The Hedley beam engine Cambridge.

[ths]

You should have fun with those nuts Willy. The washers, however, are sadly plain. Hugh.

[Johnb]

Is it right that this engine was originally used for pumping tar? If so, it's cleaned up very nicely!

[steam guy willy]

Is it right that this engine was originally used for pumping tar? If so, it's cleaned up very nicely!

Quite possibly and yes it has survived untarnished !! I think as it was built by the apprentices at Hedley's they incorperated many different features from different engines........

[steam guy willy]

You should have fun with those nuts Willy. The washers, however, are sadly plain. Hugh.

Yup Hugh,i will be able to use the two hole filing rest !!....i have sent off the details of it to M E Workshop mag .
The base has now been milled out  "below deck's" and is ready for some more components to be installed

[steam guy willy]

Am now begining work on the top bracket, the drawings are made and adjusted on the photocopier to get an accurate actual size. The two brackets are bolted together. rather than drilling a clearance and a tapping hole, i drill the tapping hole 43 for 6BA through both parts ,whilst clamped together, then tap both of them ,insert the bolt and remove the clamp. The template is then glued on and the parts sawn out on the small bandsaw and filed to the dimension. I have also photocopied the drawing onto clear stuff to check the profile........There are 15 individual parts to each bracket so what i am doing is pure conjecture at the mo !!! I was reading some of LBSC's writings and noticed he suggests drilling holes squarely ! i always try to get them circular myself, though some come out a triffel triangle !...........Oh, i get it, he means square at 90 Degrees to the horizontal, also he is always chucking bits of metal!!!

[crueby]

Looking great! The details you are replicating will make this a true miniature of the original, rather than the simplifications that are more common to most models. Following with great interest!   

[steam guy willy]

Looking at the drawings......the black dimensions are the full size ones and the red ones are the 1/5 size. I also draw them on my metric drawing board using 10 mm for 1" as this is easier to draw at this size of engine. I went to the Beeleigh mill engine last week but no one was there although it was tuesday.......trouble was it was Easter Tuesday!!!. The next chance i get to go is late May so here is hoping.................

[steam guy willy]

Looking great! The details you are replicating will make this a true miniature of the original, rather than the simplifications that are more common to most models. Following with great interest!   

Hi, Thanks for the comments, I do try to make identical models now as in the past with kits, i always find them a bit disappointing, perhaps i am too discerning !. However in the future i might make this into a series for ME  which can be a challenging project for more people. It would be possible to make castings available from the parts, then adjust the drawings to allow for the shrinkage factor of the metals used !!
WIlliam.

[mike mott]

William it is great to see some old fashioned elbow grease being channeled into a beautiful Engine.

Mike

[Rivergypsy]

I'm intruiged, Willy, are you local to Cambridge? Only this is my local museum too 

[steam guy willy]

The inside of the brackets are drilled and sawn out,filed up and divided. I was going to turn up the flanged/web parts next to attach to the frame and then realised that if i had made the brackets with larger material i could have sawn the flanged parts off first as they are quite similar in shape and thickness !! I will have a word with the R&D dept next time !! As there are 8 separate flanges/web's per bracket that would mean turning up 4 circular pieces of brass in the lathe about 3 1/2" in diameter !!.There would have bean a lot of waist doing it this way and my waist is getting larger over the years !

I'm intruiged, Willy, are you local to Cambridge? Only this is my local museum too 

Yes i live in Norridge as the locals call it !!

[Rivergypsy]

Small world, I'm just outside Ely - feel free to give me a shout if you fancy talking steam over a cold pint any time 

[crueby]

For the flange parts of the brackets, could you roll/bend them from straight bar and solder them on? Or, sometimes on shapes like that, I was able to find some large diameter brass pipe fittings and adapt them.
Looking great so far - that is a really well proportioned engine. Should be a great model when you are done!

[steam guy willy]

For the flange parts of the brackets, could you roll/bend them from straight bar and solder them on? Or, sometimes on shapes like that, I was able to find some large diameter brass pipe fittings and adapt them.
Looking great so far - that is a really well proportioned engine. Should be a great model when you are done!

Thanks for the advice ,I came up with the same idea after a visit from the R&D dept (relapse and dementia) I found a bit of steel round and also some 1/8 brass flat and just bent it round and it came out the perfect radii !! The round bar was a bit smaller than the diameter but the springiness in the brass ended up correct...result....... much less work than turning or sawing and filing....definately old school ,or as i like to say old's cool

[crueby]

For the flange parts of the brackets, could you roll/bend them from straight bar and solder them on? Or, sometimes on shapes like that, I was able to find some large diameter brass pipe fittings and adapt them.
Looking great so far - that is a really well proportioned engine. Should be a great model when you are done!

Thanks for the advice ,I came up with the same idea after a visit from the R&D dept (relapse and dementia) I found a bit of steel round and also some 1/8 brass flat and just bent it round and it came out the perfect radii !! The round bar was a bit smaller than the diameter but the springiness in the brass ended up correct...result....... much less work than turning or sawing and filing....definately old school ,or as i like to say old's cool

Perfect! The scrap bin (or, source-for-parts-I-dont-know-I'm-making-yet bin) comes through yet again!