Member postings for Maurice

Thanks gents, I'll try citric acid, I can't see the jet to clean it.

Maurice

Thanks to anybody who was about to reply to my plea for a Stuart governor drawing; I have just been given a copy. Must be my lucky day. Sorry if anyone has gone to any trouble to find this for me.

Regards Maurice

I have a very elderly "Primus" gas torch with three burners. The smallest used to produce a very neat flame, very controllable and a pleasure to use. Over the years it has become progressively blocked until it no longer functions. The inlet side is covered with a fine mesh, and the flame side has a brass disc with a ring of small holes. The is no apparent way to dismantle it. Is there anything that I could soak it in that might unblock it please?

Maurice

I wonder if anybody has a copy of the drawing, for the old type of governor for the Stuart No.9, that was positioned on the valve guide bracket. I have a set of castings for one, but no drawing.

Thanks in anticipation Maurice

I built one of these many yeas ago. Apart from some chill spots in the iron castings, there were also some errors in the drawings.

The engine has two side rods connected by a bridle beneath the table. From here, a single short connecting rod goes down to the big end. As drawn, the bridle would have struck the top of the crankshaft bearing. I had to lengthen the short rod, and shorten the side rods by about a quarter of an inch. This now meant that the bridle hit the underside of the the table. The table top was duly excavated to make room. Actually, this no bad thing, as the table tops on full size table engines were assemble from five castings, and were in fact hollow.

The side rods, as drawn, would not pass the exhaust belt, of through the slots either side of the cylinder top. I kept the "fish bellied" profile, but filed flats on each side to give clearance. It sounds like a bodge, but in fact it looks quite good, and I have sen something like it in full size, just for the decorative effect.

The positioning of the little brackets that carry the shaft drive for the governor is a bit vague. In the end, I fixed mine to the foundation block, not the engine bed plate.

The starting levers are quite unlike the original drawings.With the levers in front of you, the left hand one, which disconnects the valve gear from the eccentric, is connected to the eccentric rod buy a parallelogram of levers. Lift the lever, and the slide valve is free to be moved. The right hand lever is to do the moving. It is held in the valve shaft by a taper, and could be removed for safety once the engine had started. If the parallelogram of levers, previously mentioned, are correctly proportioned, then the left hand lever does not move when the engine is in motion. I found this quite a surprise, but it means that it does not present a hazard.

Please feel free to contact me if I can help further.

Regards Maurice

That should read "vise", sorry.

Some years ago I made a crankshaft with a half inch shaft held together with Loctite. I then managed to damage one end in some way; can't remember what now. Never mind, it comes apart if you heat it, doesn't it? I gripped the damaged end in the vide and applied the heat. A little later, with the web material a nice shade of blue, and the application of a twelve inch adjustable spanner, with a great deal of squealing, I managed to twist the web from the damaged shaft. I have used Loctite, without pins, for crankshafts ever since.

Back in the 60's, my first excursion into real model engineering was the 1" scale beam engine serialized in M.E. at the time. The castings are still available from A.J.Reeves. The casting set included a pedestal to support the outer bearing of the crankshaft. This in turn was placed upon a stone "pillow block". The large diameter flywheel ran in a pit. Later, when Stuart Turner introduced the same engine, scaled up to 1 1/2" to the foot, they omitted the bearing pedestal casting and the flywheel pit, and the outer bearing is up on stilts. I am currently making a "Major" and have scaled up the drawing of the pedestal and fabricated the missing part. I have uploaded some pictures and a drawing in case anyone else would care to do the same.

I have a small hammer that my grandfather made. The head is a rectangular block of steel. On it, he had spelt out his name, Crouch, in centre punch marks. Over the years it has become a little pitted, and it now reads "grouch". He was a bit of a ratty old b....r, and it still makes me smile when I see it.

Just a "heads up" to anyone who may be contemplating making a boiler test rig. I have a 3inch diameter "A.J.Reeves" pressure gauge reading to 300 psi currently for sale on eBay. Very good condition. Not much interest so far, so you could get a cheap gauge. Its currently at £2.

Thanks for the clarification Neil, I was just curious.

Maurice

Is it against the rules to mention on this site, when you have posted something of interest to model engineers, on ebay; perhaps in the classified section? It seems a pity that someone might miss out on something they might want, simply because they do not look at eBay that often.

Thanks again Jason.

Maurice.

Thanks Jason, I'll try searching with those names,

I have acquired a part built 1 1/2" scale Fowler showman's engine. Much of it is fabricated, but the parts include some castings, notably the fly wheel and compensating centre. Does anyone know if castings and drawings are, or were ever marketed for this engine? I can find nothing in my searches. It is the drawings that I am after. Thanks,

Maurice

If these are Clackson's castings, beware of chill spots! I built their table engine many years ago, and they were a nightmare, especially to a novice. I didn'tb know about cooking the castings in a solid fuel stove to anneal them. Also, if you wish to refer to the original drawings, I believe they were published in "The engineer and machineist's assistant" about 1845. The Science Museum library has a copy.

Maurice Cox.

Hi Brian, just measured the gauge glass on my Stuart fitting, its slightly under 3/16" dia. Stuarts list 3/16" gauge glass, 2 off 3" pieces for about £4.50

Maurice

I made the "strange comment" about the drying agents evaporating. I was just quoting a man who spent half a lifetime in the troubleshooting department of one of the largest paint manufacturers, but what would he know?

Maurice

Peter,you started your post saying that the paint lids had corroded with age, but the paint was still ok. A friend of mine worked for many years in the paints division of I.C.I. and he tells me that even in an apparently sealed container, particularly if it is only partly full, that the drying agents will evaporate. It will still probably dry eventually, but you could be in for a long wait.

Maurice Cox.

I agree with Jason, it has a look of the Mann steam wagon to me. They varied in appearance quite a lot. If you google images of "Mann steam wagon" you will get lots of examples.

Maurice