[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
Bought this Jensen #55 at the Cabin Fever show a few years ago and thought it was way past time to get it cleaned up and running. It looked in good shape, except the previous owner must have had some seriously hard water.
I won't bore the knowledgeable people here with the step-by-step account of the process, but the sight glass nut did prove to be a complete pain in the butt to remove. Eventually after vinegar, CLR, heat (cracked the glass) and a oil soak overnight the nut finally relented and came out without any damage. After that, everything went well.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
The based was stripped as the lacquer or shellac was starting to craze and bubble and of course the firebox needed painted. I was able to complete the entire project over the Memorial Day weekend with a full day allowed for the paint and polyurethane to dry.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
It came out looking nice as they always do. The engine was a bit sticky at first, but after I got some oil worked into it and ran through a few boilers of steam it was running nicely. The gimmick of these engines is that with two cylinders they are always self starting and they also run very smoothly at slow speeds. I really like it! In the future I will be adding a PM Research #7 to my stash of kits as it is a very similar engine.
Here's a video of the restored #55 running my Wilesco #100 workshop
Home
Search
Today's Posts
Login
Register