Model of a Bessemer Hot Tube Oil Field Engine

[cfellows]

I finished cutting out the sides. Still have a fair amount of shaping and finishing to do on them, but thought I'd post a couple of mock-up pictures to show the group kind of how it's going to look.

The cylinder, as shown, is the finished length and diameter, although it will need to be carved out and a water jacket added. The flywheel is also the finished size.

Chuck

 

[ProdEng]

Great idea using the radius in the angle iron; filed away for future reference

 

[Jasonb]

Chuck please tell me you are not going to go to all the trouble of making it look like a cast engine and then use socket head screws as per your drawing

J

 

[cfellows]

Chuck please tell me you are not going to go to all the trouble of making it look like a cast engine and then use socket head screws as per your drawing

J

Well, you know, can't make it look too much like a cast engine. Wouldn't want to be accused of counterfitting!

 

[cfellows]

Thanks, folks, the words of encouragement. I got the engine frame mostly finished up today.

After squaring and sizing the ends and milling all the bandsaw cuts on the bottom sides, I clamped the pieces in my milling vice and plunge cut the radiuses at each end of the cutout with a 3/4" end mill. You can also see where I began cutting out the waste with my 4 x 6 bandsaw.

Here it is after both pieces have the waste cut out with the bandsaw.

Here I've cleaned up the cuttouts with an end mill, made the bottom piece, drilled and tapped the holes and bolted both side pieces to the bottom piece.

Still have to attach the front piece to the side pieces with SHCS's (sorry Jason) but I ran out of steam for the day. More tomorrow.

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

Chuck,

I did a couple quick measurements this morning on my 22 1/2 HP Bessemer. I already had it partially disassembled so it was pretty easy to get these measurements.

Bore 10"
Stroke 15"
Piston 10" x 16"
Cylinder is just over 31" deep 12" from the head end of the cylinder to the ports. The piston goes 1/8" past the ports on the return stroke.
Flywheels 4" Wide x 68" Diameter

... stuff deleted

Lonnie

Lonnie, what is the diameter of the piston rod where it comes out of the back of the cylinder? Trying to get an idea of what mine needs to be.

Thx...
Chuck

 

[Jasonb]

Still have to attach the front piece to the side pieces with SHCS's (sorry Jason)
Chuck

Thats fine, I assume they will be counter bored and then filled with JB Weld or similar

J

 

[hitnmiss49]

Lonnie, what is the diameter of the piston rod where it comes out of the back of the cylinder? Trying to get an idea of what mine needs to be.

Thx...
Chuck

Chuck, that rod is 1.625" diameter.

Lonnie

 

[hitnmiss49]

Chuck,

Here is is pic of a Pattin Bros Oilfield Engine. It looks almost identical to the model you are building. There are a few differences between it and the Bessemer, mainly the intake valve being on top. the exhaust on the side and the hot tube on the front of the head instead of on top. It also has a longer bedplate.
The Pattin Bros were built in Marietta, OH. They are harder to find because there were not nearly so many built.
This is not my pic so I give credit to the person that generously posted in on the internet.

Lonnie

 

[cfellows]

Thanks, Lonnie. Although I'm calling this engine a bessemer, it's going to be pretty highly stylized and would probably more properly be called a generic half breed oil field engine. I like the idea of having the hot tube coming out of the front of the head as it makes heating it a lot simpler.

I plan to make my piston rod 1/4" diameter which would make it exactly 1/5 the diameter of the piston. That's a little bigger, ratio-wise, than your bessemer so I think it will be strong enough.

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

Here is a drawing of my plan for the cylinder assembly (minus the hot tube...).

I'm planning on only having coolant around the top part of the cylinder as shown to prevent having to seal around the intake and exhaust ports. I also don't plan to have any coolant flowing through the head, again, to simplify things. Assuming I don't run the engine very fast or hard or for long periods of time, does anyone think I'll have a problem with the engine overheating?

Thx...
Chuck

 

[hitnmiss49]

Here is a drawing of my plan for the cylinder assembly (minus the hot tube...).

I'm planning on only having coolant around the top part of the cylinder as shown to prevent having to seal around the intake and exhaust ports. I also don't plan to have any coolant flowing through the head, again, to simplify things. Assuming I don't run the engine very fast or hard or for long periods of time, does anyone think I'll have a problem with the engine overheating?

Thx...
Chuck

Chuck, what program are you using to do these drawings?

Thanks, Lonnie

 

[cfellows]

I use Visio. Doesn't do 3d but does a decent job of 2d with 3d shading. I've tried them all and this one meets my needs the best.

Chuck

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Chuck--You are doing just marvelous with this build. Cool looking drawings too.

 

[cfellows]

Thanks, Brian.

Sometimes in a small shop you have to be resourceful. I needed to tap some 8-32 holes in the end of the engine frame which is 10.25" long. So here's a picture of how I did it.

These pictures are probably a bit of old news since I already posted mock-up pictures. But, in these pictures, everything, except the flywheel, is fastened together.

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

Got started on the crankshaft today. Started out with a piece of 1.5" x 5/8" cold rolled steel 5.5" long. After measuring and laying out, I made cut lines along the length of each side of the shaft, then drilled and bandsawed out the opening between the webs. All this was done to relieve stresses in the metal before laying out the center holes on each end which will be used to turn the shaft between centers.

Here I have the piece mounted between centers ready to turn the connecting rod journal. I added a driving dog after this picture was taken.

In this picture I've finished turning the connecting rod journal.

Next I need to cut away the waste on both ends to start turning the outer ends of the crankshaft...

Uh oh... That doesn't look right... Crap!

OK, a nap and 3 hours later, I've started a second crankshaft crankshaft. This time I managed to cut off the right pieces

Maybe I can get this piece finished without screwing it up.

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

OK, got the crankshaft pretty well finished.

Got the dimensions all pretty much right on, which actually surprised me...

Chuck

 

[Brian Rupnow]

At this rate you'll have that engine going before I get the Atkinson going!!!

 

[cfellows]

At this rate you'll have that engine going before I get the Atkinson going!!!

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Brian, but I'm leaving for a 10 day vacation on the end of this week, so you get a little more time to get your engine running... .

And, the hard parts on my engine are still to be done. So I'm guessing it'll be the end of October before I get this beast going.

Chuck

 

[cfellows]

Back from vacation late Monday, a day to rest up from a day of flying and today I got back into the shop. I finally settled on the design for the crankshaft bearings and caps, so today I finished up the caps and bored and reamed the 3/4" holes for the bearings.

The bearings will be turned from either bronze or cast iron, although I'm leaning toward the latter and will be spool shaped with a flange on either side. By the way, I discovered something about angle iron I didn't know before. The pieces I used for the frame came from 3/8" thick 2" x 3" angle. I found out today that one of the sides is thicker then the other. One side measured about .350 and the other was .390. As a result, the frame on one side of my engine is about .050" thicker than the other. Luckily, it's not really noticable. I made the caps for each side from cut-off's of the frame sides, so the caps each match the thickness of their respective frame.

Next I'll probably make the bearings. I'm a little reluctant to do any more work on the cylinder until I get a better feel for what I need to do.

Chuck