A simple Vertical Steam Engine.

[Jo]

'The only place you find free cheese is in a mousetrap'!

If you want to catch mice then I recommend bread or peanut butter. Its Cats that love cheese and you don't want it to snap on Fluffy

Jo

[Jo]

Following an invasion by monster onions  I have been able to return to valve making for the Stuarts. The important part here is that pocket in the bottom of the valve which needs to be central in the valve.

I still have the valve tops to machine up but I had a sort through of my remaining castings 

There are a few decisions to be made here: Do I keep the original eccentric set for the 5A reverser (which has the wrong sort of eccentric arm). The links are horrible  they have been silver soldered up but are all lumpy. Reversing lever or worm drive for the Swan gear.... 

Jo

[Jasonb]

Jo are those eccentric rods SG Iron or bronze castings? bit hard to tell with your possible brown protective coating. If you do go for the lever reverse on the swan that GM handle does not look nice to me.

J

PS Big cheese is on it's way

[Jo]

The rods are Iron.

PS Big cheese is on it's way

I thought you were a pooping/chewy toy puppy person not a moggie fan.

I have another one on the way 

Jo

[Jasonb]

Scorpion? Do you not assemble parts with the axis on the crankshaft ctr line so that ones on either side or top/bottom of the engine can be easily mirrored

Just had a thought, that crate would make a good kennel for the new little boys

[Jo]

Just had a thought, that crate would make a good kennel for the new little boys

Hope it is not a Chinese packing crate they will get splinters in their mouths 

Jo

[Jasonb]

If it is a Chinese crate I can always take it away

[Jo]

Its getting to the point where I cannot avoid deciding the way forward on the bottom of the reversing gear. At least the link looks salvageable 

Jo

[Jo]

The decision has been made and it is going to cost me a Sausage sandwich on some of my home made bread, so a bit of baking is under way

The solution to the bottom end will be dropped off by the sausage sandwich chomper tomorrow 

Jo

[Jo]

The sausage sandwich has been tactically deployed and I accepted four slices of bronze in exchange, so now I have a solution for the lack of eccentric straps  . In the earlier photos you will note that it looks like I had sufficient straps for both engine sets but many of them are for the standard non reversing 5A eccentric arrangement.

and my supplier forgot the box of castings  I wonder what should do with those

Jo

[crueby]

...
and my supplier forgot the box of castings  I wonder what should do with those

So, when is the raffle drawing for the box of castings?   

[Jo]

So, when is the raffle drawing for the box of castings?   

  I thought it would be obvious... They are in need of a bit of fondling and tomorrow is Thursday which is fondling night

Jo

[Jo]

The Eccentric rods are steel castings, with a few interesting features. I chose to first centre drill the bottoms and drill for the bolts, before turning the taper and squaring up the bottoms of the rods.

The bolt holes were then used to screw to a jig for squaring up and setting distances during the end milling (it also gave a reference for checking offsets on the rod. The final stage was rounding the ends, giving six finished rods. It has been decided that the one "finished" expansion link is tapered so it is probably better to make a third rather than to try to reuse it  .

In the meantime Surus has been enjoying himself with a new set of castings and set them up for the Thursday night Fondle.

Jo

[Jasonb]

Are you missing a cylinder Jo or were you fondling that with one hand while holding the camera with the other?

[Jo]

This is a special version designed to run on only one cylinder  (Until I knock out the other one  )

But I do also have a spare perch bracket and a front Axle fork off an unknown 2" traction engine 

Jo