Cretors Flywheel Casting

[Casting Iron]

I saw some Cretors steam engines in a museum many years ago, and also saw some at a popcorn truck at Disney Florida many years ago.
I always liked the looks of the Cretors engines.

When I started trying to build my own engines in about 2009, I toyed around with the idea of making my own Cretors engine(s).
Years ago, Coles offered a Cretors-repica casting kit, and I saw a few of those that others had built.

I got very frustrated when I tried to find a Cretors engine that I could measure, and could not find one that anyone would allow me to touch and measure.

I finally ended up purchasing a No.01, and a No.02, and purchased the parts for a No.06.

Below is my No.01 and No.02.

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[Casting Iron]

In 2011, I got this crazy idea that I wanted to build a foundry, and so I started tinkering around with pattern making, and making castings in aluminum.

On a whim, I wanted to see if I could create a flywheel that looked like a Cretors flywheel, but larger.
I got a block of wood, and carved out a spoke with a Dremel moto tool.

Much to my surprise, the spoke turned out pretty good, and so I cast six of them.
I turned a rim and hub on my metal lathe (yes, sawdust in the metal lathe violates sacrosanctity).

I cast the flywheel, and aside from some slight shrinkage on one side of the rim, it turned out pretty well.
It was just a proof-of-concept thing, and I did not expect it to turn out.

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[Casting Iron]

More pictures.

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[Casting Iron]

I created a 3D model for a Cretors No.06, and have toyed around with the idea of casting a upscaled version of this engine, perhaps in two cylinders.

These are some prototypes.
I don't have the 2-cylinder details worked out, these are just a mock-ups, to see what a twin would look like.

I have stopped jumping around from engine design to engine design, and am focused on the Ball Hopper Monitor engine at the moment, but I thought some may be interested in this material.
Hopefully I have not already posted this material here; the memory is not what it use to be.

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[redhouseluv]

The flywheels look great Pat, it would have been nice to have got hold of a set of Coles castings for someone like me as I have no idea about foundry work, but like the look of the engine.

Thanks for opening my eyes to the Cretors engines; I had not heard of them before this morning! 

[Casting Iron]

I did a deep-dive into the history of Cretors engines a few years ago.
The story is pretty interesting if you are interested in popcorn-style engines.

Mr. Cretors, way back in the late 1800's I guess, bought a small peanut roaster, and decided that he could make a better one.
He made his own, along with a popcorn popper, and took them to the Worlds Fair, I guess it was Chicago in about 1893 ?
Cretors was supposedly the first to pop popcorn in peanut oil.
For the first hour, he gave away the popcorn for free, and after that he sold it; and it was very popular at the fair.

Due to the success at the fair, Cretors rented a space in a building in Chicago, and started making peanut/popcorn carts.
Cretors used very decorative carts, and chipped glass front panels, and sold many thousands of carts and engines.

The Cretors carts had a cylindrical boiler, perhaps 36 inches long, and about 10 inches diameter, and burners that used pressurized white gas with a vaporizor.
At the time, electricity was not generally available, and so the Cretors carts were self-powered, and totally portable and self-contained.

About 1905, electricity came into common use, and Cretors very reluctantly converted his popcorn wagons and carts to electric motors.

Maximum steam pressure for a Cretors boiler was I think 50 psi, but supposedly they were tested to 1,200 psi without rupturing.
The carts had a steam whistle that doubled as an audible safety valve.
If the pressure got too high in the boiler, the valve would lift on the whistle, and it would sound.

Fast forward to perhaps the 1950's or 1960's, and an auto body repair guy named Bob Pearson made a couple of Cretors replica popcorn wagons, and took them to a local engine show.
They were very popular, and so Bob decided to go into the Cretors-replica business.
Bob took two of his wagons to the Cretors factory in Chicago, and the factory purchased them on the spot.

Bob got to know the owners of the current Cretors business, who are decendants of the original Cretors founder, and they mentions that there were some patterns in the old Cretors manufacturing building, and told Bob he was welcome to use those patterns.
Bob acquired many of the original Cretors patterns, and began making some very impressive and large walk-in Cretors wagons, which he went on to sell to Disney for use in their theme parks around the world.

It is my understanding that the Coles Cretors-replica casting kits used original Cretors castings as a pattern, which means those castings are slightly smaller than original Cretors castings.
Bob Pearson has the original Cretors patterns, and so the parts he was having cast were exact replacements for the old Cretors engines.

I got a chance to visit Bob Pearson at his shop a few years ago, and took a number of photos, which I can post here when I get time.

Bob Pearson is an extremely talented individual, and his shop was nothing short of spectacular, and huge.
Bob even mastered the art of the painted chipped-glass panels.
Bob restored many original Cretors popcorn wagons of all sizes at his shop.

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[Casting Iron]

Here is some old Cretors information.

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[Casting Iron]

The "Earnmore" was converted from the No.06 steam engine on top to an electric motor, but the burners still used white gas.
There is a white gas tank in the lower part of the Earnmore, and it has a pump on it, just like the old Coleman white gas stoves.

The pressurized fuel was fed to a vaporizer, that was a block of metal that had a pilot light that heated it.
From the vaporizer, there was piping to multiple jets, very similar to natural gas jets used today, with the air gap.
From each jet was a pipe, about 3/4" diameter, to a burner below the popcorn popper, a burner below the peanut roaster, and an burner below the holding area, to keep the product warm.

For the steam Cretors wagons, there was also a burner below the boiler.
The burners were typically a U-shaped pipe with a lot of small holes drilled in it.

Very functional machines.
The steam engines were built to last a long time.

There is a clear glass drum on most of the Cretors carts/wagons, and this drum was filled with peanuts.
The is an animated cast figurine dressed in a clown suite, and when the wagon was operating either from the steam engine or the electric motor, the animated figure would move, as if turning a crank on the end of the clear drum, so it appeared as if the figurine was making popcorn.

Here is a video.
The governor was fully functional.
Many of the Cretors engines had relatively sophisticated oilers on them, such as shown in the video below.

Before the advent of the electric Earnmore, the wagons had a gas lantern on them to provide light, powered by the white gas system.
The object at the front-left of the engine in the video below is a gas lantern.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY9aYuuGLxc" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY9aYuuGLxc</a>

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[Casting Iron]

A bit more original Cretors infomation.
The arrow points to one of the lanterns used for illumination.

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[Jasonb]

The flywheels look great Pat, it would have been nice to have got hold of a set of Coles castings for someone like me as I have no idea about foundry work, but like the look of the engine.

Thanks for opening my eyes to the Cretors engines; I had not heard of them before this morning! 

Fear not there are still some options to get castings along the lines of the coles and with the look of the Cretors engines.

Myers Engine works is the obvious one

https://myersengineworks.com/steam-engines/

There is also a guy who does castings for the vertical style and sells via ebay

Stew Hart did a barstock horizontal, you can probably find that on here as a "potty" popcorn engine. That would give a good basis to start from an make it as close to a cast engine as you want.

Myself I would just make from solid/fabricate.

Pat, careful, you are meant to be concentrating your efforts on just the Project Monitor

[redhouseluv]

I knew you would say 'make it from solid/fabricate' 

Although the given the price of the castings plus postage from the US I can certainly see why that would be an attractive option.

[Casting Iron]

Everyone has their favorite method.

I have gotten addicted to making castings.
Its like eating potaoto chips (crisps ?), you can't just make one casting.
And if you have a foundry, everything looks like a casting (sort of the hammer/nail analogy).
Once you have "gone foundry", there is no turning back.


Pat, careful, you are meant to be concentrating your efforts on just the Project Monitor
Yes, there is a real danger of drifting too far away from that design, and getting distracted.

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