Thanks for the nice comments.
As for the question about the steam chest being most difficult I would say no. I acquired this kit 15 years ago at an auction. It was missing lots of parts, some of which I purchased from Tiny Power, especially the two brass flywheels. I fabricated my own steam valve from a solid hunk of brass. I used the pictured cutter to carve a curved surface on the underside of the valve. I like to make it curved, rather than flat, to facilitate steam flow. Overall the steam valve was not too bad.
I think the thing that was the hardest for me was boring the hole in the little arm sticking out of the side to support the slide valve control rod. Sounds easy, but getting it aligned with the steam chest was difficult. What I ended up doing was drilling a 1/8" hole completely through the steam chest, even though there was no need for the hole on the back side. I then mounted the little arm to the frame and installed the steam chest. I then used a long 1/8" drill bit, passing through the 1/8" hole in the steam chest and drilled the hole in the support. Pretty much guaranteeing a straight line for the steam control link. I now had a 1/8" hole in the steam chest opposite the gland, so I tapped the hole installed a steam valve into it. I thought it looked pretty good. I attached a picture.
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Here is a link of my Ajax running on my vintage dentist's office air compressor:
And here is another video of the antique air compressor running my ME Beam Engine:
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