Engines > Restoration of Model Engines
Twin cylinder mill engine, slightly rusty.....
Jasonb:
That photo was over towards reading so the right sort of area.
The smaller flat belt pully would most likely have been used if you wanted to drive something rather than running the belt off of the flywheel which would have been too slow for a dynamo or similar.
redhouseluv:
I'd be really interested to see what is going inside of the 'valve box' on in the picture below; I copied the image from the second engine pic above. I imagine some some sort of valve/butterfly arrangement which is connected to the governor and controls the steam to both cylinders?
Is there a special name for that box, how does it work and are there any diagrams of what is inside?
crueby:
Its called a steam chest, with ports andassages leading to the ends of the cylinders. Each cylinder would have a sliding valve block that allows steam from the chest to go to one end of the cylinder while opening the other end of the cylinder to the exhaust pipe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_valve
Jasonb:
I don't think there is anything special going on inside that valve chest except double what you would normally find in a single cylinder engine.
I would say that the builder has just made a single chest to keep a more compact design as the space between the two cylinders can be reduced. The two valve rods are all that can be seen entering it.
The long rod that I have arrowed would have been moved by the action of the governor but looks to have been disconnected at some time from a valve that regulated the flow of steam to be replaced by that unsightly hand valve.
redhouseluv:
Okay got it, its a single unit containing both slide valves for both cylinders.
As I have individual slide valves already on each of the cylinders, if I wanted to put a governor back on the engine, I would need some sort of way of controlling the steam entering the single, jointly shared inlet port; requires some further thinking.......
Anyway, dreaming now, I'll get the rust off and get the thing operational before going down that particular rabbit hole! :)
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