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

Good Evening,

I bought this Jense #10 back in 2020 for $60 from a gentleman at a flea market near my house who specializes in early phonographs and other early music players. He had it listed for $80 and gave me a discount after I told him a brief history of the company and its current existence today, he was just genuinely interested in learning about something that was just a random piece he had, I offered to pay more but he declined. I've had it sitting in storage since then but want to try to get it running again at the very least, if not a little bit of a restoration. I've never restored an engine before so I'm starting from scratch.

Could anyone provide a few tips on a way ahead? There is no power cord at all, and may have been converted to solid fuel at some point. The sight glass looks intact, there is a dent on top of the boiler, the steam regulator is bent, and the engine moves freely. If there are any parts you'd recommend or are available for an engine of this age I can still buy from Jensen that would be great.

If anyone knows about what year it could be that would be cool to know, I think it’s a 1946-1947 or so seems possible.

Thanks

Looks like a good candidate for a minimalist restoration.

It originally had twisted style stronghold nails fastening the firebox and chimney stand to the wood.
You can leave it as is, get more correct round top screws from Jensen or a hardware store.
(the twisted nails were never his best idea)

I would leave the boiler attached to the firebox with the original rivets.

You can hand polish the boiler, steam line, and engine's nickel plated parts with Simichrome or Maas metal polish.

For the wood you can remove all the parts, rub it with 0000 or 00000 steel wool and old style smooth (non-abrasive) Gojo hand cleaner.

You can also clean the original paint on the firebox and chimney stand and engine casting with the steel wool and Gojo.

Once they are clean plan on letting the parts sit for at least a few hours if not overnight.
The Gojo will temporarily soften the paint and varnish.

There's a guy selling replacement stick on decals on eBay.

The original site glass parts should clean up reasonably well.

Jensen parts order:

• blanket heater for a 2.5" boiler from Jensen.
• site glass tube
• safety relief spring (the old one will be weak but likely still work)
• Insulation to replace what was originally asbestos.
• Sheet metal that fastens inside the firebox to hold up the insulation.

        (you also could make this yourself)
    6. If you want to go the safest route, Jensen can supply a new 3 prong plug black cord.
        (just attach the ground wire to the firebox inside the chimney stand where it won't be seen)
        A cloth cord or a black rubber cord with a 2 prong round plug will be needed for more originality.

You will want to keep the original safety valve as the new ones are considerably smaller.

Straighten the throttle handle yourself.

The throttle handle and whistle handle were likely black if it is a '46 '47 era piece. No one will fault you if you want to leave them red.


Then show us a picture when you are done.

Enjoy the journey!

Gil

Very nice 👌
Just curious  what was the total cost to repair that cylinder,  inc. Shipping both ways ?

Thanks for the info, I've done it many times, just wondered what the going rate was.

Jensens are great tabletop steam engines and Andy fixed mine.  All hail Andy!

I added two youtube links - I couldn't help myself.





Good luck with the restoration,
Wayne

Beautiful Wayne, I hope to get mine in similar condition soon, they're great engines and this one has been sitting too long.