Member postings for Jim K

In the Stewart turner drawings it shows the steam chest to be equally spaced through thickness for the valve guide pin.

If I refer to the book or what’s left of it, the shaft is offset 5.5mm / 6.5mm or 7/32” / 1/4”

what is correct or does it matter, I have a feeling it matters as the slide Valve may not make contact with mating surface.

Lately I have been waiting for digital readouts arriving from China and of the three I ordered for the mill two have arrived, this has slowed me down a bit although I have just completed fitting the two to the mill, the electronic components for the touch DRO are also with me so as a side project I will be working on this upgrade and keep you informed of the progress.

I have plugged all the existing holes in the cylinder with threaded rod and JB weld (great stuff Jason) I also included the cylinder these are all now completed and the cylinder casting is now true and on length. The replacement cylinder cover has also been remade. Next on the cylinder casting is to finish machine the port face to the correct dimension.

I have also decided to laser cut the gaskets out of HDPE sheet which is available in a choice of thicknesses from AliExpress, when they are done I will be able to place them on the cylinder and choose the hole number based on what hole spacing gives me the solid metal. Then proceed with drilling the cylinder and covers.

Well!

If restoring a steam engine is not bad enough, my dogs assisted in making things more difficult.

maybe they feel I am not giving them enough attention.

Edited By Jim K on 18/11/2022 01:00:09

Has anyone tried to build the reversing gear without using castings?

For the holes in the top and bottom covers, I see in the Stuart Turner drawings the top cover has 5 holes on a p.c.d on both.

In the book (Build a vertical steam engine) it indicates the top cover as having 6 holes and the bottom cover as having 4 holes

Would there be any reason that the author Andrew Smith has stated 6 holes on the top cover?

Edited By Jim K on 13/11/2022 02:26:26

Clive, thanks not as difficult as I had thought.

Hi,

Does anyone have instructions on how to set the timing on these pumps?

Having now in my possession the book "Building a Vertical Steam Engine from Castings" 1988 edition by Andrew Smith.

I notice that the book does not give dimensions for the marking out of the cylinder Bore and the length of the cylinder is marked as 28.5mm or 1.125 this conflicts with another unofficial drawing I have which says 30mm. I do believe that the 30mm may have been for the builder's requirements and that 28.5mm is correct. I have at the moment a cylinder casting length (Machined) of 30.47mm or 1.200" so I have sufficient material to be able to square and clean up the cylinder when carrying out the reboring procedure.

The center of the cylinder bore I have from another source is 25/32" from the port face and obviously central to the dia of the casting, I believe this to be correct.

The next move is to plug the existing bore with a suitable material this will allow me to correctly mark out the correct positioning of the bore and the holes for the flange fixings. I can see from my rough measurements that I have a bore that is off-center by more than 1mm .039" as suggested by Jason in a previous post I will rebore the cylinder and plug. it with a cast iron insert of a diameter large enough to cover the existing error so I have full walls on the new cylinder bore, this I believe is possible as there is sufficient wall thickness to the cylinder casting.

This should keep me busy today.

This morning almost finished the standard just to remove sleeve from the side ports, haven't decided whether to mill them away or drill and Dremel them away and a little fettling.

I have removed all old paint and have to now think what paint to use as I am in Thailand it is a bit short on choice, i can use Tamiya paint that is used in models but I need to check if it is good with metal first, it does say it is enamel.

Next, is the color will it be Stuart green or a Maroon, any suggestions?

A bit of a schoolboy mistake today on the bottom cylinder cover I was finishing off and I thought that I still had some metal to remove on the thickness so instead of taking it out of the recessed aluminum to check I had 1mm in my mind and it was removed so I will be looking for another bit of cast iron to make a new one a bit of a case of too much hurry and not cross-checking felt a bit stupid with this one.

All in all, i am quite pleased with the outcome so far.

Edited By Jim K on 28/10/2022 08:31:55

Here I have attached the new parts for the standard now waiting to cure before final machining.

Progress has been slow due to the delivery of tooling and leveling of the lathe bed.

I machined a sleeve for the bore of the standard and a new flange all from cast iron these were machined on the OD of the sleeve and the spigot to suit the existing bore of the standard, I left metal on the bore of the new parts for final machining once fixed in place using the JB weld as suggested by Jason.

I will be adding a picture later showing the flange and new sleeve fitted.

The standard was placed in the lathe and gripped by the flange then trued up to the casting, I then skimmed the feet of the standard to clean up the surfaces and make them flat and true.

Once cleaned up the standard was fixed to the mill to prepare for the removal of the flange as can be seen in the pictures below.

Removing the flange on the Mill

Flange removed

The above picture shows the underside after the removal of the flange as can be seen I have left the fillet to blend it to the new flange after fitting.

As I get the required material and the rotary table fitted the pace should quicken, I have also ordered those DRO scales to adapt to using touch DRO which calls for me to get a few electronic components and a circuit board another project on top of other existing projects, Am I the only one that does that.

Thanks for the feedback, I had forgotten all about the cladding and the option to allow it to be flush with the cylinder covers.

Jason,

The LH option was what I had in mind, although the RH one looks stronger,

Another issue I have found that the cylinder appears to have been machined presumably on a rotary table (don't know what possessed the builder to do that) the cylindrical dimension on the cylinder is now 33.51mm 1.319" and I presume it was originally 35mm 1.375" approximately as it is a casting. This should not affect the build other than making the top and bottom covers suit the cylinder diameter keeping everything uniform.

I keep wondering as I go through this rebuild if I will ever find anything that is a correct dimension, well I suppose if it was easy it would be no fun.

Currently I am waiting for delivery of a rotary table (should arrive today) and some other bits and pieces i require for the project, I also have to get BA taps and dies, as i am in Thailand it will be easier to buy a set on ebay and get my mate to bring out end of next month.

Jason,

Looking closely at the options for the standard, I can get a small dia cast iron rod which can be machined to suit the standard bore and as I believe it is better to keep it as cast iron, I would like to hear your suggestion for machining the insert and the flange separately.

The standard measures 70mm 2.759" in height, like you have stated new insert, New flange and start out as if a new casting would be the way forward.

Jason,

The port face looks OK except that the holes are drilled in the wrong positions, as you can see in the picture below. these will be easily plugged and repositioned.

As for your suggestions in your post, I believe your idea will work, I was a little bit concerned about the wall thickness of the standard guide, about using JB weld which I had not thought of as I thought it was an American product.

All in all, I will work on your approach to correcting the casting.

Hi All,

I am including today a photograph of the standard and the cylinder to highlight the issues I have to deal with in these two parts.

The Standard

1 The bore of the standard should be 16mm or 5/8" it also should have 4 holes on a PCD of 28mm 1-1/8" I have 5 slots to deal with on this standard.

The height of the standard is 70mm 2.763" so I have some metal I can remove as the drawing standard height I understand is 68mm 2-11/16"

For the bore I am not sure what approach I should take as there is not a lot of wall thickness to enlarge the bore, I could true it up on the lathe and just ensure it is round and clean it up a little, not the ideal solution.

For the flange, I will either have to plug up the slots or I am thinking to machine remove the flange and turning a spigot with a shoulder to receive a new flange, the new flange could be silver soldered to the standard and then machined to the final size.

The Cylinder

As you can see the cylinder needs some love and care to restore it to what it should be.

The bore has a brass sleeve with a bore of 18.59mm .731" it must have been machined oversize when it was made looks like it could have been 21.35mm .840" before sleeving, wouldn't mind some suggestions on this one.

The length of the cylinder is 30.60mm 1.204" this should be 28.5mm 1/1/8" so I can remove metal from both faces to ensure that both faces are parallel and to the correct size.

For the holes in the cylinder, the best approach would be to mark them up and see if any of the holes are in the correct position the remainder is to be plugged using a threaded rod and the holes are redrilled in the correct positions.

For both these faces due to the current positioning of the holes, I do not see many where the holes will be converging with the newly positioned holes.

For the future i will improove the quality of the pictures.

Edited By Jim K on 13/10/2022 04:25:10

Thor,

I want to try and make all parts I replace on the engine just like you have stated rather than purchasing castings.

There is an interesting photo coming tomorrow showing the engine standard it is a mess just like a Swiss cheese with all the holes.

Jason,

Nice one, I was not thinking of that design I was thinking of the bearing including the flange for bolting it down machined into it so it is like a t shape.

Noel,

Yeh i get that I may have to juggle with the material and dimensions to make this all work, i have started a thread on the rebuild as a log of the progress.

Thor,

Thank you that information will be very helpful.