Scale Model Bessemer Oil Field Engine

[rhitee93]

Cool!  That is a nice looking frame. Now I know how you are going to make it too

[cfellows]

Cool!  That is a nice looking frame. Now I know how you are going to make it too

Thanks, Brian.  I finished cutting out the sides.  Still have a fair amount of shaping and finishing to do on them, but thought I'd post a couple of mock-up pictures to show the group kind of how it's going to look.





The cylinder, as shown, is the finished length and diameter, although it will need to be carved out and a water jacket added.  The flywheel is also the finished size.

Chuck

[smfr]

Looks like this will be a neat engine! It should have a long, slow stroke which is great to watch.

Simon

[steamer]

Wow Chuck, that's moving right along! Looks Great!

Dave

[b.lindsey]

Fantastic progress Chuck!  Reminds me of an old original Star Trek episode where Spock stays back in an alternate slowed down time warp efffecting repairs on the Enterprise while the rest of the crew goes back to normal time. To them it seems as if the repairs are happening in mere seconds....is that your secret?  A time warp machine   Seriously I'll b e following along and trying not to blink too often.  If memory serves, one of the guys at our upcoming old engine festival (Oct 12-14) has a running Bessemer though I will confirm that as well as its size, etc.  Keep up the good work !!

Bill

[zeeprogrammer]

Looks good Chuck. I'm glad you posted the mockup...very helpful.

[rleete]

What do you want to bet he was making "psssh, psssh" steam engine noises while he set that up?     

[swilliams]

This should be an interesting build Chuck. I'm aboard for the ride

Steve

[cfellows]

Thanks, folks, the words of encouragement.  I got the engine frame mostly finished up today. 



After squaring and sizing the ends and milling all the bandsaw cuts on the bottom sides, I clamped the pieces in my milling vice and plunge cut the radiuses at each end of the cutout with a 3/4" end mill.  You can also see where I began cutting out the waste with my 4 x 6 bandsaw.

Here it is after both pieces have the waste cut out with the bandsaw.



Here I've cleaned up the cuttouts with an end mill, made the bottom piece, drilled and tapped the holes and bolted both side pieces to the bottom piece. 









Still have to attach the front piece to the side pieces with SHCS's but I ran out of steam for the day.  More tomorrow.

Chuck

[zeeprogrammer]

That's really looking good Chuck.

[Don1966]

  Hey your sneaking one on me here. Dog gone Chuck you sure move fast when your building. You must have a garage full of engines LOL......  Hey I am in on this ride. I learn something ever time you build Chuck.

Don

[cfellows]

Here is a drawing of my plan for the cylinder assembly.



I'm planning on only having coolant around the top part of the cylinder as shown to prevent having to seal around the intake and exhaust ports.  I also don't plan to have any coolant flowing through the head, again, to simplify things.  Assuming I don't run the engine very fast or hard or for long periods of time, does anyone think I'll have a problem with the engine overheating?

Thx...
Chuck

[Jasonb]

I've run my Hit and miss engines without water for short periods of time without issues so you should be fine.

J

[Alan Haisley]

This is a really fascinating build, Chuck. I'm so happy to follow it.


Already it caused me to look up hot tube and hot bulb engines and Bessemer engines.



Alan

[cfellows]

Thanks, Guys.

Sometimes in a small shop you have to be resourceful.  I needed to tap some 8-32 holes in the end of the engine frame which is 10.25" long.  So here's a picture of how I did it.



These pictures are probably a bit of old news since I already posted mock-up pictures.  But, in these pictures, everything, except the flywheel, is fastened together.







Chuck