FC, Dimensions: 11-by-5-footHeight: 6 feet at the smokestackWeight: approximately 4,800 poundsSafety relief valves: 100 psiBoiler capacity: 43 gallonsFlues: 16 at 1-inchWater bunker capacity: 39 gallonsParts: more than 1,210, For more information, contact Gerald Lee at gerald_l@sbcglobal.net. This particular model has become a favorite throughout the model engineering community as the drawings and casting are readily available and as such there has been hundreds of examples built over the years. I think they were produced in different parts of the world by different manufacturers, so it was asking for trouble. • 8, brass hex head 4BA bolts X 1 inch (25mm) or brass 4BA studding.

There is to be a full PDF version at less than $5.00 through Paypal and ready for download soon if you want it all in one go, but be warned, it is a big book so will take some time if your connection is abysmal, like mine. Visit us every year at the James Valley Threshing Show in Andover, SD (weekend after Labor Day). Thank you thank you Where is the announcement list sign up? Subscribe to this blog. This drawing is wrong as there should be 4 x 15/32 inch (12mm) diameter holes and 1 at A @ 13mm with the central one at 1/4inch (6mm). You also need to mark, very lightly with a junior hacksaw, the position of the two long lines where they end at either end of the barrel, with the upper rear one being very faint on the end, but can be more pronounced on the outer face, say ¹/₁₆ of an inch long (a couple of mm). You are aiming for a foot in length, but building machinery in general calls for very slight modifications regarding measurements – this part is not critical, especially as it is your first attempt, providing at least one end (the rear end that everything else attaches to) is dead square. I figure it will take me awhile to learn how to safely fire and operate the half-scale Case. Now if you assume the already scribed line is the top, and hold the original overlap mark on this line, then the second mark is the bottom centre line as you go round the circumference of your barrel. My interest and knowledge of steam was fostered by my uncle, Ralph Lee, and by attending many reunions at Wauseon over the years. The tailstock end can now be skimmed, using a sharp tool, but be very gentle with your cutting, and cut toward the studding rather than away from it, and also heading towards the chuck, otherwise the tube will simply move towards your tailstock if it is not gripped tight enough by your timber inserts. Home. I determined the best source for the differential would be from a John Deere 2-cylinder tractor. Doing it this way allows the remainder of the rod to sit inside the barrel and just poke through the front central hole by ¼ inch (6mm) which is ideal for the remaining nut height on the front end, which will be added later, once the back end is soldered. The builder ended up milling the bearing base and clutch arm support from a single piece of steel.

You take a lot of mystery out of building. For this page of our blog we’ll be using the first chapter from Dad’s book on how to build a steam engine from scratch, with some of the others following in due course – BUT NOT ALL – although some drawings, dimensions and images may well be a little unclear.

Fergal Roche started building his Little Samson Traction Engine in 6″ scale (half full size) a good few months after me and he’s making spectacular progress. As if the day's find was not good enough, while walking around the yard waiting for the gears to be removed, I came across the carcass of a Case SC. It is basically a ⅜ inch ((10mm) piece of brass, one inch ( 25mm) square, with a hole drilled right through ¼ inch (6mm) in from one edge and another drilled to meet it around halfway along its length. The ME’s have overall thread diameters in inches although there are versions with different numbers of teeth per inch so please watch out for this, all available from model engineering suppliers here in the UK. The Miller was, of course, 3 phase, so I had to do a bit of re-wiring and install an invertor but that all worked remarkably well with some help from the very nice man at Transwave. Looks very impressive!

With this one find, I now had drive pinions, differential, intermediate and crankshaft pinion gears for my engine. I also have an engine hoist, brought to lift the traction engine boiler, a band saw purcahsed from eBay, I believe this is a must for any workshop and finally a hydraulic press used for bending things like spokes and pressing in bearings.

Simply add your name and email address to the Announcement List form and I’ll send you the occasional email alert when there have been significant updates to the website. And it does it very well. The 4 inch (100mm) size is readily available here in the UK, whereas the original dimension of 4½ inches is not, now that we are all going over to the metric sizes, so by reducing the diameter a little, the water will boil a little sooner, although it means being more aware of the water level in the boiler and needs a little more frequent, but lesser action on the pump to keep it topped up to the central height. That engine hoist comes in useful again, this time to lift the 450kg lathe, The lathe installed on its stand - note the WM800 had to be re-sited, So that's most of the major equipment in place. The reason for the larger fitting is that the feed piping needs to be 5/32” (8mm) outside diameter to accommodate the flow of steam should the relief valves lift, whereas the water feeds and sight gauge do not need to be so big. The day after Thanksgiving in 2003, Vicki and I went to Cypress, Texas, about 30 minutes from our home. In order to get the most from the website and to learn how this Little Samson Traction Engine model is being constructed you should be aware of how this website is structured. But did you know that there is a tool that allows you When you said a vid of me turning the shafts I thought you meant machining them. I saw this as a practical answer to achieving my steam experience: I would build my own half-scale steam traction engine. inch or accidentally go over-pressure (safety valves do stick sometimes) then this will allow you time to remove the heat and let off some steam with a good safety margin. The machine was lifted off the truck, run up the drive and placed nicely inside the workshop. (If you are planning on buying the fittings for your three cock water gauge (a requirement of the latest steam regs), rather than making them yourself, then stick with the internal imperial size as metric is not available commercially so far – that I am aware of) – more of this is shown in the pipework chapter.

If the leak is on a seam or joint, then plugging it with small wedges of clean copper before applying the flux and solder once more may do the trick. When I retired I decided I needed a hobby that would keep me occupied and give me a long term goal so I decided to go back to my routes and do something that involved mechanical engineering, I started my life as an engineering apprentice but left engineering behind many years ago.