Engines > Restoration of Model Engines
Project Vulcan
Sanjay F:
Is it a bird, is it a plane (British bomber from 1950s) is it the planet where Spock from Star Trek originates or is it an Edgar Westbury Beam Engine?
Now we've clarified that here are some pictures of a rather nice, but at the same time sad looking engine. It rotates manually, but the engineering & finish are somewhat questionable:
- Odd bolts and screws
- A displacement lubricator which is out of proportion with the rest of the engine
- A broken exhaust
- A flywheel held in place with a nail
- A terrible looking wooden base with faux bricks
- I removed a snapped off screw from the middle ot the top of the beam
and that's a cursory look without going into the mechanical details
I'm going to strip it down to its component parts, clean it up, replace all the bits I don't like or which are not in keeping, or finished incorrectly then build it back up. I think a solid wooden base with the flywheel cut into it with an outrigger bearing would look nice. At some point in the past the engine had a pump, you can see the holes in the base and the spigot where the rod was connected to the beam - I'm going to put that back.
I have copies of the 1950s ME where Edgar Westbury describes the build and interestingly, having read the articles, the castings were not available at the time of writing and in the process of being cast ..... that must've been annoying if you wanted to build it while following along!
Project Vulcan .........here we go! ;D
Jasonb:
I'd consider a new crank as well, the thick aluminium one looks out of place.
Change those copper rivits on the eccentric "rod" to iron as it would most likely to have been wrought iron throughout on the full size.
If you go with the outrigger I would want to do some more drastic things with the base casting. It looks more like it belongs on a toy engine than a scale model. Even if the existing were cut lengthways and narrowed it would still have that same look. Myself I would build up something more in keeping, not so tall and bring the flywheel inboard of the outrigger bearing, add a pulley if you want.
This one like so many engines has the outrigger built into a wall, does not suit model engineers as most want the flywheel at the front where it can be seen. It worked a set of pumps in Nicholson's gin distillery, Findsbury London. c 1850
Roger B:
Looks to be a fun project :) :) :ThumbsUp:
Hopefully the parallel motion is reasonably well made ::)
Dave Otto:
That one looks to be somewhat different than the usual Stuart beam engines. Looks like another fun restoration project
I seem to remember that someone here built an engine similar to this from scratch, Willy maybe?
Dave
Sanjay F:
That distillery engine looks very similar or in keeping with the Vulcan. Strange how we all notice different things, I never saw the rivets on the eccentric rod and yes they gotta go! I see what you mean about the outrigger, just move the existing one to the outside.
Did engines have 3 bearings, 2 supporting the flywheel and 1 on the crankshaft end?
I have only seen a couple of these Vulcans with this base others are mounted onto a steel plate - I quite like the one in the photo below. I didn't realise the crankshaft was aluminium let me go check it now!
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