New to ME

Hi All,

My name is Paul, I have been reading this forum for a couple of years or so. Lots of wonderful info that has helped me on so many occasions. I find the techniques and discussion here has been extremely valuable for a wide variety of workshop practices. I have been teaching myself machining for about three or four years now and I feel it’s about time to tackle a model engine, something very simple to start with. If anyone has any advice on a good beginners project I’d gladly welcome all suggestions.

I started out learning on a Colchester Student and Bridgeport at in my workplace (a university) and fell in love with machining as a hobby. I bought myself a Myford ML10 for my little home workshop and then quickly snapped up an Astra CST L4 Miller. As my skill evolved and the bug deepened its grip on me i upgraded to a Harrison M250 and restored an Elliot Omnimill. I now have a bad habit for buying old machines and tools, cleaning them up and giving them the love they deserve! currently working on a small Herbert Surface Grinder. 90% of the work i do is for a small team of shipwrights working on restoration and heritage projects on the Thames and South East, the rest is mostly for furniture makers.

So, hello to all and any suggestions for a 1st simple model engine project with easy to follow plans would be gratefully received.

All the best,

Paul.

Hi Paul welcome to the forum. In the lockdown I have just made a wobbler engine and have just started on a boiler to run it from the same web site. http://www.steves-workshop.co.uk/steammodels/simpleoscil/simpleoscil.htm have a look at it I found it enjoyable to make and the drawings are free to download. Maybe it is to simple but it kept my mind employed for a few days. Keep safe.

David

Edited By David George 1 on 28/04/2020 08:00:17

Edited By David George 1 on 28/04/2020 08:01:15

Hello Paul and welcome. You have a good taste in machines and an interesting involvement with shipwrights, please tell us more.

The Stuart range of engines are very good, my first one was a V10 which is a single cylinder vertical steam engine. If you'd rather work from bar stock rather than castings then there are several designs including steam and internal combustion. There are also 'flame gulpers' of which one of my favourites is called Poppin, after the noise it makes and this is another engine from bar stock.

Let us know what you decide.

Brian

Many thanks for the link, that looks exactly like what ive been looking for. Best to start with simple and work up to more complex assemblies. What a well explanined website. Yours looks to be very well executed. Do you run it from compressed air? Excuse my basic knowledge, im just starting on this journey so lots to learn!

I did a lo of research and searching before chosing the lathe. The M250 is about the biggest i can fit in my workshop whilst still having plenty of grunt. The machine came out of a secondary school and needed to be stripped, cleaned nd rebuilt but has seen little work in its life so minimal wear. Certainly a few scars from being crashed by young students but runs extremely well. The mill was in a sorrier state. After stripping it to down, cleaning and rebuilding it id say It likely needs to be scraped in but thats beyond my skill level and it certainly does everything i need it to do. It has been a pleasure to operate.

I will have a look into the the Stuart single cylinder vertical steam engine. Im discovering this may become a bit of a wormhole. The poppin sounds like a fun project. certainly got my reading cut out for me.

The shipwrights i do work for are based in east london and predominantly do restorations on barges. One of the more significant projects is on the refurbishment of the reconstructed Golden Hinde. Much of the tooling needed is either extremely hard to come by or expensive to have made. I have machined custom tools for them. Generally the work is fairly simple and revolving around fixtures and fittings. Its a big learning curve and very much a hobby. Any money i make is fed back into the workshop. My goal is that through model engineering i'll gain a better understanding and increased skill in working to critical tolerances.

Many thanks for all the advice.

Welcome!

No doubt you will be able to add to our store of knowledge and techniques, as much as adding to yours.

No experience is entirely wasted.

Howard

Welcome David,

My suggestions are either simple steam engines (it feels great when they spring into life) or tools and accessories as it is so rewarding when you use tools you have made yourself.

Neil