Engines > Restoration of Model Engines

Steam engine from under the steps...resurrection.

(1/3) > >>

Myrickman:
I thought this was appropriate for this board. A good friend gave this steam engine to me  several years ago before he passed. The story is it came from under the stairs of a Philadlelphia row home before it was to be demolished back in the 70's. He was a lifelong collector of many things mechanical starting after his stint in North Africa in WWII. The old girl is in sad shape and missing the reversing valve links. Over the past few years I've messed with it off and on and figured it was time to get it going. It is very crude and has a lot of odd threads. The screws which hold the stuffing gland on the D valve  appear to be 6-40 and several others are 12-24 . Most of the large bolts are square head which has me thinking it is very early...possibly pre-1900. I'll let you be the judge. The top plate for the steam cylinder was split in two so I had it recast. Same for the front bearing cap. I re-poured the front bearing cap Babbitt about 5 years ago and it has sat on the shelf. It still has some nice original paint and fancy work on the sides which I cleaned and preserved.  I have the con rod and one of the eccentric links.  I'm looking for advice on fabricating the linkage in a manner which both works and looks "correct".

Myrickman:
On the top plate front edge there should be 2 holes for a guide for the D valve rod. They were on the broken top. The next two pix show my early attempt at the reversing sector. On the right side upright about half way up is a hole which I am assuming is a pivot point for the reverse handle. My guess is there should be a link between these to allow the sector to move the D valve. Mind you, this is my first reversing steam engine so I'm figuring this out as I go. BTW the bore is in good shape...stroke is about 3-1/2 inches near as I can recall.  I'll post more progress as I go....

Bertie_Bassett:
looks an interesting little engine, someone must have seen something similar?

b.lindsey:
I am surprised no one has seen one similar, maybe we just need to keep it up in the recent posts in case someone missed it back in August. Any progress since then myrickman ?

Bill

Myrickman:
Back on the little steam engine. I looked over the D valve and body and after much cogitation, decided to remake it. The original was just to darn crappy and mis-shaped to continue with. Here I made the valve body over, opting to use the original cover plate. The D valve has since been completed as are the 12-24 bolts to hold the valve to the cylinder. I made the valve from bronze...should be fine. As it was, I have to go back and file the sides of some of the screw holes on the frame to get it to fit just right. Still, it will make the links the the reversing mechanism easier. I should get this one done soon as I have some vacation time to work on it.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page