Another Model Steam Engine

[Buckshot Bear]

Here's another Model Steam Engine from Wellsville NY USA that I have done some mods to, running off an Aussie made 4" copper boiler.

 

Hope I'm not boring you pards with these vids -

 

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

What kind of gas is firing the boiler?

[Eyesa Horg]

Another way cool mate! You really do nice work on your toys.

[Buckshot Bear]

11 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

What kind of gas is firing the boiler?

 

G'day Dave....at the back of the boiler you would have seen that black cylinder that's mounted. That's a refillable gas tank.

I'm using a Butane/Propane camping fuel 'Four Seasons' blend to refill it. 

[Buckshot Bear]

1 hour ago, Eyesa Horg said:

Another way cool mate! You really do nice work on your toys.

 

Thanks Eyesa, they are fun things to lose myself with. 

[Eyesa Horg]

5 minutes ago, Buckshot Bear said:

 

Thanks Eyesa, they are fun things to lose myself with. 

Really neat that you can make your own parts too! They look like a lot of fun. I may of told you, back in like 8th grade, I built one for a science show project. It actually worked, but the flywheel wasn't quite heavy enough and it would slowly slow down and stop.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Now that is genuinely delightful!

I stopped and stared with amazement at the steam piping, just shy of the cylinders ... I never knew threaded pipe unions could even be FOUND in that tiny a size!

[Calamity Kris]

Wonderful work , BB. You are quite talented with machinery and building things.

[DeaconKC]

Excellent work

[Buckshot Bear]

15 minutes ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said:

Now that is genuinely delightful!

I stopped and stared with amazement at the steam piping, just shy of the cylinders ... I never knew threaded pipe unions could even be FOUND in that tiny a size!

 

 

G'day Linn, PM Research has lots of good stuff for model engineers (and there's lots of other companies) here's a link to PM Research's fittings -
https://pmmodelengines.com/pipe-fittings/?page=2

 

What I like about PM Research is that I can buy these unmachined brass casting trees below and cut them up and machine them up myself to the threads and pitch that I want.

The only thing is, there's a lot of machining time in just one of those tiny parts....but it keeps me out of trouble  

 

 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

...oh, my, goodness ...

I am quite familiar with cutting threads in common steel pipe.

Working brass stock of that diminutive a diameter has to be an ART FORM!

You, sir, have my respect, and my most profound admiration!

[Buckshot Bear]

9 minutes ago, Calamity Kris said:

Wonderful work , BB. You are quite talented with machinery and building things.

 

Thanks Calamity Kris, its a fun hobby. 

[Buckshot Bear]

9 minutes ago, DeaconKC said:

Excellent work

 

Thanks Deacon  

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

This is a twelve horse Reid engine, if memory serves ... I ran fifteen horse Reids in the family oil field.

This is the scale I'm used to working on.

Flywheels are as big across as I am tall, the piston is the diameter of a dinner plate with a stroke just as long; the outboard piston is a primitive supercharger ... it takes in a volume of gas and air, compresses it, then this compressed mixture is driven into the firing cylinder when it rolls around for suction.

I tried to find the miniature Reid my father takes to the steam and gas shows.

It's cute.

Flywheels just under a foot across.

Wear it for a watch fob.

EDIT -- Meant to attach this as a .png video clip, didn't quite work.

Ford pickup behind it for scale.

 

[Buckshot Bear]

Linn is the above Ried a Hit & Miss engine?

 

Ok forget the above questions......just read about them here, they are a very interesting and very different type of engine -

https://www.gasenginemagazine.com/gas-engines/engines-a-z/reid-model-a-gas-engine/

[Sedalia Dave]

 

 

 

 

[Sedalia Dave]

23 hours ago, Buckshot Bear said:

Hope I'm not boring you pards with these vids -

 

[Yul Lose]

Pretty cool stuff you build and play with, that’s for sure!!

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Yes it is!

Fabricating on that scale is an art form in and of itself!

Bringing a two cylinder steam engine to life, in that manner, on that scale, getting the plumbing plumb, square and level, threading the connections -- I'd mentioned those teeny tiny little pipe unions -- I've done machine work but nothing, NOTHING, on that skill level!

Besides, it's a delight to watch a steam engine in operation!

Many's the time I've stopped and stared like a wondering child at a working steam tractor.

I grew up operating oilfield hit & miss engines, mostly Acme or Reid -- the smallest a six horse, my father has it set up for show, the largest I ran was a fifteen horse.

Entire soap box discourse on drilling clutches and left hand Reids omitted as I am windy enough the way it is.

My nephew replaced the Acme engine's cylinder on the Corbitt lease some years ago, a small matter of a careless pumper failing to drain water after the day's operation; it froze, it cracked the cylinder jacket, it leaked for all the years I ran it.

He told me on Father's Day they replaced the crank and flywheels, the crank broke after only 115 years of daily operation.

To quote my father, "Oil field grade.

Big and mean and hell for stout!"

 

[Buckshot Bear]

13 hours ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said:

Yes it is!

Fabricating on that scale is an art form in and of itself!

Bringing a two cylinder steam engine to life, in that manner, on that scale, getting the plumbing plumb, square and level, threading the connections -- I'd mentioned those teeny tiny little pipe unions -- I've done machine work but nothing, NOTHING, on that skill level!

Besides, it's a delight to watch a steam engine in operation!

Many's the time I've stopped and stared like a wondering child at a working steam tractor.

I grew up operating oilfield hit & miss engines, mostly Acme or Reid -- the smallest a six horse, my father has it set up for show, the largest I ran was a fifteen horse.

Entire soap box discourse on drilling clutches and left hand Reids omitted as I am windy enough the way it is.

My nephew replaced the Acme engine's cylinder on the Corbitt lease some years ago, a small matter of a careless pumper failing to drain water after the day's operation; it froze, it cracked the cylinder jacket, it leaked for all the years I ran it.

He told me on Father's Day they replaced the crank and flywheels, the crank broke after only 115 years of daily operation.

To quote my father, "Oil field grade.

Big and mean and hell for stout!"

 

 

A lot of hit & miss engines suffered damage from water being left in them overnight in freezing weather.

I do really like your fathers quote Linn 

"Oil field grade.

Big and mean and hell for stout!"

[Buckshot Bear]

The last 4-5 years I've branched out from just collecting and working on miniature steam engines to miniature hit & miss engines as well.

 

The hours of mods, machining parts and building the wooden base etc I have in this one is enormous -

 

 

[Eyesa Horg]

42 minutes ago, Buckshot Bear said:

The last 4-5 years I've branched out from just collecting and working on miniature steam engines to miniature hit & miss engines as well.

 

The hours of mods, machining parts and building the wooden base etc I have in this one is enormous -

 

 

That's another gem mate.

I've got 2 full size ones I've been wanting to get running for a couple decades! A Fairbanks 1 1/2hp IIRC, and a 4hp Associated. Would like to get rid of or trade them for 1 1/2 hp Little Jumbo for Ellie. Heavy suckers!

[Buckshot Bear]

2 hours ago, Eyesa Horg said:

That's another gem mate.

I've got 2 full size ones I've been wanting to get running for a couple decades! A Fairbanks 1 1/2hp IIRC, and a 4hp Associated. Would like to get rid of or trade them for 1 1/2 hp Little Jumbo for Ellie. Heavy suckers!

 

I do always really enjoy watching and listening to the Hit & Miss engines running at shows, but they are just too big for me to get involved with. 

[DeaconKC]

Bear, I think you're gonna have to try your hand at live steam model railroad locomotives!

[Buckshot Bear]

6 hours ago, DeaconKC said:

Bear, I think you're gonna have to try your hand at live steam model railroad locomotives!

 

Funny thing is Deacon when people ask about my 'steam engine' hobby they all automatically think steam loco engines not stationary steam engines. 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Me dear Pappy restored & shows a Superior Diesel drilling engine built on the hit and miss pattern.

They used to fire it with crude oil.

When it was running at idle and breathing easy, it blew pure-white doughnuts out the exhaust.

When they laid into a string and started pulling drilling tools out of the hole, she'd lay her ears back and bark and those exhaust doughnuts wobbling out that large bore exhaust were coal black!

Dad had to have the ball replaced on one hip and so can no longer kick start that big Superior engine.

I had to admire the Honda engine and friction wheel those fellows were using to start the Reid in Sedalia Dave's video.

Dad tried to fabricate a friction wheel drive using an electric starter motor but it ran too fast. I'll show him the vid and maybe he'll come up with a redesign.

We kick started our engines, and my nephews do, to this day, they are the sixth generation of our family to kick start those same old engines.

The trick is to roll the flywheels by hand, back against compression -- then you set your foot on a spoke -- drive your weight down on it, skip a spoke, stomp the next one around -- the sole of your work boot is close to parallel with the spoke, so if it fires your foot slips off, you never stick your foot on the spoke at right angles to its axis -- stomp one, skip one, stomp again, drop your foot off and if the tube is hot and the gas is right, why, bang she goes.

The Reids are two cycle, they'll fire every stroke around when they're pulling hard, and like a steam engine under a hard pull, there are few sounds sweeter than an engine at labor.

The Acme engines are four cycle but kick start in exactly the same manner, and they also fire with a hot tube.

I've seen both converted to magneto and spark plug but I grew up with hot tube ignition.

It's simple, it works.

Many thanks to Sedalia Dave for that video!