Author Topic: Stuart Major Beam Engine  (Read 87006 times)

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #45 on: January 31, 2016, 07:06:57 PM »
Wow. That had to make you jump.

The price is for the insert?

Sorry to hear. But it'll be good.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
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Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #46 on: January 31, 2016, 08:18:04 PM »
Yes Jason I agree it would be feasible to  fabricate another valve chest, I just didn't think of it, but At least I have thought of a more sensible way to hold the replacement casting!

Carl - the price of the casting certainly made me jump 😪. Its the high additional costs we have to endure in the UK. On this occasion £5.34 value added tax and £6.30 postage.

Andy
« Last Edit: January 31, 2016, 08:24:51 PM by Chipmaster »

Offline Steamhead

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #47 on: February 06, 2016, 07:11:56 PM »
Hello Andy,  I've just joined the forum and saw your Major beam.  Your build is looking very good. I am also building one and looking forward to finishing it shortly. I just started the governor which is the last thing to do. The flyballs are known to catch the flywheel when extended. There are a few other errors on the drawings such as length of eccentric link rod and threads into bottom feed of the pump. If you want details of these please feel free to ask. Alan

Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #48 on: February 06, 2016, 09:46:37 PM »
Thanks Alan, you're well in front of me so I would like to follow your lead, there are some parts that I haven't worked out the methods for making them yet. Judging by the number of views recorded for my build log there is plenty of interest in the Stuart Major. However, as you can see elsewhere on this web community I have started and finished other engines since I began work on my Major, I also have an impending house move that will delay the job even more.

I am not aware of the errors so I would like to know the details please, will you describe how you built your Major on this MEM site, how long have you been building your Major and are you in the UK?

Andy
« Last Edit: February 09, 2016, 07:37:20 PM by Chipmaster »

Offline Steamhead

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #49 on: February 07, 2016, 07:54:30 PM »
Hello Andy,  The main error is the one I mentioned........A)  That the flyballs hit the flywheel when extended.  I made the governor column about 3/16in. taller (and also the spindle the same amount longer) to correct.      B) If you look at the pump drawing (item 90) you will see the top dimension is 7/16 X 40  It should be 7/16 X 26.  Not a huge problem but it does have one scratching ones head at first.       C)  The eccentric link rod length dimension is incorrect.  I ignored the dimension completely and just made to fit. I had the eccentric half way through its travel and the valve lever rod vertical and made link rod to length.  Incidentally to get the full travel of the eccentric the two lifting arms should be horizontal when the lever is vertical. The lever should rock an equal distance either side of vertical when rotating engine through 360deg.  )I'm sure you already worked that one out.
Not an error, but all the bearings are shown made of brass.  I think its worth upgrading this to phosphor bronze.    The major is a nice engine to build and I found it is all the later fiddly bits where the fun begins!.  I have a lot of pics. of build but where does one begin!   Having said that, I am more than willing to share specific ideas/pics.  I also built one of these in 2014     I am in Devon UK.  I'm away all this coming week but will check your topic.  Where are you?  Cheers  alan

Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #50 on: February 08, 2016, 12:39:45 PM »
Thanks for the tips Alan, I'll look out for those issues when I get to those parts. At present I'm still messing about with the cylinder and valve chest in between work on my Retlas engine. However, I am looking forward to having fun with the fiddly bits, I've had enough fettling and machining iron castings lately. Did you have the same experience as me with the bosses on the beam not looking or being concentric with the location of the associated holes?
Like you I substituted leaded phosphor bronze for brass in all the bearings, both for my Major and Twin Victoria.
Are you making a second Stuart Major, the first one built in 2014?
I'm in Redditch, Worcestershire a fair distance from you so I'll probably ask to pick your brains via this build log or personal messages whichever suits you.
Regards Andy

Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #51 on: February 09, 2016, 08:04:47 PM »
Managed to make good progress working on a replacement valve chest casting this afternoon. First I milled all the faces of the casting to clean them up and ensure they are square
After marking out the casting I decided to start work on the gland for the valve rod. This time I added more support for holding the casting in a four jaw chuck, I omitted that sort of packing last week and the casting lasted about 20 seconds. Once the boss had been machined down to 5/8" diameter a parting tool was used to form a flange bored through 9/64" and 1/4" for a depth of 3/8" for packing the valve rod gland. The casting was then milled to size inside and out to fit over the raised port face on the cylinder. Tomorrow I'll check the valve chest is in line with the cylinder then mill a rebate around the edge of the valve chest, I think that's purely cosmetic.
Meanwhile I'm debating whether to stick to the plan and have six studs securing the valve chest to the cylinder or follow a friend's advice and use perhaps fourteen as the builder has in the last picture below that I copied from the internet.
Andy

Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #52 on: February 13, 2016, 08:56:06 PM »
Work on the valve chest is in progress but today I wanted to see about bolting the cylinder down to the base. I pasted together these extracts from the plans that show how the cylinder is supposed to be held by six 4 BA bolts passing through clearance holes fastened with nuts. I thought it would be better to have the bolts passing down through the cylinder flange into threaded holes in the base because if the cylinder needed to be removed it would avoid the problem of getting access to nuts or bolts inside the base.



The holes in the bottom flange of the cylinder were spotted through the cast iron base of the engine, these were all marked out when I started this engine some time ago. However, I could see the holes would be too close to the edge of the cylinder flange and if I reduced the PCD the would be too close to the external sides of the cylinder. I had reduced the diameter of this flange in order to support the casting in a fixed steady when boring it out.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/D8UdTs]


My solution was to make a thin band to go round the outside of the flange and increase its diameter. Fortunately I had a piece of 3" steel tube that finally came in handy after about 30 years. It machined beautifully (unlike a lot of the new mild steel that I buy these days?) and didn't take long to make a ring that was a good fit The burr left by the parting off tool helped to keep the band in place while the Loctite 638 glue set. The ring was too fragile too file the burr off anyway so it was cleaned up after the glue had set.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/DVcjMf]


[url=https://flic.kr/p/Dx943e]


[url=https://flic.kr/p/DDvHPq]


[url=https://flic.kr/p/Dx93Fc]


After all that fuss I still had to use 4 BA bolts with 5 BA heads and grind away some of the cylinder to make space for the bolt heads.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/D9exNn]


This final picture is a view down inside the cylinder showing the 'cylinder boss' with the section milled out to clear the steam passage at the lower end of the cylinder.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/DDvHr1]
7 by

It will look fine when I've cleaned it up and painted it. :embarassed:
Andy
« Last Edit: February 14, 2016, 03:38:32 PM by Chipmaster »

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #53 on: February 14, 2016, 07:50:53 AM »
Good save Andy, thought they would have cast in a boss for the drain cock at the bottom of the cylinder to match the height of the sloping spigot?

Don't let Jo catch you using bolts instead of studs and nuts ;)

Offline Jo

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #54 on: February 14, 2016, 08:09:23 AM »
Don't let Jo catch you using bolts instead of studs and nuts ;)

:disappointed:
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #55 on: February 14, 2016, 10:11:10 AM »
Ok Jason thanks for the warning, I'll try to source or make some little nuts in order to placate Jo.
I was slightly annoyed having painted myself into that corner, It's going to take a fair amount of filing to clean it up or perhaps wooden cladding will be a practical option.
Andy

Offline Jasonb

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #56 on: February 14, 2016, 10:15:59 AM »
You don't see many of the Majors with wood cleading, I suppose everyone likes to see the decorative moulding around the cylinder.

You can always make bolts with a dimple on the top to look like studs and confuse Jo, that is whats holding the cylinder to the boiler here as its easier to take out bolts that try and remove the radial studs if ever the cylinder hasto come off.




Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #57 on: February 14, 2016, 10:30:05 AM »
Since I started on this engine I have copied all the pictures of majors I could from the Internet and you're right Jason, the cylinder looks better left naked. I've only found one example with wooden cladding around the cylinder.
However, zooming in to these pictures reveals that the little ridge around the base just above the flange appears to have been filed off to stop the nuts fouling it in some examples. The offending ridge can't be machined off on a lathe because of the external steam passage running down the side of the cylinder.
Andy
« Last Edit: February 14, 2016, 10:44:29 AM by Chipmaster »

Offline Chipmaster

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #58 on: February 14, 2016, 10:40:13 AM »
Hi Jason, "make bolts with a dimple on the top" . They look very effective and I'd only have to make six for my cylinder. Did you make all those bolts in your picture of the Fowler cylinder?   :praise2:
Despite being retired I couldn't spend time doing that.
Andy

Offline Jo

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Re: Stuart Major Beam Engine
« Reply #59 on: February 14, 2016, 10:59:59 AM »
"make bolts with a dimple on the top"

 :facepalm:
Enjoyment is more important than achievement.

 

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