Stuart Major Beam Engine

[Jmccrack]

I was wondering. Has anyone ever built this engine from scratch without castings?

 

[Rudy from Norway]

I haven´t, but I´m thinking of building Stuart engines from bar stock my selves. Just buy the plans. I built a 10V as my first project, but was a bit put down by the quality of the castings. My approach is collecting ideas from a lot of free plans for steam engines and get ideas how to make machined parts look like casted. Looking at the Stuart Major castings, I would say no problem. I would certainly take my freedom to alter some details to suit my way of doing it. Flywheel for instance, can be made up of separate parts. Most of the “casting” parts could be collected from a junk yard.
It is a Stuart Victoria scratch build here somewhere.

Rudy

 

[Rudy from Norway]

Came across this build page. A bar stock steam engine looking absolutely like casted.
http://modelengines.info/goldeng/

Rudy

 

[deverett]

Didn't one of the Antipodean subscribers on here build a barstock beam engine that was based on the Stuart Major? Or maybe a copy of E & J Winter's / Bolton engines?

Dave
The Emerald Isle

 

[Jmccrack]

I will check it out. The build Rudy referred to is something to strive for

 

[David Irwin]

Howdy, I am currently working on this engine. I bought the parts through an on line auction and unfortunately a lot of the castings were missing. I had the flywheel, the cylinder and steam chest, the base on which to mount it, the beam, and the two gears along with the two brass balls for the governor. I had to make all but one on the of the bearing stands. Everything else was made with aluminum and brass. I have had it running on about 8psi but it still needs a lot of work. I am an amateur at machining so it has taken over a year so far with a few parts having to be redone. I have tried sandblasting the aluminum to make it look like casting and it's not too bad. I too have wondered if this could be build from raw material. Probably the flywheel would be the most difficult. I have already made a large cylinder and steam chest from aluminum and it looks not too bad, but not exactly like the original. I am a member of the Hamilton Ontario Model Engineering Club and one of our members has a foundry. He was telling me he might try and make the castings similar to the Stuart castings. I have made several stationary steam engines using brass and aluminum and they look ok. I must admit I am having a devil of a time working on cast and going through a lot of cutting tools. I suppose its just part of the learning process.