Project Vulcan

[PaulR]

 

[Michael S.]

That's great progress. The flywheel is turning smoothly between the bearings.

[Roger B]

Coming along very nicely 

How many more bodges to fix before it runs? 

[Sanjay F]

The Vulcan is running 

It's rough, rough, rough, air leaking everywhere, bolts loose and all sorts of things which need to be tweaked, but nothing which can't be sorted out.......

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1Lvn5gAkzro

Next job while it's in its current state is to machine the new pump and fix it to the base

[crueby]

Needs a bit of tuning/leak fixing, but its a runnah!

[PaulR]

The Vulcan is running 

Great stuff, I'm sure you'll get it going sweetly with just a bit more tweaking. 

[Sanjay F]

It's pump time and it's a narrow little thing. I believe from what I have read these type of pumps were common on these engines. The pump can either be fixed to a vertical plate by the mounting plate or fixed to the bedplate directly and this is left to the builder to decide.

I'm going direct into the bedplate which means machining off the mounting plate, but this will also allow me to clean up the casting nicely. All pieces of the pump come in a single casting which needs cutting but I think I'll try tidying the whole thing before chopping.

Looks to be quite a fiddly little beast for it size! 

[Jasonb]

That is going to be a tight one to bolt down.

I would be tempted to add a larger round or square flange to give it a decent size foot.

[Sanjay F]

Yes, that's what I was thinking too and Mr Westbury alluded to that in his build description, let me see if I can make something in keeping with the other parts of the engine 

[Sanjay F]

The pump is taking shape - if this is to scale, which I presume it must be given the credentials of its illustrious designer, I'm very surprised by how small it is. How much water would a engine like this of pumped I wonder 

[Jasonb]

They were not pumping engines, these pumps were feed water pumps used to replenish the boiler.

It is possible they drove separate pumps like that distillery engine I showed but thos ewould have been sized for the work they had to do which I suspect was a lot less than a big sewerage engine.

[Sanjay F]

Thanks for explaining that, I wonder why it was ss small! 

[Sanjay F]

More pump work today including a new base so it can be mounted onto the bedplate easily. Still several more bits to go on this, including the plunger, rod and check plate which looks like it prevents the ball bearing from lifting too far. Then there's the bits 'n' bobs which connect it onto the beam .....

[Michael S.]

The small pump turned out really well, and it looks even better with the baseplate.
I have a picture in my collection of a beam engine, and it looks like it drives a whole lot of large pumps.

Regards, Michael

[PaulR]

I have a picture in my collection of a beam engine, and it looks like it drives a whole lot of large pumps.

Amazing!