A fabulous find

Jul 30, 2006 6 Replies
S

Family folklore has it that great grandfather built a working stationary engine as a display piece for the front room. Great-grandmother was forever chiding him for it being covered in dust and looking "grubby". So he stripped it down with the intention of chrome plating it. Then at 43 years old he died suddenly of food poisoning, around 1912.



Dad has spent the last month or so sorting out his workshop and today presented me with the cylinder set from the engine and thinks he also has the conrods and governor set. The cylinder is 46mm bore and 155mm long and is complete with steam chest, cylinder end caps, glands and drain c*ck. It must have been quite a beast on the sideboard! The steam chest has been chrome plated so he was on the way to re-building it.



It has to be "rebuilt". I'd be grateful for any recommended sources that would help establish a design working back from the cylinder set dimensions. There are no drawings or even memories of what it looked like finished, but it would have been a close copy of a local contemporary mill engine. Keep me busy for a few years anyway.



Regards



Steve


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S

What a great story. Any pictures ?

Another Steve (I am going to have to change my name)

"Call me anything, but don't call me early".

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J

Or call me Late for dinner

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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B

steve w, wow, thats fantastic, that engine was meant to make its way t

you, im sure you will cherrish it, do you think it would take steam? would like to see some photos of it fully built, as for the rebuild th parts were tailor made, im sure you can match and fit the accordingly,,thats the fun part, your great grandad will be watchin down on you dont worry!!

bil

-- blueswar

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S

I will post some pictures as soo as I get sorted. Problem is I know nothing about steam engine design, so whilst I have a cylinder set, I don't have a piston or slide valve in the steam chest, and I don't know how to work out the valve timings - the timing diagrams I've seen for steam engines seem closer to astrological charts than engineering diagrams to me!

The man was a real engineer - the cylinder was designed and cast in his workshop and the chrome plating done "in house" too. He must have had quite a set up. We tried giving away his Brittania lathes to a "good home" a couple of years back with no success, so Dad re-furbished the best of the two and has put it back into service!

Steve

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S

Steve W wrote: We tried giving away his Brittania lathes to a "good home" a

And a damned good lathe too. They were one of the first to introduce roller bearings (Timken I think in about 1922) and there was a lot of talk about it causing chatter - they had to offer plain bearings as an option. Nearly bought one a year ago. The late ones don't tend to say Brittania on them, but a roller headstock and complex bed give them away.

Look forward to seeing some pics.

Steve "Call me anything, but don't call me early". I would put Steve R - but I could be confused with the other Steve R.

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S

Just too many of us! :)

Steve R. (Rayner)

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