Finished my beam engine.

I have finally finished building my working model of the Julius de Waal beam engine. It has been a great project, built from scratch and has kept me out of mischief for about the last 3 years. I am not a skilled engineer and the model is not of exhibitiion standard, but, at about 15” long with an 8” dia. flywheel I think it is very presentable and I am well pleased with it. The point is that having built it and got it running it has served its purpose. For me the joy was in the making and building. I did retain enough interest to paint it but that was not exactly a labour of love for me. I knocked up a temporary base of ply to hold the engine whilst working on it but it deserves a decent mounting. The question is , what do I do with it now? This set me wondering whether there is a market for finished models and, if so, what on earth would be a fair price to ask? Do any members sell models? Can any of you give me any idea of a fair price?

Malc,

If it is good enough to sell, it is good. Well done. These projects are not a race - it’s only a hobby!

Please show us some pics - or even a vid. I am sure you are being very modest with your model.

I think most put their models on the shelf or use/demonstrate them. Most are likely kept for some time and often make good money when the maker has finally moved on, if their descendants do not have space or (perhaps) any interest at all...

Julius de Waal Beam engine.

Looks good noce work

H

Pretty darn good for scratch built! And yes the base is a bit naff! As for how much it's worth I've got no idea of how to price up a model like that. But let us all know if you do sell it and for how much

Ian

Like IJ,nothing wrong with the metalwork.

Even the base would look good with the edges routed and then it stained/painted.

Malc - a fair price is one that you will score on an average ebay auction. To maximise your "win" a nice base would score points. Try it with a reserve that is acceptable to yourself.

" Can any of you give me any idea of a fair price?" No, but the bidders on ebay will!

Rik

Well done.

As for the temporary baseboard.. there's lots of ways of tarting that up. One of the issues with bases is sourcing a small amount of decent timber to make it from at a sane price. Domestic kitchen chopping boards are a potential source such as this link **LINK**

pgk

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Yes, but the extra difficulty that particularly affects beam engines is the plinth height needed to accommodate the large flywheel with a low axis. Stuart resolve this with a tall base casting on their beam engine.

The 2" square spindle turning blanks sold by woodturning retailers might help - or look for thick offcuts at a local timber merchants.

I am a little rubbish on the wood side of things, but I made this base for the Stuart Turner S9. The sides are made of 17 mm ply mitred at the corners, the top is black marble finish MDF. No nails or screws on the outside.

Ian S C

Nice work for scratch built; if you titivate the base some more I'm sure you could sell it on eBay for a reasonable ( to you ) price. Have a look on the site & see what other variants sell for, then you will have a ball park figure.

George.

I made my base from 12mm ply, 2 sheets, edged with 12mm Sapele, and then covered in Green/Cream formica tiles. Really pleased with it, although the kit was pre-machined, it has wet my appetite for engineering

...Nice beam engine though! Looks really well done from stock materials!

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Thanks for all the suggestions fellas. I do like the individual round legs idea 34046, nice and simple! I was hoping to avoid eBay Rik, my one and only excursion down that route was via Pay- Pal and resulted in me having to change my card PIN for security. Anyway, thanks again all for the replies.

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Hi 34046,

It's not the Stuart sadly, that was out of my price range. It's a Chiltern Model Steam Beam engine and 3.5 inch boiler.

Many thanks

Engine looks good, you could turn that ply box into a stone plinth quite easily as i described here