Covid Project First Run: Stuart 10V

[olympic]

I tend to be a lurker on this forum, and I thoroughly enjoy reading of the accomplishments of those talented enough to create such works of art as the models that are featured here. Though I have made a few scratch-built engines in the past, they have been pretty rudimentary, and have not been particularly noteworthy.

I have now actually managed to build something from castings, and I am so pleasantly surprised by it that I have to show it to someone, even though it is not yet complete. No one I know has even a passing interest in what I have done, so I'm posting it here.



I am not a machinist by trade, and have never worked at anything even remotely technical in nature, so anything I have learned has been the result of self-tuition. That being said, I have made numerous horrible blunders while building this, but have managed to recover from them, often, I swear, due more to luck than to ability. Though I will not enumerate them here, the sharp-eyed among you will see some of them.

One of the biggest problems I encountered during the build was a casting-kit-supplied cast bronze connecting rod so twisted that I was completely unable to make it work. I ultimately had to scrap it and make one of my own from scratch.

I was both surprised and delighted when I applied air to the engine and it started to run immediately. You can see that it runs pretty smoothly at low pressure, and you can even see the slide valve moving through the plexiglass cover I made for the steam chest.

I'll now have to take it all apart to clean and paint it. At that time, I can try to repair the rest of my blunders and make this a truly worthwhile project.

Thanks for reading this.

 

[minh-thanh]

The engine runs Great !
Thanks for sharing and Congratulations .

 

[Danuzzo]

Great job.

 

[delalio]

That my friend is some nice work. Great little engine! Well done!!

 

[Richard Hed]

I tend to be a lurker on this forum, and I thoroughly enjoy reading of the accomplishments of those talented enough to create such works of art as the models that are featured here. Though I have made a few scratch-built engines in the past, they have been pretty rudimentary, and have not been particularly noteworthy.

I have now actually managed to build something from castings, and I am so pleasantly surprised by it that I have to show it to someone, even though it is not yet complete. No one I know has even a passing interest in what I have done, so I'm posting it here.



I am not a machinist by trade, and have never worked at anything even remotely technical in nature, so anything I have learned has been the result of self-tuition. That being said, I have made numerous horrible blunders while building this, but have managed to recover from them, often, I swear, due more to luck than to ability. Though I will not enumerate them here, the sharp-eyed among you will see some of them.

One of the biggest problems I encountered during the build was a casting-kit-supplied cast bronze connecting rod so twisted that I was completely unable to make it work. I ultimately had to scrap it and make one of my own from scratch.

I was both surprised and delighted when I applied air to the engine and it started to run immediately. You can see that it runs pretty smoothly at low pressure, and you can even see the slide valve moving through the plexiglass cover I made for the steam chest.

I'll now have to take it all apart to clean and paint it. At that time, I can try to repair the rest of my blunders and make this a truly worthwhile project.

Thanks for reading this.

I am a 9 year machinist and I STILL make MANY blunders so don't be too worried about that. I am surprized and horrified that you have friends that have NO interest in things like your engine. Just what ARE they interested in? Couch potatoes? Zombie TV?

 

[Vietti]

Congratulations! I've been making models for 40 years or so and still make amazing blunders. I think a big part of this hobby and probably others, is finding ways to correct or repair mistakes so you are not alone. I guess the important thing is to learn from mistakes and try not to repeat them.

John

 

[fcheslop]

Congratulations on a fine engine
We all make mistakes its what makes the hobby fun or so I tell myself. If youve never mucked anything up then youve never done anything my old man used to say
Keep well

 

[olympic]

I am surprized and horrified that you have friends that have NO interest in things like your engine. Just what ARE they interested in? Couch potatoes? Zombie TV?

I live in a farming community, and find that farmers in general have a pragmatic view of life and have little use for things that don't produce, as well as a deep disdain for things mechanical, which had better work on demand!

Three cases in point:

Several years ago my neighbor told me that his tractor wouldn't start. I asked him what the problem was, and he looked at me as if I was mentally defective and repeated, "It won't start!" He had no interest in why, he just wanted it to work.

My late father-in-law was a farmer, who had absolutely no mechanical aptitude or interest. I never taxed him with this, but I think that he was actually proud of his disdain for things mechanical, except insofar as they had better work. If they broke, he had to find a "professional" to fix them, and he never accepted the idea that I might be able to fix anything ( we never told him that, one day when he was out, I gave his 1970 Chrysler a badly-needed tuneup).

Last summer I was outdoors running my Serious Boiler (q.v. elsewhere on this forum) with a cute little Clarkson mill engine. The farmer who rents my pasture came along, took one look, and asked, "But what is it good for?"

Sigh.

 

[Richard Hed]

I live in a farming community, and find that farmers in general have a pragmatic view of life and have little use for things that don't produce, as well as a deep disdain for things mechanical, which had better work on demand!

Three cases in point:

Several years ago my neighbor told me that his tractor wouldn't start. I asked him what the problem was, and he looked at me as if I was mentally defective and repeated, "It won't start!" He had no interest in why, he just wanted it to work.

My late father-in-law was a farmer. I never taxed him with this, but I think that he was actually proud of his disdain for things mechanical, except insofar as they had better work. If they broke, he had to find a "professional" to fix them, and he never accepted the idea that I might be able to fix anything ( we never told him that, one day when he was out, I gave his 1970 Chrysler a badly-needed tuneup).

Last summer I was outdoors running my Serious Boiler (q.v. elsewhere on this forum) with a cute little Clarkson mill engine. The farmer who rents my pasture came along, took one look, and asked, "But what is it good for?"

Sigh.

Yes, I have a Mexican friend i met in the feilds--he wanted to see my model steam engine but he had the same attitude--what good is it? why waste your time on something that does nothing?

 

[Poppy Ott]

I am a 9 year machinist and I STILL make MANY blunders so don't be too worried about that. I am surprized and horrified that you have friends that have NO interest in things like your engine. Just what ARE they interested in? Couch potatoes? Zombie TV?

Don’t worry about the mistakes, just recover and carry on. I don’t know who to credit with the following, it was on a machinist’s chart I used to have, but it is a good one to keep in mind.

“Good machinists make very few mistakes. The best machinists seem to make none at all, because they are artists at retrieval and salvage, and are quiet about it.”

 

[olympic]

I like that, Poppy Ott.

I intend to keep on recovering and to proceed as best I can.