage and veteran cars and old farm machines. I have been wondering what to do for a flywheel and was hoping to find an old cast iron wheel or pulley, roughly a foot (300mm) in diameter. I wanted something with a little style and so I wandered around.......SUCCESS! For $45 I bought a Champion Blower and Forge Post Drill. The hand wheel is a foot in diameter and the loveliest looking casting, plus I think the gears can be used as well. The whole thing is frozen with rust and time, a bit like me, but  love and patience will work. I think it is well over a hundred years old and I know that cast iron matures with age, does anyone think I will have a problem machining it? Any suggestions would be gratefully received. 
Regards Peter


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## Blogwitch (Feb 5, 2017)

I think it will be like the sash weights that I use, the skin will be around 10 thou (0.25mm) thick, once you can get through that, the iron underneath will machine like silk.

If you are careful with an angle grinder, you might be able to remove most of that hard skin and get it down somewhere near the square profile you require, and if so, will save you a lot of heartache and broken tips. I wouldn't try to touch the spokes though, leave them as they are.

On the other hand, you might be lucky and get a soft skin, try it out with a file first.

John


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## billmac (Feb 6, 2017)

That is a nice looking wheel, but beam engine flywheels normally had straight spokes. The size of their flywheel meant that they were typically built up: each spoke was a separate casting and the rim was made in sections. The whole was then pegged and/or bolted together.

Small engines (not beam engines) often had curved spokes because it was safer to cast them in one piece like that. The curved spokes helped to reduce the effect of the stresses resulting from casting.


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## Blogwitch (Feb 6, 2017)

If you want to invest in large 'flying wheels' this is the most reasonably priced place I have purchased from and to the UK, the postal charges were very reasonable. The rims are prefinished, so it is just a matter of setting up true to the rim and bore the centre out.


https://www.rc-machines.com/en/model-engineering/flying-wheels

The postie nearly had a hernia carrying 6 of the larger ones available.


John


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## Ghosty (Feb 6, 2017)

Blogwitch said:


> If you want to invest in large 'flying wheels' this is the most reasonably priced place I have purchased from and to the UK, the postal charges were very reasonable. The rims are prefinished, so it is just a matter of setting up true to the rim and bore the centre out.
> 
> 
> https://www.rc-machines.com/en/model-engineering/flying-wheels
> ...


John,
Only problem with that site is you can not set up an account if you live outside of the listed countries.

Cheers
Andrew


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## deeferdog (Feb 6, 2017)

Thanks John and Bill. As this is more a " see if I can do it " exercise  than making an authentic model, I am not that concerned with the flywheel having curved spokes. I appreciate and value your comments. 
Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 6, 2017)

I had now reached the point where the whole project could end, the machining of the cylinder. The 80mm (3.1" ) external diameter was OK but the internal length of 130mm (5.1" )  was going to make boring it a bit tricky on my equipment. I turned the outside then fitted the steady rest, this was a challenge in itself and I had to grind away the copper bearings to get it to fit. I opened up the bore with a succession of drills until I reached my biggest at 30mm (1.2")  My longest boring bar reached  the 130mm but it was only just held in the tool post. Chatter nearly led me to despair, the finish was terrible and the rate of metal removal so little meant that I would have been there forever. The solution in the end was to take an extremely heavy cut, 2mm (80 thou) at 140 rpm and the slow feed with plenty of lube, lard mixed with kerosene.  The chatter disappeared and the surface finish was good, not mirror finish but OK. Everybody else probably knows this but I didn't . When the boring was completed, I milled a flat surface on one side to take the steam gallery block and steam chest and machined the top and bottom steam inlets to the cylinder. At the end of this marathon I had had it. Rewarded myself with a large scotch and went to bed.
Regards Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 7, 2017)

The steam gallery block, that's all I can think of to call it, was fairly easy to make. The block was drilled lengthwise with a 4mm drill three times at each end to make the passages for the steam to travel. These galleries were then connected by machining ports with an end mill. These ports allow the steam to travel from the steam chest to the cylinder. The ends of the drilled galleries were blocked off using grub screws loctited into position. The exhaust port was machined in the centre of the block and exited from the side. Finally the location holes for the steam box studs were drilled. I'm starting to feel that I might just possibly be making some progress. 
Regards Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 9, 2017)

I continued on with the steam chest, making the valve case and cover. The slide valve was machined from brass and I  drilled and tapped a 4mm thread in one end to take the slide valve shaft. I am flying blind a little bit here as the plans are not very clear, once again I assume that if I had the castings I would be able to understand it a bit better. I have dimensioned the slide so that when the top port is uncovered, the exhaust and the other inlet are covered and I think this will work. When the steam gallery block, valve case and cover were bolted to the cylinder, I milled a few thou off the top and bottom to ensure the cylinder head and cylinder base would bolt down nicely. So far everything is creeping along OK.
Cheers,
Peter


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## Jasonb (Feb 10, 2017)

I'd be looking to remove some metal from the sides of the valve as you don't have much room for steam/air to find its way around the valve to get to either side. Leave a bit mor ethan the depth of the recess the size it is and then reduce what is left by an 1/8" or so.

You want it to look more liek these


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## deeferdog (Feb 10, 2017)

Thanks Jason, I see what you mean and I will run a taper all around the slide to provide relief for the steam to reach the ports. I never gave it much thought before but I suppose steam is just like any other compressed gas and will benefit from smooth passages, enlarged ports and so on like a petrol engine. Thanks for the tip and by the way I really liked your slide, fine workmanship, makes me envious. Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 10, 2017)

I anticipated that the cylinder head would be a snack. Sigh! Nothing is as easy as you imagine, and if it is it generally means you are doing it wrong. I machined the head and indexed the head bolt holes such that they wouldn't foul the top inlet port, but, after I had drilled and tapped the cylinder I discovered that two of them ran into the gallery block bolts. Bugger! I made a length of threaded aluminium rod and loctited this into both of the tapped holes in the cylinder, then lapped them down on the surface plate. The holes in the gallery block were treated in a similar fashion. New holes were drilled and tapped 10mm down the cylinder, the gallery block matched to these and we were finally back to where I started.
After taking advice from members about the piston, (See Questions "Steam engine piston" 26-1-2017), I decided to keep it simple and go for a disc with a groove for an O ring. Trial and error got me a nice sliding fit and I get a encouraging "puff-puff" sound when I slide it up and down. I know that an aluminium piston in an aluminium cylinder is frowned upon for good reason, but this engine will probably only be run air so I'll see how it goes. The gland for the piston rod came from s bit of brass, I will use O rings for the seal but I have no experience with sliding seals so if there is a better way, I'm listening. I machined the pipe flange fittings for the inlet and exhaust but thew will be finished off when the delivery and exhaust pipes are made.
Some of the pics are a bit out of sequence with the text but I hope you all get the gist of the project. As always, comments are more than welcome, Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 13, 2017)

Other duties have slowed the progress but I did get a brief respite and had some time to begin work on the valve train. The plans here are pretty good and I can easily understand what is required but I will modify the construction to suit the scratch building. The design calls for the two bearing blocks for the valve rod shaft to be halved in similar fashion to the beam blocks, however I decided to just go with plain blocks as disassembly would still be fairly easy.
A good day was had, this hobby is an absolute joy when things go well but there is always a slave in the chariot, I just discovered that my magnificent cast iron flywheel, which was really a hand wheel, is distorted to the point of being unusable. Oh well, Toowoomba was fun anyway.
Cheers, Peter,


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## bazmak (Feb 13, 2017)

Alum piston in alum cylinder will score/bind very quickly.
Don't run it too long before making a new brass piston


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## deeferdog (Feb 13, 2017)

Hi Bazmak, is that a definite, even running on air? I don't have much experience with this, could I use steel or is corrision a problem? Appreciate your advice,
Regards, Peter


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## bazmak (Feb 14, 2017)

If your running on air then corrosion is not a problem.Any combination
of Alum,brass,bronze, steel or cast iron,but I avoid 2 metals the same
Especially aluminium.You have made a good job of alum cylinder so my
option would be a brass piston.People more expert than me would use
a cast iron liner to the alum cylinder but you can leave as is for now
When the engine is up and running you could consider lining the cylinder
but I would be happy as is for a model running on air with brass piston
With steam its usual to use alum bronze,but its hard to source and expensive


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## deeferdog (Feb 14, 2017)

Thanks for the advice bazmak, I'll make a brass piston. Well, onward and upward I had to make all the linkages for the valve train to suit my model so they don't look much like those called for in the plans. The top cross shaft I made from brass because I think it will look good when, if ever, the engine is finished and painted. The two linkages from the bottom shaft to the top shaft were made from 3mm stainless rod. I machined some aluminium ferrules, milled flats on either side and threaded them onto each end of the rod. I was quite pleased with the result. The ferrules are retained onto the shafts with circlips. This whole arrangement forms a frame which connects to the slide valve shaft at the top and through some sort of connector to the main valve shaft sitting in the bearing blocks on the base.
To make these connecting blocks, I first glued two pieces of aluminum together and drilled the two shaft holes. I needed them to taper in a cam fashion so I set them up in the mill at five degrees with my protractor and ran over the top of them with an end mill. A bit primitive but it worked. The ends were rounded over and rubbed down on the surface plate. The main valve was drilled and tapped for M2 in conjunction with the connectors and SS grubscrews were locktited into place. The bottom frame shaft is a sliding fit onto the connectors.  Happy with all that. I think I have reached the upload limit, I will continue with another reply.
Cheers, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 14, 2017)

So, just to finish off, the assembly went reasonably well, The gallery block cap screws interfered with the frame at the base so I countersunk them and this fixed that. I hope that I have made the slide properly, (Note, I will relieve it at the edges to allow for better steam flow.) When the frame is at its uppermost, the bottom port is fully exposed and vice versa when the frame is at its lowest, advice here would be appreciated. That's about up to date for now, this morning I drove to the aluminium supply house and brought a  300mm x 300mm x 25mm (12" x 12" x 1") block of metal. I hope for two things, one that I can turn it into a flywheel on my mill and second that my wife doesn't find out how much it cost.
Regards, Peter


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## bazmak (Feb 15, 2017)

Its not usual to make the flywheel from alum as it lacks weight
Brian Rupnow made one and fitted large brass dia weights to the periferie
cheapest way is steel or cast iron or better still fabricate a spoked one
If you look thru engine posts you will get some good ideas and advice


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## deeferdog (Feb 16, 2017)

Bazmak, I think in this case I'll be OK. The wheel is 25mm thick and 300mm in diameter. I really need to do it this way because I want to see if I can cut it out on my mill. I have never attempted anything this large so it will be interesting if nothing else. If I come a gutser, and that's more than likely, then I'll have a crack at fabrication.
Cheers, Peter


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## Cogsy (Feb 16, 2017)

If it turns out to be not heavy enough, it's a fairly simple operation to drill through the outside and install slugs of brass/bronze/lead/steel/etc. to beef up the peripheral weight. The webs/spokes/etc. aren't all that critical so your big lump of ali will be fine. I feel your need to keep the lovely wife in the dark, mine is under the impression that now I've bought the machines and tooling that what I do in the shed only costs electricity...


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## deeferdog (Feb 16, 2017)

Thanks Cogsy, that's a good idea. A bad idea was my decision to try and use a hand wheel as a flywheel, I've got to confess that I don't often machine cast iron and when I do I hate the filthy dirty mess it makes, both of me and the machine. The only thing about this effort was that there was not much mess, very little cutting was achieved because the thing was hard enough to be used as a grinding wheel. I persisted for most of the day but in the end I gave it away, the rim was cast in what I can only describe as a pretzel shape and I could see that even if I broke through the diamond hard crust, (I had been warned, see earlier posts) it was'tn going to ever become a flywheel. Well, not with me fiddling about with it. I have posted some of the pictures for your general amusement, possibly some of you have had similar experiences. I have rescued something from the fiasco, I have gifted it to my beloved as a piece of garden art and it is very true, a happy wife means a happy life.
Back to the aluminium.
Cheers, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 17, 2017)

So now the fun begins, a 300 x 300 x 25 piece of aluminium is not what I would normally expect be be machining when making a model steam engine, it will be by far the biggest thing I have had on my mill table, so I hope that both the machine and me are up to it. I marked the centre and drilled then reamed to 22mm centre hole. This will exactly fit the mandrel I had previously made for my rotary table. The mandrel has a No 2 morse taper which locates in the centre of the table and finishes with the 22mm straight shank. This shank then locates into the mounting plate and aligns it to the rotary tables' centre, I then bolt the plate to the table, I hope the picture makes it clearer. The mandrel protrudes through the plate, I place the FW blank with the 22mm hole over this mark, drill and and bolt the blank to the mounting plate and then  use the mandrel to locate the rotary table exactly under the spindle of the mill and clamp the RT to the mill table. (This is turning into a novel.)
I wound the table out to 152mm plus half the 12mm ruffer slot mill, checked everything and proceeded to cut. Around 2000 rpm, depth of cut 1mm (40thou) with plenty of fluid seemed to work OK but I had to be careful with the feed as chatter could creep in. I seem to have a bit of backlash in the RT and this coupled with the overhang means that the setup is not as rigid as I would have liked. Still, progress was made and after 25 circuits of the RT I had a slightly oversize round FW blank.
I changed the ruffer to a finisher and planed down to size, the finish looked pretty good so I was pleased with the effort and with the mill, it handled this part of the job, no problem. That's it for now, do the layout and drill some holes tomorrow. Cheers, Peter.


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## Blogwitch (Feb 17, 2017)

Just take it steady mate, the job isn't going to get up and run away. You only get one real bite at a job like this.

So work things out, I use a notepad and write each step down, and follow that. What you don't want to do is trying to work things out in your head and trying to concentrate on the machining at the same time.

Good luck

John


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## deeferdog (Feb 18, 2017)

Good advice, thanks.


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## Cymro77 (Feb 18, 2017)

Quite an undertaking - looks as though you did well.  Congrats, now onto even more complex things!  I am enjoying this since I am faced with similar problems with a  "flying wheel".


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## deeferdog (Feb 19, 2017)

I am a novice when it comes to using CAD, however I had hoped that I would be able to lay out the wheel and plot the X Y of the various holes. Well, no such luck, it's beyond me, I messed around for ages and achieved little, even worse, the pathetic drawing I did manage to do refused to print, more wasted time. In the end I got so fed up that I photographed the screen and worked off that. I scribed the pitch circles using the RT and the angles also. The main concern was to make sure that the two bolts holding the blank to the mounting plate fell in the scrap area and not the spokes. I decided to do all the cutting with my 12mm ruffer, so all the holes were drilled using a 12mm bit. Both pitch circles were laid out 1mm undersize to allow for the finisher to clean things up. I experimented a bit on the first cut to see what the machine was happy with, I realise that this a novel approach to feeds and speeds but I do the same on the lathe. It's not hard to see when a machine is overloaded and I like to look after my tools. Anyway, the ruffer was happy taking a 5mm deep cut with a nice easy feed on the RT. I use a water based machining oil (Metalum XPD1800) and I find this stops galling on the cutter. The other thing I do is suck all the chips from the slot after each pass, I find that surface finish is greatly improved, and finally always cut in one direction. Everything went quite well, as each piece of pie was cut out they fell away without any tendency to jam, I'm always a bit fearful of that. That's it for now, onto the hubs and spokes next.
Regards, Peter.


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## Blogwitch (Feb 19, 2017)

Lovely piece of work there Peter, keep it up.

As I told you before, lathe not required, just a decent method of hold down on the RT.

The hard bit is now done so you can start to machine the hub, spokes and rim for the full effect.

Well done.

John


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## Cymro77 (Feb 19, 2017)

Peter,
An incredible piece of work.  I am faced with a similar situation on a smaller scale.  The rotary table is my nemesis!
Thanks for sharing your ongoing build.


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## deeferdog (Feb 20, 2017)

I would like to say that from here on in all was plain sailing, but of course it wasn't. The mistake I made was to cut out the pieces of pie by going around using the RT. The trouble with this method is that the two opposing spokes are not done at the same time. A much more accurate method would be to cut the curved top of the pie section on the RT, then remove the blank and locate on the mill table and cut the spokes using the X axis. I ended up having to do this as each spoke was slightly different from its opposite number. This error was undoubtedly due to me but the backlash in my RT didn't help, at 4 inches it's a bit small for such a big job. Anyway, I faced the spokes down 6mm leaving a 65mm hub which I radiused using a rounding tool. I did the internal of the rim in the same manner. After doing the other side, I then removed the wheel from the RT and clamped the wheel to the milling table. I bolted two stops to the table such that they were a snug fit against the internal of the rim and the spoke. I dialed the wheel in along the x axis and clamped down. The advantage of this was when it came time to do the next two spokes it was just a matter of un-clamping the wheel and rotating to the next set, the centre remained exact so all the numbers on the DRO were correct. I recut all the spokes to within .002", plus put stopped chamfers on them, all in about two hours. Both sides! I was pretty pleased. This is a much more accurate and easy way of doing the spokes than on the RT, at least I found it so. After a bit of a rub here and there with wet and dry, I thought it came up reasonably well for a first effort. I could do it better next time, but that is generally the case. For heavy cutting, the ruffer was the bees knees and skimming half a mil or so off with the finisher sure makes the clean up a lot easier. I think I've earned tonights scotch.
Cheers, Peter


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## ShopShoe (Feb 20, 2017)

I knew you'd get it. I like to say that the real learning comes from working with what you've got, not with what you bought.

How it looks -- It looks great. You've demonstrated the machining but I'd like to say that I can say kudos for the design as well.

Looking forward to what you do next.

--ShopShoe


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## Blogwitch (Feb 20, 2017)

Well, you really got that under your belt now Peter. There should be nothing holding you back now.

You can now say that you have tried it and succeeded with flying colours.

Have a look at my signature line below.

Great work.

John


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## bazmak (Feb 20, 2017)

I a very impressed a job well done.Following with interest


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## deeferdog (Feb 20, 2017)

Thanks, I think your comments flatter me but I love them all the same.
Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 21, 2017)

I have to confess that I don't have any step by step plan for building this engine, things just seem to flow. I decided to do the flywheel because I could see that it was a big hurdle that would have to be overcome if the machine was to be completed. However, now that this has been accomplished it merely shows that the next hurdle is how to connect it to the engine. The drawings simply show everything from the base up, neglecting the fact that the flywheel is 300mm (12") and half of it hangs below the base. So unless I resign myself to always running the engine on the edge of a table or such, it is going to need an elevated base. Also, this base is going to have to somehow offer support for the other side of the flywheel bearing which is another thing the drawings omit. Sigh! After looking through pictures of beam engines on the internet, I decided to have an open arrangement rather than a box and based on this decision, off I went. I had some 30mm (1.18") brass tube and cut four 120mm (4.72") columns. The top and bottom of the columns would need some adornment, I decided to use aluminium and bright polish them. The model is intended to be painted at the finish so these should add a bit of brightwork. The pictures tell the story better than I can describe. The set of rounding tools I brought from Hong Kong are very good. I made a holder and bushes for them to use on the lathe toolpost. Because the cutting edge faces down, I run the lathe in reverse and feed in, lovely and no chatter. The top pieces were cut from 50mm (2") round, the bases from 50mm square. I used 10mm (.39") threaded rod screwed into the 12mm (.5")  aluminium base, then the column base was slipped over the rod and retained with a nut and washer. The brass column, with its top attached (Locktite) spigotted into this, the engine bed over the threaded rod and onto the columns and the whole put under compression using four nuts, these will be replaced with something a bit more glamorous at a later date. All in all, not too bad. Next is the outer bearing support. I'll have to have a think about that. Cheers, Peter.


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## Cymro77 (Feb 21, 2017)

Peter,  I am loving your work  especially your inventiveness and work arounds.  It is providing me with some great ideas!  Thanks for sharing.  DW


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## deeferdog (Feb 23, 2017)

Thanks Cymro, more hit and miss than inventiveness, Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 23, 2017)

Some days, time spent in my shed is just the best, everything runs smoothly and nothing could be more enjoyable. Yesterday was not one of those days, in fact it was the absolute opposite. First I broke an end mill, a 12mm one at that, by doing something stupid, then the Z axis of my mill jammed in the up position. After looking at the drawings in the manual, I decided that it must be something to do with the nut that engages the vertical leadscrew. Two hours of messing about, pulling the head off the machine, no mean feat when it is jammed in the uppermost position, I discover the culprit is a grubscrew that has wormed its way out of the driver pulley at the top and snagged the rim of the mounting plate. Ten seconds to put it back in with locktite, fixed.The head didn't need to come off at all. I almost wept with frustration. Another couple of hours putting it all back together, tramming the head, gnashing my teeth and cursing my stupidity. I watched my dear wife tending the geraniums in her garden and I started to wonder if it was time to look for a more gentle hobby.
Well, tomorrow is another day, thank God.
Regards, Peter


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## Cogsy (Feb 23, 2017)

I have far too many of those days myself. Yesterday I studied the electric fan in my shed to get the correct pitch on a cooling fan I'm building (cos I couldn't find one the correct pitch) and failed to take into account my electric fan spins in the opposite direction to the one I'm building. So yes, my shiny new brass fan has the wrong pitch... To add insult to injury I picked up a piece of brass that was so hot it made my fingers smoke. I called it a day at that point.


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## deeferdog (Feb 24, 2017)

Back in the shack. I really need to push on with the outer bearing mount because I need to get the flywheel and shaft mounted. This will determine location and alignment of the various linkages. The drawings offer little so I decided to fabricate a mount and attach it to the bottom plate of the engine. I decided to use substantial sections of aluminium as this whole arrangement is cantilevered off the side. The spacing has to be sufficient to allow for an additional transmisson pulley to be located on the shaft. This will be connected to a small DC generator located on the bottom platform, giving a load to the engine when it is working. In actual fact, most of the time the DC generator will act as a motor. This will allow the engine to be displayed in "dynamic mode". (Love all this modern jargon, once we would have just said "working"). As always, the pictures tell the story much better than I. I made a holder for the rounding bits as 20mm is the largest ER32 collet I have and that worked OK. The results put me in a lot better mood then the previous day, this is turning out to be one giant engine.
Cheers, Peter


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## deeferdog (Feb 26, 2017)

Not a lot of activity to report. Decided to make the main crankshaft bearings ant then use those to decide on the shaft design. Still battling with the drawings but at the end of the day I would not have been able to get this far without them. I will make the shaft from some 22mm silver steel I have but step down to 15mm or so for the bearing journals. I can see that some of the previous work will have to be re-done, the outer bearing support now looks to be too far over. Once the shaft and bearings are all located I will be able to take some measurements for the connecting rods. A few pics of today's work. Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Mar 1, 2017)

After I finished the bearings for the crankshaft I realised that the engine had a tendency to heel over due to the weight of the flywheel and support cantilevered off the side. Time for a change. I did not like the top of the outer bearing support, so I decided to make a whole new support and have it as a foot for the machine as well. I milled the outer bearing down to 16mm so it now sat flush on the support and looked much better. I turned the shaft from a piece of 22mm bright and reduced the journals to 14mm. The two shoulders of the shaft fit snugly between the bearings so no end float. I milled a 6mm x 3mm keyway in the shaft, then set up the flywheel in the mill for the keyway. I milled down with a 6mm endmill set so that it only chewed a 3mm groove down the FW bore, then finished it with a file. I don't have any broaches. I made the key from brass. To keep the FW in place on the shaft I made a collar with a 5mm grubscrew and bolted this collar to the hub of the FW. A quick dimple in the shaft and smiles all round, I was having a good day. Everything bolted together OK, the FW spins nicely in the bearings. Domestic duties for the next few days unfortunately, but I think I've reached about the half-way point. Cheers, Peter


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## deeferdog (Mar 10, 2017)

Very quiet all week painting bathrooms. That's enough on that subject. The only thing that has happened on the project front is the arrival of the bevel gears I ordered from Hong Kong, these are needed to drive the governor. I think these are from a Bosch angle grinder, A$9.50 freight paid. I ordered them on the 21 Feb and they arrived 9th March which is pretty good service. For lots of reasons I don't think this hobby would be possible without the internet, not for me anyway. I will attempt to machine them when I get back from Canberra, which is where I will be for a week. Any advice on working with hardened parts would be welcome. Until next week, Regards, Peter


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## Ghosty (Mar 10, 2017)

Peter,
They look like compressed powered metal gears, if they are they will be hard and there is very little that can be done with them as they will break. They are a very long lasting and wearing gear if they have enough lube.

Cheers
Andrew


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## oliomio (Mar 16, 2017)

Hi Peter,  I used angle grinder gears for the governor of my Bolton 12.  I heated them red hot and slowly cooled them several times, and was then able to machine them with carbide insert tools.   John     johnsmachines.com


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## nhoj (Mar 16, 2017)

Hi Peter, 
love your work, I built a #12 a couple of years ago, see attached video
  [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8IPPFz8nU[/ame]   I have a spare cast iron
  beam unmachined  that you may have for free, I live on mount tamborine
  not far from you,as for the bevel gears I made my own from brass,an involute
cutter is only about $15 and you have all the tools needed, something to think about,


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## deeferdog (Mar 17, 2017)

Thanks John, your kind offer is appreciated and I would like to contact you. We are only 30 min from Mt Tamborine. Until next Tuesday I am in Canberra looking at, amongst other fascinating things, Cockington Green miniature village and the flowers in the company of my darling wife. (Sigh!). But I will be back in the shack by the middle of next week, hoping to get started on the project. As for the gears, I would love to attempt to make them, possibly I could pick your brains. To anyone else reading this, Canberra is the capital of Australia and the home of the Federal Government. I personally feel it is the perfect place to keep all our politicians, however, the War Memorial is a must see, and I don't say that lightly. Some pics of the village,
Cheers, Peter


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## KM6VV (Mar 18, 2017)

Hi Nhoj,

The cutters I've been finding are more like $45 USD.  I'd like to order a pair of 32 DP #3 and #6 cutters to make gears for an Eagle I.C. engine.

I've only built steam engines up to now, I have a little beam engine I designed and build about 10 years ago on by Sherline lathe and mill, similar to the Bolton an the Stewart Major Beam (much smaller!).   I'm interested in your boiler.  Can you give me a link to info on it?

Thanks,

Alan



nhoj said:


> Hi Peter,
> love your work, I built a #12 a couple of years ago, see attached video
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8IPPFz8nU   I have a spare cast iron
> beam unmachined  that you may have for free, I live on mount tamborine
> ...


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## nhoj (Mar 18, 2017)

Hi Alan,
all of my cutters have come from CTC in America and are listed as $16.20 each
unfortunately they don't seem to carry 32dp cutters, a quick search brought up RDG in England have 32dp cutters for $28.16 each,the boiler was purchased
from Maccsteam LTD. located in England in 2014 for 1064 pounds delivered,
a bit pricey but extremely well made, it has twin burners, runs on lpg and had no trouble getting an inspection certificate in australia,
cheers John.


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## KM6VV (Mar 18, 2017)

Thanks John,

Seems like CTCtools sells the modulo cutters.  I do see some on Victornet that could work.

http://www.victornet.com/subdepartments/14-1/2-Degree-Gear-Cutters/1660.html

Nice boiler, a little bit much for me.  I'd like to build one.

Alan
Central Coast, CA, USA



nhoj said:


> Hi Alan,
> all of my cutters have come from CTC in America and are listed as $16.20 each
> unfortunately they don't seem to carry 32dp cutters, a quick search brought up RDG in England have 32dp cutters for $28.16 each,the boiler was purchased
> from Maccsteam LTD. located in England in 2014 for 1064 pounds delivered,
> ...


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## deeferdog (Mar 23, 2017)

Back to the real world. The gears I brought from HK, (see earlier post) were just as hard as everyone predicted. I tried to bore out the crown gear but it soon became apparent that this was a waste of time. A tip from OLIOMIO (John Viggers) on this forum suggested heating the gear and then allowing to cool slowly might help. I wasn't convinced but decided to try anyway. Total success! The gear was still hard, much like 316 SS, but quite easy to bore out to size as well as drilling and tapping for a grub screw. Thanks John and all the others who have offered their insights and advice, this forum has many benefits, not the least the enjoyment I get from writing about this project. The gear is now snug on the shaft and I can take some measurements. The eccentric will be fitted between the gear and the bearing pillow block and the space between the gear and flywheel is for a double groove rope pulley to drive a load located below on the second "floor" of the model. I have been researching rope transmission belting but haven't discovered much. If anyone has any advice it would be appreciated, particularly on how to join the rope. Further progress might be a little curtailed over the next few weeks as the bathroom painting has shown how shabby the rest of the house is. Bugger, I hate painting. Cheers, Peter


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## oliomio (Mar 24, 2017)

Thanks for the mention Peter!  I have posted a video and other pics of my Bolton 12 running on steam  and construction at johnsmachines.com.   John


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## deeferdog (Apr 5, 2017)

A bit of a break in the project due to a nasty weather event on the east coast of Australia, we missed most of the winds but made up for it in the rain, I need a new rain gauge calibrated in feet instead of inches. All this water showed up a few deficiencies in my shed that needed to be addressed before moving ahead with the project but I am happy to say that I'm back in the shack and the sun is shining once again. If I needed any incentive to finish this engine it received a boost when I met NHOJ, a member of this forum who contacted me, and as he lives close I visited. John has completed this steam engine from a casting kit and if I can do half as good a job as his finished masterpiece then I will be satisfied. John had two main castings left over from the kit and was kind enough to offer them to me, the entablature and the beam, these had been duplicated in the castings he obtained. I accepted these with deep gratitude and would like to once again say "thank you" to John.
Back to my effort and the rapidly drying shed, I decided to make the rope pulley that is located next to the flywheel. I cut the 100mm blank and bored the centre to the shaft size. I don't own any broaches so I cut the keyway with a file, then drilled and tapped the rim for a 5mm grubscrew. The pulley does not have a hub so I thought that this would be the easiest way. The blank was now mounted on the shaft in the lathe to complete the turning. I wanted to do it this way as I have a bad habit of turning up pulleys that have a wobble when mounted to a shaft. I made a small form tool for the grooves, this worked OK I suppose but the chatter was dreadful. When they looked about right I cleaned them up with a round file and then paper, added a bit of a profile to the cheeks of the pulley for appearance and called the job done. I thought it looked fair enough at the finish, time will tell. Next, on to the beam. Cheers, Peter.


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## deeferdog (Apr 10, 2017)

On to the beam that was given to me by NHOJ. I must confess that I have never had anything to do with castings as supplied in kits, so I was looking forward to the exercise. Should be fairly easy, cheating a bit compared to scratch, or so I thought. The quality seemed pretty good to me, the only problem that I could detect was that it has a definite bend along its length but as I can see no way of correcting that I decided to just leave it. The first step was to machine the axle bosses down to flatness and size, this was easy enough and things were going swimmingly. I blued the bosses after the machining, established the centre of the middle boss and used this point to reference the centre points of the other hubs. Except that the centres were off by quite a bit when compared to the actual centre, so here was a problem. If I centred each hole in the centre of each hub, the result would be pleasing to the eye but the relative distances between the axles would be wrong, If I made the distances correct, two of the bosses would look as if they had been drilled off centre. I decided to fudge it and go for what looked OK without being too far wrong. I drilled the centre boss dead centre and worked outward and the result looked pretty good, that is until I turned the beam over. To my horror, the hole drilled through the centre was way off and the result looked bloody awful. The other bosses didn't look quite as bad but were still pretty grim. I cursed my lack of experience with castings and now realise that I should have taken a decent set of measurements before starting, then at least I would have known just what I had to work with. It was now obvious that the bosses were not perfectly aligned with each side. I'm not sure what I could have done but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done what I did. Bugger! In the end I milled the centre hubs off entirely, this corrected the visual abomination. I machined two brass spacers that fitted snug between the bearing blocks and the beam and the result is passable. The other hubs I decided to live with. The underside of the beam was drilled and tapped for grub screws to locate the axles and the beam was finished. As always, this hobby has a habit of showing you how little you know, not how much and I was a much chastened and more humble person than when I started the beam. I now think that doing a model from castings would be MUCH more difficult that I had previously thought. I think I need a good scotch to revive my ego. Cheers, Peter.


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## Blogwitch (Apr 11, 2017)

"I now think that doing a model from castings would be MUCH more difficult that I had previously thought."

You are quite correct in that assumption Peter.

Beginners are the usual people to fall into that trap, they assume it would be easier to make from castings rather than bar stock, but because you are at the mercy of the casting suppliers getting things spot on, and most times they are not, many sets of castings end up under the bench because the parts required couldn't easily be got out of the casting supplied.

I spent many hours putting right the mistakes other people had made on their castings, just so they could carry on to finish their project.


John


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## KM6VV (Apr 11, 2017)

Even machining an intricate beam out of bar stock (brass) can have it's  problems.  I was just finishing up the outside contour for a 9" beam on  my Sherline mill, and the part nearly jumped off the bed when fully cut  out!  Stress had apparently built up in the part due to a considerable  amount of pocketing (CNC).  

I don't remember if I had to do anything to it (about 10 years ago), but the engine turned out OK.  (Sherline-sized copy of a large beam engine).

  Previous to that I had started a Stuart 10V, but I apparently set it aside, and  opted to design and build a similar engine out of bar stock to gain some experience.  And then a  few other engines...

Now I'm trying to find the drawings for the 10V, and Andrew's book: "Building a Vertical Steam Engine".  (Semi-retired now).  And finish it up.

Alan



Blogwitch said:


> "I now think that doing a model from castings would be MUCH more difficult that I had previously thought."
> 
> You are quite correct in that assumption Peter.
> 
> ...


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## deeferdog (Apr 13, 2017)

After all the problems with the beam, I was starting to suspect that I was entering one of the hardest parts of the build. Although I had maintained accuracy with most of the dimensions of the plans, my approach was different enough to cause headaches and the connecting rod to the crank was looking difficult. The connecting rod in the kit, I assumed, is one casting. I decided that it would probably be easier to fabricate this as an assembly rather than cut it out of one piece of stock. The connection to the beam could be achieved by making two cheek bearings and then joining them to the connecting rod so I decided to give this a shot. The pictures tell the story and I was reasonably happy with the results. The other end of the assembly, the crank, gave me much more of a problem. It took a long time to set up, I used the rotary table, and the cutting out was tedious. I set the angle with my trusty little electronic protractor, what a gift from the Gods these things are, and machined either side. I turned the crank pin to a nice tight fit, Lotited and pinned it in place, cut the keyway with a file and I was finished. Not bad, but the bit in the middle is going to give me sleepless nights. Whatever project I attempt after this is going to have a proper set of drawings, or I'm going to have to learn to use Autocad properly. I really can see the benefit of drawing something before attempting the build, and by drawing, I mean an accurate, fully dimensioned one, not the miserable sketches I limp along with. Enough whinging. Cheers, Peter.


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## kvom (Apr 14, 2017)

> "I now think that doing a model from castings would be MUCH more difficult that I had previously thought."



I'll echo my agreement with this sentiment.  Even with good castings the problems start with holding the raw parts to make the first couple of cuts to get datum surfaces.  And the smaller the part the harder the job.

An extreme case, for me at least, is the Stuart 3 cylinder compound kit I purchased recently.  Several dozen castings, and other than 3 of them I'd likely make these parts from bar stock.

I did build one engine from a casting kit (Joy valve engine), but the parts were quite large with lots of excess material.  It was enjoyable to make but I'm not looking to do another anytime soon.

My current project is Anthony Mount's Benson engine, available as a kit from  a UK supplier.  I'm attempting it from barstock rather than the casting kit, so there are some challenges on duplicating some of the castings.  Nothing insurmountable so far.


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## deeferdog (Apr 17, 2017)

When I started the connecting rod I have to admit that I didn't really have a clear idea as to how the completed article would finish up. I took a piece of 30 mm aluminium round and machined two flats at the end to match the width of the beam and fitted the two cheek bearings I had made previously. This worked out OK and now I at least had a connection to one end. After a lot of fiddling around and one failed attempt I decided to make the crank end connection and then join the two parts into one connecting rod. This sort of muddle engineering  occurs when you don't have a drawing of what you are trying to make. I'm used to it but it can be frustrating, I really envy others who make a three D drawing first and can see just what will fit where. I bored out the top part of the rod to accept the crank connection which had a shoulder machined such that when inserted to this would result in the whole being the correct length. I Loctited this into place and secured it with two 3 mm roll pins. When I assembled this arrangement to the engine it worked quite well. I put it back in the mill and machined some flutes into the body and rounded off some bits to improve the appearance, in the end I was reasonably happy with the results but if anyone is reading this and thinking "what a complicated way to end up with a simple thing" then I can only agree. This project is no longer a case of light at the end of the tunnel, more like first finding the bloody tunnel. Tomorrow will be better. Cheers, Peter


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## deeferdog (Apr 18, 2017)

I suppose one of the advantages in scratch building is that you can change your mind more often and change the project as well. I decided that the rope drive pulley just didn't quite have the look and as I had two gears from the post drill that I had purchased in an attempt to have a cast iron flywheel, well, now looked to be a good time to use them. The large gear was bored out and I press fitted a piece of aluminium round stock, this gave me a shaft to hold the gear in the lathe. I faced off the casting to remove an eccentric lobe and form a true hub, then parted off the roundstock and bored out the hub to the crankshaft size on the engine. I had to angle drill the hub and tap a 6 mm thread for a retaining cap screw. Everything went well and the gear sat nicely on the crankshaft and the model now had the look I was looking for. The smaller gear was machined and bored for a small layshaft which I decided to mount under the main platform of the model. I made two pillow block bearings for this and eventually got them located in the correct position. (I made a complete pig's ear of the first attempt, four more holes to plug and file back.) The main platform had to have an indent machined to allow the layshaft to finish inside the overall width dimension of the model.  Eventually, this shaft will have a pulley made for it and this will be driven by a small sewing machine motor, this will enable me to satisfy the curious who would like to see the machine in action without having to connect to air or steam. I want to try and disguise the motor so that it looks more like a generator but that's for a later time. Once again, the pictures tell the story. Regards to all, Peter


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## deeferdog (Apr 21, 2017)

Now seemed a good time to do the eccentric. I could see that it was going to get tight in this area as after the eccentric I would have to make the mount for the governor, time will tell if it is all going to fit. The eccentric was relatively easy, I made the bearing lobe from a piece of hex brass stock then parted it allowing extra thickness for the hub. the shaft centre was marked, bored and the keyway filed out. I mounted this on the crankshaft and turned down the hub in the lathe afterwards drilling and tapping for a 3 mm grubscrew. The outer part of the eccentric, I have no idea what it is called, I made from aluminium bar bored out and split as per the pictures. The end result looked OK, I decided to mill off the corners for a bit of eye appeal. The next bit will be harder, I have to work out just how to connect this to the valve train, still, things are humming along so sod's law says that a gutzer is just around the corner. I wish I had been born an optimist! Cheers, Peter.


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## deeferdog (Apr 23, 2017)

Connecting the eccentric to the crankshaft, as per the drawing, was by keyway with the maximum height of the eccentric sheave at 90 degrees to the crank web. I hope they are right as timing a steam engine is not my long suite. The connecting rod from the eccentric strap, (I've being doing a little homework on the naming of the parts of an eccentric) to the valve shaft would be 6 mm aluminium, this would be threaded into the strap and the other end threaded into a brass axle. The axle would be free to rotate between two jaws of the valve shaft crank. The work went OK and assembly and dis-assembly of the whole arrangement is reasonably easy. The pictures should explain and I made a quick video of the project so far, the model is still a bit rough in parts but then so is my ability. The bottom photo is sideways, sigh. I look at some of the other offerings in this forum and realise that I am on the bottom rung of an extremely tall ladder. However, I get a lot of pleasure out of this challenge, I hope that it brings a small measure of enjoyment to those of you who have been following this. Comments are invited and appreciated. Cheers, Peter.
PS The video will be on the next post. Hopefully.


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## deeferdog (Apr 23, 2017)

Third attempt at this video! What is a security token?


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## Cymro77 (Apr 23, 2017)

Sorry old chap but I have not a clue, perhaps the administrator can help!


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## deeferdog (Apr 23, 2017)

Sorry about the video, I have notified the Administrator of my problems and will wait a reply. In the meantime, stills will have to do. Cheers, Peter


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## Cogsy (Apr 24, 2017)

deefer - you just need to upload your video to youtube and post the link in a post for it to show the video in the thread. Just make sure the link is along the lines of htt p//youtube.com/watch=654sdfh5465s and you'll be fine.


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## deeferdog (Apr 24, 2017)

Thanks Cogsy, I'll give it a shot later today. Cheers.


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## deeferdog (Apr 24, 2017)

Here is the link to the video. This shows the progress on the project so far.
https://youtu.be/ZWobjwB71ks I estimate that I am over half way but not by much. The video is pretty basic and I don't expect any messages from the Academy. Experience will make them better. Thanks again to Cogsy.
Regards, Peter


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## Cogsy (Apr 24, 2017)

Looking really nice so far. Did you use youtube's "let us fix the shaky video" feature? In a couple of shots I see some wonky looking parts that then straighten out on their own! Your youtube link is almost right, but you need the one where it's not split like youtu.be. Post the one that you get from clicking on the link above and it'll work like this : [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWobjwB71ks&feature=youtu.be[/ame]


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## deeferdog (Apr 24, 2017)

I removed the shakey fix feature. I've got a bit learn. Thanks for your help.


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## deeferdog (May 6, 2017)

Back in the shed after a week away at Woolgoolga, a sleepy little township just north of Coffs Harbour, very relaxing. On to more serious stuff. The drive shaft for the governor runs through an arched shaped casting, which of course I didn't have. It was fairly easy to work out a design as the bevel gear on the crankshaft dictated where the drive pinion would have to be. I mounted a chunk of 16 mm thick aluminium on the rotary table and milled out the shape. After some initial hand finishing, two brass bearings were fitted to support the shaft. I'm not too sure if these are really necessary as the shaft runs in the vertical but they are not too much trouble to fit. For the shaft I used a piece of 6 mm aluminium round, the hard part was fitting the pinion gear, and when I mean hard I'm referring to the hardness of the gear. I heated it to cherry red and allowed to cool slowly as I had done with the bevel gear but drilling through it with a 3 mm drill for a roll pin took some time. The drill bits are good quality Suttons used with Rocol cutting oil but they didn't last long. I'm a pretty average drill sharpener at the best of times and with my eyesight a 3 mm drill bit is a challenge to say the least, but I eventually ground my way through and fitted the roll pin. I have to admit that I broke two of the bits, sigh!
Well, that's where I'm up to at the moment, next will be to finish the brass shaft carrier and fabricate the governor linkage. I will be posting  a little infrequently for a short period as the house painting has been brought to my attention again, bugger.
Cheers for now, Peter.


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## deeferdog (May 10, 2017)

Well, a respite from the painting. Decided to go ahead with the governor shaft carrier in brass to add a touch of jewellery to the finished model. I think that this will be one of those things that prove to be much harder than it looks as the linkage for the centrifugal weights has to be attached as well. I machined the basic shape from a piece of hex brass bar, putting a slight taper for effect. I had an old brass lamp I had picked up at a car boot sale for a dollar and I cut the end off this and fitted it to the base to improve the appearance. The smaller movable top part was a bit fiddly, like making a chess piece but I was happy with the result. If all this sounds like a bit of wood turning rather than precise engineering it's because that's pretty much the way I approached it. There are few critical measurements, the most important thing is that it works, I hope that it does! At the moment I still haven't worked out how to attach the linkage, or even how to fabricate them, perhaps after a good inhalation of paint fumes it will come to me. Watch this space. Cheers, Peter


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## deeferdog (May 15, 2017)

The ongoing saga of the steam governor, I spent most of today filing and fiddling with bits of brass and aluminium and at the end I think that I'm getting somewhere. I estimate that I've got around the same amount of time still to spend before it's finished. A lot of this sort of work is not my long suit by any means and it tries my patience but it sure beats painting. The pictures tell the tale far better than I. The next step is the two brass balls. That should prove interesting and the pressure on. Until then, Regards, Peter.


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## deeferdog (May 29, 2017)

Sorry for the lack of posts, other projects, including the painting have interfered. Two more weeks and I should be back. Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Jul 4, 2017)

Looking at my last post I realise that the break has been a bit longer than I intended, however the time has not been wasted. My shed is very small, 3 metres by 3 metres and as the steam engine has started to come together it has taken up so much space that it really has become a bit of a nuisance. I haven't weighed it but I guess it must be around 10 - 12 kgs and my back is not getting any younger. So I bit the bullet and decided on some extensions and these have been occupying me time up until now. I managed to add an additional 4 square metres and even though the shed is now an odd shape I don't mind. To me it is heaven. Of course I filled it all straight away but at least I no longer have to constantly move things around to find a bit of bench space. I also finally managed to quieten down the air compressor (See my post in Machinery mods if interested), it's not brilliant but I can think when it cuts in. So, that's it for now. Hope this is not off topic. I will be back on the real job tomorrow. Regards, Peter.


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## ShopShoe (Jul 6, 2017)

deeferdog,

Thank you for posting your shop pictures. I am sure I am not alone in liking shop pictures, shop build logs, and shop descriptions.

"Of course I filled it all straight away"  Of course ......

--ShopShoe


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## deeferdog (Jul 6, 2017)

I am now happy to report that I have finished the governor, this part of the model proving a real stumbling block. My attempts to turn two brass balls that look the same were a miserable failure and a waste of good brass, another job that was just going to be too easy, sigh! In a blinding flash of inspiration I went to the local fishing shop and brought a bag of heavy lead sinkers, lovely ROUND ones and used two of those. Cheating I know but they sure look better than anything I'm going to come up with. Things didn't improve when I spun them in situ and found that they hit the side of the beam connecting rod. The only solution to this was to re-machine the flywheel and governor gears to move them along the shaft, make a new mount for the governor gear arch and reassemble everything. On to the next problem, by this time I was heartily fed up with the this part of the project. Lucky the engine is now too heavy for me to throw. I shut up shop and contemplated my failures over a scotch.
A new day and a new start, things went much more smoothly and most of the parts fitted. It would have been much easier working off drawings and once again I promised to work on my CAD program a bit more. In the end it all seemed to come together and the result is OK. I put a spring on the shaft but this will possibly be removed if it proves not to be necessary. I am really pleased that this part is finished and I can move on. The parallel linkage is looming and I sure hope it proves a bit easier. 
Regards, Peter.


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## deeferdog (Jul 8, 2017)

Before tackling the parallel linkage, the entablature must be fitted. When I first started this project I thought that this part would have to be fabricated along with everything else, however the kind donation from John of his surplus parts included this item. The casting is very good, I'm a bit wary of these now after my experience with the beam and have a lot more respect for those who make machines from casting kits, however as I said, this is very good with no distortion. When I made the bearing platform, this sits on the top of the column, I machined a concave profile into the edge but the casting has a square channel profile so I removed the platform and after drilling and attaching the entablature, I matched the square profile into the platform's edge. The drawings called for the supporting column at the end of the entablature to be attached to the top of the cylinder head but I decided to drop it all the way down to the base so I machined a piece of brass hex to do the job. The result looks pretty good in my opinion and I was pleased that the beam appears to be in the centre of the entablature, this should help with the parallel linkage as it has been mentioned by others that the space between the entablature rails can get a bit tight. Oh well, find out soon enough I suppose. Regards, Peter.


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## deeferdog (Jul 11, 2017)

With the entablature now in position I can turn my attention to the parallel linkage. I have decided not to make this as per the drawings as the style looks complicated for no good reason that I can see, I have decided to use a simpler design. After taking some measurements the bend in the beam was starting to make life difficult, in fact I could see that something had to be done. All of the fault lies with me, I should have sat down and thought about the whole thing when I first noticed the error instead of just blundering on. I removed the beam and made a strongback from a piece of steel channel and bolted down the beam. I understand that cast iron can build up large internal stress during the cooling process after casting so I supposed that that this was the cause of the warpage rather than a bad mould. Firstly I clamped it flat and then heated it to just under a colour change, then added roughly 1mm of bend in the opposite direction to the warp. I only had the propane torch so I new I was going the struggle to get it hot enough, I would have liked to get it to a very dull red. Centuries ago, when I served my time, I spent a week in the blacksmith shop, now I wished I had paid more attention to the old Flight sergeant, he talked about cast iron the way most talk about their first born. I hoped he wasn't looking down on me. Anyway, I did my best and did achieve a bit of red in the main area of the warp after nearly an hour of heating, nothing left to do but let it cool and hope it doesn't crack. Cheers, Peter.


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## Cogsy (Jul 11, 2017)

Maybe if that doesn't work set it all up again as you have done, then build a nice hot bonfire and jam the whole thing in there (like right into the heart of the coals). Keep it burning well for a few hours, and leave it to cool down in the fire on its own. I know people have done this sort of thing with success on chilled castings to improve machinability so it should be safe for you to try.


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## deeferdog (Jul 11, 2017)

Thanks for the advice Cogsy, but if I had room for a bonfire I'd have a bigger shed. The beam has cooled and it looks promising on a quick inspection, will post more results tomorrow. Thanks for your time, Cheers, Peter.


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## Cogsy (Jul 12, 2017)

Ahh, that's a good point I guess. I forget sometimes that we don't all have at least a 1/4 acre to stretch out on. I guess if you get desperate at some point there's always a camping trip into the bush...


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## deeferdog (Jul 12, 2017)

The cooled beam looked OK by eye but I'm a much wiser and more sceptical hacker than when I first encountered kit castings. I set the beam up in the mill and ran the clock over it. Some problems I could correct by re-machining, some were inherent in the original mould, such as the bosses being offset from each other. This error means that a centred hole on side A of the beam will be off centre on side B. Nothing I can do about that but it makes you wonder if these things ever get checked by the manufacturer, this casting kit costs over $A2000 and if I had paid that amount I would be more than a bit annoyed. By the time I had finished all the checking, re-milled all the bosses and re-drilled and reamed the holes I came to the conclusion, as I always seem to do, that if I had just spent a bit more time with the beam in the first place it would have saved me all this heartache. I re-assembled the beam and engine and the result looks a lot better. I turned up a couple of test joiners for the parallel linkage and started to take a few measurements. Things look OK so far, I just need to apply a little patience to this job, a pity patience can't be brought. Regards, Peter


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## deeferdog (Jul 15, 2017)

Making the links for the Watts linkage entailed a lot of fiddly machining with small pieces of brass and whatever was lying around in my junk box. The whole arrangement gets very tight where the two front links pass the two fixed parallel rods that are attached to the entablature. The fact that the beam was now reasonably straight has helped here as the alignment between the beam, column centre bearing and the crank is critical to the beam passing through the centre of the entablature. As I said in an earlier post I have decided not to follow the drawings on the design of the links as I thing they are a bit over fussy for this engine. The end result looks reasonable I think and seems to operate quite well. I ran the engine for about half an hour using the battery drill and everything seems to be quite free and willing to turn. Here is a link to a quick video of the result. Cheers, Peter. https://youtu.be/oZDHZmPWKIA


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## deeferdog (Jul 18, 2017)

After the parallel linkage, the next looming challenge was the throttle. The drawings are quite good here, they are on the last page and have obviously been redrawn by a competent draughtsman, something the rest of the drawings could benefit from. The throttle is combined with the shut off valve and that didn't suit the layout I had in mind so once again I decided to go it alone. For the throttle I proposed to use a small ball valve I had lying around. To make it operate smoothly I backed off the pressure on the ball by slightly undoing the assembly, then used Araldite to make the thread gastight. The valve is now virtually frictionless, I hope it will work as a throttling valve as I notice the one in the drawings is like a butterfly valve. Any advice here would be welcome. I made a small column from 12mm aluminium and fluted it for effect, this would be the mount for the throttle. Much fiddling about making the linkage from the governor to throttle arm and I don't think it's quite right yet but I will adjust as time goes by. Next I will run the copper tubing and mount the needle valve. The end is in sight. Cheers, Peter.


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## Crisptrans (Jul 19, 2017)

Peter, phenomenal job on this engine! I've been reading through in awe. Chris


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## Cymro77 (Jul 19, 2017)

Peter,
Great work!  Your inventiveness for alternative options is enviable.  Thanks for sharing - I have been following along envious of your skills.


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## deeferdog (Jul 20, 2017)

It is with some surprise that I realise that this engine is close to completion nearly nine months after I started it, but there is still a lot of work to do, not the least is getting it to run. Firstly let me say thanks to those who have heaped praise on my work, I'm not sure it is justified but it is still very nice to receive those comments. OK, onward to the engine. I ran the tubing to the governor through a needle valve and mounted it to the base, the connection is a standard airline fitting. From the governor to the steam chest will require a little thought as the flanges I made for the connection a proving a little fiddly. Because people generally like to see model steam engines operate, and because connecting them to steam or air at odd times is such a hassle, I generally incorporate a motor into the model. If I can, I like to disguise it, make it look like a generator that the engine is connected to perhaps. Because this engine is so big I just decided to add a small 12 volt DC motor and scuttle my previous plans for a rope drive. I had a belt from a small electric planer so I used this and copied the design of the pulleys. The motor is 60 rpm through an incorporated gearbox, cost around $A18. I machined a case with feet attached as they can be a bugger of a thing to mount, then made a mounting platform and attached it under the layshaft. I was having a good day and all went well. Those little grooved belts are marvellous, the motor turned the engine with no trouble, draws around one amp and ran for over two hours as I twiddled, tweaked and oiled as it ran in. Terribly pleased with the whole thing, I can't really believe that I built it, I'm only a hacker but I love it anyway. For those that love seeing levers, cogs and cams going up and down smothered in oil, here is the link, https://youtu.be/cnlEqV1ZaAc. Next is to get it to run on air. Cheers, Peter.


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## deeferdog (Jul 25, 2017)

Finally got the engine running on air. The way I had made the slide valve was all wrong as JasonB had pointed out in February. I went back in this thread and reviewed what he recommended and remade the valve as he suggested, consequently it now works. The only thing I can mention in my defence is that there is nothing at all in the drawings about the slide valve other than an un-dimensioned side view. My thanks to JasonB. The timing of the engine is poor and the eccentric needs to be adjusted, however, clever engineer that I am, I have keyed that to the main shaft, bugger! Anyway, to cut a long story short, I made a list of all the things that need to be corrected before commencing the painting. To repair the eccentric I have decided to make a new main shaft as I have changed my mind so many times with this that it now looks a muddle of slots dimples grooves and keyways. I'll re-bore the eccentric and fit a new centre with grub screws that will allow for rotation on the shaft. Further, I intend to countersink all the cap screw fastenings, fix the keyway in the main crank, re-do the piston rod packing gland, make a better job of the tubing, yadda, yadda, yadda, the list goes on. I am determined to finish this engine to the best of my rather limited talent. That's it for now, here is a link to prove that I did get it running on air, https://youtu.be/sKKRXM6jESw, Cheers, Peter.


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## deeferdog (Jul 26, 2017)

The various repairs and reworks that I mentioned were done as I dismantled and cleaned the engine prior to painting. I inspected each part and did a bit of file work or sanding as needed, then each piece was washed in hot soapy water to remove grease and oil. The parts were dried out in the sun, then each were wiped down with thinners. I had decided to use the Dulux Epoxy spray paints, the etch primer and the top coat "Brunswick Green". This is a much darker green than it appears in the pics. When I assemble I will use the Loctite 263 where it is needed and the Cyberbond flange sealant for the gaskets. All the surfaces that need sealing I have lapped with 1200 paper and kero on my flatstone. As I write this I am about half way through the painting and all has gone quite well. I'm no Rembrandt but these spray cans sure have come a long way and I find that it is fairly easy to achieve a reasonable result. I'll finish the painting and then on to assembly. Cheers, Peter.


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## deeferdog (Jul 31, 2017)

Finished. There is little more that I can do. A project that I commenced in November of last year has come to an end, and I am pleased with the result. At the start I seriously doubted my ability to see this through, in fact that was the main reason that I did not consider buying the casting kit. (Plus it was over A$2000). Over the months of building this, my skills have improved markedly and my tooling has benefited. I estimate that I spent roughly 900 hours at the task, the materials I suppose were around A$400 to A$500 and all this begs the question, was it worth it? For me the answer is a resounding "yes!" The sense of satisfaction I feel when I look at the engine is priceless. The project led me to this forum and I have enjoyed writing about it almost as much as the building, and the exchange of ideas and help that I have received from other members is something that has given me a lot of pleasure. I would like to thank sincerely all those who took the time to post comments on my progress, it has made me feel part of a group of people whose common interest binds us together. To anyone who may be reading this and considering a bit of a machining challenge, my advice, for what it's worth is "go for it", the end result is sure rewarding. Thanks again to all who followed this journey, time for a drink. Cheers, Peter.


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## apointofview (Jul 31, 2017)

That is a beautiful engine you have built !  Congratulations !! Thanks for taking the time to take pictures and document your work. It's a great help to me to see how other guys carve away at metal and make wonderful machines. 
Could you do one more thing and show us a video of it all done running on air ?
Pete


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## SilverSanJuan (Jul 31, 2017)

WOW!  That turned out amazing!  Beautiful craftsmanship all around.  Thanks for sharing the journey with us.  :thumbup:


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## Cymro77 (Jul 31, 2017)

Peter,  a beautiful engine.  Great work - thanks for sharing!


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