Steam Engine

[b.lindsey]

We had a workday over at the park this morning to get things ready for next weekend's big Cotton Ginning Days Festival. Part of the preparation is starting up the big Fairbanks Diesel engine which I have shown here before. This past year a lot of renovations were done to the steam engine we had wanted to run on air last year, but the old engine had so much wear on virtually every bearing and sliding surface that running was all but impossible. With a new piston gland, and a lot of work by one of our members on the crosshead, crosshead slides and various bearings, it is significantly tighter now and it was run on air today with nice results. The video isn't great (done with my phone) but does show the old engine happily turning over.

Bill

[youtube1]https://youtu.be/youE3Ob6PIY[/youtube1]

[Tennessee Whiskey]

Cheers to the dedicated member  . That is awesome Bill. So great to see old iron still chugging 

Cletus

[b.lindsey]

Eric, that dedicated member also happens to be the one that has the Monarch10EE lathe. I was asking him about it today and his is a 1941 lathe that still has the war board badging on it. The old engine still needs some further work, as there is some 3/16" of side play in the crankshaft and new babbit bearings still need to be poured and fitted. But it is obviously tighter than it was last year.

Bill