Another ME Beam steam engine.

[Michael S.]

Hello everyone,

A few years ago I had the opportunity to buy a ME Beam steam engine. The model has not been finished and there is still a lot to do.
What I immediately noticed was that the beam was crooked in the column. It deviates from the longitudinal axis. Many parts are not finished or deviate from the construction plan. I think I have to change a lot.
The cylinder is in three parts with the slide box. However, there are two variants of cylinders in the blueprint.
I think I have work for a long time.

Michael

[Michael S.]

A few more pictures of the beam and a question:
Is the entire column machined all around on the lathe? There are a lot of measurements for radii and curves in the blueprint. Personally, I would leave the profile in a cast iron look. That would correspond to a full-size beam.
No bronze bearings were made.
I would like to change that.
The shaft in the beam is actually inserted crookedly. the other holes appear to be parallel.
I drilled out the shaft with the hand drill. The steel was very hard!? This cost the lives of two drillers. The steel shaft was only pressed into the beam. But crooked and you can tell by small fragments of cast iron.
I think I now have to think about how do I rebuild the model and where do I start.

Michael

[Dave Otto]

It will be fun to watch you work your way through this. Yes the problem with taking on someone's half finished project; the work completed can be pretty awful sometimes.

Dave

[Jasonb]

A bit about the Column

[Michael S.]

Thanks Jason for the text. I have to translate it carefully. But I already understood a little. The column goes into the lathe?!

Michael

[Jasonb]

Yes

[Michael S.]

Okay, I have to study the book more intensively.

[MJM460]

Looking forward to seeing how you solve the problems Michael.  People like me will learn a lot from your work.

It will be a lovely model when completed.

MJM460

[Jasonb]

The book suggests fully turning the column as it was unlikely that casting would reproduce the finer details in the small scale.

You could leave it as it but with the large area that has been filed already you are unlikely to get a "cast" surface over all of it. Quite possible that the casting was not very round and the filing was to get it less eliptical shaped or remove a large step where the two pattern halves did not line up.

[Del_61]

Regarding the casting, what about trying to finish the casting using the technique that Professor Chaddock used when finishing his Quorn castings. He used filler and lots of wet and dry abrasive paper and several coats of paint rubbed down and smoothed again with filler.

Looking at the drawings as long as the key dimensions are held then it is fairly pointless in my view of trying to machine the many decorative external radius to the drawing. In full size the colunm would of course be left as cast.

Looks like you have a lot of work to sort this engine out!

I had to do the same for a "Warrior" twin cylinder engine that I was given some years ago. I was determined to reuse as many of the castings and components already made.

Anyway good luck !

[Michael S.]

Thank you for the many interesting tips. First I need to check the base plate. I think it needs to be revised too. On the underside it is reworked and not flat. The entire plate wobbles and was definitely warped when it was screwed onto the wooden base.
I would first check all dimensions of the column and, if it's worth it, machine it on the lathe. Maybe it's worth it, because at the moment you can't screw the 4 lower nuts that hold the column onto the base plate onto the threaded bolts without lifting the column. The lower curve is too large in diameter.
I have the book for building the engine. But I have to translate it step by step. I think this is very helpful and I really appreciate any advice from you.
Thanks.

Michael

[Chipswitheverything]

On my Major Beam, I machined the column over all, using form tools made from gauge plate to reproduce the different bosses and curved shapes. Though the casting, larger than yours was sort of OK and might have been finished as Del suggests, the appearance was much better after the form machining.    Also , having the column casting up between centres in the lathe makes possible the facing of the underside of the upper "entablature", and the top of the base surface. I have no pictures of the work with the form tools, was done before digital camera days!, but this picture shows some later work when I wanted to adjust the height of the underside of the top ...  Dave

[Jasonb]

Although the majority of full size would have been left "as cast" the problem is that sand does not scale so what might have been OK as a small internal fillet or rounded arris in full size can make a scaled down detail less defined as the fillet and rounding will be the same not 1/12th of what it was in full size.

Excessive filling and sanding is unlikely to crispen up any detail. If you want a bit of texture then that can be done at the painting stage by either sparying the primer at low pressure so the droplets are coarser or if brush painting a slight stippling action when priming will work well. Sandblasting is another option.

[Michael S.]

Thank you Del_61, Dave and Jason for your contribution. I think I will machine the entire column on the lathe.

I'll start with the base plate. As a reference, I use the existing four holes that hold the column. The holes only deviate about 0.2 mm from the center line.
First I work on the bottom. Also process the outer edges with the milling cutter.

Michael

[Michael S.]

The area on which the centrifugal governor would later sit was also leveled.
I think Stuart has already mentioned here in the forum with his ME Beam that there are no measurements for the height of the area in the construction plan. I just gently cleaned the area. But first the holes that were drilled completely wrong were sealed with aluminum.
The base area for the column is far too high and has been lowered to a new zero mark. Then the surfaces for cylinders and bearings.
Now I could transfer all other coordinates from the blueprint.
I milled a new surface for the feed pump and glued in a piece of aluminum. So that the surface protrudes a little higher again.
With its four holes on the base, the column fits very well into the middle of the base plate and center line. I discovered that the column is at least 10 millimeters too long. So another reason for machining on the lathe.

Michael