I've been lucky enough to be able to buy a machined kit of the Stuart Models Beam Engine. They say it's completely machined, just needs hand tools and paint to finish it off.
It's a big, heavy box! All the parts are machined nicely, and it comes with a full set of engineering drawings, and exploded diagram and some fairly brief instructions. Fortunately I'm familiar with steam engines, so I should be able to fill in the gaps that the instructions!!
So, what do we get?
Exploded diagram and instructions.
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Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
Here's a snippet of the drawings showing the detail and style. I presume that these are the drawings you get if you purchase the engine as a set of castings and materials to machine yourself. Most of the parts are drawing full size, but the larger parts are drawn 3/4 scale.
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
Here's the base plate, with a 6" rule for scale. This is one big and heavy piece of cast iron!
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
All the parts are nicely mounted on a card and vacuum sealed which keeps all the parts safe. This card contains the flywheel, main bearings, the parallel motion, con rod, piston rod, valve rod, etc.
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
Then we have the pillar, entablature, eccentric strap, and the gasket set hiding underneath the beam.
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
Crank shaft and beam are in the same pack.
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
In the 3rd and last pack we have the cylinder, pulley and pedestal.
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
And the valve chest, cover and a box of nuts and bolts!
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Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
A closer look at the nuts and bolts!
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Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
I also bought the governor kit. Not because I need a governor to control the speed of the engine, but because swinging brass balls looks neat!!
Just one card of parts for this.
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
and a smaller, but more interesting box of fasteners and other diddy bits. The phosphor-bronze spring looks nice!!
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
My plan is to assemble the engine with a minimum of finishing, just deburring and making sure everything fits. Then make sure it works. Once it's all assembled and tested, then I'll strip it down and paint or polish the parts.
I haven't made much of a start yet, but these are the parts I'm going to start with. The cylinder, piston, valve chest and valve.
Untitled by
Mark Wakelin, on Flickr
I'm also trying to make a YouTube video of the project to see how that goes. I'll post links here of course.