The Jensen #50 steam engine power plant is being torn down and dismantled for cleaning.
The good news, all three heaters work.
The belly heater and both immersion heaters heated right up.
That's a great sign. I'll update photos as I make progress.
Photos boiler and immersion heaters.
They heat right up.
Photos of belly heater and inner working of the Jensen #50 belly heater set up.
To my surprise the belly heater works.
Some new power cords are in order.
Parts are now ready to begin cleaning.
A worthwhile and exciting project. I wish good luck and success on the journey.
Soaking parts in a vinegar bath.
Never tried this but I've heard it works. Here goes!
Soaking parts and cleaning the wooden base.
After soaking for 2 days most of the grime came off. Scrubed the parts and soaked them for a few hours in a baking soda water bath.
Scrubed some more.
Now they all are ready for polishing and may be painting if I go that route.
I may just put it all back as is.
To repaint or not to repaint?
I am one to clean and keep as much original as possible. But I think I would probably do a complete restore on this one. Just my opinion.
If it was mine, I would paint it. The nickle still looks reasonable. Of course, this is a personal decision and some people like the patina.
Is there a good off-the-shelf match for the paint Jensen used on the engines of this period.
This is a great find, Jack. Well done!
As soon as I saw all that grime on it, I knew it would be very likely be mostly well protected underneath it all.
Interesting to me are the 2 immersion heaters. All other's with the belly heater have 2 cartridge heaters which leads me to believe the engineer who added the ratchet drive oil pump may very well have replaced them with threaded bosses and immersion. He certainly knew what he was doing around his steam engines.
Gil
Nice work Jack!
It definitely ended up in good hands.
