5-A mods

--Trouble with the Stuart 5-A is that it's a scale model of a real engine; this means that if you use one to get actual 'work' done it can be hard to maintain with non-scale fingers! I've been using a Swan in my steamboat for decades and I'm finally fed up to the point of doing something about it. In the past I've done various things to improve it but now I'm thinking what it really needs is an increase in distance between cylinders and crankshaft, so that bending past my burgeoning potbelly isn't quite the problem it's becoming, to reach packing glands, oilers, etc in my fairly narrow boat. --One way to do this would be to replace the A-shaped standards with taller versions of same, say 6" longer. This would mean patternmaking foundry work and more machining: all doable but rather time consuming. My quick-and-dirty plan B is to make 4 risers that would sit between the crank bed and the existing standard's feet to do the same thing. Not pretty but fast. --There are several advantages from doing this: it means I can increase the length of the conn rods, increase the size of the big end and still have a little extra room between it and the bottom of the piston rod packing nut at TDC if I also lengthen the piston rods a bit. --Sooo I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this and how it worked out. And does anyone know if CAD drawings exist of 5-A parts? This would greatly ease the task of patternmaking for taller standards. I've got a plan to make the pattern halves with a Reprap, but that's another story..

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steamer
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