Author Topic: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.  (Read 194071 times)

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #645 on: February 01, 2017, 02:39:30 PM »
Thats a clever way to do it! Looking good.


What is the purpose of the air pump in the engine?


Ok the "Air pump" is used to drain the "condenser" (bit of pipe below the engine where the exhaust steam goes) of the water that is squirted into the exhaust steam to cause a vacuum to help the engine be more efficient. this water that accumulates has to be got rid of, so, there is a water pump that pulls it  up out of the way and sends it to the boiler via another pump that is connected by a shaft on the other side of the beam. Sometime in the past someone has decided to call this the Air Pump as it does have some air in it. some pics of the arraignment.......

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #646 on: February 07, 2017, 02:12:56 AM »
I have continued with the motion work and have had to remake the radius rods. on the prototype the air pump crosshead did not fit under the beam and so part of the beam has been chipped away !! i will also have to do this with the model. This seems to have been a common problem and on some engines there has been a modification to fix this. This can be seen in the first photo......

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #647 on: February 07, 2017, 03:38:43 PM »
2 More views of the chipped away beam to accommodate the air pump crosshead..........There is a Norwich society show and tell event tomorrow on wednesday and i will be taking this engine still unfinished to the event...........

Offline crueby

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #648 on: February 07, 2017, 04:00:35 PM »
Interesting to see that even the builders of the real thing had the occasional "whoops" moment!

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #649 on: February 12, 2017, 02:08:26 AM »
More work on the motion parts...the coupling rods are made and fitted. I have used this tool to get the right dimensions...as the two plates are at quite a narrow angle, one can read off the sizes of the shafts and quickly calculate how much to remove.....1/1000 being about 1/16" so easy to see.....

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #650 on: February 12, 2017, 02:19:29 AM »
Interesting to see that even the builders of the real thing had the occasional "whoops" moment!

I think the reason for the beam needing this quick fix is that it was possibly an already made pattern that was not meant to be used with an air pump rod. To get perfect parallel motion the centres of the crossheads have to be in a straight line drawn from the centre of the beam bearing to the bottom centre of the beam end crosshead. that is why the HP strap has the piston rod crosshead slightly higher that the coupling rod link. The HP and the LP links are to be made next then the engine is basically finished apart from the condenser and air pump.

Offline 10KPete

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #651 on: February 12, 2017, 02:57:26 AM »
Beautiful work, Willie, beautiful.

 :popcorn:

Pete
Craftsman, Tinkerer, Curious Person.
Retired, finally!
SB 10K lathe, Benchmaster mill. And stuff.

Offline Steamer5

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #652 on: February 12, 2017, 09:21:27 AM »
Hi Willy,
 I've got spider who would be proud of the web you are building!
This engine is going to be mesmerising when its running!

 :popcorn: :popcorn:

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #653 on: February 12, 2017, 03:35:37 PM »
Thanks for the  comments from fellow MEM'ers more on the Beam castings .........There are many instances where they used old patterns for new engines ,rather than making new ones......on the Bridewell engine there is a spare hexagonal hole and ...another engine where the lugs are not used. also a better picture of a "modified " beam to incorporate the air pump clearance.....

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #654 on: February 13, 2017, 03:54:53 PM »
Saw this paragraph from an 1872 book about steam.................................!!!

Offline crueby

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #655 on: February 13, 2017, 04:40:56 PM »
Saw this paragraph from an 1872 book about steam.................................!!!

Well, I'M not going to test it!

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #656 on: February 15, 2017, 02:34:34 AM »
Saw this paragraph from an 1872 book about steam.................................!!!

Well, I'M not going to test it!

I shan't either ,,,,,,,,,,!!
I am now making the LP strap   ,  this is quite a complicated looking part and i shall explain it bit by bit. this drawing was made over 2 years ago so i have had sometime to work out how to do it. I have started with a piece of 1" x 1"  x1/8" angle it has been marked out and two holes drilled at each end. The slot is then milled out and the bottom hole is filed square to allow the brass bearing to be filed to fit the aperture and then slid up to the top of the strap and the curves filed to fit The angle is then milled to thickness and............more later.........

Offline crueby

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #657 on: February 15, 2017, 03:11:03 AM »
That is a fascinating part and great solution to making it!


 :popcorn:

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #658 on: February 16, 2017, 02:46:16 AM »
The bearings are next drilled and the corners turned off to give a guide to filling the slots. When filling the slots i use a round file first, then finish with square  file. this is to keep the  file central and stops it from sliding sideways. the bearings are made in one piece and a slot sawn to denote the split. I am using one of the old straps as a template to make the lattice part the right length. this is made from the same bit of angle and will be filed to the correct width and length. the holes for the gib and cotters are drilled out and filed to shape with my special Valorbe files, The lattice parts will have the inside filed square then the diagonal parts will be added later.....

Offline steam guy willy

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Re: The Beeleigh Mill, Woolf compound engine.Maldon, Essex.
« Reply #659 on: February 17, 2017, 02:00:24 AM »
further work on the  straps , i have had a go at the lattice work and have made one with a bit of trial and error   ( R & D )  and the tecnique seems to work, but will have to make the next ones properly, However looking at the originals they are a bit hapazadely constructed.................

 

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