Author Topic: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines  (Read 3500 times)

Offline sheilaheidi

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Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« on: November 05, 2018, 08:48:29 PM »
Hello, I am a 85 year old  that has started to buy and restore old live steam engines. now got 7  in the last month, including a stuart turner Victoria + a twin Victoria  .. A large stuart turner 6a that is near being finished + 2 vintage mill engines,and two others waiting to be restored.As I would like to have a layout on a 6ft x 3ft table, [ not the 6a ] and get most of them up and running , I will need a compressor to run them I bought one last week off Ebay but it is proving to be to small as its a dentists one  [ JUN- AIR ] which is said to be the quietest one of all time.   Any help with suggestions as to what I would need would be much appreciated . Thank you...Alan  Sunny Sutton On Sea Lincs :old:

Online Jo

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2018, 08:58:53 PM »
:hi: Alan,

I was chatting to the boss at Stuarts at the midlands show last month and admiring his huge triple Bambi silent compressor that they had just brought (£1000) for use at the show. He was rather disappointed as it was only able to just about keep one Twin Victoria running and getting rather hot doing that  :facepalm:

How are you going to move that 6A around  :headscratch:

Jo

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Online Jasonb

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2018, 08:14:28 AM »
That is the problem with the silent compressors they don't deliver much in the way of air, the big triple Jo mentioned gives  5.3 cfm  and like most  small compressors they quote the displacement not FAD ( Free Air Delivery) which may be 50-60% of that and is about the same as you get out of a £50 Lidl or Aldi compressor which comes complete with the noise.

Pity the guys at stuart had not cast up and machined a stuart compressor and run that from a motor to provide air for some of their "steam" engines

Offline derekwarner

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2018, 09:18:54 AM »
All is not lost :wallbang:....if you were contemplating the demonstration of your various steam plant [engines] ...you could consider that you be running one engine only at a time 

So therefore the sum volume of pressurized air would be to match the volume requirement for the largest engine only......now looking further at theses nominated requirements would be the running engine at the nominated full load/speed condition

There is nothing more enchanting and mystical to see a model steam engine running at speeds which allow the mechanical components move in conjunction with each other rather than just a blurr   :facepalm:

Derek



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Online Jasonb

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2018, 09:56:47 AM »
A lot will also depend on how the engines are run, if you have nice free running engines and just want to show them ticking over at 40-50rpm then you will only need 2-3 psi and the volume will be low. If on the other hand they are tight, you want to run the fast or with a load then both the required pressure and volume will soon start to rise.

Run time is another factor as a small engine can run for quite some time on a fully charged reciever, for example I only have a small 25lts reciever but can run my engines of 24mm or 1" bore for upto 10mins at slow speeds and no load before the compressor kicks in so if you don't mind short burst of noise or are willing to wait for a large silent compressor to fill up you can get some good running without problems.

Offline sheilaheidi

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2018, 06:34:31 PM »
Thanks for all your help and advice lads , As for the question about how I am going to move the Stuart 6A , It weighs 94 kgs so will get my wife to move it, she is only 80 , and the message about the Bambi silent compressor, This was going to be another option but as you say that they are not up to the job ,I will give that ides a miss. The little Jun-Air one that I bought only has a 1.1 ltr air tank so will run a single Victoria for just 10 seconds. It seems that I need a larger tank and was hoping to make a block of 6 taps that will allow air to one open tap at a time to run that engine, it that practical ??   One more question, I have a large very old gold / diamond etc mining plant that I bought a year ago and that weighs over a quarter of a ton and I have spent 11 months restoring it from a very rusty and fully seized state and now almost finished ,but don't know what to do with it now as it takes up a lot of room in our garage , so will have to be sold very soon..Also think I may be on the wrong forum for help with all my other items , so can you please tell me which one I need to post questions on   thank you all again    Alan & Heidi

Online Jasonb

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2018, 06:54:25 PM »
Making up a manifold is a good idea, I used some of the cheap push fit fittings bought off E-bay in 4, 6 and 8mm sizes and have a Q/R on the end for the compressor



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Offline Gas_mantle

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2018, 07:14:22 PM »
There is always the option of getting a boiler and running them on the hot stuff  ;)

Online Jo

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2018, 07:20:58 PM »
One more question, I have a large very old gold / diamond etc mining plant that I bought a year ago and that weighs over a quarter of a ton and I have spent 11 months restoring it from a very rusty and fully seized state and now almost finished ,but don't know what to do with it now as it takes up a lot of room in our garage , so will have to be sold very soon..

Do you have any photos? What scale model is it? What is it powered by?

Full sized they are very impressive bits of kit and even the smallest cutter would not fit in a normal garage: Yesterday I was playing with a little diddy one which the power end is a bit like a side and facing cutter (photo attached) so I am intrigued.
 
Jo
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Online Jasonb

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2018, 07:27:57 PM »


I quite liked it when you first got it


Offline Vixen

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2018, 08:07:57 PM »


Did you really create the top picture from that rusty model in the bottom picture in 11 months?
« Last Edit: November 07, 2018, 03:11:52 PM by Vixen »
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Offline Ye-Ole Steam Dude

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2018, 08:47:03 PM »
Wow, what a beautiful model.  :ThumbsUp:

Thomas
Thomas

Offline Dave Otto

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #12 on: November 07, 2018, 12:44:49 AM »
That's an impressive model, too bad that it got neglected. Do you have any history on it?

Dave

Offline sheilaheidi

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #13 on: November 07, 2018, 04:23:56 PM »
I have been trying to post photos on the site for over 3 hours , but no luck so far  To answer your replies , 1st ,I have no paperwork or any idea as to what the model is, although several people have suggested what it may be, so maybe one day I will get a answer that will give me some idea of what it is. 2nd Thank you to Jasonb for the manifold idea it looks very practical so will give it a try. 3rd from Vixen, Yes it took all of 11 months to get this far with the plant , about 5 hours every day including sundays , so around 1500 hours work and its still not finished . I had a accident with a electric saw going through my left wrist which has left that hand with only the little finger usable hense that sad fact that I must now sell the plant to someone that can do the job, [ I reckon about a months work should see it up and running ] I have made no attempt to get the crane working as it is a bit to complicated with my disability ,also the big workshop has had the smaller shed removed from it with its furnace and bellows still intact. the large workshop has had the bottom floor cut down by about 3cm as it was rusted .but I have not done anything else to it . both the revolving drums now work, I wont try to add pics to this message but will try again tonight . If I don't put it on Ebay before Christmas then I will do so in the new year,  lastly  Thank you for all your help and kind comments ...Alan

Offline Vixen

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Re: Old fogies love of restoring old steam engines
« Reply #14 on: November 07, 2018, 05:31:44 PM »
Hello Alan,

You have put a tremendous amount of work into this mining plant restoration, especially considering your accident leaving you single handed, in more ways than one. I hope I will still be able to put in 5 hours a day, every day, when I am 85.

Good luck when you put it on e-bay, hopefully a collector or steam museum will spot your listing and snap it up. I wouldn't do much with the remaining parts, the crane and the blacksmiths shop  etc. Leave then much as you found them, they don't look at all bad with all that natural rust.

Cheers

Mike
It is the journey that matters, not the destination

Sometimes, it can be a long and winding road

 

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