photopro
Member
I have recently started building a Stuart Beam Engine kit that dates from 1985 and am hoping that someone will have a copy of the old parts list for a Stuart beam engine that they would be willing to share. I understand copywrite laws well, and am not interested in violating them, but Stuart is currently providing hardware lists for the newer version of the beam engine kit, not the older ones.
I purchased several kits, earlier this year, from a fellow who had inherited several Stuart steam engine kits from an uncle who passed away. I got all the original invoices, drawings, and parts lists with one exception. No parts list for the Stuart Beam engine. I also got a couple of governor kits with their parts lists.
After browsing the internet to see how others had built this engine, I found a site that appeared to be using newer, larger drawings than mine. That was very appealing as some of my drawings were in bad shape, so I ordered all new drawings for the Beam engine and the marine twin from Stuart.
The marine engine drawings have not changed and are just larger copies of the older drawings. The Beam engine drawings have changed, however. When I compared the new Beam engine drawings to the older ones, I discovered there had been some physical changes made to some of the parts and the parts numbers have all changed. Because of those changes, I decided to go ahead and use the older drawings for my beam engine build. Fortunately I also received a copy of Andrew Smiths Building the Beam Engine which at least shows where the various parts go when assembling the engine.
The number of bolts provided in my 1985 kit does not match the new Beam engine parts list. From the drawings, I can see that they are now using far more studs than the old kit did. I want to order new, small head BA bolts anyway, because apparently there were some clearance problems with the full head bolts and the old plans.
Now I am trying to match the metal pieces provided by Stuart in the kit to the new parts list and not having much luck with that. That part of the blister pack I got had already been opened and I want to see if I am missing anything. Thank heavens I also received the book about how to build the kit because it does have a list of the parts names associated with the original drawing part numbers.
I've included a few photos of the blister packs I received for this engine and some of the machining I have already done on it. One of the really good things about the older kit was that Stuart had already ground the bottom and top surfaces of the base flat. According to the book, that was because in the day, they supposed that most hobby machinists wouldn't have equipment large enough to handle the length of the base. I will say, the castings are top notch and some of the best I have ever worked with.
I purchased several kits, earlier this year, from a fellow who had inherited several Stuart steam engine kits from an uncle who passed away. I got all the original invoices, drawings, and parts lists with one exception. No parts list for the Stuart Beam engine. I also got a couple of governor kits with their parts lists.
After browsing the internet to see how others had built this engine, I found a site that appeared to be using newer, larger drawings than mine. That was very appealing as some of my drawings were in bad shape, so I ordered all new drawings for the Beam engine and the marine twin from Stuart.
The marine engine drawings have not changed and are just larger copies of the older drawings. The Beam engine drawings have changed, however. When I compared the new Beam engine drawings to the older ones, I discovered there had been some physical changes made to some of the parts and the parts numbers have all changed. Because of those changes, I decided to go ahead and use the older drawings for my beam engine build. Fortunately I also received a copy of Andrew Smiths Building the Beam Engine which at least shows where the various parts go when assembling the engine.
The number of bolts provided in my 1985 kit does not match the new Beam engine parts list. From the drawings, I can see that they are now using far more studs than the old kit did. I want to order new, small head BA bolts anyway, because apparently there were some clearance problems with the full head bolts and the old plans.
Now I am trying to match the metal pieces provided by Stuart in the kit to the new parts list and not having much luck with that. That part of the blister pack I got had already been opened and I want to see if I am missing anything. Thank heavens I also received the book about how to build the kit because it does have a list of the parts names associated with the original drawing part numbers.
I've included a few photos of the blister packs I received for this engine and some of the machining I have already done on it. One of the really good things about the older kit was that Stuart had already ground the bottom and top surfaces of the base flat. According to the book, that was because in the day, they supposed that most hobby machinists wouldn't have equipment large enough to handle the length of the base. I will say, the castings are top notch and some of the best I have ever worked with.
