Benson's Vertical Steam Engine

[b.lindsey]

It's all coming together nicely John. You should be in the home stretch now!!

Bill

[J.L.]

Thanks Bill. Yes, when the west wall is installed, the air supply line can begin.

[Kim]

That is just stunning John!  Your engine really looks nice.  You'll have to make sure and show us the diorama too!
Kim

[J.L.]

Thanks Kim.

The last machining project for the Benson engine is the governor.

A google search on the internet led me to the Abbottball Company - a manufacturer of steel balls located in West Hartford, CT.  They kindly offered to ship me a special order of 4 unhardened stainless steel balls for next to nothing and appreciated being informed that there may be a market out there for hobby use of their products. I highly recommend this company.

I can not take credit for the design of the ball jig shown in these photos. I also found it on the internet with a "How to drill holes in round balls" search. Anthony Mount suggested using a collet chuck for each ball, but with this jig, it's a 'one stop shopping' event; you get to mount, face, drill and thread both balls with only one setup. Nothing is touched in the process to misalign the balls.

The steps:
1.- sandwich jig holes being drilled in soft steel bars
2. -the balls ready to be closed in the jig
3. -milling the flats on the balls
4. -drilling the holes in the balls
5  -threading the holes in the balls (#1-72)
6 -the finished governor balls

[kvom]

In my case I was able to mount the balls in the lathe chuck and drill them there.  More than one way to skin a cat.

[crueby]

Slick setup for the ball jig - thanks for showing that!

[10KPete]

I've always used the 3 jaw....

Pete

[J.L.]

Thanks Chris.

[J.L.]

Thank you Kim. I'm on that.

With the west wall complete, the air line can be installed. The spigot of an air tool coupler has been modified to introduce air into the system.

[J.L.]

So here we have the wall temporarily installed. It can be removed at this stage to work on other parts of the diorama; being held in place by only the flange on the spigot.

[b.lindsey]

Lovely John, but I expected nothing less

Bill

[Kim]

You do amazing work John!
Kim

[J.L.]

Thanks fellows.

I have been thinking about how to make the governor arms for quite some time now and have bitten the bullet by making them from 1/8" bar stock. The square collet really helped.

I knew the stock could not be turned without tailstock support, so a little segment was left in place when measuring the length of the arms.

The arms were drilled as a matching pair before turning.

So far...

[steam guy willy]

That is a lovely looking engine...superb...looks like the real thing ,wonderfull......

[Flyboy Jim]

Very nice John.  Seeing the engine in it's setting, with the window, one can get a feel for just how big this engine was in real life! Impressive.

Jim