Engines > From Kits/Castings
Twin Grasshoppers
Chipmaster:
I was given this part built Twin Grasshopper ten years ago by a friend who bought it about forty years ago from someone who worked at Reeves when the shop was at Marston Green Birmingham, we assume they used to sell the Grasshopper castings. The model is a pair of engines fastened onto a 1/8”thick steel plate sharing a long crankshaft. I machined the brass flywheel at the time otherwise the pictures below show the engine as received.
All the castings were present except for one of the four rocker shaft brackets. Luckily a fellow member of the Black Country Live Steamers BCLS used one of the brackets as a pattern and cast another plus three spares all in brass.
DSC04064 by Andy, on Flickr
DSC04066 by Andy, on Flickr
Twin Grasshopper Beam Engine bedplates and crankshaft. by Andy, on Flickr
DSC04074 by Andy, on Flickr
The castings of one engine are bronze and the other is all brass. It’s going to be rather heavy when it’s finished, the model is pretty heavy at this stage.
The drawings were in a very poor state but fortunately they identified the model,
Grasshopper Engine
by Sydney Owen
Model Engineer 1966
I bought a reprint of the article from the Model Engineer Magazine in the form of a series of .pdf downloads.
Grasshopper Article page 1 by Andy, on Flickr
At that time ten years ago I had a few model engine builds in progress and did no work on the Grasshoppers until last month November 22. Prompted by watching three YouTube videos by Keith Appleton in which he restores an identical single Grasshopper model engine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5YSFJAY3jU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC0hWn6K1R8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCpjmXo4wMM
Links to be added when possible
The condition of the drawings that came with my model was so bad that I have ordered a set from Sarik Hobbies, they’re in the post at the moment. I can’t read some of the critical details in the Model Engineer Magazine reprints because the resolution wasn’t high enough.
Here are the rest of the castings
Twin Grasshopper Beam Engine by Andy, on Flickr
There are a few extras or spares such as two extra water pump castings, and a Stuart Steam Hammer cylinder casting on the left that has been misfiled.
Andy
Michael S.:
Hi Andy, that looks very interesting. And certainly very rarely seen as a twin.
I find it very interesting to take over old projects and learn the history of these model steam engines with a lot of research.
Michael
Chipmaster:
Hi Michael, I'm not aware of any other twin grasshoppers.
I had considered whether the idea made sense and should I complete them as separate engines. As the model is simply a pair of left and right handed engines it should be easy to separate them if necessary. At the moment the crankshaft bearings are perfectly in line, the crankshaft is dead straight and rotates freely. As built the cranks are 180 degrees apart, I can't work out how they were assembled, there's no pins or evidence of solder so I'll leave them alone and see how it runs. The crankshaft could be sawn in half then connected with a coupling between the engines that would enable them to be set 90 degrees apart for easy starting.
Andy
vtsteam:
Very interesting and impressive engine! :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp: :ThumbsUp:
I look forward to seeing what you do with it. :popcorn: :popcorn:
(I'm also very curious about the horizontal milling attachment shown on Mr. Owen's lathe in the lower left photo on the ME page.)
Chipmaster:
Thanks vtsteam,
I have no knowledge of the attachment and can't improve any further on the image quality unfortunately.
Andy
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