Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Well, I suppose it is time to post up another "Rare Pair" video, as I'll be gone again in the morning for another shoot, PCLARS this time which is more likely to actually occur, as it is mostly attended by locals and takes a lot less time to accomplish while wind is less of a factor because the distances are far less.

This is the last video that I had planned to put on my table this year, but it is of some recent significance to me because of a bit of a battle I've been fighting of late. After the video I'll explain a bit and leave links to other threads on the General and Restoration Boards here on the Forum to give a more fulsome explanation.

While this pair of engines really are not truly rare, they are uncommon enough to get most peoples attention, and are not seen together in one video very often at all.

So here we go:



These are of course both Grant Sipp horizontal engines in 1/4 & 1/2 horsepower sizes, and are both some 90 to 140 years old. The smaller one I've had for quite a while and have done absolutely nothing to it. It seems to be untouched, fully original and appears to have led a significant working life. In the video, I simply have the airline to this engine plugged into the exhaust of its big brother, so it is probably operating on about half the air pressure driving the larger engine. This little jewel will actually operate up to a fair speed on nothing more than my lung power, in spite of its slightly shabby appearance and significant age.

Meanwhile the larger engine is a very recent acquisition that has more problems than you can shake a stick at, was almost certainly built by a rank amateur from a set of partially machined castings, and could not have ever served as a working engine. I have been once through it now, and corrected a couple of the easier and more egregious problems, so that it now runs almost kind of well. However, there is a whole slew of serious problems that still need to be properly addressed before it could reasonably be considered a decent engine. Some of those problems will be quite difficult to rectify due to the bad work that had been put into it in the original build.

It's a short video because my little portable compressor has a very small tank and an obnoxiously loud motor/pump that can't keep up with this engines need for air anyway. I started at just under 50 psi and ended at about 15. I really should have just let it run on out as the engine will keep running down a little below 10 psi, though it won't start much below 20. But if I'd done that, the video would only have been a couple of seconds longer anyway.

Here is the thread where I'm still going through this engine (I'm about a week behind in posting), and shows much but not all of what I've been finding wrong:

https://www.officeofsteamforum.com/restorations/bargain-12-hp-g-sipp-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/

Then here is the "horror story" of my originally getting the engine:

https://www.officeofsteamforum.com/general-discussion/12-hp-g-sipp-in-the-bag/

Even after all of the above ... I'm glad I got the engine, and also glad I've been able to get it back to at least this level of operation. It is hoped that I can eventually make a decent engine out of it, but it will take more, and much more difficult work to accomplish, than the original build could possibly have required!


Thanks to all who have visited my table, and especially to those who have taken the time and effort to comment here!!!