Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines
Builds, Repairs, Show Your Machines! => Collections & Pictures => Topic started by: Brad on February 16, 2021, 10:21:28 am
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I do remember you making the video now. I know who you are. I know that the guys from Boston complained that sometimes there was snow that weekend and wanted it a couple of weeks earlier. It would be horrible during leaf peeping season. Being a Wisconsinite, I would live with the snow.
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Great Stuff Brad & Gil! :) Small world!
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Brad, You are right here in the first 35 seconds of my 2016 video of the American Precision Museum Show.
It's a shame they don't have that show any more. I agree it was too short and should last 2 days.
The show was doomed 2 years later when they moved the 2018 show date from late October -early November to August 18th.
I advised them this was a very bad idea and that given the major league competing shows that weekend, theirs would unfortunately be a bust. I let them know that on that weekend just about all of their exhibitors would be found at Rough & Tumble in Kinzers, PA and the remaining few would be mostly at the Mystic Seaport Museum antique marine engine show. This is one prediction I wish I got wrong. I spoke with a friend who attended and reported there were just 3 exhibitors including him and maybe a half dozen spectators. After that they decided to scrap the show altogether. A darn shame.
Gil
Here's the 2016 show video:
https://youtu.be/oSoKz6SRI7M
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Yes, I brought my full sized Essex replica. Really enjoyed the show and wish it was two days. We took Amtrak from Milwaukee to Vermont.
Then I do remember you!
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Yes, I brought my full sized Essex replica. Really enjoyed the show and wish it was two days. We took Amtrak from Milwaukee to Vermont.
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I built the Essex fan and the full size Essex engine with castings from Myfordboy in the UK. Both very good runners.
Ok, I have to ask....
Did you bring an Essex model to the American Precision Museum in Windsor Vermont a few years ago?
If so..... we have met!
Gil
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I once had a full set of drawings from the 1940's by Eloda Ray. I sent them off to Switzerland along with some castings nearly 20 years ago.
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I looked up Paul Breisch's letter to me about the corliss. The patterns and engine was built by Alvin W. Ray, of Ohio, in about 1935. His wife Eloda checked the drawing dimensions. No castings were available, as the patterns were destroyed in a foundry fire. Paul's father got the drawings from Alvin and made new patterns. 3 sets were made and the patterns were destroyed in a foundry fire. After the war, Charlie Cole was contacting modelers to see if anyone had anything that he could sell. Paul put charlie in touch with Eloda Ray and Charlie made the 3rd set of patterns.
I, too had a set of engine patterns destroyed in a foundry fire, so it was fairly common.
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The next engine that I built was the Essex hot air fan. The patterns were made by Norbert Keeley, who had bought a real Essex fan at a hardware store that was going out of business. He bought "a fan with no cord" for $5. When Norbert died, his engine patterns went to Myers Model Engine Works, where they are still dole today. It is a very nice running fan engine, with a very strange motion. Henry Essex designed his engines very differently then other hot sir engines. They were very efficient engines. The Essex fans never had a blade cage. They were sold as kitchen fans in about 1910.
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Now you got me. I have to find my letter from Paul Briech that talks about his designing the engine. I know that Mr Ray is credited with it in my early Coles' catalogs. I wonder if Paul designed it for Ray?
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By the mid 1970's, I had acquired a bench mill and then a floor model mill and my next engine was to be my first corliss engine. I used the Cole's castings and modified the design to resemble details on corliss engines that I had seen. I did keep the Philadelphia releasing gear. The Cole's corliss was designed by Paul Briesch in Pennsylvania. The design and patterns were sold to Charlie Cole and the rest is history. A project like this just has to be taken one piece at a time. The engine runs very well on air, with the releasing gear operating perfectly. This would not be the last corliss that I build, however. (Attachment Link) (Attachment Link)
A little correction. The Coles Corliss was designed by Eloda Ray in the 1940's. Coles got it from him and began selling the castings and drawings in the late 1940's and early 1950's. In some the older Coles catalogs (#14, 15, 16) from 1950 thru 1956 the picture is of the one that Eloda Ray, aka Mr. A.W. Ray built and took a first prize in the Philadelphia Model Show in 1942.
Brad, your Corliss looks magnificent...!!!
Gil
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I built the Essex fan and the full size Essex engine with castings from Myfordboy in the UK. Both very good runners.
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Hi Brad, Nice conversion on the young.
Did you by chance build an Essex hot air engine model?
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I built this hit-and-miss gas engine from castings by Ted Young. I converted it to a vertical flyball governor controlled engine.
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There was a guy in Kansas who made the gearbox castings. So, I bought them from him. I made the patterns and castings for a Jensen shallow well pump gearbox, but I no longer have any.
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Some amazing builds Brad!
Is there more?
You have really built some fine engines. Way past my skills. I am a mechanic...not a machinist.
Thank you for sharing these treasures.
Being from Texas, I was particularly drawn to the Pump Jack. 🤠
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Geez laweeze Brad, I like them all...I am really into oil pump jacks right now & yours IS a beauty , did you make the gearbox or source it somewhere ?
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The next engine that I built was my first gas engine. A Paul Breisch "Hired Man" and an oil well pump jack to give the engine something to do. This was a hit-and-miss engine. I made my own spark plugs for the engine.
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I had such fun building the Ericsson, that I bought the castings for the Improved Ericsson The real ones were built by the American Machine Company, of Delaware. It also, is 1/4 scale and 2 inch bore. Again, a very nice runner that has been to many shows over the years.
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Thanks Brad...and you just got a brandnew subscriber too ;)
Fingers crossed that some of the beauties in this thread, will get some exercise on there (and in here) as well eventually.
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My You Tube Channel is "Brad E Smith". I have engines on there, but not these.
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Some gobsmacking entries here Brad...
That Breisch/Cole Corliss engine is just amazing!
Love the Moria as well, it reminds me (slightly) of my Solar Engines fan...and that 2" Ericsson model must be a complete treat to run.
I also would love to see some movies, of these beauties in action. Do you have a channel on YouTube or elsewhere?
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It's just fun to follow the performance of your machines ... and you want more.
Kind regards
Jürgen
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Next, I built the 2" bore Ericsson hot air pumping engine. Having seen one of these engines as a 14 year old kid, I wanted to build one. Actually, I built two. Norbert Keeley came out with these castings in the mid 1970's and I ordered a set immediately. It is a very nice running engine.
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My next engine was the Moria fan from Live steam Magazine. Designed by Professor Senft from the University of Wisconsin. A couple of years ago he had a meet at his house and we all brought our Moria fans for a group picture.
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That Corliss steam engine is beautiful indeed. Any chance of seeing a video?
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I just take one piece, make it perfect and go on the the next.
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Brad, You have some nice looking engines and
you great at machining too.
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Oh My Oh My! Oh My!!!
Let me pick my jaw up off the floor :o
You’re really good at this engine building!! 👍 👍
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By the mid 1970's, I had acquired a bench mill and then a floor model mill and my next engine was to be my first corliss engine. I used the Cole's castings and modified the design to resemble details on corliss engines that I had seen. I did keep the Philadelphia releasing gear. The Cole's corliss was designed by Paul Briesch in Pennsylvania. The design and patterns were sold to Charlie Cole and the rest is history. A project like this just has to be taken one piece at a time. The engine runs very well on air, with the releasing gear operating perfectly. This would not be the last corliss that I build, however.[attach=1][attach=1]
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I really like Robinson´s patent engines, with their quite mesmerizing motion :)
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Never seen this one before, I love it!
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By the early 1970's, I had bought a 12" Atlas/Craftsman lathe from a telescope maker who was quitting the hobby. Since I had no milling machine, I made a milling table for the lathe. My next engine was this Robinson hot air engine from plans advertised in Popular Mechanics Magazine. the displacer cylinder is an aluminum cigar tube.
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It runs fine on air.
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Do believe i´ve seen a drawing using these square tubes in an old magazine as well...
How does it run Brad?
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My next engine. I was out of the Navy and did not have machine tools yet, but wanted to build another engine. So, I built this wobbler from telescopic tubing and a clock gear (wheel), with hand tools, from a magazine article.
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A respectable project, taking on a Stuart 9 as a first...
Well done Brad!
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Love that #9 Brad 😍
I’ll definitely be stopping back here to see more 8)
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When I was 15, a friend gave me this steam engine. It looks like the Stuart oscillating engine, although he got it from Octura, in Chicago, at the time. I still have it and it is my first.
Brad, your First engine reminds me Very much of 2 casting kits on eBay right now. The first pic has similar frame but flywheel is larger...second photo is small flywheel but frame is very different. Your model seems much better castings.
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Good stuff Brad...!!!
If you built that #9 back in '65 I can't wait to see what came later.
Gil
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Very nice Brad 😊👍
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In 1965, while serving on the USS Norfolk, I machined and built this Stuart Turner No. 9 engine. My very first steam engine build. I learned machining and got hooked on the engine building hobby.
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Does indeed look like a Stuart ST, very nice little engines those :)
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Haven't run it in years. I run all my other engines, but I am building two new boilers and may run it on steam.
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That looks really nice Brad. Have you run it on steam or air yet? Videos are nice. ;D
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When I was 15, a friend gave me this steam engine. It looks like the Stuart oscillating engine, although he got it from Octura, in Chicago, at the time. I still have it and it is my first.