Member postings for GaryM

Taking honey as a cure for hayfever is more akin to immunotherapy which is a recognised treatment for severe hayfever. Whereas homeopathy is more akin to quackery. **LINK**

Gary

Well done, Allan. Great to see it running at last. Looking forward to your No. 1.

Gary

I hope you realise how noisy they are Allan. I got this one from Axminster because it was quieter than the more common 24litre ones and it's still very loud. Might not produce enough air for the bigger engines though. What you really want is someone who is getting rid of an old fridge.

Gary

Hi Allan,

I hope I'm not telling you something you know, but when you see full size steam locos pulling away with clouds of steam coming from the front of the engine at low level, that is because the driver has the drain cocks open to clear any water out and also to warm up the cylinders. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious.

Here **LINK** you can see the steam coming alternately from each end of the cylinder.

Gary

Hi Eric,

When I bought my C3 mini-lathe as a beginner two years ago, I thought it would do me for quite a few of the Stuart engines. After doing the 3" flywheel on the S50 I'm not so sure. In theory it has a swing of 7" and I know there may be ways of turning the outside of a 7" flywheel but wouldn't feel confident spending the £235 on a Stuart Beam engine kit (which might be next) without the nagging feeling that I might need access to a bigger lathe.

Gary

Here are the adapters I made. Both tapers are sized to fit tubing, brass one is threaded to fit steam inlet and steel one is same size as a tyre valve. Rough and ready, just to do the job.

Gary

Hi Allan,

By 'cable' I assume you mean the hose attached to the pump. I used a length of flexible clear plastic tubing from B+Q, about 6mm O/D. I made a little adaptor to attach to the engine, threaded one end and with a short taper on the other to go in the tubing. At the pump end I just turned a small piece of steel (anything will do) to fit the tubing on one side and at the other end the same size as a car tyre valve so the clamp on the end of the hose would fit it. This was for the oscillator in my avatar (picture next to my name). As you might have read in the 'what did you do today' thread the S50 is not quite ready yet.

I'll take some pics later today.

Video of the little oscillator running from foot pump is here **LINK**

Ignore the mounting board, that was just to keep it still.

Gary

I doubt it Norman, it was a cheese butty.

I usually get accused of thinking too much. That's why it takes me so long to make any progress. I'll look on it as an opportunity to make it better than the first time. I think it was annoying because I thought I was pretty close to trying the engine on compressed air for the first time.

Gary

Well, the day started off well with a visit to Ellenroad Engine House **LINK** to see what inspired me to have a go at making steam engines.

Then after dinner (lunch if you're posh) I started a trial assembly of the S50 I'm trying to make, in order to check alignment of cylinder, crosshead, conrod and crank and then spot through the cylinder mounting holes. I used a clamp to hold the cylinder on the bed while adjusting the position. All was going well, clearances and fit of parts seemed acceptable (to my untrained eye), engine turned over with no binding or slackness. I needed to move the clamp to one side so I could get at the holes from underneath so I decided to clamp it at the end of the cylinder next to the slidebars. Unfortunately this meant that when I tightened the clamp it bent the piston rod. First part I've messed up. I imagine others have had bigger disasters though. At least it is a simple part to remake. Surprisingly demoralising though.

Gary

Hi Kevin,

I get emails about both mags but only subscribe to MEW. Doesn't bother me and might encourage me to buy ME some months.

Gary

Hi Allan,

You might find this video from Keith Appleton useful. Even though it is for a Stuart 5A vertical engine, the basic ideas can probably be applied to a horizontal engine like yours. Other more experienced members will know.

**LINK**

Also, you might be able to try your engine with a car foot pump if you've got one. My first engine (a little oscillator) runs a treat on a foot pump. Obviously the Victoria is a larger capacity cylinder but it might be worth a try if you haven't got round to buying a compressor.

Gary

I think that for all the beginners questions I've asked, I have done a fairly thorough search of this forum and the web before asking. But, it is a credit to the members of this forum how many times they are asked the same question that has been asked many times before and largely they still respond helpfully.

Gary

Welcome to the forum Tim, as no-one else has said it.

I think quite a few of us are happy making bits of round metal square and vice-versa. Very therapeutic.

Gary

Hi Steven,

A couple of options:

Rochdale SMEE **LINK** in Castleton, Rochdale which might be only 3.5in and up.

Manchester Model Railway Society **LINK** in Sale which might be only O gauge and smaller.

Gary

Well done John, saves it going in the bin. I wonder how many cordless power tools are thrown away by tradesmen because the battery pack is knackered.

Gary

Allan,

I've not cleaned up the ports. They are still as cast. I wasn't sure if they needed any extra work and didn't want to upset the port timing. I'll have another read of the relevant part of the build article. Any suggestions from others are welcome.

Yes, I had a few problems with the con rod, mainly poor finish. I gave up with the centre and lathe dog at the headstock end and used the 4-jaw with a tailstock centre.

Lathe is a Sieg C3 that I've had for two years and am beginning to realise its limitations.

Next project might be something bigger so I can justify a bigger lathe.

Gary

Slitting saws remind me of the Kung Fu throwing stars that enjoyed a brief (thankfully) popularity in the seventies when I was at secondary school. As you can imagine nobody at school was wearing any protection.

Gary

I came up with a ridiculously (to me) complicated arrangement to drill the steam passage on the S50 cylinder at an angle. According to Tubal Cain's article, that I'm following, the angle is about 14 degrees. So, not having an angle vice, I clamped the cylinder on an angle plate and rested this on a piece of 3/4" square bar that was clamped 3" from where the angle plate touched the table giving an angle of 14 degrees. Was quite pleased with the result although I haven't taken a pic of it.

Before the final clamps were fitted.

Final arrangement of clamps

Gary

Allan,

I've mainly posted pictures to illustrate problems I was having. They are all in this album but they might seem a bit odd out of context of the original post. When I finally get it finished I'll post some pictures and a video.

Gary

Hi Allan,

It's coming together nicely now. The following link is part 9 of a series that Tubal Cain (Tom Walshaw) did in ME on the Stuart S50 that I'm following. The third page has a guide to setting the valve timing on the S50 that might be useful (or not) in the absence of anything else.

**LINK**

You can get to the other parts of the series by replacing the 9 in the address with a number from 1 to 10.

Gary